• Published 8th Jul 2020
  • 1,562 Views, 291 Comments

And Now For Something Exactly the Same - Damaged



The fateful day has come and gone. Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria and was dealt with by Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The tale of Equestria is not told yet, however.

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Chapter 18 Part 4

Lyra liked being home and able to run with Scootaloo. She'd left their morning routine until just after dawn—giving each of them time to sleep-in a little because of the night they'd had. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she heard the clatter of hooves behind her that would be Scootaloo. "Did you sleep well enough?"

"Good enough that a full night's sleep tonight will have me squared away." Knocking at the door made Scootaloo forget what else she was going to say. Walking through the living room, she checked who it was. "Good morning, Sweetie Belle!"

"Good morning! Can you believe it? Twilight's a princess now!"

"I know!" Her excitement flooded into Scootaloo so they both bounced around in circles. "Her wings are amazing and soft! She needed help to keep them hidden so she could sneak away to sleep, so I helped her fold them and tie them and smuggled her to the library."

Sweetie Belle's gasp and shocked expression—combined with a accusatory hoof—sent a flood of blame Scootaloo's way. "Rarity was trying to find her! Everypony was! Princess Celestia had to tell them she was okay and asleep. It was all your fault!"

"I'm pretty sure that Scootaloo couldn't really ignore the needs of a princess, Sweetie Belle," Lyra said.

"Yeah. She looked so tired I just wanted to help her. Besides, it was her party—she's allowed to sneak off." Scootaloo started stretching her wings and running in place. "Are we ready to—Oh! Twilight asked if you would visit her today. She said 'first thing in the morning', but I managed to get her to agree on 'after dawn'."

"Saved my butt. Thanks, Scoots. I guess I'll stop-in there after our run. Are you two ready?" Herding the two fillies to the door, Lyra got them all outside and the door closed behind her. "Anti-clockwise today. Let's start at a canter."

Running had, until a few years ago, been something Sweetie Belle didn't do. Her parents had always made sure she could eat as much as she wanted and her sister had never been above bribing her with ice cream—and now she knew that had left her heavier than most fillies her age. But then Scootaloo happened.

For months she'd struggled to even do more than a lap at a trot. Then it had been a lap at a canter. Now—Now Sweetie Belle still knew she had a little weight on her, but it was what her sister had called filly fat. It was something that would fade as part of an active lifestyle.

By the time she did her first lap at a canter, and she heard Lyra say they were galloping next, her legs were primed and ready for it. Like Lyra, she was at a full gallop, though Scootaloo was only cantering still.

Compared to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle knew she'd always look big. Scootaloo was all lean muscle and tendons without an ounce of fat on her. Sweetie Belle, though, had come to terms with the fact she'd never look like Scootaloo. She would never fight as well as Scootaloo. She would definitely never fly as well as Scootaloo.

But she could run, and maybe it wasn't as fast as Scootaloo could, but she could do things Scootaloo couldn't too. "Lyra?"

Snapped out of her running focus, Lyra looked down at Sweetie Belle. "What's up?"

"Could you teach me how to use magic?" Sweetie Belle had heard Scootaloo go on at length about Lyra's prowess—and the rumors about Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops being at the beck and call of Celestia weren't exactly rumors.

Opening her mouth to say that Sweetie Belle was too young, Lyra disregarded that line of reply as being not worth the filly's time. "You attended the cadets' school. You could have learned spellcasting there."

"I could learn spellcasting anywhere. I want to learn the tricks you use with magic." Sweetie Belle's hooves thundered in the cutest way possible as she kept up with Lyra and Scootaloo. "Scootaloo said you used all kinds of special tricks to make casting easier."

Lyra didn't reply immediately. She kept up her pace, forcing Sweetie Belle to gallop beside her and Scootaloo to fast-canter—for two more laps of Ponyville before she slowed and turned toward the center of town. "I'll teach you if you can do one thing."

"What?" Sweetie Belle's chest was still pumping a little, her body having just pushed a full lap more than usual.

"You need to run and ask your parents to let me take you to Canterlot today. There's going to be a coronation and a test." Lyra started walking toward the town Library. "Well?"

Spinning around, Sweetie Belle aimed herself at her parents' home across town and dove right into a gallop again.

Turning to Scootaloo, Lyra reached out with her magic and ruffled the filly's mane. "You should get ready for a visit to Canterlot, too. Shine your armor up to a mirror finish—there will be important work for you."

"My armor's already shined—but I'll go over it again."

Alone now, Lyra took a deep breath and let it out again. "She's still my friend from school. There's nothing weird about her being an alicorn. I'm not going to freak out." Pausing a moment in contemplation, Lyra shook her head. "So why am I freaking out?"

Forming her magic into a politely-small pony hoof, Lyra reached forward to knock—only for the door to jerk open. Twilight stood there in all her majesty: one wing had escaped the cloth tied around her and seemed intent on swinging around all over the place, her mane was springy and shooting all over the place, and one eye was further dilated than the other. "Lyra! Perfect timing! I command you to reverse time to yesterday and stop me becoming an alicorn!"

"I know two, maybe three princesses who'd not be happy with me about that. Also, you know I'm terrible at time travel magic." Lyra started to walk forward, only to see that Spike was huddled in the library with a pile of books in a small fort. "Hey, Spike, has Twilight had coffee?"

"Are you kidding? She woke me up babbling about turning the planet backwards or something. If you can get her some coffee, it might fix her." Spike ducked below the battlements of his castle of literature to avoid a stray flash of purple light. "It should be easier to tell what's just purple light and what's magic," he muttered.

Sparing a nod toward Spike, Lyra turned her full attention on Twilight again—who had developed a twitching eye. "If only I had something stronger for you. Come on, Twilight, I bet you can't get to the kitchen before I do."

With her mind finding a problem it could solve readily, Twilight began the mammoth task of calculating teleportation coordinates for a planet in motion, adjusted the points by the spacial distance between where she stood and the kitchen, inputted those values into a teleportation spell and ended up on the roof of the library.

Lyra up the stairs to the kitchen, boiled up some water, added it to a Prench press along with some coffee, and was just carrying that, two cups, and some cookies she found in a cookie jar to the table when the series of repeated teleportation spells ended with a panting alicorn in the middle of the kitchen.

"I won!" Twilight said.

"Yeah you did. You know what winners get, Twi?" Lyra asked. She waited for Twilight's eyes to widen a little before replying. "Winners get coffee and a cookie."

Making it to her kitchen table—about four ponylengths away—only took Twilight three more teleports. Sitting on a chair took two attempts, but once Twilight was finally seated she used her hooves to pick up the mug of coffee and take a sip from it. The mild stimulant hit Twilight's brain seconds after ingesting it, which let her intellect catch up with the rest of her brain's manic pace and put everything into order.

Twilight's second sip worked to steady her more and she let out a relieved sigh. "I needed that, thanks Lyra."

"Not a problem, Your Highness." It was a calculated risk to prod at Twilight's nerves for such a joke, but Lyra couldn't resist it.

For a moment Twilight stared at her friend in mute horror, then finally she let out a laugh. "Okay, I deserved that for the freak-out, but if you ever call me that again, Lyra, I'll turn you into something."

"Just make sure it has four legs. I don't know if I could handle having just two again."

Twilight shuddered. "I remember you explaining it to us in school. I tried standing upright for long periods like that and I don't know how you could do it. I'm sure I'd just keep falling down."

"It helps if your brain is wired to deal with it—and you've dealt with it since birth. So, Twilight, what's up?"

Using her magic to tease the knot on the cloth undone, Twilight let her second wing spring out. "It's pretty obvious, I thought. I have literally no idea what to do with this, and that's not even mentioning I invented a new form of magic!"

"I wanted to talk about that last one, but it seems like the first issue is the big one, right?" Picking up the biscuit, Lyra checked it over for stray gemstones but found it clear of them. She nibbled it and was delighted at the taste. "Did Spike make these?"

"You know how good my cooking is—Of course Spike made them." Just thinking of Spike made Twilight calm a little more and even sigh a little. "As for the other bit, yes. I can work on the new magic, but understanding all this"—she tried to give her wings a little shake, and though they flapped they didn't seem to blow much air—"better."

"Well, I think talking to others who have been through it would be a good idea. Cadance might be the closest, but I think I could suggest writing a letter to Princess Screech too." When Twilight looked at her blankly, Lyra rolled her eyes. "The bat pony princess. She has wings and a horn and way more responsibility than she ever thought she would have."

"That would be helpful with some of it, but there was a reason I asked for you to visit and not Cadance." More coffee was required before Twilight could actually as one of her oldest friends for this help. The rush of caffeine met that already in her system and bolstered the positive effects on her mood. "I feel so different now. My friends last night barely seemed to know whether to bow or get tongue-tied with titles—Rainbow was the only stand-out, and that was probably all bravado. You've been through a big change, Lyra, what was it like?"

"That's a lot of questions rolled up into one." Lyra pondered draining her coffee, then did so. Standing up she walked over to the bench and started making more. "Firstly, it took time and we were all changing. My girlfriend—at the time—turned into a bat pony stallion and, like me, her preferences didn't change. So I had all that on top of just becoming somepony else.

"I guess the biggest change getting used to how others saw me. When I was human, I was a young guy with not a lot of desires in his head and two years before anyone would even call him adult. Then I got a purpose. I started to see, as my body changed, that things were going to be different.

"I visited Canterlot while I was still human, and even then Princess Celestia invited me back to attend her school. Did she know I was going to become a unicorn? I didn't have my cutie mark yet, and despite that she focused on me and invited me back.

"Then I began changing. It was awkward stuff first, my hooves started growing in, my tail too. On Earth, these would all be signs that something was very wrong with you. Then I got my horn. Then"—Lyra couldn't stop smiling now as she poured load of boiling water into the press—"I got my magic.

"Everything changed. I got a surge of magic that made everything I imagined a reality and—Okay, that's probably less important here. I decided to take-up Princess Celestia's offer because I started to feel that there was more for me.

"As a human I was just another person trying to grow up and live, taking happy moments where I could. As a pony I had purpose and the power to meet that purpose. Princess Celestia's teaching only fanned the flames. I wanted to help everypony I could. I wanted to protect everypony in Equestria. It wasn't until I met my Bonny that I realized how I could best do that."

Twilight was drinking the story in, but now she had an idea where it was going. "The Guard."

"Kinda. Well, yes, but it was more that I should trust in myself to find where I can do the most good." Carrying the coffee back to the table, Lyra sat down and poured herself a second cup of coffee. "You were in the same classes in school as I was—and I think you got most of the same answers as I did."

"Huh? On tests?"

Smirking, Lyra topped up Twilight's cup too. "No. There's something I think we both have figured out, but I think you haven't had a chance to look inward and examine it."

Lifting her cup, Twilight sipped at it and let out a happy sigh. "You have?"

"No, but Bonny told me enough for me to recognize it. Harmony. We both walk the paths we do with it to guide us. I have to trust my eyes, ears, and heart to guide me, but you have so much more. The elements of harmony, your friends, and Princess Celestia.

"But, don't you see, that's right. You need more guidance because you are going to be so much more. Right now those wings must feel heavy, like they were dropped on your back without any reason."

Twilight paused for a moment and looked back at her wings. "Y-Yeah. I don't deserve this."

The tingle was on Lyra again. She'd felt it several times when she and she alone had something important to do, and as she opened her mouth it was that tingle that guided her words. "Have you considered that you have them for all you need to do in the future?" Trying her best not to look as shell-shocked as Twilight did at the words, Lyra picked up her coffee to hide her face in case she started to freak out.

"What I need to do…" The concept hit Twilight hard. She stared past Lyra, past the walls of the library, and past even the horizon. Time itself spread out before her, and at some point she knew there was a moment coming when she'd need to be an alicorn—she'd need to be a princess.

"Twilight!" Spike's voice cut through the moment—at least for Lyra. When he reached the top of the stairs with a scroll in one talon, he saw the mare he thought of as his big sister just staring at the wall. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah. You know how that coffee hits you, right? What's up?" Lyra asked.

Spike held out the scroll to Lyra. "Scroll for Twilight from Princess Celestia—Wait, do I have to call her Princess Twilight now?"

"Only if she's annoying you. I bet I can tell you what's inside this already. It'll say, Blah blah blah, you need to come to Canterlot for your coronation, blah blah blah, wear your best outfit, blah blah blah, get somepony to preen your wings for you." As she spoke, Lyra levitated the unopened scroll to the table and put it in front of Twilight. "I don't think she'll be opening it anytime soon, thou—"

"Lyra!" Twilight shot upright and off her chair. "You're a genius!"

"No, I've just learned when to stop and let harmony do its thing. Read the scroll, it's important." Lyra winked to Spike.

"Oh! A scroll from Princess Celestia?" Used to opening such scrolls, Twilight plucked the seal off and opened the scroll. Normally her mentor's writing was simple black cursive on the scroll itself, this was nothing that simple. "Is this gold writing?"

The scroll had a sheet of pure white paper inside it and on that paper was gold-on-white writing that was itself embossed and slightly elevated from the rest of the paper. Such a letter was more than just communication—it was art.

"C-C-C-Coronation? But—But Cadance didn't get coronated! Wait, is that a word?" Twilight asked.

"Crowned," Spike said.

It was a topic she'd learned herself recently, but it didn't stop Lyra from passing it off as one of those things everypony knows. "Cadance didn't because Princess Celestia knew that Cadance wasn't destined to be an Equestrian ruler."

"TODAY?!"


"You need to have somepony speak for you, Twilight," Lyra said as they approached the train. "And of everypony I know, she has the right armor and knows how to say things right."

They'd been arguing about it all the way from Rarity's boutique, and Twilight knew she was covering already-trodden ground, but she was a little confused on the formality. "But you have armor—"

"Remember the part about saying things right? The only time I say things right is when I'm shouting at a new recruit or when I'm giving advice to alicorns. I don't know how titles work or what order to say the things."

It was time to concede the point. Twilight knew Scootaloo had some experience with the Royal Guard, and she definitely looked the part with her armor on. "Right. I'll accept that, but why is Sweetie Belle here?"

"Her purpose is unrelated to your coronation. I made a filly a promise and promises are important to keep," Lyra said. "And, before you ask, Apple Bloom is coming because she heard her best friends were both going to Canterlot, and her big sister too."

"Do I need to ask why you're going?" Twilight was defeated. Everypony around her was important and needed to be in Canterlot, and she had no chance of avoiding anything that was going to happen.

"Firstly, I need to supervise the girls here while you're all busy, but more importantly I need to check on the kitchen and make sure they're making the reception food just right." It was, in Lyra's estimation, one of the least stress reasons for her to be in Canterlot in some time.

"The food?" It was like a daze to Twilight. There was information rushing at her, but it all lacked context. "Why do you need to check on the kitchen?"

"Because if I don't, things won't be perfect for your first comedy night in Canterlot castle."

Opening her mouth to ask the next question, Twilight hesitated. In her mind's eye she saw thousand and thousands of questions, each slightly more absurd than the last, and yet she was unable to stop from draining Lyra of every last joke in her life. "You know what, I might leave that one be, too. In all honesty, it's good to have an old friend along for this."

"Good as old friends are, Twilight, don't forget your new friends." Lyra turned her head to look at Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy. "I hear they're kinda a big deal."

"They're amazing and I don't know if I deserve their—Well, I don't deserve them bowing to me like last night, and they don't deserve that either."

"You're going to need to get used to the bowing thing, Twi. There are a lot of ponies in Equestria who are going to hear your name first and foremost with the P word in front of it. To them you will always have been a pri—P word." Lyra rolled her eyes. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Giggling, Twilight nodded. "Immensely."

"And that's why I can trust you with all this. I've watched you grow up into an amazing pony, Twilight Sparkle. Go and have some fun with your friends and ask them not to use the P word either—though I think Rarity might be a hard-sell on that." Lyra rolled her shoulders and stood up. "I've got some future heroes to talk to."

Taking her cue, Twilight got up and approached her friends. A small pang of fear ran through her as it felt like they were all waiting for her permission to talk, but then—

"Your Supreme Majesty"—Pinkie Pie bowed low in a clearly exaggerated style—"can I use the bathroom?" When Twilight's face broke into a huge grin at her gag, Pinkie knew she'd found the right amount of silly to apply.

When Lyra sat down with her and her friends, Sweetie Belle sat up a bit straighter. There was something about the way Lyra looked at her, looked at Scootaloo, and even looked at Apple Bloom that made her think that Lyra treated them like adults. It was weird to her, given even her sister often didn't. "So, why am I going to Canterlot?"

"Test. Don't get me wrong, Sweetie Belle, I've taught a lot of ponies how to maximize their magic, but most of them have had a specific goal in mind." Lyra reclined on the seat opposite the Crusaders.

It wasn't hard to figure out what Lyra was talking about—she might not be wearing her armor, but there was still a sense of Guardpony about her. "Fighting. The Guard." When Lyra nodded, Sweetie Belle looked to Scootaloo. "I don't want that. Scootaloo's still my equal-bestest friend, but that's her thing. I want to learn spells and ways to make the world better for everypony."

"Bingo. And that's why I'm not the best judge for where your talent lies. Oh, don't get me wrong, you have talent—I'd recommend you to Princess Celestia's school in a second if leaving Ponyville and living in Canterlot was something you wanted—but I don't think you want that. Uh, tell me if you do want that, okay?"

Looking from Scootaloo to Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Not yet. Not until we all have our cutie marks. It feels important."

"So, first we need to find out what you're good at. Then I'll beg the relevant teachers at Princess Celestia's school to lend me their curriculum notes so I can teach you the relevant magic classes in Ponyville until your special mission is done." The distinct pleasure of seeing stunned astonishment on Sweetie Belle's face was entirely Lyra's. "It'll only be a few hours a week, and there will be a lot of homework, but would that suit you?"

Sweetie Belle nodded excitedly. It was an ideal solution in her mind.

"Perfect. Scoots, you'll need to go with Twilight and do one of your fancy announcements when she enters the throne room. You know the style." Waiting for a nod from Scootaloo, Lyra turned to Apple Bloom. "If you want, you can hang out with Scootaloo or come with us to the school. Both will probably be boring, but for different rea—"

"I figure Sweetie Belle will need support more." Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie Belle. "Scootaloo's done this whole being-noisy-thing before, right Scootaloo?"

Wrapped in her highly-polished, shiny armor, Scootaloo struck as good a pose as she could to look awesome. "Sure, I got this. Just another day of introducing a new princess to Canterlot."

All three Crusaders and Lyra broke into giggles at the craziness of the statement.


Sweetie Belle hugged her two friends, but mostly Scootaloo. Despite the jokes about it, this was a big thing to have to do. "Good luck, Scootaloo!"

"Good luck yourself. I wish I could go with you, but—"

"But you both have important things to do." Apple Bloom squeezed her friends until they both squeaked a little at her display of strength. "I'm proud of both of you. Cutie Mark Crusaders—taking Canterlot by storm!" She let go of her friends and shoved her hoof between them, only to get Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both doing likewise.

"Who goes here?!" It was a job to be proud of, a job that would come once in a dozen lifetimes—maybe more—and it might even be considered a little menial normally, but Bright Feather, commander of the Royal Guard, stared at Twilight Sparkle with all the intensity he could muster.

"Make way!" Scootaloo spun around and stomped right up to Captain Bright Feather, glaring up at him. "Alicorn Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville goes here. You will escort her to the castle to entreat with the princesses!"

The language was perfect to Bright's ear. Scootaloo hadn't put her own authority forward at all, she hadn't even mentioned herself—merely the soon-to-be princess. "Very well! Royal Guard, form ranks!" A dozen big ponies formed an honor guard—mostly moving to be behind Twilight and her friends. Having been well-briefed as to what to expect, he arranged for himself to lead, Scootaloo behind him, and Twilight following her. Then was Twilight's friends and finally the honor guard. There was just one tricky bit to the whole affair.

"Twilight?" Scootaloo mumbled over her shoulder. "You need to take the first step."

Sweetie Belle watched all this while trying not to giggle. She waited for Twilight to take that step, watched as everypony else moved with her, and they marched off down the street. Looking back and up at Lyra, she asked, "So, we're going somewhere else?"

"Yup. You are going to Princess Celestia's school, where I will do my best to talk them into accepting you for an examination, then when that's going on I'll be going up to the castle to check on the kitchens and make sure they have things under control, and I'll come back and collect you both so we can all go to the coronation later on." Lyra had none of the formality of the Royal Guard, stepping down from the platform to the roads of Canterlot. "Wanna run a bit?"

Rolling her eyes, Apple Bloom was about to say something about ponies who used running to replace good, honest work, but Sweetie Belle and Lyra had already taken off at a canter. "Ugh." It wasn't that Apple Bloom had trouble keeping up with them—she could run a canter all day long—she just wasn't used to running as fast as they did.

Unused to running like this with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle was surprised to see her friend seem to struggle to keep pace. There was one thing that kept her from blurting out a comment about it, and that was the memory of how hard it had been for her to keep up—then she came up with the perfect way to say it. "You're too used to hauling heavy stuff."

For a moment Apple Bloom was going to snap, and then she realized it was the literal truth. "Y-Yeah. Not used to runnin' for runnin' sake." And that's when Apple Bloom saw the crowd ahead. Ponies were milling around a cart from which somepony was selling pears. Confused as to why ponies would want to eat a pear when there were probably perfectly good apple carts in the city, she nonetheless realized they had nowhere to go—not that Lyra seemed to be slowing at all.

Just two ponylengths from the crowd, Lyra fired off a teleport that sent them all into the air above the crowd, then down to the ground on the other side—where it was clear. She turned her head to look at Sweetie Belle, but she seemed unimpressed. On her other side, Apple Bloom looked stunned. "It's easier to use a little magic rather than slow down."

Sweetie Belle just giggled at the explanation. In her mind, magic should make things easier. She kept up running beside Lyra all the way to the huge building they'd circled around to. In the distance—about halfway down the center street of Canterlot—she could see Twilight and her guards walking toward them.

"In here. We beat the crowd—don't want to get caught in it now." Lyra led the way into the school.

The building looked huge from the outside and, when Sweetie Belle followed Lyra inside, it was huge inside too. She looked around at the rows and rows of pictures on the walls. They covered every inch and ranged from paintings to photographs. One of the ones high up she could see was Lyra and beside it was Twilight.

"Graduates. Ponies that met and exceeded the school's requirements." Lyra walked to the receptionist's counter. "Inky Stamp?"

"She retired last year. I'm Ink Blot—no relation." Ink's eyes flickered from Lyra's face to the picture of her on the wall. "What can I help you with, Ms. Heartstrings?"

"I have a filly I'd like to receive an aptitude test, then I'd like a meeting with the headmistress as soon as Professor Inkwell can see me." It was a completely ridiculous request and Lyra knew it. Furthermore, she knew Ink Blot knew it too—and she was reasonably aware that Ink Blot would know she knew it was ridiculous. "No, I'm not joking."

"No ma'am. I'd know if you were joking because there would be laughing. You are a graduate, so you know the rules. Admission tests happen in winter, and Professor Inkwell doesn't like to be disturbed without a day's notice unless you're Princess Celestia." Ink Blot delivered her answer firmly though, when she was done, she noticed Lyra's eyebrow start to rise. "Don't try to badger me, ma'am. I will summon the Guard if you prove rowdy."

It would be funny if it wasn't exactly what Lyra expected. The one day she didn't wear her armor to Canterlot and she was threatened to have the Guard called on her. For a fraction of a second she pondered pushing her case and calling Ink's bluff, but that would be an embarrassment for the Guard more than anything. "Just send Inkwell a note telling her who is here—at the end of her current class—and I'll be content if she doesn't want to see me."

Pulling one wing up to her forehead, ignoring the black-ink-tipped feathers as she massaged her temple, Ink Blot wrestled with the knowledge she had one of those kinds of ponies to deal with. "Under duress I'll do it. If she says to leave, and you refuse, I will call the Guard and give them your name. Got it?"

It was enough for Lyra—she nodded.

"'Sorry to bother you, headmistress, but Lyra Heartstrings is here and says she needs to speak to you.' Is that satisfactory?" Ink wrote as she spoke—not planning to word the note any other way. The worst part, as far as she was concerned, was that she would likely get somewhat in trouble unless she found somepony else to deliver it.

When the pegasus was gone, Sweetie Belle looked up at Lyra. "Why is she so angry?"

Lyra sighed. "She's new. Probably hasn't learned all the ropes yet. Maybe I should have worn my armor today?"

"Would that have made her do what you said?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Probably not," Lyra said, "but I'd have an excuse to be yelling then."

The sound of four hooves coming back down the hall was unsurprising to Lyra—the offices and lounge for teachers was just beside reception, and Inkwell never strayed too far from there. "Well?" Lyra asked.

Trying her best not to grind her teeth, Ink said, "She will be out in five minutes." Her anger persisted until she saw the unicorn filly gazing at her in shock. Like a needle connecting with a balloon, her anger at being proved wrong burst at the realization she was being a big meanie—for no real reason but spite—in front of foals.

Taking her time to walk back into the staff area of reception, Ink looked at Lyra with a much calmer face. "Sorry, it's been a trying day."

"I'm going to take a stab and say it's been a trying job to fill Inky's horseshoes?" Lyra asked, surprised to see the change in Ink. "She was a force of nature around here."

"You're telling me. She had a system of filing that worked, apparently, but compared to modern standards every task is like trying to find a needle in a pile of needles. The worst bit is I don't have the time to correct it—there's just too much going on every day." By the time she got to the end of her complaints about the filing system, she slumped down on the bench. "And that's just the start of it."

"Want some help?" Lyra asked.

Ink's eyebrows rose and rose until she could only lift them higher by raising her head from the bench—which she did. "Help how?"

"Well, what I want is for Inkwell to get Sweetie Belle here an aptitude test so I can put together a lesson plan for her. That will take a few hours, which means you can have yourself an assistant—two even—to help get things into the kind of order you'd prefer. All I can promise is I will follow all orders and that Apple Bloom will eat all the lollipops you have." Standing straight, Lyra saluted with the kind of crisp and perfect precision that she demanded of new recruits.

It took Ink a few seconds for the stance to sink-in before she face-hoofed. "You're in the Guard, aren't you? And I threatened to call them…"

Lyra waved the concern away. "Which was sensible of you. It's everypony's right to feel safe and the E.U.P. Guard are here to do that. Let me help you out of at least one of your messes to make up for badgering you about this."

"That's at least another smaller issue. I get told 'Don't bother Inkwell unless the pony asking is important.' How am I meant to know who is important? Wait—" Narrowing her eyes, Ink started to put more pieces together.

"Lyra Heartstrings," Professor Inkwell said as she approached the front counter, "sergeant of the E.U.P. Guard's latest division, troubleshooter for Princess Celestia, former classmate and friend of soon-to-be-Princess Twilight Sparkle, friend of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor." She didn't bother keeping up with every little detail of her former students, but Inkwell did have a wall where she pinned achievements of those she was particularly proud of. "What can the school do for you?"

"I have a filly who wishes to learn more advanced magic and we'd both like to find what she has particular aptitudes for." Looking down at Sweetie Belle, Lyra smiled just thinking about the potential she held. "I can take over her training from there, with a little—"

Professor Inkwell held up a hoof to forestall Lyra's "Enroll her. If you believe she has aptitude for any magic, enroll her in the school and let us do our job."

"She doesn't want to leave Ponyville. Not yet, at least. Is there a way she could attend here for one or two days a week and I can assist with any training outside of that?" It was a long-shot, but Lyra was willing to spend a little of her time helping Sweetie Belle—it never even occurred to her that she shouldn't.

"I—" Closing her eyes so the hopes and dreams of a filly weren't boring their way into her heart, Inkwell sighed. "Anypony else and I would say no. Anypony except a graduate who is themselves a teacher of magic already and I wouldn't even be thinking about this." She opened her eyes and stared hard at Lyra. "You're going to need to report in on her progress, assist the local teacher in Ponyville in building her coursework, and you will attend a staff meeting here once a month. Am I clear?"

Lyra was more than familiar with the tone of a commander who expected their very words to be carried out as law. She snapped off a stiff salute. "Ma'am. Yes, ma'am!"

"Do that again, Lyra, and I'll clip you around the ears." Turning her attention from Lyra, Inkwell looked down at the cause of all the fuss. "Would you like to come with me, young lady, and we'll see if we can't work out what your magic talent is?"

Sweetie Belle blinked in surprise and then, without being able to control herself, she bounced in place. After a moment of all that excitement, she calmed down and looked up at Inkwell. "O-Okay."

"We'll be a few hours." Turning, Inkwell aimed herself back down the hallway with the aim of reaching the testing rooms. "You understand, it would be shorter but somepony had to go ahead and make a new type of magic. Speaking of that, there are eight kinds of magic now: light, dark, change, motion, emotive, chaos, and harmony—plus the new magic Twilight Sparkle created, friendship.

"We'll tackle them in order. The reason for that order, in fact, is important. Come." Stepping into the carefully protected room, Inkwell tried to ignore the feeling of deja vu she felt at leading a lone filly in. In the back of her mind she had to wonder if she was about to test another filly who would create an entirely new field of magic. "A simple medium, light is the first magic any unicorn learns. Please, make as much light as you're able using whatever magics you wish."

Light spells were something Sweetie Belle had been taught first. From the little single-point spell that foals used to burn off magic and stop their own surges to huge spells that could emulate the sun itself. She'd practiced a few, mostly the ones she thought were pretty, and that's why she started working a moderately complicated basic spell that she had thought, when she'd first seen its pattern, looked like a rose.

It was tricky, but working through the pattern slowly, Sweetie Belle finally completed it and sent her full magic rushing through the pattern. The light it generated was soft and tinted a subtle yellow-gold, casting no shadows.

"That's a complicated piece of magic just to make light. Would you mind explaining why you chose Solar Heart's Radiant Warmth?" Inkwell was impressed at the effort memorizing the spell would have taken for a foal.

Temptation to embellish the truth was hard to suppress, but Sweetie Belle did so—if for no other reason that she wanted to honestly pass the test. "The pattern is pretty and I enjoy looking at it. It also helps me relax when I use it to read by."

"Can you tell me why it leaves you relaxed?"

Tilting her head a little, Sweetie Belle bit her lower lip. She remembered there were a lot of notes beside the spell, but it was hard to remember those when she'd spent so much time focused on the pattern itself. "N-No."

"It's the warmth of sunlight itself. A lazy spring afternoon captured and wrought into the guise of a spell. Such days do more than just illuminate, they spark creativity and life within your heart. A good start, young lady. Now I wish to see you work a dark spell. As with light, any you can perform will suffice." Unsurprised when Sweetie Belle began the simplest of dark magics, a simple sphere that can snuff out flame, Inkwell noted that Sweetie Belle's aptitude for light magic was obvious. "Not your most favorite one, but you keep it memorized?"

"R-Rarity says I have to keep it memorized if I am going to cook in her kitchen. I have accidents." It pained Sweetie Belle to admit, but the sting to her ego was salved by her recent success in making food with her friends. "Change is next?"

"Yes. It's one of the more complicated magics but, please, if you would?" Inkwell hadn't expected much. Most unicorns learned spells to change the color of flowers first, so when Sweetie Belle cast another complex little spell at her own throat, she was surprised.

Having managed one of her favorite spells, Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and started singing—a whistling song that only a bird should be capable of. She had learned the tune while hiding near Fluttershy while she trained a choir of birds, and once she heard it she'd set about trying to find a way to sing like that.

Without looking at her pad, Inkwell began to take notes. The song was easy to get lost in with its swelling notes and elaborate harmony, but it was the spell that Sweetie Belle had used to achieve it that had her excited. Technically it was a basic spell, but this one was as complex as several intermediate ones. It showed not just aptitude with magic, but a specific type of magic or effect with which foals could map their whole lives around.

Once Sweetie Belle was done singing, and not a moment sooner, Inkwell clopped her hooves a few times on the floor in applause. "That was wonderful. Do you know other change spells?"

"Th—" Sweetie Belle realized she hadn't let go of the magic when her words devolved into tweeting, she did so and tried again. "That's the only one I've learned so far. I really wanted to be able to sing like a bird."

"Which pony assisted in your research?"

"Well…" Lowering her head, Sweetie Belle tried not to blush. "I asked Twilight for any change spellbooks. She wasn't really listening at the time, but Spike the dragon helped me find what I wanted."

Inkwell added a note about Sweetie Belle being a self-motivated learner. "I see. Please continue with motion."

"S-Sorry, I don't know any spells for motion, except telekinesis. Or emotive, chaos, or harmony. And I don't think there are any friendship spells yet." Sweetie Belle looked up into Inkwell's eyes, expecting to see derision or disappointment. Instead, she saw a big, warm smile on the teacher's face.

"Well, let's learn some. Not the friendship magic, of course. Like you said, no spells exist yet." Teleportation magic, particularly for objects, was a specialty for Inkwell. She plucked up books on the four topics and made them appear before them. "Why don't you start with motion?"

The first spell in the book was literally telekinesis. Just a single point of magic was all it took to pick up an object and wave it around—or accidentally crush it. Sweetie Belle shook her head at that. The second was a spell she'd seen used a lot by her sister; an advanced form of telekinesis that allowed multiple things to be held at once.

She'd never used it before, mostly because she'd never had a reason to, but she could recall seeing Lyra using it while she was cooking. Focusing hard, she imagined what shape the pattern made and, after a few moments, giggled as she noticed a pegasus wing hidden in the pattern. Pegasi, like Scootaloo, could hold lots of things thanks to their feathers, so she imagined the spell pattern as a wing with feathers extended and curling around things to hold them. "Okay, I think I've got this."

Raising an eyebrow, Inkwell watched as, with the book closed again, Sweetie Belle built and cast the spell perfectly, then picked up two balls from a stack in the corner. "Very good." How did this filly master Magnificent Multi-TK with just a minute of study? Three near-intermediate spells, one she just learned. Prodigy? "Would you like to try emotive next?"

Biting her lower lip, Sweetie Belle nodded and accepted the next book. Browsing through it, she found a spell that resembled a semi-quaver. The pattern sparked her memory before she even noticed what it did. Inspiration Incantation, which given what she knew of her big sister, Sweetie Belle immediately fell in love with it. "Okay, I've got one."

Inkwell managed a glance at the page. There was only one spell on it—and it was another borderline intermediate spell. "Very well. Please, cast it." When the filly, without looking at the book again, cast it without issue, Inkwell was starting to wonder if somepony was playing a prank on her. "You just learned this spell?"

Blinking away the bright light of the spell's effect, Sweetie Belle nodded. "I don't normally do much of this. Miss Cheerilee said I have to do the spells in the book she has before I can try others, and they're really hard to remember."

"Which book?"

"Foal's First Spells."

It was shocking to hear. "Every single one of those spells is simpler than the one you just cast."

"Well, they have less points, yeah." Sweetie Belle scrunched her snout up a bit. "But there's more to remember."

Inkwell felt the white-hot burning need to yell and demand an explanation. Thankfully, she'd spent a good deal of time talking with foals. "What are you remembering?"

Pointing her hoof at the Inspiration Incantation, Sweetie used her magic to trace a semi-quaver over the pattern. "This is just a semi-quaver with extra bits here and here. So I just remember the extra bits."

Everything started to make sense now. Inkwell lifted up the motion spellbook and found the spell for telekinesis Sweetie Belle had used. "And what's this pattern?"

"That's a pegasus wing, with all the feathers, and these two extra bits here and here." It was obvious to Sweetie Belle once she'd found the pattern once. She easily made it with the two tiny changes, being careful not to add enough magic to cast it, to show Inkwell how it worked.

"I believe we're done with the testing." Professor Inkwell now had a unicorn to beg, plead, and promise anything to—for the opportunity to teach the student of her dreams. "If you'll follow me back to reception."

Now Sweetie Belle was nervous. Inkwell hadn't let her finish all the potential spells, and she really liked the new spells she'd learned in just a few minutes at the school. Her mind raced as she tried to wonder what she'd done wrong. When they reached the front area again, she saw Lyra and Apple Bloom in the office moving folders of paper around various cabinets while Ink Blot was shuffling things around inside a cabinet.

"Ink Blot, please assemble the paperwork required to admit a student into the Princess' school. I will also need parental approval papers that will need signing—I assume you can arrange that, Lyra?" Inkwell watched as the Lyra quickly stuffed all the hovering folders into cabinets.

"Yes, ma'am. I just need to finish up my work here and I can arrange that."

Inkwell sighed. "You don't need to call me ma'am anymore, L—Wait, why are you working here?"

"Well, somepony hired Ink Blot here and threw her in the deep end without giving her a chance to bring order to Inky Stamp's chaos. Apple Bloom and I were helping her to bring a little sanity to the office." Lyra kept sorting folders, grabbing more from the to be sorted cabinet, glancing at them, then sending them in the appropriate direction. "But I could never imagine somepony doing that to her on purpose, so what's up?"

"If I tell you, will you get Sweetie Belle's parents to sign her up to the school as quickly as possible?" Inkwell, from experience, knew that Lyra wouldn't be able to refuse a dangling morsel of information. That Lyra had pointed out what she wanted to know was its own puzzle.

"Yes." Lyra was going to anyway, of course, but hearing Inkwell's excitement to secure the promise made her wonder what the testing had discovered. "So, spill it."

"Half our teaching staff were all at the point where they were waiting for an excuse to retire. When Inky Stamp gave her notice, I had six professors all decide that was a good enough sign for them. Cue me running around trying to organize staff to scrape through the year—and I forgot that I'd left a mess in my newest receptionists' lap." Inkwell turned her attention to a stunned Ink Blot. "I'm sorry."

"If you'd like, I'll have a talk with Princess Celestia about trying to find you some more staff." Not stopping in her sorting, Lyra was working through the to be sorted cabinet at a huge pace. "Now, what did you find? I'd talked to Miss Cheerilee, but she seemed to have trouble discovering what Sweetie Belle could be best at."

"Everything." Inkwell passed her clipboard over to Lyra, who paused in her sorting to start reading. When Lyra's eyebrows shot up at the notes, Inkwell let out a chuckle. "I can't blame this Miss Cheerilee, a talent like Sweetie Belle's is hard to pick up on. I only managed it myself through careful questioning. So, with a resounding yes, and pending your parents' permission"—she turned to face Sweetie Belle—"I would like to welcome you to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

Author's Note:

To Celestia: Is there a book about being a princess that Twilight should read?

"Several. One of which was written by my sister and involves plans for the subjugation of—Well, let's just say it was during her odd period." The look on Celestia's face betrayed her melancholy. "Another was a many-times transposed etiquette book penned by Platinum herself. It's all completely out of date—I might give it to Twilight. There was also a five-part lesson plan written by Star Swirl himself, but I wouldn't inflict that on anypony... again."


So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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