A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits

by CDRW

Chapter 10

A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits

Chapter 10

By CDRW

Twilight Sparkle
Comprehension ~ Day 2

It was a bright, beautiful morning, the streets of Ponyville were already filling up with ponies, and someone was invading Twilight Sparkle's personal space.

Twilight took a step backwards to try and put some distance between herself and the grey-maned mare that was currently in her face but it was useless. As soon as she did so, the other pony stepped in to close the distance again with a slightly fake and slightly manic-looking smile on her face.

Twilight was more than a little uncomfortable with the situation. However, Celestia had given her a task and she wasn't about to shirk it. Okay Twilight, you can do this. Your homework, should you choose to accept it, which technically you already did two days ago, is to make friends with this pony.

With another futile backwards step, she put on the best smile she could muster, gathered herself together, and asked with only a second's hesitation, “Would you happen to be Mayor Mare?”

"That I am," the space-invader replied in a bright, cheerful voice. "And on behalf of Ponyville and all the ponies who live here, I welcome you to our humble town and thank you for recognizing how much we have to contribute to the Summer Sun Celebration."

As a pony who loved books, Twilight understood the value of words. The written word was a comfort to her, a familiar friend that she could always turn to in times of need and stress. With the mayor of this town standing so close that Twilight could smell what she'd had for breakfast, stress was definitely an issue.

An Egghead's Guide to Conversation recommended both promptness and confidence when conversing under pressure, so Twilight said the first thing that sprang to mind. "Actually, I only added Ponyville to my itinerary because it was on the way from Cloudsdale to Appeloosa, and I figured that I should be as thorough as possible."

The written word was an old and trustworthy friend. The spoken word, however, was a treacherous creature that loved nothing more than to stick a knife in Twilight’s ribs. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling, made just a little more literal by Spike's elbow while he muttered under his breath, "That's not how you make friends Twilight."

"Oh, uhh."

Mayor Mare's smile faltered for an instant, but then she mustered herself and brought it back in full force. "In that case, I hope that you enjoy your stay here in Ponyville. I believe that you will find it surprisingly productive. You are of course free to explore the town as you see fit, but if you have a list of positions you need to fill I would be happy to guide you to the ponies most suited for your needs."

"Oh, of course!" Twilight exclaimed a little more enthusiastically than she should have out of sheer relief that the mayor didn't seem too offended. With a little application of her magic, she undid the clasp on her saddlebag and pulled out a scroll that weighed at least five pounds, offering it to the other pony.

"Oh my," Mayor Mare breathed as she took the scroll from Twilight and hefted it with one hoof. "With a list that long, I'm sure we'll find somepony for you without any trouble."

"Well, actually—" Twilight said embarrassedly as she lowered her eyes and drew a circle in the dirt with her hoof. "—it's more detailed than long. There's only five positions left, and since the Empress asked me to find the best ponies for the job, I took it upon myself to draft a list of nessecary qualifications. Then I figured that since this is the Summer Sun Celebration, we needed the absolute best of the best, so I made a list of secondary qualifications that, while not required, would be really helpful. After that, I think I may have gotten carried away."

Mayor Mare unrolled the scroll part way and gave it a quick look. "Qua..." She trailed off as she moved her lips experimentally, trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of the word she was looking at.

"Quaternary," Twilight offered. "It comes after tertiary." After a short pause, she added "It means fourth."

"Oh really?" Spike asked as he turned to look at Twilight with a suspiciously mocking look of shock on his face. "I thought it was some sort of exotic bird!"

Twilight wasn't sure whether she should cringe in sudden realization of the patronizing tone she'd used, or glare Spike into oblivion. In the end though, she chose neither course of action because Mayor Mare was still right there in her personal space and would have noticed.

With an almost imperceptible roll of the eyes that made Twilight's spirits sink just a little bit more, Mayor Mare rolled the scroll up and turned towards the building behind her, beckoning them to come along. "Why don't we take this into my office and go over what you need a little more thoroughly?"

Applejack
Comprehension ~ Day 2

"What in tarnation are military ponies doin' here?" Applejack muttered to herself as she galloped towards the house.

The ditch where she and Clementine had been working was a good distance away; even running as fast as she could, she had plenty of time to get a good look at the arrivals. A large white pegasus was knocking on the door of the farmhouse while two other pegasi stood on either side of him. All three of them wore drab green army uniforms that covered their cutie-marks.

"I don't know," Clementine answered between panting breaths, much to Applejack's surprise. She hadn't realized that her aunt followed her when she started for the house. "But I've got a feeling they're not here about Macintosh."

Applejack had a feeling that she was right about that. There was something was wrong with all this, these ponies and them being here.

The military ponies turned around as one to face Applejack and Clementine as they came to a stop a few paces away. Right at that same moment, the door behind them opened, revealing Granny Smith, Rarity, Mimosa, and...

Applebloom? When did she get home?

The big pegasus in the middle was the picture of calm confidence, but the two smaller ones looked around nervously as if they weren't sure who they were supposed to face, Applejack and Clementine, or the ponies in the doorway.

There was a pegasus on the Ponyville weather team who was almost as big as this guy, but where he looked like a swollen freak of nature, this stallion was just... really big. He stood a good six inches taller at the shoulder than Applejack. His coat was mostly white, but he had some very light grey dappling over his face and down his neck that probably kept going on underneath his uniform. The most striking thing about him though, was his mane. It was a brilliant yellow that shone in the sunlight.

"Are you in charge here?" he asked Applejack.

His accent sounded a bit like Rarity's, all high class and fancy; but where her friend's voice was warm and inviting, his had a rough sound to it that set Applejack's teeth on edge.

"I reckon I am," she answered back, drawing herself up as tall as she could. It was a little funny that he'd spoken to her when Clementine was standing right there and Granny Smith behind him; but on the other hoof, Clementine didn't look all that authoritative at the moment—it seemed she wasn't very used to running—and most ponies didn't take Granny seriously until they heard her talk.

The two smaller pegasi shifted a little, trying to watch both her and the ponies standing in the doorway behind them, but Applejack ignored them because she was too busy keeping her eyes on the big guy. "You mind explainin' who y'all are and what you're doin' here?"

"Of course." The stallion reached a hoof towards his breast pocket while Applejack watched closely. She narrowed her eyes even more when she noticed that his uniform didn't have a name tag above his pocket like Macintosh's did, but that was driven clean out of her mind when he pulled out a slightly worn piece of paper and unfolded it for her to see. "I'm looking for this stallion."

Applejack's stomach lurched as she looked right into Braeburn's eyes. It was that dang wanted poster.

Granny and Clementine exchanged a look, and Rarity let out a faint gasp of "Oh my stars.”

The fillies and the two of them couldn't see the poster from where they stood, but it looked like the adults had guessed what it was. Applejack couldn't tell if Mimosa knew. She just leaned casually against the doorframe, trying not to look anything but bored. She was pretty darn good at looking bored too, but the twitching in the little filly’s ears gave away her unease.

Applebloom had no clue what was going on. For a second, Applejack’s heart about crawled out her mouth when her sister tried to run out to get a look at the poster, but Granny grabbed a hold of her just in time.

Applejack's face set like concrete and she answered the stallion's question quick and blunt. "He ain't here. And I'd kindly ask you to get off my property."

"Now miss..." He shot Applejack a questioning look.

"Applejack."

"Miss Applejack. I understand that family ties are very important to ponies in this part of Equestria—" He lowered his brows and shot a scowl at her that was probably supposed to be intimidating. "—but the fact remains that Braeburn Apple is a very dangerous pony and he needs to be brought in to stand trial for his crimes."

"What?" Applebloom shouted. Quick as a whip, Granny shushed her and whispered something in her ear. Applebloom didn't say anything else, but the scowl on her face didn't give any doubt about what she was feeling.

Maybe Applejack should have been a little scared. That was the way most ponies would probably feel when a bunch of folk from the army showed up on their doorstep, pushing them around and demanding that they hand over one of their family. But Applejack was an Apple standing on her own land. She wasn't scared. She was angry.

Applejack forced herself to take a deep, calming breath as the rage that had been simmering ever since she broke that table tried its best to boil over again. This was not how she had wanted Applebloom to find out about Braeburn. For a long moment, nopony spoke, then she took a step forward with her head high to look him straight in the face. He was big, but not as big as her brother, and she wasn't going to let anypony push her around in front of her family. Especially not now.

"Now you listen and you listen good,” she growled. "Braeburn is one of the kindest, most outgoin', most decent ponies that I know. He ain't never hit another pony in anger in his whole life, and I darned well know that he didn't kill nopony. But none of that makes a lick of difference to you because He. Ain't. Here.

"Besides all that, there's somethin' fishy goin' on here. If anypony was gonna come lookin' for Braeburn, it would be the police, not the army. This ain't your business."

Nopony else said anything, but they were all looking really out of sorts. Granny's eyes were hard as flint, and Applejack was suddenly very conscious of the fact that while she may be old and a bit frail now, she was still the mare who had carved Sweet Apple Acres out of the wilderness with nothing but her own four hooves when she wasn't nothing more than just a filly. She and a very nervous-looking Rarity moved to fill the doorway, placing the fillies behind them where Appplejack couldn't see anymore.

The last pretense of politeness dropped off the stallion's face as he drew up to his full height and answered back. "It most certainly is the military's business when somepony murders one of our stallions. Now stand aside while we search the property."

Applejack caught a sudden flash of scared orange eyes from behind Granny's legs. It was all she could see of her sister at the moment, but it was enough. Applebloom shouldn't have to see any of this after just hearing about Macintosh.

Applejack needed to put an end to this, and quick. "No," she said, firm as a rock on the outside, but praying to Celestia in her head that she wasn't spoiling to start a fight. "I know my rights, and military or no, you can't search my farm without a warrant, which I'm more than willing to bet you don't have." Applejack raised an eyebrow at the stallion, and when he didn't respond she continued. "What y'all are doin' here is illegal as hay and I have half a mind to send Rarity there to go fetch the police to arrest y'all for tresspassin'. I already told you once to clear out, so you best do that while I'm feelin' generous." Rarity looked scared as all get-out when Applejack pointed at her, but she still nodded her head in agreement.

It was so quiet, the gathered ponies probably could have heard an apple fall from one of the trees in the orchard. Applejack put her hoof back down and watched the pegasus with narrowed eyes. Several feelings ran across his face as he met her gaze, but the easiest one to figure out was anger. It didn’t matter what he felt though, because Applejack wasn't going to back down.

It was one of the smaller pegasi who finally broke the silence. "Captain?"

He flinched as the stallion whirled around and snapped at him, "Move out!"

"B—but Captain!"

"I said move out!" With that, he turned around again, shot Applejack a look of pure venom, and stalked past her while the other two followed. Ten steps later, they took to the air and flew off to the north.

When they were out of sight, Applejack let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She still kept her gaze on the sky for a little longer though, just to make sure they didn't come back. That's why Applebloom's flying tackle-hug knocked her off her hooves, dropping her straight to the ground with a rib-pounding thump.

"Whoa there kiddo," she chuckled after she managed to catch her breath. She tried to break free from the wiggling, squealing filly that was climbing all over her, but she was no match for the little bundle of energy. "I can't understand a word you're sayin'." Clementine plucked Applebloom off of her so that she could get up, and Mimosa and Granny crowded in close. That was when Applejack met Rarity's eyes.

Even after the way Applejack had snapped at her before, Rarity had still stuck beside her. She was going to have to properly apologize and thank Rarity later. Her friend was hanging back a little, but judging by the smile on her face, she already knew how Applejack felt.

Twilight Sparkle
Comprehension ~ Day 2

Mayor Mare's office was surprisingly small, and with the hot summer day in full swing, it was feeling more than a little stuffy.

Technically the room had space to spare. It was just packed from end to end with filing cabinets, shelves, and anything else you could ever imagine a pony would need to fill out and organize the masses of paperwork that sat on the mayor's desk.

At least it's tidy, Twilight thought as she let her eyes wander around the place for the thirtieth time while trying to stave off boredom-induced narcolepsy. In spite of the clutter, everything had its place and was happily sitting in it. That was less of a comfort to her than it normally would have been.

It didn't help that the only window was blocked by filing cabinets so they couldn't open it and get a breeze going. It didn't help that Mayor Mare never dropped that too-wide, too-enthusiastic smile either. It also didn't help that Twilight and Spike had been there for hours, a captive audience for the politician while she tried to sell them on every pony who lived in Ponyville whether they fit the requirements or not.

Ugh. Twilight just barely resisted facehooving as her "friend to be" pulled yet another dossier on one of the town's inhabitants out of a filing cabinet. Are those sorts of files even legal? After pausing to think about it for a second, she came to the conclusion that they probably weren't. Mental note, check into Mayor Mare's background for other activities of questionable legality.

Twilight was starting to lose her cool and she knew it. It was hot. She was frustrated. In spite of the relatively good sleep she'd gotten the night before, she was tired. If she didn't get out of that office, she was going to do something she'd regret, and it was only now seeming like the mayor had forgotten Twilight's earlier blunder. The threat to her progress in befriending Mayor Mare—and thus failing the Empress's assignment—was what finally tipped the scales.

"Actually, Mayor Mare," Twilight said, choosing her words carefully as she stood up. "Before we discuss anypony else, would it be alright with you if I took a restroom break?"

"Of course! The restroom is the second door on your left!"

"Thank you." With that, Twilight scampered out the door towards the relative safety of the little filly’s room, abandoning Spike to whatever fate the mayor had in store for him while she was gone.

After spending a few hours with the bureaucrat, Twilight was starting to think that she would cheerfully raze Ponyville to the ground in order to erect a statue of a giant kumquat if the request was delivered by a representative of the crown and stamped with the Sun Seal. But still, Twilight was supposed to be practicing her interpersonal skills and she was quite proud of how well she'd done after her initial blunder.

I might not have filled any of the positions for the Celebration yet, but I'm well on my way to...

Twilight found the restroom and opened the door, a little surprised to find facilities more akin to someone’s home than what you would normally find in a public building.

...To what?

She stepped inside and locked the door behind her, then plodded over to the counter to look in the mirror. She was still Twilight Sparkle, still the same violet eyes with the same familiar bags under them from never getting quite enough sleep. She still had the same slightly stubby horn that she used to work the magics that she studied twenty-four/seven to perfect. She was the same student that she'd always been.

Improving her social skills was one thing, even if it was a thing that she didn't particularly want to do, but all of this went way beyond that. Why did Celestia say all that stuff about taking over? I'm not a politician. I was never supposed to be.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Relax Twilight. The Empress gave you this assignment as a vacation. Sort of. At least you're not still in Canterlot trying to hide from all the nobleponies."

Surprisingly enough, trying to talk herself out of panicking worked this time, a little bit. Twilight put on a determined face and opened her eyes, staring her reflection straight on. "Okay. Time to get to work."

She didn't have a checklist to write on—having left her saddlebags in the office—but she still had her head and a moment away from Mayor Mare to think. She was going to make good use of both.

"The only pony in Ponyville who looked like she might be qualified to provide catering is unavailable due to some sort of family crisis," she listed off. "It would have been nice to see that bird choir in the music program, but that's got the same problem. Their weather team is pretty good, but already overworked because of a budget shortage."

Mayor Mare had made a face like her teeth were being pulled when she told Twilight she really couldn't spare any of them.

"And I don't see why the Canterlot weather team shouldn't handle that aspect anyway. It's one thing to bring in talent from outside in order to foster a greater sense of community in Equestria as a whole, but that's a bit ridiculous.

"There was one pony who might have been able to handle setting up the celebration, as long as we limited her to the informal party, but she's out of town. Really, that just leaves the possibility of finding a decorator."

Twilight mentally ruminated over the dossiers that Mayor Mare had already presented, but it was pretty obvious that none of the other ponies were qualified. She sighed as she came to the inevitable conclusion that she was going to have to sit through some more of the bureaucrat's chattering. She sighed again and used her magic to flush the toilet and then run the sink for a few seconds just in case somepony was walking by the door, and then stepped out into the hallway and headed back.

Twilight was about to open the door when she heard a voice coming from inside the office. “This Rarity pony really sounds great.”

Spike’s voice was a bit muffled by the door, but clear enough that Twilight could hear without any trouble. She was impressed that he was still going over potential applicants even though she wasn’t there. Spike was a lot of things, but a slacker wasn’t one of them.

I need to give him some time off when we get back.

Mayor Mare’s voice drifted through the door, still enthusiastic, but with just a hint of what sounded like disappointment. “Rarity is probably the best fit out of all the ponies in Ponyville. I saved her for last because I was hoping she would be able to be here to wow you in person, but I’m afraid that looks like it won’t happen now.

“Rarity was supposed to come by this morning to help decorate the town hall before you arrived, but I haven’t seen her all day. That isn’t something you should hold against her though. She is Fluttershy’s best friend, and is almost certainly out somewhere with one of the search parties. The Summer Sun Celebration is a big deal to her, but some things take priority over even that.”

Twilight felt a strange combination of relief at the news that they were done and guilt because she shouldn't feel that way when something like that was going on. "Are you sure that there's not anything we can do to help?" she asked while entering the room and taking her seat.

Mayor Mare looked a little startled at her sudden entrance, but regained her composure quickly and shook her head. "I'm afraid not, unless you just happen to have a pegasus locating spell."

Twilight shook her head and the mayor sighed.

"I figured as much. The ponies we already have out searching know both the area and Fluttershy much better than you or any of your guards, and we already have so many ponies looking that another few pairs of eyes won't really make a difference."

"All right then..." Twilight hesitated. She felt like she should be helping, but what Mayor Mare said made sense. She couldn't think of a single way she could really be of use. "I guess that means we're done here then, if Rarity was the last pony on your list?"

The look of disappointed resignation on the elderly mare's face as she nodded pricked at Twilight's heart a little more than she'd expected it to, but what was she supposed to do? There really wasn't anypony in Ponyville that she could use.

"All right then. Um... thank you for your time?"

Twilight stood up and made for the door, Spike following close behind. On her way though, a thought struck her and she paused in the doorway so suddenly that Spike ran right into her. Self-consciously, she scratched at her neck with one hoof and said, "I really hope you find that pegasus, and... I'm going to be at the library for the rest of today and tonight researching a personal project. If Rarity turns up and has the time, she's more than welcome to stop by for an interview. Spike said she sounds good and it doesn't seem right to just rule her out like this because of extenuating circumstances. I have to leave really early tomorrow morning, but I'm not doing anything else today that can't be interrupted, so, like I said, she’s welcome to come by anytime. That goes for you too if you think of anypony else we missed here."

Twilight's words sounded clumsy and stupidly obvious to her ears, but the smile that lit up Mayor Mare's face was the first genuine one she'd seen all day. For once, Twilight felt like maybe she really had made friends with the bureaucrat. After bidding goodbye one more time, she walked out the door and headed towards the Ponyville Library with a lighter heart.

Pinkie Pie
Comprehension ~ Day 2

Pinkie Pie was confused and bored, two feelings she never thought she'd ever feel in Canterlot. Even worse, she wasn't confused about one thing and bored about another, she was confused because she was bored! On top of all that, in a mind-twisting mess of confusaboredom-ception, she was confused and bored because of the Great and Powerful Trixie! Those things just didn't mix, like oil and water, or griffons and water, or cesium and water, or zombies and fire; except that zombies and fire actually went very well together if you looked at it from the zombie's point of view, because the only thing worse than zombies is zombies on fire. Griffon zombies who rubbed themselves all over with cesium-oil lotion, lit it on fire, and then fell into a swimming pool. A swimming pool filled with piranhas. And now it's raining flaming zombie piranhas everywhere.

There was no rain of flaming zombie piranhas though, even though Pinkie Pie would have welcomed the distraction. No zombie piranhas, no explosions, not even a doughnut. All she had was a wall to distract herself from the fact that the Great and Powerful Trixie had parked her wagon in a back-alley and locked herself up inside saying she had to "prepare her performance." What performance she had in mind Pinkie wasn't sure, because Trixie only came with her to cheer her on for her audition.

She thought about walking off to find a doughnut shop without Trixie for a second, but that didn't feel right. What kind of friend left a friend behind while she went off to eat sweet scrumptious things made by another friend who might not be a very close friend because they had just met but was still friends because they made sweet scrumptious things while that first (second?) friend was working hard at something that that was obviously really important? No, Pinkie Pie wasn't going to leave a friend behind. Unless she wasn't done in five minutes, because she had other friends to meet.

No, three minutes.

Three minutes was too long! With a single bound, Pinkie Pie was at the wagon's door with her hoof raised to start pounding furiously. Before she could start though, she heard a voice come from inside.

"For the last time, Trixie said she did not wish to be disturbed today! She is busy!"

Pinkie dropped her head in disappointment, but then a thought struck her and—

"No, The Great and Powerful Trixie does not want a doughnut! Save your bits for somepony who needs them!"

Okay, that was starting to get really creepy. Maybe Trixie really could read m—

"Trixie already addressed that. She is not a mindreader and will not make your head explode if you look at her funny, though she is seriously considering looking into the matter since you won't leave her alone!"

But then ho—

"You move your lips when you think."

Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes at the door that stood between her and the Great and Mysterious Trixie.

"Solid objects mean nothing to magic! Now go, and seek no more to learn of Trixie's mysteries, for she is subtle and quick to anger!"

After squinting one last time at the door, Pinkie Pie dejectedly turned around and walked away.

As she stepped out into the main streets of Canterlot, she found her normal smile and bouncy gait returning. She couldn't stay down for long here. She was in Canterlot! There were ponies to meet, doughnuts to eat, and other verbs that kept the rhyme scheme going!

Twilight Sparkle
Comprehension ~ Day 2

Twilight Sparkle stood outside the front door of the Ponyville town library which, much to her fascination, had been built into the trunk of a massive oak tree. She had the rest of the afternoon off and this was her chance to do some research.

There were so many questions buzzing around her head that she wasn't really sure where to start. Why did Celestia effectively name her heir to the throne when she wasn't qualified, there were other ponies who were qualified, and there wasn't even any point in naming an heir when the current ruler is an immortal goddess? Why had she never seen that book, History of Equestria, a Foal's Guide, before? Why did an apparently non-fiction book tell such an obviously untrue story? Why was there nothing else in any other books she knew that referenced it, fiction or non?

The only vaguely familiar thing in it was the name Nightmare Moon, but even that was at best a tangential connection because the Nightmare Moon it featured and the one in pony tradition shared almost no characteristics. Come to think of it, she'd never seen Nightmare Moon show up in any other books either. As far as Twilight knew, the character was a purely oral tradition. Perhaps the modern tales were a corruption of something from an earlier time that just wasn't written down for some reason or another? So would that make History of Equestria, a Foal's Guide a corruption of the oral tradition, or a precursor to it?

Did that mean that Nightmare Moon really was Celestia's sister, in spite of the non-indicative answer that the Empress had given when she'd asked about her family?

Twilight didn't think that any amount of research would answer why Celestia did things the way she did, and the rest of her questions hinged on that single pony, Nightmare Moon. She was the key. If Twilight could find anything that shed some light on who she was, that would set her on the right path. Even just a name, something connecting the legend with a real, known historical figure would be helpful.

Looking up at the tree and the relatively tiny library it housed, Twilight couldn't help but wish that she was back in Canterlot. This library was so small, and Ponyville so unimportant a place that it was probably next to hopeless to look for anything here.

"Come on Spike," she said without turning her head to look at the baby dragon sitting on her back. "Let's go do some research."

Rainbow Dash
Comprehension ~ Day 2

Rainbow Dash quickly and quietly glided down to land in a giant hedge maze on the castle grounds, all the while casting glances back over her shoulder all the while to make sure none of the press pegasi had managed to find her. When she didn't see anypony silhouetted against the sky, she let a sigh of relief escape into the late afternoon air. "Goddess, I thought I'd never lose them!"

Ever since her encounter with Empress Celestia that morning Rainbow Dash had been hounded by mobs of press ponies and nobleponies, each and every one of them shouting at the top of their lungs demanding that she explain what had happened that morning in the throne room. Normally she would have loved the attention but she was just as confused as any of them, and trying to explain that to a crowd of angry Canterlot snobs wasn't the sort of thing she wanted to do. She wasn't even sure if palace guards were allowed to talk to the press anyway. Putting her miraculously won job on the line was the last thing she wanted to do.

What she really wanted was a moment to herself to figure things out, and it looked like she might have just won that prize.

Absentmindedly, Dash started trotting through the maze as she tried to clear her head. The place was actually pretty cool, with hedges twenty feet tall, all sorts of blind corners and dead ends and enough twists and turns that a half-dozen ponies could wander within feet of each other and never know it. Exactly how she wanted.

"Okay," she said aloud. "So, this morning I went in for a job interview with Red and nailed it. Then he took me out for a flight test, which I also nailed."

And by "nailed" Dash meant she'd blown out most of the windows in the palace with her Sonic Rainboom and broken the landing pad. Which was apparently a war crime.

Yeah, that was way overreacting on the guards' part, but Dash still felt pretty bad about it all now that she had a chance to let it sink in. The Rainboom was awesome of course, but she really could have gotten someone hurt with that stunt.

"And the next thing I know, I'm meeting the Empress and she gives me a job." Dash paused and thought for a moment to see if she'd left out any important stuff. "Not that I'm complaining about that or anything." She peeked down a side-corridor to make sure nopony was coming and then continued on her aimless path. "Still doesn't make any sense though."

As she rounded another corner that led into a five-way intersection, Dash heard something. Stopping, she looked around for the source of the sound, a little unsure if she’d actually heard it in the first place. After a moment though, her confusion was washed away as she heard it again, a soft hissing sound to her left.

"Psst! Dash! Over here!" a familiar voice whispered at her.

A clawed hand reached out from one of the openings in the hedge and beckoned at her.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head and stared at the outstretched arm for a second before the pieces clicked together in her head.

"Gilda?"

"Can it featherbrain, and get over here!"

Yup, that’s Gilda.

"Good to see you too, Gilda," Dash said dryly as she walked around the corner. "What in Equestria are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be training with the Wonderbolts?"

There, in a dead-end clearing in the maze, was her best friend from Junior Speedster Flight Camp. Gilda the griffon stood in front of a weird statue with her chest puffed out and a fierce glare on her face.

"Yeah I am, but then I heard about some idiot rainbow pegasus assaulting the Empress and I cut out to try and find her. Spitfire thinks I'm back in my bunk with a stomach bug and I probably don't got much time till she sends somepony to check on me."

In spite of herself and the day she'd had, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but laugh. Everything might be weird, but it was good to see Gilda again. It looked like she hadn't changed one bit either. "Yeah, that whole deal was just a little bit weird, but it all worked out so you didn't have to worry."

Gilda blinked, and for a second Dash thought she saw something glinting in her eye. Then it was gone before she could even be sure it was real, replaced by an even fiercer scowl as the griffon got up in her grill.

"You don't get it do you? You really don't!"

"Umm, I guess I don't?" Rainbow Dash said as she leaned away. "What's going on Gilda?"

"That's my question! I haven't heard from you in years, and then out of the blue you show up in Canterlot, do some Goddess-only-knows-what trick that blows out all the windows in the palace, injuring the Empress—you injured the Empress Dash! You injured the Empress and then did a rainbomb on the castle! Do you not get the sheer amount of crap you've landed yourself in?"

"Uh..." Rainbow Dash backed away from the irate griffon that was advancing on her until the pricking branches of one of the hedges forced her to stop.

"Each of those offenses carry the death penalty Dash! And you're flying around free and with your head still attached, not a single care in the world. What in Tartarus did you do!"

Dash's blood turned to ice at the words "death penalty" and she had the sudden urge to fly away from Canterlot right that instant without looking back. "I didn't do anything! I was just trying to get a job, and then all that stuff happened. T-they wouldn't give me the death penalty over something like that, it was an accident!"

Gilda buried her face in her claw. "Ugh! Classic Rainbow Dash. The clueless featherbrain who accidentally launches a single-pony assault on her Empress and capitol!" After a second she lowered her claw to reveal a curious look on her face. "So how'd you get out of it then? Somehow I don't think that Captain Ivory Tower is the sort to just let you off the hook because you said 'it was all a mistake officer. I swear!' He came and inspected the recruits my first day at training, and I know for a fact he's a gigantic hardflank."

In an instant, Dash relived the events of the day yet again, and just like every time before, all she came away with was the feeling that she'd missed something important. Dropping her eyes to the ground, she said, "I don't know Gilda, I really don't. I've been trying to figure it out all day, and none of it makes sense. One minute I'm in the middle of a flight test, trying to impress this old stallion guy so he'd give me a job, and the next I'm standing in front of the Empress, and she just lets me off—"

"Whoah whoa whoah!" Gilda broke in. You got an audience with Celestia? And she just forgave you like that?"

Dash snorted, "Not just that, she hired me! You're talking to the newest member of her personal guard." The look of shock and outrage on Gilda's face was almost enough to make Rainbow Dash laugh in spite of everything. She looked like an eagle that just got struck by lightning. "Don't get too envious though. I've got a feeling I’m gonna spend the next couple decades paying for all the windows I broke. I thought you already knew about that though. Celestia wasn't exactly doing anything to keep it a secret. It's gotta be all over the papers by now."

Gilda's beak snapped shut as she pulled herself together and tried to play it off cool, though she couldn't keep the unsettled tone out of her voice. "Nah, I heard it second-hand through the staff at the training camp, who heard about it from the guards. I had no idea you met Celestia. I came here thinking I'd have to break into a dungeon cell just to talk to you..." A troubled expression crept across Gilda's face as she fell silent.

For a little bit, Dash just stared awkwardly at her, but when the griffon didn't say anything she reached out a hoof and prodded her shoulder. "Hey Gilda, you okay?"

Gilda grimaced and looked up at her, a strange, glittery look in her eyes. Not tears or anything like that. Gilda didn't do tears. It was a hard look. "I don't like this Dash. It's all wrong. Nopony's acting like they should. I think... I think you've gotten yourself mixed up in something big."

Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow. "What’re you talking about?"

"I don't know. I don't play those games. It's just... when you're in Canterlot and ponies start acting weird, it usually means that there's something going on. And it gets worse the closer you get to the Empress." Gilda looked around nervously, and then glanced up at the sun like she was checking the time. "Look, I've got to go before somepony figures out I'm not in my bunk. I'll see you again, but for now... Just watch your back, okay Dash?"

"Yeah... sure." The only ears Rainbow Dash's reply fell on were the deaf ones of the statue behind her. Gilda was already gone.

The statue was a weird creature with the head of a pony, a deer antler on one side and a goat horn on the other. His right arm was a lion’s leg, and his left looked like Gilda's arm, but one of the fingers was broken off at the joint. And then there were the wings. The creature had a pegasus wing on one side and a dragon's on the other. The whole thing was an unsettling mishmash of animals, and she could swear she heard it laughing at her.

Suddenly, she walked up to it, whirled around, and bucked the base of the statue as hard as she could. "What are you looking at?" She asked, turning around to glare at it's ugly face.

When it didn't say anything, Rainbow Dash was suddenly and uncomfortably aware of just how stupid it was to get mad at something that couldn't talk.

"Eh, whatever," she said, fluffing her wings in dismissal as she turned away. "I need to find a hotel or something and lay low 'til tomorrow." She could afford a hotel. She had a job now.

Twilight Sparkle
Comprehension ~ Day 2

"Spike," Twilight asked wearily. "You find anything?"

Spike walked up next to the desk Twilight was using and set a load of books almost as tall as he was down on it. "Eeeeeh. Maybe?"

The Ponyville library was big by tree standards but tiny by library standards, and it was as useless as she'd feared.

They'd started with history of course, but none of those books covered the right period. The legend of Nightmare Moon obviously came after the foundation of Equestria and the unification of the three tribes, but still just as obviously took place very early on, back during the time when ponies still called alicorns 'unicorns.'

It had all been useless though because there was not one book there on the subject of Nightmare Moon. Not. One.

Next, they'd moved onto myths and legends. It was the exact same story there. Children's books had proven fruitless as well. Now Twilight was reduced to simply picking stuff at random. While many of the books were interesting in their own right, she didn't have the time to actually stop and read them. Even for a studious pony like Twilight, hours upon hours of skimming over texts was exhausting.

Twilight sighed and closed the book she was reading, leaning back in her chair as she tilted her head back to gaze dejectedly up at the ceiling. "We're not going to find anything here are we Spike?"

Spike's feet made a soft padding sound on the wooden floor as he approached her seat and laid a comforting hand on her side. "Well, we knew it was a long-shot anyway. Right?"

"Yeah, you're right," she agreed softly. "It's just..."

"What, just you don't like that it's looking for something that probably doesn't exist?" he asked skeptically. "Twilight, I hate to call you crazy or something, but, well, you're acting kinda crazy. I still don't get why you even think that book is important."

Twilight righted herself in her chair and looked down at her assistant with a frustrated look. "That's just it Spike. It's not connected to anything! It's not based in any real history. It doesn't refer to any mythological history I recognize either. There's no context for this book at all! All I have to go on is a foal's tale. How can any single book be this... this isolated?"

Spike's only response was a raised eyebrow.

"Oh don't look at me like that. The rise and fall of myths are a very well documented phenomenon. Take the boogeybuck for example. It’s nothing but an amorphous imaginary being used by adults to frighten their foals into behaving. It doesn’t have any specific appearance, and because it represents such a non-specific terror, occupies a unique position in our modern mythology.

“On the one hoof, the unknown is one of our most primal fears. It is a built-in, lingering fear that gives the boogeybuck staying power in our collective consciousness. On the other hoof, because the boogeybuck doesn’t have any defining characteristics beyond that vague menace, it is easy to dismiss as a children's tale. The truth couldn't be less foal-friendly if it tried though, and even though there's not much left of the original legend in the modern monster, we can still figure out why it’s there at all.

“Boogey, or bogey, comes from the middle Equestrian word 'bugge,' which was the name of what we today would call a hobgoblin. If you look back through the various mythology books, you'll find that in all the earlier ones, they were presented as small, ugly creatures that looked a bit like a pony, and who's sole purpose in life was to cause mischief. They were so ugly, in fact, that their name served as the root for the modern word 'bug.'

"So how did something like the hobgoblin, an ugly, mischievous pony-like creature, turn into an object of undefined, but nevertheless powerful, fear?” Twilight asked before crowing excitedly. “They didn't! The ugly little pony is merely one aspect of the ancient myth, modernized and simplified beyond recognition. They are not an early incarnation of the boogeybuck so much as a parallel evolution stemming from a common ancestor.

"You see, originally, hobgoblins were believed to be low-level members of the Seelie Court, or the court of the 'good fairies.' I say 'good' simply in the sense that the Seelie Court wasn't outright evil. Fairies back then were more than superstition to ponies, they were serious business. According to their beliefs, having any dealings with the Seelie Court was a huge gamble. There are many stories of ponies being granted aid and help by fairies, but just as many where they caused nothing but anguish and grief. Sometimes they did it out of lack of understanding of ponies, sometimes out of boredom, sometimes for completely unfathomable reasons known only to them

"The Queen of the Seelie Court was the perfect embodiment of that concept. There are many tales of her granting boons to ponies on quests; magic weapons, mysteries only she knew, and so forth. There are just as many tales that depict her as cruel and sadistic though.

“It is said that she wished above all else to be beautiful, and so when the mood struck, she would find a mortal pony of renowned beauty, slay them, and wear their skin over her own hard, bug-like body. What is more, she would then return to the home of that pony and live as him—or, more often, her—for several years until she got bored of the charade.

"That part of the myth is likely where we get the formless, faceless terror of the boogeybuck." Twilight gave Spike a grim look. "And it gives new meaning to the phrase 'the boogeybuck is coming to get you,' doesn't it?"

Spike shivered.

"It is also what gives name to the third incarnation of the myth. Changelings. At first, the term referred to the Queen when she took on the identity of some poor pony, but over time it was embellished and added to until it referred to a foal that she had kidnapped to raise as her own, leaving behind a bugge disguised as the child in exchange. Eventually, even that faded into obscurity and now the changeling is even more extinct than the boogeybuck."

"Okay," Spike said slowly. "I think I get that, but what exactly does it have to do with Nightmare Moon?"

"Nothing! That's the point!"

Spike smacked his face with one claw and opened his mouth to say something no doubt unbelievably sarcastic before Twilight cut him off.

"I just demonstrated how myths grow and change. They're all part of an interconnected web of culture that reveals as much about the minds of ponies as any historical document can. Myths aren't standalone things, they all build off each other and eventually stem from a real world source or inspiration if you can manage to dig deep enough. They are born, they grow, they propagate, fall, and then are forgotten.

“But Nightmare Moon skipped all of that and went straight to the 'forgotten' phase. As far as I can tell, she's always been the same stupid being who steals candy and gobbles foals every Nightmare Night. Spike, we have a holiday dedicated to horror named after a creature that couldn't scare a six-year-old!

"Huh." Spike rubbed his chin with a contemplative look on his face, and Twilight knew she was finally starting to get him to see what her issue was. "I never thought about that before."

"And then there's the whole problem with the history books. I can't believe how I never noticed before. Actually, I can believe because it's so gradual. All the sources just sort of fade out over time until about midway through Clover the Clever's life, and then they fade back in over the course of the next hundred years. But there's a gap right there of about twenty, thirty years where we don't have any historical record at all for no good reason."

"Maybe it was a really boring twenty years?"

This time it was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow.

Spike sighed and said, "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a big mystery and you need to figure it out or you'll go insane. I admit, it does sound weird, but I think you need to take a break. You're not going to find anything here anyway."

"But—" Twilight protested.

"No 'buts!'" Spike said sternly. "I'd tell you to go to bed because we've got an even earlier day tomorrow, but I know you're not going to listen to that."

Of course she wasn't going to go to bed, the sun was just barely going down! Yeah it set pretty late in the middle of summer, but still!

"But I need to get some sleep, and you need to drop this until you have the time and a proper library with proper reference materials on hoof."

Twilight didn't like it, but she couldn't argue with him. So she didn't. Instead, after a grumbling acknowledgement, she reached out and picked up one of the books she'd skimmed over earlier, an interesting looking one about the diamond dog-griffon wars in the third century.

Twilight could practically hear Spike's eyes rolling in their sockets, but he mercifully didn’t say anything else, so she added, "Mayor Mare said there was a bedroom upstairs. Why don't you go up there and go to bed?" She only hesitated a second before adding, "Don't worry. I promise to go to bed at a reasonable hour."

Spike leveled a stern look at her, one of those looks that he could only get away with on this one subject. "And by reasonable hour, you mean ten o'clock?"

Twilight nearly had a heart attack. "What? No! Ten o'clock is not a reasonable hour! One is a reasonable hour, maybe twelve."

Spike just leveled a glare at her without saying a word.

"Eleven?" Twilight proposed with a wince.

The dragon let the silence drag out for an interminably long moment before nodding once and saying, "Good night Twilight."

Without another word, he started up the stairs to find the bedroom.

***

Twilight read the last few words of Dogs and Cats: The Predator's War and gently closed the book. Leaning back in her chair, she contemplated what she'd read with a slightly dissatisfied expression. The author had concentrated entirely too much on the instinctive hostility between the Diamond Dogs and the Griffons, and not nearly enough on the political and economic causes of their conflict. He made it clear he thought the carnivorous races were ruled by their violent impulses outside any control of the mind. That was a common enough view at the time the book had been written, but these days that attitude was the sort that would ruin an academic pony’s credibility.

With a stretch and a groan, Twilight looked up at the window. It was dark out and the rest of Ponyville seemed to have settled down for the night, but a quick glance at the clock reassured her that she still had plenty of time before her agreed upon bedtime.

"All right," she said as she stood up. "Let's find something a little better to read."

She walked over to a sparsely populated shelf on the far side of the library that neither she nor Spike had gone through yet and started reading titles. It turned out it just held local stuff, like the history of the town and a few tax codes. As she scanned the books though, one group of volumes stuck out at her. They were four thin books, all done with the same style of binding and missing the titles on the spines.

Twilight reached pulled one of the volumes off the shelf and opened it to the first page. Instead of a proper title page, it just had the words, Journal of Britemac Apple and Log of His Journeys and Findings.

She cocked her head to one side and eyed the book quizzically. "What's somepony's journal doing here?"

Twilight glanced up at the clock and then back down at the journal before she shrugged and started leafing through it. "I guess they must have donated it to the library or something."

As she flipped through the journal, one entry near the end caught her eye. She was skimming over it when the words 'rainbow-colored explosion' leapt up off the page and practically hit her upside the head.

Twilight didn't even bother to take it back to the desk before she dove in. Instead, she just plopped her rump right there on the floor and started reading.

***

I have encountered a great many strange things in my travels, but today's events just show that you don't have to venture very far from home to find mystery. It started this morning as I was walking into town. I was just getting back from my recent trip to the Badlands when a strange, rainbow-colored explosion shot through the sky over Ponyville. Nopony is really sure what happened, but it came from the direction of the flight camp just outside of town that a lot of Cloudsdale ponies send their foals to over the summer. The rumor is that some filly performed a sonic rainboom. Can you believe that?

We weren't the only ponies who saw it either. My daughter Applejack had been staying with relatives in Manehatten while trying to find her cutie-mark, and she saw it from her window. She said that the rainbow trail leading to Ponyville made her realize just where she needed to be. Imagine everypony's surprise when she showed up back here in Ponyville the same afternoon with a brand new cutie mark on her rump, three shiny red apples!

I don't know if I've ever been so proud, and to tell the truth, I'm a bit relieved. I find myself coming back home sooner and sooner, and staying longer than ever between trips since we had children. Most of the time Creamy stays home these days too, but the trips are still hard on family life. It makes me feel a little safer knowing that Applejack and Macintosh don't seem to have inherited my wanderlust.

If that had been the end of the events that day, I think I would have been content. It was a mystery, but a good one I think, and I wasn't in any hurry to solve it. Something else has happened today though. It's a lot less magical, but it seems to have laid hold on my mind in a most peculiar way.

I was out at my favorite spot overlooking the reservoir just after the sun had set when I saw something white moving through the Everfree Forest. I couldn't figure out what it was, but it seemed larger than any pony I'd ever met. When I saw it, I felt a strange melancholy overtake me. My feet started moving of their own accord and before I knew it I was following the apparition into the forest.

As I sit here now contemplating what happened, I can't help but wonder what I was thinking. The Everfree Forest is no place to venture into during the day, let alone at night. I thank Celestia that we didn't go very deep because I don't know if I would have been able to turn back, so strong was the compulsion to follow. Instead, we kept a course parallel to the edge of the forest.

There is a very lifelike and frightful statue of Nightmare Moon near the town but just inside the edge of the Everfree Forest. It features a central role in the festivities of Nightmare Night, but lies ignored the rest of the year. It is that statue that was the destination of the mysterious visitor.

I can hardly believe that it didn't strike me until tonight just how strange that statue is. Why is it there at the edge of the Everfree Forest? Who made it? Nightmare Moon is a ridiculous legend that only frightens the smallest of foals, but the statue is about as far from ridiculous as it is possible to get. It depicts a fearsome, cold-hearted, monstrous pony; fiercer and more intelligent looking than any story would have you believe. After looking through records going as far back as I could find, including my mother's journal, I can safely say that it has been there as long as any pony can remember. I'm starting to think that it might even pre-date Ponyville itself.

That is the statue I saw when I finally stepped out of the treeline. I had long since lost sight of the pony, (for I am convinced that it was a pony) and was starting to feel a little silly when I espied something at the base of the statue. It was a folded piece of paper.

When I walked over and picked up the paper to unfold it, four long, shimmering hairs fell out of the creases. They were all of pale pastel shades, one pink, one purple, one green, and one blue. The only thing written on the paper was a poem or set of lyrics, which, after much hesitation, I have copied below.

Ask not the sun why she sets

Why she shrouds her light away

Or why she hides her glowing gaze

When night turns crimson gold to grey

For silent falls the guilty sun

As day to dark does turn

One simple truth she dare not speak:

Her light can only blind and burn

No mercy for the guilty

Bring down the lying sun

Tears so silver black by night

Upon the face of twilight

Cruel moon, bring the end

The dawn will never rise again

I did not—and still don't—understand the meaning of these words. What sort of feelings could drive a pony to write something so terrible, so full of malice, and dare I say it, grief? As I stood there underneath the light of the moon and the shadows of the forest, I felt the most horrible, soul-rending feeling of loneliness I've ever experienced. I wanted nothing more than to go back home to my family and never leave again; to forget the statue and the poem, to pretend that I had not intruded on this profoundly private place. I should not have gone there, and I should not write anything about it.

I am writing though. I cannot help but write it or else I feel I should burst. I have spent my entire life wandering, poking into ancient mysteries and wonders, but this... this is something profoundly different. The question has arisen inside my mind, who is Nightmare Moon that she inspires something like this? Who is this pony who holds such a grudge? These words and feelings could not have been conjured up by some simple children's tale or monster of superstition, but something real.

Perhaps it is just a product of the peculiar mood I am in tonight, but I feel that pursuing the answers to these questions will bring calamity down on my head and the heads of my family. I should leave the matter where it lays.

***

Twilight put the book down and tried to stand but her legs wouldn't hold her up. She looked down at her right hoof and realized it was shaking uncontrollably. Her heart was trying to burst out of her chest or crawl its way up her throat.

She tore her gaze away from her hoof and looked around the library, still lit up by the light of various lamps, but infinitely darker than before and even colder than that.

She tried to call out to Spike, but she couldn't stop the trembling in her jaw or loose the strangled feeling in her throat. Instead of words, all that came out was a keening whine.

There was something about that journal entry that summoned a terribly familiar, but utterly incomprehensible feeling stronger than she’d ever felt before. It robbed her of her warmth, her voice, her hope, and her self. Terror was not what held her in its grip though. The sensation that flooded through her body with every beat of her faltering heart, that clawed at her paralyzed vocal cords to be let loose, that erased every thought from her mind; that sensation was not fear, it was pure, undirected hatred. If she could have conjured up an iota of magic, or moved so much as a hoof, someone would have died in that very moment; whether herself or another, she couldn't tell.

Rarity
Comprehension ~ Day 2

Rarity couldn't remember ever experiencing a more stressful or difficult day in her life, which was why when Applejack sent Applebloom, Mimosa, and Sweetie Belle upstairs to go to bed, she was surprised at the feeling of utter contentment that washed over her while she watched them go.

She had stuck around after those beastly pegasi left because she wanted to be there for whenever Fluttershy came back, and Applejack had agreed. Not long after that, Sweetie Belle had shown up looking for her and the two of them had spent the entire day at Sweet Apple Acres helping out where they could.

"Well, I guess that's all taken care of," Applejack said as the fillies' retreating tails disappeared up the stairs. She turned to where Rarity sat on the couch conversing about fashion with Clementine and said, "I want to thank you Rarity. You've been a mighty big help today."

"Oh, don't worry about that darling," Rarity turned towards her friend and dismissed the thanks with a wave of the hoof. "Anypony would have done the same."

"No," Applejack insisted as she lowered her eyes to the floor. "It means the world to me, what you've done. Stickin' around like that when those pegasi showed up took guts, especially after the way I treated you earlier. And I know you've made some real sacrifices stickin' around the whole day too."

For a second, Applejack stopped talking, then she lifted her head and looked Rarity right in the eyes. "I've done you wrong and you proved yourself the better mare, Rarity. I'm sorry."

Rarity was caught aback by the unexpected fervency of Applejack's words and found herself casting about for an appropriate response. "I... Thank you Applejack. I think you're selling yourself a great deal short though. You've been dealing with stuff that nopony ever should have to face, what with Macintosh, then Fluttershy, and now Braeburn and those ruffians."

"And explaining it all to Applebloom," Clementine said added in. Her voice seemed a little bit rougher than usual when she said, "That's not such an easy thing to do either."

"Yes, that too."Rarity added with a frown. "How did your talk with her go?"

Applejack sighed and walked over to a large, ugly armchair that sat by the fireplace and sat down "About as well as you'd expect. She's powerful hurt and upset, though she's tryin' not to show it, and I don't think she rightly understands everythin' that's goin' on."

"Do any of us understand what's going on?" Clementine asked softly.

Applejack's whispered response came out so softly that Rarity wasn't sure if she and Clementine were supposed hear it or not, "I sure as hay don't." Then she added louder, "She'll pull through though. Applebloom's always been a tough filly."

"Applejack?" Rarity asked hesitantly after some hesitation. "I've been meaning to ask all day, but with everything that happened, I just never had the chance. Why exactly did Fluttershy run off?"

Applejack put her hooves on the arms of her chair and slowly pushed herself up and out of the seat. Without meeting Rarity's eyes, she said, "I've got a feelin' we're going to be talkin' for a while. Before we start, you mind if I go get somethin' so our throats don't get parched in the middle of all this?"

"O-of course," Rarity said, a little bit taken aback.

Applejack walked across the living room and disappeared through the kitchen door as Rarity and Clementine exchanged a look. After about half a minute, she reappeared with a tray on her back that held three large mugs and a pitcher full of apple cider.

"There we go," she said as she transferred the tray to the end-table by the couch and started pouring cider into each of the mugs. Taking one of the mugs for herself, she returned to her seat and took a long drink.

Meanwhile, Rarity levitated the two remaining mugs and passed one to Clementine before taking a dainty sip out of her own. The cider might not have been quite as good as when squeezed fresh during cider season, but it still tasted exquisite.

Finally, Applejack put the mug down on the end-table by her chair and started talking, "I don't rightly know why she left. The best I can think of is that the news about M-Macintosh just plain pushed her over the edge and she doesn't know what she's doin'. It just don't make any sense otherwise." She looked at Rarity and said, "I'm real worried about her Rarity, and it doesn't sit right with me that I'm sittin' here nice and cozy while she's out there in Celestia only knows what kind of trouble. But to be perfectly honest, I don't know what else I can do about it. We've already got all the weather pegasi out lookin' for her afield and we covered all of Ponyville three times over this mornin'."

There were very few times when Rarity felt like she truly understood where Applejack was coming from, but she was certain that this was one of them. She'd tried not to show it, but staying on the farm all day, just waiting idly for news that somepony had found Fluttershy had been eating her from the inside out. The fact that it was now nighttime, and they still hadn't heard anything had her only a hair's breadth from charging out the door into the darkness and doing for herself what the pegasi apparently couldn't. "I understand Applejack," she said sympathetically. "I really do. I find this waiting every bit as unbearable as you do."

Rarity glanced down and noticed something on the tray she hadn't seen before, a note written in Fluttershy's mouthwriting. Her heart caught in her mouth, and her eyes darted back to Applejack, who met them with a knowing look and a nod. Gently, almost reverently, she picked the note up with her magic and read it to herself.

I'm going to look for him. Please tell Applebloom I'm sorry.

Fluttershy

P.S. Please look after the animals while I'm gone. They need to be fed three times a day. Angel knows which animals need what food and how much, so you can just ask him. Also, make sure their water is refilled twice a day. I'm so sorry about asking you to do this, but I have to go now or I won't ever be able to do it, and I just know you'll take good care of everyone. And if it's all right with you, could you please explain to Angel what's going on? He's probably worried because I never came home yesterday.

Rarity wasn't sure how to react. A large part of her was disappointed that Fluttershy hadn't written more. Another part was a bit let down that there wasn't a goodbye for her in it, even though it was silly to expect Fluttershy to mention her in a letter intended for Applejack. Mostly, she was just confused and greatly saddened now that she had something concrete, something right in front of her to confirm that Fluttershy had indeed run off to parts unknown.

Applejack banged her mug down on the end-table with a crash that made everypony jump. "And the worst part? I had to explain to Applebloom why it wasn't her fault that Fluttershy ran off, when I don't know why Fluttershy ran off! Why in tarnation would she go do somethin' so bone-headed stupid! What on Celestia's green earth was she thinking?"

"Maybe," Clementine interjected softly as she looked down into her own mug of cider. "Maybe she loves Macintosh more than you thought."

The resulting silence made the fur on Rarity's back stand on end.

"And just what, exactly, do you mean by that?" Applejack asked dangerously.

Clementine startled and looked up, blinking her eyes furiously as if she hadn't meant to say that out loud. It made her look for all the world like a filly Sweetie Belle's age for a second. "Oh dear. No no, that's not what I meant at all!"

Seeing the expression on Applejack's face, Rarity felt it best that she be the pony who spoke the next words, so she interjected before Applejack could open her mouth. "I'm sorry Clementine, but I'm afraid that I'm a bit confused. Could you explain what you mean for my sake?"

Clementine put her mug down and rubbed her hooves self-consciously together, not quite meeting either of their eyes and took a moment to think before answering. "I know how much family means to you Applejack. You love Applebloom with all your heart, and it's wonderful. However, for how devoted you are, you've just never had the chance to experience what it's like having that very special somepony to share the rest of your life with. I chose my words poorly, because it's not a stronger sort of love, if you can even measure it that way, but it is different."

Clementine turned to address Rarity directly. "I really don't know your friend or what kind of pony she may be, but if her reasons are anything like mine, I think I can understand a little." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing on. "You see, I came all the way out here with Mimosa is because I found out that m-my husband was cheating on me and I had to leave. I don't know how else to explain it. I simply had to leave. So I came to the only place I could think of."

Clementine fell silent for a long time, but Rarity knew she wasn't finished. When Applejack looked like she was about to say something, she gave her friend a discreet shake of the head. Fortunately, Applejack seemed to understand and settled back into the chair, picking up her mug to nurse the little cider that was left in it.

Just when the silence was starting to get very uncomfortable, Clementine continued. "It may sound strange to you, but I still love him. I guess that is what marriage does to a pony. I've spent so much time with him, working with him to build both our business and our family. It was every bit as wonderful as I hoped, though in a very different way than I dreamed as a filly. Now, I've spent more time with him than I did growing up here on Sweet Apple Acres. It doesn't matter what he did, that kind of love doesn't just go away. If there was something I knew that could take things back to the way they were, I would do it without a thought.

"The way it happened is different and comes along with an entirely different kind of pain, but I don't think Fluttershy's reaction is that far removed from my own. I lost the pony closest to me, and that loss prompted me to gather up Mimosa and the few things I could carry, and travel halfway across Equestria. I ran away from my husband, she's running towards hers."

"I'm so sorry," Rarity said gently as she placed a hoof on Clementine's foreleg. "I had no idea."

Clementine smiled weakly at her in return.

Applejack's voice came low from across the room saying, "I reckon I owe you an apology too."

Clementine closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, she was back to her old self. The vital energy that seemed to drain out of her as she said her piece seemed to return in full force and she replied the firmness that an only an Apple family member steeped in the social intricacies of high society could bring to bear. "And I won't hear a word of it. This has been a trying day for everypony, and I think that instead of wasting any more energy thinking about who wronged who, we should do what we can about the problems in front of us. The ones behind can wait.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about what's been happening today when we had a chance alone," she continued. Clementine nodded to Rarity next to her on the couch and said, "You too Rarity."

"Okay..." Applejack seemed a little lost at the sudden change of pace and subject, but leaned forward to hear what her aunt had to say.

"Yes, please go on," Rarity said. "I confess that I've found today's events highly irregular." She winced and then continued. "Er, beyond even what they should be that is, but I haven't had a chance to really put what it is into thought."

Clementine settled back into the couch cushions, her face scrunched up a little as she tried to come up with the right words. All the while, Rarity couldn't help but secretly think that if she made that face often, the mare would soon end up with some very unsightly wrinkles.

"It's what you said to those military pegasi," she finally spoke. "There is most definitely something fishy about them."

Clementine had just put into simple words the uneasy feeling that Rarity had been feeling ever since they left, a feeling that was difficult to distinguish from her unease about Fluttershy, but had nevertheless been eating at her. "Yes,"she couldn't help but answer. "They struck me as a particularly shady lot too."

"I don't think they're actually soldiers at all." Silence filled the room for a long time before the older mare continued. "They just showed up out of the blue and demanded that you hand Braeburn over without any sort of due process, demanded to search your property without a warrant, and in general conducted themselves in a very unprofessional manner."

"Are you sure Clementine?" Rarity asked. "That's a strong accusation to level without much proof."

"No..." Applejack mused. "No, I think she's right. Did y'all notice how they never introduced themselves proper? They didn't say their names, or unit, or hay, even what branch they were in, though the uniforms said army. That's another thing. They didn't have name patches on their uniforms either. Now, I don't know all the rules, but I'm pretty darn sure that real army folk aren't allowed to walk around without name patches. Doesn't seem right."

"And it's not just that," Clementine nodded at her. "Their story seemed to have an awful lot of holes in it too. Braeburn lives in Appleloosa, a hole-in-in-the-wall town right in the heart of Equestria. Besides the fact that Braeburn would never commit murder, why would any military ponies be there in the first place? Who was the victim? What was the manner of death? For a murder investigation into a dangerous criminal, and one that offers an enormous sum of bits for his capture, they were remarkably tight with the details. And why hasn't this been plastered all over the newspapers? Murder isn't exactly a common occurrence in Equestria these days."

"And they did seem awfully put out when Applejack threatened to bring the police into the matter too," Rarity mused, her chin resting in her hoof. "You would think that in a matter such as this they would be working closely together. In fact, I would expect the police to have come with them. But on the other hoof, if they aren't official, then how do you explain the wanted posters and the reward? Those aren't exactly subtle things for ponies impersonating official military personnel to be using. Who else would care about something like this enough to go to those lengths?"

All three of them fell silent as they though about the implications of that last question.

It was Clementine who broke the silence again. "I think we should go to the police about this."

"What?" Applejack protested. "Now hold on a min—"

Clementine looked at Applejack. It wasn't a hard look or a challenging one, but it was also a look that didn't brook any nonsense. "What if they come back Applejack?"

"You... don't really think they're going to come back do you?" Rarity asked.

Applejack scowled down into her lap. "No, she's right. It ain't a matter of if they come back, but when. If these here ponies are legit, they're gonna come back with a warrant. And if they're not... Well, if they're determined enough that they'd impersonate officers like that, then they ain't the sort of ponies to just give up after bein' chased off once."

Rarity sat bolt upright and looked nervously at the window. "You don't think they'd go so far as to hurt anypony, do you?"

"I don't believe so," Clementine laid a comforting hoof on Rarity's as she replied. "They did carry themselves with the sort of self-control that you see in soldiers. They acted shady, but not like thugs. If they were those sort of ponies, I don't think they would have just backed off when Applejack threatened them like that." She turned her gaze back to Applejack "I was worried for a moment when you confronted them like that, but it turned out well in the end. I do think it would be wise to speak to the police about this though. That way if those pegasi aren't who they say they are, we'll have told the right ponies. And if they are legitimate, it will look favorable for us to go to the police rather than waiting for them to come to us."

Applejack looked like she was taking a bite out of a lemon, but she nodded her head curtly and said, "I'll go down to the station first thing in the morning. There's got to be somethin' else we can do though. I don't like relyin' on anypony like that, and goin' in without anything more than just a hunch that somepony's pullin' shenanigans ain't gonna look good no matter how you slice it."

"Yes, that's true," Rarity murmured as she took a sip of cider, her mind wandering inadvertently back to Fluttershy in spite of herself as the other two continued on.

It wasn't that Rarity wasn't interested in the new direction the conversation had taken, but Fluttershy was her best friend. The feeling of helplessness that came with having to stand by and do nothing while she wracked her brain for any to help wouldn't stop niggling at the back of her mind. She glanced back up at Applejack, who was sitting stiff as a board in that ugly chair, and all of a sudden, she thought she understood her a little more.

How has she managed to keep herself together like this? Have I been taking her strength for granted?

All of a sudden Clementine's words popped into her head.

"we should do what we can about the problems in front of us."

Applejack was her friend too, and she was suffering just as much as Fluttershy, though she might not show it so easily. If she couldn't do anything to help one friend, then she was free to help another.

But what can I do about this? Rarity thought to herself. I don't know anything about murder investigations or framing ponies. The only ponies who would know how to help are the police or somepony who ran in crimin—

Completely unbidden, a thought struck Rarity out of the blue so hard that she choked on her cider. Coughing and sputtering, she just barely managed to keep from dropping the mug and spilling her cider all over the floor.

"Are y'all alright there Rarity?" Applejack asked, interrupting whatever she'd been saying before her little fit.

"Oh, yes," Rarity managed to gasp out. "Just a little trickle down the wrong pipe, so to speak. I'm sorry about that. But since I have your attention, I think I may know something I could do to help."

No no no Rarity! I know what you're about to say, and the answer is NO.

"What is it dear?" Clementine asked.

Not in a million years! Not for anypony! Not even to save your own life!

"Well," she said, putting the tips of her hooves together as she tried to stall for time. "I'm afraid that I don't know anything about the sorts of ponies who would do something like this... but I might know a pony who does know, or at least, can find out if he should so choose."

Applejack leaned so far forward Rarity was afraid that she might fall out of her chair. "Really? Who?"

Rarity chuckled nervously, "Oh, it's nopony you'd know. Just an acquaintance of mine from the time when I lived in Fillydelphia. I understand he lives in Canterlot now though, so it would be a bit of a trip."

Clementine frowned. "That's a very long way to go to ask someone a question. Is a trip really necessary? I imagine it would be faster to send a letter."

"Well..." All of a sudden, Rarity found that the back of her neck was extraordinarily itchy. "I don't actually know his address per say, just the sort of places where he could be found, so that would make a letter difficult. I think it would go better if I asked in person anyway."

"Come on Rarity," Applejack said. "If you know somepony who can help, it doesn't do any good to be all mysterious about it. You don't look all that happy about bringin' him up anyway. What kind of stallion are you talkin' about?"

Stupid Rarity! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Rarity sighed and slumped down low into the couch. It was terrible posture, but right then, she didn't care. "His name is Greaser. He's my ex-boyfriend."

Applejack nearly raised her eyebrows right off her face, and Clementine was certainly having a bit of difficulty not reacting to that.

"Look, you have to understand that I was young and naive and on my own for the first time in the big city. I made some bad decisions and some worse friends in Fillydelphia. Greaser tended to hang around with ponies who you normally wouldn't want to associate yourself with. He liked to... ingratiate himself with anypony who had sway, whether or not that sway was legitimate. If those pegasi were criminals, he'd probably know. And even if they aren't, I'm sure he could supply some information about why the police want Braeburn so badly all of a sudden."

"Okay. I'm not gonna pry into somethin' you're obviously sensitive about Rarity," Applejack said. "But is he even gonna help? Stallions aren't exactly known for appreciatin' when their ex suddenly shows up out of the blue."

"Yes," Clementine added. "When you separated, was it on good terms?"

"Eh heh heh." Rarity coughed nervously. "I guess that depends on what exactly counts as 'good terms.'" There is no universe where 'piling all his stuff in front of the building, lighting it on fire, and skipping town before he came home' counts as good terms. "I may owe him an apology or two, which is the other reason why I think it would be best to ask him in person. Air out the old laundry, so to speak."

Applejack frowned as she spoke, "I don't know Rarity. The more you talk, the more I keep thinkin' this is a bad idea. Canterlot's a long way away, and it sounds like this fellow isn't going to give you the time of day anyway."

Rarity didn't know why she was so set on arguing her case. Applejack had just given her the perfect out and she should have taken it. Instead, her mouth decided to completely sever the formerly close alliance it had enjoyed with her brain. "I know it sounds chancy Applejack, but I can do this. It may not be pleasant, but he will talk to me. If there's one thing Greaser can't pass up, it's talking." And he probably won't just walk away from a chance to hold a favor over my head.

"Is he dangerous?" Clementine asked.

"Oh, heavens no!" Rarity laughed. "He couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to! No, he never got involved in anything. He didn't have the—ahem—apples for that. He's just the sort of pony who always seems to know the ponies who know what's going on."

"Okay, but what about your business? Ya can't just leave it to go traipsing off to Canterlot on a whim like that." Applejack protested.

"Ah. That should not be a problem. You see, I hope to have business in Canterlot anyway," Rarity said with just a hint of smugness. "I simply need to convince this Twilight Sparkle that I am the best pony for the job of decorating the palace for the Summer Sun Celebration, and that's all the excuse I need to head straight there."

Applejack and Clementine exchanged a look, and Applejack asked, "What do you think?"

Rarity's mouth couldn't resist putting one more nail in her coffin. "Please, I want to do this. It doesn't feel right to just sit around doing nothing when there's something I can do to help."

"I... I guess it's all right," Clementine said hesitantly. "And if you're going to Canterlot anyway, I might know some ponies who might be able to help that I still keep in touch with through the post. Fancypants and Fleur de Lis always seemed to know everyone and everything that was going on around them. If I wrote you a letter of introduction that would probably get you through the door to meet them, and I've never known them to turn a pony away when they needed help."

In spite of the gravity of the situation, Rarity's heart couldn't help but stop when she heard that. A letter of introduction to Fancypants? It was an absolute dream come true! She would of course never ever misuse such a letter for personal gain while her friends were in trouble, but she couldn't help but think of the benefits to her boutique should she be on speaking terms with the most important pony in Canterlot after the crisis was resolved.

"That," she gulped and tried again. "That would be wonderful, thank you."

Twilight Sparkle
Comprehension ~ Day 2

It wasn't until Twilight heard a soft knock on the library door that she realized she was crying. She didn't know why she was crying when she was angry. She didn't know why she was angry for that matter.

"O—" She gasped, trying to steady her voice through the crush in her lungs and throat. "One moment please."

Forcing herself to climb to her shaking hooves, Twilight steadied herself on the bookshelf as she tried to catch her breath and calm down. One by one, she went through the faces of the ponies she loved just as she did when she woke every morning. It seemed to help. She didn't know if whatever pony was at the door had heard her or simply left, but she was grateful that they didn't rush her by knocking again. When Twilight finally felt like she was able to stand on her own, she wiped her eyes with her foreleg and walked across the main room of the library to the door. Taking one more breath to steady herself, she opened it.

The white unicorn on the other side jumped in surprise and lowered a hoof to the ground. It looked like she had been about to knock again after all. She recovered herself quickly though. "Oh dear, I did wake you up didn't I? I'm so terribly sorry. I was hoping you were still awake even though it's so late, and when I saw the light still on, I'm afraid I assumed..." The pony eyed Twilight up and down quizzically and asked. "You are Twilight Sparkle, are you not?"

Twilight nodded. "I am. May I ask who you are?"

The mare seemed to puff up a little bit at the question. "My name is Rarity. I was hoping you might have a spare moment. You see, Mayor Mare informed me that you were going to be staying at the library tonight and said it would be all right for me to stop by when I could. I was also lead to understand that you were leaving early in the morning so I took a bit of a gamble that you would still be up and about."

Oh, so this is Rarity. Slowly, the wheels in Twilight's head started turning as her brain caught up with the situation. For a moment, Twilight considered telling her that she hadn't woken her up, but decided against it. She didn't need a mirror to tell that her mane was all messed up and her eyes were red and puffy, and she was grateful at the ready excuse. Twilight really didn't feel like explaining her current state.

"Don't worry about it. Come on in." Twilight stood aside to make room for the other mare to come inside the library and gestured for her to take a seat on the reading couch, closing the door behind her. Quietly, she mentally geared herself up, trying to bring to the front of her mind all the books she'd read about etiquette and conversation. In the state she was in, she was going to need all the help she could get.

Flattery is always good.

"To tell you the truth," she said. "I'm actually glad you stopped by. The mayor told me about you and your qualifications, and I was worried that I'd end up having to leave Ponyville without getting to meet the pony she spoke so highly of."

Rarity waved a hoof through the air as she leaned forward in her seat on the couch. "Oh you flatter me. I confess that I do have some small skill in the decorative arts though. And I daresay that if you give me the opportunity, I can help you make quite the splendid impression at the Celebration."

Okay, things are going well. I think. Formal, but well. Formal is good, right?

Twilight smiled as she walked across the room to where her guest sat, and to her surprise, it was a genuine smile. Small, but still genuine. Suddenly Twilight decided that formal was good, but she could do better. "Would you like some tea?"

***

When Twilight climbed into bed, she did so without any idea of if she'd stayed up too late or not. She was exhausted.

Her chat with Rarity had gone extraordinarily well. It hadn't taken long at all for the other mare to warm up to her. Before Twilight could process how or why, Rarity had mysteriously produced a brush and some other styling tools and had insisted on giving her an impromptu makeover, steamrolling right over Twilight's protestations that she would just mess her mane up again when she went to bed.

More than just being very friendly, Rarity was also among the most competent ponies Twilight had ever met; in her own field at least. For once, she found that Mayor Mare hadn't exaggerated when she'd spoken of Rarity's skill. If anything, she'd undersold her. When Twilight offered Rarity the position of decorator, she'd thought for a minute that she was about to cry. Instead, the other mare had thanked her profusely and left so that she could get to bed. The only regret that Twilight had about the evening was that she hadn't thought to ask Rarity about her friend until after she was gone.

Fluttershy
Comprehension ~ Day 2

The moon rose into the sky in front of Fluttershy as she glided low over the treetops through air that was as still as a deep forest pond. To her weary eyes, it looked like it was so close that she could reach out and touch it.

In a great many ways, it had been the worst day of her life and it showed. It showed in the look of utter exhaustion on her face, in the way her muscles trembled uncontrollably just trying to hold her wings steady, in the limp way her legs dangled beneath her as she glided inches above the whip-like branches of the forest canopy. She would have tried to climb higher, but she just couldn't flap her wings any more.

Every second of the day, every part of her mind was screaming at her to turn back, to go home where it was safe, to apologize to Applejack and Applebloom, and to cry until she couldn't move. She'd left without saying goodbye because she knew that if anypony had said anything, she would have caved in immediately. She'd flown without stopping because she knew that if she looked back, she wouldn't be able to go even one wing-beat further from Ponyville.

Fluttershy wasn't a distance flyer. In fact, she barely thought of herself as a flyer at all. By the standards of any other pegasus, the distance she'd covered in that amount of time was probably pretty pitiful. She'd glided most of the way, only ever flapping to maintain altitude, but she hadn't stopped and that was what was important. She hadn't looked back, and she was farther from Ponyville than anyone would think to look for her, if they were looking at all.

Now she was so tired she couldn't turn back if she wanted to. She was too tired to panic, too tired to think. Too tired to do anything but keep her wings level and hope that when she came down, it wasn't into the side of a tree or in a pond.

All of a sudden, the shadowy trees vanished from beneath her, and in the light of the moon, she saw a vast field of wheat stretching out ahead. It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.

Completely out of her control, Fluttershy's speed slowly wound down until she just barely floated a few inches above the wheat. For just a moment, she seemed to hang in the air, and then she landed in a crumpled heap, cushioned by a bed of thick green stalks. She passed out before the plants finished rustling in the wake of her arrival.

Author's Note:

I'm terribly sorry about the long wait. Hopefully the extra-long chapter can make up for it a little bit.

I borrowed and adapted the words of the poem from the lyrics of Daylight's End.

Thanks to Game Chainsaw for going over my writing and giving advice. It's a really big help.

Special thanks to SilFoe for letting me use her amazing picture. Go visit and give her a favorite or three.

Thank you for reading! This is my first published fan-fiction. Please take a moment to stop and leave a comment and a rating. I love hearing your feedback.

Comments

[Uzume Tennouboshi]

Idea! Use the title A Good Mare Goes to War for the first chapter of the final battle arc!

[dragonjek]

The pony Britemac saw was Celestia, yes? That poem reminds me of a much darker, twisted "Lullaby for a Princesss", for some reason. I suppose that in a darker world, one would sing a darker song...

Has Rainbow Dash actually told anypony that she didn't use a bomb?

You're an outstanding author, and this is an outstanding chapter.

[Poyoarya]

If you wish to make:
and apple pie from scratch,
you must first:
invent the universe.
Space is made
with a network of wormholes.
You might emerge:
somewhere else in space;
some-when else in time.
The sky calls to us;
if we do not destroy ourselves,
we will some day,
venture to the starts.

A still more glorious dawn awaits.
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy-rise.
A morning filled with four hundred billion suns;
A rising of the Milky Way.

[Art of the Derp]

"asked in question" should be "asked in person", or "asked in pony" if you're feeling particularly whimsical.

[Reflections]

Diana's theme is appropriate I guess. I've managed to completely forget what's going on though .

[CDRW]

2049488 Wow, I've never heard that song before. It's really awesome. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I was a bit worried about it because it got so freaking long.

2049537 I love that song so much.

2050123 Ah, thanks for catching that.

[Csquared08]

That was really, really well done, sir. I think all my nagging made it even better

Wow, I've never heard that song before. It's really awesome.

What's this? You hadn't heard "Lullaby for a Princess" before? Madness!

[FinalFan]

I never really liked that song of Diana's* too much, and I have become particularly unfond of having it applied to MLP:FIM ... but I do make an exception in this case because of the AU making it potentially much more appropriate; HOWEVER, it seems downright bizarre for Celestia to be the one writing it. Unless she got it from somewhere (for example her sister's faction at the time of their conflict) and is simply re-using it. So really I just rambled.

*For those of you who don't know, the poem originated as the theme song of a League of Legends character, Diana.

[CDRW]

2051534 It does seem strange, doesn't it? Given what you already know from the story and the day that happened, any guesses as to what's going on?

2051529 I cannot deny that.

[dragonjek]

2051015 Then I'm glad to have introduced you to it. It was one of the first ones I found when I discovered MLP a few months ago, and I still have yet to discover a song more deserving of tears.

But someone may have made such a song since yesterday. TO YOUTUBE!

*Flies away*

[Flutterstrucked]

This chapter was a long read.....and I loved every bit of it. I'm always that person who would Jump at the chance to read a Novel of a chapter, and I must say when I read up to the Fluttershy point, the room became silent and my face was an exact mimic off O_O...Can't wait till the next chapter

[Cedric Bale]

Dauntingly long chapter. I love it.

I am so damn relieved that Twilight at LEAST got to meet Rarity. Though it looks like Twilight is going to head off to some other town to look for more potentials, while Rarity goes to Canterlot. Where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash is. And Trixie, who's going to somehow mess everything up more than it already is I'm sure.

In this story, Twilight is far and above the most interesting AU variation of the canon characters, and I'm happy she got so many parts in this chapter. I hope that trend continues.

[TheAndyMac]

So, it seems I've found another wellspring of awesome. This pleases me

i get the feeling this might take a while, though. Well, I won't complain about getting an in depth doorstopper. At least not when it's as good as this

[L4R63N7]

I am so glad this is back! This is one of the best fics I've ever read.
I totally Love how the Pinkie Pie narrative read, it was all over the place, just like Pinkie. Confusaboredom-ception? (awesome!), Flaming Zombie Piranhas (double awesome!), Trixie interrupting the narrative (SO.MUCH.AWESOME!)

[nemryn]

His right arm was a lion’s leg, and his left looked like Gilda's arm, but one of the fingers was broken off at the joint.

This Celestia doesn't mess around, does she?

[Firedon]

Hm, I wonder what exactly caused Twi to feel so much hate when she read the poem.

[CDRW]

2112653 Ooh, somebody caught that. I love it when people catch the important details.

2142826 That's totally not a mistake on my part, because I don't make mistakes when I write.

2145935 You'll actually be finding out the answer to that question relatively soon. Meaning, in three or four-ish chapters. I've got a running bet with myself on if anybody will catch on to what's going on with Twilight before the reveal. I was actually afraid that I'd made it too obvious with just the prologue and first chapter alone, and I haven't stopped dropping clues since, but if anybody has figured it out they haven't said anything.

[nemryn]

2146537
The Nightmare somehow escaped early, and now it's trying to possess Twilight?

[CDRW]

2148322 Because I can't give any hints on if you're right, wrong, or partially right, I'll settle for laughing evilly.

[Tast]

Seventeen THOUSAND words. Hell yeah, THAT'S an update, baby.

I'll admit, the stagnancy is grating on me (ten parts still on day two) but with so many POVs to handle, and the fact that this looks to be an epic as it is, I assume its unavoidable. Still grates, though.

[CDRW]

2155981 I totally understand that and am looking for ways to fix it, because it is a huge problem with my story. That's why this chapter was so freaking big, because I promised myself that I wasn't going to spend even one more chapter finishing up day 2.

[ForSpite]

Hm... It's not that any specific part is bad, but given the exciting intro the length it's taking to get to Luna showing up is wearing. Interesting hints that it's Celestia (which may be a red herring) leaving the note, which would mean a lot of that hatred is self-hatred. This Celestia seems much more flawed than canon but not cartoonishly evil, perhaps not evil at all or someone whose flaws have led them to do terrible things in the name of pride and the greater good, from the glimpses we've caught.

Also, thank you for actually citing your source when you took a piece from somewhere else. It's deplorably common in fanfics to just repurpose things other people have written without acknowledging them, songs or speeches. The advantage of doing it your way is that, besides not being plagarism, I can look up the actual song. Listening to it after reading the chapter was enjoyable epilogue to reading.

[CDRW]

2372117 Thanks for the comment, and especially for making an insightful, well-thought one. Theorizing like this is one of the biggest rewards and motivations for writing the story in the first place. Every time someone guesses something right on the nose, I have to stop myself from jumping in and giving it away, and it's the exact same thing when someone is taking the puzzle pieces I've given and are coming to exactly the wrong conclusion.

I understand exactly where you're coming from about how wearing it is getting to the point where Luna shows up. That is most definitely the biggest flaw in my writing so far, and I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out how to condense the content in between without gutting the story.

I'm glad you liked the song too. I love putting people onto music they haven't heard before.

[ForSpite]

2377093
You know the funny thing is that comments work the same way. Author replies encourage me to write them.

Oh, also I just checked your blog to see what was up with the Hiatus status here and I noted you said you'd be holding this 'until the end of the semester'. I think it should be a new one now, so does that mean you'll have more time or is your course-load still proving too heavy? If it is, I suppose we can just all wait until summer.

[CDRW]

2378045 My semesters are a little different schedule than most other schools, it ends most of the way through May, so I've still got about two months before I can dedicate any significant time to writing. So, you can expect a new chapter in two months plus however long it takes me to write it.

[RanmaChaos]

Awesome!!

[Borg]

She still had the same slightly stubby horn that she used to work the magics that she studied twenty-four/seven to perfect.

I swear Twilight just mispronounced "perfect" . . . I have no idea whatsoever what the implications of that knowledge are. I am very confused.

Griffon zombies who rubbed themselves all over with cesium-oil lotion, lit it on fire, and then fell into a swimming pool. A swimming pool filled with piranhas. And now it's raining flaming zombie piranhas everywhere.

I'll admit, that does sound as unpleasant as it would be spectacular.

There were ponies to meet, doughnuts to eat, and other verbs that kept the rhyme scheme going!

Sapphire Shores to greet, patrons to seat, innocent victims to beat?
No, probably not.

Each of those offenses carry the death penalty Dash! And you're flying around free and with your head still attached, not a single care in the world. What in Tartarus did you do!

There is maybe one pony who knows, and you know she never gives a straight answer to anything. And so instead you're asking the pony who is most confused of all.

It is said that she wished above all else to be beautiful, and so when the mood struck, she would find a mortal pony of renowned beauty, slay them, and wear their skin over her own hard, bug-like body. What is more, she would then return to the home of that pony and live as him—or, more often, her—for several years until she got bored of the charade.

Not entirely an accurate description of changelings, and for that matter I've never heard of a changeling granting boons, but what can you expect after so long in the oral tradition without anything to keep it from wandering from reality?

"Eh heh heh." Rarity coughed nervously. "I guess that depends on what exactly counts as 'good terms.'" There is no universe where 'piling all his stuff in front of the building, lighting it on fire, and skipping town before he came home' counts as good terms. "I may owe him an apology or two, which is the other reason why I think it would be best to ask him in person. Air out the old laundry, so to speak."

Well, it's been nice knowing you. I'll be sure to drop the police a tip when they find your body in an alley.

[PonyholicsAnonymous]

Well, crap. I finally got around to reading this story, discovered that it's awesome, and then discovered that it's dead.

[CDRW]

2933625 Not quite dead, just comatose for a while. I'm working on the new chapter now.

[Pearple Prose]

Ah, this story.

This is the first story that I ever read on this site, pretty much. And I suddenly remembered, I never left a comment on it!

Know what? I'mma read this motherfucker again, for old times sake.

[ForSpite]

2946096
Really? That's good news. I was just looking this thing up for old time's sake with little hope of hearing something so heartening as updates were on the way.

[ForSpite]

2146537
You have a bet with yourself about people guessing what's up with Twilight? Well, let me throw out a couple ideas.
Crazy theory about what's going on with Twilight -Possibly a SPOILER (or not, if I'm wrong):
Luna returns not as Nightmare Moon because the Elements purified her back when she was banished. The Nightmare's been in Equestria the whole time. Currently, it goes by the name Twilight Sparkle. Either because she is it made physical or because it wanted to possess Celestia's daughter (hey, that "No, it's just me" part was suggestive).

[AppleTank]

So...how ya doin?

[Midnight Rambler]

Okay, I've read all of it now and... damn. I don't think I've ever read another pony story that managed to pull off a complicated plot, an excellent tension curve, a consistent atmosphere throughout, and such sheer emotional depth.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Internet has a new winner.

Now the only question is whether to put this in the "Adventure" or the "Psychological / SoL / Romance" section of my user page favourites...

[L4R63N7]

When did you decide to cancel ASMGDA? I have been so looking forward to it's come back. I understand if your heart's just not in it anymore. It is your choice afterall. It's just disappointing. It's such a good story.

[AppleTank]

4647374
......welp. Now, I would like to at least get an outline of projected plot points.

[source1]

If it's truly cancelled, any chance you could reveal what was going on with Twilight?

[dragonjek]

"...Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise,
A morning filled with 400 billion suns:
The rising of the Milky Way..."

I forgot how wonderful this was. I love what you did with the "prologue", giving us hints as to where things would go and showing that horrible things would happen and be done--but that the ponies involved remained noble at heart.

And... as I reread the part with Twilight...
Should this be added to the Momlestia group?

[Yami Vizzini]

In a way, it's a relief this was cancelled because the bits we got are easier to take in isolation. I didn't even realize there was something going on with Twilight. Anyway, intriguing stuff.

(Also, griffons in the Wonderbolts? Well, why not?)

[Starlight Nova]

Why was this cancelled?

[CDRW]

6291209 I wasn't working on it anymore and didn't want to string people along.

[Starlight Nova]

6292961 In that case, could you please tell us how it would've ended?

[Trompony]

Is there any sense of resolution to this story despite being cancelled?