Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard

by King of Beggars

Chapter 6 - Her Own Way

“So tell me about your dreams.”

Twilight stretched out with a yawn, the upholstery squeaking loudly as she settled herself into the doctor’s couch. After four days convalescing aboard the Saddle Arabian airship, and an additional three in the royal infirmary, she was sick of laying down all day. She only acquiesced to the doctor’s request to lay on the couch as a matter of formality. At least it was something new to lay on, even if she would’ve preferred to have a high-backed chair like the kind the elderly, green-coated unicorn mare sat in.

“I’m not really dreaming too much,” Twilight explained.

Twilight watched out the corner of her eye as the doctor reached up to the half-moon spectacles she wore, tilted them up, and squinted at the open notepad levitating before her. Her dark red mane was pulled back tightly into a bun that pulled at her face, possibly in some vain attempt to smooth out wrinkles.

A second field of orange magic pulled a coffee cup from the large desk a short distance away, bringing it to her lips for a sip. The coffee cup returned to its place on the desk, between a name plate that read ‘Blue Ego, Psy.D.’, and a loudly clacking Newton’s Cradle – a simple office toy that demonstrated Newton Cookie’s Law of Conservation of Momentum using steel marbles.

It was all much as the last time she’d been here. Doctor Blue Ego had been the psychiatrist that had done her psychological evaluation when she’d enlisted. It had been a bit of a relief to know she would be dealing with a familiar face for this assessment, though Twilight would have rather not had one at all.

“Is that so?” the doctor asked, barely able to hide the skepticism in her voice. “As a military psychologist, I’ve been privy to some of the details of the action report you filed. It’s quite a tale.”

The tone of disbelief the mare’s voice pulled the corners of Twilight’s mouth into a shallow frown. “You don’t believe it?”

“Of course I do,” Blue Ego assured her patient. She let her glasses fall back to her nose and adjusted them as she jotted something down. “I’m merely saying that such an experience would be traumatizing to anypony. This sort of trauma is often accompanied by recurring nightmares or otherwise unpleasant dreams.”

Doctor Ego set the notepad and quill aside as she leaned forward in her chair. “This is a safe place for you to discuss anything of that nature that might be troubling you. There’s no weakness in asking for help.”

Twilight let herself focus on the sound of the Newton’s Cradle. The little steel balls had been clacking away hypnotically the second she got in the room. The rhythm of the clicking was supposed to be soothing, simulating a heartbeat in the womb or some such thing, likely.

“I know that,” Twilight mumbled. She squished herself down into the couch a little deeper and the soft, overstuffed upholstery accepted her weight, surrounding her like a cocoon. “I’m just not really having any trouble sleeping or any disturbing dreams at all.”

“And why do you think that is?”

Twilight shrugged, the sofa squeaked, the marbles clacked, and the doctor hummed.

“What happened was pretty outside the realm of what I’d been trained for, I’ll admit,” Twilight said evenly. “But it’s not like I’m denying or suppressing any of it or anything. I still remember everything clearly… I’m just not dwelling on it. I made peace with it while I was in the desert, and now I’m just glad to be home.”

Blue Ego leaned back in her chair and sat in contemplation. Twilight could feel the older mare’s eyes boring into her, looking for signs of deceit. After a few moments of scrutiny, the doctor nodded silently. She lifted her quill and pad and began writing notes again.

“Putting that aside for now,” Blue Ego began again, “tell me how you are doing otherwise. Are you adjusting well to being home? Do you feel stressed or afraid, any general anxiety?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, no anxiety. And I haven’t really had time to adjust, I guess. I’ve been home for three days and I’ve spent them all in a sickbed. Princess Cadance had sent word ahead requesting a medical team, so as soon as the airship pulled into Canterlot half the royal infirmary was waiting for us.”

“Yes, I’d heard there was a bit of excitement down in the infirmary,” Blue Ego commented.

“Yeah, I don’t know what Princess Cadance said in the letter, but she must’ve put the fear of the Sun in them to get a response like that,” Twilight said with a laugh. “After they got me into the medical wing and the doctors had their way with me, the Captain of the Guard and the Optio showed up to do my debriefing in person.”

“That must’ve been quite stressful,” the doctor suggested, her quill sketching something out rapidly on the page, “to be under the scrutiny of your two highest ranking commanding officers.”

“I was kind of worried, yeah,” Twilight admitted. She focused on the clicking of the marbles as she pushed forward. “Truthfully, I’d been a little afraid of how my actions would look in hindsight…”

Doctor Ego took a sip of coffee and raised an eyebrow as she carefully studied Twilight’s face. “Do you think you made any poor decisions?”

“I think that if I think hard enough on it I can find fault with almost everything I did,” Twilight answered uneasily, “but that’s just what hindsight is, isn’t it? In the end what matters is what my superiors think, and they said I did everything in my power to fulfill the Guard’s stated purpose of protecting the crown.”

“Indeed,” the older mare commented with a satisfied nod. “Let’s move on to the rest of your support structure, then.”

“My family?”

“Yes. Have you seen them since you’ve been home?”

Twilight frowned. “They let my parents know where I was as soon as they were done with the initial examinations and testing. They live here in Canterlot so they rushed over right away. It was good to see them… until my mom had something of an emotional moment…”

The doctor made an interested little noise.

“She never wanted me to join the military in the first place,” Twilight explained. “So when she found out I got hurt, she started crying and begging me to quit the service as soon as I could… Took a while but my dad and I managed to talk her down from it. Broke my heart a little to see her so upset…”

Twilight noticed movement off to the side and followed it to find a box of tissues hovering near her head. She was about to decline the offer, but as she turned her head she felt wetness streaking down the side of her face. The memory of her mother crying and pleading for her youngest daughter to quit such a perilous profession was still strong, and it had brought tears to her eyes without her even realizing it.

She accepted one of the tissues with muttered gratitude and dried her eyes. They sat in silence, save for the ever-present clack of the Newton’s Cradle. Doctor Ego had stopped taking notes, and simply allowed Twilight a moment to compose herself.

“So then,” the doctor began once Twilight had nodded her readiness to continue, “what about your brothers? Shining Armor and Spike, was it?”

“I haven’t seen them yet because apparently they live in Ponyville now,” Twilight said with a chuckle of disbelief. “From what I heard, while I was out having an adventure a quarter of the globe away, they were here doing the same thing!”

“So then you’ve been filled in about the Nightmare Moon incident?” Doctor Ego asked, her tone of detached, clinical interest becoming warmer, like real, personal interest.

“Yeah, it was part of my debriefing. It’s a pretty unbelievable story, but everypony swears it really happened – and I suppose I don’t have a lot of room to talk about somepony else’s unbelievable story.”

“What do you think about it?”

“I don’t know yet,” Twilight said, blowing a strand of her mane out of her face with a puff. “We’ve got a new princess now, which I guess means more work to go around, so that’s exciting. Everypony that’s talked to me about it – and honestly it’s the only thing those gossipy nurses in the infirmary have been talking about – keeps saying what a surprise it was. I kind of saw it coming, though.”

The doctor’s quill dug deeply into her notepad with a crunch of tearing paper. Blue Ego smiled abashedly.

“I didn’t see that coming specifically, mind you,” Twilight explained with a raise of her eyebrow at the doctor’s queer reaction. “We knew something was going on, though, Princess Cadance and I. Princess Celestia was acting very…” Twilight held her hooves in the air and gestured vaguely with them. “…distracted, I guess you would say, in the days leading up to the Summer Sun Celebration. Then she mysteriously sends Princess Cadance away? Something was going to go down, and it was going to be big, regardless of what actually played out. I’m just glad that it all worked out in the end.

“I’m a little worried about Princess Cadance, though… I haven’t seen her since I got back – which I completely understand. I know she’s busy helping sort things out with all the inquiries and stuff coming in from other nations wondering what was going on with the sky. She was sending me notes down in the infirmary, though, keeping me posted on what’s been going on. She says she’s fine, but me being paranoid like I am, I probably won’t believe it until I see her myself. Plus, I hear she kind of had an argument with Princess Celestia, but she never mentioned it in her notes, so I’m wondering what was going on with that.”

There was a pause in the conversation. Once again, the only sounds in the room were the clicking of the pendulum and the soft breathing of the two ponies in the room. The doctor’s chair creaked lightly as she leaned to one side, and the sound drew Twilight’s eyes. The other mare had removed her glasses and set them aside along with her notes.

Blue Ego held her mug between her hooves as she stared into it, her forehead wrinkling in thought. The cup was steaming, the contents still hot despite the fact that it hadn’t been refilled since Twilight had entered the room.

Twilight sat up, the couch announcing her movement squeakily. “You okay?” she asked in concern.

The doctor looked up from her mug, her eyes a little glassy, and she stared at Twilight for a long moment before she realized that she’d been addressed. “Oh! Oh deary me,” the mare laughed. It was a tight, high-pitched laughter, but charming all the same. “Deary, deary, deary, that was very unprofessional of me.”

“You looked a little lost there,” Twilight pointed out. She sat up a little straighter on the couch and gave her doctor a soft, understanding smile. “You want to talk about it?”

“No, no,” Blue Ego said with a wave of her hoof as she replaced the mug she held with her notepad and quill. “Getting back to your support network, it seems that you and—”

“We don’t have to do this anymore if you don’t want to,” Twilight interrupted. “I’m doing well, but you look like you need somepony to talk to.”

The doctor huffed, her metaphorical feathers ruffled by the interruption and the assumption. “Really, it was a moment of distraction. We still have…” She checked clock on the wall behind Twilight’s couch, in a position where only she could tell how much time had passed. “…twenty minutes of our session to go.”

Twilight tilted her head, a smile playing across her lips. “Is that in real-time or dream-time?”

Doctor Ego blinked and sputtered. “What?” she asked sharply.

Twilight climbed down off the couch, lowering herself into a bow. “Please, Princess Luna, I can listen if you need somepony to talk to.”

The doctor stared for a moment. She shook her head in disbelief, her lips curling into a small, amused grin. “We were warned your mind was sharp, Decurion.”

Twilight lifted her head to find that the unicorn psychiatrist and her chair had been replaced with an alicorn. She was fairly taller than the average mare, though closer to Cadance’s height than Celestia’s. Her coat was a gorgeous blue and her mane was the color of the night sky, complete with twinkling stars and constellations that danced as her hair drifted on invisible currents – the very picture of Princess Celestia in inverse.

“Prithee, explain yourself,” Princess Luna urged. “How did you undo Our beguilement?”

“It was the little things, of course,” Twilight explained. “First, the Newton’s Cradle on the desk has been clacking away since I walked in here. It’s not enchanted as far as I can tell, so it should have stopped by now. Those things are office toys, not perpetual motion engines. Second, the coffee in your mug’s still hot enough to be steaming, so same give away as the toy. Third, you seemed a little too interested in what I thought about the return of Nightmare Moon – way more interested than a figment of my subconscious would be. That led me to believe I had a… let’s say ‘guest’, in my dreamspace.”

Luna listened, frowning at the overlooked details as each thing was listed off. “And how did you know that We were your ‘guest’?”

Twilight smirked, but quickly wiped the expression from her face. One should never be smug with royalty, even if one was especially proud of oneself.

“Remember when I said Princess Cadance was sending me notes? She mentioned meeting you. She said you knew dream magic. That you could walk into another pony’s dreams. That’s an art so lost that I only know of one other being capable of it, and since I personally sent Anubis home to the other side, process of elimination says it had to be you.”

Twilight fell to her haunches and almost leapt up in surprise as her rump fell upon a soft, velvet cushion that had replaced the couch. She shrugged and settled into the seat as Princess Luna did the same on a matching cushion across from her.

“I suppose there was the possibility that you might’ve been somepony dead trying to talk to me through my dreams,” Twilight proposed as she prodded at the cushion with a hoof. “That was pretty unlikely, though. I don’t see what a ghost would gain from that kind of deception.”

Luna’s frown deepened just a bit. “And what do you believe We have gained from this?”

“No idea,” Twilight admitted, shrugging as she flashed a quick grin. “You’re probably doing it as a favor for Princess Cadance or Princess Celestia.”

Luna laughed behind her hoof. It wasn’t the high-pitched, charming titter of the pony she’d disguised herself as, but a light, dignified chuckle that was suppressed at the back of her throat. It was kind of cute, the way Luna restrained her laughter out of what Twilight could only imagine was polite modesty.

“You are quite the detective,” Luna said. “It is no wonder that Sister and Niece Cadance speak so highly of you.”

Twilight smiled. “So, did you want to talk about what was bothering you? I’m told I’m a pretty good listener.”

Luna folded her legs under herself, resting fully on the enormous cushion with a sigh. She sat there for a while, silently contemplating as Twilight patiently waited for her to make a decision.

Twilight knew she was being presumptuous to ask her new princess to confide in her, but if her time with Celestia and Cadance had taught her anything, it was that her duty didn’t end with merely protecting the lives of her princesses. If Princess Luna didn't want to talk all she had to do was decline, so it didn't hurt to ask.

The time ticked away slowly as Twilight waited. Princess Luna’s presence seemed to have a fascinating stabilizing effect on the dreams she intruded on. The dream Twilight had been subjected to under Anubis’ influence had been more – for lack of a better word – dreamlike. There had been those little impossibilities in this instance that had clued her into the nature of her surroundings, but it was nothing like the mind-bending impossible space and disorienting time-lapses she’d felt before.

Princess Luna took a deep breath through her nostrils and exhaled heavily, groaning as though she were laying down a heavy burden.

“We were thinking about what you said of Niece Cadance and how busy she is…” Luna said quietly. “We fear We are the reason she has been kept from your side, and also the reason for her strife with Our dear Sister. It would seem that Our foalishness brought harm even to family We were unaware of… Had We not attempted to steal the skies a second time, these troubles would not have befallen those of Our noble house.”

“You were under the influence of dark magic, right?” Twilight offered, thinking back on the story that had been going around. One of the younger nurses, a chipper girl with a nightingale for a Cutie Mark, had droned on for nearly an hour over the specifics she’d read in the newspapers. Twilight had the impression that the silly girl had a crush on one of her brothers, and Twilight wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“Magics of Our own creation, perhaps,” Luna said sadly. “We fell prey to childish desires to be as beloved as Sister, like a jealous foal acting out for her mother’s attention. Whether Our negative emotions conjured the Nightmare or merely invited it, it matters very little. In the end it was still an affliction of Our own making. Every day in which We labored under the Nightmare’s thrall was a day of weakness and shame.”

Twilight shook her head. “You can’t blame yourself like that. Dark magic exists to bend the backs of good people – ponies, dogs, zebras, alicorns, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is susceptible to darkness once it has taken root. Take it from somepony who also knows what it’s like to face real darkness.”

Luna gave a sad, watery little grin. “As We said earlier, We were privy to your report, and have heard the tale from Our lovely niece, so know that We speak true to say that those words would be hollow from one of less merit.” Her voice grew heavy as she added, “We are ashamed that We lack the fortitude you have shown in the face of your own adversary. Though, We are glad to see that this new age has no want for ponies the like of you.”

“I’m sure Princess Cadance is making it sound way more impressive than it actually was,” Twilight quickly said, flustered by such a grand compliment. “At the time the only things on my mind were staying alive and keeping my friends safe.”

“You are not the first to have spoken in such a way of her own bravery.”

“But it’s true,” Twilight quietly insisted. “The only reason I lived was because I heard Princess Cadance’s voice as Anubis was killing me. My connection with her is what gave me the strength to drive back the darkness. Magic that connects hearts together is what saved me, and from what I heard it’s what saved you. The Magic of Friendship, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, the Elements of Harmony,” Luna said. She waved her hoof and six colored jewels appeared to hover between them.

The gems were wholly unremarkable, of a simple cut that made them look like they wouldn’t have been out of place in Spike’s snack cupboard – except for the largest of the jewels. Unlike the others, the central stone was cut into a six-sided starburst pattern, the same as her own Cutie Mark.

No, she had to remind herself, not only the same as hers. That same starburst was also a part of her brother’s Cutie Mark.

“Pretty, are they not?” Luna asked. “We see they catch your eye. Do you wish to know more?”

Twilight could only nod in reply.

“The Elements of Harmony were ancient by the time We discovered them,” Luna explained. “They are foci for the purity of Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic: the basic foundations upon which ponies come together in Friendship, and in doing so create Harmony.

“Long ago, We used the Elements to bring Harmony and peace to the land. To Celestia went the responsibilities of Generosity, Kindness, and Magic, while We kept Honesty, Loyalty, and Laughter.”

A look of pain flashed across the princess’ face, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared, leaving only a weary smile.

“We are aware of the irony that those would be Our elements, considering Our bitter duplicity and disloyalty in becoming Nightmare Moon… And when We did fall, Sister was able to command enough of their awesome might on her own to banish the Nightmare to Our moon, sealing it away until the rightful bearers, chosen by Destiny itself, would be found.”

Luna waved again, and five of the gemstones changed. They took new shapes: apples, diamonds, butterflies, balloons – all in trios – and a single cloud with a rainbow-colored lightning bolt.

“The Elements have true wielders now, and they have taken the form of their bearers’ Cutie Marks. It was this group, led by Shining Armor, that quieted the evil within Our heart, releasing us from the thrall of darkness.”

Twilight stared at the gems, and an odd feeling of discomfort came over her. It was very small, something like loneliness. A yearning deep inside herself to reach out to the image. She was profoundly aware of her own Cutie Mark at that moment.

In her nightmare, she'd been forced to face the reality that she'd always felt a little odd in her own skin. Like her place in the world wasn't fully formed. It had been the truth, as much as she hated to admit it. No matter how much she loved working towards her dream of being in the Guard, she'd always had the feeling that she'd been destined for something else – not necessarily something big, but something else, at the very least.

She tore her eyes away from the sight of the Elements, and looked to her mark, to where she bore the symbol of Magic. The parting gift Anubis had left her was fresh as the day she’d received it. It scored across her mark, crossing it out angrily the way her professors back at the academy would correct a mistake in dark red marker. Slowly, the small loneliness faded away, flowing out of her body from the wound like her lifeblood.

The stray feeling that she might have been meant to use the Element of Magic was a flaccid epiphany, ineffectual and gone as quickly as it had come to her. She'd made her choice, and Destiny could tug at her emotions and make her feel listless all it wanted, but in the end it didn't matter, not to her.

Not so long as she had her own Way.

“Decurion Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight’s head snapped around as Luna called to her. The alicorn’s face was laced with worry.

“Are you unwell?” Luna pressed. She waved her hoof once more and the image of the Elements blew away like smoke.

Twilight looked to her Cutie Mark, but the wound was again covered by bandages, and beneath the dressing she could feel the vague pressure of the stitches tugging at her flesh, holding it together until it mended itself. The stitches were fresh, made by the infirmary to replace the shoddy job done by the Saddle Arabian field medic that had attended her initially.

“I’m fine,” Twilight replied, sure of that fact herself, even if the look on Luna’s face hinted that the princess wasn’t so convinced. She decided that it would be best to change the subject. “I was just thinking that there seems to be a lot of these ancient magical artifacts just sort of… lying around.”

Luna was quiet, watching Twilight with her eyes half closed in consideration. “Yes,” Luna began slowly. “There are many lost wonders in this world. There exist remnants of things that were ancient when this world was young, and this world is very, very old. We may seem timeless to one of your age, but there are places like this Necropolis, and artifacts like the Elements of Harmony, that have existed since long before even Our time.”

“Things like my chakram,” Twilight added.

“Yes, things such as your chakram,” Luna said uneasily. “We have seen this object. It causes Us… disquiet. Even Sister could not levitate it, and We are unable to read the cipher etched upon its surface.”

It made sense that the other princesses had seen it. The infirmary had a strict policy against carrying arms, even for off-duty guards, so Twilight had been forced to leave the precious item in Cadance’s care, who no doubt would have shown the odd thing to her aunts by now.

“It’s weird that nopony else can lift it, right?” Twilight asked. “I have no trouble at all. It resonates really well with my magic.”

Luna nodded. “Indeed. This is also why We wished to speak with you. Setting aside Our debt to Sirs Shining Armor and Spike, and our favor to Niece Cadance, we wished to see what sort of impressive mare the mistress of such an item would be.”

Twilight rubbed her hooves together self-consciously. “You’re very kind, Princess Luna.”

“We speak only the truth,” Luna said with a flick of her hoof through her star-filled mane. “Whether giving or receiving, We are far too old and have seen far too much to entertain empty compliments. The few nobles daring enough to approach Us were ill-equipped to parlay with the Lady of Dreams.”

The corners of Luna’s mouth curled slightly, becoming a mysteriously wistful smile. It was the kind of smile that older ponies wore when they were becoming lost in pleasant memories.

“The Lady of Dreams?” Twilight asked.

“An old epithet by which We were known in days bygone,” Luna explained. “Our duties as Mistress of the Night mean We act as sentinel to the dreams of Our subjects. We search for disturbances in the dreamscape that links the minds of all ponies, and assist them in overcoming their own nightmares.”

Twilight let loose a sharp bark of laughter and slapped a hoof over her mouth in shock. “Um, sorry,” she apologized. She was absolutely mortified that she’d laughed like that. “It just occurred to me that somepony looking out for my dreams would’ve been helpful back in… you know…”

Luna managed to look a little embarrassed herself, and Twilight was struck by how oddly cute it was to see a centuries-old alicorn of possibly incalculable might look abashed. If nothing else, Princess Luna wore her emotions far more openly than Princess Celestia, and Twilight couldn’t help but like her.

“Yes, well, We were not in the mind to fulfill this duty at the time,” Luna said as she cleared her throat. “Banished to the moon as We were, it has been a thousand years since We have guarded the realm of dreams, and it will take some time before We are ready to do so again.”

Twilight rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. Princess Luna wasn’t just skilled in the ways of dream magic, she was also some sort of defender of dreams?

Dreams, dreams, dreams – it all came back to dreams, apparently. This whole mess had come about because something had come to Dingo in a dream, reached out to him, tainted his mind, and lured him to the city of his ancestors – presumably all just to get Anubis out of the way temporarily.

And while that was going on, a quarter of the world away, the ‘Lady of Dreams’ was making her return? It was all too much to be just coincidence. More of the puzzle had revealed itself, and she needed to fill those blanks.

“Princess, can I ask a question?”

Luna shrugged. It was a motion that Twilight felt was oddly modern for the alicorn princess, and she briefly wondered if ponies a thousand years ago shrugged like that, or if was something she’d picked up recently.

“What do you know about the divide between the world of dreams and the land of the dead?” Twilight asked.

Luna stared, visibly taken aback by the forwardness of the question. “This would be about the being known as Anubis, yes?”

“You called me a detective earlier,” Twilight said, “so let’s just say it’s more detective work. I’m working on something of a puzzle, you see.”

The Princess of the Night inhaled heavily, idly pawing at her cushion as she considered her response. She frowned and tilted her head slightly, willing a pair of teacups into existence between them.

Twilight looked at the cup of hot tea. She leaned forward and sniffed it. It certainly smelled like tea, and the steam was warm and damp against her face. She took a sip, and was pleased to find it was a lovely jasmine-mint flavor. The taste of the tea was all in her head, as was the sensation of the liquid filling her body with warmth, but it was relaxing all the same.

“The realm of dreams is an intermediary between the lands of the living and the dead,” Luna began. She levitated her own cup and sipped. “In dreams, the walls which separate the worlds are thinnest. This is why the dead are sometimes known to speak to the living in their dreams. The dead are not constrained by time in the way those of us bound by earthly flesh are, and sometimes they give warnings of possible calamity. Those who are especially attuned to certain magics are often visited by such apparitions, and in days past they were seen as soothsayers of a sort.”

“Isn’t that dangerous, though?” Twilight asked. “Why don’t we see things crossing over all the time? From what I’ve learned, the lands of the dead are filled with terrible things.”

“It happens, and dealing with such things is one of Our responsibilities as Lady of Dreams,” Luna explained. “It does not happen often, though, for while the walls separating the realms may be thin, they are very strong. Any malicious creatures that manage to make the incursion tend to be rather weak and easily dealt with. A being such as this Anubis could not normally cross the divide with his might intact – it would be something akin to trying to squeeze an elephant through a mouse-hole.”

“But he did come through,” Twilight pointed out. “He came through and he was tremendously powerful.”

Luna cast her gaze down, staring into her cup as she swirled the contents around. “We fear this is yet another thing which can be laid at our hooves…” she confessed. “As We’ve said, We have not held dominion over dreams in a thousand years, and as the time of Our return grew near, Nightmare Moon made certain that she would again have full control of all her seats of power. Months before returning, Nightmare Moon once more exerted control over this wondrous realm – not to guard it, but merely to again claim it as her own. We fear that she was none too gentle while planting her flag, and her influence likely weakened the walls between the worlds to a greater degree than they ever have been.”

Another piece fell into place in Twilight’s mind. If Nightmare Moon’s seizing of the dream realm had begun months ago, around the same time that Dingo first began to have the dreams that would eventually drive him mad, then the timeline matched up.

“This is making sense…” Twilight muttered. “If the walls were weakened, then that means…”

“Means what, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked as she leaned forward curiously.

Twilight lifted her cup and drank, swishing the hot tea around in her mouth and swallowing with a sigh. “Optio Whippoorwill asked that it be left out of the official report because it was just speculation on my part,” she began to explain, “but my friend Basenji and I think there’s another player on the field that we haven’t seen yet.”

“What do you mean?”

The princess was frowning, and Twilight got the distinct impression that she might’ve just gotten her Optio in a bit of hot water for approving a less-than-complete action report. Not that he’d done anything wrong, as the official action report was only supposed to be descriptions of the events and observations by the field operative with concrete evidence behind them. Her personal theory on the events was probably jotted down on some footnote somewhere where the princess hadn’t seen it.

It was something she could explain later, though. She was on a roll and didn’t want to lose her train of thought.

“Anubis wasn’t a bad guy. He didn’t plan to lure those dogs down into that city and get himself sealed in some kind of… ghost trap or whatever it was. Something else plotted the whole charade, and if Anubis couldn’t normally be pulled through to our realm, Nightmare Moon’s return destabilizing the dream realm might’ve been exactly what our mysterious architect may have been waiting for.”

Twilight was grinning from ear to ear, certain that she’d finally fit another piece to the mystery. The explanation had gushed out of her, and by the time she’d finished, she was nearly out of breath with excitement.

“We see…” Luna said sullenly, clearly not sharing Twilight’s enthusiasm at the revelation. Her eyes were downcast as she toyed with her teacup, tipping it just until the liquid was about to spill. “Yet another mistake to atone for… It would seem that Our sins gather like falling snow…”

Twilight sat up and frantically waved her hooves in denial. “No-no-no-no-no! I didn’t mean to make you feel bad! Please don’t feel bad! I’m just trying to figure this out, and besides, whatever planned this whole thing probably would’ve found another way to get its way!”

Her eyes went wide and she brought her hooves to her mouth, forcibly stopping her excited babbling.

“Oh no, I’m shouting at a princess again,” she whispered into her hooves. “Why am I always shouting at princesses?”

Twilight continued to stammer in panic, cursing her excitable nature and her ever-damning inability to control the volume of her voice when she got worked up. The sudden feeling of a hoof resting atop her head snapped her out of her mild episode, and she turned to find Princess Luna standing beside her, patting her head gently.

Twilight looked back to the cushion across from her to find it – and the occupant – now gone. She’d just been looking right at Princess Luna, but now she was beside her?

It was just dream physics, she realized as Luna continued to pet her reassuringly.

“You, Twilight Sparkle, are a singularly amusing mare,” Luna complimented as she laughed that light, dignified little laugh. “In fact, We will soon be reforming Our Night Guard, and while We imagine you are content with your current assignment, should you ever desire a change of circumstances…” Luna lifted Twilight’s chin, bringing their faces closer as she flashed a predatory grin. “…We are certain We might be amenable to finding a comfortable position for you directly beneath Us.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped, and the next thing she knew she was staring at the clean white tiles of the infirmary ceiling. The sound of the princess’ dainty snickering was still in her ears.

“Did I just get hit on by another princess…?”

* * *

“Should you be up yet, ma’am?” the guard standing at the castle entrance asked.

Twilight stopped and turned to face the unfamiliar stallion that had addressed her. He was a few years older than her – older enough that it felt odd to be addressed as “ma’am,” at any rate – and the crest of his galea bore the colors and markings of a Legionary. She didn’t know his name, but she’d seen him in the barracks and at inspection before.

“I’m sorry?”

“You just got out of the infirmary, Decurion,” he said, casting a glance at his partner standing sentinel at the other side of the entrance.

His partner – another familiar stranger bearing Legionary rank – nodded, tilting his chin upwards towards the sky. “We’re scheduled for some rain today, too. We wouldn’t want you catching a cold, Decurion, ma’am.”

“Don’t worry about me, boys,” Twilight said as she smiled reassuringly. “I already know about the rain, I just wanted to sit out in the gardens and watch it come down for a while.”

She made to leave but was stopped by another shout from the first guard. The stallion stared at her, shifting his weight almost imperceptibly and clearly arguing silently with himself. His eyes darted down, towards the bandage on her side, and quickly went back up to meet hers.

“Is it… true…?” he asked cautiously. “What they’re saying about what happened to you and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza in the desert… did it really happen?”

They both leaned forward, ears perked eagerly as they waited for confirmation.

Twilight raised an eyebrow suspiciously. The events of her encounter with Anubis were supposed to be classified. A tame version of the story was still being discussed between the three nations involved, to be included in whatever release would be made regarding the discovery of the Necropolis. Archaeologists from around the world would be flocking to the site once word got out, and they’d need a sanitized version of the discovery for the history books.

Last she’d heard of it, they were still a while away from putting together the official story. There was no way that a couple of Legionaries would have been cleared to hear the details of it so soon.

“Where’d you hear about that?” she asked.

“Ma’am, everypony’s talking it about,” the second guard answered for his partner.

“Well, I don’t know what you heard, and I don’t want to hear,” Twilight said, “but I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”

She left the matter at that and began to slowly limp in the direction of the gardens. Once she was a good distance away she could hear the sound of the two guards excitedly whispering to one another. As their superior, she considered turning back and chastising them for breaking discipline, but she just shook her head and continued on her way. She was off duty anyway.

To the two stallions, her refusal to talk about it had probably been as good as confirmation of whatever they’d heard. Any attempts to correct them now would be pointless. That’s how rumors tended to go. The harder you tried to squash them, the more outlandish they got, like a game of Griffon-Whispers where the story changes with every retelling.

The sound of thunder rolled across the courtyard, rumbling deeply with the promise of rain. Pegasi in weather team suits were moving around in the sky above, shoving small cloudbanks together and massaging them into place like bakers working fresh dough, forming a single storm front that spread over the whole of the city like a great big pie crust.

Maybe she was just getting hungry. She made a mental note – and underlined it six times – to drop by the mess later to get some pie.

She picked up her pace a little, hurrying to the spot she’d picked out from the window of her room in the infirmary. She wanted to be settled in before the rain started to fall.

She limped along, mindful of her bum knee. The injury wasn’t so bad – just a sprain to the ligament, which could have been much worse – but it still didn’t like supporting too much of her weight. It’d be another couple of weeks before she was back to fighting-form, even with the first-class medical care she was getting.

The minor ache in the joint made her wonder if it’d be like this every time it started raining. The thought that she’d earned her own ‘trick-knee’, like the one Sky Chaser had professed to have, brought a smile to her lips.

“There you are!”

Twilight looked up, her smiling widening until it took up her whole face as she recognized the voice of her new paramour. “Cadance!” she shouted excitedly.

The princess was descending from the air, her wings beating slowly as she approached. She touched down a few paces ahead of Twilight and rushed forward to nuzzle her.

“What are you doing out here?” Cadance asked, her voice a mix of disapproval and relief. “You should be in bed.”

Twilight inhaled deeply, once again a little disturbed by how readily she gave in to the temptation to sniff another pony… even if she did smell really good.

“I’m tired of being in a bed,” Twilight grumbled as she rubbed her face deeper into the taller girl’s mane. “I saw the weather team getting the clouds ready for a shower and checked myself out of the infirmary.”

Cadance pulled away to glare down at Twilight. Her lips pulled into a tight line as she made a nasally growl of dissatisfaction. “I’m going to have a talk with those nurses later…”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she stepped around the irate princess and continued on her way. “It’s not their fault, Cadance. I was very insistent. If it makes you feel any better they threatened to call the orderlies on me.”

“Tell me you didn’t hurt anypony…” Cadance asked as she moved to keep up with Twilight.

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” Twilight asked with a snort. “It was a bluff, I called it. End of story.”

“You still shouldn’t be out here,” Cadance said, her voice soft with worry.

Twilight could feel Cadance’s eyes on her, watching as she hobbled along the paved walkway leading further into the gardens. It gave her a warm feeling in the pit of her belly to know that Cadance worried about her, but that warm feeling also came with a little twinge of guilt that she was the source of her new girlfriend’s worry.

This love stuff was very confusing.

“Just for a little while, okay?” Twilight pleaded. “Please? I just want to watch the rain. I know a dry place we can sit, and when we go back in I can use a shield to keep the rain off us.”

She felt a tickle along her ribs as Cadance brushed a wing against her side, a silent assent that Cadance had accepted her terms. Twilight relaxed at the touch with a sigh, tension from days of being cooped up indoors bleeding out of her as she felt the stones beneath her hooves and the soft caress of Cadance’s feathers.

They walked in silence for a while, enjoying the gardens in the quickly cooling summer afternoon. The gardens were more of a park than anything else. The plateau of the mountain the city had been build on had been flattened and cultivated by generations of earth pony landscapers and architects. There were topiary displays, centuries-old sculptures, hedge mazes, reflecting ponds, streams fed by hoof-crafted waterfalls – every act of beauty that could be achieved by earth pony ingenuity and stubbornness could be found in this place. For all that beauty, though, Twilight found her eyes wandering to the girl walking at her side.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come visit,” Cadance said.

“It’s fine, I know you were busy.”

“Really busy,” Cadance grumbled. “You know what the worst thing about important government officials is? They all know they’re important.”

“I can imagine,” Twilight said. After a moment of hesitation, she broached a subject that had been on her mind. “I heard you had an argument with Princess Celestia… you okay?”

Cadance’s stride hitched for just a second at the question, but if she was more surprised than that it didn’t show on her face. “Where did you hear that?”

“The nurses in the infirmary are kind of gossipy,” Twilight explained. “Apparently you can’t keep a secret from anypony in this castle.”

“Tell me about it,” Cadance said with a huff and a roll of her eyes. “How else do you think everypony and their mother knows about how you battled six Cerberuses and a Hydra atop a flaming airship that crashed into an oasis where native zebra mares nursed us back to health by mouth-feeding us dates?”

Twilight stumbled, tripping over her own hooves as her head whipped around. The tingling shimmer of Cadance’s magic was the only thing that kept her standing.

“Is that what they’re saying!?” Twilight sputtered.

“That’s what the guards are circulating,” Cadance said with a wry grin. “The maids insist that it was ten Cerberuses and a whole aerial battalion of griffons. And the cooking staff says the zebra mares were actually diamond dogs that wanted you as their warrior princess. My favorite, though, is the landscapers who think you beat a Goddess of the Hunt in a sewing contest.”

Twilight pressed a hoof to the bridge of her nose, gently massaging the angry throb forming between her eyes at the sheer idiocy of it all. “I don’t know whether any of that is more or less outrageous than what actually happened…”

“Aw, look at you,” Cadance cooed, “all flustered by your newfound celebrity. Aren’t you happy that your legend has already begun to spread?”

“No,” Twilight said simply. There was a rumble of thunder from above that reminded her of the gathering rainclouds and she started on her way again. “So changing back to what I actually asked, what happened with Princess Celestia?”

Cadance’s good cheer evaporated quickly. She followed Twilight sedately, her head down and gaze fixed on the paving stones as they walked.

“I kind of blew up at her…” Cadance admitted shamefully. “I said some… very mean things.”

Twilight slowed her already sluggish gait so that Cadance could catch up. “What kind of things?” she asked, darting her head forward to nuzzle against Cadance’s neck reassuringly.

Cadance returned the gesture briefly but quickly turned away. “Nothing I want to repeat. It was just a lot of pent up stuff about feeling unappreciated. I hadn’t meant to get into an argument. I swear, I just wanted to find out what happened while we were gone and ask why I was sent away, but when I saw her face I was just so…”

Cadance grit her teeth and growled as she stomped a hoof down angrily. Her metal shoe struck the paving stone hard enough to crack the stone and throw off a spark.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the display, but didn’t comment on it. The look on Cadance’s face immediately following the act hinted that it was better to pretend she hadn’t seen that little slip of emotion.

“Despite how utterly stupid I was, though, she was the one that kept apologizing,” Cadance continued. “You can imagine how dumb I felt when Aunt Luna came into the throne room to see what the shouting was about… Turns out the reason Aunt Celestia sent me away was because we were the back-up plan for if Nightmare Moon managed to seize control of Equestria.”

When Twilight had heard about the return of Nightmare Moon during the Summer Sun Celebration, she'd put the pieces together and realized straight away that it had been the reason that Cadance had been sent away. Even still, it was nice to have confirmation.

“You were just frustrated,” Twilight offered. “We’d just gotten back from a high-stress situation, and you were looking for somepony to blame.”

“Exactly,” Cadance agreed bitterly. “That’s why I’m so angry with myself. I’m a princess. I shouldn’t be looking for anypony or anyone else to take blame. It was unseemly, unbecoming of my station to let my emotions go like that. There I was, ranting and raving about not being treated like a proper princess, and I couldn’t even act like one... And to make matters worse, she was completely right to keep her plan a secret. I would’ve just insisted on staying to help, and who knows how my presence might’ve affected how it all went down?”

Twilight was a bit taken aback by how similar Cadance’s explanation was to how Luna had described her own struggles with living in Celestia’s shadow. How much older had Luna been than Cadance when she’d first started to feel that no one appreciated what she did for her ponies? It was a striking reminder that beneath all that regal poise and otherworldly power, the alicorn princesses were ponies, just the same as her.

“I met Princess Luna,” Twilight said. “Did you ask her to pay me a visit in my dreams?”

“I may have asked her to pop in on you because I was worried how you were doing,” Cadance admitted with a thin smile. “I like her, I’m glad we’re getting along. It’s hard to believe all the stories I heard about Nightmare Moon.”

“She’s nice, yeah,” Twilight said with a nod.

In a move that she felt was vastly wise, Twilight decided not to admit the part where her meeting with Luna had veered off into a job offer. Twilight had the feeling that Cadance might change her tune about her newly un-estranged relative if she knew about the implied… benefits package… that came with the position Luna had offered her.

“The fact that she’s an ageless dream sorceress aside, you two are a lot alike in some ways.”

“I hope in the good ways,” Cadance snickered.

“Why, are you worried about succumbing to your inner darkness the way Nightmare Moon did?” Twilight teased.

“You’d better hope I don’t become Nightmare Cadance.”

“Not Nightmare Love?” Twilight suggested.

Cadance smiled and shook her head. “Nightmare Heart!”

“Overly Attached Marefriend?”

Cadance laughed sharply. “Yes, yes that one! That’s definitely the one I’m going with if I go evil.”

“Things are okay now, though?” Twilight asked hopefully. “With Princess Celestia I mean.”

Cadance nodded. “Yeah, we’re okay now. This stuff happens in every family. It’s probably not the same argument, but the same kind, at any rate. If anything, things are kind of better. She’s blaming herself for what happened to us out in the desert, so she’s really taking my feelings to heart and trying to include me in this sticky business of smoothing things out with our foreign allies.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Something in Cadance’s tone told her there was something she wasn’t saying. “Things are going well, but…?”

Cadance glanced at Twilight out of the corner of her eye, chewing her lip apprehensively before she added: “…but… she insisted on having me sleep in her room with her. We haven’t done ‘sleepovers’ since I was twelve, but I went ahead and agreed to it, because, you know, I still feel bad about having yelled at her. She’s just being super clingy and that’s part of the reason why I wasn’t able to make it down to see you until now…”

“Did you wear little hoofie-pajamas and tell ghost stories?”

Cadance snorted. “Hah, shut up,” she said as she choked back laughter.

The path led them the long way around a hedge maze, and as they rounded a corner they came upon the spot Twilight had picked out. Away from the path, in the middle of an immaculately groomed lawn, was a reflecting pond, just about the size of a small swimming pool. A short distance from the pond was a white gazebo, consisting of a simple roof suspended from four ornately carved, ivy covered posts above a wooden patio. Some previous visitor to the spot had left behind a checkered blanket that had been rolled up and set off to one side.

Twilight stepped onto the patio and unfurled the blanket with a snap of her magic. She turned and cleared her throat before giving a deep bow.

“Ahem, here you are, My Lady,” Twilight said, her voice affecting a nasally-snobbish accent. “This should keep thy Regal Rump pleasantly toasty.”

“Oh, what a gentlemare thou art, Lady Guard,” Cadance replied as she tittered theatrically. “This pleases the Royal Behind, and We look forward to any other services thou might render unto it in the future.”

Cadance stepped onto the patio, striding past Twilight with an exaggerated sway of her hips. She flicked her tail against the smaller girl’s side, swatting her playfully.

Twilight shivered at the feeling of Cadance’s silky soft tail dragging along her spine as she passed. Cadance was much better at this flirty-flirty stuff than Twilight was, and she wasn’t afraid to show it.

“Good try, hon,” Cadance teased, “but I’m afraid you’re still just a Flirting yellow-belt.” She plopped down onto the blanket with grin, pulling her legs under her and lying on her belly. “The effort was appreciated, though. It’s cute when you try.”

Twilight settled in next to Cadance and made a frustrated little noise. “I’m still new at this stuff.”

“Hey, so am I, kind of!” Cadance countered as she gently leaned over and nudged her girlfriend.

Twilight scoffed. “Yeah, but you’re the Princess of Love! You’ve probably read as many romance novels as I’ve read… anything! Your level of research competence in this field is orders of magnitude higher!”

Cadance leaned over and nuzzled her face into the crook of Twilight’s neck. “Oh, baby, keep talking nerdy, I’m almost there.”

Twilight’s ears folded back and her face grew hot at the intimate act. She reached over to pull one of Cadance’s hooves to her chest, hugging it tightly. Cadance responded by scooting closer, pressing their bodies together as she draped a wing over Twilight’s back.

Twilight had spent most of the return trip to Canterlot unconscious – sleeping without gaining rest, only to again succumb to unconsciousness within a few hours. She’d slipped in and out of the waking world, and every time she’d awakened, Cadance had been by her side, snuggled up against her, their bodies pressed together reassuringly just like they were now.

They’d spent most of their time just holding each other, getting comfortable with the sensation of each other’s warmth and learning to appreciate the silent presence of one another. They’d spent their waking hours together sitting in contented silence as much as talking.

Twilight traced the tip of Cadance’s hoof with her own, letting her mare know that she was happy to be there. Cadance responded by flexing her wing, fanning out the feathers and gently stroking Twilight’s back. It was a little like learning a new language, Twilight thought as they lay on the blanket and made up for the days they’d lost to convalescence and duty respectively.

Like the flirting that Twilight was only just starting to grasp, this was a new way of communicating. A sign language of touch. It was something she could share with only one other pony – a secret language just for the two of them. Every stroke and every nuzzle meant something different in the lexicon they were creating.

When the rain began to fall, it started as a slow pitter-patter. Little thumps of water striking the grass as the weather pegasi did whatever it was they did to the clouds to make them release their burden. The raindrops that fell into the reflecting pond were a much sharper ‘thwip’ to the deeper ‘thwap’ of the drops hitting the earth.

Thwip-thwip-thwip.

Thwap-thwap-thwap.

Twilight’s ears twitched as she listened to the rain falling. Maybe it was the result of having spent so much time learning about magic from the perspective of a diamond dog drummer, or maybe it was just increased environmental sensitivity because of the ordeal she’d undergone, but at that moment it felt like the sky and the earth were making music together. The beat of the falling rain was like one of Basenji’s Ways, casting a spell that filled her with a sense of finally being well and truly home.

“I didn’t think about it at the time,” Twilight said softly, “but this is probably what I missed most while we were in that dusty place. I’ve always loved the rain. It reminds me of being a filly. Whenever it would rain and everypony would be stuck indoors, I’d be in my dorm with a mug of cocoa, studying in peace like I was the only pony in the whole world… Would’ve been a shame if I’d never got to see this again...”

“I wasn’t worried,” Cadance said. “I knew we were coming home. I knew you’d protect us.”

“Well of course I was going to get you home,” Twilight chuckled. “It’s me that I wasn’t sure would make it back or not.”

Twilight felt Cadance stiffen at her side.

“Don’t talk like that,” Cadance whispered. She leaned into Twilight’s side harder, burying her face into her girlfriend’s shoulder. “No gallows-humor. Don’t ever even think about not coming back to me.”

“Sorry, just being dumb,” Twilight apologized with a sigh. She jumped as she felt Cadance’s teeth nip lightly at her neck.

“You’re my dummy, though,” Cadance stated as a matter of fact. She flicked her tongue against the spot she’d bit and gently kissed it.

Twilight’s cheeks burned as she felt Cadance’s lips drag across her skin. The light, tender kisses became little tugs at the sensitive hairs of her coat with Cadance’s teeth.

Despite all their cuddling, hoof holding, and playful tickle-fights, lips still hadn’t entered the vernacular of their ‘language of touch’. Twilight hadn’t so much as given or received a chaste peck on the cheek, and now she had the beautiful princess nibbling at her neck. Thinking about it, they’d probably skipped a few steps in this little courtship of theirs, but the awkwardness on Twilight’s part, the circumstances of their sleeping arrangement aboard the ship, and Cadance’s patience had gotten them this far.

Twilight’s highly developed warrior-scholar mind dimly recognized that Cadance’s patience might have run out, and that this was very probably – within a six-to-seven percent margin of error – an overt invitation to further their relationship by going back and touching those bases they’d skipped over.

A louder, more primal and lizardy part of her brain shouted that this was most definitely an invitation for smoochies.

Twilight pulled away and the princess lifted her head, smiling down at the girl she’d just peppered with butterfly kisses. Twilight leaned in and pressed her lips to Cadance’s.

For the first few moments of the kiss, Twilight’s mind was racing, trying to remember all the make-out scenes she’d read in the few romance novels she’d ever bothered cracking open – and they were mainly war-romances – in an attempt to fish out some pointers. Her lips were probably chapped and dry from the infirmary’s air conditioning charms, and it had been at least a few hours since she’d brushed her teeth. Girls hated that, right? Dry lips and smelly breath were supposed to be a turn-off, or at least Twilight knew it’d be a turn-off for her.

She was doing terribly.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, her Cadance, her first romance, was kissing sandpaper that reeked of the cottage cheese and ranch dressing from the salad that said sandpaper had had for lunch. This would forever be the memory of their first kiss, and Cadance would hate it, and she’d dump her on the spot, and Twilight would be alone, and…

Twilight’s thoughts drifted away as Cadance pressed harder into the kiss, humming in delight. She pressed deeper and deeper, seemingly trying to pour herself into Twilight through her mouth. The heat in Twilight’s cheeks began to creep down her body, spreading over her skin with a tingle of increased bloodflow and a euphoric surge of hormones.

Cadance’s tongue licked at Twilight’s lips as she pressed deeper still. Twilight let her have what she wanted.

Time slipped away, and when they finally pulled apart, the rain had changed from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour. Twilight licked her lips, running her tongue over them slowly in wonder at the lingering tingle from the kiss. The kiss had been very hard, and her lips probably had the same swollen puffiness as Cadance’s. It made the princess’ lips look fuller, plump and inviting. Twilight had the sudden urge to kiss her again.

“I can’t believe that’s what it took for you finally get the message,” Cadance giggled breathlessly. “I was throwing up flags for you the whole time we were flying home. I was starting to think you were never going to kiss me.”

“Sorry?” Twilight said, smiling sheepishly. She was feeling a little lightheaded and couldn’t think of anything more pithy or eloquent to say in response.

“Oh, well. I guess it works out. I’d be absolutely mortified if anypony heard that I’d given up a kiss before our first date. That’s not ladylike at all! It just isn’t done!”

“Wait, we still haven’t had our first date yet,” Twilight pointed out. The gears in her head began spinning again as her brain recovered from the heated make-out session. She blinked. “Wait… wait, is this a date?”

Cadance leaned forward, her tongue darting out of her mouth to remoisten her lips. “It is now.”

Cadance’s horn lit up as she pushed her mare onto her back. The corners of the blanket lifted, wrapping around the two girls like a sleeping bag. The rain was coming down in sheets, the air grew chilly, and the wind began to blow, but neither of them noticed. They had their blanket, a roof over their heads, and the warmth of their bodies to see them through whatever weather came their way.

* * *

Twilight stood in her quarters, examining herself in the mirror as she shrugged and tugged at the straps around her barrel. The armorer had done an excellent job on the holster she’d requested for her chakram. The brown lacquered-canvas straps fit snuggly across her chest, and the stiff holster for the disc was tight against her left shoulder. She walked in circles a bit, pleased that nothing chaffed as she moved.

She levitated the weapon off the bed and into its new home with a hiss of friction, then secured it with a locking strap. It was a perfect fit, and the weight felt great on her side.

The holster was just for her to wear while off duty and out of uniform. The Centurion himself had approved the construction of a new set of custom armor to replace the suit she’d lost in the field, and she’d requested that her new armor have something in the same place to hold the weapon while on duty.

She nodded at her reflection and went to the other item she’d picked up on her way back to the barracks.

Twilight had never owned a hat fancy enough to come in a box. The only piece of headwear she’d ever worn that even came close was her galea, and that had been issued to her in the same strongbox as the rest of her armor. Luckily, her new fillyfriend owned many fancy hats, and as such had a nice big hatbox that she said Twilight could have.

Twilight pulled the box out of a saddlebag along with a stack of letters that were neatly folded and tied together with a long pink ribbon. She held the letters and ran a hoof over them with a grin.

Like many aspects of her relationship, love letters were a new thing for her. Twilight hadn’t even been sure at first if the little notes Cadance had been sending down to the infirmary every couple of hours counted as love letters. Eventually though, she decided that there was evidence enough to consider them romantic communiqué just from the way they smelled.

Twilight held the letters to her face and inhaled the sweet, flowery scent of Cadance’s perfume. Every missive had been given a quick squirt of the stuff. If books were to be believed, that was supposed to mean they were in fact love letters, and there was no reason to distrust books about this sort of thing.

She opened the hatbox and carefully set the letters inside. According to her mom, that’s the place where a lady kept keepsakes that were precious, but not valuable enough – in a monetary sense – to keep in a safe.

Her mother’s keepsake box had been filled with notes and souvenirs and pictures of her parents as a young couple. There had even been an old, desiccated starfish at the bottom of the box that had fascinated her young mind. When she’d reached into the box to pull it out for a better look, its brittle body had split in two. Twilight had cried, thinking that she’d broken one of her mother’s possessions, but her mom just laughed and explained that it had always been broken. Twilight had asked why her mom would keep something that was broken, and all the older mare would say is that she’d understand why when she was older.

Twilight replaced the lid and tapped the box, noting the hollow sound. “There’s still plenty of room in you,” she said to the box as she pushed it under her bed. “I wonder how full you’ll be when I’m her age…”

She checked the time on her alarm clock with a frown. She didn’t have much more time, and she walked slowly enough as it was, what with the limp and all.

The saddlebag lifted with her magic and dumped the remainder of its contents onto the covers. She put the bag away, shoving it under the bed next to the hatbox, and sorted through the various medical supplies.

With a sigh she opened a bottle of pills and worked her mouth to gather enough saliva to swallow one of the antibiotics without having to get a glass of water. Next she pulled the bandage off her flank, the tape holding it in place pulling away from her coat with an uncomfortable sound to match the uncomfortable feeling. The soiled bandage was tossed into a trash can next to the nightstand and Twilight went to the mirror to inspect the damage.

The chakram had made a very clean cut, despite the dull edge, and the seam in her flesh was cleanly visible where the medics had shaved a strip of her coat so they could better inspect the injury and sew her back together. The faint coloration of her Cutie Mark could still be seen on her skin where the coat had been shaved away. The skin along her cut was the sickly discoloration of mending flesh, laced together with bits of stitching that probably wasn’t fishing line, but looked a lot like it. The bits of thread holding her together oddly reminded her of the patchwork doll she’d had as a filly, Optio Smartypants.

Even still, it was an ugly souvenir to bring home.

She levitated the medical supplies off the bed and set them next to her mirror. Even with the oral antibiotics, she still needed to clean the wound and change her bandages. Infections weren’t pretty, and she could’ve picked up almost anything from some whatever-thousand-year-old dog-mummy.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” she told her guest. She ignored the opening door in favor of hurrying her task, and poured a measure of a topical disinfectant into a small bowl. “You’re a little early. I’m just cleaning this up really fast and then we can go, okay?”

“Twilight…?”

Twilight looked up to find her brother standing in the hallway, his eyes wide and fixed on her side. She had assumed her guest was Cadance, who had seen the wound already, but aside from her, the only other ponies that had seen her… disfigurement… were doctors, nurses, and medics. Not even her parents had seen it.

She suddenly felt very self-conscious.

She opened her mouth to ask him to wait in the hallway while she finished up, but the look in his eyes – the pitying, sad look – made her think better of it. It might make things worse if she made him feel like he had to leave. The weight of a request for privacy would only add to the severity of her affliction in his mind.

“Sorry, thought you were somepony else,” she said with a forced chuckle, trying to downplay the tension. She opened a little plastic case and removed a square of sterile cotton that she soaked in the disinfectant. “Come on in and have a seat on the bed, and shut the door behind you, please.”

There was a pause that lasted long enough that she almost looked up to ask him to come in again. Eventually, the soft patter of his steps preceded the sounds of the door closing and of his weight settling onto the mattress.

“It’s good to see you, Shining, how’ve you been?” Twilight asked, trying to make small talk. She sucked air in through her teeth as she dabbed at the cut with the disinfectant. “Spike didn’t come with you?”

“I had some business to discuss with Princess Celestia,” Shining Armor replied, his voice very tight and obviously nervous. “Spike, um… had a date, so he stayed home.”

Twilight managed a little more sincerity in her laugh. “A date? Well, good for him! He’s been chasing skirts for so long I was starting to think he’d never catch one.”

“Yeah, it’s a friend of ours. Spike made something of an impression on her when we, uh… did you hear about the Nightmare Moon thing, yet?”

Twilight nodded.

“Right, well…” He cleared his throat loudly. “The two of them have been all moony-eyed over each other for like a week. I walked in on them making out in the periodicals the other day – we’re living in the library in Ponyville, by the way, in case you haven’t heard.”

Twilight nodded again. “I heard.” She opened a tube of something that smelled like peppermint and applied a small amount of the clear gel to the wound.

“Do you want some help?” Shining Armor asked suddenly.

“I’m good,” Twilight said as she waved him off over her shoulder. “So, what about your love life? I hear you’ve got some kind of friendship harem going on down in Ponyville.”

“Harem!?”

“Well, what else would you call it?” Twilight teased with a sly grin. “My big brother’s never had time for girls before, and suddenly he’s got five – well, four if Spike’s already got a hold of one – girls beating down his door? I don’t need to go down there and give them a talking to, do I?”

“Those are my friends, Twilight!” Shining Armor declared, clearly scandalized by the accusation. “I’d never!”

“Well, you should,” Twilight said with a chuckle. She finished up, placed a new bandage over the wound, and cleaned up her mess.

“Is that… going to leave a scar…?”

Her teasing had wrung a lot of the nervousness from his voice, but Twilight frowned at her inability to turn the conversation onto a new topic. “Hopefully not,” she answered, trying to sound chipper. “The gel stuff is supposed to help with scarring, but it’s a big cut, so maybe. They’re not sure.”

She went over to the bed to have a seat next to her brother. When he saw her limp, he made to get up, his face etched with concern, but she stared him down and gingerly climbed onto the bed.

“What happened to you?” he asked. “Spike and I got word that you’d been hurt while on duty, but they said it wasn’t anything serious. We sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking about it and she said that your stay in the hospital was just a formality.”

“She probably didn’t want you to worry.” Twilight shrugged. “Trust me, it looks worse than it is. The limp’s just from a sprained muscle. As for what happened… well… I’ll tell you about it later, or you can ask Princess Celestia if you can see the action report. She probably wouldn’t deny you that, being her student and all.”

He opened his mouth like he wanted to insist on more information, but nodded in acceptance of her unwillingness to discuss it.

“What’s that thing you’re wearing?”

Twilight was happy for the topic of discussion to finally change, and unholstered her weapon with her teeth. She held it out for him and Shining Armor took it from her to examine it. He turned it over in his hooves and frowned at the inscriptions.

“It’s called a chakram,” she explained. “It’s a weapon of diamond dog design, though I’ve been told they haven’t been used in a long time.”

She left out the part where the thing in his hooves had been thrown at her with the intent of taking off her head. He’d probably find out later, anyway, if Princess Celestia let him read the report.

“It’s old…” he commented.

“Really old. We found it in a place called the Necropolis. You’ll probably be hearing a lot about it in the coming months in the academic journals. It’s going to be a hot-topic for a while, I think.”

“Necropolis?” he asked, his eyes going wide. “That’s a kind of intense name…”

“It’s kind of an intense place,” she laughed. “I don’t suppose you can read the engravings.”

He shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Yeah, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna couldn’t make heads or tails of it either,” she sighed.

Twilight tugged the chakram out of his grip with her magic and almost laughed at the look on his face. It was a mixture of shock and eagerness that she could really empathize with, one pony of science to another. She considered having a little fun by asking him to try and cast magic on it, but something told her that the poor boy’s head might explode if she made the artifact any more enticing.

“Sounds like it was a pretty amazing adventure you had,” he said, his voice thick with some emotion she couldn’t place.

“So did you,” she shot back, still trying to keep her voice light and conversational.

“I guess…”

There was another moment of awkward silence, like when he’d first been standing at the door, but prolonged and somehow stronger. It was the kind of awkwardness that came up when you were sitting with someone you knew well – but not well enough to have companionable silence – and had run out of things to catch up on.

But this was her brother, not some simple acquaintance. She’d known him literally all her life. Surely she had to know him well enough that they could just sit together and not feel strange.

And yet here they were, struggling with that exact problem.

When had been the last time they’d sat together alone, anyway? Twilight sorted through her memories, trying to find an instance of when she and Shining Armor had spent time together, just the two of them, without their parents or Spike as a buffer. She came up dry, at least as far as recent memories were concerned. Would he have even come down to visit her if he hadn’t heard she’d been hurt?

“What happened to us, Shining…?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, trying to sound confused and doing a poor job of it. The look in his eyes told her he knew exactly what she meant.

“Why is this so damned weird? Why can’t we be comfortable around each other without Spike – or mom, or dad – running interference?”

Shining’s face was screwed up in discomfort, but whether it was because he disapproved what she’d said or just how she’d said it, Twilight couldn’t tell. She knew he wasn’t a big fan of ‘blue’ language, and she’d always made an effort to avoid it when she could, out of deference to how she was raised, but when it was apt, it was apt.

The memory of the vision she’d seen in her dream back in the Necropolis was clear in her mind. The sight of her brother sneaking out of the classroom, his gaze fixed on the ground as he walked away from the crowd of her peers celebrating her success in breaking his shield and earning her Cutie Mark.

“I look pretty down, huh?” the shadowy, nightmare version of Shining Armor had surmised.

“Shining…” she began. She looked away, unable to stand the uncomfortable look on his face anymore. “Do you hate me…?”

“No,” he said quickly, his face filled with panic. As soon as the denial was past his lips, his panic melted away into something more like shame. “Not hate, no… never that…”

“Then what?”

Twilight looked up and watched her brother stare at the wall, seemingly trying to bore a hole through it with his gaze alone. He was working his jaw like he was physically chewing on something – an old nervous tic that she’d always assumed he’d developed from years of chewing on the end of his quill while he studied.

He dropped off the bed and took a few steps across the room in the direction of the door. Twilight reached a hoof out to him, ready to tell him not to go, but it wasn’t necessary. He stopped in the middle of the room, spun around sharply, and fell to his haunches with a heavy thud against the rug.

“Do you even realize how…?” His words trailed off and he worked his jaw some more as he struggled with his words. “You make everything look so easy…”

Twilight didn’t know how to respond to that. She opened and closed her mouth like a hooked fish, wondering what he could mean. She was spared having to hold up her end of the conversation when Shining Armor finally found his words.

“Until very recently, I couldn’t tell you the last time I was happy, Twilight…” he confessed sadly. “I’m… I’m not stupid, but I’m not smart, not the way Princess Celestia’s personal student should be. I’ve gotten as far as I have because Spike’s been by my side the whole time to push me, and because I was willing to work thrice as hard as anypony else in my position would have.”

The words began to spill out of Shining. Twilight could tell that this must have been brewing inside of him for a long while, and now that the stopper was off the bottle it was all gushing out.

“I’ve been buried under the pressure of what everyone expected of me. No time for friends, no time for girls, no time for family, nothing. Just work, work, work, study, study, study…”

His cheeks pulled back into a tired, humorless grin, and he let out a feeble chuckle to match.

“But you’re different. I’ve seen it in you since you were barely old enough to levitate a pencil. You’re absolutely brilliant, Twilight, whether you realize it or not – don’t deny it, trust me, I’ve met enough bright ponies to know when one used to sleep in the room across the hall from mine. The way you pick up new spells and knowledge, the way you push yourself and find joy in it… you made it all look so easy. Even when you beat me at the one thing I still had that I loved… you still made it look easy…”

“Is this about the time I got my Cutie Mark?” she asked bluntly, having already figured out his meaning.

Shining flinched.

“You’re still doing it,” he said. The grin came back to his face, but this time it was lighter, with just a hint of genuine amusement. “That day, you really put me in my place. Maybe I was being… childish, I don’t know… but you really drove home the point that you were better than me. I threw myself into my studies after that, and tried not to think about the fact that it should’ve been you, Twilight. You’re the one who should’ve been Celestia’s apprentice. You would’ve done a better job.”

Twilight’s heart twisted in her chest at those words. It was all so close to mirroring what she’d been told was in the deepest reaches of her heart. So much so that she suddenly felt physically ill.

All her life she’d looked up to her brother. He was hoof-picked by Princess Celestia to learn the deepest secrets of magic. He was honored and respected by his peers in nearly every academic field that they printed diplomas for. He was larger than life, and cast a shadow so huge that she’d spent her entire life trying to run out from under it. Yet here he was, pouring his heart out and confessing that her meager, quiet accomplishments made him feel inadequate.

He’d never seemed so… mortal. It was almost obscene – blasphemous, even.

She hadn’t realized that she’d been staring until he began to speak again.

“You know the Elements of Harmony…?” he asked.

She nodded.

“The Element of Magic, my element,” he began to say, “it had your Cutie Mark on it…”

“That’s your mark, too,” she pointed out quickly.

“Yeah, but—“

“Stop,” she commanded him. She jumped off the bed much quicker than she should have, and she inhaled sharply as she felt something that might have been a stitch popping from the sudden movement. She hobbled up to him and pulled him into a hug. “Are you happy right now?”

He sat there dumbly, not catching her meaning and not returning the hug. “I don’t understand.”

“You said that until recently, you couldn’t remember the last time you were happy,” she reminded him. “You were saying you never had time for friends or family or girls. What about now?”

Shining Armor slowly reached up and returned the hug. “Yeah… yeah, I’m happy. Definitely.”

She squeezed him a little harder. “Why?”

“Because I’m finally studying something that I feel is worthwhile,” he said. “We saved Princess Luna. We did that, my friends and I… I finally have somewhere I belong. I have friends that I care about and that care about me.”

“If I offered you the chance to trade lives with me right now, would you?”

He shook his head vigorously. “No, I wouldn’t trade my life right now for anypony’s.”

Twilight pulled away, flashing a wide, happy grin as she batted playfully at his cheek. “Then shut up about who should’ve been what. You made your choice, so stick with it, and tell destiny to go screw itself. And remember, if you ever lose your Way, you know your little sister will be right there to back you up and set you straight.”

If Shining Armor understood the significance of the stress she put on the word "Way," he didn't show it.

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the big brother,” Shining chuckled. “Aren’t I supposed to be the one giving life lessons?”

“I think Spike would phrase it as, snooze and lose,” she surmised. “I don’t have time for you to figure out something poignant to say, I’m late for dinner.”

“Dinner?” he repeated, his ears twitching excitedly at the word.

There was a knock at the door.

“Uh oh, that’s probably her this time…” Twilight sighed. “She must’ve got tired of waiting.”

“She?”

The pony on the other side of the door obviously didn’t feel the need to wait for an invitation.

“Twilight, aren’t you ready yet?” Cadance asked as she stepped into the room. Her eyes fell on the room’s occupants and she jumped a little at the surprise of the second pony in the room. “Shining Armor! What are you doing here?”

“Visiting Twilight, my sister…” he said as he raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “What are you doing here?”

“Picking up my girlfriend for dinner,” Cadance said as she went to Twilight side and folded a wing over the smaller girl’s back.

Shining Armor stared blankly for a few moments before shaking his head. “I’m sorry, what? You have a girlfriend?”

Twilight looked to Cadance, who had an infectiously impish smile. They turned to Shining Armor and replied in unison as they nodded towards one another. “Yeah, her,” they both said.

The look on his face was priceless, and so deliciously succulent Twilight could have filled her belly on that alone, but Cadance ruined the moment with a bright, girlish laugh.

“Aw, we broke your brain,” she teased. “As cute as it is to see you all flummoxed, you should come with us to dinner. I’m sure your mom made more than enough.”

Shining Armor blinked. “My… my mom…?”

“Yup, dinner at your parents’!” Cadance said excitedly. “Tonight I’m going to ask for their permission to court their daughter!”

“Wait, is that why you asked me to set this up?” Twilight asked, frowning at the very silly notion. Cadance had even insisted that Twilight refrain from saying who she would be bringing to dinner. The only thing her parents knew was that she’d met a very nice girl that wanted to meet them. “I don’t think that’s a thing if both the ponies are mares.”

Cadance held up a hoof to Twilight’s lips and made a shushing noise. “Don’t take this from me. We’re going to do everything like the proper, cultured ladies that we are. This is going to be the most storybook romance ever, even if it kills us both.”

A chill went up Twilight’s spine as she considered how many novels ended up with the lovers both dead. Those were storybook romances, too.

“This is going to be a wonderful night!” Cadance declared as she slapped Twilight on her uninjured flank with a wing and strode out of the room. “Hurry up, you two!”

The two siblings stood in the room for a minute, not daring to look one another in the eyes after the embarrassingly playful spanking.

“You didn’t see that,” Twilight demanded, her cheeks flushed cherry-red.

“I didn’t see anything,” Shining Armor immediately replied, though the matching blush on his face said otherwise.

* * *

Author's Note:

So this was supposed to be a 4k~ word epilogue, but it... well I guess it's still an epilogue. Anyway. If you're reading this, you've read until the end. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and that the journey was a good one.

The release of this chapter is accompanied by a blogpost titled: Next time on TwiGuard! Frieza Defeated!

This post [found here] has some info about how the story came about, and a lot of rambling nonsense. If you're interested in that, feel free to check it out. If you liked this story, leave a comment, an upvote, or a fave! If you didn't, feel free to give the respective opposites of those things.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll all join me for my next dumb pony thing!

Please be excited!

Comments

[TheStratovarian]

This, was a gem. And I truly hope you can continue this. Fun, amusing, creative, and so much room for more.

[Anquietas]

Liked the ending but I can't wait for the sequel.

[Aotrs Commander]

And now I really want to see Shining - and especially Spike's - side of the Nightmare Moon events...

Looks like somepony also remembered to touch bases with his sibling a bit better this time, too...!

(Though that I think was the biggest problem with Canterlot Wedding, but a somewhat unavoidable artifice.)

I will certainly look forward to future TwiGuard!

[TwilightXLuna]

Love this story can not wait for the next one

[RainLight]

I am so sad now

One the best TwiDance stories on this site by far

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Before I even read.
OMFG!!! AN UPDATE!!! YESYESYESYEYSYESYEYSYESYEYSYE!!! *SCREAMS*

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Oh snap.
Before ah read any further.
Ah'm guessing that Blue Ego is Princess Celestia or somepony familiar. *ponders*

[honeyhoneyhoney]

BUCK IT!
It was Princess Luna!?

ARGH! *smacks head on floor* You so trickyyyy.

[honeyhoneyhoney]

Your Luna is amazing!!!!! :D

*squeees*

[Misago]

A pretty good story, in the end. At times, Twi seems a little too persceptive, and I really would have loved a bit more pacing (or, considering the airship ride back, a bit more showing of the development) and for Twi to act a bit more like a guard towards Luna, though.
But in the end, it is well written, Cadance is very well characterized, with fears and flaws as opposed to being just some kind of sex goddess. The adventure was well realized and thought out, as well. I'll be joining the rest in looking forward to the sequel.

[katarjin]

Great TwiDance is really hard to find, thank you for this fic. (Guard Twi tooo)

[AaronDemoncia]

i hope you continue with a sequel, the romance and events leading upto and including the royal wedding and perhaps a foray into the governing of the crystal empire with the personality quirks of twilight and her mental fortitude instead of shining.

[Fool]

Oh I very much enjoyed this story.

I desperately hope there is a sequel!

[xonxt]

I really loved this. I found myself really invested in this story and I hope it will have a sequel .
I want to see how their romance progresses and what happens next.

[Vindicar]

Will there be a sequeal regarding events in Crystal Empire?

[Mister Morden]

What a great conclusion!

I really hope you write a sequel to this story. Would love to see more of this universe.

Also, I got a good chuckle out of all the Princesses wanting Guard!Twilight...

[xDHannibalxD]

In a land of peace and harmony, ruled by a kind alicorn, noone was expecting a hero.
But even so, Twilight became this hero. A mighty princess forged in the heat of battle.
Her power. Her love. Her passion. Her courage will change the world.

I'm already looking forward to the release of the sequel. We need more!
And damn if this Twilight isn't a princess magnet.

[Charlemane]

Nicely done and congratulations on a successful conclusion.

[Bloody_Tofu]

Amazing read. Can't wait for the sequel and what looks like a budding friendship between Twilight and Luna.

I love the detail your story goes into with command structure and character interactions and hope to see more. I imaging an award ceremony coming for a certain purple guard.

[Quantum_Shift]

I want to see a sequel come of this.

It is too glorious to be bereft of continuation.

[honeyhoneyhoney]

OMARG FREAKINGHARD! IT WAS PERFECT!! ARHQAFV BJrtyr. EVERY BUCKING WORD MATTERED! That's what's so freakin' brilliant. And mah gosh, the pattering of rain like drums.... GENIUS! An' the dialog and chemistry!? BRILLIANT! ARGH!H!H!H!HH!H! *screams around in a circle* Sandpapernndsaladkissing!! THAT WAS BUCKING AMAZIGN!!! afcwe v gweggh..........

*takes deep breath*

Thank you. The amount of effort and talent placed upon this chapter brought shivers.
The words flowed well. The transitions felt effortless. The characters brought and evoked so much emotion. Haha. The way Cadance leads the relationship is ridiculously charming.

But wow.
I can't remember the last time I've felt so flabbergasted. Again, thank you. You've not only brought myself insurmountable amounts of joy. Rather, you've given thousands upon thousands of readers something indescribably special.

Thank you.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

awsome story can't wait for the next part.

[Dagon M Dragoon]

assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/citizen_cane.gif

will there be a sequel?

[honeyhoneyhoney]

5741542
Eeyup.

[Magical Trevor]

Oh gosh, dat ending... XD
That was perfect. Great ending point for if you do not write a sequel, but if you DO write one, it will be great! 8D

[elmago02]

This was a good read.

[AlicornPriest]

Absolutely excellent! Thanks for writing it, King. You're da best!

[Razalon The Lizardman]

Please be excited!

For the sequel, indeed I am.

[sgtnolisten]

The next will come out soon right?

i.ytimg.com/vi/jlc8IGiMNtA/hqdefault.jpg

[Neece]

You don't have weeks for the sequel. You have 5 minutes
I'd suggest you start writing.
Also, faved'.

[Seether00]

Wonder who Shining will end up with. My money would be on Fluttershy

[Opponent]

You dun good.

Also, I wonder if Shining would reply differently on the 'trade' offer after seing Cadance as Twilight's marefriend :D

[Camlio]

5741310 It probably helps that since Twilight isn't practically Celestia's pseudo daughter as Celestia's Student in this universe, it isn't weird for her to be the 'Princess Magnet' she is.

[Camlio]

And now a general consensus at the mention you are working on the sequel.

Ponies and Gentle humans~ For your enthusiastic enjoyment~ A quote from JonTron

And that was JonTron everyone~

Thank you Pinkie. Please remain hyped for the next story by this author, I know I will be.

[Hodios]

This was a great read, and I am more than glad to have stumbled across it. I hope you find room to continue this once your batteries are recharged.

On a chapter specific note, the scene with the rain making music touched me, I don't think I'll be able to think of the sound of rain in the same way again.

[Balewood]

Lets see I'll admit I thought one, maybe two, of the elements would have different wielders, also liked your 'Luna' look forward to more of her in future installments. I liked the scene with Cadance and thought Twilight and Shining's conversation was well done, I hope we'll see some Shining-Main Six, Spike it'd might be fun to see them and there reactions to TwiGuard/Twidance. All and all an excellent read, Thank you very much for writing!!

[Wearin Hat]

I find it such a shame that my overwhelming standards keeps me from truly enjoying the majority of what I read. That is what makes this such a treasure for me. I have utterly and thoroughly enjoyed reading this. As is so often the custom on this site, I only ever looked at this to see if it would be worthy of my backup stories, things to be read when nothing else is available. What I found instead of a potentially interesting read was something that demanded I read it entirely.

I don't say this as I often feel I should, but I loved your story. Just about everything in it made the read worth it tenfold. I feel no shame in joining the majority in saying that I am eagerly awaiting the continuation of this tale.

You, my good author, have earned my respect.

[DarknessLilly]

i vote for there to be more to this. ^_^ we still have a mystery to unfold. not to mention the effects of this new destiny. I can still see twilight becomeing the princess of magic. also i can not help but feel that the moment twilight accepted her bonds of friendship was the same moment that the element of magic awoke for her brother. :D

[punzil504]

“Did you wear little hoofie-pajamas and tell ghost stories?”

No, we wear panties, stockings, and have sexy pillow fights like all of the other normal girls do.

[ClockworkMage]

5742379 I don't think overwhelming standards is a technically correct pairing.

[catinthesocks]

Love it.

[AetherToast]

Oh my gosh that was so funny. Them meeting the weird flip-flop paradox thing was so awesone. Now waiting for a sequel is gonna be hard.

[WanderingPony]

Not only is this a helluva good story on it's own, it's more than good enough to be the foundation of a series.

And besides, we haven't heard all the good dirt on Shining and the other Elements...or Spike totally keeping his "man card" stamped up. :)

[Sandy Sam]

Very amusing. I'm glad that Shiny doesn't hate Twilight. Yay for Twidance!

[NeverKnown]

lord please tell me you're planning on making this a series this was a great story I'm not sure that ive seen a better one this year. I trust you will see the premise for this story is huge.

[gabrek]

I don't think I've ever said this in a comment before, but... Please please please PLEASE please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease do a series of this! I absolutely love this AU's characters, you wrote it extraordinarily well, and the plot is completely sensible and fascinating! This is literally THE best story I've ever read on FimFic (or in a long time, for that matter) and I want more.
Like, waiting for Goblet of Fire to come out wanting more. Seriously. You have a gift. You.. Kick.. Ass. :))

[Overlord Sparkle]

I just can't wait for a sequel!

[Buzzard]

This for sure needs a sequel

[Backlash91]

I....what!? That was the end? No! Sequel! Sequel Sequel Sequel Sequel!

[ArguingPizza]

The excitement I feel at the prospect of more TwiGuard is approximately equivalent to the total lifetime energy output of a neutron star, so for the sake of life on earth please settle for taking my word that I. Am. Hyped.