Society as We Know It

by Comma Typer

Two-way

Twilight Sparkle poofed back into the room.

The unicorn, the dragon, and the changeling looked at her in surprise.

"Is everything alright?!" Twilight yelled at Spike. "I just received confirmation of all the plans that we could ever have for this significant event in Equestrian history and beyond!" A pause—turn to Thorax. "Oh, hi, Thorax!" She waved at him.

"Uh, are you OK?" Thorax asked nicely and politely—as nicely and as politely as a smile could get him.

"She's neurotic," Starlight said, motioning a hoof toward the crazily waving Twilight—who also had a scruffled mane.

"That means she's...OK?"

Twilight gasped. "Wait! Thorax is here!"

Starlight groaned and covered her face with her hoof.

"That means everyone is here! All the delegates! The visitors! The caterers! Applejack!"

"Why Apple—"

"No time to lose, Spike!" Twilight said as she levitated her assistant into the air. "We need all of you to set things straight!"

"I'm pretty sure Amethyst Star's doing a good job!" Spike managed to say as he was floating (helplessly).

"Twilight," Starlight began, "I think you need to take—"

"Thorax, Starlight, come with me!"

And Twilight went off, galloping out of the room and then out of the castle—while levitating poor Spike out as well.

Starlight and Thorax looked at the swinging double doors of the room.

"What happened, Starlight?" Thorax asked.

"Twilight's worried today," Starlight said. Then, she shrugged. "You'll get used to it if you hang out with her long enough."

"Is that normal?" Thorax asked. "Do all the Princesses get so worried like that?"

"I bet she's the only Princess who's gone mad eight times in a single year," Starlight said.

"Eight?"

The two walked their way out of the room and into the hallway.

"This is time number eight," Starlight said. "You don't want to know what happened with number seven."

"What happened then?" Thorax asked. He added, "You think she needs a doctor?"

"Oh, she always gets better—eventually. And, to tell you what happened with the last time she got so worried: Well, that involved Discord, Lyra borrowing somepony's window, and Twilight teaching Rainbow Dash about—what was it? Ah, Daring Do...."

---

"The sky!" a mare cried out as she pointed there.

Slowly but surely, there was an approaching horizon of many flying creatures, their buzzes growing louder and louder. Dragons and changelings—that's what they all are. A bit of small talk here and there but it was drowned out by the wind and by the chatter of the ponies down on Ponyville proper.

They were descending—closer and closer to the ground. Then, lots of touchdowns as dragons and changelings landed on their two feet and their four hooves respectively. While the changelings immediately went to walking around and talking with each other and the locals—who responded with smiling and happy talk back—the dragons, meanwhile, were endeavoring to not flatten any pony with a single movement of theirs. More than a few ponies were biting their hooves as they watched the dragons try to move about carefully—and one or two would scream when a dragon narrowly missed a house, avoiding destruction and damage.

Ember flew her way to the town hall where already several changelings were seated and a few dragons were not seated—those dragons had decided to stand up for the entire length of whatever was ahead of them for, apparently, the chairs were not appropriate for them.

"The ponies haven't prepared us dragons with comfort with mind," Ember murmured. "Then again, ponies don't have much space to begin with." She sighed—a scowl on her face. Then, she sniffed the air. "At least they threw away all the bad smells! This smells a lot more like home!"

The seated changelings, on the other hoof, had other opinions about that.

"Yuck!" a yellow changeling exclaimed, pinching his nose. "What's going on here? I can't stand the smell—it's even worse here than a few minutes ago!"

"Look on the bright side, Subphyl!" the blue changeling on his left said. "Maybe it's the pony chefs working up a savory meal!"

"With that much vinegar?!" Subphyl retorted.

"It's better than not having to eat anything for three days," the green changeling on his right replied.

"We're changelings," Subphyl said. "We can live on sharing love alone."

"Yeah, but I like to eat food I can hold with my hooves!" the green changeling answered, raising up his forehooves into Subphyl's view.

"I haven't tasted everything pony cuisine has to offer," the blue changeling said. "Today's a good opportunity to try it all!"

"With a smell that bad? No thanks." Subphyl then dismissed both of his friends with a hoofwave.

---

"Pinkie Pie? Applejack?" Amethyst asked as she poked her head into Sugarcube Corner, looking here and there but not catching sight of either of the two. "Pinkie Pie? Applejack?"

"Present!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she hopped out of the counter, throwing some confetti into the air.

"Oh, Pinkie!" Amethyst said, walking to her. "You don't have to do that!"

"And, that's alright!" Pinkie said. "Nopony needs requirements to have fun, silly!" And she laughed.

Amethyst smiled. "OK. Where's Applejack?"

"Back in the back!" Pinkie replied, hurling her hoof toward the kitchen doorway. "She's busy with the second-to-last batch of apple sweets with Mr. and Mrs. Cake!"

"And, what are you doing?"

"Same thing, 'till you came over!"

Amethyst took a step back, nodding. "That means that everything's going smoothly."

"Mm-hm!"

"That's good," Amethyst said. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to take care of a crisis going on outside about some smells. See you later, Pinkie!"

And she dashed off.

"Some smells?" Pinkie asked. Then, she shouted, "Applejack! Do you smell something?!"

"Yer' tellin' me you haven't smell'd the vinegar?!"

---

"Thorax was right," Spike said, pinching his nose as he walked on the streets with Twilight—passing by many dragons and many changelings on their own way to town hall, filling the air with noisy conversations. "It smells awful!"

"I don't get it," Twilight said. "I told her to not let anypony give Ponyville a different smell! Nothing too fragrant. I didn't expect her to go the opposite extreme and have something noxious for the town!"

Spike coughed. "I have no idea what she's thinking, Twilight!"

"Me, too, but—she's Amethyst Star! There's a good reason behind all she does, even if that includes making Ponyville stink like a garbage dump."

A unicorn was running—running to the two, passing by dragons and changelings who glanced at her with passing interest.

"Twilight!" Amethyst Star said, somewhat panicked. "We have an emergency on our hooves!"

"You mean the stench?" Twilight asked, a little panicked as well. "What's happening here, Amethyst?"

"We had to spray vinegar all over Ponyville, Twilight!" Amethyst explained quick, fast, and not so clearly—gesturing and gesticulating with her hooves at an almost agile ability. "Mayor Mare ordered some ponies to perfume the town, but you and I know that dragons can't stand aromas like that! So, we had to remove the perfume as early as we could—we were already late at the job! It's going to take an hour to remove the smell, but it's better than the alternative!"

Twilight, at first, took on an upset face. Then, she had a solemn smile. "Yes, Amethyst. It's better than the alternative of burning our village down by accidental sneezing." She looked at Spike. "Looks like we have to get used to the smell—it's gonna go away soon, right?"

"You said an hour?!" Spike said, facing Amethyst. "How am I supposed to survive an hour of stench?!"

"I'm sorry, Spike," Amethyst said. "But, this is to make sure that the rest of the dragons don't destroy our homes all because of some fragrances they're allergic to."

Spike sighed. "Alright." He went back to pinching his nose.

"Barring the smell," Twilight said, "how's everything going, Amethyst?"

"Actually, pretty OK," she replied. "I managed to bring Pinkie Pie and Applejack and the Cake couple to work under the same roof."

"B-but, I thought Pinkie Pie was busy!" Twilight blathered.

"Apparently, she wasn't," Amethyst responded. "She was very aware of today's summit."

"Oh. Right. She's Pinkie." Twilight had a fretting face on.

"Applejack was more than willing to help with the catering efforts and what not," Amethyst said. "Rarity had some fancy cloths which she used up in a split—I think Rarity's almost done now."

Twilight looked up at the clear sky—clear from clouds, that was, for there were still some straggling changelings and dragons not yet on the ground. "And, I can see Rainbow Dash and the weather team did their job as well."

"Yes, Twilight," Amethyst said. "Also, Fluttershy diverted most of the animals away from Ponyville."

"According to the plan, then!" Twilight said. "We still don't know much about how dragons and changelings will react to certain animals. What else did you do?"

Spike sighed as he hopped on Twilight and sat there. "This is going to be one long day."

Twilight looked around. "Spike, it is going to be one long day—no, three long days!" A pause. "If you're bothered by the smell, just remember that it'll go away in an hour. An hour is nothing compared to three days, Spike."

"And the paperwork?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow while crossing his arms.

"I think you deserve a more exciting job than just handling paperwork," Twilight said. She looked at Amethyst and said: "You've done very well with helping Ponyville get ready for the summit. You even took care of the last-minute perfume problem as effectively as you could—you certainly prevented Ponyville from being engulfed in flames."

"Thank you, Twilight!" Amethyst said—choking a little.

"I should be asking you to organize for Ponyville even more," Twilight said, "since I can't fathom having to juggle between being the Princess of Friendship and organizing Ponyville events full-time on both!"

Amethyst giggled. "It will be a pleasure to be under your service, Princess."

"Nah, just keep calling me Twilight!"

Now both ponies giggled.

Twilight looked at Spike. "What about I bring you to the town hall and see if there's anything better than paperwork, huh?"

Spike let out a small smile. "OK, Twilight."

With that, she took off into flight.

---

Long Shot wore her cap on her head and her camera around her neck. A saddlebag around her torso with some pencils and a pad of paper sticking out of it.

She turned her head around as she passed by the dragons and the changelings that swarmed the streets with their numbers. She could see the ponies inside their houses—foals, colts and fillies were watching the entire pseudo-parade with awe and with shouts of excitement and novelty; mares and stallions, on the other hoof, were busy either being scared of what was right outside their front doors or chiding their children to stop distracting the ones over there—to no avail, for the young ponies stuck to the windows.

Past the figures both normal and large, she could see the prominent ponies doing whatever they were doing at the town hall—the band ponies playing a soothing, quiet piece that could not be heard so well behind the many words being said in front of her; Princess Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Dragon Lord Ember having a talk with each other—Ember wearing a smile throughout; Amethyst was pointing a hoof here and directing a hoof there as several ponies carried light fixtures, more wooden platforms, and some tables; Starlight and King Thorax were walking side-by-side, chatting with each other amiably as could be seen by the occasional laughter, the perennial smiles, and the active gesturing they were engaged in; Mayor Mare sitting on one of the chairs, sighing and breathing slowly; several more press ponies with their own cameras and their own saddlebags gathered together near the many rows of chairs; changelings sitting on the aforementioned chairs and conversing with one another freely; some pegasi going around in the air and, perhaps, fetching some far-off items—there were two who were just ordered by Amethyst to get "some good books from my house—that will help ease the boredom for the changelings, but don't give any of them to the dragons—well, not yet! I don't want to see my precious books destroyed in seconds!"

Over there, appearing from a block of buildings, there were four ponies: Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Mr. Cake and Mrs. Cake. They were all pulling a great wagon or cart of food which was filled to the brim with all kinds of edibles: besides the cakes, the pies, and Pinkie's mysterious cakepies, there were also donuts, bagels, muffins, jars of pure icing and frosting, apple strudels, bowls of hot mushroom soup and of corn soup, tall sandwiches, fresh leafy salads, fruits and vegetables.

Long Shot quickly shyed away from looking at the ponies there.

A pony from the press group over there caught sight of her. "Hey, Long Shot!"

Long Shot gulped. "They caught me, didn't they?" she whispered to herself.

---

"Sis, you've got to let me participate in the festivities!" Zephyr said as he sat on one of Fluttershy's green couches beside Fluffly Clouds—who was standing over there.

"Zephyr, what will you do?" Fluttershy asked in a stern manner as she stood in front of him.

"I could cut the manes of the attendants—"

"The attendants have no manes to cut, Zephyr," Fluttershy pointed out. "Have you seen a changeling with a mane?"

"On the news last week, yes!" He nodded as if to emphasize his point.

"Well, you haven't read on to see that it was a hoax—he was wearing painted leaves."

"Painted leaves?!" Zephyr cried out loud. "Why, the Breeze—" pointing a hoof to himself as he smiled smugly, his teeth sparkling even "—can tell you, with confident expertise backing me up, that the mane you and I saw was real."

"Uh, can I take this moment to leave?" Fluffly Clouds asked, raising a hoof. "It seems you're having a, uh, personal discussion between cherished siblings."

Before either of the siblings could say anything, he zipped out of the cottage.

---

"And, you three are on stand-by to help anyone who suffers any medical difficulties, alright?" Amethyst told the three hospital ponies as they stood right in front of town hall—with Twilight, Spike, and Ember only a few meters away as they talked amongs themselves.

The three ponies—two stallions with white doctor coats and glasses, and one mare with a nurse's cap—nodded.

"Which one of you is Doctor Horse, by the way?" Amethyst asked.

The two stallions raised their hooves. They looked at each other with awkward faces and both cleared their throats.

"Uh—what? You're both Doctor Horse?"

"Officially, yes," the doctor with a stockier build and brown mane said.

"But," the other doctor—having curly orange mane and rangy form—said, "I've garnered the name, 'Doc Top,' so you can call me that."

"Wait a minute," Amethyst said, holding up a hoof. "I've lived here in Ponyville for practically my whole life—how come it's only now I know this? Or is it because I'm too healthy to go to our own hospital?"

The three medical ponies shrugged.

---

"Wow! We have standing room even though the chairs aren't all taken, yet!" Pinkie yelled.

"Whaddya' expect from chairs so small if you're a dragon?" Applejack said as she and Pinkie pulled the wagon of food. "Good thing to know that these dragons here 'ave some courtesy."

"Courtesy not to crush any chairs?" Pinkie asked.

"We don't wanna cause a war, do we, now?"

"War?"

"Ah' myself don't know how aggressive these dragons are. Or, how 'xactly we're gonna answer to any threat they pose. Ah' have the feelin' it's a mix of runnin' and fightin'."

"Isn't that why we're having these dragons coming here and talk peacefully about not causing trouble?"

"It's not specifically 'bout us," Applejack said. "It's about them and the changelings. We're only here because Ponyville's the town to have all the fancy delegates an' all."

"But, what if they don't have fancy delegates?" Pinkie said. "What if they have non-fancy delegates?"

"Pinkie, you're just pushing the questions now, aren't ya'?"

"Pushing questions? Why, I'm just asking questions!"

Applejack sighed. "Pinkie."

"How else are you gonna make pulling a cart so exciting, Applejack?" Pinkie asked. "I mean, without going all out and firing my party cannon—which I can bring out and—"

"Pinkie."

"Oh, alright!" Pinkie said, twirling a hoof around and pulling out a balloon from her mane. "Here! We'll just have a balloon—that way, everyone knows that we're the travelling food cart ponies!"

"We're not travelling, Pinkie," Applejack said.

"Uh, duh, we are! Walking implies travelling!"

Applejack sighed and smacked herself on the face.

---

"Is somepony jealous?" Crusoe asked as he sat down on the green grass in front of the river—though he was facing the summit or convention or whatever it was called as it unfolded, each second leading up to its commencement.

"I'm not jealous," Toe-Tapper said, not wearing his entire Pony Tones uniform—just his striped bowtie. "Are you jealous?"

"No," Crusoe said.

And in front of them were the dragons shuffling around, trying to make some more space to join in. Changelings were flocking to the chairs, slowly filling up the seats and reducing the amount of available chairs left for anypony who would want to seek the the relaxation that could be found in sitting down. Ponies themselves were the busiest of them all—under the command of Amethyst Star, who kept telling ponies this and that, they mustered the energy to place things into position, to fix things so that they (hopefully) will not break, and to coordinate with those who would speak, with those who would perform, and, most importantly, with those two grand leaders of their respective nations or kingdoms.

"I guess you've sang before," Toe-Tapper said out of the blue. "You must have—Pinkie Pie lives here and she's prone to getting everypony here to sing."

"Yeah, I do sing," Crusoe said. "So"

"What about you sing for the big event?" Toe-Tapper said

"Me?" Crusoe pointed to himself, backing away from the Pony Tones singer. "Why? Aren't you supposed to perform for the audience later on?"

"Yeah, we are," Toe-Tapper said. "But, I thought to myself that, if everypony in Ponyville can sing well, then why not help ponies develop that singing voice? That way, everypony can sing better."

Crusoe held up a hoof. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm not taking it."

Toe-Tapper smiled. "It's alright. It's just a little idea I had in mind."

And the two stayed there on that patch of grass as the chairs filled up.

"So, you wanna sit down on one of those chairs?" Crusoe asked.

"We have to practice with the rest of the Tones, remember?" Toe-Tapper said. "We'll be up in about three."

"Oh."

---

As Twilight walked away from the porch, leaving Ember and Spike there at the town hall, her ears perked up.

A slow, graceful flap of wings—heard and then seen as she looked up.

"Princess Skystar?!" Twilight exclaimed as the hippogriff—half-pony, half-griffon creature; winged, hind leg hooves, front leg claws; beaks instead of snouts—landed on the ground at the isle between the two groups of chairs.

Skystar was light yellow or cream colored in coat; her mane and her tail were light blue, very cyan.

"Did you missed me, Twilight?!" Skystar said in a high-pitched voice and in a quick pace while waving a claw at her. "This place looks so jolly! What's it for? My mom told me that I had to go to Ponyville because there was this super important meeting that was gonna take place between some two kingdoms, I think, and she told me to be there in order to get 'national bearings,' whatever they are."

Twilight just had her mouth open the whole time throughout the speech.

"In short, I'm here to get some 'national bearings'!" Then, leaning toward Twilight's ears, she whispered: "What are 'national bearings'? Can clams wear them?"

Twilight cleared her throat. "Uh, your arrival was—"

"Unexpected? I know! Ooh! Forgot to shake your hoof!"

And, she shook Twilight's hoof, bobbing Twilight up and down.

"I didn't expect my arrival, too, you know! Because, I had my own thing going on for the week! Actually, today was the day we had to go and do some rebuilding for the good ol' Hippogriff Kingdom! Trying to fend for ourselves, having to recover old things we lost on the way when we swam—to flee, not just fleeing—and other little things on the checklist that my mom prepared for me to finish and so on and so forth—how are you, Twilight?"

"Uh, I'm doing...great!"

"Great!" Skystar said. "So, where can I get the 'national bearings'? Are they magical artifacts? Stones? Minerals? Maybe it's a plant!"

"Skystar," Twilight began, facing her with a kind face, "'national bearings' isn't something you get. I think what your mom meant by that was that she wanted you to see how the surface world was doing—like, is it peaceful? Is it filled with conflict? Who are the major kingdoms besides Equestria that have lots of influence and power? You've been underwater for quite some time—not too long, but long enough. It only makes sense that she would want you to check how everything's doing up here—or, down here, since many of you are now in Mount Aris."

"Oh! So, that's what my mom meant!"

"And it's a good thing," Twilight said. "In fact, I think it's the best move that the Hippogriff Kingdom can make during these times. How's Princess Celestia and Queen Novo, by the way?"

"They're doing alright!" Skystar said. "It's not going to be easy to convince my mom to fully open up the kingdom to the rest of the world—I mean, before you came here, she trusted Tempest Shadow and you know how that went over—but, I'm sure that she will get to that sooner rather than later!"

Twilight nodded. "I like your optimistic point of view, Skystar." Then, she looked around—there were the changelings on the chairs, there were the ponies still preparing everything—hauling stuff here and there—and there were the dragons just standing around, some of them talking with each other but most of them not bothering with even their own. "Where are you going to stay, though?"

"Anywhere?" Skystar said, unsure. "I don't know, really. What's the duration of this, anyway? An hour, two hours, a day?"

"Three days," Twilight replied.

"Three days?! Are you sure you can stand here all the three days!"

Twilight laughed a little. "Of course, not. That's why we have accommodations for everyone attending. I've booked several hotel rooms for some of the changelings and outside ponies visiting—the hotels are in Canterlot. The dragons, however—they're a different story and we'll deal with them...soon."

"And me?"

"Feel free to ask around," Twilight said, gracefully moving a hoof about as she pointed toward all of Ponyville with it. "I'm sure there's somepony who would like to give you a guest bed."

"That's superb, Twilight!" she said, shaking her hoof once more without warning. "I'll go ask around just like you said—bye!" With that, she took off with her wide wings.

Then, she stopped in mid-air, turning around—in the midst of several changelings and dragons who were now observing her—to face Twilight. "When is the shindig gonna begin?"

"Five minutes! We're late as it is!"

But Skystar did not say anything else—she flew away.

Twilight shook her head though still smiling. "Skystar..."

---

"It's been some time since I've heard you say something about the 'Sweet Apple Admirers,'" Pinkie said as she and Applejack, along with the Cake couple, laid the food down on the long wooden tables with their benches and their respective chairs—at this point, about half of the tables was completed with full plates and platters of food and glasses of drinks ranging from water all the way to apple cider with soda, juices, and smoothies in between. "Have you really answered all apology letters yourself?" She scratched her chin. "When was the last time I asked you that question?"

"Two weeks ago," Applejack said, arranging a plate with its proper utensils—knife and fork on one side, spoon on the other. "And, yes, Ah' already finished mah' responses two months ago, Pinkie. What's pesterin' your mind, Pinkie?"

"Oh, nothing much," Pinkie said as she threw a few plates of food into the air; they landed on the table with the food dropping on to them with skillful precision. "I wanted to make sure that you're not leaving anypony hanging."

Applejack sighed. "Ah' know that ya' want to look after me, Pinkie, but this ain't the most appropriate of times to be discussin' something like this—especially when it's all so sudden."

"Is the cafeteria ready?" a changeling asked, just landing right in front of the two ponies.

Applejack groaned. "It'll be ready when it's ready, now get outta' here." She pointed at the many chairs—although not many of them were free.

"Aww!" the changeling let out before he turned around and flittered—with dejection as his hooves were drooped—back to the chairs.

---

"I don't know about this," Ember said, looking down on Spike as both stood on the town hall's porch in front of an increasing audience both on chairs and on the ground—and some even in the air as they hovered over the ground. "Then again, you're the Friendship Ambassador to us."

"Well, it's better than just sitting around and listening to boring speeches," Spike said.

A sly smile on Ember's face. "Oh, I know how to make a boring speech not boring."

Spike's eyes opened wide. Stepping away, he said, "No, no, no, no, Ember! Are you seriously thinking about—"

"I'm not going to breathe fire during the speech," Ember said. "Most of the time." Then, with a frown, she said, "However, I still don't get the logic behind this summit. Twilight wants us to talk a lot, question a lot, answer a lot, talk, talk, talk. And, yeah, I get why we need to talk."

"But...?" Spike said, leaning closer to her—trying to elicit the right answer.

"But, I sympathize with you. It's boring. I'm sure the dragons here feel the same way, and I'm sure that Thorax also feels that way, too."

She looked at Thorax—who instantly waved a hoof at her, grinning a wide, almost awkward grin. "Hi, Ember! Hi, Spike!"

The two dragons went back to looking at each other.

"Hold on," Spike said, holding up both of his claws in front of him. "What's going on here?" he then asked, taking on a suspicious yet wanting tone.

"Call it whatever you want," Ember said. "We're going to be—ahem!—making some minor adjustments to Twilight's plan."

Spike then tapped his claws together as sweat formed on his face. "Uh, what did you say again? I didn't really get what you just said, Ember?"

"You didn't suddenly go deaf on me, did you, Spike?"

"Ah, no, I didn't! I totally didn't!"

Ember crossed her arms. "Fine. That means you understood what I said, correct?"

Spike nodded—slowly, almost as if laboring to move his head. "Yes?"

"Don't tell her," Ember said. "It's a secret between me, you, and Thorax. If you let Twilight know, I'll find you myself and then we'll talk—OK?"

A nasty glare on her face.

Spike gulped. "A-alright! But, it's for fun—all for fun, right? You're not gonna burn Ponyville or anything like that?"

"Think of it as helping everyone here escape from boredom, Spike," Ember said. "You said it yourself—you don't wanna listen to boring speeches, do you?"

Spike did not say a word—now shaking a bit.

"I can treat you to ice cream after it's over. Fair exchange?"

"What?"

"I won't be eating the ice cream myself," Ember said, pointing at herself with a forceful claw. "Weakens the power of my fire. I won't even consider it as a reward for deserving dragons—it's more of a detriment than a prize. Actually, I'm impressed that you're still formidable for a baby dragon despite your unhealthy diet through the years."

Spike then laughed nervously. "Yeah! I'm, uh, unsusually strong for a baby dragon?"

Ember shook her head, as if rejecting the notion; that sly smile was still on her face. "Spike, really? But, you've gotta go—go do whatever a Friendship Ambassador does!"

And Spike then went scurrying off.

---

Thorax saw Twilight in the distance, talking even more with Amethyst Star and now with Pinkie Pie. On the porch and in front of the just-arrived podium was Ember who was tapping her foot—impatient in her looks. The sound of the crowd drowned out every noise that happened outside it, outside what was considered to be the main event.

The changeling king walked over to her, stepping on to the porch.

"Ember?"

"What is it, Thorax?" Ember said with crossed arms and evasive eyes.

"Do you have the feeling that...this is unnecessary?" Thorax asked.

Ember gave him a strange look—a gaze of disgust. Then, she softened. "Yes, Thorax. Wasn't the ceremony a while back enough?"

"It was," Thorax said. "Remember, after that, when Twilight insisted on, uh, 'officializing' it?"

"Yeah," Ember answered, smiling now. "Lots of papers to write out—not good for a dragon like me. We don't do paper contracts and treaties."

"Eh, me, too," Thorax admitted.

"I know," Ember said.

"So, we're going to pull this one off?"

"I don't see it going any other way without causing everyone here to sleep."

Both laughed—keeping it to themselves, though, as each covered their mouths while they laughed.

"Great timing!" Twilight said as she trotted into view. "You're all in position! We'll start in a minute! Stay there—don't go anywhere!" And then, she trotted away.

Thorax and Ember looked at each other.

And smiled.