Twilight the Third

by MagnetBolt

Lethe Part Two! - A Moment of Silence

Twilight stared at the ceiling. She was on her bed. A meal was sitting on the floor. She couldn't remember much between sitting in the chair and being here. It wasn't like she'd fallen asleep and woken up. She'd been awake the whole time. The memory was just slipping away from her, like a dream. She could feel the details crumbling like a sandcastle in the tide. She'd been carried here, hadn't she? Had she walked? There was something wrong, like she only existed right now, in this moment, and that the past was becoming smeared and blurred and unreal.

It was a few minutes before she could stand. She felt like her legs should be weak and shaking, but they were fine. She was fine. Everything was... fine.

She felt flat.

Twilight sat down in front of the food, just looking at it. She knew the best thing would be to just eat and go to sleep and try to feel better in the morning. It would be the safe thing.

Emotions surged from somewhere deep inside her. She grabbed the tray and threw it against the wall, splattering food everywhere.

"I'm done with this place!" Twilight yelled. She grabbed a fork from her tray and started working on the lock on her suppressor ring. Her hooves were shaking as she tried to pick it.

The door opened, and two orderlies stepped in. Doctor Noel stayed just beyond the door, watching.

"Twilight, please calm down. If you get overly excited you might end up hurting yourself." Noel's tone was almost hypnotic. "We all just want to help you. You know that."

"I don't need help!" Twilight yelled. "I'm happy with who I am!"

"You're only happy because you don't know better," Noel said. "You could be part of society. You could have real friends. You could have a life where you don't have to steal and hurt others."

"I have friends."

"And maybe someday they'll be lucky enough to come here and be healed," Noel smiled. "You haven't told me much about them during our sessions. I look forward to learning their names."

"Sessions? What are you talking about? I've only been here for two days!"

"Two days?" Noel laughed. "You always say that after we meet. Twilight, you've been here for more than a month." She gestured to the two guards. "Bring her to the Aurora Mirror. I think we're close to a breakthrough."

It was a beautiful day in Equestria. Twilight Sparkle walked along the corridors of Canterlot Castle and stopped, looking out over the country. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Everything was in order, the weather ticking along like a clock to precise beats.

Today she was going to take private lessons with Sunset Shimmer, the Grand Magus of Equestria. It was a great honor, but Twilight had proven herself worthy of it, though she was somewhat fuzzy on exactly how. It wasn't important, of course. The important thing is that she was happy, and respected, and ponies liked her.

She walked up the long tower, the same view of the countryside visible in every window, and got to Sunset's chambers. The door opened as she arrived, the Magus having expected her.

"Hello, Twilight," Sunset, one of her best friends, said. "Today we'll be working on healing magic."

"Healing magic?" Twilight asked. "Why?"

"Because it helps ponies. That's what I do. I help ponies. You could do that too."

"What?" Twilight frowned. "But you're really good with... fire magic." She struggled to remember why.

"That sounds very dangerous. It would be better to learn something else," Sunset said.

"No, I know you're an expert in pyromancy," Twilight said. "I saw it. You blew up all those zombies, and there was fire everywhere, and you made me read a pamphlet-"

Twilight felt everything start to fade around her. The universe collapsed.

"That was a stroke of bad luck," Doctor Noel said, as she filled out the report. For her own use, of course. They were kept under very strict lock and key, along with all the other failed sessions. "The Aurora Mirror is a powerful tool for good, but we're still learning how to use it. I wasn't aware she'd actually met the Grand Magus."

"Yes, Ma'am," her assistant said, dutifully. She was a white mare with a blue mane. She'd had a cutie mark at one point, in another life that she couldn't recall now. A few sessions with the Aurora Mirror had broken her, and now she was a perfect secretary.

"We're definitely starting to get somewhere, though," Noel noted. "She wasn't able to get the suppressor ring off this time. The conditioning is taking effect."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Were there any messages while I was busy?"

"There was another letter from Captain Shining Armor. He's demanding to see his sister."

"The usual threats?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then just send the same form letter. She is not allowed visitors at this time." Noel finished her paperwork and filed it away.

Twilight sat down heavily at the table in the prison cafeteria. She didn't even look at her food.

"You look like Tartarus," Octavia muttered, with her usual diplomatic tone, in the sense that diplomacy occasionally involved going to war.

"This was supposed to be an easy job," Twilight said. "Get in, get you out, call it a day."

"Yes, well, things aren't that easy," Octavia said. "I already told you, even if I wanted to leave, I can't. I have to take the blame for this."

"How long do you think you can keep that up?" Twilight asked. "Sooner or later they'll pull her name out of you. And if they don't, it's going to be because you won't remember who she is."

"It's hopeless," Octavia whispered.

"I've got a plan," Twilight said. "But I need your help. If you don't help, you're going to end up like that-" Twilight pointed to a blank-flanked mare across the room, who was currently trying to make a sand castle out of mashed potatoes. "You either fight on the outside or die on the inside."

"Fine, tell me about your plan. It won't work, but maybe I can keep you from getting yourself killed."

"I need to get this ring off my horn," Twilight said. "I can't do it myself. Every time I try, my hooves start shaking. But I bet they haven't made it so you can't pick a restraining ring."

"Then what?" Octavia asked. "Are you going to try and fight your way out of here past the entire Royal Guard?"

"Well I'll be able to come up with a better plan once I don't have this bucking headache, but we'll keep fighting the entire Royal Guard as a plan B," Twilight said, flatly. "Now stand up and look offended like I just called you a DIRTY MUD PONY!"

Octavia shot to her hooves. "How dare you call me that! I was classically trained!" She jumped over the table at Twilight, knocking their trays to the floor and grabbing a fork. The inmates around them stood up to watch, crowding around and delaying the guards.

Twilight rolled Octavia with her, under the table. The fork was bent against the floor in a single motion, leaving one tine free. Octavia jammed it into the tiny lock and worked at it for a few moments, kicking the table a few times to make sure it still looked like they were fighting. The pressure against Twilight's horn suddenly released, like the air being let out of a balloon.

Octavia reached for it, and Twilight grabbed her hoof.

"Leave it," she whispered. "If they see it's off they'll just put another one on!"

Octavia nodded, and the guards finally arrived, pulling the two apart and dragging them out from under the table.

"Miss Sparkle," Doctor Noel said, her voice silencing the throng of prisoners. "I thought we were making progress. Bring her to the Mirror. We need to... discuss recent events."

Octavia watched with worry as Twilight was dragged off, the unicorn not bothering to resist.

Twilight grunted as guards pushed her into the chair and left the room. Once again, she couldn't move anything except her mouth, which was fine since her mouth had always been one of her greatest weapons, right after her brain and, possibly, her cute flank.

"You know, you could make this thing more... what's the word... airgodynamic?"

"Ergonomic," Noel corrected. "I'll take that into consideration. Thank you for the feedback."

"It really makes my back sore after a while. Well, that and the drilling into my brain with an auger made of ice." Twilight paused. "You know what? Let's try something different. How about you sit in the chair, and I'll push the buttons."

"I don't think that will help with your therapy," Noel said, raising an eyebrow.

"Actually, it'd make me feel a lot better." Twilight's horn blared with pink light and she rolled off of the chair. Or, more accurately, she used her magic to peel herself from it like a spatula peels a pancake from a frying pan.

Noel opened her mouth to scream for the guards. Twilight cast a bubble of silence around the room, then did something she'd wanted to do for hours. She punched Noel in the snout hard enough to break something. Noel's blue coat was splattered with twin rivers of red and she had no chance of concentrating enough to cast a spell and stop what happened next.

In the unnatural silence, where the only thing either of them could hear was the beating of their own hearts, Twilight grabbed Noel and shoved her onto the chair, the doctor going limp as the enchantment took hold and paralyzed her. Twilight took the restraining ring off of her horn and slipped it over Noel's, locking it securely.

Noel looked at her, terrified and in pain. Twilight looked up at the Aurora Mirror. She walked over to the controls and pressed a few buttons at random. Noel's eyes went wide. Twilight waved goodbye and walked to the door, throwing magical bolts at the two stallions there.
Noel stared up at the mirror, looking into her own reflection in the magically-perfect silence.

Octavia sat in her room, staring at the wall. There was a violin next to her - not her favorite instrument, and it sounded and felt like it was made of balsa wood, but she could play it well enough. She'd been trying to play ever since she was forcibly returned to her cell for fighting, and the inspiration just hadn't come.

There was a knock on the door. Octavia stood up, and after a moment's hesitation, picked up the violin by the neck, brandishing it like a club.

"Twilight was right about one thing," she muttered. "If I just play nice and wait around, I'll be waiting for the rest of my life."

The door opened, and Octavia swung. The violin shattered against a pony's skull, the balsa wood managing to snap in several places at once. Twilight stumbled into the room, collapsing into a heap after a few uneasy steps.

"You got out?" Octavia asked, surprised.

"Burblesnurf checkers," Twilight stated. It made more sense in her head, but her head was unfortunately mildly concussed and it took a few moments for her to stop seeing stars and trying to speak their mysterious space language.

Octavia helped her up and shook her, which was terrible first aid to give to anypony with a head injury, but Octavia's cutie mark wasn't for medicine and earth ponies generally dealt with injuries by pretending they didn't hurt and rubbing dirt into the wound. This was not because they were ignorant, but because, like in all civilizations, tradition was a far more powerful force than common sense.

"Twilight, focus!" Octavia yelled. "I didn't hit you that hard! It was only a violin! It barely had any heft to it at all!"

"Felt more like a harpsichord," Twilight muttered, as the part of her brain that knew words finally managed to re-establish communications with her mouth. She rubbed her head. "Remind me not to throw you any surprise parties."

"How did you get out?" Octavia asked.

"Magic, obviously. I tossed Noel into the chair and left her there." Twilight looked around. "Hey, your room is bigger than mine! How is that fair? I'm a master criminal!"

"If you like it so much, you can have it," Octavia said. "I was still planning on leaving."

Twilight nodded and went back to the door, looking both ways as she reopened it. The corridor was silent and empty.

"Okay, the coast is clear," Twilight whispered. "I've disabled the scrying spells around here, so we don't have long." She tossed Octavia a set of keys. "Help me get these doors open."

Within a few minutes, there were a few dozen ponies standing around, milling about sedately and looking confused.

"Everypony, listen up," Twilight said. "We need a distraction to get out of here. All you need to do is cause confusion and keep ponies busy, and you've got a good chance of getting out, too."

The prisoners, all of them largely non-violent offenders whose crimes typically involved accounting or tax evasion, stared at Twilight.
Octavia sighed and stepped up to the crowd, slugging a gangly-looking unicorn and picking him up above her head.

"EVERYPONY RIOT!" Octavia shouted, throwing him into the crowd like a screaming javelin. The ponies did what naturally came to them, and started yelling and running around in circles, breaking things.

"Why did they listen to you and not me?" Twilight frowned.

"It's called stage presence," Octavia said. "And I believe I hear the march of armored hooves coming closer. Shall we?"

The way to the prison offices was blocked by a heavy security door, designed to resist magic, earth pony strength, and, in an odd decision by the engineering team responsible for it, was made of an alloy that dragons found about as appetizing as a spoonful of ipecac syrup.

Octavia kicked the guard who had been standing watch near it a few more times, the unconscious stallion rolling limply with the blows, while Twilight tried a few more keys from the keyring. It was a huge, jangling thing that probably opened every door in the building. It would be even more useful if anypony had thought to label the stupid things.

"Tenth time's the charm," Twilight said. After a few attempts, she cursed in Prench and tried the next key. "Eleventh time's the- hey, it actually is the charm this time!" The door swung open.

"The riot won't last long," Octavia said. "We need to hurry."

"Don't worry," Twilight said, waving a hoof dismissively. She closed the door behind them, the lock clicking back into place. "We're practically out already. There has to be another entrance around here for the staff. They wouldn't have them go through the main prison all the time."

"Your big plan is to just have us sneak out the back door?" Octavia raises an eyebrow. "I thought it would be something more dramatic, like a high-speed airship chase, or a portal to Tartarus."

"I don't know if you've looked around, but we're already in Tartarus. I keep expecting to turn the corner and find Cerberus." Twilight stopped in front of a directory and read it over quickly, nodding for Octavia to follow.

"They'll see us leaving," Octavia pointed out.

"Not if we're in disguise." Twilight stopped in front of an office and opened the door. "See, what I figure is that-"

"Vinyl?!" Octavia gasped.

"Kinky, and it might look good, but I was-" Twilight stopped as she saw the mare standing in the office. It was Noel's assistant, waiting placidly. "Oh, uh, heeey. We're just passing through."

"Vinyl, how did you get here?!" Octavia asked, shoving Twilight out of the way and into a coat rack in her rush to get to the mare.

"Doctor Noel's office hours are from six to nine, both in the morning and evening," the white unicorn said, her voice expressionless. "If you want to leave a message, I can make sure she gets it."

"No..." Octavia whispered, touching Vinyl's face. "I- I did it all for nothing?"

"Wait, that's your marefriend?" Twilight asked.

"Vinyl Scratch," Octavia said. There was no recognition in the mare's eyes. "She was here all along and I never knew?" Octavia stopped. "...No, it isn't that I didn't knew. That... that mule made me forget! That's why my room was bigger than yours! It was supposed to hold two ponies! It was supposed to... and then they took her away and..." Octavia sank to her knees.

"Octavia! Get up!" Twilight said. "We need to get out of here. We'll take her with us. Noel left a couple spare uniforms here, so we can-"

"I'm not going," Octavia whispered. "What's the point? She's gone and there's nothing I can do."

"Endless Night..." Twilight hissed. "Hey, you." She pointed at Vinyl. "You're Doctor Noel's assistant, right? So you know where she keeps all her notes on the Aurora Mirror."

"Yes, Ma'am," Vinyl said.

"Where are they?" Twilight asked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you that."

Twilight's eye twitched. "Okay. Right. Conditioned not to reveal secrets. Listen carefully - I don't want you to tell me anything secret, okay? Just nod."

Vinyl nodded.

"Great. Doctor Noel told me she left my coloring book in the same place she keeps her notes on the Aurora Mirror. Could you look for it?"

"Of course, Ma'am." Vinyl walked over to a filing cabinet and unlocked it, opening the bottom drawer. She started looking through the files.
Twilight hit her with a sleeping spell.

"That's the problem with magical compulsions," Twilight said. "You have to be really specific. She was told not to reveal anything secret, but I asked her to help me with something perfectly safe."

Twilight pulled out files, skimming through them.

"Let's see... patient files... experiments with other species... there has to be something useful in here..."

"What are you even looking for?"

"This!" Twilight pulled out a folded-up diagram, opening it and spreading it out on the desk. "She made a blueprint of the enchantments! She wanted to mass-produce this thing, remember? And it's all simple, the kind of thing a government contractor might be able to build."

"Burn it," Octavia growled.

"Not yet! I need to see..." Twilight looked over the runes. She was only self-taught, but she was a quick study. "I think I can work out a counterspell for this. I know the basics, and somepony once gave me a pamphlet with handy notes on how to remove curses."

"What kind of pamphlet-" Octavia started, before Twilight, muttering to herself, stepped around the desk and touched her horn against Octavia's forehead. Octavia's eyes unfocused and she froze in place.

"Did it work?" Twilight asked.

"My life flashed before my eyes!"

"In a good way?"

"It was like eternity in a split second. I can remember every detail about my life. Every feeling, every meal I've had, every time I loved a pony..."

"Perfect recall might be a side effect. On the other hoof, those memories will be very resistant to further tampering." Twilight smiled. "Not bad for something I made up on the spot, right?"

Octavia looked at her flank. Her cutie mark had been as faded as an old T-shirt, but now it stood out as bright and clear as the day she'd gotten it.

"Will it work on Vinyl?" Octavia looked at her, still dazed from the memory spell Twilight had hit her with. "I can remember both of us getting dragged in here. I confessed to selling the drugs, but she was still going to serve a few months for money laundering through her club."

"Drugs?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing dangerous," Octavia said, quickly. "I don't approve of it either, but Vinyl needed more money for her club and she decided she'd rather cut out the middleman and sell them herself so she could make sure her clients weren't getting anything that could hurt them."

"Uh-huh?" Twilight raised her eyebrow higher.

"It was just Spice and Salt and this Zebrican concoction that made your senses all sort of... blend together, so you'd hear colors and hear sounds."

"Tell her to get out of that business," Twilight said.

"Twilight, if you can help her I'll make sure she never gets involved in anything ever again."

Twilight nodded and stepped up to Vinyl. She took a deep breath and touched the tips of their horns together. There was a flash of light, and Vinyl scrambled back into the wall, music notes appearing on her flank and her hooves going to her eyes.

"Buck!" Vinyl cursed. "My bucking- where are my-" She shook her head. "Those flank-faces took my bucking sunglasses! They didn't even ask why I wore them! It feels like a bucking ice pick in my bucking eyes-"

"She's very photosensitive," Octavia explained, quietly, pulling Vinyl into a hug. "Vinyl..."

"Octy, I'm burning this whole bucking city down," Vinyl said, keeping her eyes shut. "That mule had me filing paperwork and acting like her bucking servant. Where is she? I'm gonna show her that you don't buck with a mare when-"

"She's taken care of," Twilight said. "Now do you think you can learn a spell real fast? My hooves still shake every time I think about picking a lock. I had to use a key to get in here. A key! I don't even have the keys for my own locks!"

"Yeah, yeah," Vinyl huffed, starting to calm down while Octavia held her and rubbed her back. "I felt some of it when our horns linked. It's like, uh, hearing the tune. Write out the runes and I can sing the chorus."

Twilight sketched the spell she'd thrown together onto some note paper and gave it to her. Vinyl opened one eye and squinted at the page.

"You've got bucking awful hornwriting," Vinyl said. "If this makes your brain explode because I can't tell your phis from your thetas, it's your own fault."

"I'll take that risk," Twilight said. She stepped closer, and Vinyl let go of Octavia to cast the spell.

It was like lightning, going right through Twilight's brain. Half-remembered dreams popped into focus alongside every book she'd ever read, that time she'd tried really hard to forget when she and Gilda had hooked up, a litany of injuries, daring escapes, and thefts. All of the false memories that Noel had tried to implant were flat and lifeless compared to the real memories, as fuzzy and unreal as dreams.

"Oh boy," Twilight gasped, stepping back and coughing. "That's rough. Really rough." She held up a hoof. It didn't shake. "But I think I'm back."

"So what's the next part of this brilliant plan?" Vinyl asked. "I'm thinking it should involve migraine medication."

"Well, my brilliant plan just got even more brillianter," Twilight smirked. "The guards are used to you coming and going, right?"

"Excuse me," Vinyl asked, as she walked up to one of the guards at the staff entrance. "Has the disturbance been resolved yet?"

"Not yet," the guard said. "A few of the prisoners are still unaccounted for, Ma'am, and we haven't found Doctor Noel."

"I see," Vinyl said, quietly. "I will need to take the interns to the hospital, then. One of them was injured in the disturbance." She ushered Twilight and Octavia forwards. Both of them were wearing spare uniforms, and Twilight was sporting a nasty bruise on her head, the sort of thing you might get if a string instrument was used as a bludgeoning weapon.

"I'll need to see your staff cards and have you sign out," the guard said. Vinyl nodded and gave him her identification. Twilight and Octavia's were just generic red cards with the prison logo hung around their necks on lanyards.

"Thank you," Vinyl said.

"Do you need me to call an ambulance?" the guard asked.

"I, uh, don't have insurance," Twilight said, blushing. "I'd really like to avoid the extra expense if I can help it. I just got this job and being an intern doesn't exactly pay much."

"Oh right," the guard nodded. "Probably not covered by the benefits plan yet."

"It's worth class credits for med school, though," Twilight said, trying to put on a brave face as they signed the book. "Look, uh, if Doctor Noel asks, tell her it looked really bad, okay? I don't want to get sacked for leaving early."

"Just bring in a note from the hospital," the guard said. "As long as you have a doctor's note you'll be fine."

"Thanks," Twilight said, leaning against Octavia.

"And don't go to sleep!" The guard yelled, as they walked away. "That's bad if you have a concussion!" He smiled to himself, proud that he'd remembered his first-aid training.

"I certainly wasn't expecting this," Sunset Shimmer said, looking into the room. "Right in the heart of Canterlot, too. Last place you think to look." She shook her head in disapproval.

Doctor Noel was limply looking up at a mirror. Sunset cast a few detection spells then stepped inside, walking up to the controls. She hadn't gotten to be a Grand Magus by not messing with things she didn't understand. A few button presses later and the subtle pressure in the room vanished. She started to say something, and the silence ate her words. The Grand Magus rolled her eyes and dispelled the silence with a quick and dirty counterspell, just ripping the bubble apart.

"That's better," Sunset said. "Doctor Noel?" She stepped over. Noel didn't move, just staring upwards. Drool slowly dripped from the corner of her mouth.

Sunset waved a hoof in front of her face. Noel didn't respond. She wasn't even blinking.

"Okay, well, that's a little creepy," Sunset muttered. She stepped out to the hallway. A few ponies in robes stood there, keeping watch over the assembled staff.

"Ma'am, we found the files," one of the ponies said, levitating a stack of folders to Sunset. "It's just like your informant said."

Sunset flipped through the folders, the staff getting more and more nervous as her expression changed from curiosity to fury.

"No, it's worse than my informant said," Sunset spat, as she tossed another case file aside. "I want everypony here put into cells - separate cells - until I can decide what to do with them."

"I demand to talk to the Princess!" somepony in the crowd yelled. Sunset's ears twitched and she spun on the crowd, hair moving on its own like she was caught in an unseen breeze.

"Who said that?!" Sunset roared. The crowd parted, revealing a stallion in a suit.

"I- we were only following orders," he said, lamely. "This was all done in Celestia's name."

Sunset stormed up to him. "So you know what was going on," she said, dangerously.

"I didn't do anything! I just manage payroll!"

"And you didn't do anything to stop it?" Sunset hissed. The stallion looked down, cowed. "All of you are lucky I don't just send you to Stalliongrad and tell them to find a deep, dark hole where they can forget about you!"

Sunset turned on her heels and dragged Noel out of the room, levitating her away from the door. Sunset fired a bolt of teal fire into the room, shattering the mirror and collapsing the roof, burying it all.

"I hate magic mirrors," she muttered.

"Most of the staff was aware of the events," Sunset said, pacing back and forth in the meeting room. "The inmates largely responded well to the counterspell we were given, but unfortunately Doctor Noel is still comatose."

"What happened to her?" Shining Armor asked. Princess Celestia watched, reading over the official reports Sunset had prepared.

"She was left alone with her creation at maximum power. It must have been like... being in limbo for a thousand years. No savior to help her, not even a tormentor to keep her company. Just alone, in silence." Sunset stopped pacing at the window, looking down at the courtyard below.

"And I sent Twilight to a place where they were doing that to ponies," Shining Armor whispered.

"You didn't know," Celestia said. "And by all accounts, she seems to be the one to have... discovered this little problem."

"Little problem? She ruined the lives of dozens of ponies! Some of them should have been released years ago!"

"I've pardoned almost all of the former inmates," Celestia said. "The newspaper headlines tomorrow should be rather interesting."

"You pardoned Twilight Sparkle?" Sunset turned from the window to look, curious.

"Mm. Not exactly," Celestia said. "But I think in light of services rendered we can give her a bit of a head start before sending the guard after her."

Twilight sat down at the cabana bar, the breeze of the ocean at her back and sand under her hooves.

"The whole time I was in prison you guys were hanging out in the Barracudas?" Twilight huffed. "I was gone for months! Didn't you even consider that something might have gone wrong?"

"I really couldn't afford to risk being associated with a known criminal," Rarity said. "Sorry, darling. They talked me out of a daring rescue, and I just had to do something about the stress of having you locked away. Taking a long vacation seemed like the natural thing to do, and I've been inspired to design all sorts of swimsuits for my summer collection."

"Look on the bright side," Gilda suggested. "The papers are calling you a hero. I bet you could swing some paid interviews... as long as you did them in a country with no extradition."

Twilight looked at Maud. The mare was looking at her hooves in contemplation.

"Maud?" Twilight asked. "What about you?"

"Sand is really millions and millions of tiny rocks, when you think about it," Maud said.

"Right," Twilight sighed. "I should have expected something like that."

"You were able to get your friend out, right?" Gilda asked.

"Yeah," Twilight said. "And she's free and clear now. Celestia gave a blanket pardon to everypony. Almost everypony."

"Everypony except you," Gilda snorted, trying to hold back laughter.

"Oh yeah, you think it's funny, but I found a letter on my bed this morning. Celestia very politely invited me back to Canterlot to discuss the possibility of a pardon. I don't know if she teleported it or if she has some secret agent watching me!"

"Think it's a trap?" Gilda asked.

"I think I've already had enough of ponies trying to reform me," Twilight said. "Now order me a drink and let's go have a night on the town and swipe everything that's not nailed down."