Alicorn

by Aldea Donder

07. Lessons

ALICORN
by Aldea Donder

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro, Inc.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Lessons

Originally Published 6/14/2015

“Well, lass! It’s been a few days!”

“Yeah, well, it’s been a heck of a week.”

The Caretaker straightened up to observe the familiar blue pony with the rainbow mane as she came trotting down the garden path. She had her wings clamped at her sides, and the look on her face was… troubled.

“Need a hoof?”

She motioned to the bulging burlap sack slung over his shoulder, and to the two dozen more identical bags piled on a wooden wagon off to one side. The axles on the poor little cart bowed under their weight.

He sized her up with a skeptical eye. “I don’t think you’re cut out for it, girlie. I appreciate the offer, but this here’s stallion’s work.”

Her lips twisted into a wry smile, and all of a sudden, he felt the weight of the heavy sack lift from his back. As it hovered in midair, teetering and tottering, a pure white aura sloshed around it—a perfect complement to the light shining from her horn.

The Caretaker smiled. “Well, I’d say you’ve picked up a new skill since last I saw ye!”

“It’s not hard, really,” Rainbow said, though the look of concentration on her face showed it wasn’t exactly effortless either. “Celestia says I need a bunch more practice to get good with it. I dunno, I kind of like it though. Making stuff fly is totally my style.”

“Do I take that to mean you and she are on cordial terms now?”

Rainbow’s control started to peter. “Where’s this go?”

“Over here, in this flower bed,” the Caretaker said. Not about to let her do all the work, he one-upped her by lifting two more bags, draping them over his body. “I forgot to compliment ye on your house, by the way.”

“Yeah, well… it’s a house.”

The sack in Rainbow’s magical grasp shuddered, but managed to stay upright as she carefully manipulated it through the air.

“What’s the heck’s in these things, anyway?”

“Mulch.”

He stopped at the garden plot he’d pointed out to her, bright with the vivid yellow-red of marigolds and roses. Then he flipped one of the loads off his back and tore it open with his mouth.

Rainbow stared. Hesitation crept into her eyes.

Then, with a shrug, she switched off her horn, let her sack of mulch fall to the ground, and ripped into it with her own set of teeth.

“Ack! And you were doing so well!” the Caretaker lamented.

Rainbow spat out a strip of burlap onto the ground, clutching the open bag. She glared. “Even Rarity uses scissors.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you how to snip things open with a wee bit o’ magic yet? Snip! Snip! Save your molars, lass!”

A discouraged look slid across Rainbow’s face. “No. Twilight’s been the one trying to teach me.”

“And what’s the matter with that? I should think there can’t be a better magic teacher in the world than the Prime Element herself. And she is your friend, isn’t she?”

“Twilight is…”

The word hung in the air for a second. Then Rainbow groaned and fell back into the grass, cyan hooves splayed out in all four directions like the arrows on a compass.

“Sounds like it’s been a heck of a week.”

“Yeah. It has been. I said that already.”

“And what of your mother?” the Caretaker asked. He took a break on an overturned bag, reaching up to wipe the sweat from his brow. “Has she given ye any insight?”

“She’s not my mother.”

“Then what is she?”

“She’s…”

The alicorn twirled a hoof in the air, searching for the right words.

“…there. She’s there.”

“Ah. Well, I suppose ‘there’ is a better thing than ‘not there.’”

“I dunno,” Rainbow muttered, rolling onto her side. “I kinda think the ‘not there’ days were simpler.”

The Caretaker dusted off his hooves and smirked. “Well, I’ve a half an hour to spare, and a hardworking helper who’ll make my job twice as easy. Why don’t we sit a spell, you and I, and ye can fill me in on the last couple o’ days? A little talk might un-mince your head.”

Rainbow smiled.

A comfortable breeze rustled through the treetops of the East Garden and lent their conversation a whispering backdrop. High up above, the sun added its warmth to the perfection of the day, shining bright off a familiar dwelling of clouds as it traced its path across the cerulean sky.

---

Three days earlier…

“So, who wants to help me practice magic?”

Tank and Philomena looked up from their poker game as an easygoing Rainbow Dash strutted into the room. They both had the same reaction: a nervous glance across the table, a shared expression of dread. Their wings and claws each clenched the cards a little tighter.

“Come on!” Rainbow said, stopping in front of them. “Which one of you guys is cool enough to help me out, huh? I need a volunteer.”

“Nuh-uh!” Philomena cawed. Tank likewise croaked his refusal.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Oh, for pony’s sake! I just want to try to float you around in the air a little. Unicorns do it all the time! How hard could it possibly be?”

The two animals stared at her skittishly.

With a scowl, she reached over to a nearby fruit bowl and snatched up an apple. Then, placing it down on the table between the three of them, she flashed a cocky grin and lowered her head, aiming her horn at it like a gun. “Look, I totally got this! Just wait. You’ll see. I’ll have this thing cruising around in ten seconds fla—”

BOOM!

The apple blew up into a million, billion pieces.

Philomena screeched in mortal fear and made a mad flap for the open window, kicking up a gust that knocked over half a dozen stacks of poker chips. Tank didn’t have his ’copter on, so he couldn’t escape along with her, but he made up for it by sucking his head and legs into his shell. A couple seconds later, a scaly green paw stuck back out and planted a wooden sign that read, “GONE FISHING. NOBODY HOME.”

Rainbow stood frozen in shock, her face slathered in applesauce. She blinked a few times.

“Well, okay, then. Maybe next time, guys.”

She wobbled and fell over.

---

“Twilight! Twiiiiilight!”

Some hours later, Rainbow drifted through the immaculate halls of the Royal Canterlot Library, past row on row of teeming shelves. She stuck her head down each narrow aisle as she flapped on by, searching for any sign of the brainy unicorn.

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Gyah! How the heck was anypony supposed to find anything in here when the whole freaking place was clogged with all these dumb books?

“Twiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiii—”

“Oh, for the love of—I’m over here!”

She peeked over a procession of dusty tomes and spied her goal sitting at a table on the other side. A look of relief spread across her face.

“Whew! Thank goodness! I thought I was gonna get lost and starve to death in here!” she exclaimed, leaping overtop the shelf.

Twilight shot her a cross look. “There’s a window right there, Dash.”

“Oh my gosh! Daylight! It’s a miracle!” Rainbow cried, falling down on her knees in reverence of the bright, blue sky.

Her antics did nothing to impress the irritated unicorn, who continued to glare at her. “Where have you been all this time? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago!”

“Yeah, well, I got lost,” Rainbow said simply. She jumped in a chair and kicked her hooves up on the table.

“You know, some ponies have the courtesy to show up to their appointments on time.” Twilight scowled and shoved the pair of cyan hindlegs off without ceremony.

“Some ponies didn’t grow up in the Canterlot Archives reading boring, stupid books every day! Sorry for not knowing my way around!”

“These books are not stupid!”

Rainbow folded her arms in front of her chest. “Oh yeah? Well, where’s the Daring Do Wing, huh?”

Twilight stared. “What?”

“Uh, hello? Equestria to Twilight? The Daring Do Wing? The place they put all the Daring Do books? Sheesh, you take a librarian out of the library for one week…”

“There isn’t a—”

“Hey, do you think it’s the room with the ginormous hourglass on top of the pedestal? Because, I mean, come on. That’s totally gotta be a nod to Daring Do and the Time-Tossed Timekeeper.”

Rainbow tilted back in her chair, one leg up on the table again to help keep her balance. A frown passed over her face.

“I didn’t see any Daring Do books in there, though. Just a buncha lame old scrolls about chrome-magic.”

“It’s called chrono-magic,” Twilight corrected. “And you shouldn’t have even been in there! That’s the Starswirl the Bearded Wing. It’s a restricted section. You have to get special permission to peruse it.”

Rainbow nodded. “Is it far from the Daring Do Wing?”

“THERE ISN’T A DARING DO WING!” Twilight shouted.

“…Jeeze. This library sucks.”

Twilight facehoofed.

“But hey, speaking of magic—”

The front legs on Rainbow’s chair clacked against the hickory floor as she tipped back forward. She brightened with eagerness.

“—weren’t you gonna teach me it?”

“That is why we’re here,” Twilight said. “That is why I asked you to be here on time, thirty minutes ago—”

“Oh, come on! Are we gonna get this show on the road or what?”

“Fine.”

Twilight brought a book from out of her saddlebag and placed it neatly on the table in front of them. “You did do the reading I assigned you to do, right?” she asked.

Her eyes snapped back up, as if daring her friend to admit she hadn’t.

“Uh…”

“Rainbow Dash? You did do the reading, didn’t you?”

“…If I said no, would you be really mad at me?”

“RAINBOW!”

“Look, I tried, okay? But it was reallllly boring!” Just to emphasize that fact, she squished her hooves against her cheeks and pulled down her eyelids, exposing the red bits underneath.

Twilight’s teeth grinded in her mouth. “You show up late, you don’t do the reading, you act like this is all just a game to you—”

“Hey! I’m super serious! You wanna see my super serious face?”

Rainbow put on her super serious face.

“Ugh…” Twilight said. “All right. Whatever. Let’s just… take it from the top, I guess. We’ll start with the basics. Here. Move this book.”

The thick, leather-bound tome sat between them atop the table, gilded lettering flashing contemptuously in the light.

Rainbow stared at it. “Er…”

“What are you waiting for?” Twilight said. “Move the book.”

Rainbow hesitated. Then, tentatively, she nudged it with her hoof—

—only for Twilight to swat her on the wrist. She yanked back her arm.

“Ah! Hey!”

“Move it with magic,” Twilight clarified.

Rainbow blinked as she nursed her hoof. “Uh… How… exactly… do I go about doing that, again?”

“You mean you’ve had a horn all these weeks and you still don’t know how to perform basic levitation?” Twilight gaped at her. “I don’t know if I believe that. Even foals are clever enough to figure out telekinesis.”

“Telly-ka-whatsis?”

The unicorn gave a heavy sigh. “You know, if you’d done the reading I assigned, you wouldn’t have to ask all these questio—”

The book flew off the table and smacked Twilight in the face.

“Ow!”

“Okay, Rainbow Dash. First thing’s first. I want you to close your eyes and reach out with your magical energy. See if you can feel out the book in three dimensional space.”

Rainbow sighed and did as she was told.

A few seconds went by. Then…

“What are you doing?” Twilight’s voice cut sharp.

Rainbow cracked open one eye. “Er… What you told me to do?”

“Not like that!” Twilight groaned. “Why are you wiggling your hooves at it? This isn’t some magic show where you wave your arms over the box the magician’s assistant comes out of!”

“You told me to reach out!”

“With your magical energy! Come on! Take this seriously!”

Rainbow banged her head repeatedly against the tabletop. The steady thud-thud-thud set the beat as she chanted her displeasure: “I hate learning stuff. I hate learning stuff. I hate learning stuff.”

Twilight stood in front of a blackboard, which was covered in symbols and scribbles and all manner of chalky gobbledygook. She had her back to Rainbow as she lectured.

“…and so, the pulse originated in the carbuncle flows into the horn via the thaumaturgic pathway, where it’s concentrated, focused, and directed outward to act upon the world. The localized emission of magical flux can be easily measured with the aid of a mana-electron transducer equipped with regularly-patterned arcanium dynodes. Top unicorn scientists have placed the average output of an adult unicorn’s horn in the range of 10.0 to 20.0 picostarswirls, with a standard deviation of… RAINBOW DASH! Are you even listening?!”

Rainbow snapped to attention. Outside, the flying pair of pegasus colts she’d been watching through the window sped off to continue their cloudball game someplace else.

“Huh?”

Twilight seethed. “You know, you would probably gain more from this if you bothered to pay attention!”

“I would probably gain more from this if it weren’t so boring!”

“The underlying theory is essential to know! Now, once more, from the top: the magical pulse doesn’t actually originate in the horn, but in a bodily organ located directly behind the horn, which is known as the…”

Rainbow slammed her head against the table.

“I hate learning stuff.”

“Move this book.”

The same book as before sat on the table, glinting maliciously.

Rainbow crossed her hooves and scoffed at it. “I still don’t even know how I made it fly the last time!”

“The correct term is ‘levitate.’ And you did it before. So do it again.”

“I don’t know how!”

“We’ve been over this, Rainbow Dash! Reach out with your magic. Feel the book, and allow the manifestation of your arcane will to coalesce into mundanality underneath it. If you do it right, it should—”

A completely different book picked that moment to shoot off a nearby shelf and thwack Twilight in the back of the head.

“Ow!”

She jumped up, spinning to try to defend herself. But before she could get up a barrier, a second volume flew at her from the other direction and bashed her again. She staggered, groaning.

“It seems to work all right whenever it involves hitting you,” Rainbow observed helpfully.

Twilight glared at her. “Rainbow Dash, that’s enough—!”

The original book whizzed off the table and popped her in the nose.

Rainbow tipped back in her chair and laughed and laughed. When the book finally let go of Twilight’s face and dropped to the floor a few seconds later, the unicorn had a red rectangular imprint to frame her expression of absolute, unmitigated rage.

“That’s IT! I’m DONE!”

She picked up her things and pushed in her chair.

Rainbow stopped laughing. “Hey, wait, where are you going?”

“I have better things to do than to waste my time catering to somepony who would rather throw things at me than listen to a single word I have to say! If this is how you’re going to act, you can teach yourself magic!”

“But—But I’m not doing it on purpose! I really can’t control it!”

“A likely story!”

Rainbow struggled to keep a straight face. “You have to admit, though, it’s pretty funny.” A snort came out of her, her laughter barely contained—and then she tilted back and cracked up again.

Twilight facehoofed. “ARGH!” she cried.

And she stormed out in a huff.

---

“Professor?”

Sage’s kindly silver eyes raised at the sound of a familiar voice, and his face lit up when he saw Twilight Sparkle leaning in the doorway. For once, her expression wasn’t nervous.

“Come in, Miss Sparkle! Come in!”

Not nervous, but certainly exhausted. Twilight shuffled in wearily, her hooves dragging across the hardwood floor.

She sat down in a chair, frowning as she glanced about. The bedroom was every bit as spartan as it had been the last time she stopped by to visit her old headmaster, with empty desks and vacant bookshelves aplenty. To the sojourning librarian, it almost seemed like a crime.

It didn’t matter.

A sigh parted her lips, and she slumped. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take that drink now, Professor.”

Sage arched an eyebrow. “Is something wrong?”

Twilight watched him rise and saunter over to the brandy decanter on the mantle. He kept his drink close at hoof, if nothing else.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” she mumbled.

Sage glanced at her sidelong as he began pouring into a pair of crystal glasses. “I assume you refer to the young Princess, and to the sacred duty I entrusted you to fulfill in teaching her.”

“She can’t be taught,” Twilight said adamantly. “She’s the worst student in the world. Maybe even the universe.”

“I’m sure she can’t be all that bad.”

“She is! And the strange part is, she keeps telling me she wants to learn magic. When it comes right down to it, though, will she pick up a textbook and read it? No! Will she listen to anything I have to say? No! She has zero patience, zero attention span, and zero regard for knowledge or wisdom. How can I teach wisdom to somepony who doesn’t want to be wise?”

Sage chuckled. “She sounds like quite the formidable student.”

“Oh, please! She’s the least formidable student of magic I’ve ever seen! She couldn’t even levitate a toothpick!”

Twilight knitted her hooves and slouched in defeat. A pout sullied her face as she looked away.

Her wandering eyes chanced upon a little hand mirror, which lay upon a stand next to Sage’s chair. It was the only other thing of note in the entire room, which was why it caught her interest. She vaguely recalled seeing it the last time she came here, though only briefly.

Its wood was an inky shade of blue, carved to look like gnarled roots, interwoven together, winding their way up the handle and around the oval looking glass. They combined at the top, ending in a motif that resembled a black, three-pronged crown.

There was something peculiar about it, and without thinking, Twilight found herself reaching out to touch it. But before she could, Sage’s shadow fell over her. She looked up to see the old headmaster standing above her, holding out a drink.

She accepted it. “Oh. Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Sage smiled and sat back down. A silvery aura rippled around his own glass of brandy as he swirled it at his side.

“Now then, Miss Sparkle. Let’s talk.”

Twilight nodded, grateful to have a friendly ear. In all her years at the Academy, Professor Whitehoof had always been there for her, in all ways, from the paper-and-quill tests to the everyday tests of life and growing up. Always there to raise her spirits, to talk her up when she was feeling down, to give her confidence when she had none in herself.

She opened her mouth to speak. “Rainbow Dash—”

“—is a difficult student, to be sure. Learning doesn’t come as easily to her as it does to you. But there are other ways to teach a pony.”

Twilight ruminated on that. “Well, I guess I could try highlighting… or flashcards… or—”

“The best teachers find a way to connect with their students’ strengths. You’ve known Rainbow Dash for a long time now, Twilight. You’ve known her at her best, and you’ve known her at her worst, and you know for a fact where her strengths lie, better than most anypony else in Equestria. Take me at my word. You are the unicorn for the job.”

“But she won’t listen! No matter how thoroughly I prepare my lectures, she won’t listen to anything I have to say!”

“Well, perhaps you’ve been lecturing her too much lately.”

Sage paused to sip his drink.

He continued, “As far as how… formidable… she is, I think you’ll come to find you’ve vastly underestimated her. Rainbow Dash has a raw magical talent, the likes of which I’ve not witnessed in a long, long time. Not since a certain purple unicorn attended my school, in fact.”

He didn’t mean it to cause offense, but the subtext of his message, and the way that he said it—that quirk of his snowy brow, that cheery twinkle in his eyes—it all sent a rush of annoyance through Twilight. “You aren’t actually comparing her to me, are you?”

“Goodness, no! There’s no comparison.”

She nodded. “Good.”

“Rainbow Dash has far more magical ability than either one of us. Any comparison would be laughably tilted in her direction.”

“What?!”

Twilight jumped up out of her chair.

“I am not worse at magic than Rainbow Dash!”

“Oh, not yet, I’m sure. But I think you’ll find her capacity to be nothing short of extraordinary. With a bit of coaching and a nudge from her friend, she’ll be a powerhouse yet.”

No. No, no, this was not true. This could not be happening.

Rainbow Dash? A powerful mage? The world would blow up. Horrible visions swirled in her mind’s eye: visions of the reckless speedster trying a magic-boosted rainboom and turning all of Equestria into candy-colored slag, or perhaps time traveling into the past, creating a dozen grandfather paradoxes, and carelessly leaving them to compound and compound until the fabric of the universe ripped apart. “It’s just chrome-magic, Twi!”

And just the thought of it—Rainbow Dash, better at magic than her—

“I don’t believe it,” Twilight muttered as she stalked the floor back and forth. “Magic is my special talent!”

“That it is,” Sage intoned solemnly. “But a unicorn is a unicorn, and an alicorn is an alicorn. At the end of the day, we must accept the limitations of our physical forms.”

“I’m the Element of Magic, for pony’s sake!”

“And that makes you the most qualified teacher in the world!”

Twilight’s face turned to ash.

Until this moment, it hadn’t dawned on her just what Princess Celestia and Sage were asking her to do. She’d been so caught up in trying to teach Rainbow Dash parlor tricks, the magnitude of what they actually wanted escaped her. Not just levitation, but magic. Actual magic.

“Listen to me, Twilight,” Sage said, looking at her meaningfully. “Some ponies are destined for great things. That’s the way of the world. And the rest of us… it falls to us to show them the way. Just like it fell to me to show you, when you turned up.”

“But—But Professor—”

“Not everypony can move mountains, Twilight.”

Twilight sucked in her breath. She felt like she’d just been punched in the gut. There it was: the truth laid bare, in black and white. How had she been blind enough not to see it before?

She hid her bitterness and feigned polite conversation for another ten minutes or so. Long enough to give the pretense of being unaffected. Then she excused herself—“Thank you for your help, Professor Whitehoof. I’m sure I’ll get through to Rainbow eventually.”—and she headed quickly out the door, nursing her ego as she slinked down the stairs.

Sage took a long draught of his brandy and watched her go.

---

“Bustle, Bedlam T.,” the top of the file read.

It was a rather thick file. A full dossier of documents and photographs, crammed between two bulging manila flaps. Tristar had read it more than once, front to back, cover to cover. Yet always, his eyes came back to those three little words: “Bustle, Bedlam T.”

Once more, he shuffled through the papers, digesting the minutiae of a privileged life. Two parents, still happily married, both counted among the lower nobility. An affluent upbringing in Baltimare, complete with private tutors and piano lessons. High marks on all aptitude tests, and high praise from all teachers, schoolmates, and neighbors, right down to the little old mare he helped cross the street every morning. Delivered the valedictory speech at his graduation, was all set to embark on a lucrative career in his father’s finance company, and then…

Gone. Disappeared. Fell right off the map.

But up until that strange event, there was certainly nothing in his past to suggest he might go astray. It didn’t make any sense. This kid should’ve been a model citizen, not a criminal.

“They’re ready for you, sir.”

Tristar glanced up from the file and gave the detention officer a polite nod. “Thank you. I’ll see him now, then,” he said, and he stepped back and watched as the uniformed filly heaved back the lever next to the massive, metal door. It screeched open, and he strode on in.

“Good afternoon, Mister Bustle!”

There was no reaction from the chocolate-coated stallion seated in the center of the room. Not a dart of his eyes, nor a twitch of his hooves, which rested before him on top of the interrogation table, connected by a pair of white manacles. Not a trace of a flinch when the prison door clanged shut, and Tristar walked out in front of him.

“I’m happy to see you’re looking so healthy!” Tristar said. “I was afraid jail wouldn’t agree with you, but you’ve proven me wrong!”

Bedlam stared straight ahead and didn’t say anything, turquoise eyes glued to the concrete wall.

Tristar circled around him, a predator toying with its prey. “You wear that jumpsuit well! That’s good! I was afraid you’d lose your weight and it would slide right off you—but no, you seem to be thriving! And goodness me, just look at the color in those cheeks!”

He reached out and gave the prisoner’s face a forceful pat.

That got a reaction. Bedlam twisted in his chair and tried to jerk away. He met Tristar with a malicious stare.

“Touch me again.”

His voice was quiet, but intense: calm and storm both rolled together, one and the same. And they carried more than a hint of a threat.

Tristar just smiled cheerfully and circled back around. He pulled out a chair on the other side of the table and sat down, leafing idly through the manila file.

“Bedlam T. Bustle. Age, twenty-seven. Born A.D. 979 to Prosperity and Starlight Bustle. One sibling, Crescent, age twenty-two…”

“You’re looking healthy as well,” Bedlam spoke in a low register. “Far healthier than you looked a week ago, when I left you bloody, broken, and whimpering on the floor, surrounded by the screams of your—”

“What’s the ‘T’ stand for?” Tristar interrupted.

“…Come again?”

“The ‘T’ in ‘Bedlam T. Bustle.’ What’s it stand for?”

Bedlam’s lips curled into a crooked smile. “It stands for Triumph.”

“Not a good name, if I’m honest. Matter of fact, in light of where you’re sitting right now, I’d venture to say it doesn’t suit you.”

Bedlam scowled and fell silent.

“Then again, when Mama Bustle named you, I don’t suppose she ever imagined her only son would throw away his life for a fanatic’s dream. It’s done a real number on her health, you know—having to live with knowing her baby boy is public enemy number one, cuffed and chained and left to rot behind bars for the rest of his life—”

Tristar paged through the file again.

“Huh. It says here the ‘T’ stands for ‘Thomas,’ actually. Why’d you have to go and tell lies to me, Tom? Now I don’t know whether or not I can trust you to be honest with me.”

“We both know that never would’ve happened, anyway,” Bedlam said with sourness in his voice.

Tristar flipped the file closed and tossed it on the table. He leaned back in his chair, hooves crossed as he studied the caged Ascendant.

Bedlam opened his mouth to say something. “I—”

“Shh,” Tristar stopped him.

He made a show of sniffing the air, inhaling it in noisy whiffs.

“Do you smell that?”

Bedlam frowned. “I don’t smell anythi—”

“That’s the smell of, ‘I’m sorry, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I’m sorry for breaking your train station and hurting your subjects. It was very wrong of me to do those things, and I promise to make up for it by telling you everything there is to know about the Ascendancy, because I know you’ll have mercy on me if I do.’”

“And what will you do if I say nothing?” Bedlam mustered a smirk. “Put me in time out? Teach me a nice little lesson about the virtues of harmony and friendship?”

“Tell me, Tommy. Have you ever heard of the prisoner’s dilemma?”

The smirk fell away. “My name is Bedlam.”

“The prisoner’s dilemma is this: you’re the prisoner, and you’re stuck here in prison. And I alone hold the key that can set you free.”

At this, Tristar plucked the key ring from his belt, jangled it, and threw it down on the table. He leaned forward in his chair and met Bedlam’s gaze with the utmost seriousness.

“But if you don’t wise up and tell me exactly what I need to know before one of your co-conspirators does, then I swear to you, I will put you in the coldest, darkest, loneliest hole, and there shall you stay for the rest of your pathetic life, until all memory of warmth and companionship retreats from your mind, and you either kill yourself or go insane!”

“Is that really the best you can do?” Bedlam’s undaunted voice crackled over the intercom.

In the adjoining observation room, a pair of alicorns watched intently, eyes fixed on the interrogation playing out beyond the enchanted one-way mirror. Celestia and Luna stood side by side, whispering in the darkness.

“He’s a charming one, isn’t he?” Luna muttered.

Celestia snorted. “Yes. A real winning personality.”

A minute passed, and the drama on the other side of the glass played out all too predictably, with Tristar getting nowhere in his questioning and Bedlam refusing to budge from his stubborn zeal. A creeping despondency settled over Luna as she watched him from afar. That righteous conviction, that self-certain air…

The horrors he’d wrought were beyond grotesque, and a small fraction of her couldn’t help but wonder how anypony could be capable of such an act. But on another level, this all hit far too close to home for her.

“Do you suppose he’ll give anything up?" she asked.

A shrug rolled off her sister’s shoulders. “Perhaps. Time will tell.”

“And they’re certain his actions were his own? He wasn’t… compelled to commit this crime by any outside force?” Luna furtively shifted her gaze, peering up at Celestia out of the corner of her eye.

“None of them were. Sage brought in a team of arcanists to check that possibility first thing. He reported no evidence of mind control, no planted suggestions. They did what they did of their own free will.”

The interrogation continued:

“How many innocents did we manage to fell, anyway? They won’t let me have a copy of the newspaper to check for myself—too afraid I’ll cut out the pictures and hang ’em on the walls, ha! But in all seriousness, how many did we manage to bring down? Seventy? Eighty?”

“Who gave you the order to attack that train station?”

“Ninety? Am I hot or cold?”

“WHO GAVE THE ORDER?”

“A hundred? A hundred little ponies all laid out on the floor, while your precious Celestia scrambled to do the work of two?”

Luna flinched.

Celestia furiously made the throat slash gesture with her hoof, and the sound from the other room cut off. Her face burned with anger—anger at the imbecilic comment, anger at the imbecile who’d said it. But her molten rage cooled and honed to pain when she looked at Luna.

Her younger sister’s head was turned down and away. She looked like she’d just been slapped. Celestia thought she saw a glimmer of tears, and when Luna spoke, her voice was thick with guilt.

“He’s right. I should have been there. I let everypony down.”

“Luna…”

“It’s the same as ever, isn’t it?” the smaller alicorn mumbled. “My fault. It’s always because of me that ponies get hurt.”

“Luna, no! That’s—”

“—the truth! If I hadn’t been so pathetic, I could’ve done something to stop them straight away! Instead, you had to spend precious minutes just trying to keep everypony alive, and you didn’t have anypony to take your place on the battlefield. And all of those ponies ended up getting hurt… all those guards…

“And it’s my fault,” Luna said in a quiet voice. “It’s my fault in the first place. If I hadn’t been so weak, nopony would’ve been hurt. And… And if I hadn’t been so weak a thousand years ago, then none of this would’ve ever even happened—”

“This isn’t about you!” Celestia said hotly. “This was never about you! You were a victim in all this, as much as anypony! As much as Hurricane, as much as Father—”

“I really wish I could believe that, Tia.”

The Princess of the Moon flicked her hoof, and the air filled again with the tinny sounds of conversation played over-intercom.

“—only be a matter of time before your whole wretched outfit is brought down from within,” they caught the end of Tristar’s sentence. “All it takes is one viper to turn on the rest—”

“You’ll pardon me if I don’t take advice on snakes from the chief serpent himself. You speak with a forked tongue, Captain.”

“Idiot!” Tristar’s hoof slammed against the tabletop. “Have it your way! There are twelve other hooligans in this cellblock who’ll be happy to loosen their lips for a deal. I’ve wasted enough of my time trying to help you salvage the wreckage of your miserable life.”

Bedlam’s thin, gray lips twisted into a caricature of a smile. “You talk of having honesty and integrity, yet you don’t have either one. Even now, you’re lying through your teeth. My brethren won’t take your deal. They won’t even say a word to you, will they? That’s the reason why you’ve ‘wasted so much time’ trying to convince me to accept your ‘gracious’ offer. Because I’m your only lead. Because they’re all voiceless and powerless to say anything, and I alone am entrusted to speak in the name of the Goddess.”

“He’s astute,” Celestia muttered.

Tristar spent a good, long while just sitting and staring across the table at his gaunt nemesis. He sucked in his lips as a frown lowered his face, and he reached for the file again and began flipping through it.

“Tell me about this Goddess of yours,” he tried a different tactic. “I didn’t see her show up to the party you boys threw her last week.”

“No. She wouldn’t have.”

“Why’s that? She afraid of public appearances?”

“The Nightmare fears nothing. She sees and knows all. And one day soon, she’ll open up her wings and blot out the sun, and the moon, and the sky, and the peace that’s run unchecked these past thousand years will be driven into the darkest crevices of memory.”

“The Nightmare,” Luna observed. “Not Nightmare Moon.”

“The press always gets it wrong,” Celestia said dryly.

Luna turned an anxious eye toward her sister. “Does Twilight—?”

“No. She doesn’t,” Celestia sighed. “Under the circumstances, I’m glad Sage invited her to stay at the castle. If the Ascendancy knew…”

“Who’s to say they don’t?”

Hesitation reigned. “I’d like to think our state secrets are impregnable to them. But you’re right. They’ve been in the driver’s seat for the last two years. They very well may.”

Tristar’s voice crackled: “And does this Nightmare of yours plan to turn her back on you now that you’ve done your part for her cause? I don’t exactly foresee her storming the gates to set you free.”

Several seconds went by, and the prisoner was silent.

Tristar tried one more time. “It must be a real slap in the face—to have so much power and ability at your beck and call, only to wind up here, of all places. You know, I read your record. You were a real talent at spellcasting. A prodigy, even. You sure as hell knew one end of your horn from the other when you went up against me the other day. And now, here you are. Cut off from your magic for the rest of your life.”

He paused to let his words sink in.

“What’s it like, being surrounded by all these dampening fields? Is it like going blind?” Tristar tilted his head. He put on a look of mock pity. “What a shame. What a shame you chose the path you did—and what a shame your precious Nightmare has abandoned you here to rot.”

“What’s it like to fall to your death?” Bedlam spoke up.

Tristar skipped a beat.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I mean, you’re a pegasus. Your kind takes to the sky like a fish to water. I’ve just always been so curious—do you ever entertain the fear of falling and killing yourself?

“Just hypothetically—let’s say it’s a week ago, and you and your dogs are back downtown, lined up on top of that skyscraper again, waiting for the call to come in. You get word of the attack, you jump off the side of the building, you open your wings to catch the air—and right then, a draconequus decides to snap his fingers, and your wings disappear. Poof.

“Is that, like, a secret terror for you pegasi? Falling?” Bedlam wondered, blithely indifferent to the rising rage in Tristar’s eyes. “The howl of the wind as you twist in midair, desperate to save yourself, to brake your descent… the sickening crunch when it proves useless, and every single one of your bones shatters against the pavement…”

He whistled the cartoon sound effect of a freefalling object and mimed the same with his foreleg, a hoof slowly plummeting from above his head to crash against the tabletop.

“Say, what color do you think your puddle would be if you were splattered all across the street? Red to match your blood, or white to match your coat? A mixture of the two? More red than white?” Tristar was fuming by now, but Bedlam carried on jovially. “You got a wife? A daughter? A couple colts back in Canterlot, waiting for their daddy to come home? What color do you think their puddles would be if somepony tied them up and dropped them from a thousand feet? Do you think their guts would fly far?”

“ENOUGH!”

Celestia silenced the audio with another slash of her hoof, and a black fog rolled over the window as she caused it to go opaque, blocking all view of the interrogation. Then, with a look of disgust threatening to boil over, she mashed a gray button on the intercom and opened up a channel to the detention officer outside.

“Get my guard captain out of there! We’re done here!”

“Yes, Princess Celestia.”

She let up on the button and counted to ten. A deep breath shuddered out of her as she fought to contain her anger.

“This was a waste of time.”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” said Luna.

“I should’ve deferred to the police commissioner’s report—” Celestia’s hoof shook as she rubbed her brow. “It would’ve saved a lot of time—“

“You’re exhausted, Tia.”

She frowned and shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” Luna said, gazing up at her, her face etched with concern. “When was the last time you slept?”

Celestia squeezed her eyes shut. “What day is it?”

“Monday,” the younger alicorn answered with a note of worry.

“It hasn’t been that long, then. I’m not even up to a week yet.” Celestia carried on without pause, “We should contact Sage and see if he’s managed to scry anything new. And we ought to tap our informants in Manehattan, while we’re at it—we’re here in town, after all—”

“Tia, you need to stop.” Luna laid a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself. You need to take a break.”

“My subjects’ lives—!”

“—are safe, for the time being,” Luna said. “Let me continue to oversee things. It’s the least I can do to make up for my absence last week.”

“But—”

“You need to take a sleeping car on the midnight train back to Canterlot. I know you’re furious, and you want to see the Ascendancy brought down. But there are more important things in your life right now.”

“No.” Celestia shook her head. “I’ll stay here with you. I need—”

“You can’t keep avoiding her, Tia!”

She winced.

“I hear the words that come out of your mouth, even if you don’t,” Luna continued, the heat in her voice tempered with compassion. “You need to see to her, and you know it! Your mind’s divided—I listen to the things you say, and half the time, the thought of her creeps in. Your heart is sick with so much guilt—”

“And yours isn’t?” Celestia fired back.

“At least I only pull my guilt from one pot! At least I can sleep, and sleep soundly! Why do I even have to explain this to you when it’s clearly eating you up inside? Tia, you’re dallying here for a nebulous purpose while your daughter languishes halfway across the country!”

“You’re right.”

Luna had her mouth open, her next sentence already teetering on the tip of her tongue when her sister suddenly surrendered the argument. She stopped herself before she said anything more.

Celestia paused for an interval, then sat down unceremoniously on the ground. Her tail swished the floor like an ethereal broom.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said quietly. “This, I know. I know how to lead a country, how to be a champion for my people. But where Aurora is concerned… Luna, I’m lost. I’ve tried to make overtures, but every time, I grasp for words, I say the wrong thing, she doesn’t want to listen, I only drive her further away…”

Luna sat down at her sister’s side. Their cutie marks brushed against each other, the sun and the moon brought together in the darkness shared between them.

“What do you want, Tia?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“If she decided never to speak another word to you, she would be fully within her rights. She doesn’t owe you anything. Not love, not forgiveness, not understanding. So what is it you want from her?”

Celestia absently rubbed one forehoof against the other, presumably for comfort. Luna’s blunt assessment was a vise to the spirit, squeezing all the vigor and vitality out of her.

“Forgiveness,” she finally said. “And understanding.”

“I see. None of the first thing, then?”

“I’ve got you for that.” Celestia’s eyes rose to meet Luna’s, and she put on a mirthless smile. “Besides, I’m not foolish enough to expect to receive it—nor pretentious enough to think I deserve it.”

“You asked me to send a chariot for her and keep her safe in the castle under heavy guard. Then, the first time she flashed her ire at you for taking away her freedom, you countermanded me, gave her a pet, a pat, and free reign. I’m still not sure it was wise.”

“I—”

“You claim you want forgiveness and understanding, but you’d rather stay here chasing ghosts than go home and be near her. You’d rather hide in the dark, five hundred miles away.” Luna shook her head. “You need to stop vacillating. You can’t have it both ways.”

Celestia’s shoulders hunched. “It’s not that simple. If I were three feet from her, we would still be ten million miles apart.”

“Maybe so.”

The midnight alicorn climbed to her hooves.

“But you gave her free reign, and license ‘to go and do as she pleases.’ She could have left Canterlot a thousand times by now, gone back home to Ponyville to try and put the pieces of her life back together. And yet, Sage tells me she’s still at the castle. Almost like she’s waiting for something—or somepony.”

Luna extended a hoof.

Celestia took it, rising shakily off the floor. A few beats passed between them, and they shared a commiserating look. Then Luna threw her arms around her sister and hugged her tightly.

“I’ll debrief Captain Tristar,” she said as their horns touched together. “I’ll conference with Sage and the rest of our contacts. Trust me to do what needs to be done to keep our subjects safe. As for you—”

They parted, and Luna’s expression turned back to concern.

“Go back to the hotel, Tia. Figure out what you want to do. Stay or go—whatever you decide, I’ll support you. But please, please, please, for pony’s sake, get some sleep.”

Celestia closed her eyes. “Thank you, sister.”

Luna held open the door, and they walked out together into the light.

---

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!”

Twilight Sparkle scampered as fast as she could through the tapestried halls of Canterlot Castle, swerving around corners and weaving through the legs of more than one guard patrol. With an enormous grin on her face, she blew through the white double doors of Princess Celestia’s private study, too excited to even think about knocking.

Her teacher looked up from her desk in surprise. “Twilight!”

“Princess!” Twilight squealed. “I can’t wait to show you! I—”

“Ahem!” somepony cleared their throat.

The eager filly skidded to a halt on the champagne carpet, her jubilance quelling at the unexpected presence of a third pony in the room. The military unicorn stood rigidly opposite the desk from Princess Celestia, sniffing down at her through his bulging salt-and-pepper mustache. The stodginess of his slate gray coat was accentuated by the formal blue service uniform he had on, adorned with full medals and regalia.

“I’m sorry, my student,” Princess Celestia said. “You’ve caught me in the middle of something.”

Twilight’s ears splayed. “Oh. I’m… I’m sorry, Princess.”

With her head bowed self-consciously and her tail tucked in-between her legs, she began to trot out. She felt her mentor’s eyes on her as she went. By the time she was halfway to the door, the military unicorn had picked up the conversation again.

“As I was saying, Your Highness, we’ve tracked the Diamond Dogs to the foothills outside Bridle Shores. My lieutenant talked to the foremare of Lord Brilliant’s mining operation, and she reported the disappearance of thirteen sapphires, five rubies, three emeralds—”

“Thank you, Colonel Steelspur, but I’m afraid something’s just come up,” Celestia said, glancing at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. “I think we’ll postpone the rest of this discussion until tomorrow.”

Twilight stopped and looked back hopefully.

The Colonel frowned. “But Princess, Lord Brilliant will be expecting—”

“You’ll forgive me if I can’t bring myself to care too terribly much about Lord Brilliant’s missing jewels. Goodness knows, he probably hasn’t seen the two that are attached to him in the last twenty years. I think he can afford to be without these ones for a few hours longer.”

“But—But Princess!”

“Not now, Colonel. We’ll talk later,” Celestia said formally.

The sputtering old unicorn looked back and forth between the Princess and her student. At first, it appeared he was about to argue further, but then he wisely accepted defeat and shuffled out, grumbling.

The second the door closed behind him, Twilight raced across the room and threw herself into Celestia’s open hooves.

“Oh my gosh, THANK YOU!” Twilight said as she burrowed her head into the crook of Celestia’s neck.

“It’s all right, my student!” Celestia laughed, giving the overjoyed filly a squeeze before swinging her back to the floor. “Now, what is it that’s got you so worked up this evening?”

“I was deciphering some ancient scrolls in the library today after school, and I came across some of the unpublished work of Marvel the Magnificent! I cross-referenced the incantum incantatem with some historical texts, and I actually think I solved his Seventh Spell. Look!”

Her horn wrapped in its usual scarlet glow, and very quickly, it was the brightest thing in the whole room. The candles dimmed, the shadows leaping forth to take their place, and even the orange rays of sunset filtering through the panoramic window were suddenly snuffed. The air itself seemed charged with mystery.

Then, from out of the incandescent end of Twilight’s horn, a million tiny pinpoints of light took wing, floating gracefully all around, dancing in the air like snowflakes. Wonder and astonishment reigned on Celestia’s face as she watched them drift and fill the room, a galaxy of delicate stars spiraling all about them.

“This magic hasn’t been seen in over seven hundred years,” she gasped. A hoof darted to her mouth to cover her surprise.

Twilight beamed. “I know! I pieced the whole spell back together myself from what I could find in the library!”

Celestia reached out experimentally and touched one of the glimmering motes. It reacted immediately, doubling in size and yellowing to a beautiful, golden hue. A thousand other specks of light blew out of the way like dust in the wind to reveal its twin: a second golden mote, suspended in the air some ten feet away. The two tiny orbs flew together and began orbiting each other, a miniature binary system.

“It does that whenever you perturb one of them,” Twilight attempted to explain. “I think it’s quantum entanglement, but I’m not sure.”

The millennium-old alicorn princess found herself at a loss for words, so enchanted was she by this breathtaking ballet of stars. Eventually, though, she broke away her gaze and smiled down at her student.

“Twilight Sparkle, you’re incredible!” Celestia said, and there was pride radiating from her eyes as she scooped the purple filly back up again.

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Really?”

“Really,” Celestia affirmed. Their noses bumped as she lifted the ecstatic unicorn up and over her head. “You have an amazing future ahead of you, my student. If you remain this diligent, I have every confidence you’ll grow up to be one of the strongest, smartest, most talented spellcasters Equestria has ever seen.”

Twilight’s mouth dropped at the compliment. “R-Really?!”

Celestia smiled at her lovingly. “Really. There’s no limit to what you can do. You’ll move mountains, Twilight.”

She planted the filly on her shoulders, piggyback. Long into the evening, the two of them sat together, enjoying each other’s company and watching the universe unfold.

---

“TWILIGHT! TWILIIIIIIIIII—”

CRASH!

Twilight sat bolt upright in bed, her heart flying as her eyes blinked to pierce the dark of dusk. From off in one corner of the guest bedroom, there came a pained, scratchy groan, and the metallic clink of… pots?

She sighed and rubbed her brow, already anticipating the cause of the commotion. “Lights!” she snapped, and they came on.

Rainbow Dash lay upside-down in a pile of cookware and crockery, a frying pan topping her head like a backwards baseball cap. Twilight rolled her eyes. Another fabulous three-point landing from Equestria’s so-called best young flyer.

The cyan pony gave a moan.

“Ow… That kind of really hurt.”

She rolled off the pile and staggered woozily to her hooves. It took her a second to notice the purple unicorn glaring at her from under the covers of the bed.

“Oh. Hi, Twilight,” Rainbow said, still in a daze.

Then her brain got back to firing on all cylinders, and she flipped into the air with an enormous grin. Her wings flapped double-time in a rush of excitement.

“TWILIGHT! Twilight, I can’t wait to show you—”

“Seriously, Rainbow?” Twilight snarked.

Rainbow stopped. “Seriously what?”

“I was asleep! Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“Nine thirty. Look, Twilight—”

“Your bedroom is literally right down the hall from my tower! Literally right down the hall! How the heck do you crash when you’re only flying a couple dozen feet from window to window?”

“I was in a hurry! Look—”

“Why would you even fly to begin with? Is there something the matter with knocking?”

“I’ll do it next time! I just—”

“Where did all this stuff come from, anyway?” She plucked the pan off of Rainbow’s head with her magic, staring at it in disbelief. “This bedroom doesn’t have a kitchenette! Where did you get these pots? How could you possibly have landed in all of these pots?!”

“I think there’s, like, some kind of unwritten cosmic law that says I’ve gotta make the noisiest possible entrance anytime I crash into your place. It’s either that, or magnetism. I’m not sure which.”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. But she brightened a second later.

“Oh! But the reason I came over here—Twilight, I figured it out!”

She touched down on the floor, beaming with pride.

Twilight stared at her.

“You figured what out?”

Rainbow’s smile drooped. “The telekinesis thingy. I was working on it all night long, and I finally got it to move a little bit. Here, look!”

She fished around in the pile of cookery and came up with a shiny, red apple. Flapping over to the bedside, she set it on the nightstand right next to the ill-tempered unicorn.

“Watch!”

Twilight’s annoyance came out in an exasperated sigh, but she played along as Rainbow stared straight at the apple, face set with a no-nonsense seriousness that was… uncharacteristic of her. To her surprise, it gave the faintest twitch, and she actually thought she could make out a wisp of an aura around her friend’s sky-blue horn.

Her eyebrow raised. She leaned forward, intrigued—

—and the apple promptly blew up in her face.

It exploded in a loud BOOM!, showering the room with its wet, yellow guts. The soggy remains of the fruit splattered everywhere: onto the bed, onto the walls, and onto Twilight herself as she sat frozen in place, silently raging, a vein popping out of her forehead as the runny bits dribbled down her cheeks.

Somehow—Twilight made note of this, furiously—the sweet-scented shrapnel had totally missed Rainbow Dash. Her friend chewed on her lip, looking sheepish. “Uh… It wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“Really.”

Rainbow scratched her head. “Well, on the upside, I think I’ve come up with a new way to piss off Applejack…”

“You are THE WORST at magic!” Twilight erupted.

“But—” Rainbow stammered. “But I just wanted to show you—”

“How? HOW can it be you? How could it possibly be YOU, out of all the ponies in the ENTIRE WORLD?”

Rainbow opened her mouth, but she couldn’t think of a single thing to say in her defense. As her failure crashed over her, she stared down at the floor, shoulders slumped.

Twilight’s magic spun her around and scooted her away.

“Just… Go!” the unicorn barked.

She rolled over in bed, her back to the discouraged alicorn, and waved off the light.

A long period of silence followed. Then…

“All right, Twi… See you tomorrow.”

A dejected Rainbow Dash trotted out. Through the door this time, not the window. She trotted out with her head bowed self-consciously, and her tail in-between her legs.

Twilight closed her eyes and buried her head underneath the pillows. She didn’t get to sleep for a long time.

---

Two days later, they met for magic lessons again.

They met again in the same place as before. Back in the Royal Canterlot Library, at the same musty desk, as daylight flooded in through the same window. Although this time, Twilight had taken the sensible precaution of casting a dampening field over all the nearby shelves. There wouldn’t be any books using her for target practice today, no siree!

Rainbow watched with curiosity as the unicorn tore open her bag and yanked something out of it, plonking it down on the table in front of them. It hit the wood with a heavy-sounding thunk.

“Open this,” Twilight said.

Rainbow leaned down to squint at the thing at eye-level.

It was a can.

A cylindrical, metal can.

Which put it just barely off the family tree from her other arch-nemesis, the jar of peanut butter with the sticky lid.

Actually, the can was probably even more evil than the peanut butter, because it didn’t even have a lid. It was solid metal on all three sides. How the buck did Twilight expect her to…?

“Uh… I don’t have a can opener,” she pointed out.

Twilight glared. “You shouldn’t need a can opener. Any half-competent unicorn can use her magic to cut open a simple can.”

“Yeah, but I’m not half-competent,” Rainbow muttered. She grimaced and rubbed the back of her head.

Once more, she leaned in close and examined the can. It was wrapped in a shiny, colorful label, and on it were… beans. Loads and loads of brown, baked beans. And a grinning green dragon in a chef’s hat holding a spatula, with a plume of flames spewing out of his mouth and a speech bubble that said, “Fire up the grill!”

“That doesn’t even make sense! You don’t grill beans! They’d fall right through the little gap thingies down into the coals!” she lamented.

Twilight looked confused. “Huh?”

“Ugh. Have you seen how much sodium’s in this stuff?” Rainbow made a face as she continued to eye up the label. “I’m not a hundred percent clear on how all this milligrammy science junk works, but I’m pretty sure this is enough to kill a pony.”

“RAINBOW DASH! The point of this exercise is for you to OPEN the can, not evaluate its nutrition content!”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how!” Rainbow gave Twilight an earnest look. “I can’t even levitate a can! How am I supposed to use magic to get one of them open?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, as if she’d just asked the stupidest question in the world. “Project your magic to a locus on the flat top of the can. Allow it to corporealize in the aspect of a sharp-edged cutting tool, and carve open the top.”

“Yeah, except I don’t know how! Am I the only one of the two of us who knows how to speak Equestrian?”

“Obviously not if you can’t follow a simple set of instructions!”

Rainbow shook her head. “Seriously, Twilight! I feel like you’re asking me to do the impossible here!”

“Why’s that?” Twilight said. “For an alicorn like you, it should be easy.”

Ordinarily, a barb like that might have slipped past Rainbow Dash. But there was an obvious insult skewered on the sharpness of Twilight’s tone. A nastiness that couldn’t be missed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

“It means you should stop wasting time and open the can already!”

Rainbow growled.

Fine. She’d give it the old college try.

She stared at the can. She stared at it really, really hard for a super long time, concentrating as much as she could on shifting the arcane essence of her thaumy-turdy pathways into resonance flux with her dynodes, and all the other junk Twilight had yammered on about.

It just sat there.

It sat there, and it didn’t move.

Rainbow scowled.

“This can is mocking me. It’s full of evil,” she muttered.

“Actually, it’s full of beans.”

“YOU’RE full of beans! How the hay do you expect me to—”

“Good afternoon!”

Their heads shot up.

Standing there in the archway, looking in at them, was none other than Princess Celestia.

Twilight was up and bowing in an instant. “Princess!” she exclaimed.

Rainbow, in contrast, didn’t budge from her seat. “Finally remembered I was here, huh?” she snorted, kicking up her legs.

Twilight shot her a dirty look.

The smile quivered on Celestia’s face, but a moment later, it found its foothold again. She pulled out a chair for herself and sat down at the table, and Twilight did the same.

“I just thought I’d drop by and see what you two were up to!”

“Magic lessons,” Twilight said.

“Oh, wonderful! I’m glad I made it, then!” Celestia clapped her hooves together enthusiastically. “You know, I’m actually a little surprised to find you both here. I thought for certain you would’ve preferred to set up shop in the Daring Do Wing.”

Rainbow stared at Twilight in disbelief. “SEE?”

“Tell me, how is everything going? I’d love to know what Twilight has taught you about magic so far. What are you working on today, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh…” Twilight said. She glanced at the can. “We were just…”

“She wants me to create some kind of magic doohickey out of thin air to jackknife this stupid thing open, even though I don’t have any idea how,” Rainbow said flatly.

Twilight winced. She felt her teacher’s attention settle on her.

“Isn’t this a little… advanced… for a novice magic user, Twilight?”

Her ears tucked, and a blush heated her cheeks. One thing was certain: she felt a lot less self-assured about this whole exercise with the Princess for an audience.

“I… I wouldn’t have given Rainbow a challenge like this if I didn’t have complete confidence in her ability to do it,” she justified herself.

Rainbow only scowled.

“Very well,” Celestia said with a nod. “Please, proceed.”

Twilight grimaced and looked back at her pupil, silently urging her to succeed, now, in getting the can open—if for no other reason than to save face in front of the Princess.

“Okay, Rainbow…” she said uneasily. “The first thing you need to do is concentrate on transmitting your arcane essence. Do you remember when I showed you how to do that?”

Rainbow crossed her hooves. “No.”

“But… But we just went over it the other day!” Twilight’s voice chiseled with a frantic edge. “I spent a whole hour sketching out the fundamentals for you on the chalkboard!”

“I don’t know how to do it, Twi.”

Half a minute went by—

“Your willpower is the impetus for all of your magic, Rainbow! You’ve got to really focus on channeling it!”

“Oh,” Rainbow quipped, her words dripping with sarcasm. “Was that in the reading, too?”

And then a full minute—

“You need to use your horn!”

“I’m TRYING to use my horn!”

And the whole time, Celestia watched and listened to them bicker with apprehension growing in her stomach. Until finally, when it became clear the task was beyond Rainbow’s ability to complete, she resolved to put an end to it.

A hush fell over the squabbling pair when the Princess leaned forward and picked the can up off the table. She raised it in the air and looked at it appreciatingly. Then, in a single fluid motion, she pulled back her hoof and smashed it against her head!

Twilight’s jaw hit the floor along with Rainbow’s. The poor metal can hung there, rest its soul—impaled on Celestia’s sharp horn like meat on a shish kabob. As for Celestia, she just sat and smiled as the beans oozed out and dribbled down her face.

“I got it open!”

“P-Princess…” Twilight stuttered.

Beside her, Rainbow guffawed. “HAHAHAHA! Now THAT’S what I call using your horn!”

“But—But—”

Celestia plucked the can off her noggin and cleaned herself up as best she could with the back of her forehoof and a low-level cleansing spell. Her eyes turned then to Rainbow.

“Rainbow Dash, I’d like to talk to you. Would you mind taking a break and walking with me?”

“Sure. Why not? Anyplace else would be better than here!”

With a toss of her mane and a parting glare for the unicorn at the table, she jumped down and trotted out the arched door. Celestia got up as well and followed her, leaving Twilight sitting by herself.

She sputtered. “But—But Princess!”

“Not now, Twilight. We’ll talk later,” Celestia said formally.

She turned and left with Rainbow, and Twilight was all alone.

---

They headed east, side by side, down a beautiful snow-white hallway, walking in and out of the regular squares of light that flooded through the diamond patterns on the windows. Rainbow Dash kept to the ground, for a change, while Celestia carried herself cautiously, maintaining a two foot minimum distance at all times. And for a while, neither one of them spoke, and the only noise was the squish of their hooves plodding along the long, pearl-colored carpet.

It was awkward. It was awkward, and uncomfortable, and strange. And judging by the anxious look on Rainbow’s face, it wasn’t any more pleasant for her.

Celestia sucked in a breath. She needed to say something.

“Look—” she said.

“Look—” Rainbow said at the same time.

They both drew to a stop in a play of bright daylight. Outside, through the window, a pair of earth pony guards patrolled the palace grounds, and the world spun on. But in here, between the two of them, time dragged to a standstill.

“You go first,” Celestia said.

“I—I just—” Rainbow started.

The words caught in her throat, but she managed to get them out.

“I just wanted to say… that was a really cool thing you did for Rarity’s little sister and all those other ponies in Manehattan.”

Celestia was taken aback. “Thank you."

“Like… really, really cool. I guess I didn’t realize…”

She paused, appearing to wrestle with herself in some sort of internal debate. But then she made up her mind and shook her head. “It’s nothing. Never mind. You go.”

Celestia nodded. “I…”

She hesitated.

“I… wanted to apologize.”

Rainbow didn’t say anything, but she turned up her rose-colored gaze to look at her. Waiting, expectantly.

“Nothing that’s happened over the span of the last month has been fair to you. It isn’t right, what you’ve had to go through. And what you’ve had to go through is entirely my fault.

“It isn’t right that you’ve been made to feel like a prisoner here. It isn’t right that you’ve been kept away from everything and everypony you hold familiar. It isn’t right that you spent your first week in Canterlot tied to the ground, forbidden to spread your wings and fly. And…

“And it isn’t right that I’ve been… absent… this whole time, either.”

Still, Rainbow said nothing.

Celestia bowed her head in remorse, unable to bring herself to look at the rainbow-maned filly. She knew this was probably a mistake. She knew retreading these injustices was tantamount to priming Rainbow Dash to go off again, and any moment now, it would all blow up in her face when she lashed out with even more well-deserved anger. The chasm between them would only grow wider.

But she felt she needed to say these things, and Rainbow Dash needed to hear them.

“It… wasn’t right of me to have you brought here, only to keep you at a hoof’s length. I won’t pretend circumstances didn’t conspire to create their own complications, but… I’m equally to blame. I thought it would be easier for both of us if I stayed away for a while. I’m sorry. I’m sorry if it feels like I’ve sidelined you. I’m…”

She clamped down on her tongue. ‘I’m sorry’ was a pair of words that had spilled out of her mouth quite a lot recently, and they always seemed to do more harm than good.

A few seconds ticked by, and Celestia steeled herself for the inevitable retaliation that was sure to follow. But then, to her surprise—

“Eh. Whatever. Don’t worry about it,” Rainbow said.

After a thousand years of rule, there wasn’t a heck of a lot that could’ve stumped the age-old Princess of the Sun. But that certainly did.

“Don’t worry about it,” she echoed incredulously.

“Look. You were dumb. I get that. But you were also really, really cool, like I said before. And you’ve had a lot on your hooves lately. I get that too. Truth is, if you weren’t loyal to your subjects first, you wouldn’t be a very good princess.”

Rainbow rattled all of this off like it was conventional wisdom, though Celestia had a hard time wrapping her head around it.

“It’s like this,” the filly attempted to explain. “You’ve got a cool column, and you’ve got a dumb column, okay?”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“And you’ve got some points in the cool column, and you’ve got some points in the dumb column. Right?”

“Right,” Celestia said, following along. It was also the first time in a long time that anypony had called her dumb, although she wouldn’t have cared even if she’d had her wits about her.

“And in-between the cool points and the dumb points, you’ve got… uh, you’ve got…” Rainbow frowned and swished the air with her hoof. “One of those sideways-pointy-math-symbol-thingies.”

“A greater-than less-than sign.”

“Yeah! One of those! And it’s facing… uh…” She stopped. “…Which way does the alligator’s mouth open again?”

Celestia stared blankly, and Rainbow’s expression soured.

“Look, we’re still not cool. Not by a long shot. But at least as far as you locking me up in this castle and hightailing it to Manehattan is concerned, you’ve got more cool points than dumb points, all right?”

The Princess looked at her strangely. “If you say so.”

And just like that, it was as if a tremendous weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Celestia didn’t pretend to understand the calculus by which Rainbow had decided to refrain from anger, but she silently thanked it as she turned and led the way again.

“There’s something in the East Garden I’d like to show you,” she said.

Rainbow flitted into the air, hooves crossed in a totally-not-impressed kind of way. “It’s not another surprise, is it? Because I really, really, really hate surprises.”

Celestia smirked, and Rainbow grumbled as she trailed behind her.

Bucking surprises.

They emerged into the familiar expanse of the East Garden. Only this time, it was extra familiar, because—

“What the hay is my house doing here?!”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped at the sight of her cloud house, bobbing in the air some twenty feet aloft. It didn’t belong here, that much she knew—but then again, it seemed perfectly at home just floating there, tethered to the ground by a long, golden cord. High enough for the runoff from its colorful waterfalls to evaporate on route to the ground, but low enough to remain cloistered within the castle walls.

Her brain chugged to make sense of it. The waterfalls were running—they hadn’t been before. The house was back together in one piece—it had been falling apart when she’d left it. The pillars stood straight and tall. The towers shined like new.

Rainbow felt a prickle in her eye as she looked at it. It… It was…

She didn’t have any words to describe it. She’d all but said goodbye to this place her last trip to Ponyville. To see it brought back to life like this… it… made something move in her chest. But at the same time—

“What the hay is my house doing here?!”

“I hired a company of cloud wranglers to retrieve the rooms that had come unmoored and effect major repairs. I hope you don’t mind.”

Rainbow wiped the dampness from her eye as she took a deep breath to steady herself. “Okay, first of all, thank you,” she said.

Celestia smiled warmly. “You’re welcome.”

“Second of all, no. You can’t do this.” She shook her head. “You can’t do this for two reasons. One, I don’t live here—”

“I don’t expect you to,” Celestia said. “It’s a cloud house, Rainbow Dash. It’s the very definition of a mobile home. I ordered it towed here, and I can order it towed back.”

“I… guess that makes sense,” Rainbow muttered.

“I just thought you might like the comfort of sleeping in your own bed for a change. I—”

Celestia stopped short.

“You aren’t a prisoner here,” she said softly. “The first time I asked you to come to Canterlot, it was partly out of fear for your safety. I would still prefer if you stayed a little while longer, until this nasty business with the Ascendancy is concluded. But as long as you have Philomena to watch over you… Rainbow, if you would rather go back to your home in Ponyville, say the word, and I’ll have your house taken back tonight.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to give a reply, but then a memory surged to mind. A recent memory. A painful one.

She looked down at the ground, her gaze landing in the emerald grass between her hooves. But all she could see were a trio of diamonds, purple hair, and blue eyes.

“I… guess I don’t want to go back,” she said. “Maybe after a little while, but… not yet, anyway.”

She meant it. Ponyville would always be her roost, but right now, she just couldn’t be there. The hurt of her last visit was still too fresh, and the lingering strangeness between her and her friends…

Rainbow shook her head. There was no point in dwelling on that now. She swallowed down her misgivings, and hard determination returned to the fore.

“Okay. Second reason you can’t do this. You can’t keep giving me stuff.”

“Can’t I?” Celestia asked with a playful glint.

“No! You can’t! I mean, first it was the phoenix, now it’s this… You can’t just bribe me into forgetting everything you did! That’s not how it works! And there’s nothing you can ever offer me that I would ever just roll over and accept—”

“Two tickets to the Wonderbolts tomorrow. Private box.”

Rainbow jumped up and ripped the silver tickets out of her hoof.

“You’re good,” she grumbled. “You’re real, real good.”

“One is for you, and the other is for anypony else you decide to take.” Celestia smiled. “Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie… I don’t think Twilight has ever been to see the Wonderbolts in Canterlot. Perhaps you could ask her if she’d like to go with you?”

Rainbow’s lip curled at the idea. “Yeah… Maybe.”

But the Princess didn’t notice her reaction as she turned and gestured up at the floating mansion. “Why don’t we fly over and take a look at your cloud house? I’m sure you’re eager to see it.”

They touched down on the fluffy front walk and trotted together over to the door. Rainbow’s sharp eyes darted across the superstructure as they approached and took in every line and contour, inspecting for the slightest defect. She pushed her hoof against the outside wall to test it. It sunk in a half an inch.

“Seems sturdy enough. Temperature’s fine. Density checks out. Water content’s about point-seven grams per cubic meter, so it should be a while before she starts to aerosolize again.”

Celestia marveled at her. “You know your clouds.”

“Yeah, well… Weatherpony,” Rainbow mumbled. Her keen gaze sank to the welcome mat. “Apparently, it’s the only thing I know. But yeah. I do know clouds.”

She opened the door and jaunted inside, glancing appraisingly about the sunny front hall.

“This looks good too. Beats me who the heck you hired to fix my house, but they did a bang-up job.” She stood back and scrutinized the pillars that lined the foyer. Finding them acceptable, she gave an approving nod, then started toward the den. “I probably oughta double-check the other rooms and make sure they’re all—”

It was right about then that she realized Celestia wasn’t with her. She was still outside, in fact, peering in through the open door.

“May I come in?”

Rainbow looked back at her strangely. “Uh… Sure.”

The lanky goddess ducked through the low entryway, straightening up again in the spacious interior. “What’s wrong? Do I still have beans on my face?” she wondered.

“No, it’s just… I think you’re the first pony to ever ask for permission to come into my house.”

She chewed on that for a moment. Then, with a shrug, she headed into the next room. Celestia brought up the rear.

“You have a lovely home.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

Rainbow stopped in front of the fireplace and the familiar work of art that hung above it. She reached up to straighten it, shaking her head at the same time. “Jeeze, I hate this picture.”

“What did you mean before?” Celestia asked suddenly.

“Huh?”

“Outside a minute ago, when you said clouds are the only thing you’re knowledgeable about. What did you mean?”

Rainbow’s feathers bristled as she stiffened. “What’s not to get? Was I speaking Neighponese or something?”

“I just don’t see how—”

“I suck at learning stuff, okay? Always have.” She tapped a hoof against her skull. “Got nothing up here.”

“Now, that can’t be true,” Celestia said softly.

“Always has been. I sucked when I was a kid in flight school, and I still suck now.”

The sun princess drew closer. “What’s happened? Why are you saying these things?”

“It’s… It's all this magic stuff.” Rainbow sulked. “I’m awful at it.”

“You’re new at it.”

“I’m the worst at it, apparently.”

Celestia shook her head. “Becoming good at something takes time. You of all ponies know that. You can’t expect to be casting complex spells when you’ve only just—”

“Who said anything about spells?” Rainbow interrupted. “I’m so dumb, I can’t even make an apple float.”

Celestia was taken aback at that. Telekinesis was among the most basic of basic skills. She frowned—Twilight should’ve had her levitating simple objects days ago.

Her attention wandered to a nearby shelf, where a complete collection of Wonderbolts action figures stood on display in their blue, plastic flight suits. She pondered for a moment.

“Rainbow Dash, who’s your favorite Wonderbolt?”

“Fleetfoot,” Rainbow answered without a second’s thought. Suspicion trickled into her eyes. “Why?”

“Okay,” Celestia breathed. She reached out and gingerly picked up one of the tiny figurines—the turquoise one with the silvery-white hair, posed in mid-flight with her wings wide open at her sides. “You’re going to make Fleetfoot here fly.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on! That’s a limited edition collector’s item!”

“It’ll be fine,” Celestia reassured her.

Rainbow sucked in her lower lip. “Look, I don’t think you realize what happens when I screw up trying to—”

“Trust me. I know you can do this.”

They looked at each other, and Celestia held Rainbow in her confident gaze until the smaller pony capitulated. “Fine! But just so you know, you’re totally paying for her when she blows up.”

“The first step is to not imagine her blowing up at all. That indicates a lack of self-confidence, and not having confidence in yourself will get you every time, whether you’re doing magic or doing stunts.”

“Great,” Rainbow said. “Terrific. So how do I—?”

“You need to project the magic from your horn directly underneath the object you wish to levitate. Envision it rising around your target, lifting it and carrying it upward.”

Exasperation marched across Rainbow’s face, but she went along with it nevertheless, angling her horn downward as she puffed out her cheeks in concentration.

Thankfully, the little figurine didn’t explode—but it didn’t float, either. Half a minute later, Rainbow released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and gasped for air, red in the face.

“You see? I can’t do it!”

“Don’t become upset with yourself. Instead…” Celestia paused to think for a moment. “Instead… Think of it like flying.”

Rainbow stared blankly. “Huh?”

“It’s just like flying! Look.”

Celestia dangled the action figure in the air.

“Fleetfoot here is out for an afternoon flight. She’s just taken off from Wonderbolts Stadium after a challenging day of practice, and as she glides over the city, the sun warms the earth and the roads beneath her, creating a rising column of hot air. She catches it in her wings and feels it boost her upward into the sky.

“That’s your magic, Rainbow. Let your magic be a thermal, no different than the hundreds of thermals you’ve soared on before in your life. Picture your magic billowing underneath her, pushing against her feathers, lifting her up, and up, and up—”

As simple as that, a light began to shimmer around Rainbow’s horn. It was a weak light, wavering like a candle in the breeze, and the moment it appeared, she gasped with so much surprise she almost put it out. But to her astonishment, the light stuck around, gradually brightening to an aura of purest white, until it gleamed like a dazzling cloud against the sky blue of her coat and horn.

And then it paired with an identical glow around the Fleetfoot figurine. And then Fleetfoot began to rise up in the air—

“Oh my gosh! I’m doing it!” Rainbow gasped.

Excitement wiped the doubt and insecurity clean off her face. Her grin stretched so wide, it could’ve fallen right off her, and Celestia felt her heart melt just to see the childlike wonder in her eyes as she started to play, making Fleetfoot bank and dive, exploring the possibilities of this whole new world that had just opened to her. As enthusiastic about magic as she’d ever been about anything.

Small steps, Luna, she thought to herself. Small steps.

---

Rainbow Dash and the Caretaker toiled for more than an hour into the afternoon. The mulch poured from burlap sacks both hoofed and hovered, and each of them had a sheen of sweat to show for their efforts by the time they were finally done.

“That’ll do, I think!” the old pegasus said at last. He waved for Rainbow to stop, and she willed the bag she was levitating shakily to the ground.

“All done?” she called over.

“Aye.”

“Ha! And you said it would take the rest of the day!”

The Caretaker took a step back to admire the garden plots, all freshly decorated with a layer of pristine, chipped bark. “It helps when you’ve got somepony else to lighten the load,” he answered her. “That’s the way o’ life. It’s harder alone, and better together.”

He peeled off his straw hat to wipe the perspiration from his brow and shucked it in the wagon, leaving it tipped on its side amid a pile of fifty or sixty emptied-out bags. As Rainbow ambled over to join him, he gave her a mischievous look.

“So, you’ll be taking me to the airshow now, right?” he needled her.

She laughed. “Psh! Dream on, pal! Heck, after all the work I just put in, you oughta be taking me somewhere!”

“Ah, a stallion can dream. I’ll be off now, then! Enjoy the Wonderbolts for me, won’t you?”

“That won’t be a problem! Oh my gosh, THE WONDERBOLTS!” She did an aerial somersault in her adrenaline rush of excitement.

The pegasus just chuckled at her antics.

“Hey, I’ll see you soon, huh?” She quit the acrobatics and landed beside her friend, grinning wide. “Maybe tomorrow?”

The Caretaker grasped the handles on the cart and started wheeling it away. “Tomorrow, perhaps. The sun is new each day, lass. Keep your face to it, and you’ll never see a shadow.”

And then he trundled off again to wherever it was he always went.

Rainbow trotted to the fountain and splashed some of the crystal clear water over her face to rinse off, still gushing with fangirl glee. Her energy soared even higher when she took a glance at the sundial and realized just how much time she’d managed to kill doing all that lame garden work—T-minus forty minutes to awesomeness, oh my gosh…!

…Though her exhilaration fizzled somewhat a minute later, when she looked up and spied the golden chariot descending out of the sky; all her joy and elation replaced by that weird blend of emotions she felt whenever she encountered Celestia.

The drivers’ hooves found purchase, and the vehicle rolled to a smooth stop on the lawn. The door opened, and out she stepped.

“Are you ready?” Celestia asked.

Her body language was tense, but her expression was cautiously hopeful as she waited anxiously for the reply.

Rainbow gave a flippant toss of her mane as she approached. “Psh. You know it,” she said nonchalantly. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Celestia beckoned to the cart. But Rainbow was already thirty feet up, her wings flapping impatiently behind her as she gazed down with hooves folded anxiously over her chest. “C’mon, what are you waiting for? It’s the Wonderbolts!” she called down.

The white alicorn stared up at her, bewildered, for a moment, before she put on an even face and climbed back aboard the chariot. She signaled the pair of pegasi at the reins, and with that, they were off—blasting away from the swaying trees and newly-mulched flowerbeds of the East Garden, past the kaleidoscopic falls of Rainbow’s home; a streak of gold racing skyward with a cyan-colored blur by its side.

Comments

[Metroid Prime]

First

i regret nothing

[RealityCheck]

It's a little light in tone considering Twilight should be EATING CROW.

She still hasn't fessed up to how poorly she treated Dash, or how indifferent she was to what her friend was going through. She was too busy being jealous of Celestia's attention.

[Pause]

Celestia is finally making the first correct steps to getting somewhere with Rainbow Dash.

Meanwhile Twilight is doing nothing but digging herself a deeper hole.

[TheMyth]

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I think that's what the author has in mind... for Twilight to screw up so badly, even her family will be upset with her...

[Kage no Brony]

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Oh crap, guys, Nightmare Moon was a thing because Luna was jealous of Celestia; There's a cult that worships The Nightmare who believes she'll return; Twilight is jealous of Rainbow because she's taken her beloved mentor's attention, and has the raw ability to surpass Twilight at her own Special Talent (and is being forced to essentially train her own replacement).

Calling it: Twilight's going to go Nightmare.

[Note Pad]

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[Sevenspur]

Her wandering eyes chanced upon a little hand mirror, which lay upon a stand next to Sage’s chair. It was the only other thing of note in the entire room, which was why it caught her interest. She vaguely recalled seeing it the last time she came here, though only briefly.

Its wood was an inky shade of blue, carved to look like gnarled roots, interwoven together, winding their way up the handle and around the oval looking glass. They combined at the top, ending in a motif that resembled a black, three-pronged crown.

There was something peculiar about it, and without thinking, Twilight found herself reaching out to touch it. But before she could, Sage’s shadow fell over her. She looked up to see the old headmaster standing above her, holding out a drink.

Okay... so this is a thing. Had to look it up in the earlier chapter because I didn’t remember it. Foreshadowing?

“This isn’t about you!” Celestia said hotly. “This was never about you! You were a victim in all this, as much as anypony! As much as Hurricane, as much as Father—”

Luna/Celestia’s father is something that’s been in the background for like this entire story. He’s mentioned in inscriptions on the statue in chapter three and the school in chapter four. Also they apparently named the mountain after him. Hurricane (assuming it’s the same Hurricane) was commander of the pegasus ponies during Hearth’s Warming Eve...

Seems to be a big backstory here that’s being hinted at.

“The Nightmare,” Luna observed. “Not Nightmare Moon.”

“The press always gets it wrong,” Celestia said dryly.

Luna turned an anxious toward her sister. “Does Twilight—?”

“No. She doesn’t,” Celestia sighed. “Under the circumstances, I’m glad Sage invited her to stay at the castle. If the Ascendancy knew…”

“Who’s to say they don’t?”

Hesitation reigned. “I’d like to think our state secrets are impregnable to them. But you’re right. They’ve been in the driver’s seat for the last two years. They very well may.”

What do Celly and Luna know that they aren’t telling Twilight? That's apparently a state secret, hummmmm...

[Vva70]

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That's...very plausible.

[Trinary]

Hooray it updated!

I think the stuff with Twilight is taken a bit too far, on both ends. First the scene with Sage...I'm sorry but I really hated the message he was giving her. "Yeah, you studied and trained and practiced with magic all your life, but heck that doesn't matter! No, what really matters is having a royal mom and being a member of the master race. Individual talent, what loser told you that ever mattered?" That's just such an alien and unlikeable thought to me that I just was really repulsed by it. That Rainbow Dash is an alicorn and is capable of great magic--okay I can get that. But that by virtue of her birth she's guaranteed to be better than any unicorn, including Twilight or Star Swirl? That I can't get behind. Heck, we saw Celestia be amazed by Twilight solving a spell nopony else had--which means Celestia couldn't do it or never bothered trying. So I'm not liking Sage and really didn't like the scene.

And while I can understand that Twilight might be a bit jealous of Rainbow Dash having this connection to Princess Celestia that she can't match, I think a lot of her jealousy and sheer petty spitefulness takes Twilight into OOC territory. I think the issues between Rainbow and Twilight need to be a bit more balanced, otherwise it comes off as just dumping on one character or the other. Yes, Rainbow isn't very studious and that would get under Twilight's skin--but it's taken too far.

[Sevenspur]

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Is this the same Twilight we're talking about? Because Twilight can be pretty damn spiteful. Eight minutes into Testing Testing 123 (which actually mirrors this chapter pretty closely), she's so fed up with RD, she 1. rubs Rainbow's nose in the fact that she's smarter than she is, 2. basically tells Rainbow she isn't cut out to be a Wonderbolt since she doesn't know history, and 3. intentionally aggravates Rainbow by suggesting SHE (Twilight) should become a Wonderbolt instead of her. Actually they were nose to nose in that scene, it looked like they were right about to get into it when Fluttershy had to pull them apart. And that was just an ordinary everyday interaction, in this story Twilight is clearly feeling marginalized and has a lot more reason to be spiteful.

[cvvvrt]

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Sounds like Sage might be the one leading the Ascendancy, with the mirror letting him speak with the Nightmare and/or his underlings. Would fit with him manipulating Twilight's emotions to stoke her jealousy.

[Sevenspur]

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This is a super good point, if Sage is secretly working against everyone else, then that probably explains why the scene repulsed you so much (didn't sit well with me either). Could be the whole scene is just a bunch of emotional manipulation. Possibly misinformation too, I'm not sure anything he has to say about Twilight's power versus RD's should be taken as gospel.

[Trinary]

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There's a difference, I think, between a mean comment said in a moment of frustration and anger (as was the case in Testing Testing) and prolonged dickishness over an extended period. Everyone loses their cool and says mean or dumb or hurtful things at one time or the other. But to go on and on in that vein is something different.

[RealityCheck]

6093265 Or get force-fed the Nightmare by the cult....

And the way that one teacher phrased it---
It's almost like he is GROOMING Twilight for a fall. "Oh well I know how proud you are of being Celestia's pupil, but---she's EVER more talented than you. Just no helping it....Some ponies are destined for greatness,some aren't. it's just our lot to help them along. Oh yes she's FAR more talented than YOU. Really, Twilight, not all of us are going to move mountains...."

And no way this is an accident. He's a scholar, a teacher--- he KNOWS there's one hell of a difference between raw talent and raw power. Rainbow Dash is solidly in the latter category; she may have all sorts of power as an alicorn but Twilight will always be more skilled. He's playing her like a HARP.

Side note: does this diverge before, or AFTER, Mare Do Well? If after, I am left to wonder if Dash laughed it off like in the show, and might even joke about actually being able to compete with MDW now that she has magic and can fly. Or is that a topic that could turn up like a bad penny as Twilight's insecurities and jealousy grow?

(And wouldn't it be a kick in the head if this ends with Twilight finally ascending-- and ending up as Dash's alicorn "step sister?")

Kind of disappointed that the author dropped the twist that the father was actually Pinkie Pie's dad. Whoa, Captain Jackass thought he hated Rainbow Dash--- were he to find out that the new Princess is half-sister to Inky, Blinky, Maude and PINKY.... Oh, that would be karmic revenge, schadenfreude so delicious you could gobble it up with a desert spoon--- he ends up tormented without mercy by "Duchess" Pinky Pie.... One week of having to serve as Pinkie's guard, and he'd be up on a minaret duct-taping his wings to his sides and getting ready to jump....

[Vates Despero]

6093551 You know it is possible that there might be more to Sage than we know... the mirror is rather ominous. It is entirely possible that he deliberately suggested Twilight teach Dash and then told her that to drive a wedge between them and make Twilight go all Nightmare-y. That he is a shadowy puppet-master in all this wickedness.

[Kage no Brony]

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I think we're all in agreement that the teacher (or was it headmaster?) is bad juju. Persona non grata.

[Aldea Donder]

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Side note: does this diverge before, or AFTER, Mare Do Well? If after, I am left to wonder if Dash laughed it off like in the show, and might even joke about actually being able to compete with MDW now that she has magic and can fly. Or is that a topic that could turn up like a bad penny as Twilight's insecurities and jealousy grow?

After. Chapter Six makes an oblique reference to it: "The celebrity treatment was really getting stale. Give her a fan club to tell her how awesome she was for saving other ponies, sure! An audience of spectators cheering her on as she blew ’em away with her flying skills, no problem!"

I'm really enjoying all the speculation so far! Thanks for the comments, guys. Every one of them means a lot to me.

[Phazon]

Twilight glared. “You shouldn’t need a can opener. Any half-competent unicorn can use her magic to cut open a simple can.”

You know, the last time Rainbow tried to use magic, she blew up an apple. Twilight knows this; she bore witness to it personally. And now she wants Rainbow to open a can. A metal can that would turn into shards of shrapnel if it exploded. This could easily kill both of one of them.

[Pinklestia]

And then Celestia casted a low level cleaning spell over Rainbow Dash.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash said "I am not a baby for you to have to clean me!"

"Then you should have taken a bath before going to see the Wonderbolts." Celestia smiled and hugged her daughter, Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment then hugged back.

[EverfreeSparkle]

Jealously is a strong emotion. Very strong. Logic just can't overcome it. It'll take something short of a miracle for Twilight to wake up to the real world and see just how badly she is treating Rainbow.

Also, I know Celestia thought Twilight would be the best choice to teach Rainbow, because she is great at magic and is familiar to Rainbow, but Twilight is too inexperienced to be teaching anyone, let alone Rainbow Dash. Twilight is good at lecturing, not teaching. There is a difference. Teaching is explaining concepts in ways that your students can comprehend, but all Twilight knows how to do is recite facts.

[EverfreeSparkle]

6093781 The difference is that Twilight didn't have any reason to resent Rainbow in Testing 123, but now she is beyond jealous. Rainbow being an Alicorn, and Celestia's daughter to boot, is almost like a kick in the gut to her.

[Spiritus Arcane]

What Celestia seems to get and what Twilight is failing to, maybe deliberately judging by the can 'lesson' bs, is that, magically, Rainbow IS a foal. Heck, she's actually worse off than a normal unicorn foal, since she didn't have horn until now, and thus missed out on the (insert Sweetie Bell's age in Twilight Time) years of figuring out how to channel magic just to do the basics that they get.

Also, so it's the Nightmare itself we're dealing with, eh? Suppose that means its only a matter of time before someone gets evilized. Before now I would have said Rainbow, but it looks like Twi might be first in line for it.

[Arcane Howitzer]

6094326
It's not even that. She's been told by the one pony she trusts above all others short of Celestia herself that all of her hard work, her years of study, even her special talent, was all just so she can play second fiddle to a Wonderbolt-wannabe who never even wanted magic in the first place. She doesn't just feel jealous; she feels worthless, betrayed by life itself and robbed of the very thing that makes her special.

And just for that I hope Sage has a big-ol' hoof sandwich coming his way.

[Frustaz]

6094527

To make matters worse, shes purposely trying to force Rainbow to do something that took probably years of practice for her "Because Rainbow's and Alicorn, So She should be just Sooooooo Good."

Honestly, Twilight's just been told her identity is now nothing more than a speck to someone who never wanted nor needed magic.

What I'm Seeing is Rainbow hates her new position. Rarity's being a Gold Digger now, And Twilight is Jealous as can be. Wanna know who's fault that is?

<---- This Bitch.

Instead of Owning up to the responsibility of being a Parent to a single filly, she not only has turned her daughter away from her (In the Repair shop currently?), But now is Actively turning the elements against each other, since She didn't consider Twilight's feelings when it comes to the difference between an Alicorn and Unicorn, as her Identity is Magic, Or Rainbows, by basically telling her "Come to Canterlot, I'll explain everything!" and then Disappearing for what appears to be a Month's worth of time.

[Arcane Howitzer]

6094823

She didn't consider Twilight's feelings when it comes to the difference between an Alicorn and Unicorn,

That's assuming she knows of, and agrees with, Sage's statement that Twilight's special talent is eclipsed in every way by Rainbow's natural Alicorn abilities. For all we know, Sage either mistakenly or deliberately glossed over the distinction between true skill and excessive potential, and while Rainbow undoubtedly does have phenomenal cosmic powers beyond the hopes of mortal ken, it may take decades of training before she gets as good with it as Twilight is now (and in that time, who knows? there might be yet princess in the kingdom).

A single chat with Celestia could clear this up, but it was Sage who planted the idea in the first place. That's why I want him punched.

[Sevenspur]

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Possibly relevant..... The original (very old) art for this fic, which is still on Equestria Daily.

orig00.deviantart.net/7fed/f/2011/275/1/6/alicorn_by_sanura35-d4bo6gk.png

Bottom right corner.

[Derpmind]

Celestia and Luna and a can of beans. Why are you so awesome at characters?

[Mithrandir]

Holy fuck, am I glad this story got resurrected. What a great chapter; all the problems are being laid out but at least the characters are making some headway. Twilight needs conk on the noggin already but I'm sure that's coming.

[Frustaz]

6095280

I never disagreed with your statment.

Seriously, He needs to meet Applejack's backhooves. With his face.

[Deynarth]

I agree with everyone about Sage. This guy just rub me wrong.

One interesting thing. I tend to identifie with Twilight a lot , and during Sage's scene with her , his words made ME feel physical anger , it made me feel like my own pride was threatened by his words. I could perfectly understand Twilight both during that scene and after , as I maybe would have been tempted to do the same , even if I know that it would have been unfair to Rainbow.
Now this made me realise two thing : One , the author definitelly know what he is doing , especially regarding his characters feelings. Two : That his speech was most likely engeneered to provoke such a reaction in the first place .

Plus he said something peculiar while talking to Twilight " Some of us exist to allow other to reach greatness"... It could also apply to him turning Twilight into a Nightmare like other said.
Everything he did went in that direction when you think about it.

[LordBrony2040]

Nice chapter, waiting for the groundskeeper to be revealed as some sort of mysterious cosmic advice being, Celestia's father…or maybe just pony-Boothbe from Star Trek

Don’t think Sage is evil, just an idiot when it comes to explaining things about how things are. Twilight has loads of skill, but Rainbow can out-muscle her thanks to alicorn magic. The mirror was revealed a bit too early to point as evidence to some dastardliness, and Celestia commented how Sage was supposed to be scrying for stuff. Even if the mirror is shown to be a window to a scene of ultimate evil, it can just be something to mislead the readers since that’s exactly what Sage is supposed to be looking for.

Twilight’s actions are more than believable when we factor in the jealousy and her shown desire for instant results. She only explains things in the most technical way possible, and apparently moves on to new lessons without making sure Rainbow has mastered the fundamentals. But, that’s the problem when you have the genius instructing the dunce. After all, those that can do, those that can’t teach, and those that do can’t teach.

Meanwhile Celestia is still gunning for the worst parent of the year award, she’s just making sure to cover as many bases as possible. Now our biggest princess is backing up all that neglect with good old fashioned bribes, if well intentioned ones.

And of course, Rainbow falls for it hook, line and sinker…

:You can’t buy my affection Celestia, I will never acknowledge you as my parent

: I’ve got Wonderbolts tickets

: I wuv you Mommy!

[Sevenspur]

6095974

Don't know if I'd go that far, in her convo with gardenpony in the first scene of the chapter which takes place chronologically after everything else, she makes sure to correct the dude that Celly isn't her mom, she's just "there." Seems like RD's just moved beyond shouting and being passive aggressive is all (actually Celly was probably right to stay away for that month, the distance might have done some good, given RD time to cool down)

[Fourpony]

Feel the book, and allow the manifestation of your arcane will to coalesce into mundanality underneath it.

Make this word up?

He whistled the cartoon sound effect of a freefalling object and mimed the same with his foreleg

But I thought he was handcuffed to the table...

She turned and left with Rainbow, and Twilight was all alone.

Hmmm, seems Celestia is no spurring one "daughter" in favor of another. Wonder if she even realizes this. She may be a great leader but her family skills are seriously terrible, doesn't even seem to notice that she kinda "adopted" Twilight from all those years working with her.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked.

Garden work and didn't even take a shower.

I feel it is good that Celestia and Rainbow seem to be approaching this more like friends. That is probably the best way for Celestia. Rainbow does not see her as her mother and had a ton of faith shaken in the alicorn. So small steps to friendship are the way to go for Celestia to work her way onto Rainbow's good side. I feel they must first be friends and have the mutual respect before Dash might allow Celestia more into her life.

I am wondering what is going to happen with the Ascendancy. Cause right now I think Twilight feels jealous and spurned by Rainbow. Twi was kinda Celestia's surrogate daughter for years, and now Celestia just kinda blew her off. That probably hurts a bit, same with knowing Dash is stronger than her just because she is an alicorn. And with Twilight's mental ticks, I could see her spiraling down into depression and rage, especially if Celestia pushes her aside to spend time with Rainbow. Somepony Twilight loves and reveres suddenly appears to not want her anymore, replacing her with the "new" daughter. I kinda want to see this built upon and a tiny part of me is hoping Twilight gets possessed in some fashion.

[TKR307]

Does anyone else think sage whitehoof is actually starswril the bearded

[StormyVenture]

6092979
I don't see why. Celestia assigned her a task beyond her ability. Being good at complex skills and a magical prodigy does not mean you can teach. Furthermore she is asking an academic and a unicorn to teach a pegasus (yes I know rainbow is technically an alicorn, but she grew up as a pegasus) how to use magic. If there is a failing here, it is Celestia's not Twilight's. Under the best, most ideal circumstances, Twilight would still resent that her friend, who doesn't and refuses to study will, one day, if she ever bothers, be able to do much more than Twilight ever will. Ultimately it is Celestia or una who should be teaching Rainbow if only until she has enough of a practical grasp to be able to apply herself to more academic studies.

On other counts, I'd like t pint out that Rainbow has been a self-centered brat, blaming Celestia for her inability to be flexbile Twilight was just trying, in the only way she knows how, to show Rainbow how unproductive her course of action really is and that's she isolating herself from her friends. Sure, it was a bit rude to point out her own desires, but she was just trying, at the very least. to get a point across to Dash that Celestia is not merely the image Dash has in her head.

[RealityCheck]

6102095

1)you'll recall the episode where Dash was studying for the Wonderbolts test.... it was her friends who had to learn something that real educators have known for ages: NOT EVERYONE LEARNS THE SAME WAY.This is the reason many highly intelligent and capable young people are dismissed by a cookie-cutter system as unteachable, learning disabled, or just stupid.

Yet look at how quickly she analyzed the cloud texture in her wall. She knew her onions, there. She's SMART. Why? Because she is one of those who learns by DOING. Twilight doesn't grasp that, here. She learns by eliminating all physical distractions and focusing entirely on the mental. Dash is more body-focused--- she learns by seeing, touching, hearing, observing. For her, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, or rather, the knowledge of how to MAKE a pudding is in the mixing.

And few people (like Celestia) are good enough teachers to grasp that. It's probably plagued her all her life.... because she's been poorly educated (or rather, she was educated in a poor fashion) by teachers in a cookie-cutter school system who couldn't cope with students who didn't learn by rote.

She isn't LAZY-- it's just that sitting there listening to Twilight chatter, or staring at a page of text, was FUTILE. She could read it a hundred times and it would be just noises, and it frustrated her. Worse, because she's been left with a poor education she's been left with a poor vocabulary. She can't EXPLAIN to Twilight why she can't learn by rote, why facts she just reads don't stick in her head--- so she just repeats "how BORING it is." Look at how she had to do the "which way the alligator's mouth opens" thing to express the idea of a greater than-less than sign.... a physical description she probably grasped at like a straw in foalhood.

And no, she's not a brat. With one revelation her life has been destroyed, her relationship with her friends has been shattered, her ambitions and life goals have vanished-- and then the one who did it to her disappeared (again, we might add) and left her to the tender mercies of a castle full of bigots, armored bullies, and snobs who despise her. That she's gotten over it in as little time as she has, and started forgiving Celestia for it all, says much to her favor. I know people who haven't mended fences for years. Heck, entire family generations.

And again, she's a physical person. She doesn't have eloquence, just her athletic ability--- which noone around her respects. Hell, Day one the guards frogmarched her into the palace like a prisoner rather than a princess, and then her own "staff of servants" manhandled her, refused to listen to anything she said and then when she simply requested some basic food, got UPPITY and tried to feed her the scrapings off the walls of a fish tank. She had to go apeshit just to get them to listen to her, or even leave her alone.

Not to say she hasn't been inconsiderate--- but she's got a hell of a lot on her plate. And Rarity and Twilight aren't helping either.

Another thing is--- well, Twilight's teaching method is the reason the "For Dummies" books were invented. What's the blurb on the back? "You're NOT a dummy. Few people are. But most textbooks leave you feeling like one because they start out assuming you know more than you do...." Twilight is jumping into the middle, with things SHE grasped as a foal. She's forgotten that her pupil isn't a child prodigy and didn't even have a horn until less than a month ago!
This is why she struggled to make friends: she doesn't understand that others aren't like her.

[StormyVenture]

6103188
1) You're over generalizing here. Unteachable and unable to learn are two different things. Unteachable usually means, at some level, that the student will not work with the teacher. Learning disabilities are a genuine problem for some, it is not the system's fault nor does the failure to succeed with those individuals make it a "cookie cutter system". Such issues generally require more individual help than can be provided in the usual time frame and it make take a special person to work around the problem.

Sure, Rainbow knows some things, whoop-de-do. Smart is a useless adjective, because it means different things to different people. For some it means you know a lot of things, for others it means that you are good at something, and sometimes the only meaning is that you know more than or are better at doing something than the person calling you "smart". Twilight may grasp that, but some things have always been easy for her to DO. Also she was asked to teach rainbow how to do magic and she is trying to teach her the way she learned which is the only way she knows how to. It doesn't help that she has no authority over Rainbow and is her friend at some level. It also doesn't help that Rainbow isn't even trying to do what she's being asked to do the way I read it. The implication appears to be that she isn't even doing the reading and if she is, it's a few pages and then give up. She's not giving Twilight half the patience or respect that she herself expects of Twilight.

Celestia isn't a "good enough teacher" in the usual sense, it's just that she has more patience, probably learned it differently and not academically, and isn't chained down by wanting to be rainbow dash's friend in the way Twilight is. Further, she's seen way more ponies and actually taught ponies by herself before.

Try not to overlay the character excessively with yourself or your own experiences. It kinda sounds like that to the ear. The character isn't you and you seem to be reading a lot in that isn't necessarily there. There is a difference between 'learning styles' and people who are simply restless and have difficulty focusing.

She doesn't really have as "much on her plate " as you think and she is treating "her friends" very callously. I'll admit that Rarity's being a bit of an ass, but Rarity has a known blindspot in certain regards. Rainbow needs to quit reacting to problems that her friends didn't cause and aren't a part of by lashing out at them and isolating herself from them.

This is why she struggled to make friends: she doesn't understand that others aren't like her.

Dude, quit being dumb will you. Everybody has that problem, it's not just Twilight. Further, understanding that others are different and knowing how to deal with them are not the same thing. Often the reason that people like that don't have friends is that others don't understand them and refuse to try to adjust to that person. Friendship isn't a one way road. No matter how hard that person tries, even if they do all the right things, the other person still has to some things or nothing is going to happen.

[RealityCheck]

6103526

I'm just restating what is already canon-- Dash, like quite a number of people IRL, learns poorly by rote. And unfortunately Twilight learns and teaches by rote and in this alternate timeline has yet not learned that people learn in different ways.

"And she knows stuff, whoop de doo." Okay, that makes me want to smack the stupid out of your mouth. That's the sort of pretentious twattery one gets from ivy-tower college snotlings who think that they're smarter than everyone in the room and that they deserve a six figure salary because they have a degree in English literature or God help me, Women's Studies. Meanwhile the plumber fixing their sink or the mechanic working on their Prius has more real-world, practical knowledge and training in his left asscheek than they have in their entire graduating class.

Dash looked down on herself-- just like Twilight did-- because she couldn't absorb knowledge like Twilight did, by reading text or listening to lectures. Yet when she examined her cloud house she let drop the fact that she knew cloud architecture and weather science like the back of her hoof, and on a level Twilight Sparkle couldn't learn with years of study.

"Knowing stuff" means she LEARNED it, and that's the definition of smarts.

No, Twilight isn't "burdened by being her friend." She's burdened by not being a good teacher. Good students, ironically, rarely are--- because they try to teach the way they learned, and they start out assuming you already understand what they themselves learned easily. She's being stubborn, impatient, cannot conceive of anyone learning something any other way than she did, and worst of all is jealous of her student.

And I think she's not the only one who isn't quite grasping what Dash is going through. You, for instance. You're forgetting that it has been, in story time, less than two weeks. And I don't think you get how big a disaster has landed in Dash's lap.

How well would YOU cope with finding out your parents weren't really yours? ....No, you wouldn't cope. You'd fold like a wet graham cracker.

Now stack on top of that finding out your real mom ABANDONED YOU.

Oh, throw in suddenly finding yourself under house arrest in a strange mansion five tax brackets higher than where you came from in a city where you knew none of the etiquette and customs, none of the staff would listen to you, and where the head of security treated you like a criminal , made no secret he HATED you, and finally one day openly called you a half-breed, your foster parents inbred retards, and your mother a whore?

To top it off your friends turn into bitches, talking about how ungrateful you are for having your life blown to utter hell, "tutoring" you in a manner guaranteed to make you feel hopeless and stupid, trying to shmooze favors out of you due to your "new connections" and generally showing all the comprehensive skill of a dog trying to understand the opera when you tell them you're unhappy.

By the time the person who dumped you into this came back a week later you'd either be a broken shell curled up under your bed sucking your thumb and sobbing for mommy, or stalking the halls with a bloody tire iron in your hands and murder in your eye. IN short, you would NOT be in any mood to be Polly Purebred the Perfect Pony Princess.

Ironically, just like her friends, you can't grasp that she has every right to be an enormous pain in the ass--- because all you can think is "she's got a palace, a crown and a magic horn! She should be GRATEFUL for everything!!"

Because every little girl wants to be a Princess, right?

Dash just gave them two weeks of aggravation for a LIFETIME'S worth of unforgivable things. They're getting off light. And for and the case of Rarity and Twilight, who should KNOW better--- too light.

[Sevenspur]

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I'll admit to having some amount of sympathy for Twilight. I have sympathy for Celestia too (had plenty of debates on her actions last chapter). But fact is, Twilight didn't volunteer to teach Rainbow Dash anything. She was summoned to Canterlot at Sage's behest, and when Sage put her up to the job in ch5, what was her reaction? Self-doubt. "I've never taught anypony anything in my life." She didn't think she was cut out for the task, but Sage guilted it into her anyway with the whole fucked up "You don't want to disappoint the Princess!" emotional manipulation shtick. (Evil or not, that guy's a total douche, he's done a lot of morally questionable sh*t).

It's a little much to proclaim all of Rainbow's friends have turned into bitches, you can make an argument for Rarity and Twilight (though they clearly have their own insecurities and reasons for acting the way they have), but Applejack, Pinkie, and Flutters haven't done ANYTHING to hurt Dash. Everything that's happened has made Rainbow feel so totally self-conscious about herself, she's isolated herself from half her friends needlessly, when in fact they could be helping her through this. Does that mean she's being "bratty?" I don't know, I don't hold too much against her, but I do think there's some moral culpability at her hooves also. She's not a victimless Mary Sue in all this, she's screwed up and been insensitive to Twilight and said a lot of mean things that have contributed to this clusterfuck just like every other character has.

[Vva70]

6102095

I'd like t pint out that Rainbow has been a self-centered brat

I'm not sure where you're coming from with this. Rainbow has certainly had some moments in this story where she's made questionable decisions, but I don't see any of it as self-centered or bratty. Here's a list of Rainbow's questionable decisions, as I see them:

Chapter One: Nothing Rainbow does in chapter one is objectionable.

Chapter Two: Rainbow yells at Twilight for following her, unannounced, to the grave of her parents and eavesdropping when she got there. Ideally, Rainbow shouldn't have lost control here, but it's perfectly understandable under the circumstances that she did. And Twilight was engaged in a serious breach of etiquette, despite her good intentions.

Chapter Three: Nothing Rainbow does in chapter three is objectionable. You might argue that she shouldn't have blown up at the castle staff, but she tried being reasonable with them repeatedly, and with what is frankly an amazing amount of patience. You might also argue that she shouldn't have blown Celestia off that evening, but as acts of spite go, that one is so minor and karmic that I don't see it as objectionable in the slightest.

Chapter Four: Rainbow deliberately antagonizes Tristar. It's worth noting that he behaved unreasonably towards her before this, but that still doesn't change the fact that her decision to antagonize him was unwise and childish.

Chapter Five: Nothing Rainbow does in chapter five is objectionable.

Chapter Six: Rainbow crosses the line with Rarity, but only after Rarity crosses the line with Rainbow. She also yells at Twilight, but only after Twilight engages in the equivalent of prodding an open wound. In the case of Rarity, Rainbow's reaction, despite being provoked, is legitimately unreasonable. It is understandable, though. In the case of Twilight, Rainbow's reaction is less than ideal, but not unreasonable.

Chapter Seven: Nothing Rainbow does in chapter seven is objectionable.

In what way do you see all of this adding up to "self-centered brat?" Or is there other behavior that I don't mention here that you find objectionable?

[fireflutterpony]

So, the Nightmare should probably consider writing Celestia a thank-you note for handing over Twilight on a silver platter like this. Maybe one for the Sage as well.

[DarkPinkie]

I guess RD can only hold so much contemt and spite, and now most of it have shifted from Celestia to Twilight and Tristar.

Sadly studious Twilight does not realize how different ponies learn differently. She is stuck trying to teach RD through Twilight's own learning methods, as well as taking things for granted. Why did Twi have to figure these things out after she became an alicorn in canon.

[KarlArsch0815]

6101809 He is probably his evil clone from another universe

OH NO! TEMPORAL WORMHOLES!

[StormyVenture]

6103725
You should start by taking the stick out of your ass.

There is a difference between "learning by rote" (i.e. repetition) and simply reading the book and remembering things. The two are not related. Just because Dash "learns poorly by rote" does not equate to her being unable to learn from a book or lecturing. I can't see any evidence that Twilight learns or teaches by rote. She does have to repeat herself or try to, because Dash won't stop and listen for even a minute. I don't know if you noticed but Rainbow Dash is liable to stick her hooves in her ears and stick her tongue out because she doesn't really want to study/learn at all. That's an attitude problem. Whether the knowledge she can gain from Twilight would really help her do magic has nothing to do with her ability to learn some abstract details that might be useful.

You deserve to be smacked upside the head. Just because some learning comes from books does not make it worth less than other knowledge. I don't personally place a lot of value on degrees in the fields you mention and I don't think hardly anyone deserves a "six figure salary", but in some things large salaries come from a limited supply of people that know or can teach those things to other people. It's a matter of supply and demand. The person fixing their sink or working on their car may have more practical knowledge, but he may also be as dumb as bricks in every other regard and ignorant to boot. The two things are simply different.

I don't see any especial 'looking down' by Twilight except on the basis of Dash's refusal to make any effort to study. As I said before, it's clear Dash blew off the reading she was assigned. The only things that matter about the cloud house thing are that the topic of weather is clearly much more interesting and she is a pegaus. I sincerely doubt she learned all of that out of nowhere and a great deal of that was helped along by her weather talents in the same way that Twilight's talent for magic made doing the practical end of it easier for her. I would bet that Twilight could learn exactly as much as Dash knew (i.e. didn't intuit, like say having an innate temperature sense) by studying. It might not come as easily to a unicorn, but she could still do it.

You don't get what I'm saying. There is a burden there of being Dash's friend. The last thing Twilight wants to do is alienate herself from her friend(s) by pushing Dash over much or ordering her around. Twilight is playing the soft approach here. She is not gluing Dash to a chair with magic until she agrees to actually make some effort to read and recall some information. Twilight is only jealous of Dash's raw available power. I don't see how that matters here at all. I see no evidence of that keeping her from trying to teach Dash.

I'll have you know that I can cope with a great many things. And you really shouldn't insult people based on hypothetical scenarios. In any case my parents are some of the best people I know.

[RealityCheck]

6124800 Pull the stick out of the ass?
Okay...
*bends you over, grabs hold of stick, yanks it out of you.*

I've got a sad prognosis for you... the stick is gone, but you're still an ass.

[ocbaker]

It's like rainbow set off an apple bomb in the comments section. I'm not sure I've seen a more heated debate about who's got the longer stick.

You guys all need to calm down, there is no need to get so worked up over a story.

[Vva70]

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One sign of a good story is when it inspires strong emotions. Specifically, strong emotions other than anger at the story itself.

One sign of good character-driven conflict is when multiple sides can inspire well-reasoned defenders.

Plus, this is the internet. What else was the internet made for if not to host intense arguments over the most trivial of subjects? Don't say porn.

[ocbaker]

6127574 Was about to have a rebuttal but...

img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130405221911/mlp/images/e/e1/FANMADE_Luna_I_see_what_you_did_there.jpg

[Eyes of Avo]

This was one of the first stories I ever favourited, So glad to see it lives again. I eagerly await the next chapter!

[Aldea Donder]

6179744

So glad to know it brought you happiness again, even after all this time. Thanks so much for the comment.