• Published 31st Aug 2012
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My Little Mommies - 3Power



An encounter with an enchanted mirror results in the mane six accidentally becoming mothers.

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The Complete Original Version of the Story.

Author's Note:

This is the original version of the story in its entirety, plus what little was written of the 14th chapter before I stopped writing.
(To see that, scroll all the way to the bottom. I suggest ctrl-f Chapter 14)

If you point out spelling/grammar errors and the like, I may see fit to edit them, but for the most part, this version of the story will not be touched again.

My Little Mommies
by 3Power
Chapters


Chapter 1: The Mirror

Chapter 2: The Raven

Chapter 3: The Spider

Chapter 4: The Moonlit Path

Chapter 5: The Names

Chapter 6: The Rat

Chapter 7: The Snake

Chapter 8: The Meeting

Chapter 9: The Surge

Chapter 10: The Collision

Chapter 11: The Guardian

Chapter 12: The Crimson Star

Chapter 13: The Unlucky

Special: The Future


Chapter 1: The Mirror


The heavy oaken door slowly creaked open as Twilight Sparkle quietly crept into the mansion's ornate entrance hall, the light from her horn illuminating the otherwise dark room. Rarity gently tiptoed in right behind her, glancing around at her surroundings and wrinkling her nose in disgust at the layers of dust and cobwebs that had built up over the building's years of disuse.

Behind her, Pinkie Pie happily bounced into the room while Rainbow Dash glided in overhead through the open doorway.

Finally, Applejack slowly entered the room backwards, dragging along with her a stubborn yellow pink-maned pegasus that was digging into the stone floor with all four of her hooves.

As Fluttershy's nose crossed the threshold, Twilight reached out with her magic and gently shut the door.

“For the last time Shy,” Applejack said as she spit out the other pony's pink tail. “This place ain't haunted.”

“Y-Y-You don't know that,” Fluttershy defiantly mumbled at the floor.

“Yes I do, cause there ain't no such things as ghosts.”

“E-Empirical data inconclusive, future study is n-needed.”

“Oh for... Twi!?”

The purple unicorn stepped forward.

“Come on Fluttershy," she implored. "The existence of ghosts aside, I'd rather make it back to Manehattan before sundown. I don't like the idea of going back through those woods in the dark.”

A terrified squeak was the pegasus' only response.

Twilight rolled her eyes and bent down next to the yellow pegasus. “Hey, Fluttershy, look at me.” she said gently.

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment, but in the end she lifted her head and looked Twilight straight in the eyes.

“Listen, I promise you that as long as we're in this mansion, no ghosts, no ghouls, nor anything scary or surprising is going to jump out and scare y-”

“TWITCHA TWITCH!” Pinkie screamed out as she rushed forward and tackled Rarity, who shrieked in surprise as the two of them crashed into a pile of dusty furniture that was stacked up on the side of the hall. Moments after, right where Rarity had been standing a second before, a chandelier fell from above and crashed into the stone floor with a deafening bang, scattering bits of crystal all across the entrance hall.

Twilight and Applejack could only gape before turning their gaze upwards from where the chandelier had fallen. There, a rainbow maned pegasus was smiling awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof.

“Eheheh... oops?”

“Consarn it Rainbow!” Applejack snapped before turning back towards Fluttershy, who was now lying sprawled out on her back with a goofy grin on her face.

“Shy? You okay? Shy?” Applejack asked as she waved a hoof back and forth in front of the yellow pegasus's vacant face, to no avail.

“We lost her,” Applejack concluded with a sigh. “Oh well, she'll be easier to carry this way.”

“WHOO! Let's do that again!” The pink pony exclaimed, pumping a hoof in the air even as she and Rarity disentangled themselves from the pile of furniture.

“Pffft,” Rarity spat. “Oh for Celestia's sake! I'm filthy!” She spent a few moments attempting to brush off the thin layer of dirt now stuck to her pure white coat before narrowing her eyes and glaring blades of death at the pegasus sheepishly grinning above her.

“Oh there will be a reckoning, Rainbow Dash”

“Rarity I... Sorry... Really,” Rainbow apologized, genuinely repentant.

“Calm down girls, it was just an accident,” Twilight said, walking forward. “Though I'd advise not playing around with anything else that might crush us to death.”

“I just thought it'd make a good place for a nap,” Rainbow explained.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Rainbow.

“Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am, please don't do the chicken thing again ma'am!”

“More importantly,” Twilight continued, shifting her gaze back to those with their hooves on the ground. “We need to get moving; we only have a few more hours before nightfall.”

“Right,” Applejack agreed. “So uh, what was it, exactly, that the princess wanted us to look for again?”

“Let's see...” Twilight said, using her magic to open one of her saddlebags and pull out the letter she had received that morning.

It read:

"To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I trust you and your friends are enjoying Manehattan? I certainly did when I visited last month. I highly recommend you try to get your hooves on a tofu dog while you're there – It's truly a delicacy.

In any case, I didn't want to disturb your vacation, but I was hoping you'd be able to run a small errand for me while you're there. A squad of Wonderbolts passed over the woods to the southeast of the city, and one of them spotted an unusual structure sticking out from between the treetops. He took a closer look and discovered that it was an elaborately constructed mansion overgrown with trees. Based on his description of the structure, I think it may just be a mostly intact building from pre-Equestrian medieval history. I wanted to hire an expedition team to examine the site, but I hesitated to do so until I got a better sense of what this mansion might be.

Then, I remembered you and your friends were accompanying Applejack on her trip to Manehattan. As such, I was wondering if you wouldn't terribly mind taking a closer look at the structure itself in an attempt to ascertain who it might have belonged to and its historical relevance. If you could do so I would be most grateful.

The geographic coordinates of the mansion are enclosed, please send a return letter with your intentions.

Sincerely,

Your friend and mentor always,

Celestia."

Naturally, Twilight had relished the opportunity to uncover the history behind a hereto unexplored ruin, and had little trouble convincing her friends to come along with her. Applejack, who had made the trip in the first place in an attempt to convince her Aunt and Uncle Orange to attend the next reunion, found herself quickly growing tired of the city, and thought a nice hike through the woods would be a nice change of pace. Rarity disagreed, but the prospect of undiscovered treasures lying in wait was enough to get her to brave the wilds. Rainbow and Pinkie viewed the trip as an adventure, while Fluttershy found herself dragged along, unable to express her apprehension until it was too late to turn back. In the end, only Spike, who was up a little too late the night before, decided to stay in the city and catch up on his sleep.

Twilight finished skimming the letter and placed it back in her bag.

“Right, basically our mission is to determine the identity of the ponies who lived in this mansion. In other words, we're looking for books, documents, portraits, anything that could shed some light on that.”

“Got it?” Twilight asked as she looked around at her conscious friends.

They all nodded their understanding.

“Right, Rarity, how about you stay with Fluttershy until she wakes up?”

“Hmm,” The white unicorn pondered, raising a hoof to her chin in mock thought “Search through layers of dust, or stay clean with Fluttershy?”

Twilight giggled.

“Pinkie, you take the first floor hallway to the East.”

“Okie dokie artichokie”, the pink pony answered with a smile.

“Applejack, you do the same for the West.”

“Roger that,” the cowpony answered, tipping her hat.

“Rainbow, you take the East side of the second floor.”

“Yes! This is gonna be just like Daring Do and the Mummy's Mausoleum!” The rainbow-maned Pegasus exclaimed, pumping a hoof in excitement.

“Er, I hope you're not expecting to run into any traps, Rainbow,” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow.

“Spoilsport,” Rainbow said as she stuck out her tongue and began to fly away.

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight said as she began to gather magic in her horn. “There's a spell I need to cast first.”

Twilight's horn glowed brighter and brighter until, with a flash of light, four white orbs appeared out of thin air. One each floated over to Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity, hovering over their heads.

“From how the mansion looked from the outside, it's safe to say most of the windows are overgrown by trees. There's not likely to be much light, so be careful. “

The ponies nodded. Four of them headed to their assigned areas while Rarity magically dusted off a couch and levitated Fluttershy's unconscious body onto it.

“Honestly Fluttershy, I have more to fear from this dusty old place than you.”

***

“Any luck?” Twilight asked.

The ponies had searched the mansion for the better part of an hour and had reassembled in the entrance hall.

“Nothing,” Applejack answered. “I found plenty of bookshelves and desks, but no books”

The cowpony sighed. “I dunno Twi, I think someone got here long before we did.

“They took the paintings too,” Rainbow Dash added. “There's a whole bunch of hooks in the walls where they would have hung, but nothing's there."

Rainbow paused for a moment.

“N-not that I'm interested in paintings or anything,” She added.

“So... the mansion's empty?” Fluttershy asked.

The yellow pegasus had regained consciousness about twenty minutes prior.

Twilight sighed in resignation.

“It looks like it is, Fluttershy.” she answered.

“Oh, that's a relief,” Fluttershy said, visibly relaxing.

Twilight just rolled her eyes before glancing over at the pink earth pony that had thus far remained uncharacteristically quiet.

“What about you, Pinkie?” she asked. “I don't suppose you found any books?”

“Nope!” she answered with a grin. “Just a big creepy door.”

Twilight sighed dejectedly and began to slowly walk towards the exit. “Alright then, we'd better head back before it gets too dark, I'll write a letter telling the princess it was a bust when we... wait what!?”

She snapped her head back towards Pinkie, only just processing what the pink mare had said.

“Down that hallway there's a big spooooky door with some monster or something carved onto it,” Pinkie said plainly

“Show me!” Twilight happily exclaimed, all disappointment vanishing as her face lit up with excitement.

“Sure, its just down this hallway. Follow me!” Pinkie said as she began hopping down the same hallway she had explored before.

All but one of the ponies immediately trotted after her.

“U...um... I don't want to see the creepy door,” Fluttershy quietly called after them.

“FLUTTERSHY!” five voices yelled back at her, causing her to instinctively flinch and squeal.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Sure enough, at the end of the hallway was a thick stone door. Just like Pinkie said, the door was engraved with a depiction of a monstrous creature. Its head was a twisted version of a pony's, but with four eyes instead of two. Its long narrow body stretched across the entire door from top to bottom, with not four, but rather eight multi-jointed legs that sickly twisted and turned every which way. Its mane and tail waved in a manner reminiscent of fire. Fire which formed a complete circle around the beast.

“By Celestia...” Twilight gasped. “It's Sleipnir.”

“Slept where now Twi?” Applejack asked, cocking an eyebrow

“SLEIP-NIR,” Twilight enunciated, slightly annoyed.

Five blank stares gazed back at her.

“The father of all monsters?”

Stare.

“The eight-legged terror?”

Stare.

“...The Spider-Horse?”

“OHHHH!” five voices simultaneously exclaimed in understanding.

Twilight could only scowl at her friends' lack of historical knowledge.

“Whatever, let's just get this open,” she said, stepping forward to examine the door.

“I don't see a handle or nothing Twi,” Applejack observed.

“Of course not,” Rainbow added. “Fancy doors like this always have a hidden switch. Try pushing one of the eyes in!”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie called out as she jumped up and down. “Maybe it opens if you say the password!”

Pinkie cleared her throat and stepped forward.

“Open sesame seed bagel!” she shouted at the door.

For a moment, there was silence, and then, with the sound of stone scraping against stone, the door slowly slid sideways into the wall, coming to rest with a thud.

The ponies' jaws dropped, including Pinkie's.

Rarity was the first to regain the ability to speak. “Did... did Pinkie really just...?”

“No,” Twilight said as she looked back and smiled. “It was me.”

“Although this door does apparently open with an audible trigger,” Twilight explained, “the chances of correctly guessing the correct passphrase are astronomical. Luckily the lock is based on an old double redundancy algorithm that was determined to be flawed centuries ago. By exploiting this flaw I was able to bypass the primary magical circuitry and...”

Stare.

She rolled her eyes and sighed yet again. “Nevermind. In any case, I think it's unlikely that any looters could have made it through that door without force, and since there's no sign of damage I think we may be in luck! Let's go girls!”

“Right!” came a chorus of voices behind her, along with one terrified squeak.

The passageway was dark, darker than the mansion itself had been, likely due to the complete lack of windows. There were unlit torches hanging on the wall but with the lights still floating above the ponies' heads they were unnecessary. The passageway gently sloped downward into the earth until it emptied out into a circular room. A tiny beam of light slipped into the room from the ceiling.

Rainbow Dash flew up to the beam to take a closer look. After examining the ceiling for a moment she said “There's a glass skylight here but it's almost completely covered by leaves and junk. It looks like this room is under some patch of ground outside the mansion.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight said as she and the others walked forward to the center of the room. “The setup certainly suggests that it was a room of some importance, a shrine perhaps.”

“Well first things first, I think we need a bit more light before we can make any sense of this” Applejack observed.

At the moment, the lights only illuminated a few feet around them, just enough to make the ponies themselves visible to one another, but not enough to light up the room itself.

“Right,” Twilight said, gathering her magic. “I'll make the lights brighter.”

The glowing orbs swelled with energy, and in just a few moments, the room was awash in their bright glow.

At that time, several events happened in quick succession.

First, the six ponies immediately became aware of the fact that the floor they were standing on was actually a large circular mirror situated in the center of the room, beneath the skylight.

Second, while the mirror was reflecting the magical lights twilight had conjured, as one would expect any mirror to do, it had also began to rapidly give off light of its own at an alarmingly quick rate.

And finally, the light itself engulfed the six ponies, flowing through their bodies in a manner not unlike when they used the elements of harmony. For a moment it seemed as though their bodies had become disconnected from the world, and instead touched the entirety of the universe in all its glory.

And then the light went out, and the six ponies fell to the ground, unconscious.

***

Pinkie Pie loved to dream. As wacky as reality was, there was no limit to what you could do in a dream. Pinkie had all kinds of dreams - silly dreams, action packed adventure dreams, even the occasional naughty dream...

You know, the kind where she would eat forty cakes and not share them with anypony.

She loved dreaming so much she even once tried to have a dream within a dream within a dream, but decided that was a bit too silly.

However, as much as she loved dreaming, there was one thing that could always snap her out of any random, fun, or gluttonous dream.

Her responsibility.

Not too long ago, Pinkie had discovered that even though she was friends with everypony in Ponyville, a lot of them thought she wasn't very responsible. In fact, the first time Mr. and Mrs. Cake needed a foal-sitter, Pinkie was the very last pony they asked.

That hurt.

And even after she had convinced the two to leave little Pumpkin and Pound Cake under her care, Twilight had come by and said she thought Pinkie just wasn't cut out for the responsibility.

That hurt too.

Pinkie was determined to show them all that she deserved the name Pinkie Responsibility Pie, even if she had made the middle part up, and in the end, the Cakes made her their go to foalsitter.

As a result, Pinkie found herself looking after the twins more and more, even on a number of occasions where the Cakes were out of town for several days at a time. Those nights, Pinkie was the only adult pony in the house with two baby ponies. So it didn't matter how many tens of cakes Baron Pinkie Von Pie had stolen from Princess Celestia's personal vault, if Pound and Pumpkin Cake were crying, it was her responsibility, no, her duty to...

“Wake up...” the pink pony mumbled into the floor as her eyelids fluttered open to the sound of the foals' crying.

“ 'Mcoming” she mumbled again as she got to her hooves and let out a huge yawn.

Not many ponies knew this, but Pinkie Pie was actually quite slow in the mornings, before she got a chance to drink her first dozen cups of coffee. It was a secret she guarded well. Whenever she went to a slumber party or had to camp out for cider season, she always made sure to bring a big thermos full of triple shot espresso with her for her to drink down the moment she woke up. Of course, if she filled up on caffeine every time she was awoken in the middle of the night due to the foals' crying, she'd never get back to sleep.

So despite her lack of energy, Pinkie brushed her long, naturally straight hair out of her face and slowly walked over to where the cries were coming from, squinting her eyes to see in the dark

“Where did the Cakes go again?” she thought, her mind still foggy. “Oh, it must have been that trip to Las Pegasus they were planning. Yeah, that must have been it.”

Pinkie reached into her bag and pulled out two bottles of baby formula that she had started keeping in her saddlebags at all times, you know, for bottle emergencies, and gave them to the hungry little ponies in front of her. They immediately began gulping it down, but Pinkie was surprised to find that the crying hadn't ceased.

Pinkie began to feel around in the dark. “One, two... three babies?”

For a moment Pinkie just stood there, attempting to make sense of this inconsistency.

“The cakes must have been busy,” she concluded, still drowsy, and reached into her bag for another bottle and passed it to the third foal, who also began suckling on it happily.

And with that, the cacophony of noise had ceased, and Pinkie took a moment to appreciate the new found silence, save for the suckling noises of the three foals next to her. However, after a moment, Pinkie began to take a closer look around the room.

“Are we... in the basement?” she asked aloud. “Why are we in the basement?”

Her eyes widened. “Uh-oh, I didn't accidentally drink Mr. Cake's special adult cola again did I!?”

Somewhat panicked, Pinkie turned back to the foals.

“Anyway, I've got to get them back in their crib,” she said as she scooped them up, balancing two on her back with practiced ease and placing the third atop her head. She then began to carefully walk to the doorway with the three foals in tow, who were still happily drinking down the formula even as they were given a horsie ride

“This was not responsible Pinkie!” she scolded herself in a whisper. “Your job was to take care of these little ponies, not let them sleep on the cold floor!”

She climbed up the ramp (“Did Sugarcube Corner's basement have a ramp?” she thought) and once she got to the top, began feeling around for the light switch.

She couldn't find it.

“What the hay is going on?” she asked aloud. Looking around, she saw a large patch of moonlight filtering in through one of the windows.

She walked over to it, and carefully deposited the foals onto the carpeted floor. “Ok, you three stay here for two seconds while I find the light sw...”

At that moment, Pinkie Pie looked down and clearly saw for the first time three baby ponies she had never seen before in her life, all of them chugging away at their bottles. It was then that Pinkie discovered she didn't need a canteen of espresso to wake herself up in the morning. It turned out pure terror was a perfectly acceptable substitute.

As her hair sprung back up into it's wildly curly form, Pinkie began sputtering in confusion. “Babies!? What!? Whose!?”

She then gasped as the memories of that afternoon came flooding back to her.

“Girls!” she cried out, turning back towards the basement, realizing her five friends were still down there.

She pointed a hoof at the three foals, “You three stay there!” And charged back down the ramp to the basement, where she felt around for the bodies of her friends and began shaking and yelling at them one by one.

“Pinkie... whah?” Twilight muttered.

“Babies! Mirror! Light! Overslept! Hurry!”

“Huh?”

“Up! Move it!”

“Hey!”

After a few minutes of cajoling, Pinkie was able to awaken the rest of her friends and direct them upstairs, where under the light from Twilight's horn, the six ponies came face to face with the trio of foals. They had been moved to a couch conveniently located in the the hallway they were in, after Rarity had insisted on dusting it off of course, and were proceeding to finish up what was left of their bottles.

Aside from the fact that all three were fillies, the three babies were all very different. The first foal was a white-coated unicorn with a blonde tail and mane. What little mane there was, anyway. The second was a pure pink pegasus whose little wings constantly flapped involuntarily even as she ate. The third was a purple unicorn with both a rainbow colored mane and, interestingly, wings.

“Oh, aren't they just precious?” Fluttershy gushed.

“They are but... Pinkie where did they come from!?” Twilight demanded.

“I don't know!” the pink pony exclaimed. “After that whole light show downstairs, I woke up and there they were!”

“We better find their parents soon,” Applejack cut in. “They must be awfully worried.”

“Speaking of worried... It seems like we were incapacitated for quite some time.” Rarity added. “I'm sure Spike is terribly concerned.”

“I could fly to Manehattan and let him know what happened, maybe tell the guards we found some lost foals.” Rainbow suggested.

“Nice thinkin' Rainbow” Applejack nodded. “Whatdya think Twi? ...Twi?”

Twilight had frozen since Pinkie had spoken, thinking intently. She now was staring straight forward at the three foals with a look of horror on her face.

“No... It can't be,” she mumbled.

“What was that sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“...fe mirror.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“A life mirror! Sleipnir!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I'm sorry dear, but I don't understand," Rarity said with an uncomfortable look on her face.

Twilight let out an extremely exasperated sigh. “Sleipnir, the 'Spider-Horse' was also known as the 'father of all monsters' because according to legend he created all monsters! He used a series of magical devices he created called life mirrors to fuse different creatures together to make entirely new species! Manticores, Griffons, Cockatrices and a whole bunch more are all said to be creations of Sleipnir!”

“Wait, so you're saying that mirror downstairs was one of those monster-creating mirrors?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes!” Twilight yelled out.

“Well, that's fine Twi, but what does any of that have to do with these fo... oh no.” Applejack's eyes widened as she took a step back. “No...”

“Exactly~” said Twilight in a slightly crazy voice. “There's no need to find their parents. No, no need for that! We already found them, that's not the problem!”

She raised a hoof and pointed at the three foals still sitting on the couch, drinking down the last drops of their bottles. “The problem is, we're their parents.”

For a moment, the eyes of the other adult ponies in the room went from Twilight to the foals and then back to Twilight.

And then the six ponies screamed.


Chapter 2: The Raven


She had done it. Applejack had broken the one rule Granny Smith had told her never to break, or she'd be kicked out of the family.

She'd gotten pregnant before she was married.

Well ok, she didn't really. Technically she'd just inadvertently created a child by way of an ancient artifact. However, the question occupying Applejack's frantically racing mind was whether the distinction was too fine for Granny Smith. Zap apples had made the elderly mare a bit more familiar with magic than most earth ponies cared to admit, but asking her to accept that a baby popped up out of nowhere because of magic was a bit much. That was half of the problem. The other half had to do with the identity of the father, or rather, the lack of one. Granny Smith was an old fashioned pony, and Applejack didn't think she'd be too keen on her great-granddaughter having two mommies. To make matters worse, looking at the three foals, it was surprisingly easy to figure out which apple fell from her tree. And the fact that the blonde filly had a unicorn's horn and a white coat meant her 'partner' was likely the similarly colored mare freaking out next to her.

“Scandal!” Rarity cried out hysterically. “If word of this gets out my high society social life will be ruined forever!”

“Your social life!?” Rainbow objected, similarly panicked. “The Wonderbolts do shows all over Equestria! They're constantly on tour, I'll never be able to join them if I have to stay home and change diapers all day!”

“Um... girls,” came a small voice.

“It'll be fine,” Twilight said to herself madly as she looked at the reflection of herself in one of the windows. “The princess will understand. “

“Oh well I'm sorry you won't be able to pursue your hobbies Rainbow Dash!” Rarity snapped back. “I, on the other hand, depend on my reputation for business!”

There you had it then. Even if Granny Smith didn't throw her out on her orange rump, Applejack was going to be raising a foal all on her own. Tears began to well in her eyes.

“Hobby!? You think the Wonderbolts work for free!? You can ask my ticket stubs anytime missy! They do not!”

“Girls,” the voice whispered again.

“They'll all understand. Oh but what if they don't?” Twilight panicked. “What if the Princess pulls me from my friendship studies and gives me a job in... magic daycare!”

Another mouth to feed in their already poor family, and no-one to help her do it.

“I don't know what we're yelling about!” Pinkie screamed.

“GIRLS!” Fluttershy called out at the top of her lungs, blasting her stare full power at her five friends.

Applejack snapped out of her catatonic state and met Fluttershy's gaze, Twilight stopped arguing with herself, Rarity and Rainbow stopped snapping at each other, and Pinkie stopped bouncing around the room aimlessly. At that moment everypony became aware of another noise in the room.

“Please girls, you're upsetting them,” Fluttershy said, gesturing towards the three foals, who were now gushing tears and screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Listen, I know you're scared right now. I am too,” Fluttershy said as she floated over to the fluffy pink foal and scooped her up in her forelegs. “But right now, these foals need us. They're the ones we need to be worrying about.”

The ponies looked at the babies crying their eyes out, and for a moment something instinctual took over. All the worries, all the problems that lay ahead of them seemed to fade away for the moment.

“Aw shoot, I'm sorry lil' ones,” Applejack said, walking forward and scooping up the foal she'd guessed was her own. “I got a little lost in my thoughts. Your mommies are here. All of 'em.”

After a moment's hesitation Twilight approached the remaining filly, levitated her into the air, and began to gently rock her. “There there,” she said “Stop crying, everything's going to be okay.”

Meanwhile, Pinkie and Rainbow began showing the foals their entire repertoire of ridiculous faces.

Applejack lifted the blonde filly over her shoulder and began patting her back. Rarity stood a few feet away, fidgeting in uncertainty. After a few moments, she took a deep breath, stepped forward, and patted the filly on the head.

“There there,” she said.

Applejack snorted.

“I'm not used to this,” Rarity pouted, her checks turning red,

She looked over at the other two groups. Rainbow was waggling her tongue out at the purple filly held up by Twilight's levitation, while Pinkie was softly singing some sort of impromptu song to the pink filly held by Fluttershy. She looked back at the filly crying on the back of applejack's shoulder.

“...This is ours, isn't it?” she asked.

“...Yep, I reckon so.”

At that moment the foal let out a rather large burp.

“Definitely yours,” Rarity added.

Applejack chuckled.

“I think everypony's figured out who goes with who." Rarity said, looking over at the other two groups. “They don't seem bothered by it.”

Applejack nodded.

“Pinkie was Fluttershy's first friend in Ponyville,” Applejack recalled “They've known each other for a pretty long time.”

“And Rainbow and Twilight have been spending an awful lot of time together ever since Rainbow got into reading,” Rarity added. “I think the only pair here that ever had trouble getting along was...”

“The two of us.” Applejack finished.

There was a long silence between them, and then Rarity spoke.

“Applejack... I-I just don't know if I...”

“Rarity,” Applejack gently interrupted. “Fluttershy's right. There's a lot to worry about, but we can take our time and figure things out later, one thing at a time.”

Applejack stepped forward towards Rarity, the foal still crying over her shoulder.

“But I promise you, we'll find a way to make this all work out.”

Rarity sniffled.

“Pinkie promise?” she asked with the slightest hint of a smile.

“Sure.” Applejack answered with a smile of her own, miming with her free hoof the act of sticking a cupcake in her eye.

“Pinkie Promise.”

***

Somehow, between the six of them, they were able to stop the foals' crying, and the mansion was once again relatively quiet.

“Alright, the foals are happy,” Applejack said, adjusting the one she was holding over her own shoulder. “So what now?”

“We should probably find a place for them to sleep tonight,” Twilight suggested. ”It's too dangerous for us to head out now. I might be able to use my magic to modify a bed into a crib...”

“No,” Fluttershy objected in a steady, firm voice. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“What?” Rarity asked, surprised. “But... the forest...”

“Pinkie, how many bottles of formula do you have left?” Fluttershy asked, turning her gaze to the pink pony.

“Er... none,” She answered. “They were just for emergencies after all.”

“And diapers?”

“Er... I have an unopened four pack in here,” she said, glancing in her saddlebag.

“You see?” The yellow pegasus said, turning back to the others. “We're already out of supplies, and that's not even our biggest problem right now.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“These are newborns.” Fluttershy explained, holding up the pink filly with her forelegs. “Even if they weren't 'born' in the traditional sense, they still need to be checked out by a doctor. Furthermore, formula was a good substitute for the time being, but newborns gain a lot of important antibodies from their mother's milk that protects them from all kinds of disease, and I'm sure this isn't news to anyone, but none of us are lactating.”

The rest of the group nodded, somewhat uncomfortably.

“Nope,” Pinkie agreed. “No wait!”

She bent her head down and looked between her forelegs at her underbelly. She then lifted her head back up.

“Nope.”

Twilight, meanwhile, was stunned by the way Fluttershy suddenly took charge

“B-but even if that's the case Fluttershy,” Twilight sputtered out anxiously. “Do you really think we should risk taking the babies through the woods?”

“No,” Fluttershy answered as she glanced towards Rainbow Dash. “I think we should call for help.”

“Aw yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air as she hovered above. “I zip back to Manehattan, find Spike, and contact the princess. She sends a few royal carriages and we airlift the rest of you out of here!”

“Still think that's a good plan,” Applejack nodded.

The ponies looked towards Twilight.

“Well I kinda get the feeling we should stay together but...” Twilight shook her head. “Go for it Rainbow.”

“Alright!” the rainbow-colored mare called out as she dashed through the hallway back to the entrance hall. “Back in a flash!”

“Just be careful!” Twilight called after her.

“Bring me back a miniature Statue of Harmony!” Pinkie added.

She looked around at the others.

“What?” she asked. “You've got to buy souvenirs when you go to Manehattan!”

Deciding to let it be, Twilight changed topics.

“In any case, we should probably get these foals into diapers before it's too...”

At that moment she discovered the lavender foal she had been levitating had decided to relieve herself right then and there.

“late.” She finished grimly.

Rarity's eyes promptly rolled up into her head as she collapsed on the floor.

“Oh Rarity...” Fluttershy shook her head, looking down at the unconscious mare. “You can't go fainting over every little thing.”

She looked up to see the other three staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

***

Rainbow shut the mansion's heavy door behind her and then took off into the night sky. She looked around, quickly detecting the city's lights in the distance and blasting off in the same direction at full speed. Rainbow loved her friends, but they were seriously slow. The only part she hated about spending time with them was how long it took to get anywhere whenever they were traveling. It had taken them something like four hours just to hike to the mansion, while at this speed Rainbow was likely to make it back to the hotel in about fifteen minutes.

Still, it was good to have someone to talk to, something Rainbow was quickly discovering. When she was attempting to cheer up the foals with her friends, her mind was occupied. But now, flying alone through the moonlit sky, all the apprehension and negative thoughts came flowing back.

“This wasn't supposed to happen,” she thought aloud.

Rainbow was never the fluffiest cloud in the sky, but she knew what she wanted out of life. She knew what her dream was – to join the Wonderbolts, and she was pretty good at singling out both the things that could help her achieve that dream, and the things that could destroy it in an instant.

Having a kid was one of the latter. In her adolescent years Rainbow had seen a few of her classmates fall into that trap. She'd seen how the pregnancy had reduced their fly speed due to the increased weight and wind resistance. For some reason, they were more concerned with stuff like having to leave school (who'd be upset about that, seriously?), but as a pony with speed as her goal, Rainbow knew she couldn't carry any dead weight. To that extent, she had gone out of her way to avoid contact with members of the opposite sex during high school, a habit that quickly resulted in a number of false rumors being spread about her. Rumors that would probably start again threefold once people discovered she had managed to successfully reproduce with another mare.

She sighed at the thought even as she continued to fly straight towards Manehattan, unaware of the dark shadow that had begun chasing after her from beneath the trees.

Luckily, Rainbow had managed to skip the whole pregnancy side of things, leaving her as mobile as she'd ever been, but there was still the whole 'time' side of things. She couldn't both go on tour with the Wonderbolts and take care of a foal. And even though Twilight would be there, she couldn't just dump all the responsibility onto her. Besides, Rainbow had read about what happened to foals of rock stars and such that were always on tour. They usually ended pretty messed up. Rainbow didn't want something like that to happen to her... girl.

Rainbow sighed again. Somehow, even though this had just happened to her today, even though she hadn't gone through elven months of pregnancy, and even though it was brought about by some magic mirror, part of her had already accepted that little technicolor squirt as her daughter.

Rainbow smiled and gave a determined nod.

“Alright,” she said. “Somehow we're gonna make this wo- whoa whoa WHOA!”

She had felt a strange change in the flow of air, and had turned her neck back just in time to see three sets of razor sharp talons swoop down from behind her, shaving an inch of rainbow colored hair from her mane.

She had twisted her body in midair to avoid the blow, and after nearly crashing into a tree as a result, managed to recover enough to hover above the forest.

“Hey! What's the big idea!” she yelled after the black shape now flying away from her.

As if in response, it turned around and began diving towards Rainbow Dash. It was a huge bird, a raven, larger than Rainbow had ever seen, maybe half the size of the red dragon they had faced on top of Smokey Mountain that one time. It was pitch black, which made it hard to make out against the night sky, but it's eyes were blood red and focused directly on Rainbow Dash.

“Gyaaah!” Rainbow cried out as she flew down into the forest to dodge the second attack. The bird's three legs shattered the tops of the trees as it flew by overhead, sending out wooden splinters that rained down upon her head.

Without a second thought, Rainbow burst out from below the trees, and beat her wings furiously as she headed towards Manehattan like her life depended on it, since it probably did.

She heard the monstrous bird caw behind her and dared to looked. It was following her, but the distance between them was slowly becoming greater.

“Alright!” she thought, “It can't match me at top speed.”

For a moment, Rainbow thought she was safe, until she noticed the forest below her had suddenly gotten a lot brighter, and her hindquarters had suddenly become inexplicably warm.

Swerving on reflex, Rainbow gasped in horror as a jet of fire surged past her left flank, singeing her wing and lighting several treetops on fire. Before she could even process what had happened, she was forced to swerve again to avoid another blast of fire, this time from her right.

Rainbow snapped her wings against the air as hard as she could in an effort to gain whatever distance she could from the creature still pursuing her. Still, she needed a plan, and quick. She was off-course and couldn't keep this pace up forever.

Suddenly, it came to her.

Rainbow slowed her pace slightly. It was enough. She felt the rush of heat coming from behind her and quickly flapped her wings vertically. The jet of flame passed by underneath her, but Rainbow rode on the warm air currents emanating from the fire, using it to boost herself forwards and upwards into a steep climb.

The bird began climbing after Rainbow, continuing to shoot fire after her. However, due to gravity and the increasing lack of oxygen to burn, the flames were no longer reaching Rainbow.

When she was high enough, the pegasus turned herself so she was headed back towards Manehattan, and went into a dive. The bird immediately dove after her with a screech.

Rainbow felt the mounting air pressure against her forehooves, as she continued to pound wings that were now screaming in pain.

“Almost....” she thought, gazing at the forest below through watery eyes. “Almost...”

And there it was.

The sonic rainboom is best described as a rubber band formed from air-pressure when a pegasus moves at high speeds. If the pegasus is unable to break through this rubber band, then they are simply sent flying by it. If the pegasus does break through the band, it still snaps back, but with a wave of color based on the streak that any pegasus moving at high speeds will emit. This streak is then sent out across the resulting sonic boom, forming in Rainbow's case, a sonic rainboom.

The long and short of it is, you don't want to be in the path of a sonic rainboom as it snaps back.

The dark creature smacked into the incoming wall of air pressure and sound and was flung half a mile in the opposite direction, where it unceremoniously crashed into the forest, leveling a dozen trees in the process.

As for Rainbow, she was now moving at sonic speeds but no longer had the energy to flap her wings, so she simply glided towards Manehattan until momentum could carry her no further, and grabbed hold of a passing tree.

For a minute, she just panted as she hung of the tree branch until she finally had the breath to scream.

“Who-hoo! Take that you big.... Haah…. feathered freak! Haah... Haah...”

“Oh man,” She thought. “What the hay was that?”

Rainbow had never heard of giant fire-breathing three legged birds before in her life... but what scared her most about it was the timing.

“I encounter a giant monster seconds after leaving a shrine devoted to the father of all monsters,” Rainbow thought. “Coincidence? Unlikely.”

She looked towards Manehattan. She was still about a quarter of a mile away from the city proper, and if she didn't fly over the Cudson River it'd be a long walk. Still, she had to do it. Her friends were counting on her, as was her daughter.

“I just need to rest for a few more minutes” she thought, continuing to pant.

Behind her, a pair of dark shadows twisted up the trees. When they reached the top, they began to expand rapidly.

Noticing that the light shining from the moon behind her was suddenly blocked, Rainbow slowly turned her head to look.

There, each balancing atop three trees, was a pair of giant ravens identical to the one Rainbow had just defeated.

“...Oh that's just not fair.” she thought, launching herself from the the tree just before it burst into flames, the birds having shot out flames from their beaks..

She desperately tried to flap, but after a moment her right wing seized up, and she ended up crashing through the forest, rolling and tumbling until she came to a clearing on the bank of the Cudson River.

“Dammit,” she thought as the two giant ravens landed on either side of her. “Just a little more and I could get the guards' help. Come on wings!”

However, it was useless. Rainbow Dash had already pushed herself past her limit. She could no longer muster the strength to even stand up. She lay on her back as the two monsters looked down at her. One of them opened its beak. This was the end.

And then, with a caw, the raven was blasted away with a beam of blue light, crashing into a grove of trees, and laying there unmoving.

“FOUL BEASTS, THOU DARE POLLUTE OUR NIGHT WITH THY PRESENCE!?” Princess Luna belted out in the Royal Canterlot Voice as she swooped down from above, her eyes burning white with anger even as she gathered magic in her horn.

The other raven took off, hastily spitting out flames at the incoming goddess which bounced harmlessly off a shield of pure moonlight she had conjured. Still, it was enough to give the monster the opening it was looking for. The raven ignited, bursting into flames as a phoenix would. To Rainbow's eyes, it looked like an enormous mass of smoke changing into fire as it spread through the sky.

It screeched, and then along with a jet of fire from its beak, flapped its wings towards the princess, sending out massive waves of flame.

Luna held firm against the assault, her moonlight barrier absorbing everything the raven threw at her.

“THY POWER IS KNOWN TO US, THOU CRAVEN CORBY!” Luna taunted. “IT IS FOOLISH TO GO AGAINST US WITH STRENGTH OBTAINED FROM THE SUN!”

As the last of the flames were absorbed, Luna refocused the magic from her barrier back into her horn.

“FOR THE MOON REFLECTS IT!”

With that, Luna unleashed the entirety of the energy she had absorbed in the form of a massive beam of pure moonlight, which engulfed the raven and sent it flying into the night sky, forming a new star on the horizon.

Behind her, the other raven dissolved back into shadow, slipping away into the forest.

Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe.

“Art thou alright Rainbow Dash?” Luna asked as she landed next to the exhausted pegasus. “We saw that burst of chromatic light and came to investigate.”

“That... was awesome... Princess.” She panted, somehow managing to stand on her hooves. “What were those things?”

“Ancient monsters, formed from the unnatural merging Phoenixes and Crows.” Luna answered. “Frightfully intelligent, but hideously base in their temperament.”

“But more importantly” she added. “Why were they chasing thee?”

As she recovered, Rainbow did her best to explain the events of that night. Their mission, the foals, the attack, everything.

“I see,” Luna said simply when Rainbow had finished. “So Sleipnir's machinations still manage to curse good ponies to this day.”

“Er... I guess,” Rainbow said. “Anyway, I've got to... whoa...”

Rainbow took a step forward and suddenly found her vision blurring and consciousness fading. Luna quickly reached out with her magic and stopped her from falling, jolting Rainbow back to consciousness.

“Thou art injured and exhausted.” Luna explained. “We will fly thee to Spike, so that he may contact our sister. And then thee will rest.”

She took off, levitating Rainbow along next to her.

“B-but princess, I've got to get back there.” Rainbow objected.

“Thou needn't worry, Rainbow Dash,” Luna answered with a smile. “From this day forward, thy friends and thine daughters are under my protection.”


Chapter 3: The Spider


Spike was beginning to worry. The girls were due back an hour ago and there hadn't been any sign of them. He knew it was silly; When they had told him what time they had expected to return, it was just that – an expectation. Just because they were an hour overdue it didn't mean they had been devoured by timber wolves, or kidnapped by evil cultists, or any of the other fanciful scenarios he had been involuntarily thinking up even as he lounged on one of the hotel beds, munching on topaz he had, with some difficulty, managed to procure from room service.

He looked over at the fountain pen and scroll lying on the bedside table next to him. He stared at it intensely for a few seconds before ultimately shaking his head and turning back to his snack.

“No, not yet.” he thought.

He had remembered the last time Twilight hadn't come home on time and he'd panicked. It was back when she was enrolled in the magic academy. The usual daily routine for Twilight back then was to come home from class, do her homework, do independent research until bedtime, and then finally, sleep. So when one day, Twilight didn't come home, he went crazy with worry. For the first few hours he ran around Canterlot, searching the handful of locations Twilight frequented when she wasn't in her dormitory suite. Donut Joe's, the park, the Canterlot Royal Library – Nopony had seen her anywhere. So, he did what any sensible baby dragon would have done.

He sent a letter to Celestia telling her Twilight had been foalnapped.

Several hours and one top-to-bottom search of Canterlot by the royal guard later, a furious Twilight Sparkle stood before Spike, along with a certain pony princess that was enjoying the situation a little too much, once everything turned out to be fine, of course.

According to Twilight, some friends had invited her to study with them, and she had been in their dorm room the whole time, right up until the heavily armored royal guard ponies broke down the door and tackled everypony to the ground.

Unfortunately for Spike, the first words that came out his mouth in response to this was “You have friends?”

She didn't speak to him for a week. For that whole period she only came home late at night, and always went straight to bed the moment she walked in the door. It continued like that for days, until one particular night, things changed.

Spike had heard her come in that night, like he always did. No matter how mad she was at him, he couldn't get to sleep until he knew she was home. He was curled up in his basket, pretending to sleep, when she walked into the room. Without a word she walked up to him, gently levitated him into the air, and carried him over to her bed. Spike, unsure of what was going on, kept feigning sleep even as Twilight gently placed him under the covers and then climbed under them herself. She then gently wrapped her forelegs around him, just like she used to do when both of them were much younger.

And then Twilight softly cried herself to sleep.

It turned out that his hastily spewed words were on the mark after all. Twilight's “friends” were just using her to do their schoolwork for them while they goofed off during their “study sessions.” In hindsight, Spike thought getting tackled by the Royal Guard was an appropriate punishment for those ungrateful mares.

Still, that hadn't meant his actions in sending that letter to the princess were justified. Even if the girls' tardiness worried him, it was important for him to have faith in Twilight and the others. Even so, he was going mad with worry, and just wished the universe would send him some sort of sign, some information he could use to determine whether or not the girls were okay or not.

That's when the rainboom hit.

The sound of the blast shook the hotel walls as waves of color washed over the city. Spike struggled to breathe as he choked on a piece of topaz that went down his windpipe. After a few coughs, he managed to dislodge it from from his throat before running to the hotel's window, opening it, and sticking his head out. The burst of color was just fading into the horizon, but it was enough for him to figure out what it was. He had seen Rainbow perform the sonic rainboom at Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding; it had to have been the same thing.

If nothing else, it was a sign they were still out there, but why had Rainbow gone supersonic? Was she just goofing off, or was she in trouble?

Spike leaned out the window as far as he could safely do so, craning his neck in search for any sign of Rainbow's telltale streak of color, but he couldn't see anything. A minute or so later, the sky was again lit up by a number of flashes, including one caused by a massive beam of light that shot off into the night sky. The ponies of Manehattan had been shocked by the burst of rainbow colored light that passed over their city, but many of them were now visibly panicking in the streets below.

“That's it.” Spike thought with new found determination. “I'm writing the princess.”

He ran back into the room, grabbed the pen and scroll from the bedside table, placed the former to the latter, and promptly snapped the tip off.

“Shoot!” he cursed as he began tearing the room apart for a replacement. He searched under the bed, inside the lampshade, and in the medicine cabinet before finally thinking of searching the writing desk.

“Success!” he cried out at as he removed a complimentary hotel feather pen from one of the drawers, dipped it in ink and began to write.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” he began.

“PARDON OUR INTRUSION!” came a voice from the window.

“Ghwah!” yelled Spike as he threw his writing materials into the air in surprise, fell onto his backside, and scampered backwards, slamming into the hotel room wall.

It took only a moment for him to recognize the regal pony now gingerly stepping into the room from outside the window.

“Princess Luna?” He asked in wonder.

“Indeed,” she replied. “Along with another.”

She levitated Rainbow into the room through the window and gently laid her down upon the bed.

“Rainbow!” Spike cried out, instantly noticing the bruises and cuts Rainbow had sustained. “What happened!?”

“Heh heh, this is nothing,” Rainbow replied. “You should see the other guy. Bird. Monster. Thing. Whatever.”

Spike cocked an eyebrow at Luna.

“Forgive this abruptness, young Spike, but we must request that thou contact our sister forthwith regarding tonight's events.” Luna said.

“Events?” Spike asked. “You mean the rainboom and those lights?

“Rainbow Dash can inform thee of the particulars,” she continued. “And then she must rest.”

The princess cast her gaze at the injured pegasus.

“Yeah yeah, I got it Princess,” Rainbow said as she slipped under the covers.

“As for us,” Luna added. “We must find Twilight Sparkle and the others; they may yet be in peril.”

“Peril!?” Spike exclaimed. “Princess, what's going on!”

“As we said, Rainbow shall explain,” Luna gently responded as she walked over towards the open window. “But we swear to thee, young Spike, we shall do everything in our power to bring them safely back to you.”

She then shuffled uncomfortably.

“Er, that is... Should we fail in this endeavor, we shall without fail insert baked confectionery into our eyeballs!”

Spike blinked.

“Was that not the current phrasing?” Luna asked. “Modern language confuses us greatly.”

“No, I got it Princess,” Spike answered. “Please bring them back safely."

“We shall, ”Luna said as she leaped out the window, unfurled her wings, and took to the skies.

“Alright,” Spike said as he gathered the pen and scroll from where they fell on the floor. “What's going on?”

He turned to face Rainbow, and was greeted by her gentle snores.

“Rainbow!” he yelled out angrily.

“Huh! Whuh... whuzzup Spike” she mumbled sleepily.

“I need to contact the Princess, tell me what happened,” he demanded angrily.

“Right right,” she mumbled. “Dear P'cess Celestia.”

Spike began copying down what Rainbow was saying, listening intently.

“Twilight n'me r'gonna be mommy. 'ome quick,” she said into her pillow.

“Huh!?” Spike exclaimed. “What's that supposed to mean? Rainbow? Rainbow!”

No response. Spike took a deep breath.

“RAINBOW DASH!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

But it was no use, Rainbow was completely, perfectly knocked out.

“Crud,” he said dejectedly. “She's in the rainbow trance again.”

This had happened before on a few occasions when Rainbow had completely exhausted herself. One such occasion was when she had flown the marathon from Las Pegasus to Cloudsdale. As soon as she got home to Ponyville after the race, she took a nap in one of the Apple family's trees and wouldn't respond no matter what they did. Normally, Applejack wouldn't have minded, but she was bucking the apples in that particular grove that day, and the tree Rainbow had chosen happened to be the oldest, biggest, and most bountiful one on the farm. Applejack enlisted the rest of her friends, including Spike, in attempting to rouse her, to no avail. In the end, Applejack lost her patience and bucked the tree with Rainbow in it, leading to the pegasus eventually regaining consciousness in a hospital room, getting treated for a dislocated wing. It took a while for Rainbow to forgive Applejack, despite how sorry the cowmare had been.

In any case, Spike knew once she entered this state, rest was the only thing that would snap her out of it.

He sighed and looked down at the nonsense he had written.

“Dear Princess Celestia,” he read aloud. “Twilight's gonna be a mommy, come quick.”

A feeling of deja vu overcame the baby dragon. Somehow he felt that sending this letter wasn't going to turn out well for him. For one thing, it was utter nonsense. There was no way a simple trip into the woods would result in Twilight having a baby. It also didn't explain the rainboom or the flashes of light.

Spike scratched his head in thought before glancing over at the unconscious mare.

“Well, at least I have someone to pass the buck to,” he said, signing Rainbow's name at the bottom of the letter.

“Hmm, I should probably add a note about Luna,” he continued, adding the words “P.S. Your sister has something to do with this, though I don't know the details. -Spike” to the bottom of the letter.

He stared at the letter intently for a few moments before sighing, resigned to the fact that this was as informative as the letter was going to get. He then walked to the window, rolled the letter up and sent it on its way.

“Well, it's out of my hooves now, so to speak,” he said as he watched the green smoke twist up into the night sky. “I hope she gets here soon.”

***

Princess Celestia had just tucked herself into her princess-sized bed and began levitating her usual warm glass of milk off where it sat on her bedside table when a jet of green smoke emerged from the fireplace and made its way over to her, transforming into a scroll above her head with a burst of magic.

“Aha,” she said with a smile, grabbing the scroll with her magic before it fell. “Let's see what my most faithful student has discovered about that mansion.”

She unraveled the scroll and held it aloft in front of her, reading the first line just as she raised the glass of milk to her lips.

***

Music boomed through the room as a fuchsia coated mare slowly walked down the catwalk, clad head to toe in a outfit adorned with rubies and phoenix feathers. When she reached the end, she struck a series of over-dramatic poses as cameras flashed all around her. She then turned and walked back the way she came, passing a light green mare wearing a dress with every inch covered by colorful flowers.

“Oooh, this dress ist wunderbar!” came a heavily accented voice from the audience. “I love the way it flows off the tail, like und fresh spring breeze."

“Nmm, I must say,” a nasally male voice added. “I now have a marvelous desire to frolic through the wildflowers once this fantaaastic show has concluded.”

From backstage Rarity squealed with the delight at the overheard praise. This was it, her dream come true. With this fashion show Carousel Boutique, and its owner, would become famous throughout Equestria!

Suddenly, the audience gasped out in shock and the music screeched to a halt.

“Uh-oh” she thought, “That's not a good noise, that's never a good noise.”

She rushed to the curtain.

“Did one of the models trip?” Rarity thought, biting her lip in apprehension as she peeked out.

There, at end of the catwalk, stood a little blonde filly dressed in the most atrocious garb Rarity had ever seen – a beige dress covered in neon pink polka dots and a hem so long that it dragged along the floor.

“You there!” she called out, rushing onto the catwalk. “What are you doing there! Get off at once!”

“It's me, Mommy!” the white coated filly called out happily as she turned around. “I made this dress so I could be in the show!”

“Did she say Mommy?”

“I hadn't heard she was married!”

“Good heavens, a pregnancy scandal!”

Rarity looked around as voices of disgust and admonishment filled the room. They began to distort, sounding warped and otherworldly as the faces of the audience began to fade into darkness, leaving the two of them alone in the spotlight.

“N-no,” Rarity objected to the voices. “She's not my... I'm not... I didn't do anything wrong!”

“Mommy?” the filly asked as her entire body began to melt, dripping into a puddle.

“No! Stop it!” Rarity cried out.

“Mo....mmy....”

Rarity bolted upright and shrieked at the top of her lungs, scaring the hay out of the other four mares standing in the mansion's entrance hall, along with the trio of newly diapered foals. For a moment, there was silence, and then the babies burst out crying again.

“Oh for... Rarity!” Applejack yelled. “What's the big idea!?”

Rarity looked at the foal bawling her eyes out on Applejack's shoulder for a moment before hastily looking away.

“Nothing,” she said, stepping off the couch she was lying upon. “It was just a nightmare.”

“Oh no...” Fluttershy gasped as she rocked the pink filly in her forehooves. “Was it the one with the giant marshmallow again?”

“Fluttershy!” Rarity hissed, blushing.

She then lowered her head and sighed, “I wish it was,” she muttered.

“Speaking of night mares, hi Luna!” Pinkie said, waving her forehoof and glancing past the other ponies in the room.

The others turned and gasped as Princess Luna walked into the room through the newly open doorway.

“Luna!” Twilight exclaimed, walking forward, “Am I glad to see y-”

At that moment, the princess raised her right forehoof and smacked it across Twilight's face, knocking her to the ground. Twilight was just barely able to maintain her levitation spell on the foal she was carrying as she hit the stone floor.

“THOU DARE ADDRESS THY PRINCESS SO INFORMALLY!?” she shouted. “KNELL YE, AND GRANT US THE RESPECT OUR STATION DESERVES!”

Though shocked by the princess's actions, the ponies nonetheless did as she asked, kneeling in fear, Twilight shifting on the ground in order to do so.

“M...my apologies Princess,” she sputtered out. “Have we done something to upset you?”

“UPSET US!?” she bellowed. “WE HAVE HEARD FROM RAINBOW DASH. THOU HAST ENTERED THIS FORBIDDEN DWELLING AND USED THE PROFANE SHRINE LOCATED WITHIN TO FASHION ABOMINATIONS OF NATURE FROM THY VERY FLESH!”

“I...I'm sorry Princess, it was an accident,” Twilight managed to answer.

“SILENCE!” Luna roared. “WE WILL HEAR NO EXCUSES, BUT ARE NOT WITHOUT MERCY! HEAR YE ALL! TURN OVER THE MONSTERS TO US SO THAT THEY MAY BE DESTROYED, AND ALL SHALL BE FORGIVEN!”

Twilight's eyes widened.

“But Princess!” she objected, getting to her hooves. “They're only foals!”

“THEY ONLY APPEAR AS SUCH TO UNTRAINED EYES” Luna continued, gesturing towards the levitated foal to Twilight's right. “ON THE INSIDE THEY ARE SOCIOPATHIC HATE FILLED CREATURES THAT EXIST ONLY TO MAKE PONIES SUFFER!”

She stepped forward.

“WE SHALL NOT ASK AGAIN. TURN THOSE CREATURES OVER TO US IMMEDIATELY!”

“....You witch,” Rarity whispered, glaring daggers at the dark mare before her.

“Now wait just an apple-picking minute.” Applejack objected from across the room. “There ain't no way in Tatarus we're doing that, Princess!”

“THEN THOU SHALL BE DESTROYED!” she yelled out.

“Try it!” Fluttershy yelled in response, squeezing her foal tighter against her chest.

“Yeah!” Pinkie added.

“SO BE IT!”

With that, the moon princess sent out an intense beam of dark green energy at the ponies before her, only to be blocked by a massive shield of purple light.

“Pinkie!” Twilight called out, levitating the rainbow-maned foal over in her direction.

“Got it!” she answered, snatching the foal from the air.

“I'll hold her off, you girls find another way out!” Twilight yelled behind her.

“But Twilight!” Applejack objected.

“Now Applejack!” Twilight shouted. “Get the foals to safety!”

“But...”

“Now!”

Applejack hesitated a moment before running further into the mansion, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy following right behind her.

“You better be right behind us Twi!” she yelled over her shoulder.

“I will be!” Twilight called back, pouring all her energy into her shield.

Luna responded by shooting another beam of green light at the shield, holding it this time so it continued to hammer against Twilight's defenses.

“THE PUNISHMENT FOR DEFYING THY PRINCESS IS DEATH!” she threatened.

“Perhaps if you were really the princess I'd care!” Twilight snapped back.

Luna narrowed her eyes.

“What dost thou mean?” she questioned, lowering her voice for the first time.

“The real Luna isn't so cruel, nor this weak,” Twilight explained, noting that the princess's beam of light had not made so much as a dent in her barrier.

“Also, her magic aura's not green,” she added.

The princess could only chuckle.

“Is that a fact?” she asked.

“So what are you really?” Twilight demanded. “A changeling?”

“Chrysalis?” she added, narrowing her eyes.

“Not quite,” came a deep, raspy and unexpectedly male voice from Luna's lips.

Green smoke evaporated off the fake princess's coat as its four legs unraveled into hairy pairs that splayed out on either side of it. Its head sunk into its body where its mane turned a sickly green color, and its face grew multiple green eyes and a pair of enormous fangs. Within only a few moments the princess of the night had transformed into the monstrous spider that now stood before Twilight.

Without another word, it spit a gob of acid at Twilight's head. It ripped through her shield, which was designed to repel magical energy, not physical force, and whizzed past her head where it slammed into the stairs behind her, burning a hole in the stonework. Her shield breached, Twilight ran, lifting up the fallen chandelier from earlier which stood in her path and flinging it behind her at the monster. It quickly jumped out of the way of the incoming object and scurried after Twilight with surprising speed. Twilight galloped up the stairs and to the left as the spider pursued her.

***

“This way girls!” Pinkie said as she darted into the first floor's east hallway, the same one that led back to the room with the life mirror.

“Pinkie!?” Rarity called out, confused. “Was there an exit here!?

“The skylight!” Pinkie answered. “It's our best bet!”

The four ponies headed down into the stone passageway with the three foals in tow, Rarity casting a rudimentary light spell as they did so, making sure the brightness was kept low so they wouldn't inadvertently set off the mirror again.

They searched around the circular room for anything they could use to break the glass ceiling in the middle. In one part, Fluttershy found a pile of rusted armor and weaponry, sized for all sorts of creatures, lying abandoned on the floor. She called the other three over and together they quickly hatched a plan. Pinkie took custody of the foals and tried to get them to stop crying while both Fluttershy and Rarity each grabbed a heavy mace from the pile. Fluttershy flew up to the edge of the skylight with the mace in her mouth and began hammering against the glass at the perimeter with it. Rarity did the same from the opposite end, using magic to levitate her mace up to the ceiling. Finally, Applejack lined up the other heavy equipment in front of her and started to buck it straight at the mirror's center. Between the three of them, they managed to put more and more cracks into the glass until finally, it completely shattered, dumping the boulders, logs and gathered moss that had been piled on top of it onto the floor of the room, likewise shattering the mirror on the floor with the impact. As it broke, the mirror gave off a bright blast of white light that filled the room and shot off into the sky. Pinkie reacted quickly and managed to cover the foals' eyes, but the rest of them were momentarily blinded by the blast.

“Whew!” Applejack exclaimed, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. “Didn't expect that to happen.”

The others nodded woozily.

“Right,” Applejack said, determined. “You girls get these foals out of here. I'm going back for Twi.”


Chapter 4: The Moonlit Path


Above the forest, Princess Luna was looking around, confused.

“Perhaps we should have requested Rainbow Dash give us specific coordinates,” she mused, flying overhead in the general direction Rainbow had come from, in search of the mansion she had described.

To her right, a beam of light shot up into the sky with the sound of a blast echoing along with it. Without a moment's thought, she flew towards whence it had come.

***

“Come back here my pretty pony!” the spider called after Twilight as she ran through the hallway, flinging anything she could levitate back at the beast.

The narrowness of the hallway meant the spider wouldn't be able to dodge. That was the hypothesis, anyway. The major flaw it in lay in the fact that he was vaporizing everything she threw at him with a shot of acid from his maw. Now Twilight was throwing things back at him just to avoid getting spit at herself. Still, she was running out of things to throw, not to mention hallway to run through. She dodged into the last doorway at the end of the hallway just as another gob of acid flew by her face, burning through the wall at the end. Once inside, she flung everything in the room at the doorway, creating a makeshift barricade, before going over to the wall that connected this room to the next.

Twilight had noticed a large hole in this wall while exploring in this direction earlier. The plaster had fallen out, leaving only rotten wooden beams behind. She used her magic to push at the wood, trying to snap it so she had space to squeeze through. Meanwhile, the spider was clawing at the barricade with his legs, moving the furniture out of the way piece by piece until he finally had just enough room to stick his head through. There, he saw the pony he was chasing standing defenseless in plain sight.

“Got you!” he gleefully called out as he launched another gob of acid at her.

Instinctively moving aside at the sound of his voice, the acid flew by her and hit the wooden beams, dissolving them within seconds. The two of them stared at the newly formed, pony-sized hole in the wall for a second before Twilight gathered her magic and used it to shift all the objects in the barricade so that the spider's newly visible head was crushed up against the doorway.

”Gwuagh,” he croaked out, “Can't breathe!”

Twilight gingerly stepped through the hole and slowly made her way over to the neighboring room's door, opening it to get back out into the hallway. On this side of the barricade, the spider's legs were flailing wildly in an attempt to get its head free.

“I'll kill you, pony!” he screeched. “Kill you dead!”

Twilight took a moment to catch her breath. She had it trapped, for the moment. But the problem now was that if she ran too far away from the things she was levitating, they would simply collapse and the spider would be free again. The other option was to incapacitate the spider, but unfortunately a sleep spell was not one of the 25 (and counting) tricks she could cast on demand – she would need the spell in front of her. She could simply choke him until he was unconscious, but despite his claim that he couldn't breathe, he was having no trouble spewing insults at her even now. Nevertheless, she attempted to suffocate the spider for a good five minutes before she began to feel her spell reaching it's limit.

Retreat it was then. Twilight stepped back from the spider to her maximum levitation range, and then teleported away, back into the entrance hall, where she found Applejack waiting for her.

“There you are, Twi!” Applejack called out, a little too loudly. “What happened to the princess?”

“Shhhh!” Twilight hissed, but it was too late.

Hearing Applejack's voice told the spider that his prey hadn't gone far and it hurriedly scurried into the entrance hall.

“Ponies!” It screeched. “I will drink dry your blood and lay eggs in your brains!”

“That ain't Luna,” Applejack said flatly, eyes wide.

“Move!” Twilight called out, shoving Applejack aside as another gob of acid was launched at the two of them.

The two ponies spread out, but the spider was primarily interested in getting revenge on Twilight, and thus ignored Applejack and charged straight at her. Twilight shot off a few beams of energy, but it was barely slowing him down. He was two feet away from her, mouth open and fangs primed to bite. It was the end.

And then Applejack's lasso wrapped around its neck.

“Got ya, ugly,” she said as she yanked on it, hard, managing to flip the monstrous spider on its back with its legs flailing wildly.

Not missing the opportunity, Twilight quickly levitated the heavy chandelier from before over and unceremoniously dropped it on the spider, trapping it.

“Grar! Let me go!” he roared out.

“Let's get out of here, AJ,” Twilight said.

Applejack nodded and the two of them headed down the hallway to the mirror room, ignoring the spider's screams of indignation. As soon as they were out of sight, however, the spider began dissolving into a strange green mist.

***

Fluttershy was standing on the ground outside the mansion next to the circular hole they had made in the mirror room's ceiling. A short distance away from her sat the three foals and Rarity, whom she had airlifted out of the room one at the time.

“Ok, now for Pinkie,” Fluttershy said as she prepared to jump down again.

“What about me?” Pinkie asked, standing next to her.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said as she looked down in the hole and then back at Pinkie. “But how did you get up here?”

“Dunno,” she answered. “Hey look!”

Twilight and Applejack had just run into the room. Putting the issue with Pinkie aside, Fluttershy jumped down to join them.

“What happened to the princess?” she asked as she began to lift Applejack into the air.

“Turned into a giant spider,” Twilight answered plainly. “Got crushed under a chandelier.”

“You wish,” Came a hissing voice from behind them.

Fluttersshy dropped Applejack back on her hooves and gasped in horror. The spider had entered the room.

“Oh come on!” Twilight yelled at the beast, “How did you get out!?

“Shapeshifter, remember?” He snarled out with a twisted spider grin.

“Then why didn't you shapeshift when I had you trapped in the doorway!?”

The spider answered the question with a gob of acid. The ponies quickly dodged, but the spider anticipated that and quickly strode forward and smacked Twilight on the head with a foreleg, knocking her to the ground.

“Because you could defeat anything else I could turn into,” he said as he positioned himself over her, prepared to bite.

Only to suck in a wave of confetti.

Pinkie stood in front of the monster with a determined look on her face, party cannon in tow. He began hacking and coughing up party supplies as twilight used the distraction to slip away and join the others.

Four ponies now stood before the convulsing monster, with Rarity safely located above ground with the foals.

“What's the plan Twi?” Applejack asked.

“Distract him until I'm ready,” she said, “then get him in sight.”

She began channeling magic as the others moved into position.

When it felt like he had finally got the last of the confetti out, the monster looked up to see the pink pony in front of him.

“Hi again!” she said as she blasted him in the face with another burst of confetti.

Before he could even scream out in pain, a lasso pulled taut around his neck.

“That does it!” he choked out as he turned towards Applejack and prepared to launch acid again.

Howerer, all that happened was that a balloon slowly inflated from inside his mouth, gradually getting bigger and bigger as it filled with acid, and then, it popped, spraying the contents all over the spider's face.

He writhed around in pain, eyes shut, with Applejack trying to keep him steady with her lasso.

“Jeez Pinkie,” Applejack said through teeth that were clenched tightly around her rope. “What are your balloons made of?”

“Family recipe,” Pinkie answered, loading confetti and balloons into her cannon for another shot.

When the burning pain finally began to subside, the spider dared to open his eyes, and then met with pure terror. It was a yellow pegasus. No, no it wasn't. It was eyes, just eyes. Eyes from which no creature could possibly escape. The pegasus, no, the eyes were saying something. Step forward? O.K.

The spider, lost in the power of Fluttershy's stare, began stepping forward, climbing over the rocks and logs in the center of the room until it towered above the rest of them in the highest spot.

“We're ready Twi,” Applejack said.

“Good,” Twilight answered as the magic around her horn swelled.

She let it go in the form of a beam of pure, purple, magical energy which engulfed the spider and sent it flying upwards through the sky, where it hung for a few moments before crashing down in the clearing outside the mansion, only a few yards from the foals and Rarity, causing the former to begin crying and the latter to shriek in surprise.

Twilight lifted herself and her friends into the air with a bubble of magic and hovered up to ground level, where she prepared a spell to blast the spider twitching on the ground in front of her again.

He stirred, shakily getting to his feet despite the damage he had received

“You win this round, ponies.” He hissed, slowly beginning to shuffle away from them. “But we shall prevail in the end. Lord Sleipnir shall have those foals.”

“NO,” Came a booming voice from behind him. “HE SHALL NOT.”

The spider quickly turned his head and gasped in horror.

“Nightmare Mo-” he began to say, before he was engulfed in a beam of moonlight which shot him up into the sky, forming a new star.

“Luna,” Twilight gasped out in wonder, beginning to trot forward.

“Wait!” Rarity called out, "That icky spider monster just pretended to be the Princess, what if this is an imposter as well!?”

“A valid line of inquiry, dear Rarity,” Luna answered as she stepped forward. “Very well, ask us anything only the true princess of the night would know.”

“OOH OOH OOH!” Pinkie called out, bouncing up and down and throwing her hoof in the air. “ME ME ME.”

“Er, yes fair Pinkie Pie?” Luna asked.

“Is the moon made out of cheese?”

For a moment, there was silence, save for the crying of the foals, as all eyes moved from Pinkie to Luna.

“Er.... no, it is not,” Luna answered.

At that moment Pinkie gasped the biggest gasp she had ever gasped in her life, and then...

“Imposter!” she shouted.

She tried to rush forward at the princess, hooves flailing, but was restrained by Fluttershy and Applejack. Twilight rolled her eyes and magically zipped Pinkie's lips shut before turning towards the princess and asking. “Who was I dressed as for Nightmare Night last year?”

“Starswirl the Bearded,” She answered immediately. “Funny his name should come up tonight of all nights.”

She glanced at the sky morosely.

“See Pinkie,” Twilight said, unzipping the former's lips. “It's Luna.”

The pink pony looked over at the moon princess, and her lips began to tremble.

“But I wasn't ready to hear that!” she bawled, rushing over to the foals, who were also still crying. “And neither were they! Foals shouldn't have to learn about harsh reality this early! Bwaaaah!”

Twilight zipped Pinkie's mouth shut again. Then glanced over at the screaming babies.

“I guess we'll have to calm them down again,” she said, frowning.

“Allow us, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, stepping forward and casting a spell on the three foals, who immediately ceased crying and fell asleep on the spot.

“We wouldn't normally recommend doing that,” she added, “but we can't afford their cries attracting any more trouble.”

Twilight nodded.

“Anyway, uh, Luna,” Applejack said. “We've had a really rough night so far, and I sort of got the impression you know more about what's going on than we do, so could you uh, fill us in?”

“Certainly,” Luna responded. “We shall explain all we know as we walk, but first...”

She stepped away from the others and gathered a massive amount of energy in her horn, her eyes glowing white.

“Bear witness, for the spell ye are about to see has not been cast in over a millennium.”

There was a flash of light from Luna's horn, and then on the ground before the gathered ponies appeared a wavy, opaque line of white light that began where she was standing and then headed off into the woods in the direction of Manehattan.

“This, little ponies, is the moonlit path,” Luna said as she turned back towards them. “For as long as the moon hangs in the sky above, no spawn of Sleipnir will be able to lay a hoof on anypony that stands upon it.

The ponies gasped in awe.

“Now gather thy foals and thy things, we make for Manehattan forthwith.”

The five ponies did as the princess commanded, and within a few moments they were off.

“Now then,” Luna began, “We suppose we shall begin by explaining what brought us here tonight.”

Princess Luna told the others all about how she had seen Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom and teleported over to investigate, how she had rescued the pegasus from the monstrous ravens that had attacked her, and how she had arranged for Spike to contact Celestia.

“Poor Rainbow,” Fluttershy said sadly as Luna finished.

“So that spider must have been nearby while you two were talking,” Twilight observed.

Luna nodded. “It would seem so.”

“Alright, so we clearly have a bunch of monsters after us,” Rarity said, “but I just can't fathom what they would want with a few newborns.”

“That,” Luna continued, “is a much longer story.”

She took a deep breath and then began to tell her tale.

***

It had all begun when Luna was born, a mere forty years after the founding of Equestria, when ponies first truly discovered harmony. She and her honorary sister Celestia were born as alicorns, ponies with the blood of all three tribes flowing through their veins in approximately equal amounts. The coming of this new tribe was looked upon as a blessing. For a long time, the unicorns had raised both sun and moon, the pegasi had controlled the weather, and the earth ponies had used their connection to the soil to bring forth life like no other tribe could, but with the birth of the alicorns, was there any doubt about whose rule would ensure harmony eternal?

With an alicorn on the throne, there would be no fear of favoritism as would be felt from a sole ruler of a single tribe, nor would there be bickering between an elected council made up of members of different tribes. So it was that the unicorns willfully relinquished control of the sun and moon to the young alicorns of Equestria, binding their very souls to the celestial bodies, both making the two of them immortal, and ensuring that no other creatures could ever control their orbit, or... so they thought at the time.

It was still years before Celestia and Luna were of the age to ascend to the throne when Equestria came under attack by a creature known as Discord. Attacking on the behalf of somepony known as Sleipnir, he deposed the ruling council of Equestria, somehow managed to hijack control of the sun and moon, and used unthinkable power to remake the entire Equestrian landscape into a garden of chaos. In the end, it was Celestia and Luna who found the Elements of Harmony and sealed Discord away inside a stone prison with the help of a few trusted companions. As national heroes, the ponies of Equestria waited no longer to have the two Alicorns ascend to the throne. However, it wasn't long before Sleipnir himself attacked.

Unlike Discord, who acted alone, Sleipnir came from across the sea with a massive army of monsters. Griffons, Minotaurs, Manticores, and hundreds of other, different types of creatures fought together to destroy Equestria. However, Equestrians of all tribes stood united in the face of peril, ultimately prevailing in the war. Luna herself slew Sleipnir, only to find that the true war was just beginning.

Before Sleipnir came, there were no monsters in Equestria. There were dragons, predatory animals like bears and wolves, and nature spirits of many kinds, sure, but no monsters. When Sleipnir was defeated, all the monsters in his army scattered into the untamed wilderness, where they preyed upon the ponies of Equestria. What made it worse for Luna was that these monsters would cower during the day, and only terrorize ponies during her night. Thus, ponies began to fear her night for the darkness it brought. Still, Luna wouldn't let her ponies suffer. During the night, she flew across Equestria, slaying any monsters she encountered. She was powerful, and relentless, yet the monsters were seemingly endless, and Luna quickly discovered the reason why.

Sleipnir was still alive and had constructed a series of his magic, monster creating life mirrors across Equestria. Moreover, it had turned out that Sleipnir was an immortal of a different sort. Whenever he died, Sleipnir had the ability to simply jump into any creature created by the mirror, reshaping its body into Sleipnir's own. Luna killed Sleipnir again and again over the years, destroying his mirrors when she found them, to no avail. There were always more monsters, and there were always more mirrors.

She began to get desperate. She made use of a spell her mentor and friend, Starswirl the Bearded, had invented during the war as a last resort – a spell which could turn the very soul of a creature into a star, thus sealing it away from the world forever. Luna began using this power vindictively, filling the sky with new stars each night. Her goal was to strike fear into the hearts of the monsters she hunted. Indeed, their fear of her had led them to be the first to dub her “Nightmare Moon.” However, Luna hadn't realized the effect displaying the defeated corpses of the monsters she hunted in the sky, as well as in her mane and tail, was having on the ponies she was protecting. They began to call her Nightmare Moon as well, whispering to one another in fear and cowering within their homes whenever she passed by. Even her sister treated her different than she did before. In the beginning, she had companions that fought by her side through thick and thin. Now they were dead, or otherwise returned home to protect their own villages. Luna gradually began to feel more alone, more desperate, more angry.

In the end, Luna defeated Sleipnir and sealed his soul in a particularly bright star in the sky which she dubbed Polaris, only to realize she had nothing left anymore, save for her crowded sky. The happy days she had envisioned once her duty had ended were gone. When she returned to Canterlot, no heroic welcome -- only fear awaited her. The royal guards wouldn't even permit her to enter her own palace without Celestia's permission, as if they could stop her.

Within a few hours of that incident, Nightmare Moon had declared herself Empress of Equestria and had refused to lower her moon to make way for the sun. Within a month, the Elements of Harmony had sealed her in the moon -- just one more monster hanging in the sky.

And then the stars whispered to her. Sleipnir and his sealed minions slowly lent her their power. Over the next thousand years she would grow strong, she would break free of her prison, and she would find a way to undo her star spell and free Sleipnir and his minions so that monsters would once again rule the world.

And then she was defeated by Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and cleansed of Sleipnir's influence.

***

“And the rest is known to ye.” Luna finished her story to the wide eyed stares of the ponies beside her, as they continued to walk along the moonlit path.

“Wow,” Twilight gasped. “To think Sleipnir was still alive, all the history texts said he was killed in the Battle of Canterlot!”

Luna shook her head. “Even Celestia didn't believe us at first, not until after We... were punished.”

“Mmmm mmm mm-mm mm-mm-mm?” Pinkie mumbled through zippered lips.

Luna kindly unzipped them.

“Thanks!” Pinkie exclaimed, “What was Sleipnir anyway?”

Luna shook her head.

“A pony from foreign lands that experimented on himself? A true god? Something else? We cannot say for sure,” she answered somberly.

“So wait...” Applejack said, squinting her eyes in concentration. “Did our question get answered, about why these monsters are after these foals?”

“We believe,” Luna continued, “that your foals are being pursued because they are the only three living creatures that can still be possessed by Sleipnir's spirit.”

“What?” Fluttershy asked, suprised, “but there are plenty of monsters left in the world!”

“This,” Luna said, sighing, “is where things get complicated. Sleipnir's life mirrors had all kinds of odd rules about what he could combine and what he could possess. First of all, he couldn't possess the offspring of the monsters he created, nor could he combine them.”

“So you're saying that if the monsters weren't first generation, they were completely immune?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Luna answered, “he could only possess something created by the mirror.”

“Wait, but Sleipnir's up in space,” Applejack said, confused, “How can he possess anything when he's like that?”

“He shouldn't be able to, in theory,” Luna said. “But he seemed to think there was a way to reverse the spell that binds him. Perhaps he intends to escape, or perhaps what few followers he has left merely expect him to.”

“So if he is coming back, and he wants a body,” Rarity began, “Why bother chasing these foals? Why not simply combine a rat with a flea or some other icky thing and possess that?”

“Sleipnir's power is limited by the strength of the soul of the being he possesses, “ Luna answered. “Sentient creatures have stronger souls.”

“Well then why doesn't he just create a trap for sentient beings and... oh.” Rarity frowned.

Luna nodded. “Though the feeling We get was that ye were not intended to stumble upon this one. It may yet have been the last that exists.”

Rarity sighed exasperatedly.

“Well that's just our luck isn't it?” she moaned. “I've heard quite enough about this Sleipnir character. I just want to go back to the hotel and sleep on this, all of it!”

“Well then you're in luck!” Pinkie shouted out, “cause there it is!”

She pointed a hoof at the city that had appeared just as they followed the path around a bend.

“What? We're here alreadly?” Fluttershy asked, surprised.

“Our spell finds the shortest, safest path.” Luna responded. “Ye likely took a longer route when first traversing these woods.

“Hey, someone's waiting for us,” Twilight pointed out, squinting for a moment before opening her eyes wide. “It's Spike and the Princess!”

Sure enough, as they grew closer to the edge of the woods, Princess Celestia, Spike, and an unconscious Rainbow Dash (lying spread out across two uncomfortable-looking royal guards), were all waiting for them.

“Sister!” Luna cried out happily as she approached. “So good it is to see you!”

She then paused for a moment to sniff the air.

“Why do you smell of milk?”

***

Star charts, magical formulas, and books lay around the cramped dank room as the unicorn mare busily set about taking notes.

“The last mirror has been destroyed.” came a sinister, booming voice which caused her to jump out of her seat in surprise.

“Oh for the love of... could you warn me when you're about to do that?” she snapped at the air.

“You want a disembodied voice to warn you it's about to speak?”

“...Yeah I see your point,” she muttered as she got back into her seat.

“Let's try this again. The last mirror has been destroyed.”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” the mare asked.

“It means there's no more room for failure. The starfall spell must be completed, and soon.”

“Yeah, well, you're talking about a spell invented by Starswirl the Bearded himself. Decoding it isn't easy.”

“Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”

“Touche,” the mare said, grimly.

“Are you not the primary living authority on the field of star magic?” The voice asked.

“Yeah, but I was kicked out of the academy for suggesting that stars are actually monsters, that's why I've been...”

“We believe you. That should be enough recognition for you.”

“It's difficult for me to enjoy being recognized by the.... er, beings that foalnapped me.”

“You aren't here to enjoy yourself,” the voice responded, dropping to a threatening tone. "You are here to do as we say. That is, if you and your family want to continue living... What were your parents' names again?”

The mare quietly gulped before responding.

“There's no need for you to know,” she answered, “The starfall spell will be completed on schedule.”

“Good. The time of our rebirth is soon at hand. Don't fail us... Lulamoon.”

As the voice faded and the mare once again sat alone at her desk she couldn't help but mutter.

“I prefer Trixie.”


Chapter 5: The Names


“Luna, what have you done!?” Princess Celestia yelled out angrily.

Luna stepped back, surprised. “Nothing that requires a reaction of that magnitude, I’m sure,” she replied, though she was uncertain.

“Really? Celestia asked, “Let’s start with this letter from Spike, which seems to imply my student is pregnant by your hoof!”

Luna blinked in surprise. Behind her, Twilight glared at Spike, who hastily pointed at the unconscious Rainbow Dash and mimed gestures proclaiming his innocence.

“I…I think there was a communication failure.” Luna said, shaken.

“In all honesty, I suspected as much,” Celestia responded, glancing at the baby dragon beside her with a knowing look, “but while I was on my way to the magic amplification chamber, the royal astronomer overtook me and told me a new star had suddenly appeared in the sky!”

Luna gulped. “Er, that is…”

“Something,” Celestia interrupted, “that I just witnessed for myself a second time while attempting to make sense of just what has happened this night!”

“I….We….that is…”

“Honestly Luna, don’t you remember what happened the last time!? Nowadays ponies think the stars had always existed! Something due in no small part to my efforts to erase your negative legacy, in preparation for your prophesied return! Do not throw away the new life I’ve made for you!”

“Uh, Princess?” Spike interjected.

“What!?” she snapped at the dragon, who flinched in shock.

“Uh… maybe she has an explanation?” he offered.

Celestia turned back towards her sister, who was now hanging her head in shame, staring at the ground. Behind her, Twilight and her friends looked on in shock. Celestia's face softened at the sight.

“I… may have overreacted just now, Luna,” she said, her voice becoming gentler. “I'm sorry, please tell me what happened.”

Luna paused for a few moments before responding.

“These six,” she said softly, indicating Rainbow, Twilight and the others, “were pursued by servants of Sleipnir, who are after the foals magically created by the class A life mirror they uncovered while exploring a mansion in the woods.”

“At your request,” she added pointedly.

Celestia was stunned. She didn't know what she expected to hear, but it certainly wasn't that. After a few moments hesitation, she stepped around Luna and approached Twilight’s group, who were all looking at one another nervously. Upon getting closer, she was able to see, for the first time, the foals seated upon the backs of Fluttershy, Applejack and Twilight. Foals which each had traits copied exactly from a given two of the six friends.

“Oh no...” she said as she suddenly dropped to the ground before them, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

“Forgive me Twilight!” she sobbed out, shocking the ponies before her. “The thought that the mansion I sent you to could have been one of Sleipnir's strongholds hadn't even crossed my mind! The last time a life mirror was found was over two hundred years ago!”

“Oh?” Luna said coldly as she walked over, “I seem to remember you saying something about one being uncovered only ten years ago?”

“That was a fluke!” she wailed at her sister. “It was one of the low powered, portable, class C ones that had been left abandoned in a cellar for centuries! How could there still have been a class A mirror in Equestria? We would have detected the magical outflux whenever it was used!”

“Well then I wouldn't be surprised if you have a report from the magic academy on your desk tomorrow.” Luna answered grimly.

Celestia simply sobbed in response.

Twilight was out of her element - never had she expected to find her Princess and Mentor begging for her forgiveness in front of her. However, it’s not like any of them had blamed her for what had happened, and the fact was Twilight was more worried that the princess would be angry at her for being careless.

“…It’s OK Princess, we all agreed to help you out knowing there were risks,” she said, looking to her friends, who smiled and nodded.

“Thank you Twilight.” she said, wiping her eyes and getting to her hooves. “but I've put you in a very difficult position nonetheless.”

“And I’m sorry, Luna,” she added, turning to her sister. “You have my thanks for doing what was necessary to protect them.”

“Sure.” Luna answered in a way that suggested she was still bitter. “That being said, I think our friends here are exhausted and would very much like to rest. I suggest we get them to their hotel forthwith and address further matters in the morning.”

“I agree.” Celestia concurred, walking over to the two guards supporting Rainbow Dash.

“Fly her back to the hotel, and rent the suite on the top floor,” she ordered. “Then discreetly purchase a crib, diapers, and baby formula, and fly it up there, understand?”

The two guards nodded immediately.

“And I probably don’t need to say this, but not a word to anypony about what you heard here tonight.”

They nodded again, then took off with Rainbow in tow.

“Now then,” Celestia said as she gathered magic in her horn and began to warp her form until it was that of a pink haired mare, her original form before her contract with the sun.

“I think it's best if I have a little sleepover in Manehattan tonight.”

***

Fluttershy lay awake in bed, the shrunken princess, Spike, and her five pony friends spread out beside her across the giant bed. The trip to the hotel had been largely uneventful, save for Spike laughing his scales off at their expense and attempting to use his own twisted sense of humor to come up with names for the foals.

“This is hilarious!” he had said, pointing at the foals as they walked through the streets of Manehattan, “We’ve got Flutter Pie, Rarijack, and Pffftt Twidash! Bahahahaha!”

He then rolled around on the street, continuing to laugh even as the others glared disapprovingly.

“Well, at least someone is enjoying the situation,” Fluttershy thought as she shifted under the blankets.

She wasn't sure if she should be enjoying it. Fluttershy had always wanted foals one day. She was even considering adoption, but was worried about supporting a foal with the meager amount of cash her various pet services pulled in. Feed was expensive, and Fluttershy greatly preferred giving animals to a good home for free rather than selling them. It would be less of a problem if she shared income with somepony, but she wasn't very good at talking to stallions.

The mirror had solved a lot of problems in the end - she had somepony who was likely to help her bring home the haycon, and she got a foal to take care of without having to go through the process of convincing some hunky piece of, er, some stallion to uh…

Water her petunias.

She blushed scarlet at the idea, burying her head in a pillow.

“Hmm,” She thought, her face burning “Maybe skipping that step won't be that great after all.”

Putting that aside, it was hard for Fluttershy to be outwardly happy when all of her friends were mired in worry.

“Fluttershy,” Pinkie suddenly whispered from next to her, “you awake?”

“Yeah,” she answered, lifting her head from her pillow, “what’s wrong?”

“I’m scared.”

Fluttershy slowly shifted her body so that she was looking at Pinkie.

“About the foals?” she asked, concerned.

Pinkie nodded.

“I’ve seen what the Cakes go through,” she said, “I can barely handle a slice of that.”

At that moment, Pinkie’s gaze suddenly became distant and she began to drool.

“Mmm, slice of cake...” she muttered.

“Focus, Pinkie.” Fluttershy said.

“See!?” Pinkie whispered sharply, snapping back to reality. “Its stuff like that!”

“Like what?” Fluttershy asked with a frown.

“What if I zone out and leave the baby on the train? Or forget her doctor’s appointments? I forget mine all the time! What about…. Urgh... I don’t know what!”

“That’s ok.” Fluttershy said, comforting her. “I’m good at that stuff. I even have a big wall chart with all the appointments and medication times for my animals. See? we can help each other out.”

“You’re not alone, remember?” she added with a smile.

Pinkie sniffled a little. “But you have so many animals and stuff to take care of already...”

“I’ll just have to add a couple of party animals to the list then.” Fluttershy answered sweetly as she patted Pinkie's head with a hoof.

Pinkie smiled and pulled Fluttershy over into a hug. “Thank you,” she said.

In a few minutes, they were asleep.

***

Rainbow Dash yawned loudly as she stretched out on the bed.

“Good morning Rainbow Dash,” came a regal voice from her right.

Rainbow yelped in surprise.

“Princess Celestia!?”

“Indeed,” she answered. “Given the incident last night Luna and I thought we should both spend the night in Manehattan.”

Celestia had changed back into her usual form shortly after awakening and was now lounging on a sofa, reading the Manehattan Times as she sipped her morning tea. On the bed around Rainbow the others all still slept.

“I'm glad you regained consciousness so early,” Celestia continued, “It will give me a chance to bring you up to speed.”

“Yeah.... probably a good idea.” Rainbow said as she hopped off the bed and walked over to an adjoining loveseat, noting that the room she woke up in was not the one she had gone to sleep in the night before..

“I'm amazed at how quickly you can wake up,” the princess mused.

Rainbow laughed.

“Fluttershy told me I'm like a cat – I sleep all day but can react in seconds.”

“An apt comparison,” Celestia agreed, chuckling, “Now then...”

Celestia filled Rainbow in on the events of the previous night, as well as the origins of the dark forces after them, told from her own perspective. At the end of her story, Rainbow Dash sat before Celestia with her jaw hanging open.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” she gasped out. “I'm sorry Your Highness, but I think Luna might be my new favorite princess.”

“I fear you may be admiring her for the wrong reasons,” Celestia said, grimly smirking. “Do not forget that she turned her powers against ponies in the end. I am concerned that should she continue to encounter the forces of Sleipnir, it may trigger a... relapse.”

She sighed.

“You'll let me know if she takes things too far, won't you Rainbow Dash?”

“Sure, princess!” Rainbow said. “Leave it to me!”

“On another note, how are you coping with your... implied motherhood?” She asked, tilting her head towards the crib where the three foals slept.

Rainbow frowned and glanced at the crib herself for a few moments before speaking.

“I'm... worried,” she admitted, “but I'll take responsibility for my actions.”

“You weren't responsible for anything that happened, Rainbow,” Celestia said gently.

“Everypony is responsible for their actions, Princess,” she responded with a steady gaze. “Even if they have weird and unpredictable consequences.”

“And what of your dream to someday become a Wonderbolt?” Celestia asked.

“You know about that!?” Rainbow exclaimed, shocked.

Celestia laughed.

“Twilight sends me letters, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Rainbow chuckled.

“We'll figure something out,” she added after a moment.

“You say that, but what if,” Celestia pressed on, leaning forward, “what if you had no choice but to choose between your dream and that foal?”

“If it came to that...” Rainbow said. “I'd take care of her.”

The two mares were silent for a moment before Celestia spoke.

“I must say I'm impressed with your resolve, Rainbow,” she said with a smile.

Rainbow grinned right back at her.

“Element of Loyalty, remember?"

***

Princess Celestia arranged for breakfast to be delivered to the suite, and it wasn't long before the smell of pancakes and hot coffee had roused Spike and the rest of the drowsy ponies, and lured them to the table. Pinkie was on her fifth pot of coffee when Luna alighted on the balcony and stepped into the room, yawning as she did so.

“An uneventful night, for us at least,” she said tiredly, “but we were amazed by how active Manehattan ponies are, even during the night.”

“They call it the city that never sleeps.” Twilight said as she magically wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“Thanks for staying on guard, Princess.” Applejack added as she placed another pancake on her plate.

“It was our pleasure, Applejack.” she answered, taking her own place at the table and levitating a few items onto her plate as well. ”Now then, I believe you have a busy day ahead of you?”

“Your sister arranged for an emergency checkup for the foals.” Fluttershy said, glancing nervously over at the crib for what must have been the five hundredth time that morning. “We're leaving in an hour or so.”

“Before that, however,” Celestia cut in, placing her fork down. “I need to have a little discussion with you all.”

The ponies turned to look at the princess, who continued once she was sure she had their attention.

“Last night, Luna told you all about the time before her banishment, and her fight against Sleipnir, but that's only half the story.”

She paused for a moment, cleared her throat, and then continued.

“When Luna succeeded in sealing Sleipnir away, his forces fell apart, just as they should ought to have when he was first defeated at the Battle of Canterlot. Monsters fled Equestria en masse and made for unclaimed lands where they carved out countries of their own.”

“You mean like the Griffon Kingdom and the Minotaur League?” Spike asked.

“Among others, yes.” Celestia answered before continuing. “This resulted in a large number of Sleipnir's strongholds throughout the world being simply abandoned. Furthermore, within a century, Ponies became secure enough in the safety of Equestria's wilderness to go out and explore it once more.”

She sighed.

“And then they stumbled upon Sleipnir's mirrors in droves.”

“Wait,” Rarity interrupted, “You mean this sort of thing has happened before, I mean, with the mirrors making foals from ordinary ponies?”

“Constantly,” Princess Celestia answered, “Which brings us to the reason why we're having this conversation -- I have seen many ponies with parenthood thrust upon them in this manner, and everypony reacts in different ways. One does not wish to assign blame to the creation of a life, but in a situation like this where the creation of a foal was neither the result of intent nor carelessness, a question about who is responsible for the child emerges.”

She took a drink and continued. “Thus, I made a decision that the state would provide for any foal created in this manner, either through financial support, or by making them wards of the state, should the ponies not wish to raise them themselves.”

“What I'm saying,” she continued, leaning forwards and gazing at each of the ponies before her in turn, “Is that nopony is forcing you to raise these foals. If you choose to give them up they will be fully provided for.”

She paused again, letting that sink in. The six new mothers glanced at one another.

“However,” she added, “I have seen what happened to many of the ponies who chose to give up their foals, and a great deal of them were torn up over their decision later in life. The foals always came seeking answers as they grew older, as well. They wanted to know why their parents made that decision.”

She paused again, and silence filled the room, with everypony present deep in thought. Spike looked around nervously, the sudden tenseness making him uneasy.

“Know that whatever you decide, I will think no less of any of you. However if there is one thing I would want you take away from my words it is this:”

The ponies looked up into the princess' warm, gentle eyes.

“Do not make a hasty decision. Get to know these foals, name them, talk to your families, and most importantly – give yourself a chance to love them.”

Again there was silence, and then Rarity spoke.

“I think we understand, Princess.” She said, smiling as she looked over at the sleeping foals. “We will.”

***

“Paging Dr. Hooves, Dr. Hooves to the OR,” came the voice over the intercom as the six ponies, Spike and the disguised Princess Celestia sat in the waiting room of the OBGYN ward of the hospital. Luna had gone to bed shortly after removing her sleep spell from the foals, and after feeding, burping, and changing them, the group had headed to the hospital where they entrusted them to the medical professionals for their first checkup.

“In a way you lucked out,” the pink-maned princess whispered to Twilight. “The head of this department happens to be the same doctor who examined the foal created in the incident ten years ago.”

“What?” Twilight whispered back. “You mean that incident resulted in a foal too?”

“Most of them did,” Celestia answered knowingly, “Only rarely did we stumble upon the mirrors before they were used. We had to rely on either ponies coming forward about the mirror or on detecting the magical energy output. Either way it was usually too late.”

“Do you think we could...” Twilight began to say, but was interrupted by a nurse that had stepped into the waiting room.

“Sunny Skies and company, Doctor Helix will see you now.” she said.

“That's us,” Celestia said with a wink.

The nurse led the group through the hospital's hallway to a large examination room at the end of the hall. There, the three foals were happily gulping down bottles of milk as they sat on an examination table while an elderly earth pony stallion looked on. He had a teal coat and a poofy white mane that spread out from his head as if he was being electrocuted. He was wearing a lab coat, a stethoscope, a headlamp, and a pair of glasses with a swirly pattern printed across them. On his flank was cutie mark depicting a strand of DNA.

"Thank you Bedside Manner, dat vill be all," he said in a thick Germane accent as the nurse showed them into the room. She nodded her head in acknowledgment and stepped out, closing the door behind her.

"Oh it is wunderbar to see you again, Princess," he said the moment the door was shut.

"You as well, Double Helix," Celestia replied. "How are they?"

"Ve have found no major problems," he answered. "De milk dey are drinking now is from un wet nurse, so dey are getting vat antibodies and such dat dey need."

"Oh thank goodness nothing went wrong," Fluttershy said, sighing in relief.

"Ja, it would seem this Sleipnir fellow knew vat he was doing ven he made dese mirrors." he added. "A good thing too, combining gene sequences in dis vey has the potential to cause great harm."

"Vat, I mean, what do you mean?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Vell, more den your daughters, it may vell be more appropriate to say dey are your clones," he answered. "In normal reproduction, von gene is taken from de mutter, de other from de patter, und both or either can be dominant or recessive. However, in dis case, de mirror takes un gene pair from either parent at random. In other words, each trait is copied from von parent or de other, and not mixed like usual."

"So that's why they look almost exactly like us!" Applejack blurted out, "I thought that was strange! I'm orange, my sister's yellow, my brother's red, my parents were blue and purple, and my granny's green! It was just too weird that they all had one of our coat colors!”



“Hey yeah!” Pinkie added. “ I’m the only Pinkie in my family!”



“Is it really that unusual?” Rarity asked. “Three members of my family have white coats.”



“Ja, vell, vite is un dominant color,” he said, before involuntarily shuddering. “For some reason saying dat made me feel very uncomfortable.”



“Is that why they’re all girls too?” Rainbow asked, scratching her head and glancing at the fillies.



“Ja. Only X chromosomes,” the doctor replied.



“So it's like the mirror just took bits of the girls and stuck them together.” Spike summarized.



“Yes,” the doctor continued, “Vich is vhy I say it can be dangerous, for instance…”



He walked up to the baby made up of Twilight and Rainbow’s DNA and gently patted her on the head.



“Dis foal has de horn of a unicorn und de vings of a pegasus, but modern science tells us such a combination is only possible ven dere is Earth Pony heritage as vell.



He turned towards Twilight and Rainbow.



“You do not have any recent Earth Pony ancestors, Ja?” he asked,



They both shook their heads.



“Vich vorries me un little,” he continued “It’s possible de genetic data for de horn or vings vas simply copied vithout de underlying magic also being copied.”



“Vat that means,” he said, stepping forward, “Is that de ability to fly or use magic may not properly develop.”



Twilight and Rainbow’s eyes widened.



“It is still too early to tell, though,” he added, attempting to alleviate their concerns. “And dey could develop just fine, so do not assume it is set in stone.”



“I see…” Princess Celestia said, “Was there anything else, doctor?”



“Only dat I need names and signatures for de birth certificates,” he added. “Technically under Equestrian Law you do not need to provide a name for 2 veeks, but you all live in Ponyville, ja? It may be easiest to do it today.



“We still have three hours before the train to Ponyville leaves,” Applejack said. “Maybe we can figure something out in that time.”



Twilight nodded at Applejack's suggestion.. “We’ll be back soon,” she said to Double Helix.



“Thank you Doctor,” Celestia added.



“My pleasure, Princess,” Double Helix said, bowing respectfully as the group left the room, scooping up the three foals in the process.



“Ok girls,” Twilight began as she hovered her foal onto her back, "How about we split into groups and then meet back at Ventral Park once we’ve come up with names?”



“Ooh!” Spike grunted, “You gotta let me help out! I was working on it last night, and came up with some really great id…. Hey!”



Spike found himself magically levitated onto the transformed Celestia’s back.



“I think,” the princess began, “Spike and I are going to do a little sightseeing, maybe grab a tofu dog?”



She turned her head and glanced at the baby dragon.

“But I… Oh fine!” he relented, pouting. “Fillystines.”



“Oh… I sure hope we can come up with something good in time…” Fluttershy said as she nuzzled the pink filly in her forelegs.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Pinkie said, patting the same filly on the head. “It’s just a name, how hard could it be?”



***



“Rainbow Explosion.”



”No.”



“Rainbow Tornado.”



“No.”



“Rainbow Explosion.”



“Still no!”

“Aw come on Twilight!” Rainbow Dash moaned as the two of them sat in a booth at a diner, arguing over cups of coffee, their foal sitting in a high chair next to them, sucking on her hoof.

“She has rainbow colored hair!” Rainbow continued. “She has to have rainbow in her name somewhere! It's like a law!”

“No,” Twilight said firmly. “If we name her rainbow-something then when I say Rainbow, both of you will say 'Yes?' and I'll go 'not you, the other Rainbow' and things will just get confusing!”

“Wait, but wasn't your mom's name Twilight Twinkle?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said, sighing. “I'm speaking from experience.”

“Wait, but what if we call her Twilight Rainbow instead?”

“That's the same problem in reverse!” she shouted out before sighing exasperatedly and putting her head down on the table.

For a moment the two just sat there, listening to the sounds of the busy diner echo around them as they worked their brains in thought.

“Are there any other words that mean rainbow colored?” Rainbow asked.

“Prismatic, chromatic, or spectrum I suppose.” Twilight mumbled into the table.

Rainbow sighed.

“Not digging any of those,” she said, resting her own chin on the table's edge.

For another moment they just sat there.

“You know what would be awesome?” Rainbow asked.

“What?” Twilight mumbled in response.

“If there was like... some rainbow that only appeared at twilight. Then we could name her after that.”

There was another moment of silence between the two. Then, Twilight's eyes shot wide open, and she bolted upright in her seat.

“Rainbow!” she cried out happily.

“Huh? What?” Rainbow asked, bolting upright from surprise.

“There is,” Twilight smugly proclaimed.

***

“Pinkie Shy.”

“No.”

“Flutter Pie.”

“No.”

“Well I'm out of ideas.” Pinkie said, shrugging as she and Fluttershy walked down Mane Street with their foal bouncing on Pinkie's back.

“Those were your only ideas?” Fluttershy said as she blinked in surprise. “I think one of them was Spike's.”

“You got a better idea, sister?” Pinkie asked in mock indignation, a playful smile on her face..

“Of course,” Fluttershy responded, flashing a smirk of her own. “I'm very talented at coming up with suitable names for small creatures. Just look at Angel.”

“Uh... right, suitable.” Pinkie said, remembering the time Angel had thrown his birthday cake at her because it was carrot flavored and he wanted marble. “So then what do you think we should name her?”

“Squiddley Mcdoodlefluffs.”

Pinkie reflexively gagged.

“Oh geez Fluttershy,” she said, spitting in disgust. That's waaaay too sweet, even for me!”

Fluttershy giggled.

“Well, a lot of times parents name their kids after physical traits, right Pinkie?” she suggested, indicating the pink pony. “Maybe we could go with that?”

“Physical traits huh?” Pinkie pondered, removing the foal from her back and holding it up in front of her. “Well, she is a pegasus... Maybe something to do with the sky?”

She looked towards Fluttershy, who nodded.

“Other than that....” Pinkie continued. “She's pink, and fluffy and...”

She gasped a tremendous gasp.

“What, what is it?” Fluttershy asked, startled.

“Fluttershy, I just got a delicious idea!” Pinkie said with a disturbingly wide smile.

***

“Sapphire...”

“...Apple.”

“Emerald...”

“...Delicious.”

“Ruby...”

“...Pie.”

“Ugh this is getting us nowhere!” Rarity cried out in frustration as she and Applejack sat on the park bench, their foal in between them. “And the others are supposed to meet us here in a few minutes!”

“I told you randomly stringing words together wasn't going to work.” Applejack snapped.

“You have a better idea?” Rarity shot back.

Applejack rolled her eyes.

“I get that you want something fancy, Rarity, but I think you're too focused on gems,” Applejack advised. “Why not something like 'gold?' I have a cousin named Golden Delicious, how about that?”

Rarity pondered for a moment.

“It's not a bad idea,” she admitted, “but I immediately think of the apple and not something actually made of gold.”

Applejack's eyes lit up.

“That's it Rarity!” she suddenly called out.

“What is?” Rarity asked, startled.

“Golden Apple.” Applejack said, “Like the ones from Celestia's Golden Apple Tree that she keeps in the royal gardens.”

“Hmm...” Rarity pondered. “It is certainly better than anything else we've come up with.”

She then lit up excitedly.

“Ooh! And if we named her that I could call her Goldy or Goldilocks for short! She certainly has the hair for it,” she said, squealing in delight as she played with the little poof of hair atop the newly christened foal's head. “I can't wait to do it up in a little bow.”

“Why miss Rarity,” Applejack said, smiling smugly and narrowing her eyes. “If I didn't know better I'd say you were actually looking forward to this.”

Rarity glared at Applejack.

“There are some benefits to having a daughter.” she admitted before flashing a smug grin of her own. “In fact, why don't you leave all the fashionable, feminine parts of child rearing to me, and you can take care of all the dirty, messy jobs you love so much, hmm?”

Applejack scowled. “And just what's that supposed to mean?” she asked crossly.

“Oh please, my dear Applejack,” Rarity teased. “I think it's perfectly clear who wears the pants in this impromptu little family.”

“Rarity,” Applejack said crossly. “I don't wear pants, you don't wear pants, none of us wear pants!”

“My mother does.” Rarity shot back.

“Your mother wears the pants in your family?” Applejack questioned, smirking as she raised an eyebrow.

“No... I …. URGH!” she grunted in frustration. “Where does that saying even come from?”

Applejack was about to respond, but was interrupted by the arrival of the other two groups.

“Hi Applejack, Rarity,” Twilight called out. “How did it go?”

Applejack scooped up her foal into her hooves and said “I present to you little miss Golden Apple.”

The others excitedly expressed their approval.

“How about you two?” Twilight asked, turning to Pinkie and Fluttershy.

Pinkie jumped forward with the foal on her back

“Introducing! The amazing, the incredible, the one and only....”

She paused for dramatic effect.

“Caaaaaaaaandy Cloooooooud!” she finished, briefly tossing the foal in the air, jumping up after her and catching her in midair as the others cheered.

“What about you guys, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight chuckled.

“We decided on Aurora-”

“Blast!” Rainbow interjected.

“I didn't agree to Blast!” Twilight snapped at Rainbow.

“Aw come on Twi!”

“No.”

“How about Princess Aurora then?”

“I think that's trademarked, and she's not a princess!”

“It seems like you've all come to a decision.” Princess Celestia said, suddenly interrupting the argument as she walked forward in her disguised form with Spike beside her, both of them chowing down on tofu dogs.

“More or less, Princess.” Twilight answered, stepping away from Rainbow with a scowl..

“Good,” Celestia said, nodding in approval. “If you hand the forms to me I'll drop them off at the hospital before I head back to Canterlot. I wouldn't want you to miss your train.”

“Thank you Princess,” Twilight said, levitating her own form out of her saddlebag and over to Celestia, who looked it over as the others began to hastily fill our their own.

“Aurora Blast, eh?” she asked with a wry smile.

“Shhh.” Twilight said with a little blush, glancing over at Rainbow, who was looking dejected. “It was better than Borealis.”

***

The group stood before one of Manehattan's Grand Ventral Station's many boarding platforms, eagerly awaiting the train back to Ponyville, which was due to arrive in a matter of minutes.

“Luna will be in touch tonight, I'm sure.” Celestia said to the others as they approached the platform's edge. “She has promised to look after you all until we are convinced you will come to no harm.”

“We're very grateful, Princess,” Fluttershy responded. “To both of you.”

The princess shifted uncomfortably for a moment.

“I... have no right to ask anything of you given how this all started, but please... look after my sister as well,” Celestia asked them with a small bow. “I don't know if you've noticed, but even though she has requested that you drop all formality with her, she refuses to do the same with anypony but me. It's clear to me that she is desperate for companionship but is also keeping others at a distance. I'm concerned.”

“Leave it to us, Princess!” Pinkie said excitedly. “We'll break her shell open!”

“I thank you.” Celestia said with another bow, “Now then, I should depart.”

“Wait, Princess!” Twilight called out before Celestia could walk away. “There was one other thing I wanted to ask you but couldn't find the right time.”

“What is it Twilight?” Celestia asked curiously.

“You said that ten years ago, another mirror was discovered, and that it led to another foal being born from the mirror, right?” Twilight asked.

“It did indeed,” she acknowledged. “Why?”

“Could we... talk to the parents of that foal?” Twilight asked timidly. “It'd be nice to get some advice... and... find out how they dealt with things.”

Celestia smiled.

“An excellent idea, Twilight.” she said in approval. “As luck would have it, I believe one of them lives in Ponyville. Now what was her name...”

***

The mare stood in her kitchen, measuring out and mixing ingredients with practiced ease as the smell of baked goods filled her home. To her surprise, the doorbell rang.

“Now who could that be?” she asked aloud as she placed the whisk she was holding in her mouth down on the kitchen table and began to make her way to the front door.

“Coming!” she called as she trotted down the hallway.

After a few moments, she reached the front door and opened it to reveal a small group of ponies gathered upon her doorstep. Her face lit up at the sight.

“Twilight! Pinkie! Wow, even Rainbow Dash!” the mare exclaimed. “I sure am popular today!”

“Hi Derpy.” Twilight said, smiling, “Can we come in?”


Chapter 6: The Rat


***Earlier that morning ***

“I am never staying in the same house as your mother again,” the brown coated stallion said to his wife as the two of them walked down the busy streets of Manehattan.

“Oh stop it!” his wife, a blonde, white coated mare, snapped. “You should be happy she was willing to accommodate us so we didn't have to spend the night at a hotel.”

“I would have gladly paid upwards of a thousand bits to not have dealt with her nagging,” he said, curling his nose at the thought.

“Just be happy that we'll be back in our own loft from today onwards,” she said, sighing. “Speaking of which, we're here.”

The two of them stopped before the two story building that was their home. On the upper level was their apartment, on the bottom level, their place of business – a modest clothing store of some renown. The lights were off, and a sign hung on the door, with the word CLOSED written upon it in big bold letters.

“Now all that's left is to pay the fellow,” the husband said as he strolled up to the door, reached into his saddlebag, and pulled out a key.

“He creeps me out,” the wife said, walking up beside him with a frown.

“Yes, well, we can't all be upper-middle class.” he said as the lock clicked into place and the door swung open, the bell hanging above the door announcing their arrival. Still, there was no sign of who they were looking for.

“Mister Rat Race?” he called out. “Are you present?”

There was no response.

“I wonder where he could have gone...” he muttered to himself before deciding to call out again once more for good measure. “Mister Rat Race?”

“Here.” Came a voice from behind them.

The wife gave a little scream of surprise as the two of them whirled around to face the Earth Pony stallion now standing before them. He was unkempt to say the least - his black mane and tail were greasy and clumped together as though he had just been soaked in the rain, his gray coat was covered with the occasional patch of dirt or grime, and on his face he sported a stubbly beard, with a few individual hairs fanning out from the side of his snout, like whiskers. In addition, his nose had a slight reddish tinge to it, as if he was constantly stuffed up, and whenever he opened his mouth he revealed a prominent overbite. Topping it all off, on his flank was depicted a picture of a black rat with beady red eyes. Upon looking at him once more, the couple could only reaffirm their first impressions about this stallion – he looked just like a big greasy rat.

“Sorry 'bout that, didn't mean ta scare ya,” Rat Race said with a nasally voice. “Just had ta step outside for a bit. Here's your key by the way.”

He handed the duplicate key he had received previously over to the husband.

“Ah, thank you.” the latter answered apprehensively, receiving the key and placing it in his waistcoat pocket. “Am I to take it this means our business is concluded?”

“Yessir,” Rat Race replied, “This premises is once again completely rat free.”

“I amazed you really did it in a day,” the wife added, recovering from the shock of his appearance. “There were so many of them...”

“Yeah well, I'm unusually talented at this,” he said, chuckling at the compliment, “which is why I charge so much. Speaking of which...”

“Ah, yes...” the husband said, reaching into his wife's saddlebags and pulling out a big bag of bits, which he placed on the floor. “Three hundred, as was agreed upon.”

“Right then,” Rat Race said as he reached down and picked up the bag with his mouth.

“Measure mooing musiness mit mu,” he said through clenched teeth as he walked out the door, leaving the couple behind.

Rat Race walked down the street, passing a few more buildings before turning left into an alleyway. He turned a few more corners, making his way through the twisting back alleys of the city before eventually coming across what he was looking for – a ponyhole cover. He dumped the bag of bits onto the ground, letting them freely spill out. No sooner had he done so than did the cover burst up out of the ground as hundreds of rats poured forth from the hole and began swarming over the gold.

“Good job boys.” he said to the rats as they each took a bit from the pile in turn and made way for the others. “Put it with the haul from our other jobs.”

A few rats nodded in understanding, then returned to hauling the gold coins.

“We've done thirty jobs this month in Manehattan,” Rat Race continued, “if we keep this pace up someone'll put two and two together an' get suspicious.”

A few more rats nodded.

“So I'll be headed ta Vanhoover first thing in the morning, an' check on our operations there. You guys hang low while I'm gone.”

“That trip is cancelled,” came a booming voice that echoed through the alleyway.

The rats instantly scurried into the sewer hole in a panic, leaving half the gold and a startled Rat Race behind.

“Ah...” Rat Race said as he politely lowered himself to the ground, looking up at the cloudy sky. “Was there something ya needed, Lord Sleipnir?”

A hint of apprehension was in his voice.

“Time is of the essence, so I will be brief,” Sleipnir answered. “In this city there are six ponies, tourists, who have in their company 3 foals born from a life mirror. Find them, follow them, and report to me when you can.”

“As you wish...” Rat Race answered, though privately he was less than happy to be drafted into a search party on such short notice.

Sleipnir quickly related descriptions of the six ponies and their foals to Rat Race.

“I will use my sight in attempt to spot them from above,” he added. “but I do not expect to find them with my eyes alone.”

“Understood, Lord.” Rat Race answered.

“Then I will take my leave,” the voice boomed once more. “Serve well, Rat Race, and be rewarded well.”

Sleipnir's last words echoed in the narrow alley, and Rat Race waited until all traces of it had faded before getting to his hooves. Behind him, a group of rats slowly lifted the cover and peered out cautiously. He sighed and turned to them.

“Bring the rest of the money into the sewer – don't bother bringing it ta the hideout yet. Then pair up and search the city for the ponies he described.”

The rats did as he asked, grabbing the remainder of the gold and then diving back into the sewer tunnels below the city where they split up, heading through the tunnels in every which way.

Rat Race sighed again as he walked back down the alley the way he came. Serving Sleipnir had its advantages – so long as he devoted a sizable part of his earnings to the cult, he had a number of powerful, though necessarily discreet, enforcers at his beck and call. Of course, it also meant he became an enforcer himself when his specific talents were needed.

“We'd better find these mares.” he thought to himself. “I don't want none of those other guys coming after me.”

***

Rats number 576 and 384 were the first pair to find any trace of their quarry, having happened upon Fluttershy, Pinkie and the newly named Candy Cloud as they walked through the park. They peered through openings in the bushes as they followed the ponies along the path.

"I think its a wonderful name, Pinkie," Fluttershy said, smiling as she looked at the baby bouncing along on Pinkie's back. "But um... don't you think it's a little odd to draw inspiration from Discord?"

"Nope!" Pinkie happily answered.

"Oh... Maybe it's just me then," Fluttershy mused.

Rat 576 turned to 384 and squeaked "you keep following them while I fetch the boss" in Rat language.

384 nodded as 576 darted into a nearby sewer grate that was adjoining the path.

It wasn't long at all before 576 had made his way all the way back to Rat Race, who immediately set off for the park. By the time he arrived, the ponies had moved on, but 576 had recruited every rat he passed to assist 385 in trailing the ponies. As a result, rat 192 was waiting for them. He pointed them in the direction the ponies had gone, which led them to yet another rat, 229, who did the same. This "rat relay" continued until Rat Race finally spotted a group of ponies matching the descriptions he was given heading into Grand Ventral Station. He followed them in even as his rats moved into the subway tunnels from below.

"Looks like they're leaving the city," Rat Race muttered to himself. "Crap, I wasn't prepared for this."

The ponies had lined up at the ticket counter, but despite his recent windfall, Race had no bits on him. That never stopped him before – he never rode the train legally – but in order to avoid losing them in the crowd, he'd have to move fast. He ducked into a nearby bathroom, marked STALLIONS, and looked around. It was nearly devoid of ponies, and rightly so. Few are those with the bravery or desperation to use a public restroom. He trotted past the stalls all the way to the last one on the end. Taped on the stall door was a sign that read "Out of Order." This toilet was always broken – Race's minions had ensured that much. He stepped into the stall and closed the door behind him before glancing up at a small air vent, the grate of which was hanging loosely off a single screw. Too small for a pony to even fit his head through.

Not a problem.

A red aura enveloped Rat Race as he began to change. He slowly started to shrink in size. The hair on his tail was absorbed into the tail itself, which grew long, pink and whip-like. The unkempt hair on his face lengthened into whiskers and the little reddish tip of his nose became his nose in its entirety. Finally, his fur became darker, almost pitch black, and his eyes turned from a dull gray to a fierce red.

Rat Race had become a rat.

Without wasting another second, he deftly scampered up the wall to the vent, climbed in, and followed the winding metal passage until he came out at another vent opening built into the wall of the station proper. He jumped from the vent to a hanging light fixture, and continued to jump from light to light until he reached the ticket counter. He spotted the familiar group of ponies moving away and followed them from above. They stopped in front of the number 3 station, where they waited for the train to arrive. A short distance away, the purple unicorn was talking with an unknown, pink maned pony that was walking with them earlier. As Rat Race approached, he overheard a snippet of their conversation.

“Derpy!?” the purple one blurted out.

“Yes.... I believe that was her name,” the other pony replied. “It's a little unusual, I know.”

“No no! I know her!” the first said, clarifying. “I knew she had a daughter but... wow.”

“I do not think she has told many, if any ponies.” the other said, “She moved to Ponyville after it happened. It may be good for her to talk about what happened as well, for her own benefit.”

Rat Race was curious about their conversation, but couldn't afford to hang around and listen for too long, as the train was making its way towards the station. He readied himself as it braked to a stop, and with a great leap, jumped from the light fixture to the top of one of the carriages. He then quickly scampered across the rooftops, jumping from carriage to carriage until he made it to the caboose. For whatever reason, these cabooses always had a viewing platform on the outside, connected to the inside by an unlocked door. He hopped down, grabbed onto the doorknob, twisting it, and then sneaked inside as the door swung open. The few ponies inside looked up at the door that had suddenly opened, and which immediately began to close again, but saw nothing, for Rat Race made sure to quickly scamper under one of the seats before he could be spotted. As he did so, he heard the whistle of the train, and felt it begin to move. He breathed a sigh of relief. He was in, and so far he remained undetected by his quarry.

All that was left was to find those ponies again. He was in luck, as he only had to sneak through two more cars to do so. The carriage he found them in was relatively empty. There was an older stallion dozing in his seat and a young, stylish mare absorbed in a fashion magazine, but they were sitting on the other side of the carriage from the six ponies he was chasing and their foals, the former of which who were talking to each other in whispered tones. He made his way over to the underside of their seats, and carefully listened to every word.

***

“I always knew there was a story there,” Applejack said, holding Golden Apple in her hooves.. “A mare like Derpy raising a foal on her own? Didn't expect this though.”

Rarity nodded. “It's certainly more unique than many of the rumors I've heard.”

“Yeah," Rainbow added, "I always thought some stallion took advantage of her.”

“Me too.” Fluttershy said softly as she stroked Candy Cloud's mane.. “I thought she might want to talk about it... but I was just too shy to reach out to her...”

“You're not the only one, Fluttershy.” Twilight said as she levitated a pacifier into Aurora Blast's mouth, “I don't think anyone would be gauche enough to go up and ask her where Dinky came from.”

“Oh! I would! I did that!” Pinkie suddenly exclaimed.

Applejack rolled her eyes and sighed. “Of course you did.”

“And, what did she say?” Rarity asked, leaning forward intently.

“She said Dinky popped out of a magic mirror!” Pinkie said, laughing. “Can you believe it?”

Pinkie continued laughing for a few moments before noticing nopony else was, and turned her gaze to the three foals sitting among them.

“Oh...” she said, realizing.

“And you just now made that connection?” Rainbow asked in an annoyed tone.

“I – I thought she was joking!” Pinkie stammered. “I mean, I thought she didn't want to tell me the real reason, so I didn't press her any more!”

“Well,” Twilight interrupted, “even if she readily admits where Dinky comes from, it doesn't mean its not a touchy subject. I mean, based on what we know, she would have had to have a partner, wouldn't she?”

“Speaking of which," Rainbow said. "I think she has a roommate.”

“Yeah...” Applejack said, her eyes narrowing and a scowl curling across her lips. “Carrot Top.”

“Dinky doesn't resemble her at all though.” Twilight said. “For one thing, Carrot's an Earth Pony and Derpy's a pegasus, so where does Dinky being a unicorn come in?”

There was silence as the group took a moment to think things through.

“You know...” Rarity said, remembering something. “Wasn't Dinky competing along with another older pony in the Sisterhood Social?”

“That's right!” Applejack exclaimed. “And it was a unicorn too!”

“Wait, but Dinky can't have an older sister,” Rainbow said. “Derpy would have to be like... forty."

“Well If I'm remembering correctly,” Applejack said, explaining. “Dinky said something about her being an honorary sister.”

Rainbow scoffed. “That's ridiculous, you can't enter a family-based contest as a honorary family member.

“It's how we won the cider contest.” Applejack said, looking at Rainbow with narrowed eyes.

Rainbow's eyes widened and she stared at Applejack for a few moments before speaking. “Well, yeah but... I mean, I really wanted some cider.”

“Anyway!” Twilight interjected. “I think what Applejack and Rarity were implying was that regardless of what Dinky claimed about her, that mare might have been her other biological mother, yes?”

The other two nodded.

“Still," Rarity said, "we shouldn't assume until we hear it from the horse's mouth.”

“Wait... so are we meeting with Derpy today?” Fluttershy asked.

“I think if we're going to get any advice, then the sooner it is the better,” Twilight answered.

“Makes sense to me!” Pinkie said with a nod.

“We should be arriving a little after noon," Twilight continued. "So we should still have the rest of the day to... take care of everything else.”

At those words, Applejack shifted uncomfortably.

“Yeah so... about that...” she said hesitantly as the others turned their heads towards her. “I don't think we're gonna be able to keep this quiet for long."

Twilight nodded. “Manehattan is one thing, but I think we're all pretty well known in Ponyville.”

“And word travels fast,” Rarity added.

“Even so,” Applejack said, “Word travels to some places faster than others, doesn't it?”

The others looked at each other confusedly, not sure what she was driving at.

“Basically what I'm getting at here is," Applejack said, noticing their confusion. “Which ones of y'all need to tell your folks today, because I could really use some backup with my own."

“Oh! I get it!" Twilight exclaimed. "Right, let's see... I think you and Rarity are the only ones whose families live in Ponyville.

Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie nodded their heads, but Rarity shook hers.

“They live in Ponyville, but my parents are on a vacation of their own starting today,” Rarity said, “So I have some time before I have to break the news to them. That said... Sweetie Belle will be staying with me starting tonight...”

“Oh!” Pinkie added, “And my family might not live in Ponyville, but the Cakes do, so I probably have to let them know what's up pretty soon."

“Yeah,” Fluttershy agreed, nodding her head. “It's best to let them know before they hear it from somepony else.”

“OK, so I think we have a plan.” Twilight said in an attempt to sum things up. “First we're all going to go and talk to Derpy, then we're going to help Applejack and Pinkie break the news to the rest of the Apple Family and the Cakes, respectively. Deal?”

She turned to the others, who nodded their heads.

“Thanks y'all,” Applejack said. “I'm really nervous about this. I mean.... I really have no idea how Granny Smith's gonna react. I mean, she constantly told me to not to get pregnant until after I was married."

“Constantly?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Applejack said, chuckling nervously. “Like, when she tucked me in at night, she'd say stuff like 'Good night, sleep tight, don't get pregnant 'til you're married.'' Oh, and every so often she'd say stuff like 'A mare only has a foal after she's come of age, in other words, after mare-age.”

As she related her tale, Applejack found her voice beginning to crack and she felt the beginning of tears begin to well in her eyes.

“And I mean," she continued, pressing on "I know it kinda comes off as silly and quirky, but there have been times when I went on a date with a colt or something, and before I left the house she threatened to disown me if I came back preg...”

She trailed off, beginning to cry in earnest as Pinkie reached over and pulled her into a hug.

“Oh Applejack...” Fluttershy said, “I had no idea that Granny Smith could be that harsh...”

“Why do old people have to be so lame?” Rainbow asked angrily.

“I didn't realize how much more rough this was going to be on you, AJ,” Twilight said sympathetically. "I'm sorry if anything I said was inadvertently making light of your situation."

“Nah, I'm alright girls, really.” she said, regaining some composure as she wiped her eyes. “Look at me blubbering, I'm gonna get the foals crying again.”

“That's not fair,” Rarity said, out of the blue.

The others turned to look at her.

"Pardon?" Applejack asked.

“This is not your fault,” Rarity continued, looking directly at Applejack, “and even if it was, what kind of family disowns their children in this day and age?! Oh no, we're going to explain things to Granny Smith if it takes a hundred times, and if she still has a problem with it, she can answer to me!”

The others blinked at the outburst, but Applejack was the first to smile. “Thanks Rarity,” she said, “That's mighty generous of you.”

Rarity simply nodded before turning and staring out the window, her outrage still plain on her face. They had already left the tunnels of the city behind and were now moving through the vast Equestrian countryside.

“What about you, Pinkie?” Applejack asked the pink mare seated next to her. “Are the Cakes gonna be a problem?”

Pinkie raised a hoof to her chin, pondering for a moment. “I think the worst case scenario would be if they thought I got a baby on purpose.”

“Huh?" Rainbow asked. "What do you mean?”

“Well I mean, look at it from their point of view,” Pinkie said. “They have twins, I become their babysitter, I get a foal of my own. I mean, it's like I'm copying them or something.”

“I see,” Twilight said, nodding. “From their perspective, it might look like you thought being a babysitter made you qualified to be a mother and you hastily adopted a foal as a result of those thoughts.”

“Right,” Pinkie said. “But that's only if they comically misunderstood things, so as long as we explain everything properly, it should be fine.”

“And we will explain everything properly,” Twilight said, standing up on her seat. “We're going to do this, girls! We're going to proudly show anypony who doubts our ability to do this that we can and will be the best parents ever!”

“Yeah!” “Alright!” “We can do this!” the others called out in assent as Twilight sat back down in her seat.

For a few moments afterward, the train was silent save for the noise of the wheels rolling across the track. Then Pinkie spoke up.

“Hey, where's Spike?” she asked.

***

“I can't believe they left me behind,” Spike moaned to the still disguised princess as they walked away from the train station.”

“Well, you were the one who chose to use the little dragon's room two minutes before the train was due to arrive,” Celestia chided with a smirk.

“And it was disgusting, let me tell you!” Spike said angrily. “Looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks! I even saw a big black rat climb into an air vent!”

Celestia grimaced. “It certainly does sound unpleasant. Perhaps I can mention it to the Mayor when we reach city hall.”

“I'd appreciate it,” Spike said. “Anyway, I noticed that they didn't forget their little babies behind did they?”

Celestia stopped in her tracks and turned to face the young dragon. “Now Spike, just because there's a new baby, or three, in your life doesn't mean...”

“That nobody loves me anymore,” Spike finished, grimacing. “Yeah I know. I live in a library and must have read a dozen books with a plot like that.”

“I understand you have personal experience with this as well,” Celestia said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “An incident involving one Owlicious?”

“Who?” Spike asked.

“Er... Owlicious, Twilight's pet owl...”

“Nah, I was just making a joke, Princess,” Spike clarified. “I guess you had to be there.”

“I see...” Celestia said. “Speaking of which, how is young Peewee doing?”

“He's getting a little big to be called Peewee,” Spike said. “Thanks for those books about phoenixes by the way.”

“It was no trouble.” Celestia responded with a little nod. “Who's taking care of him at the moment?”

“Owlicious,” Spike answered plainly.

“Who?” the princess asked.

“Funny,” Spike said with a grin.

Celestia chuckled as they resumed walking.

“In any case,” she said, her tone becoming serious once more. “Those girls are under a lot of stress right now, and are going to need you more than ever, so try not to judge them too harshly.”

“I think I'll call it even for two tubs of ice cream,” Spike said after a moment of thought.

“Sounds like a plan,” Celestia said with another chuckle.

Soon enough, the odd pair found themselves at city hall, where they made their way up to the top floor and stopped in front of a large desk where the secretary to the Mayor, a unicorn mare with narrow oval glasses, was busy typing away at her morse typewriter.

“We're here to see the mayor,” Celestia said, standing in front of the secretary's desk.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asked, not taking an eye off the paper she was typing.

“No, but he'll want to meet me,” Celestia answered with a smirk.

The secretary just scoffed. “And you would be?”

“Princess Celestia.”

For the first time, the secretary's hooves stopped moving and she glanced over in Celestia's direction, seeing not the princess, who would tower over her, but rather a fairly ordinary white coated pony with bright pink hair.

The secretary laughed as she resumed her typing. “Good one lady, but you're going to have to try a lot harder if you want to pass as the princess.”

“Yes,” Celestia agreed with a smile, “It's much easier to pass as somepony else.”

With a burst of magic, Celestia reverted to her regal form, crown and her other royal accessories appearing out of thin air to adorn her.

The secretary's mouth hung open as she stared in shock. After a moment, she dashed over to the Mayor's Office, knocked twice, then stuck her head in.

“That was mean,” Spike said, leaning over towards the princess.

“Mmm-hmm,” she said with a smile.

After a few moments, a middle-aged gentlecolt stepped out from the office. He had a tan coat and a receding white hairline, and on his flank he bore a picture of a big round waffle.

“Princess Celestia!” He called out happily as he approached. “So good to see you again!”

“Hello Mayor Maynot,” Celestia said, returning the greeting. “It's been quite a while.”

“It certainly has,” the Mayor agreed. “I was hoping to hear from you today after receiving word from the night guard this morning that that both you and your sister came through the teleporter last night.”

“Ah, yes...” Celestia said. “I apologize for the unannounced visit, but a matter of some import led me to your fair city at that late hour. “

“Would this matter pertain to the er... rather vibrant light show we had last night?” the Mayor asked. “The press has been prodding me for answers I simply don't know the answer to all morning long.”

Celestia frowned.

“Yes it certain does pertain to that, though I'm afraid I can't give you all the details," she said apologetically. "Suffice it to say that a pegasus was attacked by a monster while flying over the forest. She created that rainbow colored explosion in an attempt to escape, and the rest of the lights were a result of my sister's attempts to aid her.”

“And the new stars that have appeared?” the mayor pressed on.

Celestia inwardly cursed. Unlikely as it was, she had hoped no-one had actually noticed that particular detail in all the confusion.

“I am unsure what drove my sister to make some changes to the night sky.” she said. “But as Princess of the Night, that is her prerogative.”

“I see,” said the mayor, somewhat disappointed “Well at the very least I'll be able to put some fears to rest.”

“I am happy to assist.” Celestia said, bowing her head.

“Now then, Princess," the Mayor began. "Was there another item of business you wished to discuss?”

“Indeed there was," Celestia said. "First and most importantly, I need you to send a telegraph to whatever town is the first stop out of Manehattan on the number three train.”

“Certainly,” said the Mayor, “Carbon Copy?”

The secretary positioned herself in front of her typewriter, hooves at the ready.

“Ready Princess,” she said.

“To whom it may concern,” Celestia dictated, “please find Twilight Sparkle on the number three train from Manehattan and inform her that Spike is safe and will meet her in Ponyville tonight. Signed, Princess Celestia.”

Carbon Copy levitated the finished message out of the typewriter and hastily ran out of the room, heading for the telegraph machine on the bottom level.

“Well, that was easy enough,” the mayor said with a grin. “Anything else I can do for you, your Highness?”

“Yes,” she replied. “My friend here had some concerns about the state of public restrooms at the train station.”

“Yeah!" Spike shouted out. "It was so bad that I saw a rat crawling around in there!”

Mayor Maynot sighed heavily, as if he had dreaded this very topic being brought up..

“Yes.... we have had a bit of a rat problem recently,” he admitted. “I've been getting reports of sudden infestations all over the city, and it seems like every exterminator in the city directory is otherwise indisposed.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

“Well," Mayor Maynot answered, "I mean that of the four listed in the directory, two are in the hospital with severe injuries, the third's house has been empty for weeks, and the final one passed away about a month ago.”

“That's... quite the coincidence.” Celestia said with a frown.

“I know,” the Mayor said. "We've entertained the possibility that these incidents are related, but the only thing connecting them was their profession.”

“I see. Well I do hope you'll keep looking into it.” Celestia said with a bow.

“Of course your Majesty,” the Mayor answered, returning the bow.

“Now then, though I very much enjoyed my unscheduled visit to your city, I'm afraid I must to return to Canterlot,” the Princess said, “It was a pleasure seeing you again.”

“The pleasure was all mine, Princess,” The Mayor said with a smile.

Celestia and Spike took their leave of the Mayor's office and made their way down to the City Hall's basement, where a long range teleporter had been installed, as It had been in most major cities, to allow the Princess and her retainers to quickly respond to a crisis in any corner of Equestria. Two guards flanking the teleporter room's door snapped to attention as the Princess and Spike approached. One, a unicorn, used his magic to levitate the door open.

“Thank you sirs,” Celestia said as she stepped inside alongside Spike.

The room was what one would expect of a basement, though it was certainly tidier than most. Its most distinguishing feature was the magic circle carved into the stone floor in the center of the room. Princess Celestia and Spike stepped onto it as Celestia began to form magic within her horn and poured it into the circle, which began to faintly glow.

“Please bear with me for a moment, Spike,” she said. “This will take a minute or so. I could pour more magic in at once but it could cause the spell to send us wildly off course.”

“I'm in no hurry Princess,” Spike responded.

For a moment, the room was silent save for the chime of Celestia's magic. Then Spike spoke once more.

“Hey, so that was weird how all those exterminators got 'indisposed,' right?” he asked.

“Very weird,” Celestia agreed, still pouring magic into the circle. “And unsettling.”

“Yeah,” Spike said, nodding his head. “Rats are gross.”

“Perhaps,” Celestia responded, “but they are reviled for another reason as well.”

“Another reason?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“During the war against Sleipnir, many rats served as spies for his forces.” Celestia explained. “It's the reason why 'rat' has come to colloquially mean a snitch, a spy, or an untrustworthy fellow.”

“Huh,” Spike said. “Wait, you think they might still be spying for him!?”

“Sleipnir himself should be completely powerless,” Celestia explained as more and more magic poured from her horn. “But last night I found out there are those who still pledge loyalty to him.”

“Yeah...” Spike said.

“It makes me uneasy, Spike.” Celestia said as the circle let out a bright blue glow. “So when you get to Ponyville, watch out for rats.”

***

“Ooh! We're here! We're here!” Pinkie cried out as the train pulled into Ponyville Station.

She bounced up and down the aisle as Fluttershy looked on, Candy Cloud held tightly between her forehooves. Twilight just let out a muffled groan, her face embedded in one of the train's seats.

“Oh stop moping, Twilight,” Rarity scolded. “Spike's with the Princess, he'll be just fine.”

“He's gonna hate us.” Twilight mumbled back, lifting the side of her face up.

“Only 'til we spoil him a bit,” Rainbow said, holding Aurora aloft in her hooves as the train screeched to halt.

Applejack made to pick Golden Apple up, but Rarity suddenly levitated the foal onto her own back.

“I'll carry her for a while.” she said. “You've been doing it since last night.”

“That's mighty kind of you Rarity,” Applejack said, grabbing her saddlebags instead.

The others quickly grabbed everything as well, not wanting to be stuck on the train as it took off.

“Alright then.” Applejack said, heading towards the exit just as the others were finishing up. “We got to Ponyville in one piece, now we just have to get to Derpy's before we run into anyone we know.”

“Welcome home Applejack!” came a chorus of three shrill voices just as Applejack stepped off the train onto the platform.

Applejack's face froze in horror as she stared at the three fillies standing before her. “Applebloom!? Scootaloo!? Sweetie Belle!? What are y'all doing here!?

“We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders welcoming committee!” Applebloom said proudly. “We thought we'd try to get our cutie marks by welcoming you and the others home!”

“Ahaha...” Applejack laughed as she stole a glance back at the train window where the others were frozen in panic, unsure of whether to exit the train or not. If anyone was going to persistently ask questions about where their foals had come from, and then spill the beans to the whole town, it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Hey wait...” Sweetie Belle said, looking around. “Where are Rarity and the others?”

“Um... Rarity," Applejack said. "Right well, um the thing about Rarity is...”

Applejack worked her brain furiously for a plausible lie. Then it hit her.

“She's on the next train!” she blurted out.

“The next train?” Scootaloo asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Um, that is er... Spike!” Applejack continued. “Spike had to use the restroom, so everypony missed their train waiting for him.”

“But... you didn't.” Apple Bloom observed.

“Er... No, I didn't. Because uh... I didn't realize he had to use the bathroom.”

“Then how did you know that's why everypony else missed the train?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Um.... That is...I.... saw everypony near the restroom as this train was pulling away...?”

There was silence between Applejack and the three fillies as the latter group narrowed their eyes suspiciously at Applejack, who began to display a very fake smile in the hopes of deflecting said suspicion. This continued for what seemed to Applejack like an unbearably long time until the tension was finally broken by Apple Bloom.

“Well shoot,” she said. “Guess we'll have to wait for the next one then.”

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief.

“Wait, how do we know there's even going to be a next one today?” Scootaloo asked. “There can't be that many trains coming from Manehattan every day.”

“Er, well Scootaloo,” Applejack said as she glanced back. “The trains all go around in a big loop. So in a way, trains are infinite.”

The others still inside the train seemed to get Applejack's message, and hurriedly rushed through the train until they reached another disembarking point further down the station, where they quickly attempted to sneak past the crusaders while their attention was focused on Applejack.

“Hmm, I don't know about this, girls,” Sweetie said. “The next train could be hours away and I don't want to wait here all day.”

“Yeah, we should go,” Applebloom agreed, and at that moment the three of them began to turn around.

“Wait!” Applejack cried out, causing the three to pause in place and snap their heads back towards her.

They all stared at her expectantly for a few seconds.

“Um, yes?” Sweetie asked as soon as she could bear the silence no longer.

"Uh... You made a commitment!” Applejack suddenly blurted out in an accusing tone.

“Excuse me?” Scootaloo asked.

“You said you were going to aim for your Cutie Marks in being a welcoming committee, right?”

The three fillies looked at each other.

“Yeah....” they said simultaneously.

“So are you going to give up that easily?” Applejack asked them, attempting to sound angry. “Are you going to just go home after one little disappointment?”

“Yep.” Sweetie Belle answered with a smile as she made to turn around again.

Applejack hastily grabbed her shoulder before she could.

“Oh no you don't missy!” she said. “You made a commitment, and you're gonna honor it!”

“But Applejack!” Applebloom protested.

“No buts!” Applejack answered sharply, briefly glancing up and noticing that the rest of her group had managed to sneak out of sight. “You three are going to wait here until Rarity and the others get off a train, and you are going to welcome them just like you planned.”

Applejack leaned forward intimidatingly. “Are we clear?”

After a moment's hesitation, the three responded.

“Yeah,” “Okay...” “Fine...” they said reluctantly.

“Good,” Applejack said with a nod. “Now then, If you'll excuse me, I've got some, uh.... apples to, er.... eat.”

With that Applejack trotted off, leaving behind three very confused fillies.

“That was close.” Twilight said as Applejack joined them just outside the station.

“I'll say,” Applejack agreed. “Applebloom's gonna be mighty sore at me once she figures out she's been duped.”

“Well then let's not waste any more time,” Rainbow said impatiently. “Let's get to Derpy's already.”

The others nodded their heads in agreement and the group set off.

***

“Ok, now remember,” Twilight said as they approached a cozy little home situated atop a hill, “It might be difficult for her to talk about things, so be sensitive.”

The others nodded as Twilight rung the bell.

“Coming!” came the response from inside the house.

After a few moments the door swung open to reveal Derpy, whose face lit up at the sight of all the ponies gathered before her.

“Twilight! Pinkie! Wow, even Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed.“I sure am popular today!”

“Hi Derpy.” Twilight said, smiling. “Can we come in?”

“Sure!” Derpy said, her smile growing wider. “I just finished a batch of muffins. You should all have one!”

“Oooh, don't mind if I do.” Pinkie said, licking her lips greedily.

The entire group crossed the threshold, with the door slamming shut the moment they were all inside. The moment it did so, Rat Race emerged from a nearby bush, still in rat form, and sneaked his way over to the side of the building, where he hopped up into a window and listened intently.

“Make yourself at home.” Derpy said as she led the others into the living room and then headed into the kitchen.

The six ponies settled themselves and their foals into the set of furniture arranged around the coffee table in the center of the room. Derpy returned in short order with a plate full of muffins and gingerly placed it on the table where the others grabbed them up and began to hungrily devour them.

“Oh these are delicious.” Fluttershy said, swallowing a big bite.

“Thanks,” Derpy said, taking a seat and grabbing a muffin for herself.

She looked around the room at her many guests and zeroed in on the three little foals that were among them.

“So who are these little guys?” she asked with a smile. “Relatives?”

“Uh, I guess you could say that,” Rainbow said as she forcibly swallowed a large chunk of muffin.

“Hmm?” Derpy vocalized, tilting her head in confusion.

“Well Derpy...” Twilight began. “It's like this. We recently had to go run an errand for the Princess.”

“Ooh, what an honor!” Derpy said.

“It was,” Twilight admitted, “but more to the point, in carrying out this errand we came across a magic mirror.”

“Ooooh” Derpy said appreciatively.

“And...um... these babies popped out.” Twilight finished anticlimatically.

“Oh!” Derpy said, happily surprised, only for her smile to begin to fade away as she processed what she just heard.

“Oh...” she said again, looking from the six other adult ponies in the roam to the three foals with dawning comprehension. “I see.”

“Princess Celestia told us you went through something similar, and we were hoping you could give us some advice.” Twilight continued.

“About what?” Derpy asked doubtfully.

“About, you know, what it's like to raise a foal.” Rainbow cut in.

“Oh.... ok...” Derpy said. “I think I can give you some advice about that.”

“Ooh, like what?” Pinkie asked, leaning forward anxiously.

Derpy lowered her head and placed her hoof to her chin, thinking intently. After a moment she raised her head back up.

“Ok, I've got a piece of advice for you,” she said, clearing her throat.

“Don't do it alone.”


Chapter 7: The Snake


“Hug,” Pinkie said softly as she zipped up from her seat over to Derpy's and wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“Huh?” she said in response.

“Hug,” Pinkie repeated, squeezing tighter. “You need one.”

“Oh...” Derpy said, a smile slowly forming on her lips. “Thank you.”

She looked over at the others, all of whom were looking at her sympathetically.

“Don't do it alone?” Twilight asked, her voice almost a whisper as she looked at Derpy with watery eyes.

Derpy nodded.

“When Dinky first came into my life, I had just turned nineteen,” she began. “I was working a full time job at Speedy Delivery Shipping Service.”

“The one with the reputation for being slower than a turtle?” Rarity asked with a small chuckle.

“Tortoise,” Rainbow interjected.

“Pardon?” Rarity asked, glancing towards Rainbow with a curious look on her face..

“Sorry, reflex,” Rainbow apologized before turning back towards Derpy. “You were saying?”

“Um, yes it is that one,” Derpy answered, looking towards Rarity. “Anyway, it all began when we were hired to deliver a package.”

***

“Left!” A beefy, brown coated pegasus stallion with a crate for a cutie mark hollered at the top of his lungs. “No, your other left!”

Speedy Delivery covered his eyes as the pegasus drawn cart hurtled at the ground with his cargo in tow. He braced himself for the inevitable crash.... and then nothing. He peeked through his hooves, and there, stopped on the ground just outside the warehouse, was his company's cart, unharmed. Despite his relief, his temper began to flare the moment he heard the two pegasi that were pulling it start to laugh.

"Great landing Derpy!” a yellow coated, turquoise maned pegasus with a trio of water droplets on her flank called out, raising a hoof for the other to bump.

“You too Raindrops!” Derpy said, bumping it. “What a rush!”

“Are you two out of your minds!?” Speedy bellowed as he landed next to them. “You are carrying precious cargo! Who do you think has to pay for it if it gets damaged!?”

Raindrops and Derpy looked at Speedy sheepishly.

“I swear,” he continued, berating them at the top of his lungs. “that I am never putting you two on cart duty again! You two can be unloaders from now on -- there's no way you can do any damage there!”

“Er, but there aren't that many pegasi at the company boss,” Raindrops interjected.

“Then I'll just hire some more summer interns until the position is filled!” He snapped back. “Speaking of which, Sparkler, get out here!”

The back of the cart opened up and a purple unicorn with three diamonds on her flank stumbled out, shaking intensely. She immediately fell to the ground and began kissing it in appreciation. This continued for a few moments before she marched right over to Derpy and Raindrops and began yelling at them as well.

“Are you insane!?” she shrieked. “I was flopping around back there like a freaking rag doll!”

“Now now, calm down,” Raindrops said as she and Derpy unharnessed themselves from the cart. “Man, kids these days get angry so easily.”

“I am sixteen years old! I am not a freaking kid!” Sparkler shouted. “and who are you to talk, you can't be much older than I am!”

“Derpy and I,” Raindrops said, putting a hoof around Derpy's shoulder. “Are a whole three years older than you, so mind your elders, Sparky.”

“Sparky!?” Sparkler asked indignantly.

“Enough!” Speedy bellowed. “Get the package unloaded while I get the signature. Raindrops, Derpy, you two are still in deep trouble so I don't want any more problems! Got it!?”

“Er, yes sir!” Derpy said, her eyes crossing as she saluted Speedy.

Speedy narrowed his eyes, unable to determine if Derpy was giving him a mock salute or seriously saluting while accidentally going crosseyed. In the end he decided to shrug it off and began flying over towards the warehouse.

“Right, let's get to it Sparky,” Raindrops said the moment he was out of earshot.

Sparkler shot Raindrops a dirty look before skulking over to the back of the cart.

“Raindrops...” Derpy said disapprovingly.

“What?” she said, smiling. “It's fun to tease her.”

“Teasing isn't nice,” Derpy said, sadly looking into Raindrop's eyes.

Raindrops' smile turned to a frown. “Yeah, but, this wasn't like with you, this is...”

Derpy just kept on staring with big puppy dog eyes until Raindrops could do no more than sigh.

“Fine,” she said, smiling in defeat. “I'll apologize later, ok?”

Derpy returned the smile and the two of them joined Sparkler at the back of the cart. There was only one package to deliver, but it was a big one, and it was heavily bound into place to keep it from sliding around. Sparkler, to her regret, was not similarly bound during the journey. Between the three of them, they loosened the large wooden crate and began lifting it out of the cart. Derpy and Raindrops held onto hoofholds on the sides of the crate while Sparkler provided levitation support from below. Together, they gently floated it over to the warehouse door, where Speedy was having a conversation with a white coated unicorn mare sporting a long green mane.

“Where do you want it?” Raindrops called over as they approached.

“Ah, inside please,” the mare responded, gathering magic in her horn and using it to trigger the warehouse door to open, sliding up. “There should be an empty space in the boxes to your left as you keep moving.”

“Thanks,” Raindrops said as they began to haul it inside.

From the light coming in from the skylights above, the three ponies could see that the warehouse was jammed pack full of boxes identical to the one they were carrying.

“That's a little weird...” Sparkler said.

“Huh?” Derpy asked.

“The boxes are all the same,” Sparkler clarified. “and there aren't any markings on them or anything. How do they tell them apart?”

“Maybe they all have the same thing in them,” Raindrops suggested.

“Or maybe the box is the thing!” Derpy added. “It's a warehouse for boxes!”

“But why hire us to deliver one box?” Sparkler asked.

“Just another mystery of the mail, Sparky...ler, Sparkler!” Raindrops corrected with a cough.

They continued walking down past the rows of boxes until they found the open space the mare had mentioned.

“Ok...” Raindrops said. “Now we just place it down gently.... alright... wait, nope! I can't hold it!”

The balance between the three ponies had shifted as they had attempted to place the crate down, causing all three to lose control of it, making it crash onto the floor and split open. From within, riding on a wave of packing peanuts, came a large circular mirror that slid into a sunbeam filtering into the room from the skylight above. There was a sudden bright flash, and Sparkler and Derpy fell to the ground, unconscious. Raindrops covered her eyes to protect against the flash, but when she uncovered them, she was exposed to an incredible sight – a figure was emerging from the mirror, a tiny shape glowing pure white. After a moment the glow subsided, and a tiny little foal was laying on the mirror, where it began to cry. It had a small little tuft of blonde hair upon its head, and a coat color that lay halfway between that of the two unconscious ponies.

Having seen all this happen in the span of a few seconds, Raindrops had only one thing to say.

“What?”

After a few moments, she at least processed the fact that her coworkers needed help and yelled towards the front of the warehouse.

“Speedy!” she called out at the top of her lungs. “Come quick, there's been an accident!”

Her voice echoed in the wide open building and after a moment she saw Speedy peek his head inside and begin flying down the hallway, the mare from before galloping after him.

“I... what....” he stuttered as he looked at the scene before him. “Where did the baby come from!?”

“It came from the mirror!” Raindrops answered.

“Well where did the mirror come from!?” he demanded angrily.

“From inside the crate!”

“You used the mirror?” came the unusually calm voice of the mare from behind them.

Speedy whipped around to face her.

“Ma'am,” he said apologetically, “words cannot express how sorry I am for the carelessness of my employeeeeeiiiiiii!”

He shrieked as the mare's eyes turned cold, her long green hair twisting around her, forming a mane made of hissing snakes. Her tail underwent a similar transformation, forming one large snake that turned around and snarled at him.

“You won't leave this warehouse alive,” she hissed with a forked tongue that wiggled out past her razor sharp fangs.

“This ain't happening!” he cried out, backing up into the wall of crates. “This ain't possible!”

The creature charged at Speedy, her hair-snakes snapping at him, biting him in several locations at once as he screamed out in pain.

“Nighty night,” she hissed as he collapsed on the floor, before snapping her head back and glaring at Raindrops, who was too stunned from the mare's sudden transformation to even think of running. Now that it was glaring at her, however, her senses snapped back into focus, and she flew over to a nearby crate, which she attempted to lift and fling at the incoming creature. To Raindrop's surprise, it flew easily, crashing in a shower of splinters inches away from her target.

“These are empty!?” she asked aloud, surprised.

The creature didn't respond, however, it merely bounded forward and hopped up a few crates with surprising speed. Raindrops responded by shrieking in terror and flinging another crate down the pile. This one connected, knocking the creature back to the ground with a thud. For a moment, Raindrops thought she had knocked it out, but it had just gotten up again and glared at her with a hiss.

“Ok, new plan,” she thought as she took off and flew for the entryway. “Get her away from the others, and get help...ahhh!”

She yelled aloud as she crashed to the ground, bringing her hooves to her eyes as they began to sting furiously.

“Gyah, what did you do!?” she cried out, closing her eyes shut against the pain.

The creature slowly stepped forward, bridging the gap between them.

“I sprayed venom at you from my tail,” she said smugly, indicating the swinging snake emerging from the base of her rump. “The liquid turns to a mist when it comes into contact with the air, so even if I miss it can usually get it in your eyes.”

Raindrops struggled to stand, keeping her stinging eyes closed as she did so.

“What the hay are you?” she asked. “Why are you doing this?”

“Me?” the creature asked. “I'm just an ordinary gorgon, and I'm doing this because you incompetent lot just blundered into something you shouldn't have.”

Raindrops could hear the 'gorgon' approaching and she tried to back away, but she kept stumbling over her own hooves.

“Enough chatter,” the gorgon proclaimed, raising her tail above her head, poised to strike. “Farewell, little pony.”

And that's when the mirror crashed down upon her head, shattering. For a moment, the gorgon wore a goofy expression on her face, and then suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Behind her, Sparkler was breathing heavily from adrenaline, while Derpy was holding the newborn foal in her hooves.

For a moment there was silence except for the newborn's continued cries.

“...Did she finish me?” Raindrops asked, her eyes still closed.

“I smacked her over the head with a mirror.” Sparkler answered, not believing she had done it herself.

“W-what now?” Derpy asked, clutching the foal.

“I'll get help,” Sparkler answered, running off.

“Ah... wait!” Derpy cried out as she took off down the hallway, but Sparkler didn't so much as look back.

Instead, Derpy turned to Raindrops. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, never better,” the yellow pegasus answered with a smile. “Help me up, it'd probably be better if we got up front.”

Derpy did so, and the two of them began walking down the row between the crates, Raindrops supporting herself on Derpy's shoulder.

“What about Speedy?” Derpy asked.

“We wouldn't be able to lift the big lug,” Raindrops answered. “We need to wait for the paramedics.”

“I-I just don't know what went wrong,” Derpy said, reflecting on what just happened – the mirror, the gorgon, and the foal crying in her left foreleg.

“Heh,” Raindrops laughed. “Just another mystery of the mail.”

***

“And!?” Rainbow called out anxiously, leaning forward in her seat. “Did Raindrops and Speedy survive!?”

“Rainbow...” Twilight said, “Raindrops is on the weather patrol with you. She agreed to cover your shift while we were on vacation, remember?”

Rainbow stared at Twilight for a moment.

“Oh yeah,” she realized, breathing a sigh of relief.

“W-what about Speedy?” Fluttershy asked.

“Both of them were fine,” Derpy said. “Raindrops had to wear bandages on her eyes for weeks, but she could see fine after. Oh, and they were able to use some of the venom the gorgon-lady had shot out to make an antidote for Speedy.”

“Oh that's a relief,” Rarity said with a sigh. “But what happened to the, er... gorgon?”

Derpy shook her head. “When we led the hospital people to Speedy she was gone.”

“She disappeared!?” Applejack asked.

Derpy nodded.

“One of those giant birds that came after me disappeared too.” Rainbow said. “Just melted away into shadow.”

“Giant bird?” Derpy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ah, we'll tell you our story next,” Twilight said, “but could you finish yours first? What happened next?”

“Um, a lot,” Derpy answered. “The local guards had no idea what was going on, especially about Dinky, so I ended up talking to the Princess really soon. She told me what happened - a whole bunch of stuff about this Sleeper guy.”

“Sleipnir,” Twilight corrected.

“Yeah, him” Derpy said, sighing. “Anyway, it turned out Dinky was my daughter, so I took her home and raised her.”

For a moment, there was silence.

“Just like that?” Twilight asked, a little surprised.

Derpy nodded. “I lived in an orphanage after my dad passed away,” she explained. “So when it came to Dinky, giving her up wasn't an option for me.”

“Hug,” Pinkie said again, darting back over to Derpy.

Derpy laughed.

“Yes Pinkie, thank you,” she said with a smile. “Anyway, Raindrops and Speedy didn't think me raising her was such a good idea, for different reasons. I didn't care, I did it anyway. I was a good mother.”

For the first time, tears began to well in Derpy's eyes, and in response, Pinkie just squeezed her tighter.

“...and Sparkler?” Twilight asked, softly.

“She was sixteen years old,” Derpy said. “Still in high school. She only had that job for the summer because her parents wanted to teach her responsibility.”

Derpy shook her head. “It would have ruined her life, even though it wasn't her fault” she said, “I can't blame her for her choice. I did at one point, but that's over and done with.”

“She's spending more time with Dinky now, ain't she?” Applejack asked, remembering the social.

Derpy nodded. “Everyone came around in the end,” she admitted. “At the start, the only support I had was from the Princess and a social worker she assigned to help me. After that, Raindrops and even Speedy saw me take care of Dinky and started warming up to the idea. Carrot Top helped out a lot too once she moved in with the two of us. I never asked her to, but she helped to take care of Dinky anyway.”

Derpy smiled.

“As for Sparkler,” she continued, “as the years went by, we kept trying to get her to get to know Dinky - to make her a part of her life. They've grown close, and Sparkler has become one of Dinky's many honorary sisters.... but Dinky doesn't know the truth yet.”

Derpy looked around at the three baby foals the others were holding.

“But I think I'm going to have to tell her soon," she admitted.

“I'm sorry,” Twilight said apologetically, “we didn't mean to pressure you or anything.”

“No,” Derpy said, waving her forehoof. “she has to know the truth someday, after all.”

The was a momentary break in the conversation.

“From what you've been saying,” Fluttershy said, breaking the silence. “It sounds like you had help in the end after all -- that you didn't have to do everything yourself.”

“It ended up that way,” Derpy admitted, “but things were very different in the beginning. Even though I had Dinky, that period of my life was the loneliest I'd ever been, and if I didn't have Dinky, I don't know what I would have done.”

Derpy looked around the room at the others. “So, yeah,” she said. “Stick together, don't do it alone.”

“We will, Derpy,” Pinkie said, her face completely serious even as she mimed a familiar gesture.. “We Pinkie Promise.”

The others nodded in agreement

Derpy smiled. “Anyway, enough about me,” she said, her tone reverting back to how it at been when they'd first arrived. “Tell me about the giant bird!”

***

Carrot Top hummed happily as she trotted up the hill to her home, saddlebags jingling with the sound of hard earned bits. From above the doorway, Rat Race, who had been listening in on the girls' conversation, made himself as small and inconspicuous as possible. Carrot Top seemed too preoccupied to notice the rat, however, and simply opened the door and headed inside.

“Business is booming again today, Derpy!” she called out the moment she entered the house. “That hick Applejack is still on vacation so her brother was minding the stand again. Ain't hard to outsell someone when the only thing he can say is....

Carrot Top walked into the living room and finding a whole mess of ponies staring at her. One in particular was glaring daggers at her.

“Applejack...” Carrot said, surprised.

“Eeyup,” Applejack snarled, finishing Carrot's sentence.

“Ahahaha,” Carrot laughed, glancing around nervously. “I see we have guests.”

“Twilight and her friends came to visit,” Derpy said happily.

Carrot glanced around the room, noting the three foals among them.

“Are we opening a daycare?” she asked with a laugh.

“Does she know about...?” Twilight leaned over and asked Derpy in a whisper.

“She knows,” Derpy whispered back with a smile. “She just doesn't believe me. Maybe you can help with that.”

“What are you whispering about?” Carrot asked, peering over.

“Nothing,” Twilight answered. “Carrot, these three are our daughters. This is Aurora...”

“I'm sorry, what?” Carrot Top interjected. “Your daughters?”

“Yes, on our vacation we came across a magic mirror...” Twilight continued.

“Oh, Derpy put you up to this, didn't she?” Carrot asked, glancing at the gray pegasus with a smirk.

Derpy just shook her head with a smile.

“No,” Twilight continued. “There really was a magic mirror...”

“Oh, right,” Carrot interrupted again, rolling her eyes, “and I'm guessing snake ponies attacked you right afterward?”

“Nope,” Applejack said, with a straight face. “Birds and spiders.”

Carrot Top snorted dismissively.

“Right,” she said, turning to her roommate. “Derpy, I'm you're friend, and when you're ready to get the real reason for Dinky's birth off your chest, you can go ahead and let me know, but please stop insulting my intelligence with this fairy tale.

Derpy just smiled and shook her head again.

“And as for you all,” she continued. “This was funny when Derpy got Raindrops and her boss to back her up, but I really think borrowing other ponies' foals is a step too far!”

“But they're really...” Rarity began.

“Save it, Ms. Critic,” Carrot interjected. “Derpy, I'll be in my room, let me know when the crowd thins out down here.”

And with that, Carrot stormed out of the room, up the stairs, and out of sight.

“Ms. Critic?” Rarity asked the moment she was out of earshot.

“Who knows?” Applejack said with a shrug, “Probably some thing you said to her once that she could never let go of. That's what it is with me.”

“Oh?” Rarity asked, curious, “and what slight did you commit?”

“I may have called carrots stupid once,” Applejack admitted.

“Ah,” Rarity said with a nod.

“In first grade,” she added.

A few of the others chuckled.

“She can be stubborn,” Derpy admitted, “but she's still the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“Yeah,” Applejack admitted, “I can see that.”

“Anyway,” Derpy said, “you can have that old crib I mentioned if you want it, Twilight, I'll help you get it out of the basement.”

“Thanks Derpy,” Twilight responded. “I really appreciate it."

From outside, Rat Race continued to listen intently. If they were grabbing the crib, it probably meant they were getting ready to leave. That meant now was a good time for him to leave his perch if he wanted to stay close to them as they moved about. As such, he scurried over to the edge of the roof, and gingerly leaped down. As he did so, Rat Race found himself regretting jumping down right in front of the front door. This regret was multiplied several times over by the fact that the door was swinging open wildly even as he was falling down in front of it, smacking him out of the air and causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

“We'll be going on ahead!” Applejack called back into the house as she stepped through the open doorway. “Thanks for everything Derpy!”

“You're welcome!” came the happy reply from inside the house. “Come again any time!”

“Or don't!” came a slightly muffled voice from the upper floor of the house.

Applejack rolled her eyes, but before she could shout something nasty back, Rarity shrieked.

“Aiyeee!” she yelled. “A rat!”

“Really?” Fluttershy asked, stepping forward with a smile. “I wonder if he's friendl.... oh my goodness!”

She deposited Candy Cloud onto Pinkie's back before rushing forward to the rodent's aid. She began examining him immediately. After a few moments, she gave her diagnosis.

“He's only unconscious,” she said, relieved. “It looks like he took a nasty bump to the head.”

She looked around. “Though I don't see what caused it...”

“Will he be OK?” Pinkie asked, trotting forward to look.

“I think so...” Fluttershy responded. “As long as he gets plenty of bed rest and TLC.”

She turned to Applejack. “Would it be alright if I dropped him off at my house before we head to your farm?”

“Of course, Fluttershy.” Applejack answered with a nervous smile. “It's on the way, after all.”

“And anything that stalls for time is mighty fine right now,” she added under her breath.

“Right, it's settled then,” Rainbow said as she flew off. “Come on, slowpokes!”

“For all the good it will do me,” Applejack added.

As the ponies headed towards Fluttershy's cottage, Rat Race's eyes slowly opened.

“Well well,” he thought. “This is an interesting turn of events.”

He suppressed a chuckle.

“It's true that being undercover has it's advantages over pure stealth,” his racing mind continued. “but I couldn't have planned this better if I'd tried.

He smiled a sinister little rat smile.

“I'm in.”


Chapter 8: The Meeting


Fluttershy gently shut the door to her house behind her before trotting down the steps to where the others were waiting. Twilight had rejoined them, levitating a folded up crib beside her.

“All set?” Pinkie asked.

Fluttershy nodded.

“I bandaged him up and asked my other little friends to watch over him,” she answered as she joined them. “I'll check up on him again later.”

“Right then,” Rainbow said, “On to Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Eyup,” Applejack mumbled softly.

Some of the others exchanged glances, but the whole group nevertheless began walking down the path that led to Applejack's farm. Before long, they had arrived at the gated entrance, and could see the Apple Family farmhouse just a short distance away, along with Big Macintosh working his plow by the barn. Knots had been growing in Applejack's stomach the closer they got to the farm, and the moment she stepped in front of the threshold, it could no longer hold out. Applejack darted over to a nearby bush, tucked her head in, and emptied her stomach. The others flinched at the sound, with Rarity slowly turning green herself.

"You know,” Twilight said, stepping forward hesitantly, “Maybe telling them right now isn't such a good idea...”

“No.” Applejack croaked, breathing heavily. “They can't hear from somepony else. It has to be now.”

“Well, if you're sure...” Twilight relented, glancing back at the others uncertainly.

“Have you decided what you're going to say?” Fluttershy asked. “Or what you want us to do?”

Applejack nodded, wiping her mouth. “I'd like y'all to just stay nearby while I tell 'em. That way if something goes wrong, y'all are right there."

“And of course, little Goldy'll be nearby too,” she added, walking over to Rarity and patting the little foal on the head.

Applejack took a few more deep breaths.

“Okay, I'm ready,” she said. “Here I go.”

Applejack trotted over to her brother, who looked up with a smile as she approached.

“Hey there, Mac,” Applejack said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. “Working hard?”

“Eeyup,” came the predicted response. “How are the Oranges?”

“Oh, they're fine,” Applejack answered. “Haven't changed much.”

Applejack chuckled as Mac nodded sagely. They were silent for a few moments before Applejack spoke again.

“Look, Big Mac.” she said, dropping her smile, “we need to have a family meeting, where's Granny Smith?”

Mac's eyes opened up a little, having been taken off guard. “Er, I reckon she's still doing some sewing,” he answered, “that's where she was the last time I saw her.“

“Great,” Applejack said, “could you go fetch her and bring her out here?”

Big Mac raised an eyebrow at this. “Why don't we just head inside?” he asked.

“Be-because...” she trailed off, looking back at her friends. “Because I want my friends nearby when I talk to Granny.”

Big Mac looked over Applejack's shoulder, and noted that her five closest friends were indeed all gathered near the entrance.

“Well shoot,” he said with a laugh, “there's more than enough room for all of 'em.”

“I know, I know,” Applejack said irritably as she brought a hoof to her forehead, “but this really needs to be a family conversation, understand?”

Big Macintosh stared into his sister's eyes for a few moments, then turned his head back to where the others were gathered, then to the farmhouse where his Granny was busying herself. Gears began to turn in his head. After a moment, he thought of something, and turned his head back to his sister.

“This is about you being gay, ain't it?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips at the thought that he'd guessed right.

“What!?” Applejack shouted out before wincing and briefly glancing in the direction of the farmhouse.

After she was convinced Granny hadn't heard anything, she turned back to her brother and hissed her question a second time.

“What!?”

“Well I mean, I ain't never seen you with so much as a colt-friend, so I...”

“Oh hush, you big dumb lug!” Applejack hissed. “That ain't neither here nor there! And might I add you're pretty judgmental for a stallion that still plays with dolls!”

“T-they're action figures.” Big Mac stuttered out.

“Action figures!?” Applejack asked sarcastically. “Really!?”

Back at the entrance, the others were watching the exchange with worried looks on their faces.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy said worriedly, “Should we intervene?”

“I dunno...” Rainbow said, rubbing her chin. “Seems to me like Applejack's the angry one, I don't think she's told him yet.”

“....limited edition, worth over 100 bits!” Big Mac hissed out, finishing off a rant Applejack barely tolerated listening to.

“Mac,” she said through gritted teeth, thoroughly annoyed, “I honestly could not care less about any of that right now, would you get Granny Smith out here, please?”

“Fine.” Big Mac huffed as he turned towards the house.

Applejack followed him as far as the door before turning towards her friends and flashing a nervous smile. The others waved at her, with Pinkie producing a foam “Applejack #1” finger from nowhere. Applejack had no time to ponder how that had happened. She was feeling a bit more confident – arguing with her brother had caused some of her built up tension to be released, and she hoped that if she rode the momentum from that discussion, the confidence would allow her to get through her talk with Granny Smith without breaking down. Unfortunately, the moment Mac was out of sight was the moment all the butterflies flew back into her stomach. Every moment that passed seemed like an eternity and the moment Granny Smith walked out it felt like Applejack got hit with a ton of bricks.

“Well howdy Applejack,” the old mare said as she wobbled out the door, “Mac tells me something's got your mane all tangled. What's the matter child?”

Applejack just stared. Stared deep into the old wise eyes of the mare before her. Eyes which had watched her from the time she was a little filly. Eyes she couldn't bear to see look at her with scorn. Applejack had tried to plan everything out – she wanted to tell Granny Smith everything that happened calmly and plainly to the point where Granny wouldn't be able to find any fault in Applejack or her new foal. She wanted that. But in her heart of hearts, Applejack was an honest mare, and when push came to shove, Applejack could do little more than be honest with herself.

“Graaaaaaannyyyyy!” she wailed, tears gushing out her eyes

Big Mac was taken aback by this sudden outburst, but Granny Smith walked forward and embraced Applejack.

“Aw you hush now,” Granny said, “You hush and you tell your old Granny Smith just what's troubling you.”

“I-I have something to t-tell you.” Applejack sobbed out, “but if I do, y-you're gonna disown meeeee.”

“Oh lordy,” Granny Smith said, rolling her eyes. “You're gay, ain'tcha?”

Applejack tried her best to scream in frustration, but it only came out as another, slightly louder wail.

“Now, now,” Granny said, “I always kinda suspected as much, and between you and your shy brother I gave up on having great-grandkids long ago.”

“W-what?” Applejack gasped out. “You w-want great-grandkids?”

“Well, sure, but I won't get terribly fussed about it. I.... oh.” Granny Smith frowned as she drew back a little so she could look Applejack in the eye. “So that's what it was. You're not gay – you're pregnant.”

Applejack shook her head. “I'm neither,” she said, her crying gradually dissolving into a perpetual sniffle. “Listen, I'm going to tell you what happened and it's really complicated, so you need to promise to listen carefully, okay?”

“Of course,” Granny said. “I'm sorry, I got a little ahead of myself. Tell me what happened.”

Applejack took a deep breath and began to tell the story of how they had arrived at the castle and were caught in the light of the life mirror, and of all the events that had occurred since. Granny Smith and Big Mac listened quietly, not making so much as a peep until Applejack had finished.

“...And that's what happened,” she concluded, looking up hesitantly to gauge her family's reaction.

“So basically...” Granny Smith said, stroking her chin. “Thanks to this Sleipnir feller's doohickey, you magically became a mother?”

“Er... yep.” Applejack replied with a sniffle. “That's it in a nutshell.”

“Well shoot! That ain't much of a problem at all!” the old mare said, chuckling.

“It...It ain't?” Applejack asked, eyes widening in surprise.

“Nope,” Granny said, shaking her head before turning to Big Macintosh. “Mac, get me my shotgun, we've got us a wedding to plan!”

“Eyup,” the stallion said as he turned back towards the farm house.

“Wedding!?” Applejack cried out in shock. “Consarn it, weren't you two listening to me? This is a god we're talking about here!”

“No stallion's too good for my baby girl!” Granny yelled out in response, shaking her hood.

“I-I'm flattered, Granny Smith, but I think you're a little confused here, I mean it's not like Sleipnir's the father.”

“Well who is the father then?” Granny demanded crossly.

“She doesn't have one!” Applejack protested. “She has two.... mommies.”

For a moment, Big Mac and Granny Smith just stared at Applejack before turning their gaze to each other.

“Eyup,” they said simultaneously, agreeing upon some mutually understood point.

“Anyway!” Applejack continued, unwilling to tolerate the two's sudden, surprising, and misguided interest in her sexual orientation. “I can't marry her!

“Now now sweetheart,” Granny said, “It's tough work raising a foal on your own, you'll need financial support and an extra set of hooves if you want an easy time of it.”

“But Princess Celestia is providing finacial support for all of us!” Applejack protested. “And the others and I have all promised to help each other out!”

“Is that so...” Granny said, thinking intently. “Well.... I suppose it's alright if you don't get hitched then.”

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. “Crises averted,” she thought.

“Now just where is the little ankle biter?” Granny asked.

Applejack turned towards her friends and motioned them over with a hoof.

They began walking over, and Granny Smith squinted her eyes to see. As the others grew closer and closer, her eyes got wider and wider, and more and more watery with each step they took, until they were staring directly into the eyes of the little foal before her.

“Well howdy there little one,” Granny said as she gently maneuvered the foal into her foreleg. “What's her name?”

“Golden Apple.” Applejack answered with a smile.

“She's beautiful.”

Big Macintosh was looking over Granny Smith's shoulder, sniffling as tears of joy ran down his cheeks.

“Eeyup,” he added.

Twilight walked up beside Applejack and whispered, “Looks like that went pretty well.”

“Yeah,” Applejack agreed, though she frowned as she did so. “Too well.”

Applejack stepped forward.

“Granny,” she said softly.

“Hmm?”

“This... wasn't how I expected this to go at all.”

“Well I wouldn't have expected this to happen either,” Granny said with a laugh “but when life gives you lemons, you sell 'em and buy apples.”

“No, I mean, your reaction,” Applejack clarfied. “What happened to all the times you'd threatened to disown me?”

Granny Smith snorted.

“Oh Celly!” she said with a laugh, “So that's why you were so doggoned nervous.”

“Hey it's not funny!” Pinkie called out. “Applejack was really worried!”

“She was indeed,” Rarity added. “Why, she even threw uaa... She threw uaaaab”

Each time Rarity tried to say the word 'up' she reflexively gagged.

“S-she vomuhhh.... She hurrrr....”

“Yeah thanks, Rarity,” Rainbow said, crossing her eyebrows. “We get it.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Rarity gasped out.

“Well I'm sorry for troubling you child,” Granny said, frowning “I was just trying to scare you straight was all. Make sure you didn't go off and make some darn fool decision lightly.”

“I see...” Applejack said, tears welling up in her eyes once more as she walked up to her grandmother and pulled her into a hug. “I'm sorry for doubting you Granny, I love you.”

“I love you too, Applejack,” the old mare answered, squeezing both her granddaughter and great granddaughter tightly in her hooves.

***

“Thanks for all your help girls,” Applejack said as the others got ready to leave. “I really appreciate it.”

“I wonder how many times you've thanked us already?” Twilight asked with a laugh. “We were happy to help, and I'm glad things turned out just fine in the end.”

Applejack nodded and then turned to Pinkie Pie. “You sure you don't want me and Rar' there when you talk to the cakes?”

“Applejack, my situation is nothing compared to yours.” Pinkie cheerfully replied. “The Cakes aren't my parents, and even if they had a reason to be furious with me the worst they can do is kick me out of my apartment. I'll be fine.”

“Well, as long as you're sure,” Applejack said with a smile.

“Sure as sugar! Speaking of which, I haven't had any for a while. We should order some 'just born' cakes. Ooh! And then we can have a birthday party!”

“That ain't such a bad idea,” Applejack said. “A foal's birth ain't supposed to be this depressing and stressful. Well.... not this depressing at least.”

“I agree,” Twilight said. “Let's meet up somewhere tonight!”

A few feet away, the others were having a conversation with Granny Smith while Big Macintosh spent some time fussing over his new niece.

“So be honest with me,” Granny said. “Are you one of them.... 'fancy' types?”

“Well I do try.” Rarity said proudly with a laugh.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, leaned over and whispered into Rarity's ear. The latter's eyes shot wide open.

“Oh! No!” she said, a little too loudly. “Nononononononono. ...No”

“Hmm...” Granny murmured, unsatisfied. “Well, y'all better get a move on. Ya'll got other ponies to tell after all.”

“It was good seeing you again.” Fluttershy said as she and Rainbow took to the air and waved.

“Y'all come back now,” Granny responded, returning the waves, along with those of Twilight and Pinkie.

The small group trotted off into the distance, and before long only Rarity and the Apple Family were left at the farm.

“Now then... Big Mac!” Granny Smith called out.

“Yeah, Granny?”

“Go fetch the crib from the attic and set it up, will you?”

“Sure thing.” Mac called back. “But I think Goldy needs a change too.”

“Oh, I... can... handle... that....” Rarity said, quite uncertainly.

“You don't have to force yourself Rarity,” Applejack said, a wry smile making its way onto her face.

“No, I shall.... force myself, I promised I would help,” she replied. “Though I admit I'm... unskilled.”

“I can help you with that, Miss Rarity,” Big Mac said. “I changed my fair share of Applebloom's diapers back in the day.”

“Holy horseapples, Applebloom!” Applejack suddenly shouted out. “I forgot!”

“Come to think of it, weren't they supposed to be welcoming y'all?” Granny asked.

“We... may have slipped around them.” Rarity admitted sheepishly.

“I'll get her.” Applejack said. “She and Sweetie should meet their little niece.”

“Haha... I still need to explain myself to Sweetie Belle don't I?” Rarity said with a nervous laugh.

At that moment, Golden Apple began to cry.

“Whoops,” said Big Mac, “I reckon that diaper's getting uncomfortable.”

“Right,” Rarity agreed, taking a deep breath. “Here we go.”

With that, the two of them trotted off to the farmhouse with the baby in tow, leaving Applejack and Granny Smith alone by the gate.

“Quite a catch you got there,” Granny said with a sly little wink.

“Ok!” Applejack shouted out irately. “Just what is it with you and this whole gay thing!?”

“Love don't know no boundaries, Applejack,” Granny replied with a grin.

“Ponies of your generation ain't supposed to think that way! Between this and the whole 'not disowning me' thing, I'd swear that you ain't really the same lady that raised me!”

“I told you,” Granny replied, turning a little cross. “I was being all tough on you and your brother and sister cause I didn't want you to end up raising a foal all by yourself.”

“But you were so serious,” Applejack protested. “Was it really necessary to go that far?”

“It was for me,” she said, looking Applejack straight in the eye. “There ain't no need for any of my children, or grandchildren, or great grandchildren to go through what I did.”

Granny's words hit Applejack like a freight train, and she could do nothing but stare in shock. The two remained silent for what seemed like an eternity.

Then, Granny spoke. “You should go fetch your sister.”

“...Yes ma'am,” came the reply.

Applejack turned and began to trot away, but had only made it a few yards before Granny Smith called out to her again.

“Applejack!”

“Yeah, Granny?” she responded, turning back to look.

“Even if you ain't in love with her, that filly is still a nice catch.” Granny called out with a smile. “She's a good friend, I can see that.”

“Yeah,” Applejack acknowledged with a smile. “She is.”

***

“I'm hoooome!” Pinkie happily called out as she strolled through the front door of Sugarcube Corner, and was greeted by the elated squeals of two young foals that came clambering over.

“Pinkie!” called Pound Cake.

“Pie!” added Pumpkin Cake.

“Hey there scamps,” Pinkie said as she rubbed the two's heads. “Didja miss me?”

The two of them giggled in response. As Pinkie started to tickle them, Mr. and Mrs. Cake poked their heads in from the kitchen.

“Oh welcome home, Pinkie Pie.” Mrs. Cake said as she stepped into the storefront, “How was your vacation?”

“Eventful!” Pinkie said cheerfully as she removed her saddlebags. “I brought home plenty of souvenirs.”

With that, she turned her bags upside down as a torrent of knickknacks poured out from within, far more than one would think could possibly have fit inside in the first place.

“Well that's... quite a lot,” Mr. Cake said, his eyes going wide at the massive pile that had appeared.

“Yep!” Pinkie said, a bright smile flashing across her face for a moment before she put on a more serious expression. “But, speaking of souvenirs, I picked up one that we kinda need to have a super serious conversation about.”

“Eh?” the Cakes blurted out in surprise.

The couple had become so used to their tenant's eccentric behavior as the years went by that it always put them off guard when she professed the need to be serious.

“Um, so, yeah...” Pinkie began. “When we were on vacation, the Princess sent us a letter and asked us to check out this old building. Inside was a magic mirror, and long story short...”

She turned to the doorway as Fluttershy flapped in with her foal held against her chest.

“...This is our baby, Candy Cloud.”

The room went completely silent as the Cakes stared wide eyed at the ponies in front of them. Pumpkin and Pound glanced from their parents to Pinkie and Fluttershy and back, unsettled by how quiet they had all become.

Mrs. Cake visibly struggled to move her mouth, but after a few moments she finally regained the ability to speak.

“Well.... Alright then,” she said. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks!” Pinkie said, her smile returning.

Fluttershy glanced from her friend to the couple, confused.

“Wait, that's it?” she asked.

Mr. Cake chuckled nervously. “Well... I learned long ago it's best not to question these things.”

“This town is a haven for the strange,” Mrs. Cake added with a warm laugh of her own. “If you make a fuss every time a dragon tears through your kitchen or your corn cake supply disappears, you'll go bald, like my Aunt Marble.”

“If Pinkie's taught us anything,” Mr. Cake continued, “Then its to keep positive and not pay attention to the little details.”

“I see,” Fluttershy said, relaxing her expression.

“Still, we knew our foals were coming and we weren't prepared at all,” Mrs. Cake admitted with a frown. “I can't imagine what you're going through.”

“How about you tell us the whole story, and then we'll see what we can do to help.” Mr. Cake added.

“You guys...” Pinkie Pie said, her tears gathering as she rushed over and pulled the couple into a hug. “Thank you so much. I know this isn't your problem.”

“Hey...” Mr. Cake said, “you've helped us out plenty of times, more than you know.”

“That's right,” Mrs. Cake added. “When we first got married, we weren't sure we even wanted children of our own.”

“Y-you mean...”

“You were the one who changed our mind.” Mr Cake continued, “Your happiness, your confidence, the way you could make anyone smile. We wished you were our daughter, we wanted a child just like you.”

Pinkie could only sob in joy, and before she knew it, Fluttershy found herself in tears as well.

***

“Jeez, it's a regular sob-fest in there,” Rainbow observed, peeking through the window of Sugar Cube Corner.

“At least it went well,” Twilight said with a shrug, “Come on, I need to put the crib away, and they need some time to talk.”

“Works for me.” Rainbow said, maneuvering Aurora from her back to her hooves and taking to the air.

“Do you have any idea how your family's going to react?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow sighed.

“It might get a little tense, but frankly I don't care what they think anyway.”

“I see,” Twilight said, frowning a little.

“What about you, Twi?” Rainbow asked.

“My family won't be a problem,” she answered immediately. “They know weird stuff happens around me. I'll send them a letter all about it.”

“I'll bet it'll still shock them though,” Rainbow said with a sly grin. “Hah, I didn't want to laugh or anything but to tell you the truth I was really looking forward to seeing everypony's reactions.

Twilight giggled. “It would be funny to see Shining Armor's face when he finds out.”

At that moment, Twilight stopped in her tracks, her face frozen as though she had suddenly discovered something.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked, looking back concernedly. “You OK?”

An unsettling smile began to form at the edge of Twilight's lips as she began to chuckle darkly.

“Hey Rainbow, remember how I first found out my brother was getting married?”

“Sure,” Rainbow answered, still unsure where this was going. “You were all upset because you found out from the invitation.”

Twilight continued to chuckle as she levitated a scroll and quill out of her saddlebags, even as she began walking towards the library again.

“Dear Shining Armor,” she began, quoting what she wrote down upon the scroll. “You are coordially invited to a party celebrating the one week anniversary of the birth of my daughter, Aurora. Presents are appreciated, please RSVP as soon as possible. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle.”

She turned to look at Rainbow with an evil grin.

“What do you think?”

“That's so... mean!” Rainbow said, her jaw agape.

“Really?” Twilight asked, her smile vanishing. “Maybe I shouldn't send it...

“Senditsenditsendit!” Rainbow shouted, cackling with laughter. “Oh man, he is gonna flip!”

“Heh, serves him right,” Twilight said with a laugh as she stowed the scroll back into her saddlebags.

They continued on the path to the library quietly for a little while before Rainbow spoke.

“So... are you worried about what the doctor said?” she asked. “About how Aurora might not develop flight or magic?”

Twilight hesitated a moment before responding.

“Magic... to me is, I think, very much like flying is to you. It's a part of what we are on a fundamental level, more so than with other unicorns, or pegasi.”

Rainbow nodded, and Twilight continued.

“I would be sad if I was unable to share that important part of myself with Aurora because of a defect... but I think I would love her all the same.”

“Yeah, me too,” Rainbow said. “But I still really want to teach her all my skills, y'know?”

Twilight laughed.

“There's a lot I want to teach her as well,” she said, thinking back to her own childhood, at the time when she was learning directly from the princess.

They were quiet for a few moments more.

“Yeah,” Twilight said. “I'm worried.”

***

Princess Luna swooped down from the dark skies above Ponyville and landed in the town square, where Spike deftly hopped off the princess's back.

“Home at last,” he said, stretching.

“We should quickly find Twilight and the others.” Luna said as she folded up her wings.

“Sure,” Spike scoffed, “go ahead and leave me behind too.”

“Er... thou do not comprehend,” she said, “We meant we as in thou and We, not We as in We.”

“You could always just say 'I,'” Spike suggested with a roll of his eyes. “Then everypony wouldn't get so confused.”

“We...er...I... shall try,” Luna promised uncertainly.

“Good effort.” Spike said as he started walking. “It looks like Sugarcube Corner is all lit up, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're all there."

The pair made their way through the empty streets to the cake-like building. Spike knocked on the door and after a few moments it flew open, revealing Pinkie Pie, who was sporting a tower of party hats upon her head.

“Oooh! Spike! Luna! come in!” she said, dragging the two inside with a flash of movement.

The party was made up of a number of faces familiar to Spike, in addition to his six friends, the Cake and Apple families were there, as well as the cutie mark crusaders. Spike was a bit more surprised to see Derpy and her daughter, Dinky, but didn't think too much of it.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted out, rushing forward, lifting him up and squeezing him tightly. “I'm so sorry.”

“Five tubs of ice cream,” Spike whispered.

“Two.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Done," Spike whispered before saying in a much louder voice, "Oh, that's okay Twilight, I forgive you!”

“Howdy there Luna.” Applejack said, trotting forward. “Er, you are Luna and not another spider thing, right?”

“Um... I am Luna, yes,” the princess replied nervously.

At that moment the record player scratched to a halt as the ponies all turned to stare at Luna.

“She just said 'I'” Rainbow whispered to Rarity.

“Definitely an imposter.” Rarity whispered in agreement.

Twilight began to gather magic in her horn and faced the Princess in an aggressive stance.

“Alright Luna,” she said, “If that is your real name.”

“Actually, Our formal appellation is Lunaticus Alicornus Equestria,” Luna calmly responded with a smile, “But if thou art wisely asking Us to prove Our identity, I think this shall suffice.”

With a tiny burst of magic, Luna produced a stylized case out of thin air.

“Is that what I think it is!?” Pinkie asked with a gasp.

Luna hovered the case in front of them and magically undid the latch, revealing six gemstones, five of them set into golden necklaces, and a sixth into what was most commonly referred to as a “big crown thingie.”

“The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight gasped.

Luna nodded. “My sister and We determined that it would be best if ye all kept them on hand, just in case.”

“Oh, thank you, Princess.” Fluttershy said as Luna magically levitated the elements to rest on their bearers.

“In addition, as promised, both We and Our Night Guard shall maintain vigil over this town from dusk to dawn, so that you may rest easy.”

“Phew, that's a relief!” Derpy said, visibly relaxing.

Luna turned to face the grey pegasus.

“I do not believe We've been introduced,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, this is Derpy,” Twilight explained, “she's one of the mares who found the mirror before ours'. That's her daughter, Dinky.”

The tiny unicorn waved her hoof sheepishly at the princess.

“Hello...” she said nervously.

“Hmmm,” Luna said as she bent down to look in Dinky's eyes. “Thou wast a fire brigade officer last Nightmare Night, yes?”

“Uh....” Dinky said, working her way through the princess's words. “Yes, I was a firemare.”

Luna nodded, satisfied, before raising her head back up and looking to Derpy.

“Thou may rest assured that Our promise of protection extends to thee and thine as well.”

“Huh?” Derpy asked, cocking her head.

“She said she's going to protect us too,” Dinky explained.

“Oh!” Derpy exclaimed, her face lighting up. “Thank you so much!”

“Thank you!” Dinky added with a smile.

Luna returned the smile before turning back towards the door. “We must cast Our protective spells upon the town, but We will return when We are finished. Save Us a piece of cake.”

“You got it princess!” Rainbow called out as Luna made her exit

A few feet away, Spike was whispering to Twilight.

“Dinky was a mirror baby too?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Twilight answered. “Derpy told her the truth earlier today. She's a little shocked by everything but I think she took it pretty well. Everyone did actually, even Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. They were more upset about us leaving them at the train station.”

“I wonder why?” Spike asked sarcastically.

“Maybe you should go talk to them a bit,” Twilight suggested, “you guys are about the same age, you should be able to relate to them.”

“Meh, why not?” He said, drinking down the rest of his punch and strolling over to where the three foals were gathered.

“Hey girls,” he called out. “Crazy stuff, right?”

“So crazy!” Sweetie Belle agreed. “I mean, I can understand being a big sister, but they tell me I'm not a big sister, I'm an ant. I can't be an ant! I only have four legs!”

“Er...” Spike began to correct.

“It's not that kind of ant, dummy!” Scootaloo called out. “It's A-Y-N-T, not A-N-T.”

“Um...”

“That's not how it's spelled!” Applebloom angrily objected

Spike nodded in approval.

“The T is silent!”

With that Spike turned around and walked away as the sounds of a physical brawl starting developing behind him.

“I can't relate at all...” he said, rolling his eyes.

Unfortunately, he wasn't watching where he was going and plowed straight into Dinky, causing both of them to fall to the ground. Spike got up first and then reached over to help her up.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Y-yeah, I'm fine.” she said as she got to her hooves.

“How about mentally?” he asked, before inwardly slapping himself. This filly was the same age as the others, she wouldn't know what 'mentally' means.

“I'm perturbed.” Dinky answered. “I always was mindful of the fact that I wasn't completely cognizant regarding the circumstances of my parentage, but I never could have intuited that I was the end result of a relic served to further some madman's twisted experimentation.”

Spike blinked.

“Oh! I'm sorry!” Dinky apologized, blushing “I always become sesquipedalian when I'm nervous. Excuse me!”

She ran off, embarrassed.

“Huh,” Spike muttered. “Well that happened.”

He approached Twilight, who was making small talk with Mrs. Cake.

“So where are the foals, anyway?” he asked.

“They're all sleeping soundly upstairs,” Mrs Cake answered.

“I've got strong barriers covering all the windows.” Twilight added. “Nothing will be able to get through without me knowing about it.”

“That's good,” Spike said, “It's kinda nerve wracking knowing those creeps are out there, huh?”

Twilight laughed.

“To be honest, we might be overdoing a bit,” she admitted. “We're dealing with the trickled down remnants of a dead empire while the princesses and the elements of harmony both on our side. I'd say the odds are in our favor.”

“You don't think they're a threat?” Spike asked, surprised.

“I think anyone who wants to hurt us or our foals is a threat, Spike,” Twilight explained. “But the guys they had defending the mirror? They were the best Sleipnir had to offer. Most of his forces lie among the stars now. Heck, Discord was one of his most powerful creations, and we've already dealt with him easily.”

“I dunno Twi...” Spike said uncertainly. “I think you're getting a little overconfident. Discord was no cakewalk.”

“But he was the best,” Twilight continued, pressing her point. “If we beat him, we can beat anything else Sleipnir's scattered forces throw at us. They're cut off from their master and judging by the fact that Derpy and Dinky have lived safely here in Ponyville for years, they probably aren't that good at finding ponies either.”

“Honestly Spike,” she said before taking a sip of punch. “What's the worst they could do?”

***

Several days had passed since Fluttershy took Rat Race in. He didn't see much of her or her foal during that period. She merely dropped by several times a day to feed her various animal friends before rushing out the door again. Sometimes she brought “Candy Cloud” with her, other times not. However, she always spent the night at Sugarcube Corner along with the one called Pinkie Pie.

It wasn't an ideal situation. He couldn't really gather information on the enemy when the enemy was hardly present. In addition, sneaking out wasn't that simple either. The animals all had different sleep schedules, so sneaking out unnoticed when everyone else was asleep wasn't an option. Moreover, despite his best efforts to act cute and cuddly towards his caretaker, he had inadvertently rubbed some of the animals the wrong way, including one Angel Bunny, who seemed to make glaring at Rat Race a personal hobby of his. Still, he hadn't reported anything to Lord Sleipnir in days, and though he could contact him any time he was alone, the monthly gathering was tonight, and it would be less than optimal if Rat Race couldn't provide a report to him before then.

So it was that late that night, Rat Race risked slipping out of Fluttershy's cottage. He slipped his way past the owls' blind spots, snuck past a handful of cats lounging about on the lawn, and he even made his way past one of Nightmare Moon's personal guards that was standing a short distance away from the cottage, looking bored. He knew it was one of Nightmare's from the telltale black leathery bat wings that poked through the holes of the barding.”

“Traitors,” he cursed under his breath as he made his way into the Everfree Forest.

Before long, Rat Race found himself in a small clearing. Here it should have been far enough that the sound wouldn't carry, and the heavy foliage would prevent any light from being seen. Looking up, only a tiny bit of sky could be seen from below. A new moon, a moonless sky – the time when the Nightmare's power was at it's weakest. The time when Sleipnir's connection to the world was at it's strongest.

Rat Race shifted to his pony form, then sat down on the ground in such a way that he could see his own right rear hoof. There, tattooed on the bottom, where few were unlikely to see it, was an eight legged horse, the symbol of Sleipnir. He pressed his forehoof to it, and as soon as he did, twenty-something lights appeared around him with a flash. Each light took the shape of a different creature. As was usual for the gathering, no defining features, such as color or facial structure could be made out, only basic shapes. There were ponies among them, along with minotaurs, griffons, and a few other creatures, including a large crow. In the center, however, was the form of a massive horse whose eight multi-jointed legs supported him in such a way that was both regal and disturbing to the eyes. Unlike the others, there was one part of the magical image of Sleipnir that was not pure light. His four eyes were made up of a black piercing void. Eyes which narrowed as Rat Race appeared before him.

“Well well,” came Sleipnir's booming voice, “and here I thought you were hiding from me because you failed. Well, that second point has yet to be determined, but at the very least, you're not hiding anymore.”

“I ain't failed ya master,” Rat Race replied. “However getting in contact ain't been easy..”

“Speak then,” Sleipnir demanded. "Where are they?

“Ponyville,” Rat Race answered, to the excited murmurings of those around him. “Along with the fourth foal from that time ten years ago.”

The murmurings doubled at this news, though one voice stood out among the others.

“Masssster,” said a gorgon shaped light, “Please allow me the honor of recapturing them for you!”

“All in good time, Snake Eyes,” Sleipnir answered coolly before turning back to Rat Race. “How are the defenses?”

“Heavy,” he answered. “The Nightmare herself is living here now and each night she casts an enchantment that prevents any of your children from entering it.”

“You are immune?” Sleipnir asked.

“'cause I'm already inside when the barrier shows up..”

“Interesting,” Sleipnir said with a deep chuckle. “Anything else?”

“There are traitorous vamponies standing guard over the town, as the Nightmare's personal guard.”

“Ha!” came a voice from a pony-shaped light. “It seems my spawn have grown complacent in my absence.”

Rat Race looked over at the unfamiliar light.

“Thousand pardons, Lord Sleipnir, but t'seems as if the circle has expanded somewhat since last we met.”

“Ah, yes.” Sleipnir replied. “A plan to free some of our compatriots sealed away in the bowels of Tartarus went off without a hitch.”

“Celestia won't know they're missing?” Rat Race asked.

“We ensured they would not be missed.” Sleipnir answered with a chuckle.

“I see,” Rat Race responded, satisfied. “In any case, my report's done”

“Excellent work, Rat Race,” Sleipnir answered. “Continue keeping tabs on the foals and their parents, I will ensure some of your subordinates make their way to you, along with a lump sum of gold.”

“Yer too kind, my lord.”

“Lord Sleipnir!” came the booming voice of a minotaur shaped light. “Red Bull thinks we should strike now, while the iron is hot!”

“Hasty as ever,” came an exasperated male voice from a griffon shaped light. “Lord Sleipnir needs to be free of his prison before he can possess anyone.”

“Once he is free from his prison, it will be there for all the world to see!” Red Bull shouted out. “We should seize these foals now while they are still unprepared!”

“You both bring up valid points,” Sleipnir said, interrupting them. “When my forces are free, we will be at our strongest, but they will be at their most defensive. If we strike now, they are weak, but then so are we.”

“With all due respect, My lord,” Red Bull objected. “We are strong enough to wrest foals from their mothers!”

“Still your tongue, cow.” Came the voice of the raven shaped light. “One of my brothers lies among the stars now because he attempted what you describe!”

This is what Rat Race hated about these meetings. Though productive, half of it was always bickering. He stopped paying attention, and let the back and forth fighting fade into the background. Doing so was fortunate for him, for it allowed his ears to pick up a sound they hadn't before. He listened carefully, and sure enough, something was rustling in the bushes behind him.

Sleipnir seemed to notice Rat Race's distraction and addressed it.

“...Is something amiss, Rat Race?”

“Yeah...” he responded. “I smell a rat.”

At this he heard whatever was in the bush dash off away from the clearing, causing Rat Race to immediately sprint after it. As he ran, he shifted to a hybrid form that was neither pony nor rat, but a monstrous creature possessing the qualities of both. Using his claws, he jumped into the trees and ran along atop the branches, overtaking the spy and dropping down in front of it.

Angel Bunny skidded to a halt in front of Rat Race with a little scream and then immediately turned around, sprinting back in the other direction. Rat Race leapt after him, herding him back to the clearing, where Angel skidded to a halt before the ominous form of Sleipnir.

“What?” he asked with a chuckle. “It's just a rabbit.”

“It's one of them mothers' rabbits my lord,” Rat Race snarled out. “And she's a regular genius at communicating with animals.”

I see,” Sleipnir responded. “It can't be helped then.”

“Kill it.”

“With pleasure,” Rat Race answered, shifting back to pony form.

Without another word, he brought his forehoof down upon Angel's head with a satisfying crunch.

After a moment, he lifted it back up, and watched as Angel lay still on the ground.

“Done.” he said.

“Good,” Sleipnir answered. “That will be all for tonight, Rat Race, I don't want you running any unnecessary risks by having you stay for the rest of the meeting.”

“By yer will,” Rat Race said with a bow.

With that, Sleipnir and the other lights disappeared, leaving Rat Race alone in the clearing with the body of Angel. Without another word, he shifted back into rat form and headed into the woods, back towards Fluttershy's cottage.

***

“Are you sure you saw a Jabberwocky here?” Snips squeaked out as he and his companion Snails carefully made their way through the woods.

“Dur... I saw what I saw,” Snails answered.

“I'll bet you just made it up!”

“Oh, I did not!”

As they argued, the two of them stepped into a clearing, the early morning sun filtering through a hole in the canopy above.

“I'm telling you, it was right around here!” Snails insisted.

“Is that it?” Snips asked, pointing to a tiny shape on the ground in front of them.

“Oh, of course not.” Snails said, stepping forward to look. “That's just a...”

Snails gasped as he realized what he was seeing.

“A bunny!”

Snips gasped too.

“He's hurt Snails! What are we gonna do!? What are we gonna do!?”

“Dah... I think Fluttershy lives around here, maybe we could take the little guy to her?”

At the mention of Fluttershy's name, Angel slowly opened his eyes.

“What are you crazy!?” Snips snapped back. “We need a professional here! Oh, I know! Ponyville has a vet over by the market, we can take it there!”

“Well what are we waiting for?” Snails asked, gathering just enough magic in his horn to raise Angel into the air. “Let's get a move on!”

Angel faded back into unconsciousness as the two young colts carried him back to the town, and to safety.


Chapter 9: The Surge


*** One Month Later ***

The force of the explosion slammed Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash into one of the few walls of the Ponyville library that didn't sport a built in bookshelf. The books normally occupying said shelves were now flying around the room in circles, occasionally bouncing off the walls or knocking over a piece of furniture. When looked at as a whole, the books were forming a spinning funnel, a literary tornado, and there, in the eye of the storm, was the cause of this disaster - the pair's daughter, Aurora Blast. Her eyes glowed with a pure white light, and her horn was emitting massive amounts of energy.

“Yep!” Rainbow shouted over the howl of the wind, “She's definitely surging!”

“I hate being right!” Twilight shouted back. “I really, really, do! ...Sometimes!”

“Calm down, what did your parents do when you surged for the first time!?”

“They turned into plants!” Twilight called back grimly.

“Well, we're handling it better than they did so far, aren't we!?” Rainbow called back with a grin.

As if prompted by Rainbow's statement, a beam of magic burst forth from inside the tornado, missing her by inches. The beam rebounded off the wall in the direction of the door at the top of the stairs, where a panicking Spike had just emerged.

“Twilight!” he cried out. “Oh my gosh what hapAHHHHHHHHH!”

With a magical pop, Spike turned into a potted purple snapdragon which stood there motionless at the top of the stairs, swaying in the breeze.

“Aw, she takes after you!” Rainbow said, grinning at Twilight.

“Focus, Rainbow!” Twilight shouted. “We need to get close to her and calm her down!”

Rainbow instinctively ducked as the Encyclopedia Equestria (Volume XI) flew by and nearly beaned her in the head.

“Yeah!?” she asked, “and how do we do that!?

Twilight bit her lip, thinking intently.

“I might be able to create a barrier to protect you from the books,” she said as a spellbook whizzed past her nose. “But you'd still have to make your way through the wind!”

“I'll keep low to the ground with my wings folded! Cast!”

Rainbow slid to the ground along the wall and crouched on the hardwood floor, her hooves gripping the floor as the wind whipped by, Twilight crouched down next to Rainbow and poured magic into her horn. A purple bubble formed around Rainbow, who immediately started crawling towards the center, one hoof at a time. As she approached, her barrier began getting hammered with book after book. Each time one hit the surface of the bubble, the whole thing flashed – a sign that Twilight was automatically pouring more magic in to restore it. When Rainbow was just a few feet from the center, the impacts were coming so frequently that the flashing was making it hard to see. Behind her, Twilight was sweating from the concentration needed to maintain the spell. She was even struck by a few books, but she kept her mind off the pain and on her magic. Rainbow kept crawling forward, hoof by hoof, until the impacts stopped. She looked up, and found that she had made her way into the windless vortex in the center, with Aurora floating right in front of her.

Rainbow reached forward and placed a forehoof on the foal's right shoulder. Instantly, the wind died down, the books started falling from the sky like rain, and with a poof of magic, the potted plant at the top of the stairs changed back into a visibly disoriented Spike.

“Hey baby girl,” Rainbow said gently, picking Aurora up. “You okay?”

The foal looked up at Rainbow with tearful eyes and began sobbing.

“Mama!” she cried, wrapping her tiny hooves around Rainbow. “Mama!”

Twilight trotted over, panting from exhaustion.

“We're both... here.... Aurora...” she managed to breathe out, as she patted the foal on the back. “Phew...”

“Ugh, someone get the license number on that carriage?” Spike asked as he wobbled down the stairs.

“You okay there, Spike?” Rainbow asked, turning to face the tiny dragon.

“I'll be fine, I guess,” he answered with a stretch, “Can't say the same for the library though...”

“Tomorrow was reshelving day anyway,” Twilight said, having caught her breath. “And you'd be surprised what a book can survive. Believe me, I know.”

“Good thing the birds were upstairs,” Rainbow said, thinking of Owlicious and the baby Phoenix Peewee. “They would have gotten thrown around like rag dolls.”

“Speaking of upstairs,” Twilight added, glancing at the door at the top of the stairs, “I'm surprised Luna slept through all that.”

“I'm not,” Spike said as he started closing and stacking the books on the floor. “Remember when she slept through the changeling invasion?”

“Hmm...” Twilight pondered. “She did show us that sleep spell, I wouldn't be surprised if she has one she casts on herself during the day...”

“I wouldn't mind her casting that spell on the foals again.” Rainbow said, yawning as she indicated the crying foal being held in her leg. “I've had to double my naptime because of this.”

“You know we shouldn't do that, Rainbow,” Twilight answered with a frown. “Babies cry for a reason – what if something was really wrong?”

“I know, I know. Sheesh,” Rainbow said as she bounced Aurora up and down on her shoulder.

“Besides,” Twilight continued with a smile. “Being waken up in the middle of the night to your foal's screaming is a parental right of passage, You wouldn't want to miss out on that would you?”

“Uh... yes?” Rainbow answered pointedly. “Not all of us are writing 'motherhood reports' now, you know.”

“Well the princess enjoys them,” Twilight responded defensively, “so I see no reason to stop writing them.”

“Well you should probably get to writing the one about your daughter's first surge then.” Rainbow suggested with a smile. “She'll probably enjoy it.”

“You're right!” Twilight agreed, beaming “I'll get on it right after I clean this place up!”

Twilight turned around and began to levitate a few of the books off the floor. The moment her back was turned, however, Rainbow's smile faded. She looked down at Aurora as the foal's sobs gradually subsided and frowned.

“She can use magic...” she thought, “does that mean she can't...”

Twilight levitated a pile of books onto a shelf before turning to look back at Rainbow. She saw the expression Rainbow was making, and could hazard a guess as to why. Gears began turning in her head until an idea hit her.

“Hey, Rainbow,” Twilight called out.

Rainbow's head shot up as she forced a smile.

“Uh, yeah?” she asked. “What's up Twi?”

“Spike and I can handle this,” she said. “Why don't you fly Aurora up to your cloudhouse? She hasn't gotten to see it yet.”

Rainbow's face lit up at this.

“Huh!? I can take her flying?” Rainbow asked, surprised “Like, high off the ground?”

“Just be careful,” Twilight answered with a giggle, “and have fun!”

“Thanks Twi!” Rainbow called to Twilight, already halfway out the door.

“Sure,” Spike said irritably as the library door slammed shut. “More work for us.”

***

Rainbow trotted along the streets of Ponyville, passing a number of familiar faces. As usual, she was getting her fair share of stares. The fact that some of Ponyville's most notable residents were now taking care of a group of foals was no secret, nor was the fact that Princess Luna and her personal guard were watching over Ponyville at night. In the beginning, Carrot Top loudly insisted these occurrences were just a prank on her that had gone way too far, but as the weeks passed and no other ponies stepped forward claiming to be the three foals' parents, she began to doubt her own explanation. On Luna's suggestion, the six mothers adopted a policy of not hiding the truth, but not volunteering it either. By not hiding it, they ensured that nobody suspected them of wrongdoing, but telling too many ponies the story could result in unwanted attention from Sleipnir fanatics. In the end, few ponies actually cared enough about where the foals had come from to ask, and those that had bothered were familiar enough with the antics the six got into on a daily basis to not be surprised by the answer they got. However, this didn't make the sight of loudmouth weather pegasus Rainbow Dash trotting down the street with a baby in tow any less surreal.

As Rainbow turned a corner, she spotted a familiar face. Applejack was trotting down the street, her foal, Golden Apple, bouncing on her back.

“Sup Applejack?" Rainbow asked. "Whatcha doing?”

“Suing? I ain't suing nopony!” Applejack snapped. “Get your head on straight, Fluttershy!”

With that, Applejack walked right past a very confused Rainbow without another word, leaving her speechless.

“...What the hay?” Rainbow asked, glancing up at Aurora as the orange pony trotted away.

“A ma ma ma ba ma,” Aurora answered.

“Yeah, she's crazy,” Rainbow agreed with a chuckle. “Wait a minute, what are you doing up there?”

Rainbow moved Aurora from her back and placed the the giggling foal into her hooves. Then she began hovering in the air

“We went outside to fly didn't we?” Rainbow asked as she snapped her wings, zooming forward as Aurora squealed in delight.

Behind them, Applejack continued on her way, passing building after building until she finally reached the place she was looking for – Carousel Boutique, workplace and residence of Rarity, who was both her friend and little Golden Apple's other mother.

Applejack knocked on the door three times and immediately heard a voice in response.

“Cooooming,” Rarity answered, opening the door. “I was wondering when you were going to GAAAH!”

Rarity recoiled at the sight of Applejack's disheveled appearance. Her hair was full of tangles, she had massive bags under her eyes, and she was clearly wobbling where she stood.

“Applejack!” Rarity shouted out angrily, “have you been bucking apples all night again!?

Applejack's droopy eyes shot open.

“W...what'd you just say!?” she demanded angrily. “Consarn it Rarity, you should know better than to use that sort of language in front of a foal!”

Rarity rolled her eyes and leaned closer to Applejack before yelling “HAVE YOU BEEN BUCKING APPLES ALL NIGHT!?”

“Oh.” Applejack said before nearly tripping over one of her own hooves and catching herself. “Nah, nothing like that.”

“Then why do you look so.... er.... fatigued?” Rarity asked

“Rarity,” Applejack began, wobbling a little as she spoke. “I'm got two words for you!”

“...Yes?” Rarity asked, confused.

“Surges, and....”

Rarity stood there in front of Applejack, waiting for the second word, but none came. There was silence between them for several moments before Rarity could stand it no longer.

“...and what?” she asked, annoyed.

Silence.

“Surges and what, Applejack?”

Continued silence.

Rarity leaned forward slowly and perked up her ears. After a moment, she sighed.

“You're sleeping with your eyes open, aren't you?”

Applejack's gentle snores were the only response.

“Applejack!” Rarity shouted.

“Gah!” Applejack cried out. “Whazzat, what happened!?”

“Applejack, go home,” Rarity said as she magically removed a cackling Golden Apple from the former's backside. “I'm very grateful you watched Goldy while I was preparing for that fashion show in Canterlot, but you really need to get some rest now. I'll watch her this week, and you can drop by whenever you want, but for the love of Celestia, go to bed this instant.”

“Yeah, ok...” Applejack said woozily. “Thanks Rarity.”

“You're very welcome” Rarity responded as Applejack stepped out the door.

No sooner had the door closed than did Golden Apple start bawling at the top of her lungs.

“Oh this again!?” Rarity complained as he hovered the foal over to a crib in the living room. “You cry now, but the moment it's time to go back to the farm you won't want to leave here either!”

“Mama!” the foal cried out.

“W...what?” Rarity sputtered out in shock.

“Mama!” Golden repeated.

For a moment Rarity stared in shock, but then her face transformed into the ultimate expression of glee as she picked up the foal and began twirling around the room with her.

“Yes!” she cried, “I'm your mama! Mama's here!”

Rarity was so absorbed in spinning about the room that she didn't even notice the entrance bell ring.

“Oh, you look busy, I'll come back later...” came Fluttershy's voice from the doorway.

Rarity stopped spinning and turned at the sound of Fluttershy's voice.

“Oh no no no, come right in.” she said. “I have got to tell you what Goldy just said!”

“Well, ok then...” Fluttershy said, stepping into the boutique.

Golden Apple seemed to have calmed down a bit, so Rarity deposited her back in the crib.

“She just called me mama,” Rarity blurted out. “Can you believe it? Her first word!”

“Oh, how wonderful...” Fluttershy said with a smile. “I don't think Candy has spoken yet, but Aurora's been saying mama for a few days now too.”

“They grow so fast!” Rarity said, her smile slowly changing into a frown. “...It makes me wish I hadn't missed this week...”

“We promised to cover one another, Rarity,” Fluttershy reminded her. “Pinkie's always watches Candy when I go to visit...”

Fluttershy trailed off, looking at the ground.

“...I have Angel's sweater right here,” Rarity said as she opened a drawer. “How is he doing?”

“Better,” Fluttershy answered softly. “He still sleeps most of the time, but the doctor says his life isn't in danger. They're going to perform an operation next week that they're hoping will repair the damage to his brain...”

“Magic is certainly amazing...” Rarity said as she levitated the tiny sweater into Fluttershy's saddlebag.

“It's expensive too...” Fluttershy added. “If Princess Celestia wasn't giving us financial support, I'd be in debt for years.”

“We would have found a way, Fluttershy.” Rarity said gently.

“I feel sorry for my other animal friends too...” Fluttershy added. “Between Angel and Candy, I haven't been home much except to feed them. I hope they're making all our new rat friends feel at home though...”

“I'm sure they are,” Rarity said with a smile.

Fluttershy sighed.

“Why did this have to happen, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “He was just a little bunny, what could have done that to him?”

“He'll tell you once he recovers,” Rarity answered. “Then you can give whatever it was a good thrashing!”

Fluttershy smiled with a tiny sniffle.

“Thanks Rarity,” she said.

“Anytime, darling,” Rarity answered.

“I'll get out of your mane now,” Fluttershy said as she made for the door. “Pinkie's waiting for me.”

“Give Candy a little kiss from Auntie Rarity!” Rarity called as Fluttershy stepped out the door.

She then turned to Golden Apple and said, “Now then, who wants a brand new onesie?”

As if in response, the foal's horn glowed blue for a moment, only for the crib to turn into an enormous slug.

“Uh-oh,” Rarity gasped out, her eyes wide.

***

Fluttershy could have sworn she heard Rarity shriek as she closed the door to the boutique, but she learned long ago that Rarity tended to scream at every little thing. So Fluttershy decided to head towards Sugarcube Corner without another thought.

After a few minutes she arrived at the sweet shop and trotted inside to the familiar sound of the store's bells.

“Oh hello there Fluttershy,” Mrs. Cake said in her usual friendly tone. “Pinkie's playing with the foals in the nursery right now.”

“Oh... thank you.” Fluttershy said as she made her way to the stairs at the back of the shop. As she climbed them and approached the nursery door, she began to clearly make out the sound of Pinkie's voice.

“Muhahaha, you three will never be able to stop me, the dastardly Baron Von Chimp!” she called out in a faux evil voice that was answered by three sets of giggles. “Tickle attack! Coochiecoochiecoochiecoochie...”

Fluttershy opened the door to the sight of Pinkie chasing Candy Cloud, Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake around the room with a stuffed monkey. Candy looked up as Fluttershy entered, giggled and shuffled on her short little hooves over to her and raised her front legs up, indicating she wanted to be picked up.

“Hello Candy,” Fluttershy said with a smile as she lifted her up. “Were you a good girl while mommy was gone?”

The foal giggled in response. Pinkie was so absorbed in chasing the cakes around that she didn't realize Fluttershy was there at first.

“Oh! Fluttershy's here you two!” she said, scooping them up and dashing over. “How'd your errands go!?

“Oh... well, um... I got everything we need for dinner, oh and I bought something for Candy...”

Fluttershy opened her saddlebag with a wing and pulled out a little stuffed kitty. She then put both it and Candy back on the carpeted floor. Candy immediately squeezed it tightly with a squeal of delight.

“Awww, so cute,” Pinkie gushed. “That's a kitty, Candy. Kit-ty”

“Kitty!” Pumpkin called out.

“Kitty!” Pound echoed.

“Mimamaba,” Candy babbled.

“That's right, Candy,” Pinkie said sweetly. “Kit-ty. Good effort!”

Pound and Pumpkin glanced at one another with an expression that showed they felt cheated.

“I should start making dinner,” Fluttershy said as she started to leave the room.

“Oh, I'll help!” Pinkie said, hopping over and turning back towards the foals. “You three be good now, I'll be back soon!”

As soon as Pinkie closed the door, Candy went right back to playing with the stuffed cat. Pumpkin and Pound glanced at each other again. After a moment, they shared a sinister grin, and then strolled up to Candy. The twins were several months older than Candy was, and they were bigger and more verbose as a result. Pound reared up on his hind legs and slammed the ground hard with his forehooves. Candy was startled by the noise and looked up at Pound, surprised.

“Our Pinkie,” he said, pounding his hooves again for emphasis. “Our.”

Pumpkin walked over next to Candy, grabbed the stuffed cat's ear with her mouth and yanked it out of Candy's hooves. She spit it out on the floor next to her and said “Our kitty.”

“Our Kit-ty” Pumpkin repeated, emphasizing the syllables.

With that, the two of them turned around and walked to the other end of the room, taking the stuffed cat with them. Candy just stared at them for a few moments with teary eyes before she walked over to the corner of the room, curled up into a little ball, and gently sniffled as she watched the twins from across the room.

***

Dinky and Sparkler walked side by side in complete silence as they made their way to the Ponyville library. On several occasions Sparkler had opened her mouth as if to speak, only to shut it again immediately afterward. After several attempts, Sparkler was finally able to give voice to her words.

“So.... you like books?” she asked.

Dinky sighed.

“We're going to the library,” she answered.

“R-right,” Sparkler stuttered out. “Sorry.”

Dinky glanced over at the older mare, who had turned her head to avoid her gaze.

“...You're trying too hard, you know,” Dinky said, sighing.

“What?” Sparkler asked as she looked up, surprised.

“Even when you were my 'Big Sister,' you kept trying to force a connection,” Dinky answered.

“S-sorry,” Sparkler said, apologizing once more.

Dinky shook her head.

“I won't blame you for trying,” she said.

The library came into view, and Dinky picked up the pace a little, causing Sparkler to lag behind. She stared after the foal running ahead of her.

“...But I didn't try...” she muttered to herself sadly. "Not enough..."

After a few moments, she caught up with Dinky, who was still standing at the Library door for some reason. She was doing something with her mane, straightening it perhaps? Sparkler couldn't help but wonder what she was trying to accomplish. After a few moments though, Dinky knocked three times on the library door.

“Coming,” a voice came from inside.

After a moment the door opened, revealing Twilight, who was levitating a pile of books in the air behind her.

“Oh, Dinky!” she said, moving away from the door to let them in. “Come on in, sorry about the mess, we had a little magical accident earlier.”

“Oh...” Dinky said, hesitating at the door. “There aren't any chickens involved this time are there?”

Twilight sighed exasperatedly.

“It was one time!” she insisted irritatedly. “Anyway, Aurora was the one who messed the library up today, not me.”

“A baby did this?” Sparkler asked, stepping in and looking at the piles of books scattered around.

“Her first surge!” Twilight said proudly, before lowering her voice so Dinky, who had stepped inside herself and was looking around, wouldn't be able to hear. “I know I shouldn't get so happy about this., since both me and especially Rainbow are worried about whether she can fly or not, but when you see your foal hit little milestones like this it makes you just want to burst with excitement, you know?”

“Y-yeah,” Sparkler said, wincing at Twilight's unintended jab to her conscience. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks!” Twilight said before turning over to Dinky. “Now, we might be a little disorganized right now, but if you know what you want I could try to help you find it.”

“Um... do you have any books about.... Dragons?” Dinky asked, a little shyly.

“We sure do!” Twilight said, “but if you're curious about that you should really try talking to Spike sometime. I mean, lately you've been here almost every day and I've hardly seen you say a word to...”

“OH LOOK A BOOK ABOUT SEA ANENOMES!” Dinky suddenly shouted out, a little too loudly. “I'M GONNA GO READ IT IN THE READING ROOM, OK TWILIGHT?”

“Uh, sure” Twilight said as Dinky shot off toward the reading room, “but what about the dragon book?”

The reading room door slamming was the only response.

“...Strange filly,” Twilight said after a moment.

“She is,” Sparkler agreed.

The two were silent for a moment before Sparkler spoke again.

“Twilight... do you see yourself in your daughter?” she asked. “Like, can you tell what it is she gets from you?”

“All the time!” Twilight answered, “there are all these little things. I mean, even today, she was turning folk into plants, just like I did when I surged.”

“I see...” Sparkler said.”

“But I see Rainbow in her too,” Twilight added, “For example, I used some magic but didn't have any surges until I was five, but Rainbow was a very early flier.”

“So you think she inherited your magic and Rainbow's... development?” Sparkler asked.

“Well, it's just a theory,” Twilight said with a smile. “Why do you ask anyway?”

“I... don't see much of myself in Dinky,” Sparkler admitted sadly. “I know she's my daughter but... I keep waiting for my heart to realize it. I'm waiting for the moment where I see something of myself in her, but...”

Sparkler trailed off, and Twilight frowned, thinking a minute before responding.

“Well... they say a foal's behavior can be tied to both genetics and the environment in which they're raised,” she said. “The environment can cover up some natural tendencies... so... it might take some work to find some common ground.”

Sparkler hung her head.

“I-I don't think it's hopeless!” Twilight was quick to add. “I'm sure if you keep spending time with her you'll find some common ground.”

“Yeah... maybe,” Sparkler admitted. “I mean... I know my personality. I'm sarcastic and irritable and a pain to get along with most of the time... but she's a little angel in comparison.”

“Then maybe you're naturally nice and your environment covered that up,” Twilight suggested with a laugh.

Sparkler scoffed at the thought, but it actually made her feel a little better.

“Besides,” Twilight continued. “I don't think you're a pain to get along with.”

“Thanks,” Sparkler said with a tiny smile.

She took a look around the room.

“So... where's the rest of your little family?” she asked.

“Spike's out buying some new quills. Our supply was ruined,” Twilight answered. “and I told Rainbow to take Aurora flying.”

“Really?” Sparkler asked, surprised.

“Yeah, it makes me nervous but...” Twilight shook her head. “Aurora's her daughter too.”

The next moment, the library door creaked open and Rainbow Dash walked in, Aurora sitting on her back.

“Well, speak of a devil and one'll appear,” Twilight said, “How was it?”

“Fine,” Rainbow answered, not making eye contact.

“Just... fine?” Twilight asked, having expected some variation on 'awesome, cool or radical.'

“Yeah,” Rainbow answered. “Listen, can you watch her for a while? I've got some stuff I got to take care of.”

Rainbow grabbed Aurora by her diaper and held her out for Twilight to grasp with her magic.

“Sure, I guess...” Twilight said, “but what kind of stuff?”

“Just stuff...” Rainbow answered. “...Weather duty.”

“Oh... well then, alright,” Twilight said, placing Aurora on her back. “It's your job after all.”

“...Yeah,” Rainbow answered, heading to the door. “I'll probably be back late at night, so you should eat on your own.”

“...Alright,” Twilight said. “Good luck!”

“Could use some for once...” Rainbow muttered under her breath as she stepped out the door.

As the door clicked shut behind her, Twilight and Sparkler's gazes lingered on it.

“...I don't think flying went well.” Sparkler said, after a moment.

Twilight nodded her head solemnly.

“Oh Rainbow...”

***Earlier***

“Here we are!” Rainbow called out as she alighted at the edge of the white cumulus her house was built on. “Home sweet home! Man, it feels like I haven't been here in ages.”

Rainbow trotted over to the front door and gently lowered Aurora onto the cloud beside her.

“You just chill her for two seconds while I unlock... huh?”

Rainbow blinked and suddenly realized Aurora wasn't there anymore. Rather, a foal sized hole had appeared in the cloud cover. For a moment she just stared.

“Haha.... she fell through the cloud...” Rainbow said, not believing it herself.

After another moment, Rainbow dove through the hole at full speed and flapped her wings like crazy. She could see it – a little purple dot falling through the air. Rainbow pumped and pumped her wings harder than she ever had before. Faces flashed before her eyes, the princesses, her friends, all struck with disbelief at what her negligence had cost. She saw Twilight, screaming at her to get out, she imagined being labeled a murderer, scum among ponies. All these images flashed before her eyes, and then she saw only Aurora, and behind her, the ground. Rainbow grabbed the foal and pulled up at as steep an angle as she could manage. Rainbow felt the grass brush her stomach as she pulled up into the sky. She heard the rainboom erupt behind her, and heard the gleeful squeals of Aurora in front of her. For a moment, relief swept over Rainbow. Aurora was fine, everything was fine. However, as Rainbow started to brake and flew back down to an empty clearing to land. The magnitude of what had happened hit her.

“She fell through the cloud,” Rainbow said to herself after the two of them had landed. “She can't stand on clouds.”

With tearful eyes she looked at Aurora, who was looking up at her with a curious expression.

“She can't fly.”


Chapter 10: The Collision


“Aha!” Scootaloo cried out as she pulled back the branches of the bush. “Found you, Apple Bloom!”

“Ga..ju..wha!?” Apple Bloom sputtered as she jerked awake. “What?”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the yellow filly laying down on her side before her.

“Were you... sleeping?” she asked.

“Aw geez, I'm sorry Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom yawned as she got to her hooves and stepped out of the bush, “I'm just so plumb tuckered out from all the racket Golden Apple's been making at every hour of the night.”

“Is it really that bad?” asked a muddy head that had just popped out of the ground.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shrieked in surprise, backing up until they collided with a tree.

“What?” the head asked, cocking to one side.

“Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked, suddenly realizing what she was looking at.

The dirty filly pulled herself out of a muddy hole in the ground.

“Pretty cool hiding place, huh?” she asked as she shook some mud from her hair.

“Sometimes I wonder about you, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom answered, shaking her head.

“So?” Sweetie Belle asked, staring at Apple Bloom.

“What?” the filly asked in response.

“Is it really that bad?”

“Oh!” Apple Bloom exclaimed as she moved away from the tree. “Yeah, it's pretty bad. She spends all night crying and usually doesn't get to sleep until after dawn.

“Every night?” Scootaloo asked, surprised.

“Every night this week,” Apple Bloom answered, shaking her head. “Granny says it's something called a 'colic,' but I ain't got no idea what that means.”

“Colic, huh?” Scootaloo pondered, rubbing her chin with a hoof for a moment before glancing over expectantly at the mud encrusted filly next to her.

“Why are you looking at me?” Sweetie asked. “I don't know what it means either.”

“Some dictionary you are,” Scootaloo said with a sigh.

“Anyway...” Apple Bloom interrupted before Sweetie could object, “that's only half the problem. During the day she gets these huge magical surges. Granny said she's dealt with plenty of crying foals in her time, but even she don't know what to do when Golden turns an apple into a swarm of cockroaches.”

The three shuddered at the thought

“Man, sounds like you've got it rough,” Scootaloo said, somewhat awed. “You gonna be okay?”

“I think so,” Applebloom answered. “Rarity's gonna take care of her tonight. To be honest I'm more worried about her.”

“Don't be,” Sweetie said proudly. “Rarity's a unicorn, she can handle a little baby's magic no problem.”

At that moment, the woods' tranquility was pierced by a deafening shriek. A second later, Rarity came bursting through the brush, galloping at full speed.

“The end times have come!” she screamed. “The sticky, sticky end of times!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders barely had time to process what had just happened before a giant flying slug appeared from behind a tree, dripping mucus from it's underbelly as it flew after Rarity. On its back sat a cackling Golden Apple, horn glowing brightly with magic as it flew the slug along after her shrieking mother. In a few moments, they were gone, Rarity's screams fading into the distance. Meanwhile, three very confused fillies remained standing where they were, staring off into space.

“Did...did I nod off again, or did my niece just float by on a giant slug?” Applebloom asked.

The three were silent for a few moments before Sweetie piped up.

“So who's It?” she asked, looking at the other two.

“Uh... well I found Apple Bloom so...” Scootaloo answered.

“Got it,” Apple Bloom said, suppressing a yawn. “Y'all go ahead and hide, I'll start counting.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo scurried away through the bushes as Apple Bloom placed her forehead against a tree, covered her eyes with her forehooves, and began to count.

“One...Two...Three...Four....Five...*yawn*...Six....Seve.....Eig......Ninuuu....Teeeeeeeeeeeeen...”

Apple Bloom slowly slid down the tree and gently fell asleep at the base.

A short distance away, Scootaloo scooted through the bushes, mentally counting along with Apple Bloom. However, when she turned a corner, something happened to make her heart nearly pop out of her chest. She immediately backtracked and hid behind a tree, and then slowly peeked her head around the trunk to get a better look. She hadn't imagined it. There, sitting by the pond, was the greatest pony ever. Her idol, her dream – Rainbow Dash.

“Ok,” she thought, completely forgetting about the game of hide-and-seek, “just keep it cool.”

Scootaloo brushed a few errant twigs out of her mane, psyched herself up, and then trotted around the tree and up to the older pony.

“Hey Rainbow Dash,” she said confidently. “What's up?”

There was no response. Rainbow just kept staring into the pond. Scootaloo hesitated a moment before slowly edging closer.

“Uh.... Rainbow Dash?” she asked again as she approached.

“Gah!” Rainbow shouted out in surprise, causing Scootaloo to jump back in shock.

Rainbow stared wide-eyed at the filly for a few moments before managing to speak.

“O-oh, hey there, s-squirt,” she stuttered. “H-How's it going?”

Scootaloo cocked her head and looked at Rainbow's face intently.

“Rainbow Dash, are you alright?” she asked. “Your eyes look really red.”

“O-oh that 's just uh...” Rainbow stuttered out before hesitating a moment, trying to think up a believable lie, “I was practicing my tornado making and I forgot my goggles! Heh heh, silly me!”

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.

“L-let this be a lesson to you, squirt!” she continued, trying to adapt her usual boisterous tone. “R-remember, safety first!”

Scootaloo frowned. She was torn. On the one hand, she didn't want to believe that her idol, Rainbow Dash, was sitting out here crying in the middle of the woods. On the other hand, Rainbow was a very poor liar and wasn't fooling her at all with this tornado story. Nevertheless, even if Scootaloo accepted the truth, what she was now witnessing was one of Rainbow's moments of weakness, and Scootaloo had enough of those on her own part to know that Rainbow wouldn't want anypony to see her in this state. Still, Rainbow was upset, there was no doubt about that, and Scootaloo was considering that at that moment, there was nopony else but her that could help. To offer help but spare Rainbow's pride – though tricky, there was a way.

“Oh, really?” Scootaloo asked with a laugh after a moment. “That's kinda unlike you, forgetting things like that.”

“Y-yeah,” Rainbow agreed, “well, you know, even geniuses like me have an rough day sometimes!”

“You had a rough day today?” Scootaloo asked.

Rainbow looked as though she was going answer, but then simply sighed.

After a moment, she said, “Yeah, it was pretty rough.”

“You can talk to me if you want, y'know,” Scootaloo pressed on, her wings buzzing as she edged closer “I won't tell anypony, Pinkie Promise!”

Rainbow regarded the little orange filly for a moment. Her gaze turned to Scootaloo's tiny orange wings, and she sighed.

“...Maybe you can help,” she said after a moment.

“Really!?” Scootaloo asked, estatic.

“But you don't tell anypony!” Rainbow emphasized, “Got it?”

“Got it!” Scootaloo answered, sticking an imaginary cupcake in her eye..

Rainbow hesitated a few moments, shifting her gaze from Scootaloo to the ground and then back to Scootaloo again.

“Scoots...” she began. “You can't fly, can you?”

Scootaloo's blood ran cold. Rainbow knew. Scootaloo already assumed as much. There was no way she couldn't have known by now. But Rainbow had never brought it up directly before, she had danced around the subject just like Scootaloo danced around how Rainbow had been crying.

“...No,” Scootaloo answered, swallowing a knot in her throat, “I can't...”

“My daughter...” Rainbow began. “Aurora can't either.”

“Oh...” Scootaloo said, looking down at the pond. “I'm sorry...”

“Yeah...” Rainbow agreed with a grimace.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, with Scootaloo casting sidelong glances up at Rainbow.

“Are you disappointed?” Scootaloo asked, her voice trembling. “That she can't fly?”

Again, there was a long pause before Rainbow spoke.

“...I'll love her no matter what,” Rainbow answered. “But I... I feel like I'm useless to her.”

“Huh?” Scootaloo asked, her eyes widening.

“What could I do for her?” Rainbow asked, more to herself than to Scootaloo. “I couldn't give her a name, I couldn't give her my wings...”

Rainbow hung her head.

“Somepony like me... can't give her anything.”

“You're wrong!” Scootaloo suddenly shouted out, causing Rainbow's head to snap back in surprise as she turned to stare at the filly who had jumped to her hooves, tears glistening at the edges of her angrily narrowed eyes.

“Do you know how many times you've taken taken me flying!?” she angrily demanded. “How many times you've watched me practice my scooter tricks!?

“I uh...” Rainbow started to reply.

“Hundreds of times by now!” Scootaloo continued. “Did you think that meant nothing to me!?”

Scootaloo had begun to cry in earnest now, her sobs punctuating her words.

“I wish I could fly!” she said, sniffling, “I really, really do. But because you've been there for me I don't even think about it as much. When I think of how your daughter would feel if she didn't have you around like I did, I..."

“Whoah whoa, calm down, ok?” Rainbow said gently, pulling the little filly into a hug, “Just chill a little, I'm not going anywhere."

“Don't say you don't have anything to give your daughter,” Scootaloo sobbed into Rainbow's chest. “You're gonna mean so much to her, just like you mean so much to me.”

For a moment, Rainbow merely held Scootaloo as she cried her eyes out. She knew Scootaloo was her biggest fan, but she had no idea how much the filly valued the little things the two had done together.

“Scoots," Rainbow said when Scootaloo's sobs had begun to die down, "you said you wanted to be like my sister and stuff, right?”

Scootaloo nodded with a sniffle.

“Well that would make you Aurora's aunt, you know?” she continued. “It'd be nice if you could look after her, help her out too. You know what she'll go through better than anypony.”

“I-I can do that!” Scootaloo proclaimed, wiping her eyes. “You can count on me!”

Rainbow smiled.

“Thanks squirt,” she said, rubbing Scootaloo's head. “I feel a lot better now.”

Scootaloo blushed but said nothing. For a few moments, they simply stared out across the pond at the butterflies fluttering overhead, blissfully unaware of the tiny pair of eyes watching them from within a bush. The rat whom they belonged to silently laughed to himself before scampering off into the woods, unseen by any.

***

“Alright, quitting time!” Speedy Delivery announced to the ponies gathered at the shipping office. “Good job today, ponies. Only three mishaps - that's gotta be a new record.”

It was, and from the way the ponies cheered, you'd have thought they'd just won an award for best package shipping service of the year. That irritated Speedy.

“Shaddup!” he yelled out, silencing them. “Are you proud of that!? Not screwing up as much as usual is something to cheer about!?”

A few of the mail-ponies looked sheepish.

“Your goal should be no mistakes – day in and day out,” he continued, motioning up to a sign that read “Days since last error – 00.”

“I bought that sign years ago, and I haven't got to flip it once!” he cried out.

Speedy scanned the crowd with his eyes. None of his employees was meeting his gaze. Well, one was, but her other eye was pointed up at the ceiling, so he wasn't sure that counted.

He let out a sigh.

“We should be celebrating error free weeks, months, years even,” he added. “Tonight I want you to think about what you personally can do to make that happen. Dismissed.”

With that the ponies made their way to the exit, muttering to each other under their breath.

“Rant was short today,” one said.

“I know, right?” another agreed.

For his part, Speedy merely slumped back down in his chair and placed his head down on his desk.

“Um... Speedy?” came a familiar voice in front of him.

He lifted his head up. Sure enough, Derpy was standing there in front of the desk, with Raindrops looking on from a short distance away.

“What is it?” he asked, though of course he already knew.

“I'm sorry about the vase... and the pigs... and the vegetable oil...” she said, her eyes watering.

Speedy sighed.

“It's alright” he said. “Go on home.”

Derpy began to walk away, turning back uncertainly at one point, but in the end she and Raindrops took off, leaving Speedy to brood in peace.

“I don't understand,” Derpy said as the two of them left 'Speedy Delivery Shipping Services,' “He gets so mad at me every day but he never fires me.”

“It's 'cause you always apologize,” Raindrops said, patting Derpy on her head. “And you're adorable when you do it.”

“Raindrops, I'm serious.” Derpy said, brushing the hoof away, “why does he put up with my clumsiness?”

Raindrops sighed as the two made their way over towards Derpy's house.

“Because he feels guilty,” she answered.

“Guilty?” Derpy asked, surprised. “Why?”

“Because you had Dinky while working for him,” Raindrops answered, shaking her head. “I know it sounds silly, but you were having a tough time back then and he couldn't bear to throw you out on your rump.”

“But I'm fine now,” Derpy objected, “there's no need for him to...”

“Derpy,” Raindrops interrupted, wrapping her forehoof around the former's shoulder and pulling her closer. “He cares about you, just like I do, in his own stubborn way.”

The two of them walked in silence for a few moments before Derpy spoke.

“Ok,” she said, “But I should find a way to thank him.”

“You could try not being such a hopeless klutz,” Raindrops said jokingly, sticking out her tongue.

“I'm already trying,” Derpy answered sadly.

“Oh jeez, cheer up!” Rainsdrops nearly shouted, slapping Derpy on the back, “You've got plenty of reasons to be happy lately!”

“I do?” she asked, tilting her head to think.

“Dinky finally knows that Sparkler's her mother!” Raindrops said with a grin, “and it's about time that bum pulled her own weight.”

“Raindrops...” Derpy sighed out, “I forgave her years ago, when are you going to let it go?”

“Dunno,” she answered with a shrug, “when I feel like it.”

Derpy shook her head. After another moment, Raindrops spoke up.

“So... I was thinking,” she began. “Now that Dinky's grown up a bit and Sparkler's doing her part, you should really start thinking about your own happiness too.”

“I am happy.” Derpy answered with a smile. “I have Dinky, and you, and Carrot Top, and now Twilight and her friends too.”

“Yeah...” Raindrops said, narrowing her eyes and grinning mischievously. “But do you have a stallion?”

Derpy rolled her eyes (in different directions, no less), and trotted ahead of Raindrops without another word. Raindrops took to the air and flew after her.

“Aw come on Derps,” Raindrops said, flying alongside her friend. “You missed out on your prime dating years already! Wait much longer and you'll turn into an old gray mare.”

“I already told you,” Derpy responded irritably, “Nopony would be interested.”

“Because you've got a foal?” Raindrops asked honestly.

“Because I'm a hopeless klutz,” Derpy answered pointedly.

“What about that Time Turner dude?” Raindrops continued, not letting up. “You seemed to get along with him pretty well.”

Derpy felt herself blushing a little.

“He... he was nice to Dinky” she answered.

“Uh-huh,” Raindrops said with a knowing grin. “Just Dinky?”

Derpy took to the air and began flying in front of Raindrops.

“Will you stop running!?” Raindrops asked as she flapped faster to catch up with her.

“Stop teasing me!” Derpy answered, flying down the streets faster and faster.

“Oh come on, what's the problem!?” Raindrops yelled after Derpy, “If you like him, you should go for it!”

“It's not that simple!” Derpy cried back, her wings flapping at full blast. “I don't even know where he lives, I just see him once in a while. Who knows when I'll run into him agai-”

With that, Derpy plowed straight into another pony. The two of them rolled head over hooves for about ten yards before finally coming to a halt.

“Owowowow” Derpy said, getting to her hooves. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, are you alright!?”

“Earl Grey tea, if you would, madam,” the stallion said dizzily as he stood, “and don't skimp on the sugar.”

“Time Turner!” Derpy gasped out before shooting a glance back at Raindrops, who had landed behind her and was sporting the most devilish grin she had ever seen.

“Why Ms. Derpy,” Turner said as he shook off the dizziness. “Fancy bumping into you here, eh?”

“Fancy?” Derpy asked, “How?”

Time Turner stared into Derpy's golden eyes.

“...Alright then,” he said after a moment. “How have you been?”

“Oh... good, y'know, I've been doing... stuff.” she answered, unsuredly.

“Stuff is good,” he said, nodding sagely, “also things.”

“Uh, yeah!” Derpy agreed.

The two silently stared at each other for a moment before Raindrops kicked Derpy in the flank, causing her to yelp.

“S-So how have you been, Time Turner?” she asked, rubbing the sore area with her wing.

“Fantastic, actually,” he answered. “I was just down at Ms. Vinyl Scratch's radio station for a trivia contest, and would you believe it, I won!”

“Oh, congratulations!” Derpy said, flapping her wings.

“Thanks!” Turner answered happily before frowning. “Though I'm not sure what to think of the prize. I mean, I like amusement parks as much as the next bloke, but I have no idea what to do with the extra tickets...”

“She'll take them!” Raindrops shouted, dashing forward next to Derpy.

“I will!?” she asked, surprised.

“Sure, you guys could all go together!” Raindrops continued, wrapping a hoof around Derpy's neck and squeezing her close. “It'd be fun!”

“That does sound fun!” Time Turner agreed before turning back to Derpy. “If you're up for it of course.”

Derpy's eyes wavered uncertainly between the two other ponies as she bit her lip.

“Dinky would love it,” Raindrops whispered.

Derpy sighed internally. Dinky would love it.

“Ok...” she said after a moment. “Dinky and I would love to go.”

“Splendid!” Turner said as he reached into his saddlebags and pulled out three tickets. “That just leaves one additional extra, so if you know somepony else you'd like to give it to....”

Raindrops grinned.

“I'll take th-”

“Then I'll give it to Sparkler,” Derpy interrupted, taking the tickets and stowing them in her own bags.

Raindrops' face distorted to one of extreme shock.

“Shall we say Saturday then, at nine o'clock?” Turner asked.

“Ok,” Derpy agreed with a smile. “Thank you so much, Time Turner.”

“You're quite welcome,” he answered, returning the smile. “Well then, I must be off. It wouldn't do for a time keeper to be late.”

With that, the stallion trotted off as Derpy waved goodbye. Raindrops remained frozen in shock for a few moments longer.

“...Sparkler!?” she asked after regaining her composure.

“You keep what you throw,” Derpy answered as she began trotting back towards her house.

“That's not the saying!” Raindrops yelled after her.

The two mares continued to playfully bicker as they continued down the street. However, unbeknownst to the two of them, Time Turner was peering out at them from behind a building.

“2:42 PM, Derpy Hooves flies down Ponyville main street at full speed,” he said, glancing at a notepad. “Right on schedule.”

He peered around the edge of the building for one last look at the pair.

“I'm sorry, Derpy,” he said sadly. “I'm running out of time.”

***

Fluttershy's house was quiet, much quieter than any household home to dozens upon dozens of animals could be expected to be. A dark gloom hung in the air, and the normally cheerful critters moped instead of played. The cause of this depression wouldn't be hard to spot, if one knew what to look for - every inch of the property was constantly watched by at least two rats, all of whom reported to the vagrant now living in the house, he who was neither pony nor animal, but a simple beast, in every meaning of the word.

A lone rat approached the front gate, passing two others that stood guard. He scampered his up the steps to the front door as the other animals averted their eyes. After a few sharp raps on the door, it opened to permit him entry. Upon scampering inside, the first sound he heard was that of his master berating one of the other critters.

“This ain't up for debate,” he spat out as he sat upon Fluttershy's couch in pony form, glaring at the woodchuck cowering before him. “Yer babes will be returned ta ya when we don't need yer cooperation no more.”

There was a bunch of chuckling from the other rats in the room from this, along with angry murmurs from some of the critters. Then the woodchuck angrily chattered something that silenced the room.

Rat Race stepped off the couch and lowered his head until it was level with that of the woodchuck's.

“Call me a monster, will ya?” he asked, a deadly chill in his voice. “Maybe, but it's real easy to judge someone when you've got everything they don't.”

He raised his head, turned around, and sat back down on the couch before continuing.

“I'll save ya the trouble though,” he said with a smile, “cause I am a monster.”

He glanced over at a few rats perched on the legrest.

“Take her out to that pit in the forest,” he said, “let's see how tame 'Harry' is when he hasn't eaten in a week.”

At that moment, a series of excited squeaks came from one of the rats stationed by the window. Rat Race scowled and immediately shifted to his rat form while the various rats and critters in the room scampered to various positions.

A moment later the door opened, and Fluttershy trotted in, carrying saddlebags packed full with food.

“Hello little friends,” she said happily as she put down the food and the others gathered around. “I brought your evening meal.”

She looked around at all the little faces looking up at her and frowned.

“I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit more often,” she added, making note of their less than happy demeanor, “but once Angel's better and Candy's a bit more independent, things will get back to normal, I promise."

The rats were glaring at the critters, so a number of them tried to force smiles onto their lips. Fluttershy was apparently fooled, as she smiled back, and pet a few of them as she emptied her saddlebags, one item at a time.

“Angel's going to have an operation next week,” she added. “With luck, he'll be back on his feet in no time.”

Rat race narrowed his eyes at this. His latest information suggested that Angel's recovery was impossible. He wasn't sure if she was deluding herself, or if Angel's recovery was an actual possibility. He bit his lip – It would have to be dealt with, and soon.

Once all the food was spread out, Fluttershy stood up and made her way to the door.

“Now then, I have to get back to the Cakes'” she said, “please make sure everyone gets enough to eat.”

With that, she was out the door, but it was a few moments more before the rat at the window finally gave the all clear.

Rat Race shifted back to pony form, letting out a sigh as he did so.

“Now then,” he said, glancing around for the woodchuck. “Where were we?”

However, he couldn't spot her.

“Where'd she go?” he asked his rats, who looked at one another uncertainly.

Rat Race scowled and turned to the critters.

“Where is she!?” he demanded angrily.

The critters just shrugged with overly innocent looks on their faces. Rat Race's scowl deepened.

“So that's how it is, is it?” he asked, getting up off the couch again and moving towards the piles of food. “Fine then, no dinner tonight.”

At this, the rats scampered forward and began carrying the food up the stairs, piece by piece.

“Let's see you shield each other on an empty stomach,” he snarled.

After the pile had mostly vanished, he glanced over at the rat that had recently entered and whom was now saluting him.

“Report?” he asked.

The rat nodded.

“Upstairs,” he said, as he walked up the stairs to the bedroom, with the rat scampering up behind him.

In a few moments, they were in Fluttershy's bedroom, which looked the same as always, save for the closed curtains, and the cage filled with baby animals in the closet. They cried as Rat Race entered, and he merely threw a sheet over the cage in response, muffling their voices.

“Go ahead,” he said to the rat after the door was shut.

He listened intently to its squeaks, a smile steadily growing on his face.

“We can use this,” he said, chuckling. “Creatures'll work together as long as there's something ta gain.”

The rat nodded, though he was unsure how this applied to his report.

“It's when they get more from looking out for themselves that ya see their true colors," he added as he reached down to press the symbol of Sleipnir on his right rear hoof.

***

“Well?” Sleipnir asked, his voice booming in the tiny laboratory, empty except for Trixie and two burly minotaurs flanking her on either side, one with red fur, the other with blue.

“...Yes” she answered. “The starfall spell is complete, it can be cast at any time.”

“And the method?” he asked, “You have thoroughly documented it?”

“Yes,” she answered, looking over to her workstation. “In that notebook on the desk there.”

“Then your service to us is complete, Lulamoon” he said, before directing his voice to her guards. “Take care of her.”

At this, Trixie rushed forward, magic rushing to her horn. The minotaurs leaped forward to seize her and managed to hold her in place, the red one wrapping his arms around her neck and squeezing her windpipe. Trixie felt her vision begin to fade, but she kept her focus on her spell, and after a moment, a jet of flame burst from her horn, singing the minotaur's nose, and gushing all the way to the desk, which was set aflame along with all her notes.

“No!” the blue minotaur called out, still holding onto Trixie as the red one rushed over and tried frantically to smother the flames.

“I...” Trixie gasped out. “I am now... the only unicorn in Equestria... who will be able... to cast that spell.”

She hacked a few times before continuing.

“If you don't want to start over again from scratch...” she said, still breathing heavily. “Then you still... need me.”

The minotaurs looked up at the ceiling expectantly, waiting for their master's orders.

“...Well played,” he said at last, though his voice showed clear irritaion. “Fine then, do it. Release me from my stellar prison at once.”

“Can't,” Trixie answered simply.

Silence hung in the air for a few moments.

“Can't?” Sleipnir repeated, anger growing in his voice. “Why?”

“The spell I created is designed to convert the target star back from stellar energy into a corporeal being,” Trixie answered. “However, neither it nor I am strong enough to breach the several-thousand layered seal on Polaris.”

“Seal?” Sleipnir asked, his anger replaced by confusion. “What seal?”

“You didn't know!?” Trixie asked, shocked, before clearing her throat and regaining her composure. “...Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but...”

“Speak,” Sleipnir snarled, his own bad mood returning.

“It appears when Nightmare Moon sealed you away, she used the stellar energy of the stars to keep you there,” Trixie answered, “In other words, you can only be set free when...”

“Every other star has fallen from the sky!” Sleipnir screamed out, finishing her sentence for her. “Damn you, Nightmare Moon!”

Trixie and the two minotaurs flinched at the outburst, but Sleipnir managed to calm down eerily quickly.

“Very well,” he said after a moment. “Then that is the way it shall have to be.”

“So... what's the plan now, boss?” the blue minotaur asked.

“There is no reason any other star would not be affected by the spell, yes?” Sleipnir asked Trixie after a moment.

“Not that I'm aware of,” Trixie answered. “I know your star was sealed, but the others I've probed at random are all unguarded.”

“How often can you cast the spell?” he asked.

“Once, maybe twice a day,” she answered. “Any more than that and I'll experience magical exhaustion, and that could knock me out for a week.”

“Then we have no choice,” Sleipnir said with a sigh. “We will free my army, one star at a time, until I can be freed myself.”

“You heard 'em,” the red minotaur said, walking up to trixie. “So hurry up and cast!”

“I don't even know what star he wants me to pull down yet!” Trixie objected.

“That matters little.” Sleipnir responded, “I know not who was sealed where. Pick one however you want.”

“Well then...” Trixie said as she moved over to a star chart on the wall. “Let's start with one that would be easily missed," her eyes locking onto one that was near a cluster of other stars but not part of a constellation.

“This'll do,” she said as she began to draw magic into her horn.

She pictured the star in the night sky, and imagined placing it into a bubble, enclosed except for a tiny funnel emerging from one end. She began to breathe heavily as she squeezed the bubble within her mind. The star, the energy, had nowhere to go except where she wanted it to. It fought her, but Trixie was winning.

Sleipnir had watched this display in silence, but his attention was suddenly called to another.

“Excuse me,” he said to the minotaurs, “I have to take another call.”

They nodded as a ghostly apparition appeared before them.

“You have something to report, Rat Race?” Sleipnir asked.

“...Yeah,” he responded, though his ghostly form glanced over at Trixie and the minotaurs, unsure why they were there.

“Don't mind them,” Sleipnir said dismissively, “What's happened?”

“It looks like Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash's foal can't fly,” he answered simply.

Trixie nearly jumped at the mention of Twilight Sparkle, but was able to hide her reaction as she continued to focus her magic.

“How is she caught up in this!?” she thought. “And what's this about a foal?

“Ah, the parts didn't go together right?” Sleipnir asked. “An all too common problem among my children. Easily fixable, as you well know.”

“Yeah well, that's just it,” Rat Race continued. “Dash is all tears about it, and I was thinking that maybe if we made a little deal with her, things might go a little easier for us down the line, ya know what I'm saying?”

“Ah...” Sleipnir answered. “I do, but will miss Rainbow go for that?”

“Everyone has a price, lord,” Rat Race answered with a grin. “Still, ya might wanna assign someone with a bit more charm to handle that negotiation.”

At that moment, as the spell neared it's completion, the room burst with an explosion of light and a strange shape began to take form in the center.

“Charm, eh?” Sleipnir asked as the creature pulled from the stars came into focus.

“I think we have that covered.”


Chapter 11: The Guardian


Fluttershy's cottage was quiet, as it should have been. Noise meant that the animals were chatting, planning, conspiring. Silence meant they were subdued, dominated, defeated. Of course, silence also meant that Rat Race had nothing to do, so he found himself lying lazily on Fluttershy's couch, reading one of her books on animal care. He was browsing the section on 'how to tell if an animal is frightened,' and was chuckling darkly to himself.

At that moment, however, something happened to make him jump – he heard the front door swing open, and yet there had been no signal from his lookouts. He panicked, jumped off the couch and tried to stay out of view, rapidly transforming into his rodent form and hoping he hadn't been spotted. However, when he looked up at the door, he found it was still tightly shut. He didn't understand. He glanced over at his lookout by the window. The rat stationed there was visibly confused as well. It was glancing inside and outside, trying to figure out what had made the noise.

He wasn't crazy then – the sound of the door opening had definitely occurred, and yet the door was tightly shut. Just what did that mean? It couldn't have been another door, nor a window, because the sound very clearly came from in front of him. Rat Race just sat there, huddled down in a corner for a minute or two, trying to figure out what it meant, or perhaps whether the noise would be repeated or not. After a few minutes more, however, he decided that bothersome as it was, there was no point is obsessing over it any longer. He shifted back into pony form, and glanced over at his lookout. The rat simply shrugged, squeaking that he didn't see anything. Rat race returned the shrug with a sigh, and then turned to sit back down on the couch.

“Hi,” came the voice of a unicorn mare whose face was now mere inches away from his own.

“Gyah!” Rat Race cried out as he jumped back instinctively and scurried backwards into the door, which slammed shut behind him.

Wait, shut? That means it was open, right? Huh?

What?

The mare in front of him just smiled. She had a yellow coat and a long fiery red mane that hung down on either side. Her eyes, though, her eyes.... They were wrong somehow. Off-putting. Rat Race couldn't bear to look directly at them.

“Who are you!?” he angrily demanded.

“Hmm?” she asked, bending her head down, bringing those terrible eyes even closer. “We met last night didn't we? Did you already forget?”

“Y-yer that thing Lord Sleipnir summoned?”

“I've cleaned myself up a bit,” she answered with a laugh, flipping her hair in a sensual manner. “You're very lucky you know. Most stallions don't get to see me with my makeup off.”

“I don' think any stallion that did'd be happy,” Rat Race said as he got to his hooves, and signaled to his frightened minions that all was well.

“My, aren't we rude,” the mare said with a laugh as she turned around and flopped herself down on the couch.

“Sorry for frightening you,” the mare added playfully as she stretched her legs out. “It's been centuries since I've used my powers and I couldn't resist.”

“More importantly,” Rat Race said, cutting to the chase. “Did ya bring what ya were told?”

The mare smiled. Her horn glowed and after a moment a strange device suddenly began to fade into existence. She hovered it over to Rat Race, who reached out a hoof to hold it. It was an iron device made up of gears, gyros, and antennae, all covered in magical runes. To an untrained eye, it looked like a device that could be found in any type of magical machine. To Rat Race's eyes, however, it was much more significant, and he stared at it in wonder.

“So, what's that gizmo do?” the mare asked, chuckling a little at the stallion's fascination with it.

“...Ya don' know?” Rat Race asked incredulously

“Evidently not,” she answered with a shrug. “I was told it would be enough to convince this little mare of yours to make a deal, but if I'm going to do that I need a little context.”

“...It's a shifter,” he answered after a moment. “From that, ya should understand right?”

“Mmm.... Nope!” the mare answered with a teasing smile.

Rat Race scowled. Lord Sleipnir had spoken so highly of her, and yet she was this ignorant?

“Then at least I hope ya know our Lord and Master used a buncha magic mirrors ta mix and match creatures?”

She laughed.

“Yes, I know that much, and?”

“And so if he takes a lion, see, and a eagle, and puts them in front of the mirror, he might get a griffon, right?”

“Sure,” the mare answered with a nod.

“Except sometimes, see, things don't go tagether right. Ya get an eagle wit a lion's tail, or maybe a lion wit wings growing out of his head, in other words, things that ain't nothing like what he wanted in the first place. Things that weren't any use to him.”

Rat race took a seat in the chair next to the couch and continued to speak.

“It happened a lot, ya see? He might get two griffons out of a hundred matches. That'd leave him with ninety eight failures he didn' need. 'What a waste' he thought.”

At that point, Rat Race held up the device.

“So he invented this,” he said. “This, when charged wit magic and placed in front of a creature made wit a mirror, gives the creature the 'bility ta 'shift inta anything it was made up of, right? So in the end, he gets 98 lions that can change into birds and fly wherever they want.”

“Sounds useful,” the mare said, though her voice made it sound like she wasn't that impressed.

That irritated Rat Race.

“It's more than useful!” he shouted out. “Ta shapechangers like me or you its the reason fer our existence, ya should show a little more respect!”

Suddenly, the mare was gone from the couch, and then just as suddenly reappeared a moment later in front of Rat Race, her forehoof pointed squarely at his noise. Her smile was gone now, replaced by a calm malice that emanated from her expression. Again, Rat Race couldn't help but avoid looking into her eyes.

“...I think we've had a little misunderstanding here,” she said coldly. “Did you think I was some sort of mix and match abomination on the same level as you? Learn your place.”

“B-but, yer a servant of Sleipnir ain't ya?” Rat Race stuttered out, more than a little intimidated. “Ya saying ya weren't made wit a mirror?”

“Oh this is straining your little rat sized brain isn't it?” The mare sneered. “No, freak, I follow him because I choose to, not because I have some sort of warped crush on my maker.”

Rat Race's anger was growing, but with her unnatural eyes glaring at him he was quickly gaining the impression that further provoking her would be unwise.

“I get it,” he said reluctantly. “I'm sorry alright? Miss... er...”

The mare frowned. Perhaps she wanted him to fight her a bit more and was disappointed. Regardless, she stepped away from Rat Race and sat back down on the couch.

“In the Equestrian tongue it means 'Evil Eye,'” she said after a moment. “Let's go with that shall we, Mister Rat Race?”

She glanced over at his direction again and he instinctively looked away.

“...It suits ya,” he said after a moment.

She smiled darkly in response.

“In any case, I think I've understood,” she said, “You want me to fix this pony's broken foal with this machine in exchange for her cooperation?”

“Yer probably gonna need to guarantee the foal's safety as well,” Rat Race said. “That's fine if it gets us access to the rest.”

“Alright then,” she said, leaning forward. “Then all that's left is for you to tell me everything you know about... who was it again?”

***

“Rainbow Dash!,” a loud voice suddenly called out.

Rainbow, who had been lost in her thoughts up until her name was called, suddenly snapped to attention.

“Huh? Uh, sorry Cloud Kicker,” she said, apologizing to the pegasus mare hovering below and to the side of her. “What's up?”

“What's up?” Cloud Kicker repeated. “Boss, you've been staring at that same cloud for a good five minutes now, is it that interesting?”

“Uh...” Rainbow answered, unable to respond.

That's right, she was supposed to be performing her weather patrol duties right now, but her thoughts kept turning to Aurora and what had happened yesterday. Talking to Scootaloo about it really had helped, but she couldn't help going over everything inside her mind. Why is this so unfair? Was there really nothing that could be done? I am a horrible pony for feeling disappointed?

It had affected her work, and her subordinates had noticed.

“Uh, well, you know, I was just checking it for... rain water potential and stuff,” Rainbow answered before turning around and kicking the cloud, causing it to dissolve into water vapor.

“Right...” Cloud Kicker answered, unconvinced, before flying up to Rainbow's level.

She floated next to Rainbow and stared at her silently for a few moments.

“What?” Rainbow asked, “you're creeping me out a little.”

“Boss, I heard a rumor about your foal...” she began.

Rainbow's blood ran cold. 'That Scootaloo!' she thought, 'She didn't blab to everypony did she!?'

“... and I don't know what's what with this whole magic mirror thing...”

'Oh, nothing to do with that after all, huh?' Rainbow thought, relieved.

“...but my cousin had a baby a little while and I know it can be exhausting, especially early on.”

“Uh... hehe, yeah it can be a little tiring,” Rainbow admitted sheepishly.

Cloud Kicker nodded.

“Yeah, so listen,” she said, “If you're exhausted, you should really just take the day off, I mean it's just cloud duty, we can handle it.”

Rainbow glanced over at her section of the sky. She had barely cleared a third of the clouds there, and the other sections, where the other ponies were working were all noticeably clearer at this point.

“I dunno...” Rainbow said after a moment, not wanting to shove her work off on somepony else.

“You've covered for me plenty of times before,” Cloud Kicker pressed on. “I'd be only happy to return the favor, and you clearly need a day off.”

Rainbow wasn't so tired as much as she was distracted, but the more Cloud Kicker pressed her to take a break, the more it was sounding like a good idea to her. She wasn't getting much done right now, after all.

“Alright...” she said after a moment. “Then I'll take you up on your offer. Explain things to the others for me, ok?”

“You bet,” Cloud Kicker answered with a smile as Rainbow started to fly off. “Get plenty of rest, you hear!?”

“I will,” Rainbow called back, and soon, the rainbow colored mare was little more than a speck in the distance.

At that time, Cloud Kicker's expression changed. She began to chuckle darkly as her mouth twisted into an evil grin.

“Heh heh heh... Just as planned,” she whispered sinisterly to herself.

With that, she took off flying into Rainbow Dash's section and began vaporizing clouds left and right with her kicks.

“I get twice as many clouds to kick today!” she squealed gleefully, her eyes sparkling with bliss as she darted back and forth from cloud to cloud. “Yippeeeeeeee!”

A short distance away, Cloud Chaser and Flitter were watching this energetic display, each of them carrying a cloud in their hooves.

“Man, that Cloud Kicker sure likes kicking clouds,” Cloud Chaser observed.

“Yep,” Flitter agreed.

At that moment, the wind picked up slightly and the two Pegasi found their clouds being blown out of their hooves.

“Ah, come back!” Cloud Chaser cried out as she chased after her cloud,

Flitter merely sighed and flittered after her friend.

***

Rainbow Dash had been persuaded to go home, but she soon found herself wondering which home to go to. She had avoided going back to the library last night, afraid that seeing Aurora again so soon after the accident would only make herself feel worse. She had probably made Twilight worry by not showing up last night, but keeping up appearances was very important to Rainbow, so it was embarrassing for her to act all sad and vulnerable in front of Twilight. That said, she couldn't keep avoiding the library, since Aurora was her responsibility too.

In the end, however, Rainbow couldn't work up the courage to head back to the library, so she decided she would be better off just heading home again for the time being. If her heart was telling her she still needed some space, then it would probably be best to just listen to it for now.

So it was that Rainbow headed back to her cloud home and alighted on the front lawn. The hole that Aurora had made when placed down still sat there, not repaired, and Rainbow made her greatest effort to avert her eyes from it. She made her way to the front door, only to find something unexpected left in front of it – a letter.

Receiving mail wasn't anything new for Rainbow Dash, she had a mailbox after all, but just seeing the letter out there subconsciously gave her the impression of a note someone had left her, rather than something that was properly sent through the post.

“Twilight, I'll bet,” Rainbow said with a sigh as she scooped the letter up with a hoof. “Must've come by in a balloon or something when I was out.”

She glanced at both sides of the envelope, and found that nothing was written upon it. Then with a shrug, she unsealed the letter, unfolded the paper within and read the words written on the page.

I will make your daughter fly.

Meet me at the pond from yesterday.

The color drained from Rainbow's face. For a moment she didn't even know what to think, as though her very brain had been rendered speechless. Various emotions flared up inside her – suspicion, hope, anger, gratitude, paranoia. With that first sentence, whoever wrote this letter was essentially claiming to have a solution to all her worries, yet at the same time, it felt, fake, artificial, convenient.

Like a trap.

Rainbow found herself scanning the two line letter over and over again. How did the writer know about Aurora's problem? To do that, he or she would have to have seen it happen... No, it mentioned the pond from yesterday, that had to be the place where she talked with Scoots, that had to be how the writer found out.

She read it through a few more times. It mentioned a place, but not a time – did that mean the writer was at that pond right now, waiting for her to show up? She looked up from the note and glanced around at the forest surrounding Ponyville. She thought she remembered where the pond had been.

She stood there, hesitating for a few more minutes before eventually hopping off her cloud lawn and rapidly flying towards the specified meeting place.

“I need to risk it,” she told herself. “If there's even a chance...”

Normally it would only take her a few seconds to get there, but Rainbow took a long way around and flew low to avoid being spotted. After a few minutes, she arrived at the small grove where the pond had been located, and deftly landed on the ground.

She looked left and right, peering into the forest, but saw no sign of anypony. She stepped forward uncertainly.

“Uh... Hello?” she called out tentatively. “Is anypony there?”

As soon as she spoke, a great change overtook the pond. Water began to bubble up from below and soon a tower of water began rising slowly rising from the pond, like the main jet of a fountain that had just turned on and was building up pressure. The stream of water grew taller and taller until it was twice Rainbow's height, but after a moment, the 'jet' suddenly ceased, and all the water simply fell back into the pond

There, in the place where the tower had been, stood a figure – a unicorn pony that Rainbow had never seen before.

She had a teal coat, as well as a long curly green mane and tail that seemed to float in the air itself, waving gently to and fro. She stood on her hind legs upon the water of the pond itself, wrapping her forelegs around her own chest. Her eyes were closed, but she had a gentle smile on her face, giving the impression of a pony who was in the midst of viewing a pleasant dream.

“W...who are you?” Rainbow gasped out in awe at the unreal scene that had unfolded before her.

“....I am the guardian of the Everfree Forest...” the mare replied in an airy voice, the serene expression on her face unchanged. “I have learned of your plight, Rainbow Dash, and my heart weeps for yours.”

“Uh... that so?” Rainbow said, blinking. Her brain still attempting to process what was happening before her.

“Indeed.” The guardian nodded. “The tears thy had shed upon the surface of this pond made ripples in my heart as sure as they did the water.”

The two mares were silent for a few moments then, each frozen in their expression. The guardian maintained her gentle smile, while Rainbow continued to stare wide-eyed at her conversation partner.

“So... you want to help me?” Rainbow asked after another moment. “To help Aurora?”

The guardian nodded.

“It is within my power,” she answered

“How?” Rainbow asked.

“This forest,” she said, outstretching a forehoof to indicate the woods around her. “Is a place beyond the restrictions placed on nature by pony-kind.”

“Restrictions?” Rainbow asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Outside of this forest, clouds move, plants grow, and even the sun and moon rise and set by the wills of ponykind, and not of nature, as it should be,” the guardian answered. “Things that exist in my forest, that are blessed by me, are the way they are intended to be.”

“So... if I bring Aurora here...” Rainbow began.

“I will return her to as she should have been. A full fledged unicorn and a full fledged pegasus, in one tiny, no doubt adorable package.”

She crossed her forehooves across her chest again, and seemed to look down at Rainbow with her closed eyes.

“Will you accept my blessing?” she asked.

Rainbow was silent for a few moments before responding.

“What do I need to do?” she asked, quietly but firmly.

The guardian's gentle smile grew.

“The first step is to make a pact with me,” the guardian answered. “Though I wish to give you this boon as a gift, the ancient laws will only permit an exchange.”

“An exchange?” Rainbow asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yes, some deed or service done for my sake.”

“In other words, you need me to do something for you?” Rainbow asked. “What is it?”

“At this time, I have need of no pony's services,” the guardian said with a wave of her hoof. “However, such a need may arise in the future. My influence does not extend beyond the border of my forest, but the influence upon my forest does. Many times over the years have huge swaths of this forest been cut down by pony hooves with no say from me. A simple promise to do me a service in the future, should a case such as this occur, would be more than sufficient as an exchange.”

“What, you mean like chain myself to a tree in protest?” Rainbow asked, half jokingly

The guardian giggled.

“Well, something like that,” she answered. “Is that acceptable?”

“...Sure,” Rainbow answered after a moment. “That seems fair – a favor for a favor.”

The guardian nodded. “Exactly.”

Water began bubbling up to the surface of the pond again, and when the water receded a small scroll had appeared beside the spirit. Rainbow Dash looked at it curiously

“I have taken the liberty of preparing a pact,” she said, unfurling it and hovering it over to Rainbow. “It stipulates the deal we have outlined. In exchange for returning your daughter's ability to fly, you will be magically bound to provide me one service in the future.”

“I see...” Rainbow said, glancing up and down the piece of parchment.

Indeed, that was what was written down, in plain Equestrian, with no loopholes that Rainbow could see.

“Well then, Rainbow Dash,” the guardian said as, for the first time, she placed her forehooves down upon the surface of the water and slowly approached the edge of the pond.

“Do you any questions, or should we finalize the pact?”

Rainbow looked at the warm, inviting face of the guardian, then at the contract, and then finally closed her own eyes in thought.

The guardian just patiently waited, the two of them just standing there with their eyes closed.

“...Yeah,” Rainbow said after a little time had passed. “I have a question.”

The guardian merely cocked her head, keeping her expression. “I would be glad to answer.”

“How stupid do you think I am?”

A small gust of wind passed through the grove at that point, as though to punctuate the statement. The hair of Rainbow's mane was blown flat by the wind but her unwavering gaze was fixed squarely upon the face of of the guardian, whose expression remained as impassive as before, with the exception of the fact that her gentle smile had become a troubled frown.

“I am unsure of what you are referring to...” the guardian replied. “Have I done something to cause you displeasure?”

“Let me get this straight,” Rainbow said, approaching to the point where her own forehead was almost touching the guardian's. “You're the guardian of the Everfree forest, the protector of its trees, right?”

“Y-yes...” the guardian responded.

“So then why did you contact me with a piece of paper!?”

“Oh, uh... w-well, y-y'know," the guardian stuttered, put off guard "one or two trees dying isn't so bad if they can be of use...”

“That's not all!” Rainbow added, thrusting out a hoof. “You said your magical influence ends at the border of the forest. If that's true than how did you even leave the letter on my doorstep!?”

“I...I uh...” the guardian blurted out. Though visibly she seemed rather unfazed, she began to stumble over her words.

“T-that's um... I had another pony in debt to me so I had them deliver the letter.”

“So then why didn't they just bring it to me directly!?” Rainbow Dash shot back immediately.

“Tsk.”

“Did you just click your tongue!?” Rainbow asked accusingly.

“You're imagining things, Rainbow Dash,” the guardian responded in a stronger, more forceful tone. “Fine, I lied about the limits of my powers in order to seem less powerful than I was, and therefore in desperate need of your services. Alright? It was only because I really wanted to help you but didn't want to make you feel indebted.”

“Sure, I can buy that,” Rainbow responded, flashing a quick smile. “If you explain how you used magic to place it there.”

“I teleported it there,” she said immediately, annoyed.

“Not good enough!” Rainbow called out, smugly crossing her forelegs “explain exactly what magical principles were used!”

The guardian was almost speechless, but quickly recovered, only to begin shouting at Rainbow Dash in turn.

“As if you could understand the magical principles involved!” she yelled out.

“Try me,” Rainbow answered smugly, “I've spent the better part of the last month hanging out with a magic nerd. You'd be surprised what rubs off.”

“Grah, it's magic you fool!,” she screamed, “I don't have to explain s-”

“Wrong!” Rainbow called out, angrily interrupting her “Twilight told me the first step to using magic is to understand it to the point where you could explain it. It's impossible to be unable to explain a spell you can use!”

“Grrr,” the guardian snarled, her expression growing visibly wilder by the second, all traces of her previous composure having completely vanished.

“You call me out here with a suspicious as hay letter — a method that makes no sense given your supposed duties, then you lie about how you even left the letter, and then, finally, you offer to give me exactly what I want in exchange for oh, nothing much, just a blank freaking check!”

The guardian could only snarl.

“I never heard your answer...” Rainbow continued, her tone suddenly becoming calm before rising again dramatically. “How stupid do you think I am!?

As with the first time the question had been asked, for a few moments there was nothing but silence between the two ponies, and then, a laugh.

The guardian began to chuckle, the volume and intensity of her laughter growing with each passing second, eventually reaching a crescendo at which point she threw up her head and laughed as though mocking the sky. It was an evil laugh, but it was no over-dramatic guffaw the likes of which could be seen from a twirly mustached baron in a film strip. No, this was a demon's laugh, a laugh that mocked the very idea of decency in the world, and it was directed at Rainbow Dash.

Throughout this display, Rainbow began to grow steadily unnerved, stepping a few steps back out of caution.

Suddenly, the laughter ceased, and the guardian's face one more turned towards Rainbow Dash, this time with an expression of gleeful malice.

“Very stupid, Rainbow Dash,” she said, answering Rainbow's question with a sneer. “Ignorance is bliss, after all.”

The guardian's closed eyes shot wide open and the world changed. In an instant, the grass had died, the sky had turned a sick yellow, the trees shed their leaves and the pond itself turned to sand. The mare before Rainbow had changed as well. She now had a yellow coat and a fiery red mane, but it was her eyes that stood out the most. They were pure black, unnaturally so. From the 'whites' to the iris, all that could be seen was darkness.

Rainbow attempted to meet her stare head on, but found herself looking away after a little more than two seconds, after which point she promptly lost her lunch.

“Yes I would avoid meeting my gaze,” the mare suggested with a dark chuckle.

Rainbow wiped her mouth and glanced up, panting heavily. It seemed as long as she didn't directly look into the unicorn's eyes she was safe.

“I was told you were a very direct pony,” the mare sneered, “But I didn't expect you to go off on someone doing you a favor.”

“...Maybe you're just not as good at faking sincerity as you think you are,” Rainbow shot back.

That wiped the grin off the mare's face, but it returned again after a moment.

“Perhaps,” she admitted, “but then allow me to be truly sincere.”

She made a short but elegant bow before standing up tall again and introducing herself.

“I am Her Royal Demoness Agas, ranked 23rd at the table of brethren at Lord Sleipnir's high court,” she recited in a noble manner she had thus far not displayed.

“You may call me Evil Eye,” she added with a dark grin.

“Sleipnir, huh?” Rainbow asked, focusing on the one part of her title that was intelligible to her. “Well, I guessed as much. So what, the plan was to trick me into making some bogus deal to become your slave or something?”

“That was plan A,” Evil Eye said with a coy smile, “We're on plan B now.”

“And that is?” Rainbow asked, flaring out her wings and readying herself for combat, if need be.

“To make the deal in earnest,” Evil Eye answered simply.

Rainbow stepped back indignantly, “You think I'd just agree to do you guys a random favor in exchange for a cure that probably won't even work!?”

“It will work,” Evil Eye said simply, “The pact binds both parties to an agreement. Should one party be unable to fulfill it, the agreement is null and void.”

“Like I could trust that!” Rainbow shouted back.

“I could explain the magical principles behind it,” Evil Eye said with a laugh. “You spent a month with a magic nerd, I'm sure you'd be able to understand it.”

“Forget it!” Rainbow shouted out. “Even if you're telling the truth, who knows what kind of sick thing you'd make me do!”

“Hmm, well...” Evil Eye mused, “I can't limit my own options too much, but I could stipulate clauses that would prevent you and your daughter from coming to harm from our forces.”

“That wouldn't keep you from turning me against my friends! No deal!”

Evil Eye sighed. “Aren't you forgetting the purpose of the deal, Rainbow Dash? Don't you want your daughter to be able to fly?”

“I...” Rainbow began, hesitating a moment.

Evil Eye took note of her wavering emotions and grinned.

“I do,” Rainbow answered after a moment. “But the price is too high. No deal.”

Evil Eye sighed exaggeratedly.

“Oh well,” she said. “You can't win them all.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow shot out. “Now put me back in the normal world!”

“Certainly,” Evil Eye said in a overly courteous manner before dramatically blinking her eyes.

***

Rainbow Dash found herself alone on a cloud above Ponyville.

“What!?” she said instinctively, looking around.

There was no sign of that mare. Did she just send her back, just like that? Rainbow had expected that she'd need to beat the trip home out of that cackling freak.

It was too simple.

Just then, a bright light flashed from off to the side, and a rainbow colored streak came zooming by from the same direction, accompanied by cries of exhilaration from a young pegasus filly,

“Whoo-hoo!” Did you see that, mom!?” she yelled out as she approached the cloud, skidding her hooves along the surface and coming to a halt before a stunned Rainbow Dash. “I did it! I did the buccaneer blitz!”

A lavender coat, a rainbow colored mane, a unicorn's horn, and a pegasus' wings. It was Aurora.

“Mom, you okay?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. “Could it be I made you speechless!? I did, didn't I!?”

“Uh... Yeah, ...Aurora that was great!” Rainbow managed to say after realizing that this wasn't some sort of hallucination and the mysteriously older Aurora was actually interacting with her.

“Great?” Aurora asked, sounding disappointed. “What happened to super-mega-awesome-amazing? Were you really watching, Mom?”

“Ahaha, what are you talking about, Aurora, of course I was... I just...”

Rainbow let out a sigh.

“I'm sorry, Aurora,” she said with an apologetic smile. “The truth was that my stomach cramped up suddenly and I missed the trick. Could you show me again?”

Aurora rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of her own.

“Yes Mom,” she said, annoyed “Just make sure you watch, OK?”

With that, the filly launched off the cloud and flew into position.

“...What is this?” Rainbow asked herself in wonder after she had flown out of earshot.

“What you'll be throwing away,” came Evil Eye's voice from the right, scaring Rainbow.

She glanced over, but couldn't see the unicorn anywhere.

“So, what?” Rainbow asked angrily as she turned her eyes back to Aurora's flying figure. “This is a vision of the future?”

“A future,” came the response. “Whether it's the future is up to you.”

As Evil Eye spoke those words, Aurora's buccaneer blaze lit up the sky. It was perfect, beautiful, just like Rainbow had done it countless times before. As Aurora did an aerial U-turn and began flying towards Rainbow with an expectant look on her face, Rainbow felt tears begin to flow to her eyes. Vision or not, Rainbow couldn't help but be proud of her.

“Are you sure you won't reconsider, Rainbow Dash?” Evil Eye's voice asked.

“Please...” Rainbow Dash said, closing her teary eyes. “Let me think about it for a while.”

When those words were spoken, Rainbow suddenly found herself back in the forest, in it's normal state. The pond, trees, and grass all having returned to their normal colors.

Evil Eye was standing there though, in the same form as in the barren world.

“I understand,” Evil Eye said, her expression much gentler than it was before. “It is difficult to make a decision like this on such short notice.”

“...Thanks,” Rainbow said hesitantly.

“However, I cannot afford to be exceedingly generous.” she continued, her expression becoming serious. “Thus, I must ask you make a decision by midnight tonight.”

“...That's fine,” Rainbow said in response.

“Furthermore, I must insist you speak with nopony about this matter. I'm sure you've realized this by now, but I have ways of keeping tabs on you. If I spot you telling anypony about this, the deal is off and your daughter will remain flightless forever.”

“...I understand.”

“Good,” Evil Eye said as she walked back over onto the surface of the pond. “Then I will be awaiting your response, and will hope it's a favorable one.”

With that, the unicorn began to slowly sink into the water, and within a few moments, had completely vanished underneath.

Rainbow merely stared at the pond for a few moments before turning around and walking back towards Ponyville.

***

For hours, Rainbow merely wandered around the small town, lost in thought. She avoided the well traveled areas so that she was unlikely to run into anypony she knew, and stuck to the outskirts instead. She spent most of this time having arguments with herself inside her head. Part of her wanted to do anything if it meant her daughter would be able to fly, another part of her said she was only really thinking about her own feelings. Still another part of her said there was sure to be another way to help Aurora fly, but yet another part doubted anypony would be able to figure it out. Other parts doubted the authenticity of the pact and the cure, and still others wanted to just beat the crap out of Evil Eye and get Princess Luna to make her a permanent fixture of the night sky.

The arguments between the various parts of her had continued nonstop until, by coincidence, she had stumbled upon a pony she hadn't expected to see. Scootaloo was hanging out in a small field on the edge of the town, where she had set up a ramp and was using a scooter to jump over rows of obstacles. When she saw Rainbow Dash, she had rushed up to her and tried to get her to watch some of her tricks.

Rainbow Dash wasn't feeling her hottest at that moment, but after Scootaloo had taken the time to listen to her the other day, she just couldn't say no.

As Scootaloo launched herself off the ramp again and again, Rainbow couldn't help but analyze Scootaloo's actions. She was unable to fly, and yet what were her hobbies? Launching herself into the air at high speeds, and idolizing the best flier in Ponyville.

It was obvious what she really wanted most of all, right?

It was then, there, that Rainbow made her decision.


Chapter 12: The Crimson Star


Twilight sat at her desk, magically flipping through a book while absentmindedly rocking the sleeping Aurora's cradle with one of her hooves. Apparently dissatisfied with what she had found in this particular book, she put it down and levitated another one in front of her, flipping through it as well.

Suddenly, the front door burst open, and a disheveled mare ran into the room, startling Twilight and causing Aurora to awake from her nap and start to cry.

“Twilight, I need your help!” the mare yelled hysterically.

She had a dark blue coat and a bright magenta mane, a jarring combination of colors Twilight hadn't seen on any pony she knew before... yet something about her seemed familiar.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked in wonder as she scooped up the crying Aurora and began to gently pat her back with a hoof. “What happened?”

“I've reached my limit, Twilight,” The oddly colored Rarity answered as she magically levitated a stroller with the giggling Golden Apple strapped in through the door behind her. “I toughed it out through spit ups and diaper changes, I endured flying slugs and a cat that thinks it's a dog!”

She placed her hooves on Twilight's shoulders and looked directly into her eyes.

“But, my pride ends at terrible color selection! Please Twilight, change me back!”

“Ok, Rarity, calm down.” Twilight said, brushing Rarity's hooves away. “Golden did this to you?”

“Just the latest of magical misfortunes that have befallen my boutique,” Rarity said dramatically, raising a hoof her her forehead.

Twilight briefly rolled her eyes before gathering magic in her horn. Then, with a burst, Rarity returned to her normal white and purple color scheme.

“My word!” she exclaimed, looking up and down her side to ensure there were no splotches of color that escaped the spell. “But you did that so easily!”

“Infant magic usually lacks permanency,” Twilight answered simply as she gently rocked Aurora. “A simple disruption is usually enough to turn things normal again.”

“And here I thought you would have to go digging through your books for a color change spell,” Rarity said, slumping into a chair and magically pulling Golden's carriage over. “For me to not even know that... I'm a failure as a unicorn.”

“Oh don't say that Rarity,” Twilight answered with a giggle. “Most unicorns don't know that much about magic. The spells they know just come naturally to them.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Rarity asked, her face pouting.

“Sure,” Twilight responded, “It means you're above average now.”

“Well I guess that's something then,” Rarity admitted grudgingly. “Still, you won't tell Applejack I asked you for help, will you?”

“I... suppose,” Twilight answered hesitantly. “But why the secrecy? You're in this together aren't you?”

“Of course,” Rarity answered, “But Applejack took care of Goldy alone during that week I was in Canterlot. It would be shameful if I was caught running for help after only two days of colic and surges.”

Twilight smiled gently. The truth was that Applejack had been to the library more than once to request some magical assistance in reigning Golden in.

“Your secret's safe with me,” Twilight answered with a smile.

“Thank you Twilight,” Rarity responded as she lifted Golden out of her carriage and held her, levitating a bottle out of the back of the stroller as well. “But enough about me, what have you been up to? You seem to be researching something.”

“...Yeah,” Twilight answered, glancing over at the pile of books. “I'm looking into flight.”

Aurora had calmed down by now, so Twilight gently lowered her back into her cradle and tucked her in .

“A flight spell?” Rarity repeated curiously as Golden drank from her bottle. “Oh, you mean like the one that gave me those gorgeous butterfly wings?”

Rarity smiled nostalgically at the thought.

“Something like that,” Twilight answered. “That's no good for my purposes though... It's for Aurora.”

Aurora cooed at the sound of her name, stretching her hooves out.

“Yes, we're talking about you,” Twilight said in a cutesy voice. “Yes we are, but it's still your nap time so you need to go to back to sleep.”

Aurora let out a tiny yawn but she kept her eyes fixed on her mother nonetheless.

“Oh dear...” Rarity said. “Has something happened?”

“She lacks the inherent Pegasus magic that allows her to become virtually weightless,” Twilight answered. “I'm looking for a way around that.”

“Have you had any luck?”

“No,” Twilight answered. “There's something wrong with everything I find. The gossamer wings are fragile and her regular wings would get in the way, self levitation isn't sustainable, and the method used by the cloudwalking spell is completely different from the method Pegasi use to walk on clouds, so it's no help either.”

“So... do you think there's hope?” Rarity asked, glancing over at Aurora's cradle.

“If there is,” Twilight answered. “It lies in the fact that this is a problem that's probably never had to be solved before. Unicorns being born with wings they can't use? That can't happen that often, right?”

“But wait...” Rarity said, scratching her head. “If that Scootaloo filly is any indication, surely there have been pegasi born with that problem, no? Surely somepony somewhere created a spell to help them?”

“I suspected as much,” Twilight said with a sigh. “But I can't find one. Likely because even if a spell like that exists somewhere, it could hardly ever be used.”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“That kind of spell...” Twilight answered. “Who knows how long it would last? The pegasus would need to depend on a unicorn to cast it on her again and again. To live in a cloud city, they'd need a unicorn aide night and day to cast spells on the both of them whenever necessary. It's the sort of thing that quickly becomes troublesome when you think about the logistics. So, while I'm sure such a spell has existed somewhere in history, I think it's use was so limited that I'll be lucky to find it.”

Twilight sighed again.

“In the end, it'll probably be faster if I just come up with the spell myself.”

“Be careful,” Rarity chided with a smile. “I've heard that ponies who make their own magic turn into alicorn princesses.”

“That's an old mare's tale,” Twilight answered with a chuckle, “If it were true, Starswirl the Bearded would have been made a princess a dozen times over.”

“You have a point,” Rarity said with a laugh.

Golden had drunk down the last drops of her formula, so Rarity put the bottle back in the stroller's pouch and then levitated an embroidered piece of fabric out of the same pouch. It had an intricate pattern sewn into it, and it sparkled in the light. Rarity levitated the fabric onto her shoulder, then lifted Golden up over it as well, and began to gently pat her back.

“Huh!?” Twilight suddenly called out from across the room. “You're using that to burp her!?”

“But of course...” Rarity answered, a little shocked at the outburst. “Is there something wrong?”

“You know that's for when she spits up, right?” Twilight asked. “Wouldn't something cheaper be better? Something washable?”

“My dear Twilight,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “If I worried about price every time I sewed something together, my ensemble wouldn't sell nearly as well.”

“Jeez...” Twilight said with a frown. “I'd hate to see what your toilet paper looks like.”

“Twilight!” Rarity called out, offended. “How much I spend on toiletries is none of your business!”

Twilight just rolled her eyes.

“So how is Rainbow doing?” Rarity asked after a moment.

Twilight sighed and looked out the window, perhaps hoping to see the mare in question fly by.

“Not well,” she answered. “She didn't come back to the library last night.”

“Was she upset?” Rarity asked.

“I think it was a pretty big shock,” Twilight said. “She was ready for the possibility but...”

Rarity nodded in understanding.

“What will you do?” she asked.

“Well, if she's not back by today I'm going to go hunt her down tomorrow,” Twilight answered.

“Is it alright to let it go for that long?”

Twilight nodded in response.

“She needs time to deal with this in her own way,” she answered. “I can look after Aurora by myself for a little bit if it lets her sort out her feelings.”

“I suppose.”

A few moments later, the sound of Golden spitting up reached the two mares' ears. Rarity instinctively flinched, but then quickly regained her composure.

“All done?” she asked sweetly as she brought Golden down in front of her.

The baby cooed in response.

“You've gotten a lot better at dealing with that, huh?” Twilight asked. “A month ago you couldn't even say the word vomit without gagging.”

“Well, we do what we must,” Rarity answered proudly as she levitated the hoofmade towel off her shoulder.

At that moment, a tiny droplet from the fabric dripped down and landed on Rarity's back.

Rarity screeched at the sudden warm sensation and jumped to her hooves, Golden clutched tightly in her right forehoof.

“Gyaaah, ick ick ick, it's on my back! It's on my back!”

She rushed over to Twilight and pushed Golden into her hooves.

“Sorry, I've got to use the washroom,” Rarity said to the bewildered Twilight. “Ew! Ew! Ew!”

With that, Rarity ran to the library's bathroom at breakneck speeds, slamming the door shut behind her. Twilight just stayed where she was, fighting the urge to laugh at Rarity's expense, an urge Golden didn't have any problem with embracing. The filly was giggling uncontrollably.

“Oh be nice to your mommy,” Twilight chided.

Golden looked up and babbled in response.

Some more babbling was coming over from Aurora's cradle. Twilight looked over saw two big eyes peeking over the side at Golden.

“You're not going back to sleep are you?” Twilight asked as she sighed in resignation. “Alright, you can play with Golden for a little while.”

Twilight gently levitated the two foals onto the floor, and then subsequently opened the toy chest lying in the corner and pulled out a few stuffed animals. She watched contently as Aurora and Golden played together, the two of them rolling all over the floor, babbling, and chasing after one another.

After a few more minutes, Rarity emerged from the bathroom and joined Twilight.

“My sincerest apologies,” she said with a sigh.

“Don't worry about it,” Twilight laughed.

Seeing that Rarity had returned, Golden scampered over towards her mother and babbled a few unintelligible words.

“Oh were you worried because Mama was gone?” Rarity cooed. “Yes you were weren't you?”

She picked Golden up and gave her a little squeeze.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Rarity said, suddenly remembering something as she turned towards Twilight. “Golden said her first word the other day! Mama!”

“Oh, I saw!” Twilight answered with a nod “When Applejack brought her over she was saying it over and over again like crazy!”

“...What?” Rarity asked after a moment, looking at Twilight with a blank expression.

“Oh, Applejack brought Golden over to play a few times last week," Twilight repeated. "She was saying Mama over and over again then.”

“She was saying it... to Applejack?” Rarity asked.

“Well, yeah.”

“Constantly?”

“Yes...” Twilight answered, though she was beginning to feel that something was amiss with her friend. “Rarity, are you alright?”

Rarity bit her lip. She had been thrilled when she first heard Golden call her mama, but she hadn't said it that much since then. In fact, when had she said it?

...When Applejack was leaving.

Oh.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked again. “What's wrong?”

“Oh... um, nothing Twilight. I just... figured something out.”

“Is it something I can help with?”

Rarity glanced over at Golden, who was still playing on the floor.

“No, it's fine...” Rarity said in an oddly quiet voice. “But we really should be going now...”

She walked over to Golden and picked her up.

“It's time to go now, darling, wave goodbye.”

Golden seemed to understand what Rarity was saying, but rather than do as was asked of her she began to throw a fit, not wanting to leave. Aurora just looked up curiously.

“Now that's enough,” Rarity scolded. “I think it's important we spend some quality time alone together.”

“Rarity...” Twilight said gently.

“Thank you very much for the help Twilight,” Rarity said as she fastened Golden into her stroller. “If I get in over my head again I'll be sure to drop by.”

“Sure... anytime....”

With that, Rarity magicked the door open and began pushing the stroller out. She said something as she was leaving, but it was hard for Twilight to make it out over Golden's crying. However, it sounded like she had said “I shouldn't have gone to Canterlot.”

As soon as the door was closed, Twilight let out a soft sigh and then glanced over at Aurora, only to find her conked out on the floor.

“Ah, see?” Twilight asked with a smile as she levitated the sleeping foal back into her cradle. “That's what happens when we want to play during nap-time.”

***

Evil Eye watched Rainbow Dash stare at the pond. Moments ago, as far as Rainbow Dash knew, a pony stood atop that water's surface and then slowly sank downward, vanishing completely.

It was an illusion, of course. The real Evil Eye was standing on the opposite bank, ensuring that when she spoke her voice would be coming from the right direction. She looked nothing like the ponies Rainbow had been made to see, resembling neither the calm blue 'Guardian of the Everfree Forest,' nor the crimson maned temptress she had changed into when Rainbow saw through her lie, but rather a hideous creature that anypony would recoil at upon seeing.

Rainbow turned away from the pond and began heading in the direction of the town. Evil Eye quickly and quietly followed after.

She was invisible, but not in the sense that she had caused herself to become transparent. Rather, her magic forced everypony not to see her – forced them to avert their eyes from her true self, or else suffer dearly. There was a certain parallel between this ability and her skill at temptation that she appreciated greatly. Let them see what they want to see, let them believe what they want to believe. Give them peace of mind up until the moment when the illusion comes crashing down around them, and then bask in the horror they display at a truth more terrible than the one they began with.

She loved it. It had been far, far too long since she got to work her craft. Still, it seemed that she was a bit rusty. She had lost her cool far too easily when Rainbow poked a hole through her logic. It may have cost her too – Evil Eye was unsure Rainbow would take the deal. Still, even if she didn't... its surprising how many deadly accidents an invisible creature can cause.

So it was that Evil Eye malevolently stalked Rainbow Dash as she headed back to town. For a long time the Pegasus just wandered, eschewing pony contact. Eventually, however, she happened upon her little crippled friend, Scootaloo. Evil Eye couldn't help but smile as she saw how this development caused Rainbow's gears to turn inside her head. After some time had passed, the two said their farewells, and Rainbow Dash went back to wandering. There were a few more chance meetings, but for the majority of the remaining daylight hours, Dash was alone, save for her thoughts, and her stalker.

Then, however, Rainbow did something very peculiar. Peculiar in that it was perfectly normal for the mare in question, but very unusual among ponies whose minds Evil Eye had messed with.

Rainbow took a nap.

It was immediate, too. Rainbow went to her cloudhouse and plopped straight down onto her bed, drifting off to sleep immediately, her loud grating snores shaking the room.

It was disconcerting. Many ponies she had tempted had attempted to sleep before. There was a common belief that 'sleeping' on a decision often gave a different perspective. In practice though, most of Evil Eye's victims had found themselves unable to even get to sleep, so great was their worry. Thus, it was a great shock to see Rainbow do it so effortlessly. She wasn't sure what to make of it. Was Rainbow no longer paying heed to the midnight deadline? Was this her silent refusal? Or perhaps, she already made her decision, and with such finality that she was at complete peace with it.

Rainbow snorted in her sleep, turning over and idly scratching her belly with a hoof.

“Or perhaps she's just tired and I'm over thinking things,” Evil Eye thought to herself as she looked around Rainbow's bedroom.

Her prey was stationary at the moment, so if she was lucky she would be able to find something quiet to do as she waited. Her eyes were drawn to a bookshelf in the corner. Evil Eye silently walked over to it and examined its contents.

“Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone,” she read inside her head. “Sounds pretty droll.”

***

Evil Eye cursed her luck. She had only more chapter left to read in the Daring Do book when the sudden cessation of Rainbow's constant snores signaled that the pegasus mare had awakened.

“Oh well,” she thought as she regretfully slid the book back on the shelf. “I'll just have to nab a copy later.”

Rainbow looked at the clock in her room. It was just a little after eleven, which meant there was less than an hour left before the established deadline for the deal.

She rose quickly, taking only a few moments to stretch before trotting out the front door. Evil Eye followed silently after. The two mares floated down from the cloudhouse to the ground and began walking through the moonlit Ponyville streets. Evil Eye looked up involuntarily. She had been a star herself, but the sky was a lot emptier when she had been sealed. To see so many creatures hung up there as trophies was frightening, and Evil Eye shivered at the thought of meeting Nightmare Moon again.

Unfortunately for her, that possibility was a lot more likely than she'd hoped. Evil Eye quickly discerned that she was following Rainbow Dash to the Ponyville Library, which, according to the information given to her by Rat Race, was where the Nightmare guarded Ponyville from. The Princess's direct presence meant that there was little need for her night guard to hang around the library, but she was away from her self appointed post on a semi regular basis, at times when other royal duties called her away. During those times, she left the defense of Ponyville solely in the hooves of her guards, but the handful of them were stretched so thin that on these occasions the library often went completely unguarded.

Thus, it was a gamble. If the Nightmare was absent tonight, this was a fortunate blind spot. If she was present, it could potentially lead to the worst possible scenario. So it was that Evil Eye followed Rainbow into the library with considerable trepidation.

Once inside, Rainbow looked around cautiously before approaching a small crib where a delicate bundle lay there under a pile of blankets.

“Hey there, baby girl,” Rainbow said quietly, her voice softer than a whisper. “Mom's gonna take you on a little trip for a bit, ok? Be a good girl and stay quiet.”

Evil Eye just silently grinned as Rainbow picked the foal up and gently placed her in a baby carrier, wrapped up tightly for protection against the cold, and then left just as quickly and quietly as she had came.

Evil Eye fought to suppress a laugh as Rainbow began heading back to the pond. That was another blind spot in the Nightmare's defensive net. As long as nopony spotted them on the way there, then it was her victory.

The two mares walked silently through the streets of Ponyville, turned onto the forest path, and made their way to the tiny pond in the clearing.

There, Rainbow Dash placed the carrier down and stepped forward in front of the pond.

“Alright,” she said, “I've come.”

Evil Eye smiled darkly as she tapped into her magic and brought her illusions to life once more.

***

Before Rainbow's eyes, the yellow mare with the fiery red mane and the repulsive eyes rose up from the water. However, her entrance was not a gentle ascent as it had been before. Rather, she shot up from the water with an enormous splash as though something had exploded beneath the surface.

“I'm very happy that we can do business together,” the illusionary Evil Eye said amicably. “Shall we get the paperwork sorted out right away or...?”

Rainbow held up a hoof, interrupting her.

“One question,” she said firmly. “How are you going to do this?”

The illusion smiled and a strange mechanical device popped into existence beside her. She briefly explained its history and purpose in the same way as Rat Race had done so to her.

“Right,” Rainbow said once the explanation had finished. “Seems legit.”

“But of course, pact magic doesn't work unless we are bound by the rules,” Evil Eye said with a laugh. “You are prepared to be bound, aren't you Rainbow Dash?”

“If it means my daughter will get the opportunity she deserves, I'll do whatever it takes,” she answered immediately.

“I respect that resolve,” Evil Eye said with a grin.

Her horn glowed and the contract she had shown Rainbow Dash earlier popped back into existence, along with a big feathery fountain pen. She levitated the pen over to Rainbow, who grasped it in her mouth.

“Now then,” Evil Eye continued. “Simply sign on the dotted line and we're in business.”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward and, to her credit, read through the contract three times. Apparently satisfied with how it was written, she bit down tightly on the quill in her mouth, and gently lowered the tip to the dotted line on the paper. Evil Eye's smile grew more and more as the tip approached the parchment. It was a mere millimeter away when Rainbow suddenly pulled back and spit the pen out.

“Actually,” she said, rather calmly. “I should probably ask my lawyer to take a look at this.”

“Huh? Hey!” Evil Eye yelled out as a magical burst yanked the shifter out of her own telekinetic field.

It flew towards a nearby tree, the branches of which supported the one pony Evil Eye hoped not to run into that night.

“As thy barrister and close friend, We do hereby advise thee not to sign,” Princess Luna said as she levitated the device over to her side. Then, with a bright glow from her horn, the pond and the surrounding area was suddenly surrounded by a transparent dome of pure moonlight that illuminated the ponies inside and out. Luna herself remained outside the dome, while Rainbow, Evil Eye and the baby carrier remained within.

“Nightmare Moon!?” Evil Eye nearly screeched, her black eyes as wide as dinner plates. “How!? Why!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?”

“Oh, I asked her to come,” Rainbow said in a relaxed manner, nonchalantly glancing at her hoof.

“What!?” Evil Eye demanded indignantly, rounding on the other mare. “No, there's NO way. I followed right behind you from the moment you left here to the moment you came back! There was no way you could have possibly contacted her!”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes. “Except I totally did, and what's more, I did it...”

She reached into the baby carrier and withdrew a pair of dark sunglasses, which she placed upon her nose.

“In my sleep.”

“...What?” Evil Eye asked blankly.

“'Tis true,” Luna called out from the tree. “We possess the ability to walk amongst ponies' dreams. 'Twas a spell we developed in order to hunt the forces of Sleipnir at the time they were at their most vulnerable.”

Luna smiled darkly, her eyes narrowing at the demoness before her.

“'Tis a reason so many of Sleipnir's creations are nocturnal, even in the present day. We did not permit them to sleep during the night.”

Evil Eye shuddered at the cold malice emanating from Luna. This was truly a mare to be feared.

“...And, you... just so happened to be walking through this mare's dream!?” She asked incredulously, pointing a hoof at Rainbow.

“Well, a little orange filly told us Rainbow was having trouble sleeping,” The princess answered with a chuckle. “Were it not for that, we wouldst probably had never known of your plot.”

“What...! But...! That's...!” Evil Eye sputtered out, her mind racing.

No, it was true, there was something like that, wasn't there?

Right before Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo parted ways earlier that day, the filly asked Rainbow Dash how she was doing since they last spoke, and the latter replied that she was having really bad dreams. She then quickly excused herself while at the same time asking Scootaloo to let her know if she knew anypony that could help her with that.

“Oh that's.... That's just... Hahahahahaha...”

Evil Eye laughed. It was the same sort of mad laugh that she had made before. Rainbow and Luna just silently watched as her laughter slowly died down, and for a few moments after there was silence.

“Our sister has expressed disapproval with Our previous methods of dealing with the likes of thee,” Luna said coldly. “Thus, We are willing to overlook your escape, in exchange for information on how you accomplished it.”

“Hahaha... I'm not quite on my last legs yet...” Evil Eye said defiantly.

“We remember thee,” Luna said, her eyes narrowing. “Thou wast the one whom tried to convince Cancer that she were a burden upon the rest of us, tried to manipulate her into signing one of those compacts.”

“Guh...” Evil Eye said with a wince. “So you remember that huh?”

“Barely,” Luna answered, her dark smile returning. “Thou were dispatched quite promptly after all.”

Evil Eye scowled.

“More importantly, however, we remember your limitations,” Luna continued. “Thou must be close to thy own illusion to maintain it. Thus, while I know not where within this dome thy true form is waiting, thou art almost certainly within it.”

Luna's horn glowed and the entire transparent bubble shrunk slightly.

“It would be trivial to trap you.”

“And are you planning to trap your friend and her foal in here with me?” Evil Eye asked, pointing to Rainbow.

“If thou think Us incapable of excluding whom We wish from the effects of Our spells, then thou truly think little of Our abilities as a mage.”

“Heh... that's if you can exclude her...” Evil Eye muttered under her breath.

“So, what will it be, Demoness Agas?” Luna asked. “Will thou surrender here, or must We do this 'the firm way?'”

“Hard way, Princess,” Dash corrected.

“Er, yes, the hard way,” Luna repeated, somewhat sheepishly.

“I have a better idea,” Evil Eye answered. “How about we do this the way where Nightmare Moon and Rainbow Dash die alone in the middle of the forest?”

“Delusions are off the table,” Luna said simply.

“It's no delusion,” Evil Eye answered with a smug smile. “GET HER, BOYS!”

At her words, a dark shadow appeared from between the trees and flew up towards Princess Luna from behind, scraping against her and causing the Princess to cry out in pain. The magic dome briefly flickered in and out, but didn't vanish.

“Princess!” Rainbow suddenly cried out, her sunglasses falling off her face.

Two more shadows appeared from within the forest and shot up towards Luna as well. She was ready this time and took to the air before they could reach her, but one of them brushed the shifter as it whizzed by. Rainbow Dash gasped in horror as the device broke free from Luna's levitation, tumbled through the air, and then smashed upon the ground where it broke into pieces as a little tuft of magic powder came streaming out from within.

For a few moments, Rainbow stood there shocked as her hope for her daughter to fly literally went up in smoke.

“Aw, what a shame,” Evil Eye taunted smugly as she approached. “Talk about the wrong decision.”

“It wasn't the wrong decision,” Rainbow seethed through her teeth.

“No?” Evil Eye asked. “If you had kept your daughter in mind and had done what was best for her, she'd be flying right now.”

“What's best for my daughter...” Rainbow shot back, “Is for there not to be creepers like you hanging around and trying to make shady deals.”

“Hah, if you say so.”

Various lights and sounds were coming from above their head now as the Princess fought off the shadows that had attacked her.

“Luna's not gonna lose, y'know,” Rainbow said. “All this little sucker punch of yours is gonna do is make her angry.”

“Perhaps,” Evil Eye responded. “But whether she wins or lose, you won't be around to find out.”

Her horn began to glow menacingly.

“So that's how it's gonna be, huh?” Rainbow asked as she reached down, picked up the fallen sunglasses, and put them back on her face. “Alright, let's dance, Weasel Eye.”

***

Luna flew up above the trees, the three shadows darting after her. She looked back to assess the damage to her side. Three large cuts had appeared there, Talon marks. It looked pretty bad.

“It's payback time, Princess,” one of the shadows snarled as it regained its true form – a giant three legged raven just like those she had faced outside Manehattan.

“You made our brother a pretty little star,” the second added, also transforming. “That don't sit right with us.”

“Lord Sleipnir has promised to make his resurrection a priority if we take your head!” added the third.

“Well, that's very interesting news indeed!” Luna called back. “Perhaps We'll have you tell Us all about it once we've thoroughly educated you on the proper way to treat a Princess!”

She displayed confidence, but Luna immediately realized how serious the predicament she was in was. The number of enemies had increased by one since the last time she encountered these ravens, and even then she had the advantage because she took the first one out with a preliminary strike. This time, however, she was on the receiving end of the same tactic, and was faced with the prospect of taking all three of them on alone, while injured.

“How 'bout we teach you a lesson 'bout humility instead?” One of the ravens snarled.

And then, the dance began. The three ravens flew through the sky, charging at Luna from different directions, and trying to rake her with their talons or stab her with their beaks. Luna was charging magic into her horn, but was struggling to find an opportunity to strike back. All her energy was focused on simply dodging the three ravens' onslaught. That said, she was a little confused – they hadn't once used any of their inherent fire magic obtained from their phoenix ancestry, neither to spit fire nor burst into flames themselves.

“Oh,” she thought, suddenly remembering, “because that's how We defeated their brother.”

So she had three enemies to contend with, was already wounded, and now couldn't even use the tactic she had used last time. Yeah, she was in trouble all right.

“Princess!” a familiar voice suddenly called out from the direction of Ponyville. “We're here to help!”

It was Dusk, captain of the night guard and leader of the vampony guards she had brought with her to help defend Ponyville. He wasn't alone either – the majority of the night guard seemed to be flying along right behind him.

Upon seeing this new threat, one of the ravens surrounding her broke off and charged in their direction. At that moment, Luna suddenly realized something.

“NO, STAY BACK!” she bellowed at her guards, but it was too late.

The raven burst into flames, showering the ponies with light. They screamed in agony as the light washed over their bodies, causing them unspeakable pain.

“IT'S PHOENIX FLAME, FROM THE SUN! ” Luna cried out at them. “ YOUR BODIES WON'T BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT!”

At that point, however, only Dusk was able to hear her. The rest of the platoon had simply fallen out of the sky into the forest. Dusk had reacted immediately to Luna's warning and dived down into the trees, where he was partially protected from the stinging solar rays.

Apparently convinced that he had dealt with the nuisance, the raven flew back to join his brothers. The moment it passed by, Dusk shot up from the trees and called out to Luna.

“Understood!” he yelled. “Is there any other way we can assist you!?”

“Fetch Twilight Sparkle and her friends!” Luna called back even as she dodged the ravens' talons. “They're in Derpy's cottage!”

“Understood!” Dusk answered, diving down below the treeline again as one of the ravens spit flame in his direction.

***

Derpy's cottage was bustling with activity, which was unusual at this time at night, or almost ever for that matter. Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike had all come over to visit, along with their foals. Derpy, Dinky, and Carrot Top couldn't help but wonder at what they were thinking, making a surprise visit at a time when the three of them were prepared to go to sleep, but the fact that Princess Luna had ordered them there was even more confusing. The five mares all told the same story – a Night Guard had suddenly come up to them while they were going about their business. Each guard had told the mares that a threat had been made, and that they were to take themselves, their elements, and their foals to Derpy's cottage. Moreover, Luna had given this order to Twilight directly, and when questioned had simply asked Twilight to trust her, and said she would explain later.

“She'd better have a good reason for this,” Carrot Top said bitterly for what must have been the tenth time that evening.

“We get it, you're irritated,” Applejack shot back. “Y'know, nopony said y'all had to hang out with us. There's no need to stay up on our accounts.”

“What, so I should just let you lounge around our house unsupervised?” Carrot asked. “No way!”

“Then quit your belly aching!” Applejack said before turning to Rarity, who was sitting on the couch right next to her. “Sheesh, some ponies, am I right?”

“Huh? Oh uh, yeah.” Rarity answered noncommittally, staring at the floor.

“You okay sugarcube?” Applejack asked. “You've been mighty quiet all night. 'Snot like you.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” she said haughtily. “I'm perfectly fine. Your concern is unwarrented.”

Applejack chuckled at her friend's stubbornness.

“Shoot, I bet you're just tuckered out,” she said as she gently nudged Rarity with an elbow. “Golden been keeping you up all night?”

Carrot Top looked up, surprised, but said nothing.

“Only a little bit,” Rarity answered, a little shortly. “I'm handling it just fine.”

The two were quiet for a moment before Applejack spoke.

“Y'know, you don't need to feel obligated to watch her for the entire week or nuthin'” she said. “I appreciate the break and all, but I wouldn't want you to get all stressed out over something like...”

“No,” Rarity said firmly, turning and looking into Applejack's eyes. “It's my turn with her so she's going to spend time with me. In fact, she should be doing so right now.”

With that, Rarity rose from her seat and walked over to the next room, where the other ponies were playing noisily.

“....What the hay?” Applejack mumbled to herself as she watched Rarity storm off. “Man, she's cranky when she's tired.”

Applejack had no way of knowing that Rarity's bad mood was due to Golden having called Applejack 'Mama' twenty-seven times since they arrived at Derpy's, and having called Rarity such exactly zero times.

“Um...” Carrot Top suddenly spoke up.

“Oh what now?” Applejack snapped, glancing over at her rival.

“Did you name your baby.... Golden?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Oh, no I... nevermind, forget about it.” Carrot Top said with a smile as she got to her hooves. “I think I'm going to go to bed after all. Good night.”

“You sure?” Applejack asked with a sarcastic smirk. “I just might go snooping through your things if you don't keep an eye on me.”

“Oh uh... no, that's ok,” She answered with a giggle. “I trust you.”

Applejack's mouth fell open.

“Huh!?” she asked.

“Well, goodnight”

With that, Carrot Top trotted up the stairs, leaving a thoroughly confused Applejack behind.

“What the hay?” Applejack mumbled again after having encountered yet another unexpected reaction.

First she acted nicely to her friend, and got snapped at as a result, then she acted mean to her rival, who suddenly became all smiles and giggles. Did she just get transported into an alternate reality where actions have the opposite consequence of what was logical?

She looked up at the only pony still left in the sitting room. Fluttershy was spread out on the couch across from her, her head slouched to the side, probably fighting the urge to fall asleep right there.

“You got any clue what that was about?” Applejack asked.

Fluttershy gave no indication that she had heard Applejack.

“Fluttershy!” Applejack called out, causing the other pony to start.

“Ah, yes, can I help you?” she asked suddenly.

“Geez, it seems everypony’s out of it lately.”

“Oh, sorry...”

Applejack shook her head. “Don't you worry about it none. What're you moping on about anyway?”

“Angel...” Fluttershy answered sadly.

Applejack's ears drooped immediately. “Aw shucks, sorry Shy, I-I wasn't thinking.”

“It's okay...” Fluttershy answered softly. “When I'm busy I can keep my mind occupied, but when there's downtime like this I can't help but get all negative inside.”

“That's rough, Shy,” Applejack said with a nod. “D'ya wanna talk about it?”

Fluttershy nodded.

As the two friends continued their conversation, the others were going wild in the living room. Derpy was taking it upon herself to entertain baby Aurora.

“Where's Derpy?” She asked, covering her own eyes as Aurora giggled in anticipation.

Derpy removed her hooves and spun her eyes around.

“Here I am!”

Aurora giggled uncontrollably and fell down onto her back with her hooves flailing up in the air.

Meanwhile, Pinkie had invented a game involving a piece of newspaper. She placed one end in her own mouth and dangled it in front of Candy, who grabbed the other end. They pulled the paper in opposite direction until with a loud RIIIIP, it tore apart. Candy was immediately on the ground cackling uncontrollably, and Pinkie flopped down right next to her and joined her. Pinkie didn't get a lot about what babies found funny – her little stand up show with Pumpkin and Pound Cake had taught her that much, but she found that when something worked, it was best to milk it for all it was worth.

“Okay okay!” Pinkie shouted, jumping to her hooves and grabbing another paper in her mouth. “Again!”

The whole process repeated, and the mother daughter pair found themselves laughing on the ground once more.

In another corner, Spike and Dinky, who was wearing a fancy white dress, were playing house with Golden while Rarity, who recently joined them, watched on. It was Dinky's idea – Spike would be the Daddy, Dinky would be the Mommy, and Golden would be the baby. Spike was reluctant at first, but he got into character remarkably quickly, and was obviously having a good time.

“I'm home!” he said, opening the door that connected to the kitchen.

“Welcome home, Darling!” Dinky said with a giggle as she held Golden in her lap. “Did you have a good time at work?”

“Ugh, no, I had to re-shelve the entire library.”

“Oh, that's too bad,” Dinky said sympathetically. “Would a shoulder massage help?”

“I think it just might,” Spike said as he sat down on the floor.

Dinky placed Golden down, moved behind Spike and began rubbing his shoulders. Meanwhile, Golden caught sight of her favorite rattle on the floor and began crawling towards it. Seeing her chance, Rarity levitated both Golden and the rattle over to her, so that her daughter was shaking it contently in her lap.

“Ooh, so tense...” Dinky giggled as she continued the massage.

“You said it,” Spike agreed with a sigh.

Rarity found it hard not to chuckle at the pair's antics.

“So... do you notice anything different?” Dinky asked.

“Not Really,” Spike answered immediately, causing Dinky to frown.

“W-what about my new dress?” she asked. “Do you like it?”

“Meh's it's okay,” Spike said with a shrug.

“Hey!” Rarity suddenly called out angrily from the couch. “I made that, I'll have you know!”

Spike turned towards Rarity in shock, only for his expression to melt into one of lovey dovey bliss.

“And it's just as lovely and beautiful as you are,” he answered with sparkling eyes.

Rarity rolled her eyes and then glanced over at Dinky, who was staring daggers at her with an angry expression on her face.

Rarity was a little taken aback by this, but before she could say anything Dinky turned her angry gaze onto Spike again.

“Um, dear,” she said cooly. “Should my husband really be flirting with other mares in front of me?”

“Oh relax, Dinky, it's just pretend,” Spike answered with a shrug.

Dinky made an angry expression and opened her mouth, like she was about to say something, but then closed it instead. Using magic, she pulled her dress off over her head and flung it on the couch next to Rarity, then stormed off over towards the sitting room.

“Mom, I'm going to bed!” she called out as she passed Derpy, who still playing Peekaboo with Aurora

“Have a good sleep, muffin!” Derpy happily called back, oblivious to her daughter's bad mood.

“Fine, I was getting bored anyway,” Spike mumbled as he climbed up on the couch next to Rarity and crossed his arms, pouting.

He glanced over and noticed Rarity was looking at him disapprovingly.

“What?” he asked, genuinely worried.

At that time, while Rarity began to scold Spike for his lack of sensitively, Twilight was constantly switching between looking at the foals, reading from a book, and staring out the window anxiously.

“Hey Twilight, whatcha worrying about?” Pinkie asked, suddenly appearing beside her with Candy Cloud balanced atop her head.

“A lot,” Twilight answered. “We haven't heard anything from Luna in hours, and Rainbow still hasn't shown up.”

Pinkie frowned, but then immediately perked up again.

“Don't worry!” she said, “Both of them can handle themselves!”

“I suppose...” Twilight reluctantly agreed, “But there's something else, too...”

She pointed to a page on the book in front of her.

“Huh? What is it?” Pinkie asked, looking at the diagram being indicated by Twilight's hoof.

“A star chart,” Twilight answered as she pointed out the window. “It's for that section of the sky over there.”

“Ooooh... “ Pinkie marveled. “So, what about it?”

“Something seems a little off about it...” Twilight replied, turning back to her book. “It seems wrong... somehow, but I can't quite put my hoof on it.”

“Hmm...” Pinkie said in thought as she stared out the window. “Well, is it usually on fire?”

“What?” Twilight asked, looking up. “What do you mean on fire, the sky's not... GYAH!”

Twilight jumped to her hooves in shock. Sure enough, a great gout of flame was spreading across the sky directly above the forest.

“Girls!” Twilight called out in panic, “Outside, now!”

There was a great ruckus as everyone jumped to their hooves and ran outside to get a better look at what was happening.

***

“What do y'all suppose that was?” Applejack asked after Twilight explained what she'd seen.

“I dunno,” Twilight answered worriedly, “but I've got a bad feeling!”

“Twilight Sparkle!” a voice suddenly called out from the forest next to Derpy's cottage.

A dark grey stallion then flew out from within, landing in front of the gathered ponies.

“Dusk!” Twilight answered, recognizing the captain of the Night Guard immediately, “What happened?”

“Princess Luna requires your immediate assistance!” came his reply.

As quickly as possible, Dusk explained the current situation – Luna was under attack by three giant ravens above the Everfree Forest, and the night guard had been decimated.

“What about Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“I was told the Princess was going to run an errand with her, but I don't know her present location,” he answered immediately. “I realize this affects your ability to use the Elements of Harmony, but the Princess is really struggling right now!”

The ponies gathered could all hear the desperation in Dusk's voice.

“Well then what are we waiting for!?” Pinkie asked exuberantly. “We've got a princess to save!”

“Right,” Twilight said, “Girls, get your things. Derpy, Spike, stay here and look after the foals.”

“Will do!” Spike answered immediately with a salute.

“You can count on us!” Derpy added, saluting as well.

“Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” Dusk said, stepping forward. “I'm off to fetch reinforcements and medical care for my troops.”

He bowed slightly.

“Our Princess is in your hooves.”

“Understood,” came Twilight's response.

Dusk nodded and then took to the air in the direction of the town hall where the long range teleporter was kept.

By that time, the others had grabbed their things and were ready to go.

“Right,” Twilight said as soon as they had gathered. “Let's go!”

***

“Wow, really?” Evil Eye asked aloud as Rainbow Dash charged straight toward her illusionary self. “You really thought I'd be standing where I was deliberately showing you I was standing?”

She laughed as Rainbow slipped right through the image.

“Man, are you stupid or... GUHOH!”

Right after slipping through the illusion, Rainbow had suddenly changed directions and had charged directly at where Evil Eye truly was, knocking her flat.

“Nah, I was just playing along,” Rainbow Dash answered as she adjusted her sunglasses.

“What?” Evil Eye yelled out as she rolled away from where she had fallen and got back to her hooves. “But how did you... Gah!”

Evil Eye was ready this time, but Rainbow still caught her off guard by jumping into the air and aiming a flying kick at her head. She ran away, but Rainbow snapped her head in Evil Eye's direction and charged right at her again, this time trying to smack her with a forehoof.

There was no doubt about it – somehow this mare knew exactly where she really was. But how? Was she somehow disrupting her spell?

“It... couldn't... be!” Evil Eye said as she dodged blow after blow.

She took to the air, floating to the opposite edge of the dome as Dash.

“It couldn't be...” she said, “That for some reason... those sunglasses let you see me!?”

Rainbow just stared right at her with an impassive expression on her face, before suddenly grinning.

“Sure, let's go with that,” she called out as she charged forward.

“Tsk...” Evil Eye clicked her tongue as she charged forward, meeting her opponent head on. “Then I'll just have to knock them off!”

The two mares collided in the middle. Evil Eye waved her hoofs frantically in an attempt to knock the dark sunglasses off of Rainbow's face. She attempted to levitate them off as well, but the constant blows Rainbow's hooves were raining on her body was killing her concentration. Finally, Evil Eye got a lucky hit in, and the sunglasses went flying off. Rainbow had done a number on her body and she ached all over, but with Evil Eye's advantage restored, things had turned back to her favor.

“Hah!” she taunted loudly. “Now that that's taken care of, I can... WHAT!?”

She gasped in shock at Rainbow's face. The glasses were gone....

But her eyes were closed.

With that, Rainbow spun around and delivered a double buck right to Evil Eye's chest, sending her flying backward. Evil Eye landed on the ground and began coughing heavily. Rainbow immediately ran up to her and stomped a forehoof down, pining her there.

“From... the beginning... *cough* you had your eyes closed?” the invisible mare gasped out.

“Yeah,” Rainbow answered with a smirk. “Made it a lot easier to hear where you were.”

Evil Eye laughed bitterly.

“Rat Race made you sound like a total meathead,” she said with a cough. “Man, he couldn't have been more wrong...”

“Oh?” Rainbow asked curiously. “Sounds like somepony else whose flank I've gotta kick.”

“Well...”

At that moment, a horrible spasm of pain suddenly erupted on Rainbow's Face, causing her to stagger backwards.

“First things first...” came Evil Eye's voice... from all directions at once.

***

It wasn't that hard to find out where the princess was. The ravens attacking her were enormous. The problem was actually getting up in the sky to where they were.

“Oooh... I wish making spells really did give you wings,” Twilight moaned. “I could sure use some right now.”

“Focus, Twi,” Applejack said. “What's the plan?”

Twilight thought intently, looking at each friend in turn. After a few moments, she was struck with an idea and started giving orders.

“Fluttershy, give Applejack a boost,” she said. “Applejack, think you can tie up their legs?”

“Who dya think you're talking to?” Applejack asked with a grin.

Fluttershy just silently nodded.

“Pinkie, you and me are going to put on a little fireworks show!” Twilight continued.

“You betcha!” Pinkie cried out, producing her party canon out of nowhere, as usual.

“Right, get to it!” Twilight ordered. “Pinkie, start without me!”

Pinkie wheeled her cannon into position while Fluttershy grabbed hold of Applejack and lifted her up into the air.

“What about me, Twilight?” Rarity asked anxiously, suddenly fearful that she had been left out of the plan.

“You...” Twilight said with a grin. “Need to hold still.”

***

Luna had been holding out for as long as she could, but she was reaching her limit. The ravens didn't allow her any opportunity to counter attack, so for as long as they were completely focused on her, she could do little else but dodge. When her guards had attempted to help, it gave her a momentary opportunity, but she used it to try to warn them instead of capitalizing on her momentary advantage. Part of her regretted it, but the rest of her felt it was the right choice.

She didn't want to lose anypony else.

At that moment an explosion of confetti filled the sky directly in front of an oncoming raven, causing it to stop in its tracks. Luna seized the opportunity, flying away from the other two ravens and charging her horn with magic.

The three immediately chased after her, but their progress was hampered by additional explosions of confetti that kept getting in their way.

As one of them passed by overhead, Applejack threw her lasso. It wrapped around the raven's three legs and pulled taut around them. There was an immediate effect on the raven's balance – it began swerving wildly.

“Gotcha! Yee-hah!” Applejack called out from her perch at the top of a tree, which she was holding tightly onto.

Fluttershy flew up next to Applejack, joining her from below.

“You tie the rope to the tree nice and tight?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” Fluttershy answered with a smile as she watched the rope being pulled away by the raven whole yards at a time.

Suddenly, the rope pulled taut, and the entire top half of the tree was ripped off and went flying through the sky with Applejack in tow.

“Fluuuuuuutteeeeeeershyyyyyyyy,” Applejack yelled out in terror as she found herself suddenly being dragged through the air by the giant bird.

“Ohmygoodness, COMING!” Fluttershy cried out as she flew after her friend.

The extra weight meant that the raven was losing speed, so Applejack found herself getting closer and closer to the sea of trees that formed the Everfree Forest. She tried shimmying up the rope a little bit, but she was approaching the tips of those trees a lot faster than she was climbing. The tree the rope had been tied to was only a foot away from the forest when Fluttershy managed to catch up and pull Applejack away. The moment she did so, the tree crashed into the forest, splintering trees every which way until it got stuck. The rope pulled taught around the raven's legs, causing it to cry out in pain. It was now stuck in midair, unable to chase Luna any further. It turned itself around, flapping madly as it prepared to burn the rope with it's fire breath.

The moment it did so, Luna suddenly teleported into existence behind him.

“One,” she said as an enormous beam of moonlight burst from her horn, striking the Raven and shooting him up into the sky where he became a tiny little star.

“Ye did quite well, “ She called to Applejack and Fluttershy down below before turning to face the other two ravens, who were doubling back and flying towards her, realizing they'd been tricked.

Charging both her star-rise and teleportation spells at the same time was a risky gambit, but it had paid off – Luna now had time to charge another star-rise spell up.

She gathered magic in her horn, but at that moment the wind suddenly blew, causing cold air to rush up against her open wounds. Luna gasped in pain as the spell dissipated, her concentration broken. The two ravens noticed their advantage, and began closing in rapidly.

Confetti explosions began spreading across the sky once more, but the ravens were no longer stopping for anything other that a direct hit. Thus, they didn't slow down at all. They didn't, that is, until a purple laser suddenly shot up from below, clipping one of the raven's wings and causing it to spin out of formation. The other, however, was still charging straight toward Luna, who was struggling to charge her spell up again in time. He was only thirty yards away, twenty, ten... and then Fluttershy looked at him disapprovingly.

The raven found himself inadvertently screeching to a halt in the face of Fluttershy's stare, who flew directly in front of Luna to protect her, after having dropped Applejack off down below.

“Bad birdy,” she said sternly. “Say you're sorry.”

The raven's will was stronger than she thought, however, as he began to quickly push through his fear and rush up to Fluttershy in order to attack her.

And that's when the boulder dropped on his head.

“Thanks, Tom, darling,” Rarity called down from above, her butterfly-like wings glittering in the light of the moon. “I appreciate the help.”

Both 'Tom' and the raven crashed down into the forest below.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy called out.

“Sorry I was late darling, I had to find a suitable rock.”

“No, behind you!” Fluttershy screamed.

Rarity turned around suddenly and barely ducked in time to avoid a blast of fire that passed her overhead.

“Hah!” she called out confidently. “Missed me!”

It was then that she realized that the solar energy of the flames had caused her wings to crumble to ash.

“OHNONOTAGAIN!” she screamed as she fell uncontrolled through the sky, only to be suddenly caught by Luna, who levitated her over to Fluttershy.

“Two,” the Princess said as she fired her star-rise spell at the Raven who had attacked Rarity. It was a direct hit, and within moments he was yet another star in the sky.

She then turned her vision downwards to the raven lying unconscious beneath her.

“Three,” she said, and with that he joined his brothers.

***

“Gah!” Rainbow cried out in pain, clenching her face. “What did you just do to me?”

“I just fired off an ordinary blast of magic from my horn,” Evil Eye's voice responded with a chuckle, again from all directions. It's too bad you had your eyes closed, if they were open it would have stuuuuuung.”

Rainbow just frowned, straining her ears in an attempt to discern where the real voice was coming from.

“That was quite clever of you, you know,” Evil Eye said. “I can create illusions, I can create imaginary sounds, I can even hide myself, but I can't hide the sounds I make.”

“And nopony's ever thought of this before?” Rainbow asked doubtfully.

“You're the first pony I've been forced to fight directly,” Evil Eye answered with a laugh. “I'm very happy about it too, I REALLY want to hurt you now, Dash. You've injured my beautiful body.”

“Yeah?” Dash asked. “Then show me where it hurts and I'll kiss it for you.”

“Hahaha, sorry, but I've learned my lesson. You aren't getting anywhere near my body anymore tonight.”

“Yeah, then how do you plan on hurting me?” Rainbow asked, taunting her.

“Oh there are other ways to hurt a pony than violence,” Evil Eyes answered, “but first I'm going to need you to open your eyes.”

Dash suddenly found her eyelids involuntarily flying open, and found herself not looking at the moonlight dome, but at a beautiful clear sky. Dash tried to close her eyes, but found that she couldn't. Her eyes started to water from the strain.

“Look real closely, Rainbow Dash, do you remember this scene from somewhere?” Evil Eye asked. “That's right! It's the scene of the future I showed you where your daughter learned to fly! Look! There she is now!”

Sure enough, the older Aurora suddenly went flying by, giggling happily.

Rainbow just scowled.

“Is there a point to this!?” she angrily demanded.

“Oh of course! Right in front of you, is your beloved daughter, happily flying through the sky.”

Then, Evil Eye's voice suddenly dropped an octave.

“Let's see what happens when we take her wings away.”

Rainbow Dash was struck speechless for a moment.

“N-nothing will happen!” she yelled out. “It's just an illusion!”

“Oh rest assured, it will be VERY realistic, trust me,” Evil Eye said with a chuckle. “Or better yet, see for yourself! Bye-bye wings!”

Then, with a poof of magic, the wings vanished from Aurora's back, and with a shriek, she suddenly began to fall through the sky,

“AURORA!” Rainbow cried out, attempting to dive off the cloud, only to collide with the immovable hard ground of reality.

“No! Mommy! Help me! HELP ME!” came the illusion's screams from below.

“It's just an illusion!” Dash screamed to herself, as she strained to close her eyes. “It's not real!”

However, no matter how hard she strained, her eyes wouldn't close. Desperate, she tried to look away instead, but when she did, the whole world suddenly moved with her head, as though her eyes were locked onto to the form of her falling daughter.

Evil Eye just laughed at her desperation.

Realizing looking away wouldn't work, she tried to cover her eyes with her legs, but then she merely saw the same scene playing out on the back of them.

It was useless – she was about to see her daughter hit the ground.

The moment she realized that, the moment she fell into complete despair, time seemed to slow, Evil Eye's laughter died out, and Rainbows own thoughts seemed to echo inside her mind.

“This is all my fault,” Rainbow thought to herself as she watched Aurora slowly fall. “If I was able to just ignore that letter this never would have happened. But I couldn't, Aurora – I couldn't be happy with you the way you were... because I thought you wouldn't be happy either.”

Aurora was a mere twenty yards from the ground.

“Man, I was so hung up on what you couldn't do, Aurora, I couldn't even go see you for two days... Really, how disloyal was that?”

Ten yards.

“But y'know, Scoots made me realize. She showed me how stupid I was acting. She showed me that kids, no matter what they can or cannot do... the most important thing to them... Is for somepony to accept them for who they are.”

And then, there was a flash of red light.

***

Rainbow Dash's eyes closed, and then they opened, closed and opened once more. She was staring directly at the forest floor, and she heard Evil Eye's voice laughing around her – her single voice. Rainbow slowly tilted her head up and saw her – the real her. Color wise, she wasn't that different from the illusionary form she had shown Rainbow before – her mane was red, and her coat was yellow. Aside from that however... her true form reminded Rainbow of Chrysalis more than anypony else. There was the same sort of corrupted sense about her. While Chrysalis had a number of holes throughout her body however, what really stood out about Evil Eye... was the eyes. There had to be hundreds of them, covering almost every inch of her body. Eyes on her chest, on her flank, on her back, on her legs, on her forehead, eyes everywhere, twitching and glancing around restlessly. She even had a pair of leathery black wings that were also covered with eyes – that explained a lot. A pretty good number of them were closed, oozing tears or pus or something – likely as a result of the beatdown Rainbow gave her.

“Hahaha!” she laughed, “How was it Rainbow Dash! Did it meet your expectations?

Then, as if struck by an idea, she began imitating the things the fake Aurora had said earlier that day.

“Oh could it be I made you speechless? I did, didn't I? Ahahahaha.”

“I didn't see it,” Dash answered quietly.

“Huh?” Evil eye asked, all of her eyes widening a little at once, before shrugging it off with a laugh. “What, are you in denial now? Ahahaha.”

“Nope, I didn't see it,” Dash repeated. “But I see you now.”

Dash looked directly into Evil Eye's primary pair of eyes, the ones that were a sickening black. It was a sensation the latter was unused to, as she had enchanted them to make anyone who looked into them ill. Not only was this mare looking at her, she was looking directly into her eyes with no consequences.

Once she met Rainbow's gaze, however, Evil Eyes noticed something about the former's eyes too. They were glowing a bright red.

“You... really can see me can't you...” Evil Eye remarked in a kind of stunned wonder. “How.... HOW!?”

“Dunno,” Rainbow answered. “Don't really care. All I know is that it means it's over for you.”

Evil Eye laughed at this, though it was at a much higher pitch than usual, as though it was partly a fearful scream. “Oh is it now? IS IT!?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow answered. “You can't hurt me or my foal ever again.”

“Oo-oOh can't I now, Rainbow Dash!?” Evil Eye asked, the pupils of her many eyes shrinking to little dots. “Are you sure about that!? Don't tell me that you've completely forgotten WHERE YOUR DAUGHTER IS RIGHT NOW!?”

With that, Evil Eye let out a sudden blast of energy that flew across the moonlit dome, striking the baby carrier that had been left there unattended since the beginning of their fight, causing it to explode and scatter its contents throughout the dome. Rainbow didn't so much as flinch, and instead kept her eyes solely locked onto Evil Eye. One of the contents of the carrier flew through the air and landed in front of Evil Eye, rolling to a stop.

“A...a rock...?” Evil Eye said in disbelief.

“Wow,” Rainbow said, deadly calm. “You really did it.”

“H-huh?” Evil Eye asked, all of her eyes turning to stare straight at Rainbow Dash.

“If I was actually stupid enough to bring my daughter with me, you would have killed her right there.”

“I...I...”

Another rock landed on the ground in front of Rainbow. This one, however, was different. It was a pure red ruby cut in the shape of a lightning bolt, and set inside a gold necklace.

“Unforgivable,” Rainbow said as she picked the Element of Loyalty off the ground and placed it on her neck, where it immediately snapped into place.

As soon as she had done so, the red glow from her eyes changed into a red aura that engulfed her entire body.

Evil Eye stepped back instinctively, placing her back to the wall of the dome.

“Unforgivable,” Rainbow repeated.

And then, she charged forward.

At first, Evil Eye thought Rainbow was going to run straight into her, but she didn't, she missed her by mere inches and instead ran up the wall of the dome and circled around. She was moving blindingly fast, faster than was possible for any pony to move, even in flight, and yet... Rainbow was doing it. She was darting around the dome every which way, engulfed in that red aura, leaving behind a red dust in her wake.

Several times Rainbow came close to hitting her, and each time Evil Eye was driven closer and closer to the center of the dome. Meanwhile, the red dust had begun to gather in a cloud above her, and Evil Eye heard a sudden ominous crack of thunder.

And then... it hit her – a bolt of crimson lightning, straight from above. It arched through her body all the way through to the ground, from which it then reemerged and turned back into a pony – Rainbow Dash.

The moment she had been struck, Evil Eye understood. What Rainbow Dash had done wasn't an attack on her body, it was an attack on her very soul. She knew this because she had experienced the same thing once before, when Nightmare Moon had cornered her and sealed her into the sky. That's why she understood... that she was going to be sealed again, once more.

“H...how...?” Evil Eye started to ask.

“Hmm?” Rainbow asked as she turned her head back towards her opponent, her red Aura still burning brightly.

“How.... does.... Daring.... Do... and... the... Quest... for... the … Sapphire... Stone... end?” Evil Eye managed to choke out, tears flowing from all her eyes.

“Oh...” Rainbow answered indifferently. “The bad guy loses.”

“As.... I.... thought....”

With that, Evil Eye exploded into a ball of crimson light, which then shot upward, shattering Luna's dome into a million pieces, and flying off into the sky, where a new bright red star then formed.

***

Twilight watched the red star ascend to the sky and then suddenly gasped as she saw where it flew to. She immediately took out her astronomy book from before and turned to the page she had bookmarked.

“I knew it!” she cried out. “I knew something was strange!”

“What's strange, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked as she, Rarity, and Fluttershy wrapped bandages tightly around Luna's side.

“This star was gone!” Twilight said, pointing to a dot in one of the diagrams. “But now it's back! And it's red! What could that mean?”

“We do not know of the significance of the color,” Luna answered, getting to her hooves as the others finished up. “But it confirms what we have suspected since earlier tonight... Somepony has discovered how to free those trapped in the sky.”

“And now,” she added, looking up. “Somepony has sent one back.”

“Since earlier tonight?” Rarity asked confusedly. “Princess, what's going on, surely we deserve an explanation?”

“Explanations can wait until we've found Rainbow Dash,” Luna answered. “We don't know what state she may be in.”

***

It didn't take much time at all to find Rainbow Dash, since she was exactly where Luna had left her, though significantly more exhausted. The moment she saw them, she burst into a full scale confession of everything that had happened over the past two days – the fall, the letter, the times she met with scoots, how she had contacted Luna and finally, what had happened while they were fighting the ravens.

“Wait a minute,” Applejack interrupted towards the end. “You used the Element of Loyalty? All by your lonesome!?”

“Yeah, but I have no idea how,” she said, glancing up at Luna, “I was hoping you'd know.”

Luna frowned slightly.

“In Our time using the elements We had never heard of such a thing... but...”

“What is it, Princess?” Fluttershy asked quietly, sensing Luna's hesitation.

“This is second-hoof information,” Luna explained, ”but we were told that during the changeling invasion of Canterlot, Princess Cadence used the power of love to supercharge Shining Armor's barrier spell. If thou were desperate to save your daughter, even an illusionary one, perhaps thy love for her resonated naturally with the Element of Loyalty?”

“Huh,” Rainbow said thoughtfully, “That would actually make a lot of sense.”

“Then for the moment let us assume that was the case,” Luna said simply.

“I'm really sorry, Rainbow” Twilight suddenly apologized.

“What are you talking about Twi?” Rainbow asked. “I was the one that ditched on you.”

“Well, maybe, but... If I had tried to hunt you down instead of giving you your space I might have saved you a lot of trouble.”

“Trouble?” Rainbow asked. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, well... Uh, I wrote a brand new spell today!” Twilight answered with a chuckle. “One that directly converts unicorn magic into pegasus magic.”

Rainbow gasped at the implication, her wings spreading in excitement.

“You mean...!”

Twilight held up a hoof, before Rainbow could get too ahead of herself.

“It is incredibly complicated, and Aurora probably won't be able to cast it for a long time.”

Rainbow's wings drooped a little at that news.

“But until then, I'll be able to cast it for her instead,” Twilight finished.

Rainbow's mood soared at that, and she reached forward and pulled Twilight into a hug.

“That's amazing, Twilight!” she cried out, before suddenly realizing something and stepping back. “Will it work for Scootaloo too?”

“Yep,” Twilight said with a giggle. “She helped me test it. She dropped by earlier today to see Luna, I guess now I know why. But she was really eager to try it. She can't wait to show you too!”

“I can't wait to see!” Rainbow said, grinning. “Aurora too, for that matter. It's only been two days but I feel like I've missed so much.”

For some reason, Rarity sighed at that, causing Applejack to look over curiously.

“Alright then, let's go see our babies!” Pinkie suddenly cried out. “Party at Derpy's house!”

She blew a noisemaker and started hopping off in the direction of Derpy's cotttage.

“Pinkie!” Fluttershy gently scolded. “It's the middle of the night and we've already imposed on then enough. Let's just quickly and quietly go in, bring them up to speed, and then go home so that the rest of their night is calm, peaceful, and uneventful.”

***

Spike jerked awake at the sound of a hoof knocking on the front door of Derpy's cottage.

“What, back already?” he said with a yawn as he got to feet and walked over to the door.

“That you Twilight?” he asked as he reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

The moment he did so, a big furry foreleg came out of nowhere and slammed Spike against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

“Nope,” Rat Race said as he stepped into the house.


Chapter 13: The Unlucky


*** Earlier ***

Two night guards, clad in dark armor, sat in the trees outside Derpy's cottage. Their sharp eyes piercing the darkness of the forest for any signs of trouble.

One of them looked away for a moment, glancing up at the night sky with a grin on his face.

“Our princess sure is something, eh?” he said, taking note of the new stars that had appeared in the sky.

“Pfft,” the other scoffed. “And you were worried.”

“Well, you heard the commander, the whole platoon was routed.”

“Yeah,” the second guard said with a solemn nod. “Hope they're okay...”

A moment of silence passed between the two before the first guard spoke again.

“Wish we could've been there.”

The other uttered a short laugh that gradually turned into a cough.

“We'd probably just've gotten knocked out like the others.”

“Not me,” the first said with a grin. “You know me, I'm an elite, best of the best!”

“That's not what the captain thinks,” the other said with another, harsher cough.

“Hey, he just doesn't appreciate my 'feigning sleep strategy.'”

“Maybe cause you're not actually... *cough cough* feigning.”

“Yeah, maybe,” the first said with a grin, glancing out into the forest for a moment before turning back towards his partner.

“You feeling alright, by the way? You've been coughing pretty... Shade!”

The guard jumped to his hooves as his partner, Shade, flopped off his own tree branch and fell to the ground, hitting several branches on the way down. He dove down to the forest floor and ran up to the unconscious stallion.

“Shade!” he called out, shaking him. “C'mon man, get a grip!”

It was then that the pony noticed a scent in the air that he hadn't before, and immediately raised a hoof to his mouth as he began coughing uncontrollably.

“Crap!” he managed to to blurt out between coughs as his joints began to seize up, causing him to collapse on the forest floor. “It's... *cough* garlic....”

With that, the guard fell into unconsciousness. A few moments later, Rat Race emerged from the bushes, shifting into pony form.

“Yer kind has way too many weird weaknesses,” he said to the unconscious pair, a disapproving scowl on his face.

He turned his head to meet the eyes of a rat that had just climbed down from the treetops.

“Good work,” he said with a nod. “Head back to base.”

The rat squeaked a response, then scampered off into the forest as Rat Race turned towards Derpy's cottage and began striding forward.

“Jeez, what a mess,” he muttered to himself. “Could that idiot possibly have mucked things up any worse?”

Evil Eye had, in the span of a night, managed to undo an entire month of stealthy reconnaissance by not only blowing her own cover in a spectacular manner, but also utterly failing in covering up the loose ends she'd created. Well, it wasn't as though she had much hope against Nightmare Moon, but it might have been worth it if she'd at least been able to take out Rainbow Dash and pose as her.

The Yatagarasu brothers weren't any better – was it really necessary to start a a big loud flashy air show? The smart thing to do would have been to remain hidden. Revenge obsessed morons, all of them.

So here he was, trying to salvage the situation. By morning, Ponyville would almost certainly be overrun with guards on high alert, severely hampering his ability to move around undetected. He could continue his spy mission under those circumstances and get captured or worse for his trouble, or he could make his mission redundant by capturing the foals now, thereby returning to an honest lifestyle of robbing rich ponies of their hard earned bits. With the majority of the night guard wiped out, this would be his only chance.

“I'm not getting paid enough for this,” he said as he stepped up to the front door, chancing a peek through the window.

The dragon was asleep on the couch. Rat Race knocked sharply on the door, causing him to jerk awake.

“What, back already?” the dragon said with a yawn as he approached the door. “That you Twilight?”

As he opened the door, Rat Race partially shifted into hybrid form, adding a great deal of mass to his forehoof as he brought it around and slammed Spike against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

“Nope,” he answered as he stepped inside.

He was hoping his intrusion went unnoticed, but a moment later Rat Race heard a voice come from the direction of the kitchen.

“Spike? Are they back?” Derpy called out.

She poked her head around the corner from the direction of the kitchen, her eyes widening when she saw Rat Race standing there.

“Who are you?” she asked confusedly.

“Exterminator ma'am,” Rat Race answered with a slight wince. “Hired by the town. Was told ya had a bit of a infestation here.”

It was the well rehearsed excuse Rat Race had used whenever he'd been caught somewhere he shouldn't have been. He used it so often it slipped out unintentionally the moment he had been confronted. It was a pretty good excuse in the right circumstances – one could easily imagine an exterminator doing his work during the night when a building was closed, for instance, but nopony would believe that excuse from a pony that walked into their home in the middle of the night.

“Oh!” Derpy said, her face lighting up. “Well come on in then!”

...Almost nopony.

Rat Race was surprised for a moment, but nonetheless stepped further inside, thanking her. He glanced down at Spike, noticing that the entryway's wall blocked his unconscious body from sight.

“Would you like some coffee?” Derpy asked energetically, turning back towards the kitchen. “I just made a fresh batch!”

“...Sure,” Rat Race answered, slinking behind her with a dark smile on his face. “I'd appreciate it.”

She began removing a few porcelain mugs from the overhead cabinet and placing them on the kitchen counter.

“I don't usually make it that often anymore,” she said happily as he entered the kitchen. “Carrot Top usually doesn't let me.”

“...Is that so?” Rat Race quietly answered as he crept into position a few feet behind her.

“Yeah, but I really need to stay awake right now,” Derpy said as she checked that all the water had been filtered through. “I wouldn't want to fall asleep when the others are counting on me.”

“No,” Rat Race said as he stepped behind her and raised a hoof above his head menacingly. “You wouldn't.”

***

Princess Celestia awoke to the worst possible sound. It was a loud steady buzzing emanating from a magical speaker built into the wall of her royal chambers, close to the door. The noise itself was only mildly irritating; the real problem was what it meant. That noise was intended to wake her specifically when something went terribly wrong during the night. In short, it was the emergency buzzer.

Celestia kicked the sheets off and strode to the door, magically zapping her regalia into place without breaking her stride.

“What has happened?” she asked as she opened the double doors and looked over the three guards waiting outside.

“Pfffft BWAHAHAHAHA!!!”

The one on the right suddenly burst out laughing, causing Celestia to step back in shock. She glanced upwards at what the guard was looking at, and found that her eternally flowing mane was eternally flowing in nine different directions. With a small blush and a burst of magic, she quickly fixed it.

“Private!” Captain Dusk scolded his subordinate sharply before turning back to Celestia. “Apologies Princess. Your sister has requested armed reinforcements and protocol states that you be alerted.”

“My Sister?” Celestia asked, her heart beginning to beat fast out of anxiety. “Lead the way.”

She strode forward, Dusk falling into place beside her as the two privates followed behind, the one that had laughed still stifling giggles.

“I've already ordered everypony I could through the long distance teleporter,” Dusk explained. “The enemy is a trio of phoenix raven hybrids an well as a unicorn of uncertain ability.”

“Ravens?” she asked. “More remnants of Sleipnir?”

“Worse,” Dusk replied. “This unicorn mare was sealed.”

“Sealed...?” Celestia asked, eyes widening at the implication.

“And they targeted Rainbow Dash, so they know where the foals and their mothers are,” he continued frankly. “Princess, I think it's safe to assume at this point that the enemy is highly organized, much more than we thought they were. If they were capable of sniffing out our charges and breaking your sister's spell...”

“Then if nothing else, they're a very serious threat,” Celestia finished.

Dusk nodded. “Shall I summarize the night's events from the beginning?”

“Please.”

As Dusk related everything that had happened that night – how Rainbow had contacted Luna, the plan to trap Evil Eye, the attack of the ravens and the failed counterattack – Celestia silently fumed. She had been wrong. Though the fact that Twilight and her friends had been attacked after finding the life mirror was distressing, she had honestly believed that it was nothing more than a handful of monsters responsible, and not any kind of organized plot. The only reason she had let Luna spend so much time in Ponyville on 'guard duty' was because she wanted her to make some friends.

Now she had sent her sister straight to the battlefield instead.

A thousand year old memory began to stir in her.

---

“Sister!” she had called out, her younger self dashing out through the back doors of the royal palace, eyes fixed on the robed figure walking away. “Luna, wait please!”

Luna sighed and turned back to face her.

“Well met, sister,” she said simply.

“I had no idea you had returned!” Celestia gasped out. “Why did you not announce yourself, I would have prepared a feast!”

“I returned only to have my wounds tended to,” Luna answered, “I saw no reason to disturb your court.”

“Wounds?” Celestia asked anxiously. “What wounds, show me!”

“Celestia...” Luna began, exasperatedly.

“Luna...” Celestia countered, lowering her own voice an octave.

Luna rolled her eyes and relented, raising her cloak with a wing and displaying the damaged body that was hidden underneath. Thick bandages were wrapped around her every which way. Celestia gasped in shock at the display.

“It looks worse than it is,” Luna said before Celestia could speak. “It doesn't even hurt anymore.”

Celestia glared at her sister, looking her straight in the eye as she jabbed a hoof straight into her sister's ribs.

Luna winced with a hiss and withdrew her body from Celestia's touch.

“Oh really?” Celestia asked.

Luna scowled, caught in a lie. She turned away from her sister and began walking away from the castle again. Celestia followed right after her.

“Where are you going!?” she demanded.

“Where do you think?” Luna coolly responded.

“At least give yourself time to heal!”

“Time?” Luna asked, glancing back. “The ponies out there don't have time. They suffer each and every night. And they'll keep on suffering until Sleipnir is gone.”

“Luna, Sleipnir is gone,” Celestia angrily responded. “We both watched him die!”

Luna shook her head angrily. “You still don't believe me, do you sister?”

“I believe that his remaining forces are a very real threat, but you can't except me to believe that he's... what did you call it...? Body hopping!”

“Can't I!?” Luna asked, stopping and turning to face her sister accusingly. “Can't I expect you to believe me?”

“I've talked to the sorcerers at the academy – they've done tests. What you've described is impossible!”

“And what would Starswirl have said!?” Luna angrily demanded.

“He...!”

Celestia started to object, but the mention of Starswirl's name had caused a sudden lump in her throat to form.

“He... would have said nothing is impossible,” Celestia acknowledged with a sigh.

Luna stepped forward towards her sister, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“I have seen things, Celly. The mirrors are just the beginning, everything Sleipnir's hooves touch reek of foreign magic, of dark origins the likes of which you have never seen.”

She stepped back, looking straight into Celestia's eyes.

“I do not expect you to face that with me, but trust me when I say that there's more out there in the dark that can be explained with our limited understanding of magic.”

“I...”

“Say you trust me, Celly.”

“I... I trust you, Luna,” Celestia answered haltingly.

“...But?” Luna asked.

“But what about me!?” Celestia asked. “I am to remain behind as you run off into the wilderness and face those dark powers!? I am to see you only when the injuries you receive are so hellish that they require attention from the palace healers!?”

“I told you, these injuries are nothing to fret about...”

“They are, Luna!” Celestia strongly objected, tears starting to flow. “They are to me! I can't bear the thought of you being hurt out there each night! Of you suffering for my sake and the sake of all Equestria!”

“I know,” Luna said quietly. “It's why I tried to leave without seeing you today.”

At that, Celestia merely hung her head, unable to say anything.

“You won't have to worry any more,” Luna continued, extending her wings and lifting up into the air above Celestia. “When next I return, it will be when Sleipnir is vanquished for good."

“Luna!” Celestia suddenly cried out, snapping her head upward. “No, please!”

“This is farewell, sister,” Luna said as magic began flowing to her horn.

And then, with a burst of magic, Luna was gone, leaving a wailing Celestia behind in the palace gardens.

---

Celestia's mind returned to the present. Luna had meant what she said. After that, their last meeting, Luna didn't appear for over ten years. The only reason Celestia knew she was alive was because of the rising of the moon at night, and the ever so frequent ascent of new stars to the sky. She tried to track her down during that period, but found only rumors and shadows. To the general public, Princess Luna had more or less faded from existence. In her place however, tales of Nightmare Moon began to form. Tales of the mysterious mare arriving just in time to save a village under siege, swiftly and mercilessly dispatching the monsters responsible, and then walking away without a word. The villagers were grateful, yet terrified by her brutal nature, and once they discovered the truth behind the stars, became equally terrified of the idea that the monsters were lurking overhead.

It had taken centuries for Celestia to fabricate the lie that the stars had always existed. It required the subtle but persistent removal and revision of key historical texts, not to mention countless bribes for those ponies who had discovered that history was being rewritten.

It was worth it though, if only she could guarantee that her sister's reputation wouldn't be tarnished upon her prophesied release.

“Princess, look!” Dusk suddenly called out, pointing at something that lay beyond the giant window they were passing.

Celestia gasped, then ran through a nearby doorway out onto a balcony, Dusk right beside her. There, hanging in the sky above was a bright red star.

“Luna...” she said as tears came to her eyes. “I won't be able to protect you anymore...”

***

A great ruckus was coming from Derpy's cottage when Rainbow, Luna, and the others arrived.

“Oh, look!” Pinkie called out. “They decided to have a party on their own! Neato!”

“I don't think it's a party...” Fluttershy said quietly. “It sounds like shouting...”

“What in tarnation are they thinking?” Applejack asked. “They'll wake the foals if they keep carrying on like that.”

“...I've got a bad feeling,” Twilight said suddenly. “Let's go girls!”

Twilight sprinted off and the others quickly ran after her. They burst through the open doorway into the living room, finding that most of the shouting they had heard was being made by Carrot Top.

“...Honestly what were you thinking!?” she angrily asked the mare cowering before her.

“...I'm sorry...” Derpy said, tears running down her cheeks.

“You think 'sorry' will be...” Carrot began, looking up as the others appeared before her.

“What happened!?” Twilight asked urgently.

“Are the foals alright!?” Rarity added.

“They're fine,” Carrot answered shortly before glancing back at Derpy. “Fortunately...”

“What has happened?” Luna asked authoritatively, spreading her wings and stepping through the crowd of ponies gathered at the entrance.

Derpy looked up uncertainly at Carrot Top.

“Well?” the orange mare asked impatiently. “Tell her”

Derpy got to her hooves haltingly.

“I'm sorry,” she said sadly. “I let a bad pony in.”

The others gasped.

“Somepony tried to hurt my girl!?” Applejack yelled out suddenly. “Where is he!? Where's that varmint!? I'm gonna string him up by his...”

“Calm yourself, fair Applejack,” Luna commanded, interrupting her before turning back to Derpy. “We understand... where is this bad pony now?”

“Well...” Derpy said sheepishly, her head hung low as she began to tell her tale.

***

Derpy had just gripped the coffee pot with her mouth when she momentarily went cross eyed. Having lost her depth perception, she banged the bottom of the pot on the kitchen counter. Not wanting to spill any, she hastily shifted her body but ending up tripping over her own hooves and falling flat on her bottom. As she did so, Derpy watched in horror as the coffee pot she had been holding arced up over her head...

...and landed, mouth first, on the muzzle of that nice exterminator pony sent by the mayor, causing the scalding hot contents to wash over his mouth, nose, and down his neck and chest before slowly pooling at his hooves.

For a moment Rat Race just stared wide eyed at where the pot had been in the air a second before, but when that moment passed he began to instead screech like a boiled lobster. He rolled around frantically on the ground, desperately trying to wipe the burning liquid off his coat, his agonized screams muffled by the pot stuck on his snout.

Derpy, realizing she had just accidentally hurt somepony, jumped to her hooves.

“Oh no! Oh no! I'm sorry! I'm so...! Towels! I need paper towels!

She turned around and spotted the roll she was looking for hanging on a horizontally aligned holder. She tried to rip a few pieces off with her hooves, but in her panic she just ended up unraveling some of the roll. In desperation, she grabbed the edges of the roll and tried to pull the whole thing off the holder, but it was stuck and not budging.

Meanwhile, Rat Race had stopped screaming, and despite his body twitching in pain he had managed to pull the coffee pot off of his face and get to his hooves. Now breathing heavily with rage, and with a face dripping with coffee, he strode forward, hoof raised and ready to sock Derpy across the jaw.

At that point, Derpy, completely oblivious to what the other pony was attempting, yanked on the paper towel roll so hard that she accidentally ripped the entire holder out of the wall and beaned the stallion across the face with it, knocking him backwards. Rat Race hit his face on the edge of the kitchen table on the way down, where he landed on his back in the puddle of hot coffee that was spreading across the floor.

“Oh no!” Derpy nearly shrieked, realizing what she had just done and looking in horror at his bruised face. “Is that blood!?”

Her legs growing weak at the sight, Derpy loosened her grip on the heavy paper towel holder, which slipped out of her hooves and landed on Rat Race's soft underbelly.

“Gu-hoh!” Rat Race gasped out as the wind was knocked out of him.

“Ah! Oh no! I... I..!” Derpy sputtered, looking around the kitchen in panic before her eyes settled on the closet door.

“The first aid kit!” she called out, rushing over and throwing the door open.

This closet was jam packed full of stuff they hardly ever used, and Derpy's eyes locked on a metal case with the red cross emblazoned upon its side. Derpy grabbed the sides with both hooves and tried to yank it out of the closet as Rat Race once again got to his hooves and tried to come up behind her. After several tries, Derpy successfully managed to dislodge the kit from the closet, only to immediately realize that everything stacked on top of it was about to come down on top of her. She quickly jumped aside right as Rat Race charged forward... right into the falling clutter. Lawn chairs, a toolbox, even Dinky's old tricycle rained down upon his head.

When the contents of the closet had ceased to fall, Rat Race woozily poked his head out of the top of the pile and glanced upward at the top of the closet...

...where an open bag of ice melt on the upper shelf suddenly tipped over and emptied it's contents onto the stallion's head, causing his burns to sting with renewed vigor.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!” He cried out, bursting from the pile in pain.

“I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!” Derpy repeated, now in tears. “I know! I'll take you to the hospital... where's the stretcher..!?”

“FOR THE LOVE OF SLEIPNIR STOP HELPING ME!” He shrieked, hurriedly backing away, bumping the back of his head on a kitchen cabinet as he did so.

“Derpy!” Carrot Top called down from above as she descended the stairs. “I'm trying to sleep, what the hay are you ponies even doing down... HEY!”

She suddenly spotted the suspicious looking stallion, who made an annoyed hiss and then ran for the front door.

“Oh no you don't!” Carrot Top yelled as she ran down the stairs after him.

As Rat Race ran out the door, he grabbed the unconscious Spike in his mouth by the tail and flung him back at his pursuer. He hit Carrot Top straight in the chest, sending her flying back inside. As Rat Race sprinted off into the forest Derpy ran outside and yelled after him.

“I'm sorry!” she cried out frantically. “Please don't be mad at me!”

“...Derrrrrrrpyyyyy...” Carrot Top hissed through her teeth as she got to her hooves

“Uh...” was the only response she could make before Carrot Top started angrily demanding answers out of her.

***

“...and that's what happened,” Derpy concluded, looking up sheepishly.

The others were regarding her with rather strange expressions, as though they were wincing.

“I uh... Y'know what...” Applejack said, “Strike what I said about stringing him up. That's uh... what do them Marwarian ponies call it?”

“Um... karma?” Fluttershy offered timidly.

“Yeah, that's karma right there,” Applejack said with a sage nod. “Land sakes...”

“It's nice that Derpy gets to use her epic clumsiness on somepony who actually deserves it for once,” Rainbow said with a laugh, flying over and giving Derpy a noogie.

“A-aren't you mad at me?” Derpy asked, unsure.

“Of course they are!” Carrot snapped, looking down at Derpy with reproachful eyes. “You were completely irresponsible!”

“Now hold on one moment dearie,” Rarity interjected. “While I admit allowing this stallion free entrance wasn't the smartest decision, I don't think the situation would have been improved if she had fought back...”

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed. “If she had been all 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!' then she could have been hurt. You could have been hurt! The foals could have been hurt!”

“Shoot,” Applejack said with a grin. “When you put it that way, Derpy's a regular hero, ain't she?”

“I-I am?” Derpy asked, surprised.

A few of the others nodded.

“Who-hoo, hero party!” Pinkie suddenly yelled out before Rainbow stuck a hoof in her mouth.

“No,” she said.

“Aww...” Pinkie said once Rainbow had removed it.

“I really don't think you should be encouraging her...” Carrot objected, glancing over at the big goofy grin Derpy was now wearing.

“If Derpy's a hero that makes you a hero too~ooh,” Pinkie added in a sing-song voice.

“It does?” Carrot asked, her eyes going wide.

“Why not?” Fluttershy answered. “I think the way you went after that bad pony was very brave.”

“Oh...” Carrot Top answered as she began to rub the back of her neck sheepishly and laugh. “Well when you put it that way I guess I am kinda a hero aren't I? Hahaha.”

Applejack rolled her eyes and grinned at how easy it was to placate Carrot.

“Whadya say princess?” Applejack asked, turning to Luna who had thus far been very quiet. “Think you've got medals stashed away somewhere for a couple of heroes?”

“Hmm?” Luna asked, suddenly looking up. “Oh, we apologize Applejack. Our thoughts were elsewhere. Was there something thou needed?”

“Oh... t'weren't important princess,” Applejack answered, realizing she had interrupted the princess's train of thought. “Was there something bothering you?”

“Much is bothering us,” Luna answered grimly. “But foremost is that there should have been guards keeping watch outside. If thou wilt excuse us, we should like to check on them.”

“Sure,” Applejack answered with a grin. “We'll hold down the fort.”

Luna gave a quick nod, and then, with a burst of magic, teleported outside. Not long afterward, Twilight descended from upstairs, having run off immediately upon hearing that Spike had been injured.

“How is he, darling?” Rarity asked, spotting her.

“He's still unconscious, but he'll be fine,” Twilight answered in a relieved voice as she joined the others. “It makes me hoof stomping mad though! Where do these Sleipnir fanatics get off!?”

“I hear that!” Rainbow said, pounding her hooves together menacingly. First that Evil Eye, now this 'exterminator.' These ponies better think twice before going after my little girl!”

“Speaking of which,” Twilight said, “Aurora's asleep, but you should totally go see her.”

“Totally,” Rainbow agreed with a grin before flying up the stairs.

“Now how on earth did those foals sleep through the racket you all were making?” Rarity asked in wonder, glancing upstairs as Rainbow disappeared around the corner at the top.

“They didn't,” Carrot answered simply. “They woke up at about the same time I did.”

“And... you got them back to sleep?” Fluttershy asked, a little astonished. “All three of them, on your own?”

“Sure did,” Carrot answered smugly.

“Wow...” Twilight said, impressed. “How on earth did you manage that?”

“Simple,” Carrot Top said with a laugh. “I gave them all a teeny tiny sip of whiskey. Works every time.”

She chuckled to herself for a moment before looking up and realizing nopony else was amused.

“...What?”

***

Luna regarded the unconscious bodies of the two guards that had been keeping watch outside. Suddenly, a shadow passed by overhead, causing Luna to look up. The silhouette she saw matched that of her's sister's, so she gathered magic in her horn and sent up a tiny blue flare. Within moments, Princess Celestia and Captain Dusk had turned around and swooped down to join Luna on the ground.

“Good evening, sister,” Luna said as they landed.

“Good evening,” Celestia said in response, folding her wings. “We noticed you made some changes to the sky.”

Luna just sighed.

“We knew this was coming.”

“Well, I'm sorry for being concerned!” Celestia angrily snapped. “Do you have any idea how much...

“No! No sister,” Luna interjected, slightly annoyed. “We, as in you and I, knew that an attack against Twilight and her friends would come eventually.”

“Oh...” Celestia said, realizing she had jumped the gun “Er, yes, of course.”

Luna rolled her eyes and glanced back down at the fallen, garlic drugged vamponies.

“Well, I knew at least,” she continued. “You always were a bit skeptical about the threat Sleipnir posed.”

Celestia opened her mouth as if to object, but then silently closed it.

“And before you bring up the crimson star,” Luna added, glancing upward, “You should know that that was Rainbow Dash's doing and not mine.”

Both Celestia and Dusk's eyes widened at that.

“Rainbow Dash?” Celestia asked. “How?”

“Her element of harmony,” Luna answered simply.

“I... Well...” Celestia said after a moment. “Then it seems I need to remind her as well as you that messing with the night sky is not...”

“Sister,” Luna interjected, stepping forward. “The very real truth is that regardless of my or anypony else's actions, the night sky is about to change very drastically as Sleipnir's minions are freed one by one. I have made peace with the fact that my connection to the stars may one day again be revealed... Yet I wonder if you have made peace with the fact that your own lies may one day be exposed?”

Celestia bit her lip. Despite what her sister thought, Celestia was much more worried about Luna's reputation, and didn't want that sacrificed unless there was no other option.

“You are absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that this mare was sealed in a star?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes,” came the response.

“And you're sure that her being set free wasn't some magical fluke?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Because there used to be a star there too,” Luna answered, pointing up at a certain section of the sky. “Until tonight.”

“...I see” Celestia said, her voice resigned.

For a few moments, nothing but silence passed between the two mares.

“Well, in that case” Celestia said, a gentle smile breaking out onto her face for the first time that night. “When the truth of the night sky finally comes to light, I will gladly defend both my actions, and yours.”

She stepped forward, approaching Luna until she could rest her own neck against that of her sister's

“No matter what happens, I will not allow them to defame you,” she continued.

Luna was surprised, she hadn't expected Celestia to back down that easily.

“I... thank you sister...” she said after a moment.

“But, you have to promise me something in return...” Celestia continued.

“What is it?” Luna asked as Celestia lifted up one of her forehooves and placed them upon the bandages wrapped around Luna's side.

“Don't hide your pain from me anymore.”

***

“I was wondering when I would hear from you, Rat Race,” Sleipnir's voice boomed out on the upper level of Fluttershy's cottage. “There's quite a lot I wanted to ask y... What on earth happened to you?”

Rat Race sat on Fluttershy's bed, wrapped in bandages all over and sporting a rather foul scowl.

“What didn't?” He snarled.

“Huh...” Sleipnir said after a moment. “Well, in any case, I gather the operation was a failure?”

“A spectacular one, lord,” Rat Race said, bowing with some difficulty due to the bandages. “Words can't express how sorry I am that it led ta the Nightmare learnin' bout the starfall spell.

Sleipnir scoffed.

“You really needn't trouble yourself over that,” he answered simply. “I'd have given a week maximum before somepony else noticed stars were disappearing. In the end, we only lost a few days.”

“And a few brothers,” Rat Race added, against his better judgment.

“Yes, well... we can always free them again if need be... though that brings me to a point I wanted to discuss with you.”

“Yeah?” Rat Race asked.

“What's this red star? “ Sleipnir asked. “I felt the Yatagarasu brothers ascend to join us and was told that three white stars had appeared, but in regards to this red star... I sense nothing.”

“Oh, right,” Rat Race said, recollecting. “Evil Eye was sealed with a magical necklace of some sort. I dunno what it was, I'd never seen it before.”

“Ah, so Agas was sealed too? I suspected as much. Pity, she was rather useful... on occasion. Did you know she's the reason cockatrices can turn ponies to stone?”

“I think ya may have mentioned it, but is that really that important right now?”

“I suppose not. In any case, I can't sense her anymore, and Lulamoon can't call her down again. Says she's being blocked by something.”

“That's... troubling...” Rat Race said after a moment.

“Indeed.” Sleipnir agreed. “We only just found a way around the star rise spell. It's not good for there to be a bypass for our bypass out there.”

Rat Race nodded.

“That's why you're going to find out what this necklace is.”

“Me!?” Rat Race suddenly cried out, almost incredulously.

“...Is there a problem with that?” Sleipnir asked after a moment.

“My Lord, startin' tamorrow this town is going ta be crawling with royal guards!”

“...And?”

“And I can't use my pony form in public since I was seen in it! They'll be lookin' fer me! ”

“...And?”

“And that only leaves my rat form, and the Nightmare knows that rats have been your spies since forever!”

“...And?”

“And... Lord Sleipnir, the odds of me gettin' caught with things as they are are astronomical! How does that serve you!?”

“Alright alright, I get it I get it,” Sleipnir answered in a placating tone. “What can I do to make this easier to handle?”

“I... let me think for a moment,” Rat Race said, a little surprised at his boss's flexibility.

“Sure, take your time.” Sleipnir said with a deep chuckle. “I'm not going anywhere.”

Rat Race sat there, thinking intently for a few minutes until he finally thought of something.

“A decoy,” Rat Race suggested. “Somethin' outside a Ponyville, but still kinda close by. Somethin' that draws attention away from the town itself and towards some outside threat.”

“Hmm...” Sleipnir said in response. “I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, lay low.”

“Yes lord," he said gratefully. "Thank you for your understanding lord.”

“You're a good servant, Rat Race. So long as you continue to put your best hoof forward I don't mind helping out a little. Gives me something to do.”

“Yes lord, thank you lord.”

“Well then, I'll be in touch.”

With that, the call ended, and Rat Race flopped down backwards onto Fluttershy's bed.

“Curse it all,” he thought. “If it hadn't been for that... ditsy mare I'd be in Vanhoover by now.”

As Rat Race fantasized about various ways to make her suffer for what she did to him that day, he found himself slowly drifting off to sleep.

***

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight called out as the regal mare strolled through the door to Derpy's cottage alongside her sister.

“Hello, my little mommies," she said brightly as the others gathered before her. “I understand you've had quite a busy night.”

“You said it, Princess,” Applejack agreed, suppressing a yawn. “T'say it plainly, I think the lot of us are about ready to keel over from exhaustion.”

“We were hoping we could head back home,” Twilight added, “but we weren't sure our homes were even safe right now. If they knew where Derpy lived...”

She glanced over at the mare in question, who tilted her head in confusion.

“Then they might know where all of you live,” Celestia finished with a reassuring smile. “I know. That's why for now we're going to move you all to the library, where you'll be under heavy guard until morning.”

“What about Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked. “When we were told to move here I had her sleep over with Apple Bloom at the farm.”

“We've assigned a platoon there too, just in case,” Luna answered. “They aren't the enemies' primary target so moving them to the library may actually place them in more danger right now.”

“Well, that's a load off my mind,” Applejack said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Um... what going to happen from now on?” Fluttershy timidly asked.

“Isn't it obvious!?” Rainbow called out. “We're gonna hunt down this 'exterminator' dude, along with the rest of this Sleipnir cult, and kick their flanks straight to the moon!”

There were a few murmurs of assent at this, but the two princesses shook their heads.

“While I appreciate the sentiment, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia began. “Protecting you and your foals is our duty, and I'd like you to leave this to us.”

“But princess!” Twilight objected, “They hurt Spike, and they tried to foalnap our daughters!”

Celestia held up a hoof.

“I understand what these creatures are doing is unforgivable,” she said calmly but firmly, “but your duty right now is to be mothers to your foals. You wouldn't want to lose precious quality time with them because you were out chasing after Sleipnir's minions, would you?”

The mommies looked at one another, and after a few moments they all gradually began to nod.

“Yeah, I guess...” Rainbow said relunctantly after a moment.

“I completely agree,” Rarity added. “Let's leave the monster fighting to the royal guard, shall we?”

“I appreciate your understanding,” Celestia said with a nod.

“Um...” Fluttershy began to say. “I understand what you're getting at, Princess, but what if you need the elements of harmony?”

“Then we will call upon you as we did tonight,” Luna answered, “but only as a last resort.”

“I certainly hope it won't come to that,” Celestia added. “If we're fortunate, you will never have to deal with another spawn of Sleipnir again.”

“Knock on wood!” Pinkie suddenly called out, rapidly tapping her hooves on Derpy's wooden floor.

Celestia giggled at this.

“Now then, everypony, please grab your things,” Celestia instructed. “I'd like to leave within ten minutes.”

At that, the ponies scattered to grab their belongings, with Derpy heading back upstairs to wake Dinky.

Applejack trotted over to the living room to grab a few things, and spotted Carrot Top squatting in the corner with her head to the wall.

“We're pulling out, Carrot,” Applejack said. “You can finish your punishment later.”

Carrot stood up and walked away from the corner at those words, mumbling “My grandma did it all the time...” under her breath.

As she started to leave the room Applejack called out to her.

“Hey, uh... listen Carrot...” Applejack said. “Questionable parenting practices aside, you really stuck your neck out for my foal tonight. I know I usually give you a hard time and all, but I just wanna let you know I really appreciate that.”

“Oh... uh, sure!” Carrot answered. “Well, um, I mean, I don't think it's anything that special.”

She flashed a quick grin. “I am her godmother after all.”

She then swiftly exited the room, leaving a stunned Applejack alone.

“...What.”

***

The morning sun filtered through the windows of the royal bedroom as Princess Cadence found herself awakening. Slipping out from under the covers, she reached over and gave her sleeping husband a quick peck on the cheek before smiling and heading to the bathroom to prepare for her day. Shining Armor grinned in his sleep and rolled over as she left.

About ten minutes later, the princess of the Crystal Empire entered her throne room, a newspaper under her wing and a mug of aromatic coffee levitating alongside her. She sat on her throne and began partaking in both, taking pleasure in her morning routine. Both the paper and coffee were things the Crystal Empire didn't have when she came to power, and they were two of the foremost modern advancements that she had brought to it. As she leisurely enjoyed her morning, another mare suddenly wandered in. It was the royal messenger, a topaz colored crystal pony sporting a dark uniform and four winged sandals.

“Oh, princess!” the mare called out when she saw Cadence was present. “I was hoping you were awake. I have something I thought I should bring to your attention.”

“Is it urgent?” Cadence asked, looking up from her paper. “My royal duties aren't scheduled to start for an hour or so.”

“Well... I'm not sure, it's a rather strange thing...” the mare answered, reaching into her messenger bag and pulling something out.

“The gardener was refilling the bird feeders this morning when he came across this, stuffed into one of them,” she continued, bringing the object over to her.

“A letter?” Cadence asked as she received the object from the messenger. “But why would somepony stuff a letter in a bird feeder?”

“I haven't the slightest, your highness, but it's addressed to your husband.”

“What's addressed to me?” Shining Armor asked with a yawn as he entered the throne room, sporting a bad case of bed head.

“This letter,” Cadence answered, flipping it over and glancing at the return address. “Oh, it's from Twilight! ...But it's postmarked a month ago.”

“Twily?” Shining asked, hurrying over. “Oh, that's not good, I promised we'd keep in touch more – She's probably furious.”

“I'm sure she's fine, dear,” Cadence said reassuringly. “Whatever it is, if it was something really important she wouldn't have just sent a single letter.”

“Yeah, you're probably right,” Shining agreed as he magically ripped the envelope open and held the letter up. “Well then, let's see what she has to say...”

***

“DEAR!” Cadence called out, flying in order to keep up her with husband. “Shining, leave the sword! You won't need it!”

“You're right!” Shining said suddenly, opening his mouth and letting the scabbard fall to his hooves before turning his head back towards Cadence with a crazy grin on his face. “You're always right, Honey Bun! It'll be so much more satisfying to beat this stallion to death with my BARE HOOVES!”

“Dear, I...” Cadence began as she landed beside him.

“TWILY!” Shining shouted as he ran forward, bursting out the front doors of the palace and making a beeline directly for the train station even as various ponies turned to gawk.

“Urgh...” Cadence groaned, bringing a hoof to her forehead as her royal messenger ran up behind her, catching up.

“Y-your highness?” the mare asked, out of breath.

“We're... having a bit of a family emergency right now,” Cadence said with a sigh. “Can you move our appointments for today while we handle this?”

“Of course, your highness,” the messenger said, standing up tall and saluting. “It would be no trouble.”

“Thank you,” Cadence said apologetically, before again taking to the air and flying out after her husband, magically closing the palace doors as she did.

The messenger was left alone in the entrance hall, with not another soul by her side.

“No trouble at all...” he repeated smugly through fanged teeth, dark purple magic burning at the edges of his eyes.


Special: The Future


Note: This is a special chapter made as a thank you for reader support. It takes place at some point in the future after the main story is over. While it contains no real spoilers, reading it may lessen the dramatic impact of events in the main story. After all, if character X is alive here, it means they were never in real danger during the main story, so read at your own risk. I haven't decided if it's completely canon at this point either, so bear that in mind as well. Well, enough foreward, enjoy!


Special Chapter


The mood in the Ponyville schoolhouse was a particularly festive one. Hearthswarming Eve decorations hung in the halls and in the classrooms, and throughout the school one could hear the gleeful yells of foals as they took part in their little classroom parties, stuffing themselves with cookies and candies made or bought for their classmates and crowding around the few projectors the school owned to watch holiday movies. One classroom, however, lacked the festive air of the others, and was, in fact, quite unchanged from how it was on any other school day. Oh there were decorations on the wall, and there were a stack of treats piled up on the back table, but the students – the students sat dejected, half asleep, as they listened to the voice of their teacher as she attempted to cram one more fractions lesson down their throats before the winter break.

Alright,” Dinky said, stepping aside to reveal the problem she had written on the blackboard. “So based on what we learned today, who can tell me what we can simplify seventy-five over fifty into?”

A single hoof shot up immediately, but the rest of the class kept their heads down and avoided eye contact with their young teacher.

Dinky sighed as she glanced from one side of the class to the other, looking for any other students who looked like they might know the answer. After a moment she gave up and turned to the filly whose hoof had shot up at the beginning.

“Alright Aurora,” she said, resigned. “What's the answer?”

“Three over two!” she answered immediately before adding, “Which can also be written as one and one half!”

“Very good,” Dinky said with a nod, expecting nothing less from the daughter of Twilight Sparkle.

“Yes!” Aurora cried out, pumping her hooves in the air.

She then got out of her chair and began to smack her own flank with a hoof.

“Kiss it, losers!” she called out to the classmates sitting behind her, who angrily scowled at her in response.

Dinky placed a hoof to her forehead with a sigh, upset with herself from expecting anything less from the daughter of Rainbow Dash.

“Aurora, stop taunting the class,” Dinky scolded irritably as she magically levitated an eraser and wiped down the blackboard.

“Sorry teach,” Aurora apologized halfheartedly as she sat back down. “Come on, give me a hard one!”

“I'd like to give somepony else a chance to answer, Aurora,” Dinky said with a sigh.

“Pfft!” the filly scoffed. “Then why don't you just call on ponies instead of asking for volunteers?"

A few of Aurora's classmates shot glares at Aurora for that, but to their relief the bell rang just then. The quiet classroom immediately sprung to life as the students grabbed their bags, grabbed a few snacks from the back table and then shot out the door.

“O-okay then, everypony!” Dinky called out, disoriented by the sudden burst of activity. “Have a wonderful break!”

The door slammed shut, leaving Dinky alone in the otherwise empty classroom

“I declare!” Golden Apple exclaimed the moment they were out the Ponyville schoolhouse's front door. “That was the most tedious lesson my little ears ever did hear!”

“You said it!” Pumpkin Cake agreed, giggling uncontrollably. “I was ready to die from boredom!”

“I mean who does she think she is?” Golden continued, “making us work our pretty little hindquarters off the last day!?

“Hey!” Aurora called out as she charged over accusingly. “A half day of school is supposed to be a half day of school. If they wanted us to have a class party, they would have just given us the day off!"

“And who, my dear Aurora, would come to school on a day off?” Golden shot back, irritated but a little bemused.

“I would!” Aurora answered proudly, placing a hoof on her chest without a trace of irony.

Pumpkin giggled at this while Golden just rolled her eyes.

“Well then, if you want to spend your time off in school you're free to spend the rest of the day inside,” Golden replied, gesturing dismissively towards the school. “But I think the rest of us are gonna go find some way to enjoy ourselves!”

At that moment, Candy Cloud silently appeared behind Golden Apple and whispered something in her ear. This caused the unicorn filly to shriek in surprise as she turned to face the pure pink pegasus.

“Why Candy,” she said, breathing a little heavily. “Was there something y'all needed?”

“Are you coming to my tea party today?” she asked, speaking in that sweet but oddly monotonous voice she had that made it seem like she was always lost in a daydream.

“Your tea party? Well I'm sure I don't know...” Golden answered, thinking about it, “What's the theme this time?”

“Meerkats,” Candy replied immediately. “I've already prepared hats for everypony.”

“Meerkats?” Golden asked blankly as Pumpkin giggled beside her.

Candy nodded seriously.

“Meerkats are cool.”

“Pfft!” Aurora scoffed at Candy's words. “Cool? Meerkats are laaaame! We should all go do something awesome!”

She began laughing obnoxiously as Golden and Pumpkin glanced at her disapprovingly. Candy, however, merely trembled where she stood.

“You're lame, Aurora Blast,” Candy suddenly replied, her voice quiet but firm.

Despite being little more than a whisper, at those words the schoolyard seemed to fall silent. All heads turned towards the small group with eyes wide in shock.

“I...I” Aurora stuttered out, looking around nervously as the entire school stared at the filly who had done something so horrible that the sweet, adorable Candy Cloud was upset with her.

Without another word, Candy turned around and began trotting off, apparently completely composed, but after a moment she began galloping away from at full speed.

“Ah, Candy, wait!” Pumpkin cried out, immediately running after her.

“Now don't y'all feel ashamed?” Goldy snapped at Aurora before taking off after the other two.

Aurora could do little more than stare at the fillies with a blank look on her face as they vanished into the distance.

"I...It's not like I meant to make her cry..." she muttered quietly to herself as the foals around began whispering to each other.

“Aurora!” A colt's voice suddenly came from the crowd.

Aurora turned her head to see a tan pegasus charging towards her.

“What do you want, Pound?” she asked bitterly, though she could already hazard a guess.

“Did you make Candy cry again!?” he angrily demanded, slamming a hoof on the ground to punctuate his statement.

“I didn't mean to!” Aurora angrily objected, turning to face him. "It just slipped out!"

“That's what you always say!” Pound shot back, placing a hoof to his forehead. “Look, Just stay away from her!”

“She came up to us!” Aurora yelled back angrily as magic sparked from her horn.

A few other ponies stepped back at that display.

“I don't care!” Pound yelled, standing up to his full height and shaking his hoof angrily. “Tease her again and I'll knock you flat!”

It was an empty threat, but Aurora didn't care. At those words, a rainbow colored beam of magic surged from Aurora's horn, smacking him in the face and causing him to flip backwards onto his back.

The other gathered ponies gasped. A few ran to get a teacher while others approached Pound to see if he was injured.

“You first!” Aurora called out smugly as a pair of foals helped a disoriented Pound to his hooves.

“Aurora Blast!” Dinky shouted furiously as she came rushing out of the school. “Detention, now!”

“But I was just...!”

“I don't want to hear it!” she angrily interrupted. “Inside!”

Aurora shot back a glare at Pound, only to find at least ten separate foals glaring back at her. This shocked her for a moment, but Aurora merely scoffed and turned her back on them, heading inside. Behind her, she could hear Ms. Dinky asking Pound if he was alright, fawning over him. It made her sick.

“Stupid Pound,” she muttered angrily as she headed through the doors. “Stupid Golden, stupid Candy, stupid Pumpkin.”

She furiously trotted down the hallway, watching all the straggling foals charging past her to the exit, laughing and giggling in anticipation of the winter break. At last she reached her classroom door, and swung it open with a burst of magic.

“Stupid friends,” she muttered as she stepped into the deserted classroom, slamming the door behind her.

***

“Knock knock,” Pumpkin said playfully as she knocked on Candy's bedroom door.

“W-who's there?” Candy sniffled from within.

“Flank.”

“F-flank who?”

“Flank you very much!”

There was silence for a moment, then Pumpkin heard a tiny noise that made her prick up her ears.

“I heard a giggle!” she said ecstatically

“N-no!” Candy objected

“I did!”

“You didn't!”

“I'm coming in!”

“Nooo!”

Pumpkin threw the door open and charged into Candy's room, diving under the covers where Candy was hiding and tickling her silly, causing the pegasus filly to squeal in delight. A moment later Golden stepped into the room and glanced at the two giggling lumps wrestling around under the covers of the bed.

“Well I do hope this means we're feeling better now, Candy?” she asked pleasantly from the doorway.

“Yes,” Candy answered happily as she and Pumpkin stuck their heads out from under the sheets. “Thank you Goldy.”

“Good, I'm glad.” Golden said with a smile as she walked over to the little table in the corner, “Now then I believe you were hosting a tea party?”

“Okay,” Candy answered happily as she slipped out of the covers and walked over to her closet as Pumpkin and Golden sat down. She returned with three 'meerkat hats,' giant paper mache masks with a hole for the pony's face in the front.

She slipped one onto each pony's head, saving her own for last, and then headed to the kitchen to grab the tea. She returned a minute later, balancing a teapot on her head and a tray of teacups on her back. She placed a cup at each place at the table and began filling each with the bubbling liquid within.

“And what flavor of tea will we be having today?” Golden asked in imitation of a noble lady's demeanor.

“Soda pop,” Candy answered happily as she sat down.

“Ah... of course,” Golden said with a smile as she sipped from her cup. “A famous brand known for its... fizziness.”

Pumpkin giggled before slurping noisily from her own cup.

“It's been chilly lately...” Candy said as she took her seat, evidently choosing the weather as the first topic. “Perhaps we'll have snow for Hearthswarming this year.”

“I hope not,” Pumpkin laughed. “That would mean the Wendigos are causing trouble!”

“Well I sure as sugar wouldn't be surprised with how Aurora was acting,” Golden agreed with a frown, referencing the legend that the Wendigo's power was influenced by hatred and disharmony.

“Yeah,” Pumpkin said with a giggle, “She can be a real jerk sometimes! That Aurora!”

“Stop it,” Candy said quietly as she looked at Pumpkin disapprovingly. “That's not nice.”

“Huh?” Golden asked. “But Candy, she just...”

“I don't... like it when ponies are mean to each other,” Candy continued sadly. “I got... upset at Aurora, but I don't hate her, and I don't want you to hate her either.”

Golden and Pumpkin glanced at each other with perturbed expressions on their faces, but then smiled and turned back towards their friend.

“Candy...” Golden gushed as she reached over and pulled the pegasus into a hug. “Why you're just a regular old angel ain't ya!”

“That's right!” Pumpkin added, joining the hug, “An angel among angels!”

“I am?” Candy asked blankly, confused.

“Mmm-hmm” the other two chorused with a nod.

“Cool,” she said, a smile breaking out on her face.

The three broke into a series of giggles as hoofsteps made their way down the hallway.

“Hey Candy, you okay?” Pound's voice came from outside the door.

He entered the room and was greeted by the sight of three giant meerkats turning their heads to meet him,

“Uh...” he said, eyes widening in surprise. “I'll come back later...”

“Oh don't you shy away now, Pound Cake,” Golden called over invitingly. “Y'all come on over here and stay a while.”

Candy happily filled another teacup with soda and placed it at an empty seat, and then looked up at him expectantly.

“W-well, okay,” he said as he walked over to an empty space at the table, “I really only wanted to check on Candy though...”

Candy gently smiled at him in response, grateful for his concern..

“Huh?” Pumpkin asked, turning her head to the side inquisitively. “You saw what happened? I didn't see you there.”

“I only saw the end of it,” he answered, turning to Candy. “After you guys left I told her to leave you alone and she smacked me with her magic.”

Golden gasped indignantly.

“Why that little...!” she began before glancing over at Candy, expecting to be scolded again.

“She hurt you?” Candy asked quietly, raising her hooves to her mouth in shock, her voice trembling.

“No no! I'm fine, don't worry, ” Pound quickly answered with a dismissive wave of his hoof, “she got in trouble though! Serves her right!”

“Ohhh...” Candy moaned, placing her head down on the table. “Why did this happen? I just got a little angry, I didn't want my friends to start fighting.”

“Friends don't treat friends that way, Candy,” Golden said gently as she placed a hoof on Candy's back. “If she wants to be our friend, then she needs to turn her behavior around.

Candy sobbed. She knew Aurora quite well. Well enough to know that she wasn't the type for self reflection. Aurora had said insensitive things to her before, and usually apologized afterward, but the problem was that no matter how many times she apologized, she didn't change her underlying behavior. And now, because Aurora had continued to act in an undignified manner, her other, less patient friends were beginning to reject her. She was worried their friendship was going to be broken off permanently.

“Aw don't worry Candy,” Pumpkin said reassuringly, somehow sensing the gist of what the pegasus filly was worrying about. “I'm sure Aurora is using her punishment to reflect on the mistakes she's made and think about how she can make them right! When she's done with her detention, she'll apologize and turn over a new leaf. You'll see!”

Candy wiped a tear from her eye and smiled.

"I hope you're right, Pumpkin."

***

“This totally blows!” Aurora screamed.

The filly's mood hadn't improved at all on her way home. Having to stay at school for an additional two hours and take down all the Hearthswarming decorations did nothing but increase her ever growing bitterness. Not just because she totally didn't do anything to deserve this kind of shabby treatment, but because by using her significant magic abilities it was so easy that she was done in a few minutes and had to spend the rest of the detention sitting quietly at her desk. Then she had to sit through the lectures from Ms. Dinky and the Principal about how what she did was wrong and blah blah blah blah blah! It was enough to drive her mad. The worst part though, was that it was her own ex-friends' fault that she had to suffer this indignity.

At that moment, however, Aurora saw somepony that lifted her spirits a little bit. A smile broke out onto her face.

“That's right!” she thought. “Who needs friends when I have a trusty assistant to boss around!”

She rushed forward excitedly.

“Wimey!” she called out, startling a younger dark gray earth pony colt with unkempt brown hair.

“Oh, hi Aurora...” he said nervously. “What's up?”

“Come with me, we've got stuff to do!” she said with authority, grabbing the colt's tail with her magic and dragging him along after her.

“Um, but, I was going to go over to Pumpkin's house to play...” he objected meekly as he gripped the ground with his hooves.

Aurora's smile twitched at the mention of one of her 'friends,' but she kept dragging Wimey along after her anyway.

“Listen, Wimey,” she said in a scolding tone. “Who's my number one assistant?”

“Me...” he answered with a sigh.

“And what does that mean?” she asked.

“It means I do whatever you say,” he answered.

“Good, “ she answered happily, letting go of his tail. “Now walk by yourself like a big colt.”

Wimey got up of the ground and muttered under his breath even as he followed after her.

They made their way to the Ponyville Library – the great two story tree that served as Aurora's home. However, when they approached the building something caught Aurora's attention – something that a lot of passing ponies were staring at as well.

“What's that?” Wimey asked, staring at the glittering shapes on the ground. “They look like hoofprints.”

Aurora bent down to get a closer look. Indeed, they had the distinctive shape of a pony's hoof, and they were tracing a path from the library door that then headed off away from the town and towards the Everfree Forest. What made them so distinctive, however, was the fact that they were made out of snow, on a patch of ground that was otherwise snow free.”

“My mom's probably working on a spell or something,” Aurora said with a shrug as she stepped in front of the doorway and then looked at Wimey expectantly.

The colt sighed before walking up to the door and attempting to open it for her, only to discover it was locked.

“Got a key?” he asked.

“Pfft, no,” Aurora answered with a roll of her eyes.

Her horn glowed and the door unlocked with an audible click. She then again turned her head back towards Wimey expectantly. With a frown, he pushed the door open as Aurora trotted inside smugly.

“Mom? Mommy?” she called out, dumping her saddlebags by the doorway as she entered the dark foyer. “I'm home!”

“Why is it so dark in here?” Wimey asked as he felt around the wall for a light switch.

After a few moments he found it and flipped it. Instantly, light flooded into the room. As soon as it did, Aurora and Wimey screamed at the figures that appeared before them. Twilight and Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity, even Derpy and Spike, were all standing there, stiff and white as a sheet, expressions of shock literally frozen onto their faces.

“W-what's going on!?” Wimey asked, terrified.

“I don't know, be quiet!” Aurora yelled at him, zippering his mouth shut with magic.

As Wimey angrily muttered through the gag behind her Aurora walked up to the white statues and began scanning them with her magic.

“Ice...” she said to herself in a calmer voice as she circled the statues. “Traces of matter replacement magic, self chilling.”

“Good thing too,” she added, looking back at Wimey. “If it wasn't they would have melted already.”

He mumbled something that sounded like a question back at her.

She unzipped his lips and Wimey coughed for a moment before repeating his question.

“But who did it!?” he demanded.

“I don't know, but those hoofprints outside are probably a clue.” Aurora answered with a frown. “Whatever left them probably couldn't control them, otherwise why leave them?”

Aurora walked over to a bookshelf and grabbed a heavy tome off one of the shelves.

“What's that?” Wimey asked anxiously.

“The bestiary my mom wrote,” Aurora answered, “The one about all the creatures Sleipnir created.”

“You think a monster did this?”

“I think if a monster was going to go to out of their way to attack our parents, it would be one with a grudge,” Aurora answered simply.

She placed the tome on a desk, turned to the index, and began looking up keywords like 'ice' and 'snow,' while Wimey anxiously turned his gaze from her to the frozen ponies.

“Got it!” Aurora exclaimed excitedly after a few minutes of research.

“You found something?” Wimey asked, running over.

“Snow Mare,” Aurora said, reading from the book. “Suspected origin: Pony/Wendigo hybrid. Snow Mares look like ordinary ponies under most circumstances, their true nature only being made known when they kiss their victim, sucking their warmth out from their mouth and causing them to freeze in place in a form resembling an ice sculpture.”

“K-kiss!?” Wimey stuttered out with a little blush.

The two ponies looked up at the statues, and noted that, indeed, their expressions fit more with surprise than with abject terror. Spike's face in particular seemed somewhat goofy.

“Yuck,” Aurora said, scrunching up her face in disgust before turning back to the book. “Once she has stolen the warmth of a victim, her appearance changes. Her coat and mane turn white, and her eyes turn blank. In this form she gains the ability to create and control snow and ice, as well as to turn herself into these substances at will. Furthermore, when in this form, contact with any surface leaves behind a residue of unmelting snow or ice.

“The hoofprints!” Wimey suddenly called out.

“Shh!” Aurora shushed before continuing. “The Snow Mare's powers increase with each victim she claims. She can retain the warmth of her victims for as long as she can keep herself in freezing temperatures, a relatively easy feat considering her control over snow. The warmth of the victims can be returned to them simply by heating the Snow Mare to a temperature high enough to melt snow. At that point, she will 'melt' and return to her normal form, as will her victims.”

With that, Aurora slammed the book shut, got up and started trotting up the stairs to the second floor.

“Aurora, where are you going!?” Wimey called after her. “We've got to tell somepony!”

“Like who?” she called back from the second the floor.

“I dunno, the princesses!”

“Yeah, and how are you gonna let them know?” she asked, “Spike?”

“What about the Cakes?”

“Out of town, Pinkie was supposed to babysit.”

“The Mayor then, or Dinky!”

“Look Wimey,” she said as she descended the stairs, “you might have lots of people older and smarter than you do depend on, but in my case...”

She came into view, sporting six pieces of golden jewelry. A crown thingie with a purple star lay atop her head while a necklace with a red lightning bolt hung from her neck. Four other necklaces were wrapped around each of her legs.

“There's currently nopony smarter than me,” she finished arrogantly.

“...What are you wearing?” Wimey asked after staring for a moment.

“The Elements of Harmony,” she answered. “I'm going to follow those tracks and then use them to blast this Snow Mare into powder.”

“I-I thought you needed six ponies to use the elements...” Wimey said uncertainly.

“I'm harmonious enough for six ponies,” she boasted with a wry smile.

“Whoa, Aurora...” Wimey said doubtfully, “I mean, come on...”

“What?” she asked. “Magic? I'm the most talented magician of my age. Laughter? Everyone thinks my jokes are hilarious.”

“Yeah, um...”

“Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty? I'm full of all of that!”

“You're full of something alright...” he muttered under his breath.

“And, um... Honesty?” she finished, “I am honestly awesome.”

Wimey sighed.

“Look, Aurora,” he said, “even I know the the Elements of Harmony use the magic of friendship. You need friends to use them!”

Aurora's face darkened at this.

“Yeah well,” she answered coldly, “I don't have any friends so I'm making the best of things. I guess that includes you to since you're not willing to believe me.”

“Aurora...” he began.

“Shut up,” she snapped back. “Go run to Dinky or whoever, I'm getting our parents back.”

With that, Aurora used her magic to dump out her saddlebags that were left by the door and then slipped the bestiary she had grabbed inside. Then she took off, leaving Wimey behind.

For a few minutes afterward, Wimey stared at the frozen bodies in front of him, then, with a sigh, he ran out the door.

***

“You guys I am so hyper right now!” Pumpkin said as she bounced up and down on Candy's bed.

“We noticed,” Golden said with a roll of her eyes.

She turned to Candy.

“How many cups has she had by now?” Golden asked.

“Thirty-seven and five eighths,” Candy answered, glancing over at the cup Pumpkin had left at her seat.

“Might be time to cut her off,” Pound suggested. “We don't want a repeat of the hippo incident.”

“We don't?” Candy asked, surprised.

Golden shook her head.

“Aw...” Candy said with a sigh.

They had been hanging out for a few hours now, playing and goofing off in celebration of the start of their winter break. They were having so much fun they didn't even notice how much time had passed, nor that neither of Candy's parents had been home. However, that carefree tranquility was broken when Wimey burst into the room, out of breath.

“You guys!” he panted out, before glancing up and noticing their unusual attire. “What are you... no you know what, I don't care.”

“Why Wimey,” Golden said, concerned, “you seem terribly flustered, is everything alright?”

“No,” he answered immediately, “It's our parents.”

Wimey told the others everything that had happened when he and Aurora had visited the Ponyville Library. They listened to the story with shock, and bombarded the colt with questions once he had finished.

“M-mommy....” Candy sobbed.

“And she just left?” Golden demanded angrily, referring to Aurora.

“Yeah,” Wimey answered, “did you guys have a fight or something? It seemed like she really wanted to go alone.”

“We fought, but it was Aurora's fault!” Pound called out.

“No, it's myyyyy fauuult,” Candy sobbed.

“Who cares about whose fault it is right now!?” Golden asked angrily, “We need to get help.”

“I've tried!” Wimey said, “But I can't find anypony who will listen to me!”

“There has to be somepony!” Pumpkin said anxiously, her previously excitable demeanor having vanished. “What about Big Mac!?”

Golden shook her head with an exasperated sigh.

“He wanted to escort Auntie Apple Bloom and their friends home from college, they won't be back until late tonight.”

“What about the mayor?” Pound suggested.

“Tried that,” Wimey answered. “The town hall was closed and I have no idea where she even lives.”

“Well there has to be somepony!” Golden shouted out, almost accusingly.

“Everypony else I tried to get help from either flew into a panic or thought I was pulling a prank,” Wimey answered irritably. “I'd ask Dinky, but she went Hearthswarming shopping with some friends in Canterlot right after school today.”

There was silence for a moment as everypony wracked their brains for anypony else they could get help from.

“Man, this town's adults are useless,” Pumpkin said after a moment, breaking the silence.

“So... does this mean... it's up to us?” Candy asked, looking wide-eyed over at the other ponies.

“You guys are the only ones that will listen to me!” Wimey said, “You've got to help her!”

“We don't have to do anything, Wimey,” Golden answered with a shake of her head. “Aurora brought this on herself.”

“W-what? No, w-we've got to help her!” Candy said, crying.

“You're just saying that because you think this is your fault,” Pumpkin objected, “it isn't!”

“No, Candy's right," Pound said resolutely. "We need to help her."

Pound's words caused all eyes to fall on him. Pumpkin and Golden were in shock, just earlier today Aurora had knocked him flat, now he was standing up for her.

“If she gets hurt or something, this is on us,” he continued. "It means we stood by and did nothing while she ends up like Pinkie and the others or worse.”

Silence followed Pound's statement, and Golden and Pumpkin glanced at each other uncertainly. After a moment they nodded their heads.

“Alright,” Golden said relunctantly after a moment. “Let's go save Aurora.”

***

“Absolutely not!” Golden screamed as she stared deep into the trees of the Everfree Forest.

Having following the icy footprints from the library, they found that the trail led them directly out of town to one of the many entrances to the ominous forest that lay at Ponyville's borders.

“Oh come on, Goldy...” Candy said in her daydreamy voice. “It's not that scary.”

“Yes it is!” Golden yelled out, “what'll happen if we run into a timber wolf!?”

Candy pondered this for a moment.

“We'll probably get eaten,” she answered bluntly.

“You see!” Golden cried out.

“Come on, Golden,” Wimey pleaded. “We can't back out now.”

At that point , Pound began trotting into the forest with Pumpkin and Candy right behind him.

“Ooh.... fine.” Golden said to Wimey as she watched the others head inside.

The two of them chased after the others, and soon all five of them found themselves deep in the foreboding woods. The sun hadn't set yet, but the overcast sky was getting darker by the minute. Pumpkin and Golden had enough magic at their disposal to shed light on the dark trees, but the foals were still jumping at every shadow that came into view or any odd noise that came from the brush.

Despite their concern, however, the trip through the forest was largely uneventful, until the group came across a stark, fog filled ravine, and found the hoofprints came to the edge of the cliff, between two wooden poles, and then suddenly ceased.

“D'ya think the Snow Mare walked off the cliff?” Pumpkin asked with a little giggle.

Pound took to the air and flew over the ravine, glancing at the ground on the other side.

He circled back and said “The hoofprints continue on the other side,” as he landed.

“Those poles look like they used to hold up a bridge,” Golden pointed out, making note of the ropes tied around them.

“Oh...” Candy said as she tilted her head in thought. “So that means... the bridge collapsed after the Snow Mare crossed over it?”

For a moment, the ponies pondered Candy's words, and then a cold chill ran down their spines as the same thought passed through their heads.

Running to the cliff, they frantically called down to Aurora, hoping she was still alive.

“Aurora, can you hear me!?”

“If you can hear us, answer!”

“Aurora!?”

“Aurora!”

“WHAAAAAAAT!?” came the irritable reply from the ravine.

“Aurora...?” Wimey asked, glad she was safe.

“Wimey, what are you doing here?” Aurora's voice called back from below.

“Never mind that right now,” Golden answered sharply. “Are you okay?”

“...Yes,” Aurora answered after a slight delay. “Why wouldn't I be?”

“Well from here it looks like you fell down to the bottom the cliff,” Pumpkin called down with a giggle.

“...Nooo” Aurora answered after another uncertain pause. “I didn't fall or anything, I'm just... exploring.”

Golden rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

“I've had enough of this,” she said irritably. “Candy, Pound, can you go check on her?”

“Okay,” Candy said as she and Pound took to the air.

“N-no... there's no need to check on me, I'm perfectly fine,” Aurora feebly objected

The two pegasi slowly flew down into the white fog, until at last they came face to face with Aurora, who they found tangled up in a mess of rope and wooden planks and hanging suspended in the middle of the canyon. Apparently, some of the ropes supporting the bridge had snapped while Aurora was on it, and she got tangled up in them on the way down. While the ropes saved her life, it also meant she was trapped, and any magic she could use to free herself would also have the result of dropping her into the seemingly bottomless canyon. When faced with this amusing situation, Pound couldn't help but chuckle at Aurora's expense, though at least he attempted to hide his smile.

“Yeah laugh it up, lunkhead” Aurora shot at him bitterly.

“Sorry,” he apologized halfheartedly as he flew around her, trying to figure out where she was tangled. “Let me get you out of there.”

“I don't need your help!” she stubbornly yelled at him.

“I know,” he answered sarcastically. “Hold still. Candy can you grab that rope there?”

“Got it,” Candy answered, pulling back a rope that was wrapped around Aurora's left wing.

Aurora briefly felt herself fall, but in an instant Pound was there, flapping his wings desperately as he tried to support her. Candy rushed forward and grabbed hold of her as well, and between the two of them, they were able to fly up and deposit her on the edge of the cliff.

“...Thanks...” Aurora muttered in a quiet voice as she got to her hooves.

“You're welcome,” Candy answered happily in a voice that was a little too loud for Aurora's tastes.

“What were you thinking?” Golden angrily demanded. “Running off into the woods all by your lonesome?”

“Lay off,” Aurora shot back as she stretched the wing that was caught. “This is the only way to save our parents.”

“I'm worried about them too!” Golden yelled back at her, “but you should have left this to an adult!”

“Like you did?” Aurora pointed out with a wry smile.

Golden opened her mouth to retort, but found she wasn't able.

“Oooh, burn” Pumpkin said with a giggle.

“Anyway,” Aurora said as she adjusted the various elements that still hung from her body. “Thanks for the help, not that I needed it, but I still have a job to do.”

“What?” Wimey asked. “But the bridge is out. How are you going to get across?”

Despite Aurora's significant magical ability, she still lacked the finesse required to cast her mother's flight spell, giving lift to her otherwise flightless wings. Still, she had other tricks up her sleeve. Magic flowed to Aurora's horn, and then, with a burst of magic, a transparent, rainbow colored bridge stretched across from one edge of the ravine to the other.

“You were saying?” she asked smugly as she stepped forward to the edge.

The others just exchanged glances and sighed.

"So that's it?" Golden asked. "We come all the way out here to save you and you decide to just charge back into danger?"

Aurora scowled at Golden.

"Our parents are frozen!" she shot back.

"We know," Pound said with a nod, "but do you really think you can beat this monster on your own?"

Aurora opened her mouth and then closed it, as if trying to decide whether to respond or not.

“Look, if you all want to run home to your mommies... or mommy popsicles... or momsicles... or something, I won't stop you," she answered after a moment. But if you want to come along with me and try to help me out....”

She trailed off and the others looked at her curiously.

“...Well, you can do what you want,” she finished after a moment. "But I don't need any of you."

With that, she headed over the bridge and disappeared into the fog.

After a moment, Golden glanced at the others as if to say, “Now what?”

After another moment, Wimey began trotting forward to the bridge.

“Hey, Wimey, what are you doing!?” Pumpkin asked, concerned.

“She's lying, you guys,” he said, turning his head back to face them. “She needs us.”

With that, he headed across the bridge, followed soon after by Candy, who quietly chased after him.

Golden stood there, staring at the bridge for a moment before muttering “oh geez,” and chasing after them as well. Pound and Pumpkin followed quickly behind her.

Before long, the entire group caught up with Aurora, who said nothing but seemed to be making a transparent effort to hide her face from them.

***

They continued along the path, following the snowy footprints, until at last they arrived at their apparent destination.

“Is that... a castle?” Pound asked, staring at the incredible sight before him.

“It's the place the Elements of Harmony used to be stored in,” Aurora answered. “Although it looks like somepony's made some upgrades.”

What used to be a stone ruin was now patched up with walls of solid ice. Towers that had collapsed stood newly rebuilt out of snow. There was no doubt – this was the place the Snow Mare had fled to after freezing their parents.

“Let's go,” Aurora said, her confidence in stark contrast to that of the others.

“Aurora, are you sure about this?” Golden asked nervously.

“Don't worry,” Aurora said with a smile. “I'll definitely toast her flank.”

The six approached the frozen doors to the castle and Aurora used her magic to melt the ice keeping them shut. She then magically threw the doors open and confidently strutted into the snow covered entrance hall, which adorned with crystalline windows and chandeliers carved from solid ice.

“Snow Mare!” Aurora called out in a loud voice, causing the others to flinch. “I know you're in here!”

As if in response, a gust of wind burst from within the castle, whipping past them, causing the foals to shiver, and slamming the doors closed behind them. The snow within the room twisted around like a tornado and slowly piled up at the far side of the room, from where a shape began to emerge. After a few moments, the wind died down, and an Earth Pony mare stood before them. Eyes, mane, coat – everything about her was colored a pure unblemished white.

“Well well,” she said in a cool voice. “I expected to find Celestia or Luna knocking on my door, but who do I end up with but a couple of runny-nosed brats?”

The growing cold inside the room had indeed caused the foals' noses to begin dripping, and Aurora even heard Candy sneeze behind her, but she attempted to remain defiant in the face of the opponent's frigid oppression.

“Y-y-you w-w-won't g-g-get a-wa-way w-w-with f-f-reezing our p-p-parents!” she stuttered out.

“Sorry, I didn't catch that...” the Snow Mare answered in a teasing voice.. “Could you repeat that?”

“I-I-I said...” Aurora began, but before she could say anything else a wave of snow and cold air suddenly burst towards them.

Aurora reflexively threw up a barrier, and braced her magic against the impact. The wave passed her by without doing her any harm.

“Ha!” she called out defiantly as she dropped the barrier. “She ain't so tough, right guys!?”

Behind her, there was only silence.

“Guys?” she asked again, turning her head to look.

There, the others stood, pure white and frozen, just as her parents had been.

“Guys!” she called out frantically, looking back and forth between the Snow Mare and the frozen foals.

“I don't understand,” Aurora said as she pulled the bestiary out from her saddlebag and rapidly flipped through it. “I thought you couldn't freeze anypony unless you kissed them!?”

“Aww...” the Snow Mare answered in mock sympathy, a cruel smile playing at her lips. “Did Mommy get that wrong?”

“Graar!” she screamed as she threw the book into the snow. “It doesn't matter! Elements of Harmony, go!”

She strained herself and tried to surround the magic jewels with magic, but there was no effect. She paused for a moment to take a breath, and then strained again and again, but nothing happened.

“Right...” the Snow Mare said after this repeated a few times, clearly bored. “Tell you what, since I feel sorry for you, I'll let you go. Do me a favor and fetch the princesses, ok? There's a certain cold dish I'd like to serve them.”

At that point, the Snow Mare dissolved back into snow and scattered to the wind, even as Aurora remained there, straining to make the elements works. After a few moments her grunts turned to sobs, and she found herself falling to the cold ground, her salty tears falling upon the snow.

It was humiliating. She had acted so big, so proud, and in the end all that happened was that she got the others hurt.

They came to save her, they followed her into the castle despite voicing doubts that her plan would work, and she had rewarded that trust with failure.

“I'm sorry!” she sobbed as she crawled over to the frozen ponies. “I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I didn't mean to drag you into this... please, I just... please come back...”

At that moment, all the thoughts Aurora had of being the hero, of vanquishing the enemy and returning home triumphantly, turned to dust. At that moment, all she wanted was her friends back.

...Friends?

But, I don't have friends anymore... Do I?

She stood up, wiping her eyes, and as though seized by an sudden inspiration, went over and stood in front of Wimey. It was a long shot... but if it could save them...

“Wimey... I boss you around a lot,” she said after a moment, “I make you do stupid things for me just for the fun of it, you have no reason to do anything for me... and yet...”

She glanced down at the element of loyalty hanging from her neck and removed it with her magic.

“You were the one that told the others where I was going, right? You didn't let me go alone.”

She hung the element from his neck.

“Thank you for your stubborn loyalty."

She then walked over to Pound, and looked up at the colt, ashamed.

“I... hit you with magic today, when all you did was stand up for Candy. And then even though I said I didn't need your help, you saved me from the bridge today.”

She removed the element of generosity from one of her legs.

“I noticed it before too. Everything you do is for others. You don't even worry about yourself,” she said as she wrapped the element around his neck. “That's generosity, isn't it?”

Next Aurora walked over to Candy. She didn't realize it, but at that time the elements of loyalty and generosity had begun to glow with a soft light.

“I hurt you today,” Aurora said to Candy. “I've hurt you many times, usually accidentally, but you always accept my apology. You always give me another chance, even when I don't deserve it.”

She held up the element of Kindness.

“You're the kindest pony I've ever met. I'm sorry I called meerkats dumb.”

She placed the element around Candy's neck, and it too began to faintly glow.

Pumpkin was next. Aurora levitated the element of laughter before her.

“Pumpkin, you just can't stop giggling can you?" Aurora asked with a laugh. "I thought I'd be happy enough on my own, but I miss... the laughter that's there when I'm with you and the others."

She wrapped the necklace around Pumpkin's.

At last she stood before Golden.

“Goldy,” she said as she held up the element of honesty. “You always tell me when I'm acting stupid don't you? You try to keep me in line”

With a smile, she placed the element around her neck. “You're really brutally honest.”

She stepped back from the five ice sculptures, glanced up at the element of magic atop her head, and then clasped her hooves together, praying.

"Elements, today I said I didn't need friends to use you. I said that because I really thought I didn't have friends anymore."

"But I was wrong," she added, looking at the five ponies in front of her. "They were here, they were here all along, but I didn't realize it, not until it was too late... My precious... friends."

Aurora clasped her hooves even tighter and flopped down on the cold floor.

"So please, elements! If you can hear me, please, save them!

"Save my friends!" she shouted out, raising her head so that she was yelling at the ceiling.

Then, with a tiny spark and burst of magic, the element of Magic gave off a bright purple light, shining over the statues and instantly changing them back into the ponies they were before. They all stood there, heartfelt smiles aimed at Aurora as their elements filled them with warmth.

“You guys!” she called out, tears gushing from her eyes as she rushed forward and hugged whoever she could. “I'm so sorry Candy! Wimey, Pound! Pumpkin and Golden too!”

She let out a huge wail.

“It's ok Aurora...” Candy said kindly, a gentle smile on her face. “We heard everything you said...”

"Yeah," Golden added with a grin. "Bout time you apologized!"

"We forgive you, Aurora!" Pumpkin called out with a giggle.

Pound and Wimey both nodded in agreement.

"Aurora," Candy added softly, pulling her into a tight hug. "Let's stay friends forever, ok?

“Yeah,” Aurora said happily as the others all grouped in around them. “Friends.”

“My, it's gotten noisy in here,” came the voice of the Snow Mare from all directions at once.

With a gust of wind and a flurry of snow, she appeared before them again, at the end of the hall..

“Just so you know,” she added sarcastic, ”me turning into snow is generally a way of saying 'get out, I'm not interested in talking to you any more.'”

Her face exuded confidence, but a flicker of surprise crossed her face when she noticed the others were unfrozen, not having seen what happened.

Aurora looked at her friends, who all nodded encouragingly at her, before wiping the tears from her eyes and striding forward brashly.

“Alright, Snow Mare, this is your last chance!” she yelled with new found confidence. “Turn our parents back immediately!”

“And if I don't, what?” the mare asked, a sarcastic grin on her face. “You'll grunt at me some more?”

With that, she sent forth another wave of cold air, aiming to freeze the foals as she had before. This time, however, Aurora was ready. The elements glowed and a wave of rainbow colored energy burst from Aurora's horn. The two waves met in the middle of the chamber and destroyed each other on impact.

The snow mare was visibly stunned.

Pumpkin giggled at the look on her face. The others glanced at each other and grinned before beginning to taunt her.

“This is your last chance!” Wimey called out.

"Aurora doesn't pull her punches!" Pound added, speaking from his earlier experience.

"You're just an overgrown snowpony!" Golden taunted.

"You're gonna lose," Candy added quietly.

The snow mare's face distorted into a snarl. She was being made a fool of by these brats. Snow began to swirl up behind her.

“Don't make me laugh!” she screamed as she merged with the snow, her now gigantic face grimacing at them from the forefront of a gigantic wave. “What makes you think you can beat me!? Huh!? Little Pony!?”

At once, the entire wave bore down upon them, an avalanche of snow that was ready to crush them against the castle walls.

“I can beat you..." Aurora responded calmly, a grin plastered on her face. "Because of my friends!"

With that, the six foals' elements burst with light, shooting six colored beams directly into the enlarged face of the Snow Mare.

“Aiyeeeee!” she screamed as the snow began to evaporate into thin air. “I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh what a woooorlldddd! WHAT A WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLLLLLLD”

There was a rainbow colored explosion, and then, in an instant, the mare, the snow, and the entire icy castle was gone. All that remained were the ruins it was built upon, and the six friends, who were now closer than ever before.

***

By the time Aurora and the others had returned to Ponyville, they were happy to find that their parents had returned to normal. Naturally, they had all gotten chewed out for their reckless behavior, but they could tell that their parents were proud of what they had accomplished. After all, they had done something incredible by wielding the elements of harmony at such a young age, and in the end, they had gotten off without any sort of punishment.

It was also a big turning point for Aurora. After the six of them shared in that adventure, she became noticeably closer with the others. She was still willful and arrogant, but she learned to be more sensitive to the others' feelings. There were fights and there were makeups, but the six of them would always remain friends. It was a good thing too, for the adventures of the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony had only just begun.


Bonus:
Chapter 14: The in-laws (unfinished)


Rarity awoke to a sound that was becoming increasingly familiar to her, though tonight is was three times as loud. The screeches coming from downstairs meant that one of the foals had woken up and started crying, setting the other two off in the process.

“Maybe we should have placed them in separate rooms or something,” Rarity thought as she slipped out from under her blankets and got to her hooves with a yawn. “Not like there's room for that though...”

When they moved to the Library from Derpy's they dragged out a bunch of blankets and sleeping bags and plopped them down wherever there was room. Twilight had her own bed and a guest bed (nowadays most often used by Rainbow and Luna), not to mention a cozy little basket for Spike, which for some reason he much preferred to a full sized bed, but that still wasn't enough sleeping space for the seven other ponies staying there that night. Derpy and Dinky were sharing the guest bed upstairs, while Twilight, who wanted to stay close to Spike that night, shared hers with the baby dragon. This meant the rest of the group was spread out in the free spaces on the first and second floors of the library.

Rarity glanced around the second floor. In one of the cots, Carrot Top was pressing her pillow hard against her ears with both hooves, apparently awake and trying to drown out the wailing of the foals. The other cot was empty; In her drowsy state Rarity couldn't remember who had been sleeping there. Rarity reached into one of her saddlebags placed neatly by her cot and magically removed a hairbrush from within, giving her mane a quick brush as she quietly slipped out the door and down the stairs. It was dark, but there was enough moonlight filtering in from the windows for Rarity to make her way across the library towards the reading room, where they had placed the crib for the night, without tripping over anypony.

When Rarity reached the door she paused for a moment. The door was open a crack and Rarity took a peek inside. Sure enough, the foals' cries had awoken several of the other mothers. Rainbow, Fluttershy and... Applejack were all in the reading room, rocking their foals and trying to get them back to sleep.

Rarity had just raised a hoof to push open then door when a tiny voice called out from within.

“Mama! Mama!” Golden cried, hiccuping between sobs.

“I'm here.” Applejack yawned. “C'mon, y'all go back to sleep now.”

Rarity froze in place, her hoof still raised. Somehow, she suddenly got the sense that walking into that room would be an intrusion, an unwanted interference.

'Mama' was already there, in that room. Moreover, 'mama' was a stubborn mare who'd take any attempt to help out as a slight. Rarity could already see it – she'd walk in there and offer to help, and Applejack would reply, “Ah don't you worry about it none, you just get your beauty sleep, I'll handle it,” and then gently nudge her towards the exit with a smile, away from her foal, cruelly pushing her away under the guise of kindness.

Rarity didn't want to face that, so she just silently stood at the door, her head hung low, until the foals' cries finally stopped.

***

Twilight was beginning to feel like her library wasn't big enough. She didn't usually feel that way – it was actually quite roomy, having once hosted the entirety of the Ponyville weather team quite comfortably. However, on that occasion the pegasi involved were free to leave once the meeting concluded. Pinkie, and the others for that matter, weren't supposed to leave the Library until Princess Celestia gave the all clear. For a pony like Pinkie, this was practically a prison sentence, and her constant bouncing off the walls was slowing driving the other ponies up walls of their own.

“Istheprincesstherenow!?” Pinkie rushed over to the window, glancing around wildly. “Maybeoverhere!?” She rushed to another window, pulling Candy Cloud, who was riding on her mother's head, along with her. Somehow the tiny filly had no trouble hanging on regardless of how fast Pinkie zoomed off towards one destination or another. She giggled as Pinkie darted around the library, thinking it was some sort of game.

“Will you settle down already!?” Applejack yelled out irritably, looking up from the copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar she was reading to Golden. “Land sakes, being cooped up inside for a little bit ain't gonna kill ya!”

“But it's so sunny ouuuuuut!” Pinkie whined, pressing her face against the glass and causing the royal guard standing outside to recoil in shock. “Everypony's gonna be having fun outside! There's games to be played, flowers to be sniffed, songs to be sung!”

“Then you'll just have to do it later instead.” Applejack rolled her eyes and shifted Golden on her lap. “What happened to that book Twilight found for you, uh... Hairy Trotter?”

“Read it,” Pinkie said, still darting between the windows.

“The hay you did.” Applejack glanced over at where the book in question lay discarded by the chair Pinkie had been briefly lounging in earlier. “It ain't even been an hour since she lent it to you.”

“You can quiz me if you want,” Pinkie said flatly as she zipped into the kitchen and out again, dashing past where Derpy and Fluttershy were quietly reading, causing them to look up in alarm.

Applejack snorted, reaching over and flipping the book open to a random page. “Alright then, what happens on page six twenty five?”

“Crepe kills Slumber Snore,” Pinkie answered, not even looking away.

Applejack's eyes widened – that was exactly what seemed to be happening in the page she was scanning, but before she could say anything an angry voice called down at her from above.

“Applejack, what the hay!” Rainbow Dash flew down to the ground level, Aurora in tow. “I haven't even gotten to that book yet, you jerk!”

“Jawk!” Aurora added, causing Dash to look down in surprise.

After a moment, Applejack laughed. “Yer gonna have to start watching what you say,” she said as she rubbed her hoof over Golden's head. “These little ankle biters pick up words quick.” She leaned in close to Aurora. “Maybe yer old enough to start calling me 'Auntie Applejack,' hmm? AP-PLE-JACK.”

“Applejawk,” came the response.

Rainbow burst out laughing. “She called you Applejerk!”

Applejack's face flushed with anger. “She just pronounced it wrong, don't encourage it!”

Rainbow ignored Applejack and started fussing over Aurora. “That's right, Applejerk spoiled the story, she spoiled it,” she cooed.

“Mama!” Golden suddenly called out, causing Applejack to look down. She was angrily looking up at the three ponies who had ground her story to a halt.

“Uh... yeah, I know, Golden, sorry.” Applejack turned back to the book. “On Thursday, the caterpillar ate five oranges, but he was still...”

“At the end of the book he becomes a butterfly you know,” Rainbow called down.

“I know,” Applejack said, gritting her teeth.

“Oh good.” Rainbow raised a hoof to her forehead and wiped it in mock relief. “For a moment there I thought I might have SPOILED it for you!”

“You know,” Applejack shot back, “I think that there book's been out for years. 'Taint my fault you were scared of getting caught with your nose in one for all those years. Maybe if you'd been a bit more open minded, this here wouldn't have happened.”

“Y...yeah, well...” Rainbow glanced around wildly, trying to come up with a comeback. She glanced at the book sitting in Applejack's lap, and her face broke out into a grin. “Well at least the books I read are more than ten pages long! What's the matter, Applejack? The big books too tough for you?”

“You're skating on mighty thin ice right now partner,” Applejack snarled. “'Sides, I ain't reading for my own sake, it's for Golden.”

“Golden?” Rainbow tilted her head to the side. “Why? She can't read.”

Applejack looked at Rainbow like she was the dumbest mare she'd ever laid eyes on.

“I'm reading TO her, Rainbow.” Applejack said slowly. “Are you telling me you've been living in a library the past month, and you ain't ever read to your foal once?”

“Uh...” Rainbow uttered blankly. Truth be told, most of Rainbow's time with her daughter that didn't involve feeding, changing, or a severe lack of sleep was spent horsing around somewhere.

“What about Twi?” Applejack pressed on. “Ain't no way a pony that likes books as much as her ain't reading aloud to her filly.”

At that point, something clicked with Rainbow Dash. “Well, Twilight does read aloud a lot,” she said, glancing in the direction of the kitchen, where the mare in question was. “But I thought she always did that.”

“Rainbow...” Applejack said with a bemused sigh. “Most ponies don't say the words they're reading out loud unless they're reading to somepony.”

Rainbow blinked. “They don't?”

She always did.

“No they don't.” Applejack shook her head and laughed. “Are you telling me you thought Twilight was reading a bunch of foalish books aloud for her own entertainment while she was taking care of Aurora?”

“Well they didn't sound foalish...” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Really? What was she reading?”

“Um... let's see...” Rainbow said, trying to remember. “There was something like... fluid dynamics as used in transmogrification, and something about quantam quark redundancy algorithms...” Rainbow shook her head. “Honestly, it all went over my head.”

“She...she was reading stuff like that to her foal?” Applejack gaped.

“Well, I didn't think so.” Rainbow adjusted her flying position, raising Aurora up and placing her on her shoulder. “But come to think of it... Aurora was always right there...”

“Heavens to Brown Betty,” Applejack said, shaking her head and glancing back down at Golden, who was frowning discontentedly again. She raised a hoof and rubbed the foal's poofy blond hair with it. “Between the two of you, I worry 'bout your filly's future.”

Rainbow's temper flared at that. “Why, cause I'm not reading to her? Neither of my parents read to me!”

“I gathered,” Applejack answered bluntly. “Look, all I know is my own folks didn't read to Big Macintosh and they realized their mistake some time before they had me.” She chuckled. “Y'all might have noticed he ain't that great with words.”

“I'm not that great with words either,” Rainbow admitted with a shrug. “But last I knew, ain't isn't in the dictionary.”

“Oh I know you ain't... er... aren't making fun of the way I speak!” Applejack shouted out, placing Golden to the side and getting to her hooves.

“I ain't sure!” Rainbow shot back, placing Aurora down on the floor gently before flying forward and pressing her own forehead against Applejack's in a threatening manner. “What if I am?”

As the pair's voices grew louder and louder, a few of the other ponies began to take notice. Pinkie was still preoccupied with dashing from window to window, but Fluttershy was watching nervously over the top of the book she was reading, muttering in a quiet voice that friends shouldn't fight. Meanwhile, Twilight had just poked her head around the corner to scold them for being noisy in a library when an unexpected voice piped up.

“Why're you guys yelling?” Derpy asked curiously, looking up from the book she had been otherwise engrossed in.

Dash looked away from Applejack and met Derpy's confused gaze, then glanced downward at the book she was reading. It was a bright colorful picture book, sort of like the one Applejack was reading. The title “Goodnight Moon” was emblazoned across the cover. Dash grinned as an idea struck her.

“Hey Derpy,” she began. “You a good reader?”

“Dash...” Appleack warned with a hiss.

“Huh? Oh... No, I'm not.” Derpy looked away sheepishly. “My doctor said I have something called lysdexia. The letters look all mixed up when I try to read. I have to take my time and look at each word slowly and carefully.”

“But Dinky's really smart, right?” Dash pressed on, leaning forward.

Derpy's ears immediately perked up at this, her face breaking out into a grin bursting with pride. “Yeah!” Derpy nodded. “She always gets As, I'm so proud of her.”

“So, clearly,” Rainbow said, looking back at Applejack with half closed eyelids and a smirk on her face. “How smart your foal is has nothing to do with how often you read to them.”

“Huh?” Derpy tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Right?” Rainbow asked, turning back to face Derpy. “Dinky's super smart even though you never read to her.”

A moment passed with Derpy just staring at Rainbow.

“...But I read to her every night...”

Another moment passed as Applejack glanced over at Rainbow with a smug grin of her own plastered on her face. Rainbow just glanced between the other two mares, confused. “...Huh?” she uttered, tilting her head to the side. “But, your dyslexia...”

“Lysdexia,” Derpy corrected.

“Uh... I... your condition,” Rainbow continued, ignoring Derpy's mistake. “Doesn't that make it hard to read aloud? If you have to read every word separately then wouldn't the words get all spaced out? I wouldn't be able to understand the story if it was read like that.”

“Well... um...” Derpy looked away sheepishly. “I cheated a little bit.”

“Cheated?” Applejack asked curiously, her anger at Rainbow fading as she started getting into Derpy's story. “What d'you mean?”

“I memorized the books,” Derpy said, looking down at the one in her own lap. “I got Raindrops, or Carrot Top, or one of the ponies at the library to read it to me until I could say it by heart, and then I would just read it to Dinky.”

Derpy looked up and closed her eyes, turning her thoughts back to an earlier time. After a moment, she began to speak.

Little muffin, good to eat.

Little muffin, nice and sweet.

Little muffin, let's make one.

Little muffin, almost done.

Little muffin, from the oven.

Little muffin, filled with lovin'.

She opened her eyes and glanced over at the other two, now staring at her in awe.

“That was Dinky's favorite.” Derpy smiled gently. “She wouldn't go to bed unless I read it three times at least.”

“...Why?” Rainbow asked after a moment.

“Cause she really liked it,” Derpy answered plainly, tilting her head at Rainbow again.

“No,” Rainbow clarified, “Why would you go that far just to read to her? It must have taken a long time to memorize all those books.”

“Oh, well, you know...” Derpy looked away. “At the orphanage, there wasn't enough time to read everypony a bedtime story every night. Everypony really looked forward to it, but there were so many foals...”

Derpy turned her gaze back to Rainbow. “I just wanted her to hear a story every night.” She tilted her head. “Was that bad?”

“Yeah Rainbow,” Applejack glanced over with a smirk. “Was that bad?”

“I... no,” Rainbow admitted with a sigh. “No, you did a great job Derpy.” She turned towards Applejack and shrugged. I guess I just find it hard to believe that reading to them when they can't even understand what you're saying makes them smarter.”

A few moments later, the door to the second floor opened up, and Dinky came rushing down the stairs, her tiny hooves pitter-pattering on the wooden steps.

“Mom!” she cried out happily. “Check out what I just found!” She had an open book slung over her back. With a little shrug she flipped it over in front of her mother, and pointed a hoof to an illustration of a sea creature on one of the pages. “It's called a peacock mantis shrimp.”

“Cool!” Derpy said in response. The truth was that she had no idea what was so amazing about the funny looking creature in the book, but she always tried to show interest in the little things Dinky came across in her studies.

“Listen, according to this book, this little guy kicks with his little forehooves so fast that he actually boils the water in front of him! He knocks out the fish that try to gobble him up without even touching them!”

“Whoa, seriously?” Rainbow asked, pulling the book off of Derpy's lap and staring at the picture. “That's amazing.”

“Oh, I know a little bit about them,” Fluttershy said, suddenly joining the conversation once it turned to animals. She rose from her own chair and fluttered over to the rest of the group. “Their defense mechanism is impressive, but they also have eyes that can see colors we don't even have names for.”

“Oh!” Pinkie said, suddenly stopping as she zoomed by. “That happened to me once! This one time, I ate sooooo much sugar, I actually starting seeing smells!”

“I think that's a little different, Pinkie.” Applejack frowned.

“Oh... Huh.” Pinkie shrugged and zoomed off again for another cycle of peering out windows.

Meanwhile, Rainbow was slowly moving her eyes across the page in the book Dinky found, struggling to make sense of the first sentence.

“Holy feather duster,” she said with a low whistle, “you can read this?”

“Of course!” Dinky piped up eagerly before frowning for a moment. “Why, can't you?”

“Erm..” Rainbow gulped, caught of guard. “Uh, why of course I can, I..”

“No,” Applejack answered for her, grinning smugly. “No, she can't.”

Rainbow's face flushed. “I-I can read it, shut up!”

“Sharrap!” Aurora mimed, giggling at Applejack.

“It's just a little wordy, is all,” Rainbow continued, turning back to Dinky. “You always read books this difficult?”

Dinky nodded, then looked over at her mom, who smiled. “Uh, anyway, can I have that book back, I want to get back to reading it.”

“Oh, yeah sure,” Rainbow answered, hoofing it over. She stared after the filly as she took the heavy book under one leg and trotted back up the stairs with it in tow. “I don't get it,” she said with a frown.

“Um... Rainbow?” Fluttershy said quietly. “I didn't want to interrupt your conversation, but I read something in a parenting magazine recently. It said that the reason reading to foals when they're young works is because it not only exposes them to new words, but it also helps them to develop a concept of what books are and what reading is. This means that it takes less time for them to adjust once they attend school, which gives them an advantage. Foals whose parents read to them tend to be at the head of the class and tend to stay there for most of their lives.”

Rainbow blinked.

“Oh, but um..” Fluttershy added, lowering her head shyly. “Whatever you want to do with your foal is fine too..”

“Wait,” Rainbow said, leaning forward anxiously, “are you saying that if Applejack reads to her foal and I don't then it means that her foal will do better than mine in school?”

“Well, I um... Maybe?” Fluttershy offered.

“Oh that does it!” Rainbow said, flying down and picking Aurora off of the floor. “There's no way you're gonna be dumber than Applejack's foal! Come on, let's find you an encyclopedia or something!”

With that, Rainbow flew off with Aurora, flapping her way past the shelves and looking at the titles on display.

Applejack just rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She looked around to see where her daughter had gone off to, and spotted her, along with the book they had been reading. She was clumsily flipping the pages of the book back and forth, and was babbling nonsense words as though she was reading the book herself. Applejack smiled “Sorry about that, Golden.”

And the rest is silence.

Comments ( 130 )

Longest. Chapter. Ever.

Isn't doing this kind of against the rules?

So, after that little debate about reading, was Shinning Armour supposed to burst through the door with murderous intentions? :rainbowlaugh::trollestia:

I loved chapter 14.

Oh heavens... this is gonna take awhile, OKAT first finish this or save it somehow, eh and then come back to MY Little Mommies! :twilightblush: so much to read! :fluttercry:

That very ominous ending of the unfinished chapter 14.
And then the universe suddenly ended as if someone pressed quickload, while the last save was prior to the beginning :rainbowlaugh:
Can't wait to see what you'll do with the story now :twilightsmile:

Big Mac is kinda out of character here

Wait, you're rewriting this?

Hum...I am not sure how to feel about that. I'll give it a shot, of course, but...I don't know. I'll read it later.

I think the main problem here is people digesting too much at once. Some can take and some cannot. Plus with a slower release date more can be changed faster than a rewrite. Math.

Chapter 14 was hilarious, but with that title I'm picturing all the grandparents would have shown up, possibly demanding to know why their kids had foals out of wedlock, leading to several shotgun weddings.

I saw that it said 2 chapters with over 99k words and I thought "what the fudge?!", but now I understand. :twilightsmile:

Shall be looking forward to seeing the rewrite emerge. (:twilightsmile: again)

4044381
He is writing Luna darker this time around. He said so in his blog post.

Errr, 3Power? That second chapter there is gonna scare a bunch of people who don't take the time to read the disclaimer about it being the original story.

I know you wanna preserve it for posterity but surely there's a better way?

If only you had written exactly 1,000 more words for this.

4044717
You're afraid that they would look at the word count and not at the words right next to it?

4044270 Luna yelled at Derpy because Sliepnir is her hated enemy. In the original story Luna's crusade against him was so intense that it frightened her subjects to the point they starts calling her Nightmare Moon. So now all of a sudden she gets a photo of one of Sliepnir's bases, it's understandable that she'd be short with ponies, even the loveable Derpy. But I'm sure we'll get an apology scene later.

4044902 I totally agree I was just trying to be nice for my favorite princess and also reserving some judgement for the next chapter to see if she redeems herself at all.

4044849 I know for a fact that they will because someone in a Skype chat with me looked at the word count and dismissed it as "too long to start"

I had to explain that you were re-writing and chapter two was just the old story encapsulated.

4045146 And if I remove it and put it somewhere else, I'll be swamped with users asking where the rest of the story went.

4045251 You could unpublish it, then put a link to it in the author's notes for chapter one and/or long description with an explanation. (You can link to stories/chapters that aren't published)

Or just leave it. It's your call, I'm just pointing out a potential issue.

Oh my god I've been looking for this story since I first read it, and now to see its being re-written makes me so giddy to partake in the adventure once more.

4045146
Did they not notice the title 'The Complete Original Version'? ORIGINAL VERSION being the key words here. Cause I think that would alert most people to why it's so big. Also, the author's notes.

4045310 You are giving human beings WAY too much credit for examining things. There's a reason targeted advertising works so well. People often don't think before acting.

spread them out into different chapters

Gore?

*reads and flees in horror* MY GOD WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO DERPY!!! *reads a little further* OH GOD... BL-BLAAAAUUGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Alondro projectile vomits everywhere repeatedly until he throws up his internal organs and falls over dead*

:trollestia::trollestia::trollestia::trollestia::trollestia::trollestia::trollestia::trollestia:

How does this have more likes than views? Almost 3000 likes, 908 views... Heck, even if you count the 1500 total it still doesn't add up.

This is exactly what you should do with the original version. Leave it up in one massive chapter with a clearly named title, then all of the folks who loved the original still have access to it. WandererD is doing the exact same thing with his rewrite of the Empty Room.

Chapter 14 has some great moments between Rarity and AJ, these types of Interactions are what I believe MLM does best. Now off to read the new, improved chapter one.

4045318
Hmm, you have a point.
Considering people (on another site) tend to keep missing the 'read first post' that I put, in caps, in the title of a thread you'd think I'd remember. :facehoof: People on petsites can be the biggest dumbshits ever.
I guess I figured people on a fanfic site would read more xD

4045655 That's a silly assumption :P

87.9 thousand words!?!?
Are you mad man?!

4045737

My only fixable qualm is that you said 'babysitting' and 'baby pony', rather than 'foalsitting' and 'foal', respectively.

Except according to canon, both babysitter and baby pony are perfectly acceptable terminologies.

I remember enjoying the older story, though I had fallen behind on it. I look forward to watching as this develops.

Dude!!! That second chapter must be the biggest chapter ever in the history of Fimfiction!!!

It's not really a chapter I know that, but still!!!

The updates is nice, kind of wish you kept the part of Pinkie's source of power being cups of early morning coffee, but I didn't really see anything wrong the original.I'll still read it, so long as the quality is stays the same.

4044913

Tried looking through this chapter to see if that happens. I didn't have any luck. The Mane 6 were awesome from what I could skim, and showed major respect. Luna from what I could see [and I did just skim] doesn't give Derpy the time of day. Which seriously needs to be petitioned since Luna really is best Princess [I'm even wearing a shirt right now that says it. So it must be true] so that she makes ammends to Derpy, and sees the hard working / overworked mother that Derpy is. While at the same time being both trusted with hard work, while being insulted by ignorant ponies (like Ch.1 Luna) at the same time.


4045995

Sorry for the lenght. This woke me up and I had to write this down.

First Pony dream ever involved chapter 1 of this story, the babies with Full Metal Alchemist Hominucilus & Naruto Kekki Genkai powers. That being said, I skimmed via Ctrl.+F : Luna and Derpy [only a few searches each] when I can across this last night when trying to see if Best Princess redeems herself with Derpy [after all not even Tia would tear out an innocent ponies throat, insult her for doing her job, verbally bully and beat her down for something beyond her control / common knowledge, then kick her out in one of the meanest ways possible.] I mean seriously. Way harsh.:

Lunaticus Alicornus Equestria

For the love of all things holy GET RID OF THIS! It is a total slaughtering of Latin. In every sense of the word. Other than the last bit. No offense. I'm loving this story. But when rewriting:

Luna is Latin for Moon. That is the root word for the Celestial Body Luna controls, as well as her name. Now if we are going: Alicorns are ancient. Then you have Latin Rulers, Egyptian Rulers, Mesopatamia Rulers, and the like who only had one name. So something like Princess Luna of Equestria is the proper name and title. Lunaticus made my brain bleed. It is a total butchery of latin, and really needs to go. Please.

Alicorn is Proper Latin for Wing-Horn [the species of Alicorn is what it translates into]. Alicornus even if it wasn't a butchery of Latin would make no sense in any way shape or form. And it wouldn't be a middle name. That's more horrible than the woman who named her daughter "Moxxy Crime Fighter" [and yes that's a real name].

and If that's a title [version of Appelation]. Either shorten it down to Princess Luna of Equestria [proper Title, and even could be a proper name, Princess [Noble Rank] Luna [name [and a pony that old can have just one name. Heck alot of ponies have only one name. Like Rarity, Scootaloo, Archer, Alula / Erroria, Starswirl, Clover, ect.]] of Equestria [where she rules]. Or just cut it out from the re-write since it doesn't really add to the story.


Sorry for the length, but better in the old version than waiting to Rant in the new one. Well good luck on the re-write and I hope that Luna makes it up for being such a pair of Sweaty, Stinky, Horrible Goat Testicles. Especially after saying that Derpy could trust her. Then shattering that trust (and making it so that Derpy would tell every pony what a mean, cruel Princess Luna is inbetween fits of crying). Seriously Luna is my favorite Princess. She has to make things right or she'll be a super douche for the rest of the story and that'd be sad. Especially if you plan on her being so prominent in the re-write as she was in this version.

Never seen a whole story be converted to one chapter, but I was only interested to know what happen in chapter 14. So that was where you stoped writhing, welp, I will need to read the edited chapters now.

eouldn't it be better to have the uneditedc story in the first chapter and the the revised edition in the second chapter?

Nice reading of chapter 14 I must say.
And by the way, I think I'd have a solution for Derpy's reading problem.
If she'd close one eye and only read with the other it'd be far easier to read a book.
Just a suggestion for her little problem. :twilightblush:
But as always a good read my friend. :yay:

Dragon:moustache:

“What are your balloons made of?”

Just a sealed rubber container:pinkiehappy:... Filled with the screams of my enemies:pinkiecrazy:.

oh damn :applejackconfused: over 87k words i guess i should get started

So are you finishing the story? Or canceling it?

4049856

He's remaking it from scratch, so its not cancelled

4049579

I wonder if that was one of the reasons the story hit the reset button?

I will say that I'm not normally one for the adventure stories on this sight they tend to fall flat but I'm currently reading the original version which is making me eager for the rewrite because this seems to be high quality stuff and that's been hard to find among these adventure tagged stories.

This was my first story i ever read on FF, even before i got my account. But now you put all of the chapters together i got to reread this again. but it was fun to wait for another chapter until i found this in popular box. Thank you for making this story and one more thing… Ur almost to 100,000 words in total!:pinkiehappy::heart: be happy:pinkiesad2:

~Pony Princess

I like the pairing but the original was 't finised love the new start:raritystarry:

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