Chapter Twenty Five
The Beginning

In which Princess Twilight Sparkle
takes care of a few loose ends.

May 12th - 14th, 1015
Multiversal Nexus Prime and Pony Joe's Doughnut Emporium, Canterlot, Equestria

"Are you certain about this, Twilight?" Celestia asked as I prepared to trigger the warding spells around our universe.

I nodded as I mentally rechecked my math. "Yes. The reflexive feedback will pour more power into the barriers as more force is applied. Enough raw magical strength could overwhelm them, but if we're faced with an invader capable of that…" I shrugged. "We'll have to hope we're more clever than they are."

Celestia smiled slightly. "No, I am confident that your constructs will operate as you've designed them. I meant, are you certain about locking us away from everywhere else? By your accounts, there are wondrous things in the worlds beyond."

"There are also terrible things out there," I replied, "and some of them are me."

"I think the three-alicorn lock will be sufficient," I continued. "It won't be detectable from outside, but it will give us a way to open a lateral portal whenever we wish. Whenever three of us agree to do so, anyway."

I grinned right back at her. "We've repaired and reinforced all the secondary systems, and the Harmony Matrix is reset and adjusted for broader operating parameters. Yep, I think that about covers it. Believe it or not, my desire to meddle in the basic structure of the universe has pretty much been satisfied."

"That is well, for there are many concerns to be addressed on a secondary level," she replied, lifting an eyebrow. "The folk of Twilight Town have petitioned the Equestrian crown for return of their—and I quote—'dark goddess.'"

"Yes," Celestia said. "I'm afraid those fine ponies will be clamoring for the most inappropriate sort of leader for years to come, Twilight Sparkle. You have set their expectations of government quite high."

"Fie!" Luna gave a snort of derision. "The Bug Queen is not half the villainess thou art!"

"In all seriousness, Twilight," Celestia said, "despite the fact that ponies now think that the Undiscovered West was always there and remained unexplored only because nopony ever bothered, the appearance of a huge piece of new territory will probably require a lot of hooves-on attention."

"That was quite a clever bit of spell construction, by the way," I told her. "Was all that work really just to provide a refuge from Discord?"

"Yes, and it would have been much more clever if I had exempted myself from the spell," Celestia replied with a grin and a dismissive shake of her head.

"No," I said, not smiling back. "It was to ensure that Discord could never get the secret from you, wasn't it? You might have become trapped forever in his madhouse, but you still gave your subjects the possibility of escape."

Celestia cleared her throat and nervously shifted her forehooves. "I don't recall. Memory spells are like that."

I didn't reply for a moment. The sight of an embarrassed Celestia was something to be treasured. "Okay," I said, finally allowing myself to smile. "Let's go with that."

Chrysalis poked disdainfully at the éclair on the plate in front of her. "Is this some sort of joke, Sparkle?" She was wearing her "public" alicorn body and completely overdressed for a meeting in the back room of a student hang-out.

"Not at all!" I reassured her. "Princess Celestia offered me the use of a room in the palace, but I wanted this get-together to be more cozy and informal."

Prince Blueblood didn't even deign to glance down at the selection of pastries on the table. "An informal meeting hardly necessitates rubbing shoulders with the jumentous rabble, Princess. I'd take it as a great favor if we could conclude our business as quickly as possible."

"Certainly!" I said, in a cheerful tone. "You know that I've been away for quite a while—"

"And yet, here you are... again," Chrysalis said, sounding distinctly disappointed.

"Yes! And I thought you two might like to look at some of the pictures I took while I was traveling." My smile was quite genuine, though for different reasons than my words suggested. I levitated a photo book out of my saddlebags and placed it on the table in front of them.

"Your sense of humor, if I can call it that, completely mystifies me, Twilight," Chrysalis said, making no move to open the book.

"Still not joking," I said, and took a bite of my apple fritter. It was perfectly sweet, slightly crunchy on the outside and steamy warm and soft on the inside. Joe was a genius. He could have been working for any of the noble families as a pastry chef, making ten times what he earned from his shop.

I took a deliberately slow sip of my coffee, savoring the light hazelnut flavor. Nothing but the best for Joe's customers. I tried to hire him away once, but he told me that he loves the bustle of Canterlot and variety of ponies (and other things) he sees on a daily basis and would miss it too much.

Chrysalis sighed and flipped open the book. When she gasped, Blueblood turned his attention to the photos.

"What is this… this… foulness?" He growled at me, rising to his hooves in anger. "Some pathetic attempt to insult my wife? Celestia will hear of your unconscionable rudeness, Princess Twilight!"

"Sit down, Prince," I said. When he didn't, I quietly added, "I'm not asking."

His mouth and eyebrows twitched for a long moment as he mentally ran over his options, then he sat back down. "I trust you have an explanation for this?"

While her husband was making his show of outrage, Chrysalis had used her magic on the book of photos. "These are real, as far as I can tell," she said to him.

"Very real," I added. "And yes, I will tell you what those are all about, but it's a bit involved, so I recommend enjoying your coffee and doughnuts while I explain."

Blueblood didn't quite lean away from the table and cross his forelegs, but his disdain was clear.

"No? Your loss." I took another bite of my delicious fritter and launched into my story.

"You remember that little book on politics I published a few years ago? Well, you'll be happy to know that I've realized that I was dead wrong about all those reforms. Even if ponies were willing to give them a try, they wouldn't have worked in the long run, and that's because I based my work on abstract principles. Celestia's been ruling for over a millennium, and I thought I could 'fix' her system." I shook my head and gave them a sheepish grin. "Maybe in a few centuries, I'll be qualified to suggest some minor changes."

"Experience is what it's all about. I recently had the chance to run the government of a… well, I suppose it was technically a principality, but it was more of a fiefdom. Anyway, I didn't follow my carefully worked-out principles at all. I had my own selfish agenda, and simply did whatever was necessary in the moment to ensure that my subjects were content and protected. I let them form their own society and laws however they wanted. I just stomped out problems when they came up, and pretty much ignored the place otherwise."

"That's my point!" I said, leaning forward for emphasis. "It was nice, and it worked really well, even though any outside observer would have concluded that I was a terrible ruler! My ponies were happy and safe."

"What has that got to do with this?" Chrysalis tapped the photo book with a perfectly manicured hooftip.

"I'm getting to that," I said, popping the last of my fritter into my mouth. "So, that experience convinced me that letting ponies find their own way while being protected from exceptional threats is the best way to rule. Micromanagement by enforcing broad conceptual legislation doesn't make anypony happy." I took a sip of my coffee and rushed on, hoping to get my point across before my audience's eyes completely glazed over.

"And that's what I really want. For ponies to be happy. As happy as they can be, anyway. And that includes me. All I have to do is to aid and defend them when they're in trouble. When they're threatened."

"Ah, I see," Chrysalis said. "All that was a pointlessly long-winded way of telling me that you consider me a threat. I suppose these photos of Canterlot's streets littered with the husks of dead changelings are supposed to intimidate me into renouncing my 'evil' plans?"

I shook my head sadly. "No, Chrysalis, those dead changelings are your plans. They're the result of a long campaign that you ultimately win."

I sighed and drank the last of my coffee. "There are other worlds besides ours. You know the theory and possibly where some of the portals are, I suppose. If you don't, you should fire your spies. Those worlds that run alongside ours are often nearly identical except for a few changes. And most importantly, time often runs at different rates in them."

Chrysalis glanced down at the photos. "Then these were taken in one of those worlds."

"Yes. An alternate Equestria a few decades into our future. You out-maneuvered me there. You won."

Blueblood cleared his throat and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. This makes no sense!"

"This doesn't look like winning to me," she said, her eyes going green and her pupils narrowing to vertical slits.

"All of Equestria was your feast table," I said. "New hives everywhere, building unconquerable armies of drones… Hungry drones. Zebrica and Saddle Arabia fall. Then lands beyond, until—"

Chrysalis held up a hoof to stop me. She looked down at the photos again and then slowly and deliberately closed the book. "Starvation."

"Extinction. As well as the death of any life capable of feeling the smallest bit of affection," I told her.

"I don't think you do," I said, shaking my head. "I've decided that my purpose in life is to make sure that ponies are happy and safe by ending problems. You can choose to be happy and safe, too." I paused, and looked directly into her eyes. "Or you can choose to be a problem."

Blueblood had finally heard something he clearly understood. "How dare you threaten my wife!"

"Please forgive me," I said to him in a calm and reasonable tone of voice. "I did not mean it as a threat. It was a warning. A final warning to both of you."

He sputtered in outrage and grew red in the face. I had no interest in sitting through an aggrieved tirade, so it was time to play the game by the rules that had been bred in his bones. I drew myself up to my full height and looked down at him. "We thank you for your attendance, Prince Blueblood Polaris. You have Our leave to depart Our Royal Presence."[1]
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[1] As polite as this may sound, it is understood by any experienced courtier to mean "get out of my sight before I do something that you will sorely regret."
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Ah yes… convenient court protocol. By reminding him that he did not quite stand at the pinnacle of Equestrian royalty, I had undercut him completely. He swallowed his pride, bowed gracefully, backed away the requisite three steps, turned, and departed. Performed in the back room of a doughnut shop, the ritual was more than a little ridiculous.

"I have seen many worlds where changelings live alongside ponies in peace and cooperation," I said, dropping the royal façade. "Make this world one of them."

"Please, Princess Chrysalis,[2] be happy… and safe."
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[2] Yes, she was entitled by marriage to Blueblood, but I meant it in a very different sense, and I'm sure she knew it. Without changing her nature, she could be a true princess of Equestria or she could be an alien queen, but not both.
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Chrysalis gave me one last look over her shoulder before she left the room. She didn't say anything, but her horn glowed briefly and the book of photographs crumbled into ash.

After she was gone, I got a sudden strong whiff of buttered popcorn. "I think that went well, don't you?" Discord said from behind me.

I didn't even twitch. "I dunno, they didn't seem eager to stay for the party," I said out of the corner of my mouth.

"Ooh, that's right!" Discord said, "The gang should be arriving anytime now!" He held out his lion arm and turned it over so that the wrist was facing me. A full-sized grandfather clock was strapped to it, each number on the clockface replaced with the word "PARTY!" The hands (all seven of them) whirled and twitched like snakes undergoing seizures.

I couldn't help myself: I laughed. "How accurate is that thing? Do I have time for another hazelnut latte before the mindless revelry?"

The little doors above the clock face snapped open and a tiny Discord popped out with a coo-coo. He wore a beret and a pencil-thin black mustache, and held out a steaming cup to me. "Voilà! Madam's caffè latte!" he said in an over-the-top Canterlot accent.

I took a sip without pausing to sniff it or anything. Surprisingly, it wasn't trout-flavored. "Mmmmn… Great coffee, thanks."

"I live to serve!" Discord said, still using the egregious accent and executing an elaborate bow that seemed to require more than the normal three spatial dimensions.

I chuckled and took another sip of my drink. "No you don't. You live to put sticks in the spokes of ponies' lives. You were literally made to mess with us!"

"Maybe I've reformed. Again." He reverted to his default form and then a glowing halo appeared over his head and his eyes—

"Eugh! Don't do that!" I said sticking my tongue out in a show of revulsion. "They look like oily bowling balls!"

He popped the oily bowling balls out of his eye sockets and set them down on the table, shrugging. "Fluttershy loves it when I do the gigantic puppy-eyes thing."

I had taken another couple of sips from my coffee before I realized that Discord hadn't replied. I looked up to discover him studying me carefully.

"She'll take it, won't she?" he asked, nervously tapping his eagle claws on the tabletop. "Your offer of immortality, I mean. She won't—"

"It's her choice," I said. "But yes, I think she will. There will always be stray critters[3] that need her help, and she won't willingly abandon them."
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[3] E.g., Cats, dogs, bears, weasels, airships, draconiqui, and the like.
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"Yes," Discord said, brightening. "Of course she will!" He cleared his throat and dug deep into one ear, pulling out a live fish. "Sardine for your coffee?"

He shrugged, put the fish back into his ear, and cupped his lion paw around the other one. "I think I hear the first guests arriving!"

Sure enough, I heard Joe's gruff voice saying, "Nice to see you again, Sunny Skies! The party's down the hall, in the back room."

I peeked out the door and saw a white pegasus with a soft pink mane and tail and a slate gray unicorn approaching.

"'Sunny Skies?' Really Sister? Does that deceive anypony?" the unicorn said.

"I have successfully used this guise before, Luna," the pegasus replied. "You, yourself, are looking very… nocturnal. Black is a very rare mane color for a mare."

"I am merely following your sterling example, sister. I am certain that Moony McMoonface will serve as a suitable name should anypony ask."

Luna shook off her disguise and swept me up in a hug with both wings. "Have you convinced the Bug Queen to forgo her evil ways, my dear?"

"It's hard to tell, but I think… uhm… It's hard to think with you nibbling on my ear like that."

"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" Discord said, sweating heavily and fanning himself with a folding lace fan.

"I think there's a very good chance I've convinced her. There are three clear signs of a negative reaction, and I'll be watching for them very closely in the coming months." I grinned. "The advantage of foreknowledge."

Celestia, still wearing her disguise, picked up a doughnut and took a dainty bite. "Are you sure you want to take up this responsibility, Twilight?"

"Absolutely," I said, turning to face her. "I've seen where my organizational instincts can lead me when I apply them too broadly, and it's never to a happy place. I'm a good problem-solver, so I'm going to stick with that. I'm going to take care of the little problems that crop up from day to day, and when the big problems show up..." I stomped my hoof hard on the floor. Luna smiled.

I smiled back at her. "The way things usually go, I ought to have plenty of time for personal adventures and selenologic[4] research."
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[4] Look it up.
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"No, no, no!" came Pinkie Pie's burbly voice from outside the door. "That's lollygagging! You were dilly-dallying!"

"Whatever you say, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash answered her. I could almost hear the eyeroll.

Sure enough, Pinkie Pie came through the door cannon-first. Things livened up considerably after that.

The party was a whirl of conversations, games, and magical engineering,[5] but the room was too crowded for dancing.
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[5] Moondancer and Starlight Glimmer took over a corner table and scribbled furiously on napkins for well over an hour at one point. I only had time for a glance at their notes, but the transport-adapted related dimensional isochronic system looked promising.
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"Well, that's new," Ket whispered in my ear. It was a little before midnight when the two of us returned to the room after a brief stroll outside to chat and exchange intelligence reports with an agent of Queen Csharreee.

"Mn?" My mind was only half on her comment. Across the room, Luna and Minuette were laughing and talking and standing very close to one another.

"Oh, it's just a little bit, but it's there." The cheeky bug actually smirked at me! "Would you like a big strapping stallion for a little tête-à-tête of your own? See how long it takes Princess Luna to come trotting over?"

I sputtered a bit before I realized Ket was teasing me. I cleared my throat and replied with as much dignity as possible, "I do not play games of that sort!"

She regarded me slyly for a moment. "Well, maybe not. But if I can give you just a tiny bit of advice, I think Luna would be very pleased if you went and interrupted her conversation."

"What? You mean she—" I turned to Ket but she was being dragged away by Pinkie Pie for a game of Mirror Mare.

Luna did seem glad when I crossed the room and practically shoved my head between her and Minuette, and neither mare commented on my close approach to rudeness. I made sure I was never separated from her for long after that, and always gave her a touch as I went by, whether it was a hip-bump, a brush of my tail, or a quick peck on the cheek. It seemed to make her happy.[6]
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[6] Late that night, there was an unexpected violent thunderstorm over Canterlot.
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Rarity dragged me aside at one point with a worried, furtive look, and I popped a little privacy bubble over us. "What is it?"

"I hate to ask this of you, Twilight," she said, biting at her lower lip. "It's a rather large favor."

"Let's see… one, two, three… hmn… probably four…" I took a second to enjoy the confused look on her face. "In case you're wondering, I'm counting the times you've saved my life. So… yeah, don't hesitate to ask."

She let her breath out in a not quite sigh. "Oh, darling, that's just something we do for each other!"

She cleared her throat. "Yes. Well, you see, this is about me becoming royalty, so it's… a delicate matter."

I was shocked. I'd offered the improved gem-based immortality to each of my friends. Rarity had immediately accepted, as I expected she would. But for her to ask for her lost alicornhood back was something that completely surprised me.

"I… I would have to ask Celestia and Luna about it," I stalled. "It'll be tricky to pull off, and it might upset the balance of things—"

"Oh yes, I know it will cause trouble, and that's why I hesitated to ask, but dear Xahjir is quite smitten and he's so traditional. He's uncomfortable with an affaire de coeur and insists on making me his sultana, but that means I'll be foreign royalty, and all my business is here in Equestria—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" I held up my hooves while I tried to shift mental gears. "What? Who's Xahjir?"

Rarity blinked. "Oh, That's right. You may not have heard. That's perfectly understandable, darling. You've been… away, and busy with other concerns since your return."

"Xahjir is the new Sultan of Marezambique. You know him, darling. He was the Captain of the elite guard."

"Oh, piffle!" She waved a hoof dismissively. "It was only a shallow cut on the cheek. It gave him a very dashing scar, I might add."

Rarity cleared her throat and averted her gaze. "Zebrican successions can be very messy affairs. After Zatar abdicated, Xahjir kept to his duty, making sure the city was safe and peaceful while his brothers… debated the matter among themselves. When the last two of them managed to finish each other off simultaneously, Xahjir was the only heir left."

"I remained in Marezambique after you departed, to aid in cleaning up. When Xahjir learned I was Silver Mask, he… Well, I think he was more impressed by that than by my wings. We got to be very good friends."

I closed my gaping mouth and grinned. "You know something? It really does! Congratulations!"

After we shared a hug, I asked, "But what do you need from me? Besides a wedding present, I mean."

Rarity chuckled and then became serious again. "It's the legalities involved. It's all such a tangle, dear, I couldn't begin to describe it! I was hoping you could issue an edict or something that would make me a dual citizen. Otherwise I'm a…" She tapped her lip with a hoof, recalling the exact phrase, no doubt. "'Foreign entity.' I'd have to pay international tariffs on fabric that I shipped from Canterlot to Manehatten, for goodness sake! And that isn't the worst of it! It's all so ridiculous!"

"Don't worry. In a kingdom where changelings can go from invaders to protected species to citizens, anything is possible. I'll have a word with the Minister of State."

"Oh, thank you so much, darling!" She threw herself around my neck for another hug.

"Heavens, no! I shall be back and forth all the time. I have my business to attend to and, as wonderful as Xahjir is, he could stand to become a little more cosmopolitan. So, I'm certain you'll see a lot of him as well. He's commissioning a private airship for us so that we can flit about as the whim takes us."

I thought for a second and then raised my eyebrows and put on as innocent a face as I could manage. "But won't you be concerned about pirates?" I asked.

"No," Rarity said, and a grin that was entirely too wicked for such a beautiful mare spread across her face. "No, I won't be worried at all."

"I have this pesky attachment to technical accuracy, transparency, and honesty," I explained to Applejack. "So, you see, I'm completely unsuited for government."

"Sounds 'bout right. Y'aint got such a terrific track record when you go makin' decisions for other ponies, neither." She said it with a fond smile, but it still stung.

I thunked my tankard of cider down on the table and hung my head. "I am so sorry about that, AJ! I've got a thousand excuses for what I did to you, but I know it was still me…"

She held up a hoof. "Naw, it's okay, Twi. It's fixed now, and ya done apologized 'bout half a hundred times already, I just hope y've learned your lesson."

"Oh believe me, I have!" I really didn't want to stay on the sensitive topic, but Applejack hadn't yet given me an answer. "Have you given any thought to—"

"Yup." She nodded. "I ain't interested in hangin' around for who knows how long. I aim to have a passel o' foals an' then get planted under a nice Golden Delicious sapling to make room for 'em all."

"Ain't gonna happen for donkey's years, so let's not go borrowin' trouble tonight, sugarcube."

"Shucks!" She pushed her hatbrim up and grinned at me. "Comin' from the Princess of Books an' Such, that's a pretty nice compliment."

She shrugged. "Nice enough, I reckon. Leastwise ya can recognize a goof once y'all've landed in it. There's a heap o' ponies who can't."

"I should have figured it out when I read that gloss of yours in The Princess, " I said. "Where Marechiavelli wrote about losing your influence and inviting anarchy if you're concerned about being good, and that you shouldn't let being good get in the way of your goals, you added a note in the margin that read, 'What if one's goal is goodness?'" I looked up at Celestia and grinned apologetically. "I thought it was trite when I read it, but that was a real glimpse at how you've kept the kingdom going all this time, wasn't it?"

Celestia shrugged and sipped at the tall drink in the frosty glass that Pinkie had given her. "Yet there is merit in the question of whether the goal justifies the methods taken to arrive there."

"But there's hardly been a time when all the ponies didn't love you for wise leadership, so you must have been doing something right."

"The passage of time softens the impact of the mistakes I've made, Twilight," she insisted. "I am not a perfect pony."

"I'sooth, I can vouchsafe her words," Luna said, approaching and lifting one of the little umbrellas out of her sister's drink and tucking it behind one ear. "Have you not read of her duel with the vile pony-eating ogre of the Hayseed Swamp?"

"Yes," I said. "That was one of my favorite stories as a filly! I loved the part where she tracked the ogre to his lair and called out, 'I shall hammer thy evil from this land!'"

"No doubt thy book did not mention what transpired thereafter," Luna said with a sly grin.

I frowned. "They fought and Celestia won. I understand if the book omitted some details, but—"

Luna laughed and said, "The ogre called back to her, 'Never yet has a hammer broken an anvil!' and then he punched her though a mountain!"

"It took me two days to dig myself out," Celestia grumbled. "The next time we caught up with him, Luna and I snuck up from behind with poisoned halberds. That did the trick."

"'Tis a pity Parliament cannot be dealt with in such a fashion," Luna said, wistfully.

"Yeah, I was pretty ticked off when I had to miss the Spring Tour," Rainbow Dash said. "Even if Princess Celestia hadn't wanted us to keep out of sight to avoid 'confusing and panicking ponies,' I couldn't have flown in close formation with those freakin' huge wings! I can see why it took you so long to get used to them, Twi!"

"You kept forgetting about your horn, too," Pinkie Pie put in. "Remember that one time you stuck it clear through a palm tree and the bananas—"

"Yeah, yeah," Dash said quickly, waving her to silence. "I'm just glad I'm back to normal and don't have to be a boring princess or anything."

Rainbow Dash regarded me for a moment and then grinned. "Yeah, maybe. Luna is pretty cool, I guess."

I threw up my hooves. "Fine, I'm boring! I guess you won't want to come along on any future adventures, then."

"Hey, now," Dash protested. "Let's not get carried away here! Didja have something in mind?"

"Well…" I thought about all the places in the world I hadn't yet visited, all the peoples I hadn't met. And beyond that, the nearly infinite variety of worlds that were only next door, if a pony knew how to get there. For the first time in a long while, I found myself wearing a smile of unalloyed happiness. "The possibilities are endless," I said.

The Twilight Enigma

by iisaw

25 The Beginning