Prism Star and the Nightmare Winter

by CherryRush

Chapter VII: The House of Harmony

Prism Star
**1 Day After Shieldfall**

Prism Star was already sitting in the cloud mansion's palatial dining room when the call to breakfast came in the form of a loudly ringing bell in the kitchen. The little white filly was propped up on a wooden booster seat with her nose buried in Sunburst's Optics, sipping at a cup of coffee heavily diluted with milk. Shimmer had introduced her to the wonderful drink some time ago at one of their all-night study sessions, and the bracing bitterness and rush of energy had immediately endeared her to the grown-up beverage - even if her father had made her switch to decaf after an experiment with espresso led to an over-amped Prism riddling the kitchen with bolts of energy from her horn. White Wind, Southern Storm's caretaker, had had the same concerns about giving such a young pony caffeine; while she eventually broke down to Prism's pleading, she'd insisted on mixing a drink that was more milk than coffee.

"Hey, Prism." Midnight climbed up into the seat across from her, similarly fitted with a booster, and did his best to look at her clearly over the large hardcover. "Good morning." He yawned loudly. "I don't know how you do it... I know I spent most of yesterday asleep, but I've spent so long on a night schedule I somehow still feel tired being up this early."

"Maybe you slept too much," she replied. "Keep it up, you'll turn into a tree or something." The line had always been a favorite joke of Shimmer's, but as buried as she was in Chapter 2 ("Color Theory and Emotional States") the delivery was flat and curt.

"Wow, ok, relax. I'll let you read." Midnight huffed at Prism as White Wind put a glass of milk by his hoof. "Oh, um, thank you Ms. Wind."

"Have either of you two seen Sour Apple?" This came from Talon, who reversed a chair near the other side of the table and sat down in it backwards, propping her arms up on the back. "He wasn't there when I woke up this morning."

Midnight shrugged, while Prism slurped noisily at her coffee. "Sour and Shimmer went to look for the Order of Harmony."

Talon looked concerned. "And they didn't think one of us should go with them?"

"Southern Storm is with them," Prism replied glumly. She had actually been looking forward to seeing Storm at breakfast today. Her behavior yesterday was pretty embarrassing in hindsight, and Prism had hoped to make a second impression that was better than her first.

"I hope they're okay," Midnight said with a look of concern. "What if Sour steps on a cloud? He never looks at his hooves."

"They'll be fine," Prism said as White Wind slid a plate of pancakes in front of her and gently but firmly pulled the book out of her hooves - earning her a resentful look from the filly that she ignored gracefully.

"Focus on your food, little one," she said to Prism. "The book will be there when you're done." Prism sighed dramatically at this, but White Wind had already moved on with the book under one wing, to set a plate of pancakes in front of Midnight.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said politely. "They look amazing." The pancakes did look delicious, Prism had to admit to herself. They were thick and fluffy, topped with whipped cream and canned cherries, and while Prism might be used to fresh fruit in Ponyville, she certainly wasn't going to turn down anything packed in sugary syrup. Clearly Midnight wasn't either, as he dug into his plate with astonishing ferocity, barely even using the provided fork.

"Wow, Midnight... are you hungry or what? What did those pancakes do to you?" Prism tilted her head at him as she started eating more delicately.

"I think they killed his family," Talon said with a smirk. This earned her an immediate glare from Midnight, though at that point his mouth was far too full to talk coherently.

"That's not funny, Talon," he finally managed after swallowing his food. "You know I'm an orphan."

"Yeah, that's kind of a low blow. I mean, Shimmer can make some mean jokes sometimes but that's a new level," Prism said in her defense, and Talon finally relented under the glares of the two foals.

"Fine. Fine, I'm sorry." She grumbled something neither of them could make out as she started eating her own food, and what followed was an awkward silence lasting the entire meal.

"So... what are we doing today?" Midnight finally asked after all the plates were cleared away.

"I don't... really know," Prism said thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought about it. I guess... whatever we want?" She set her chin down on her upturned hoof as she thought about it. "My dad seemed to think that our best first step would be finding the Order of Harmony around here, and obviously the others are on that. But maybe there's more to it."

"So what is this whole friendship quest thing about anyway?" Talon asked her.

"Well..." She thought about this and realized that she didn't really have an answer. Not a good one, at any rate. "I guess that somewhere out there, there's ponies who have some kind of problem with their friendship. All I really know is that the six of us were called here, which means that somewhere out there in Las Pegasus there's ponies who... I guess need to be friends?" She shrugged.

Midnight sighed at this. "That's not really telling us much, Prism."

"I know, Mid!" Prism snapped at him momentarily and then immediately regretted it. "S-sorry. I know that the problem is here somewhere, and we're the ponies- um, and dragon - who have some unique combination of insights and abilities to fix it. But that's all the information we have to go off of, and from the way Shimmer and my dad tell it, that's all anypony's ever had to fix a friendship problem."

Talon had taken on a thoughtful expression. "Well, I'm planning to go into town and see if I can't make some money somehow. I mean, we can't live off of Southern Storm's charity forever." Midnight and Prism both nodded at this, though Prism didn't have a good feeling about what she might mean by 'make some money'. "So maybe while I'm out I'll find somepony with a problem. I mean, this whole thing just sounds like we're just supposed to run into them by blind luck."

"Then wouldn't it be better for us all to go?" Midnight asked, and Prism nodded at this. "We can split up, maybe, and cover more ground."

"Absolutely not." Talon put her hand down on the table. "You two are going to stay here where it's safe." She silenced their protests with a glare. "Shimmer and Sour would kill me if I let the two of you wander around Las Pegasus, and to be honest with you, I would rather live. So you're going to stay here and enjoy this amazing house. It's not like it'll kill you two."

She ignored their loud protests and left quickly, leaving Prism to sigh and flop down onto the table. "I guess I'll see about getting my book back."

"In that case..." Midnight watched her getting up from the table. "I guess I'll go practice teleportation. By myself..."

Prism stopped, catching the slightly passive-aggressive tone. "Mid... do you want help?"

"More... company than help?" He chuckled nervously. "I usually study alone with whatever books Sour brings me, but now that I actually have a friend..." Midnight trailed off with a sheepish expression.

"Well, I'm really bad at teleporting. But maybe I can tell you what I learned about it in school. That might help, right? It'll actually be nice to have a study partner at my own skill level." She slid off of her chair and came over under the table to Midnight's side. "Most of the fillies in my class are amazing at magic, and I'm just... me." She shook her head and sighed as Midnight clambered down to the floor. "So we can start with a basic review of Starswirl's theories on space-time, and then we can start talking about wormhole theory, because teleportation, portals, and even time travel all..." She started going on excitedly and in great detail about the physics behind teleportation as she trotted out of the room with a happy little prance, leaving Midnight to follow and try to keep up with a sigh.

"What did I get myself into?" he muttered behind her as she began to gush about Starswirl the Bearded. This was going to be a long day.

Sour Apple
**1 Day After Shieldfall**

"So are you sure this is the right place?" Sour Apple looked back at Shimmer and Southern Storm. "And could you two be any more conspicuous? Shimmer, nopony wears gold jewelry in this part of town." He gestured at the run-down buildings and tightly wound pedestrian streets replete with potholes of exposed cloud, just waiting for an earth pony to step into and break their leg. "And Storm..." Sour Apple sighed and gestured at the pegasus. "This, just... all of this."

"I'll take being a little shady over being Southern Storm, mate." Storm was wearing a long coat that hid his cutie mark, and his face was partially obscured by wide sunglasses and a buckball cap. The overall effect was somewhat ruined by the fine fabric and embroidered hems of the coat.

"Yeah, I get that. I'll sometimes put a coat and hat on Midnight because I don't want ponies knowing he's a unicorn. But the outfit actually matched, and that's Manehattan besides. Everypony wears coats and hats in Manehattan because it's cold as ice and rains like every other day."

A grey pony tapped Sour Apple on the shoulder. "Hey, you're from Manehattan? That's awesome, I've always wanted-"

"Hey, mind your own business, huh? This isn't your conversation, is it?" Sour Apple responded in the most Manehattan way possible, complete with a rude gesture of his hoof that made the pony quickly canter away with a look that was part anger and part terror.

Southern Storm just shook his head at that. "That was really... not necessary. I take your point about the outfit, but you can't handle things like that around here. Ponies talk." He flew after the fleeing earth pony, leaving Sour Apple to stew while Shimmer laughed at him softly.

"Oh, Sour. You always have to be the tough one, don't you?" She shook her head. "Now, to think the Order would be hiding in a place like this... let me think about my fieldcraft lessons." She sat down on a stoop, and Sour Apple came to join her a moment later.

"You're not any older than me, but you already know all this stuff about fighting and being some kind of spy," he pointed out. "How did you learn all of it?"

"Well..." She hesitated and then gave up trying to remember with a little huff. "I'm not really Prism's sister, in case you can't tell. I was adopted. Her father, Thunderbolt, is a Master in the Order of Harmony - he's in charge of the whole Ponyville cell. He took me in when I was a filly, introduced me to Prism - she was just a baby at the time - and put me in magic school. And the only thing he asked in return was that I take extra lessons from him, and keep Prism safe when she was old enough to go to school herself. He taught me how to fight with my hooves and my horn. He taught me about the secret history. He taught me about fieldcraft and codes, how to blend in with a crowd, how to tell when a pony is lying or suspicious..."

Sour put a hoof on hers. "It sounds like you were more his protege than his daughter." He certainly wished he'd had her upbringing instead of having a baby dumped on him when he was just a small colt himself. Midnight Shine was the greatest gift Sour ever could have gotten, in hindsight, but he still resented old Six Point for putting him in that position.

Shimmer looked thoughtful at this. "I... I guess so. I was so surprised and thrilled when he invited me to join the Order. It was the happiest moment of my life. But now that I look back I realize he was grooming me for it all along. He even said so before we left. He told me that he had been training me to be Prism Star's Protector- a pony from the Order that's trained exclusively to bond with a sun-touched or moon-touched unicorn and safeguard them for life," she explained.

"I... huh." Sour Apple looked down between his hooves. Wasn't that what he'd already been doing for Midnight? "Shimmer, I... I want you to teach me what you learned from Thunderbolt."

"That's a really big ask, Sour. Um..." She trailed off as she seemed to think about it. "I mean, that's a huge responsibility. I don't know if I'm ready to be a teacher, considering I didn't bond with Prism as her Protector until a day ago. And you need to decide-"

She stopped talking as Southern Storm returned, giving Sour a look that told him they'd continue the discussion later. "OK," the pegasus said, panting lightly. "I was able to catch up with him and convince him not to mention to anypony that he saw you guys."

"Wow," Shimmer said. "How did you get him to forget about this huge jerk?" She laughed quietly and gave Sour a playful nudge.

"I kinda promised him free tickets to a sold out show for his daughter and her friends." Storm rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. "And a signed photo."

"I thought you didn't want to be noticed," Sour noted with an accusatory tone.

"No, I believe my specific words were 'I don't want to be crushed by a stampede of mares and fillies'. I don't mind talking to my fans, I just don't want to get mobbed when we're trying to find a secret society."

"On that note," Shimmer cut in, "Where are they? You said they'd be in this neighborhood."

Storm shook his head. "I think they are. This is where my parents would go anytime the Order wanted to meet them." He started leading the way down a street, leaving Shimmer and Sour to follow along or get left behind. "My folks never wanted to join their little club, but they were always meeting. They always wanted money from my mom, or to compare information with my dad."

"How did your family get so rich, anyway?" Sour Apple asked. "I mean, if it's not rude to ask."

"Well, most of the money now is mine. My mom and grandmother had money, too, but..." He shook his head as he looked around. "We're good at making it, not so good at keeping it. My mom was a fantastic flier back in the day, she was always competing in races. Prize money, endorsement deals, gifts... she even got a gold medal in the Equestria Games. But most of that money went to upkeep on the house, or my dad's history research, or the Order." He stopped in front of a wall spray-painted with graffiti. "Wow, look at this." It was a beautifully shaded mural of a unicorn mare whose coat might have been pink or a very pale purple, and who wore her dark purple mane in an elaborate coif that curved over her horn. Her violet eyes seemed full of sadness, and the teal highlights running down her mane matched the color of her lit horn.

"Starlight Glimmer." Shimmer stepped up to examine the painting. "Reputed founder of the Order of Harmony. I don't think clues get more blatant than this."

Sour put a hoof up on the wall, staring up. "Wow, she's gorgeous. Y'know, they really don't make mares like this anymore. Um, no offense." This earned him a rap on the back of the head from Southern Storm that he thought was entirely undeserved - he was just stating the facts as he saw them, after all.

"She always did have a certain charisma, I hear..." Shimmer said. "But maybe less staring into her eyes creepily and more looking for clues, Sour. Look for something that's out of place."

Sour ran his hoof along the wall and looked, but he really wasn't sure what he was looking for. In truth, he felt more than a little lost compared to the other two, who were both rapidly discussing minor details and flaws, and whether or not they could be clues. Shimmer and Storm both knew so much about history and seemingly everything else between them as well, while Sour felt like he only really knew how to survive on the streets and keep his little brother out of trouble. It made sense, though. She'd gone to a fancy magic academy, and Southern Storm had probably been in the finest private schools gold medalist money could buy, while the only education Sour Apple had gotten before dropping out of school was reading and basic math. He wanted to contribute, but he didn't know what he could provide to two ponies who seemed to know everything about this Starlight Glimmer pony.

Instead, Sour took a moment to admire her flowing mane and the soft curve of her flank. She really was absolutely beautiful, at least the way this artist drew her. But something about her flank seemed off, and it took him a moment to realize that the colors weren't right. Most ponies had a cutie mark that 'popped' from their flank, and contrasted brightly enough with their coat to be easily visible. But the three butterflies painted on Starlight's flank were a shade of pink that almost blended into the fur entirely. "Hey... guys?" He asked after working up the courage to decide he wasn't just seeing things. "Do you know what Starlight's cutie mark was? This one seems wrong, somehow."

"You caught that, huh?" All three of them quickly turned around to see a ragged-looking stallion with a scraggly beard and a long mane covered up with a knit cap. "It's nice to see tourists appreciating our local art. I can tell you about it for just a couple of bits." He spoke in a slow, drawling accent that Sour couldn't place, drawing out his vowels in a way that reduced his already sedate speech to a crawl.

The three of them exchanged a look of exasperation before Shimmer sighed and turned over a hoof-full of halfbits to the strange earth pony. "Here. Buy a haircut or something."

Sour Apple glared at her and gave him a full gold bit on top of what she'd given him. "I'm sorry about her... I know what it's like. Could you tell us what's up with her cutie mark?"

"Oh, yeah man." He didn't seem perturbed at all by Shimmer's remark. "You see, that's the work of like, three different artists. Really talented dudes, but they just can't decide what her cutie mark's supposed to look like, you know?"

"Um..." Sour wasn't sure if he was supposed to respond. "Yeah, I... I think. Go on."

"So, yeah, one of em'll come out here every week or so and change it, man. One week it's butterflies, the next one it's apples. This one time it was this weird shield thing or something. And then the next week, like clockwork, man, another one will come and change it again." Sour tried to set aside the part of his mind that was trying to figure out what 'man' meant, and focus on what the apparently homeless stallion was saying. "It's the weirdest feud I've ever seen, man, but they just keep at it."

Shimmer cut in, sparing a perplexed Sour of the need to respond. "Do you think the marks they put on there might mean something to them?" she asked with a sideways glance to Southern Storm, who took on a thoughtful expression at the veiled question.

Of course, with those two solving the puzzle, Sour was left to field their new friend's rambling 'explanation' with polite nods and the occasional "yup" or "uh-huh" when a response seemed appropriate. He was tapping his back hoof impatiently, and all but ready to snap when Southern Storm finally said something. "Hey, er, 'man'. I'm showing these friends of mine around the city, and I'm wondering if you could tell me how to get to Wood Heart Park on hoof?"

"Well, of course, man, why didn't you just say that's where you wanted to go? Yeah, just go left up there and head up Flim Street for about half a mile, then go right on the big auto avenue and you just keep going that way until you get to the park. It's right before you get to the bridge going out of the district, man."

They all thanked him politely before departing. "So, is anypony going to tell me what that was about?" Sour Apple asked when they were out of earshot.

"Well, those three butterflies were the cutie mark of another of Twilight Sparkle's Companions, a pegasus pony called Fluttershy," Shimmer started to explain.

Southern Storm muttered what sounded like some kind of rhyme under his breath before continuing, "She loved nature. Trees, animals, birds, all that stuff. I mean, my dad sometimes joked that she would have been happier as a tree herself."

"While that pony was talking your ear off, we kind of had the thought that if they keep changing the mark, it might be an indication of where to find them at a given point of time," Shimmer said. "So Southern thought that it must be at the nearest park."

"I guess that makes sense," Sour said in response, though in truth he wasn't entirely certain he understood. He'd gotten the part about secret meeting places, but anything about the Companions or history in general still went over his head, so for now he decided to just take their words for it.

After a couple minutes of trotting down the streets in silence, Shimmer spoke again. "So, um, by the way... do you guys know what 'man' means?"

Sour Apple groaned in annoyance. "Thank you! That was driving me crazy! But I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't want to look stupid."

"Do you think it's some local slang or something?" Shimmer asked, and both of them looked at Southern Storm.

"It certainly isn't," he said with an offended tone. "We don't go around putting nonsense words in random sentences, thank you very much." Storm let that hang for a second before sighing. "Not that Las Pegasus doesn't have it's share of weird ponies. I'm not sure there's anyone normal here."

Sour rolled his eyes at this. "Oh, come on," he said. "He wasn't that bad. He was just lonely, and probably hungry too. I've probably said some pretty weird stuff myself when I got hungry enough." He shook his head. "And you're fine too. You're not weird at all, Southern, and I thought for sure you were going to be some kind of rich weirdo."

"Um... thanks?" Southern Storm said before Shimmer cut in.

"Oh, please, normal? I've seen reels of his shows." She flicked her head at Southern. "This one puts on more makeup than he has fur and gets up there in this fake dragonscale getup. He's the ringleader of this entire weirdo circus. Just needs a little tiny automobile to get out of."

This got laughs from both colts, and Shimmer took the opportunity to keep milking it for laughs, roasting both of them thoroughly as they walked down the roads to the park. By the time they got there, Sour Apple and Southern Storm both had to stop and lie down in the grass to rest and breathe- Sour's sides hurt by now, and he somehow felt much better about his relative ignorance despite at least half of the jokes being about his lack of education. (The other half had largely been at the expense of his grooming, and Storm had frequently cut in to agree that Sour Apple needed a makeover.)

"Well, I guess this is where I take over," Shimmer said as she stood over them. "You boys stay here and keep an eye out, alright? There's no guarantee this spot isn't being watched." She'd taken on a serious cast that quickly sobered both of the colts, and they sat up and exchanged a nervous glance as Shimmer walked over towards a large tree.

"Do we... know what she's looking for?" Sour asked.

This got a head shake from Southern Storm. "I guess I'll go sit in a tree or something. I can watch better from the air." He flew off with a powerful flap of his wings that blew a bit of dirt into Sour's face and left him coughing.

And then Shimmer started to sing, in a voice so different from her normal snide rasp. It was true and sweet, and if he wasn't watching her Sour would have sworn it wasn't the same pony. "A true, true friend helps a friend in need," she sang lightly as she sat leaned against the large tree.

It was just a single bar, but Sour Apple felt himself silently willing her to sing more as a mare sang out from behind another tree, "A friend will be there to help them see..."

"A true, true friend helps a friend in need," mare and filly sang in unison, "To see the light that shines from a true, true friend."

A few moments later, an earth pony in a jogging suit cantered by and engaged Shimmer in a short, frenetic conversation, and then Shimmer returned to Sour Apple (and Southern Storm, who had nearly fallen out of his tree gawking at Shimmer's singing, and had come back quickly to try and discuss the matter with Sour). "So, um, it went well," she said, ignoring their wide-eyed expressions. "Code exchange went without a hitch, and after I explained our problem and name-dropped Master Thunderbolt, they've... invited us... to the local House of Harmony?" She slowed down and then finally stopped with a hoof in the air mid-gesture, finally registering the colts' faces. "Is something wrong?"

"That's... that's what you call that?" Sour managed to ask. "You call that fantastic singing 'code exchange' like it's no big deal?"

"Um... well, yeah." She'd returned to her normal sarcastic tone and demeanor. "I call out the code, she gives the challenge, we do the handshake, code exchange. I mean come on, you two, have you never read a spy novel?"

"Okay, for a start, I don't read. The only books I've ever bought are Mid's textbooks, and half of those might as well be written in Draconic for all I can read them," Sour said with a defensive tone, "And second-"

At this he was interrupted by Southern Storm. "You sang in perfect harmony with a pony you'd never met, on the first try, without even looking at her. You're good enough to be on Bridleway!" He looked over at Sour Apple. "Do ponies still sing on Bridleway?"

Sour just shrugged at this - it wasn't like he'd ever been to that part of the city. Nothing but rich ponies and police. "It was just really nice to see that side of you, Shimmer. I would never have thought you were a good singer."

She seemed to blush lightly with pride. "Well, um.. thanks, I guess. How about we head home and gather the little ones before they burn Southern Storm's house down? Prism has been known to start fires when she gets upset."

At this point, Prism Star and Midnight Shine suddenly materialized in mid-air with a loud pop and a flash of rainbow-colored light, coming crashing down onto Shimmer with a heavy thud and loud cries of pain from little Prism that quickly went completely quiet. The filly was missing her left ear and a good part of her right foreleg, and bleeding profusely. "Oh, hay..." Southern Storm groaned to Sour Apple. "You take care of them, I'll keep any onlookers distracted." The pegasus colt quickly pulled off his clothes and gave a flamboyant bow as Sour Apple and Shimmer scooped up the two foals and quickly ran for the cover of the back alleys. "Just a test run for a potential show stunt, folks!" Sour heard him calling out. "It didn't go as planned, but don't worry, everything will be okay!"

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" Sour asked as soon as they were safe, rounding on Midnight while Shimmer chanted healing spells over the unconscious Prism - he'd never heard of a unicorn being able to regrow limbs, but she at least seemed to be slowing the bleeding.

"I..." Midnight quailed under his brother's glare. He'd only been in serious trouble a couple times, and seemed to be shaking with fear. "I'm sorry, Sour, it was all my fault!" The little unicorn took a deep breath before starting to rattle off, "She was helping me learn to teleport at will and I kept asking her for a demonstration so I could get a feel for the spell but she told me that it was a bad idea and she'd never managed to teleport without hurting herself but I didn't really believe her and I just kept egging her on until she finally gave in and tried to teleport us both, she just wanted to send us across the room but we ended up here and then we crashed into Shimmer and Prism's ear was missing and-"

Sour Apple shoved a hoof to Midnight's mouth to shut him up. "Midnight... Mid, calm down." It hurt him to see Midnight so upset and guilty, and all he really wanted to do was give his precious little brother a hug and tell him everything would be all right, but... Sour took a deep breath. No, he couldn't just give in like that, because this was a lot more serious than sneaking cookies. "Mid, you know how important safety is when practicing your magic. You should have taken Prism at her word when she said that it was unsafe." He sighed. "She shouldn't have let you goad her, and she does have some of the blame for her own injury. But you shouldn't have put her in that position. Now, with all that said... I am proud of you for stepping up and admitting what you did wrong right away."

Midnight didn't seem to be paying attention to his mild praise. "Is... is she going to be alright?"

Sour sighed again. "I don't know, Midnight. I would ask Shimmer." He looked at Shimmer pointedly. "Shimmer. Is Prism going to be okay?"

Shimmer had given up on healing magic and was sobbing into the bloodied filly's coat. "I.. I don't know... I've never been a healer, and without the actual parts she lost I don't know if... She's just lost so much blood already..." She broke down crying and Southern Storm swooped down to put a hoof on her.

"Hey. Hey, come on, stay with me. What about the Order? Can they help her if we get her to the House of Harmony?"

"I.. I.. I don't know!" Shimmer half-shouted at him. "Maybe..." She held Prism close and choked back a couple more sobs, before calling out in a choked, halting approximation of her singing voice that still managed to be beautiful in a haunting way:

"A true, true friend... helps a friend in need...
A friend will be there to... to help them see...
A true true friend helps a friend in need,
To see the light that shines from a true, true friend..."

Shimmer broke down entirely and just started crying, bloodying her face against Prism. After a minute had passed, Southern Storm soared up onto a rooftop, yelling, "Come on! What is my family giving you money for?! You weren't there for my parents but you can be there for her!" He shook with rage, but he started to sing as well. His voice was soulful and pleading, but underneath carried steel in the form of his built-up resentment against the Order.

"Prism Star needs your help.
We're trying hard doing what we can.
Would you try, just give it a chance?
You might find that you'll start to understand.

A true, true friend..."

As Southern Storm returned to the refrain, Sour Apple saw a unicorn pop into existence, grab Prism, and disappear in another flash of violet light. A few moments later, the unicorn took Shimmer, and then Sour Apple felt hooves wrap around him before the world dissolved in violet.

Prism Star
**12 Days After Shieldfall**

Prism Star awoke in a bed covered in itchy wool blankets and looked around blearily. The room smelled like weird potions, and her view was blocked by white curtains. Shimmer was sitting in a small armchair next to her bed, sleeping soundly, but when Prism went to poke her with a hoof, she found that her foreleg was bound tightly with bandages all the way up to the ankle, and restricted with a strap to keep her from moving it. Prism's next thought was to nudge Shimmer with magic, but when she tried to summon the energy to her horn, her aura flickered out in moments and she was left with a dull headache and a sudden sensation of vertigo from the pain medicine that made her groan loudly.

This noise woke Shimmer, who blinked a couple times before smiling softly at Prism. "Hey... you're awake, little one. You had us all really scared." She patted Prism on the shoulder a couple times.

"What happened?" Prism tried to rack her memory. "I don't... I think I remember trying to teleport, and then I just..." She dry-heaved at the memory of the pain. It had only lasted for a minute or so before she'd passed out, but she couldn't imagine anything worse.

"You..." Shimmer set her hoof on the filly gently. "Your ear and your front hoof didn't teleport with you. You lost so much blood... You're really lucky to be alive, Prism."

Prism Star stared at her in shock. "I... I what?" She looked down at the bandage-wrapped hoof. "But... but I can feel it. It actually really hurts still."

"Well, White Wind was able to get to your parts pretty quickly and put them in ice. And even though it took some goading, the Order of Harmony sent someone to bring you here." Shimmer shook her head. "We still didn't know if you were going to make it, though. They were in there for hours with surgeons and healers, and even after they reattached your hoof and ear, you'd already lost so much blood that nopony really knew if you were going to live. They've been forcing blood-replacement potions down your throat every couple hours for more than a week now."

Prism struggled against her restraint to try and sit up. "I-- what?! I've been here for a week?"

"Eleven days, actually. You woke up a couple times but one of the healers would always come back and put a sleeping spell on you. I guess you don't remember." Prism shook her head at this. "Well, I guess now I can get one of them to let you out of bed, now. You seem alright. Just don't... don't try to walk, alright? The bones in your leg are still broken, so you're going to be in a wheelchair for a while."

Prism groaned loudly. "Oh come on!"

Shimmer poked her nose. "You're lucky to be alive. You can stand being in a chair for a week or two."

Prism was about to complain more when she was interrupted by Midnight Shine jumping up onto her bed and hugging her tightly. "Ooh- hey, Mid! M-Mid, you're crushing me!" Midnight was wrapped around her neck sobbing incoherent apologies until Sour Apple pulled him off.

"We're all very relieved to see you're alright, Prism," Sour said as he ruffled her mane. "Try not to do any more dying on us." He looked over at Shimmer. "You've been in that chair this whole time, Shim. How about you go give the news to Southern Storm and Talon?" Shimmer was starting to protest when Sour Apple raised his hoof. "She's going to be fine. We're here for her, we'll get her sorted out. You need fresh air, and probably some food."

The two ponies locked eyes in a silent battle of wills before Shimmer finally capitulated with a sigh. "Fine. Make sure she's alright, ok?"

Sour Apple pulled Shimmer into a light hug as she got up. "You're not the only pony who cares about Prism Star. As far as I'm concerned, you two are family with as much as we've been through since... you know." He gestured vaguely. "And an Apple always sticks by his family."

Shimmer hugged him back tightly; even though the changeling didn't say anything at first, Prism knew how much that must have meant for her to hear.

"I'll..." Shimmer took a deep breath. "I'll make sure a nurse or somepony comes by to let Prism out of bed and get her her wheelchair." She squeezed Sour one last time and gave Midnight a kiss on the top of the head before departing.

"So, um... where are Southern Storm and Talon?" Prism looked around as if expecting to see them, even though she knew Sour Apple had said they weren't there.

"Well, Talon's working," Midnight said. "You remember how she said she was going to make some bits, and we both just looked at each other and we thought she was just going to go steal stuff?" Prism nodded at that. "Well it turns out she actually got a real job." Midnight laughed. "She actually convinced somepony to pay her to light things on fire at one of the casinos. It's amazing."

"Wow. I really didn't see her as the honest work type." Prism laughed. "And what about Storm?"

Sour answered this after both males hesitated and looked at each other nervously. "He... kind of bailed, I guess. Peregrine Dive - he's the one in charge around here, old pegasus guy - started getting on his case for calling the Order out in public, and Southern Storm just... he got really angry." Sour Apple shook his head.

"He started talking about how they were going to let you die to save themselves, and started blaming Peregrine for his parents getting locked up," Midnight continued for him. "Oh, and yeah- apparently they were both big supporters of the Order, but Storm seems to think Peregrine let them get locked up because they wouldn't join."

"It just got really ugly," Sour Apple said. "Southern Storm said he was going to stick around with you until you finished your friendship quest, but after that he's out. He doesn't want anything to do with any of it."

"Ugh." Prism Star groaned loudly as a nurse came by and started putting her foreleg in a sling. "I hate all of this. It feels like we're falling apart because I made one stupid mistake. Sosi's gone, Talon ditched to get a job, I'm stuck in this stupid wheelchair... What if we never complete the friendship quest? It'll be all my fault!"

Midnight sighed, putting a hoof on Prism's shoulder. "It's my fault as much as yours. But we're not falling apart, and we're going to figure out this quest. Talon's actually in a place where she can meet and talk to a lot of ponies, and Shimmer, Storm, and Sour are all going to help us too. We're still together."

Prism made a gesture like she was counting as she was lifted into a wheelchair. "Talon, Shimmer, Storm, Sour. That's only 4, you know. What are we going to do?" She looked up at the nurse. "Um... thank you, by the way. I don't want you to feel like I'm mad at you, I'm just frustrated."

The nurse smiled and patted her before walking away to check on other patients, and Midnight started pushing Prism out of the infirmary with his magic as Sour said, "Well, as for that, you two are going to stay here and not get into trouble." He glared at both of them, making Prism flush a little with her guilt. "Peregrine's calling in his favors to get you two the best teachers in Equestria. You're going to stay safe, and you're going to learn as much as you can, so that whatever we end up having to do you're going to be ready."

Prism and Midnight both groaned loudly at this, but it had all been decided without them, and no amount of complaining was going to change it.

******

The next two months passed in a blur for the both of them. True to his word, Peregrine Dive had amassed the best tutors the Order's resources and influence could muster, and soon the both of them were up each and every day at dawn to begin a grueling study regimen that would last until well after the moon rose. Mornings were spent learning traditional unicorn magic from a scholar called Smudged Ink, the fundamentals of celestial magic from Solar Flare (a jovial unicorn who claimed to have known Prism's mother), and arcane mathematics from the matronly but exceedingly strict earth pony Floating Point. After lunch, Prism and Midnight barely had enough time to return to their shared room and swap out one set of heavy tomes for another before reporting in for lessons in history that often put the both of them to sleep and circular debates on politics and philosophy that frustrated Prism to the point that she would have gladly done away with both of her ears to be rid of them (this was less of a sacrifice than one would think, as her injured ear had developed a maddeningly itchy scar). As soon as Prism was out of her wheelchair, two new teachers, a former Wonderbolt called Blazing Wing and a unicorn known as Lancing Ray, arrived to torment them with "combat training" - a series of obstacle courses and mock duels meant to build endurance and agility in both their bodies and their horns, which universally left Prism and Midnight exceedingly sore and barely able to move by dinner.

Even the nighttime offered little respite - even though they had no more lessons after dinner, nights were spent with an excess of homework and reading assignments. Essays on historical figures, detailed calculations of aetheric energy and magical fields, and meditation on the sun and moon competed for their time with Celestia and Luna's Journal of the Two Sisters, Twilight Sparkle's friendship journal, and Starswirl's Seven Scrolls. What little free time Prism and Midnight had was divided between detailed discussions of possible friendship problems with their friends, and their own independent studies - Prism Star had begun to actually cast the spells contained in her mother's copy of Optics, and Midnight Shine had developed a sudden fascination with temporal mechanics ever since reading the fifth of the Seven Scrolls, burying himself in treatises on time travel by Starswirl the Bearded and Starlight Glimmer and watching an ancient filmed lecture by Twilight Sparkle on causality until the projector broke.

Their friends seemed to be settling into routine as well. Sour Apple had managed to convince Shimmer to train him as a Protector, and the two were spending most of the time they didn't spend looking for friendship problems to do so. Prism occasionally tried to question Shimmer - in private - about her trouble shape-shifting, and the changeling had admitted that it was still a problem - one she hoped to solve by learning more about where she came from. Shimmer confided that she'd gotten her hooves on a rare copy of the Philosophies of Thorax, in the original Morphic script, though she was cagey and evasive when Prism questioned where she found it. As for Talon, honest work seemed to suit her in a way that surprised Prism and Midnight. She loved her job doing fire effects for a performing troupe, and it allowed her surprising access to juicy gossip and potential friendship problems. Prism always loved hearing her show-pony gossip and news from the other cities, even if most of the friendship problems didn't pan out, and the ones that did turned out to never actually be their quest. And while Southern Storm almost never came to the House of Harmony, Prism and Midnight learned that he was working hard on what he promised would be the best Cloudsdale Day party he'd ever thrown, that would include a massive cake in the shape of the HMS Firefly, a highly illegal showing of The Breaking of the Three, and a private concert just for his guests. Even better, Prism and Midnight were both invited, a prospect that buoyed their spirits as their studies started to become more taxing.

As miserable as it was for the both of them, the intense study quickly began to yield results. Under the tutelage of Smudged Ink, Prism learned new tricks and spells that she never would have thought of before, and Solar Flare taught her to augment her own meager magical power with that of the sun - a technique she never would have learned in school, and a revolutionary discovery that proved to be the missing piece to her previously weak magic. With the ancient power of the sun and moon flowing through them, Prism and Midnight soon found themselves outmatching even their adult mentors, and combat training was eventually curtailed as telekinetic slap fights turned into raging maelstroms of arcane energy that left the sparring room in tatters - but not before their final match earned the little filly her cutie mark at long last.

******

Prism Star and Midnight Shine had already spent the last hour sparring under Lancing Ray's instruction. Both had been forbidden from using celestial power, but had already battered each other to exhaustion anyway. Prism had woven a large, round shield of orange light (using hard light techniques from Optics) that she was using for both attack and defense, while she was convinced that Midnight was using time travel in addition to the normal horn blasts and shielding spells - there were moments where he would seem to blur and then dodge an attack that he had no way to see coming, only to stumble with fatigue from some spell that she never saw him cast.

"Stop... stop cheating!" She panted. "You're jumping back in time!" Her magic aura flared just a little brighter as she reinforced her flickering construct with just a little bit of solar energy - just a quick flash, opening her growing connection with the sun for just a moment before quickly cutting it off so she wouldn't get caught, but even that little bit of sunfire rushed through her tired limbs like she'd just had a whole mug of coffee. Sure, it was a bit underhoofed, but if Mid was going to cheat then so would she.

"You're the one using the sun!" Midnight Shine accused, accurately. Their training sessions had made them sensitive to one another's unique energies, enough that they could each tell when the other was using celestial power.

"I am not!" She shot back defensively. "You're just seeing things again!" Prism did her best to distract him with a flurry of unpredictable attacks from her shield construct, causing him to timeshift again to avoid her strikes, and then she felt him surge with lunar energy. "Who's cheating now, Midnight?" She paid for this moment of satisfaction, as the time she took to taunt Midnight allowed him to catch her square with a blast of magic that shattered her construct and threw her against the wall, making the recently healed injury in her leg burn with pain.

"Oww.." Prism got back up on her hooves shakily before allowing herself another, larger flare of sunfire. "That's what you want to do Mid? I'll show you some real power!" Prism hurled a line of red daggers at Midnight and followed with a huge beam of white sunlight that threw the colt into the opposite wall and left black scorch marks in a line along the floor and splashed around the impact point. Prism looked at the devastation in horror and quickly let her horn flicker out with the realization that she used way too much power - Midnight would have been seriously hurt if Lancing Ray had not teleported in front of the beam and took the brunt of its force with a well-timed shield. Even so, both males were left crumpled up against the wall and struggling to find their hooves.

"That's quite enough!" Lancing Ray was the first to get back up, and he started walking over to Prism with an expression of menace as she quailed back against the wall. "This is exactly why I forbade you to draw from your stellar partners! If all you're going to do is obliterate each other with raw power, then I don't-" His lecture was cut short by a retaliatory beam of energy from Midnight that forced Lancing Ray to jump aside, and forced Prism to defend herself with a quick bubble of orange energy. In contrast with Midnight's usual short, disciplined blasts of silver light, this spell was a continuous blaze of bizarre purple energy that seemed to twist and fold on itself in a way that made Prism feel sick to look at. She'd never seen anything like it, but she could tell just by the way it made her skin crawl even at this distance that she was toast if it penetrated her shield.

"M-Mid! What are you doing!? Stop it, the fight is over!" Prism shouted with panic in her voice, looking at Midnight through her shield only to see that he looked just as terrified as she was.

"I- I don't know! I've never used this spell before and I can't stop it! I-I-I think it's chaos magic!" He whined and screwed his eyes shut in a grimace of pain. "I can't... make it stop, it hurts!" Lancing Ray tried to run up and squelch Midnight Shine's horn with his hoof, but only got blasted back for his trouble. "It's burning me up inside! Somepony do something!"

Prism Star cowered in her shield bubble, feeling helpless against the onslaught of alien magic. Any minute now, it was going to punch through her barriers, and then it would all be over. She felt like her life was flashing in front of her eyes, just like ponies said happened when you were about to die, and she closed her eyes against the inevitable as a haze of white filled her vision...

"Prism Star, it's alright. You don't have to be afraid." The voice was that of a mare's, high and slightly nasal, and the filly opened her eyes to see that she was in what seemed like a plane of pure white nothingness. Sitting in front of her was a tall purple pony with massive wings and a long, sharp horn bracketed by the straight bangs of a no-nonsense mane. "Come sit with me," she said, patting the white... floor?... next to her with a hoof. She beheld Prism with a soft, sweet smile and sympathetic eyes, and seeing her face, Prism could understand why ponies were willing to follow her to the ends of the world.

"You're Twilight Sparkle," Prism said as she sat in the proffered spot - not a question, but a statement that she knew immediately was true. "The Princess of Friendship. But... but how are you here? You got sealed away a thousand years ago."

"Well, where is here?" Princess Twilight asked, with the air of a schoolteacher asking a leading question.

Prism thought about it and realized that she had something of a point. They didn't seem to be... anywhere. She knocked the concept around a bit in her mind but found that trying to figure it out only confused her further. "Am... am I dead?"

"I don't know," Twilight responded. "You're not dead, no. But... you're not really alive right now, either." She seemed to see the look of distressed confusion on Prism Star's face, and wrapped a wing around her as comfort. "Right now, you're at a crossroads. A single moment that will define not only your own life, but the lives of all your friends." She spread out her other wing in a sweeping motion, and Prism saw an image of herself floating in the air like a film projection, frozen in time as the beam of chaos magic blasted through her shield. It was like she was looking at a photograph of her own death.

"I... I can't stop it." Prism shook her head. "Even with all of the sunfire I can bring into my body, I'm not strong enough. It's..." She had a sudden realization as she remembered Midnight saying that it was burning him inside. "It's consuming Mid. His energy, his body, all of it. I can't match that much power without killing myself, too."

Twilight patted her gently with her wing. "We're never as strong as we could be when we're alone. But you're not alone, Prism. The most powerful magic doesn't come from the aether" - she gestured vaguely around her with a hoof- "or from the sun. It comes from inside us. Right here."

She put the hoof on Prism's chest, and Prism gave her a look of confusion. "My... lungs?" She smiled and laughed nervously. "I'm pretty sure your hoof isn't over my heart, if that's what you're going for."

Twilight laughed at this. "I guess Shimmerwing is rubbing off on you. That joke almost sounded like something Pinkie Pie might have said," she admitted with a wistful smile. Prism's look of confusion must have been evident, because she explained, "I see a lot of things from where I'm trapped in the stars. But... yes, Prism Star. I'm talking about your heart. Not your actual physical heart, but... but your ability to love and care for others. Think about the ponies who care about you. Shimmerwing, who sat up all night by your bedside for weeks. Sour Apple, who declared you to be part of his family after just over a week. Talon, who sneers on the outside but inside believes in your friendship quest more strongly than any other. Southern Storm, who chose his grief for your injury over his family's legacy. And even Midnight Shine... even as the chaos magic consumes his body and soul, his greatest fear is the idea of hurting his best friend. You six have only known each other a little while, and you've already made bonds of friendship strong enough to last a lifetime." She sat up a little straighter and smiled, giving Prism an approving wink. "That sounds very familiar, doesn't it?"

Prism just shook her head. "But... but I'm not you. I could never do what you've done. You and your friends had the Elements of Harmony whenever things got bad."

Twilight shook her head. "No... we WERE the Elements of Harmony. And so are you kids. You will always be connected by your friendship, no matter how dire things seem. Right now you're fighting, and losing, because you're fighting to save yourself, for your own sake. Don't."

"Don't fight to save myself?" Prism looked at her quizzically.

"Don't do it for your own sake. Fight so that Shimmerwing has somepony to laugh at her jokes and pranks, even the ones that aren't really funny. Fight so that Sour Apple and Talon don't ever have to be alone again. Fight so Southern Storm can keep the joy of playing for his biggest fan, and fight to save Midnight from his own folly." Twilight pressed her horn to Prism's. "Now get back down there. Get back down there, and fight for your friends."

Prism Star opened her eyes and found herself back in the sparring room, watching in horror as baleful chaos energy bored through her shield- the same energy that she knew was consuming her best friend. The thought gave her fresh vigor, and even as she opened herself to all the solar energy she could, Prism started altering her spell, adding... well, adding friendship. She saw Midnight's pain and she wove in her desire to save him, swirling violet against the orange of her normal magic. She thought of the morbid jokes Shimmer would tell at her funeral, and let the green of Shimmer's own magic aura flow with the other colors in her shield. She wove in the yellow joy of dancing to Storm's music, the red her own cheeks turned when Sour Apple teased Midnight for being so close to her, the brilliant blue of Talon's dragonfire that she thought was so beautiful... Each of her friends formed a brilliant rainbow together, a kaleidoscope of color and power that she began to push back against the chaos with, pushing forward with the shield protecting her as though she were pushing back against the winds of a hurricane. She didn't notice the burning light radiating from her flank, or the ponies that had come to save her and now simply gawked in awe at her power. Her whole world was the terrified colt pelting her with uncontrollable energy. Her best friend, her counterpart, the Luna to her Celestia. The colt she'd stayed up long nights studying with, scrambled through sadistic obstacle courses with, snuggled up to watch Daring Do movies with. She forced herself forward, step by step, until she was close enough to hit Midnight's horn with her hoof.

Midnight's spell collapsed with the disruption to his horn, and her own powerful magic collapsed only moments later, leaving the two exhausted foals to lie on the ground and pant with exertion. Prism didn't know how Midnight felt, but she personally felt like she had gone a full three rounds with Nightmare Winter herself. She was dimly aware of ponies stamping their hooves against the ground, and out of the corner of her eyes she could see other ponies bowing deeply. "Why... Ugh..." She groaned and shook her head. "Are you alright, Mid?"

"Prism..." Midnight tapped her. "Look at your flank. Your... your cutie mark." She looked back to see that he was right- on her flank was a silver triangle - a prism, she could only assume - with white light going in one side and a six-colored rainbow of red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple coming out the other. It took her a moment to realize that she was looking at it wrong. She'd gotten it by combining, not by separating. Those six colors must represent her and her friends, and she... she combined them all into one. They gave her the power to create pure white sunlight. The insight was so profound to her that she didn't notice somepony was talking to her until Midnight tapped her on the shoulder and pointed out that Master Peregrine was standing over them.

"Well, this is certainly interesting," the old stallion said grimly. "I think we're going to have to have quite the talk. About both of you."

Author's Note:

I've been toying with the idea of the Order of Harmony using songs from the show for some time, either as a way to remember the Mane 6 or as a form of communication. When I sat down to write this chapter, I realized that 'A True, True Friend' (Season 3, Episode 13: Magical Mystery Cure) would be an excellent choice for this: an almost entirely diagetic song that was sung in front of all of Ponyville, intimately connected with the events that led to Princess Twilight's ascension. The chorus fit easily as a call-and-response, and the structure of the verses worked well to adapt for Shimmerwing's and Southern Storm's pleas for the Order to help save Prism Star.

I realize that there's a huge time jump in this installment - first a week, and then another two months that summarize Prism and Midnight's training in the House of Harmony. But don't worry, I'm not just going to skim over what happened here. After this, I'm going to release another interlude in the format of a journal kept by the Inheritors in imitation of Twilight's Friendship Journal - this journal will contain, in first-person format, highlights of each character's journey and development over these two months.