Three Magics

by Arkensaw Pinkerton

First published 20th of February, 2012

Twilight rediscovers her purpose, through studying the magic of three friends.

Twilight's cutie mark is fading, and Celestia sends her a series of lessons to rekindle her passion for magic- and for friendship. Twilight must study the magics her friends possess, as well as casting a serious eye on her own gifts.

This is technically a sequel to "Fixing Up Miss Smartypants", so I totally recommend that you read that first. It's set five years later.

Fading

FIVE YEARS LATER

--------------

It could have happened almost any time over the past week, Twilight realised as she looked at her faint, greying cutie mark in the mirror. She didn’t spend her time admiring herself or fussing over her grooming, so she simply didn’t see her cutie mark that much- if she’d not walked past the mirror this evening after her bath, she wouldn’t have spotted the difference either. Spike could have told her, but she’d been so absorbed in her work recently that the gangling baby dragon- adolescent dragon, Twilight corrected herself, he was clearing twenty hooves tall when he walked on his hind legs- had been left pretty much to his own devices. Their routine had become that Spike would wake earlier than Twilight, make her lunch and dinner in advance, and then get her breakfast while she was waking up. They didn’t speak much over breakfast any more, and Twilight didn’t make an effort to speak to him when he got back in. That’s if she noticed his return at all- sometimes she was certain he’d been out late, only to hear him snoring in his room as she went to sleep.

In any case, he’d been spending a lot of time out of the library recently. There certainly wasn’t anypony else Twilight had seen in the last week who would have noticed the difference, the unicorn mused. It was subtle enough- the purple and white on her mark had seemed to drain in intensity, becoming pale and starting to blend in with her natural lavender coat. Sighing, she added an appendix to her most recent letter to Princess Celestia about it, and made a note in her diary to investigate it in a couple of weeks, as soon as she’d solved the Coriolis problem as applied to Everfree airflow.

Signing off the letter with a flourish, Twilight focused on the missive and it engulfed itself in green flame, burning out to nothing in a fraction of a second. Twilight smiled to herself- one of her few utility spells she still took some pride in, dragonfire sending was a feat beyond most unicorns. She’d spent months perfecting it, and now Spike was free to do as he liked, not having to wait at her beck and call whenever she needed to send a letter. Just in time, too, the unicorn remembered. The week after she’d learned the spell properly and told Spike it was off the list of things she needed him for, he’d hit his first real growth spurt. Now the dragon was tall, long-limbed, and his voice had taken on a distinctly gravelly quality.

Twilight was about to return to her notes when she felt a familiar itch at the end of her horn- a return letter from the princess? This quickly? Twilight manifested the scroll in a flash of concentration, unfurling it quickly and reading it with slowly furrowing brows.

Twilight Sparkle,

I was extremely alarmed to read of your news- a pony’s cutie mark is more than just an accoutrement we acquire at a young age that represents a talent we may wish to explore. It is one of the pillars of our personality; if yours is fading, this is grave news indeed. I have taken the liberty of sending you a series of lessons via courier, which will be delivered to you shortly. These lessons should reintroduce you to the basic three magics of our people, the pegasus, earth and unicorn pony gifts that we are blessed with.

Twilight, on a personal note, I understand that you prize your studies and hate to leave work undone, so make no mistake- it is a royal command that you attend the lessons I send you immediately. They take precedence over ALL your other research.

Yours,
Princess Celestia

Twilight snorted in derision and frustration. She hardly needed to be reintroduced to unicorn magic, she thought to herself. Pegasus and earth pony magic were probably fascinating subjects, but what good could it do her to know about them? She hadn’t got access to them. They were utterly useless to her. Irritated at the alicorn’s focus on her cutie mark, Twilight glared at her research. She’d have to put it on hold until she’d finished this errand of Celestia’s, and all because she’d been foolish enough to mention a personal matter in her letters to the princess. Well, Twilight thought to herself, in future I’ll just keep it all business. This research is too important to be put aside for long. She ignored the dinner Spike had left in the fridge, and went to bed in a foul mood. It took her a long time to fall asleep.

---------------

The next day, Twilight woke late to the sound of somepony hammering on the library door. Neglecting to brush her hair, she rolled out of bed in a grumble, ignoring the cooling waffles that had been left for her on the kitchen table by Spike- her clock said it was ten thirty. She really must have slept badly to lie in so late, she thought to herself. Opening the door, her frown was replaced by an expression of surprise. The visitor was not a pony she’d expected to see.

“Morning,” said Big Mac tersely, shouldering his way past Twilight into the library and depositing a large crate onto the floor. “This is from the P-Princess.”

The big red stallion stood there, seemingly waiting for something, and Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what to say. She hadn’t exactly left things with Big Mac in the best possible way. Searching around for small talk, she grasped on the farm.

“How’s the farm doing?” she asked, and she could hear how brittle and hoarse her voice sounded.

“Alright,” Big Mac said quietly, and went back to chewing his stalk of hay. Twilight searched around for another topic, trying to keep the conversation going and remembering that it never used to be this hard to find the right words with Macintosh.

“How’s Cheerilee?” she asked, and immediately regretted it. If Big Mac’s face was difficult to read a moment ago, now it was a mask.

“Alright, Ah hear. Ah’m not the pony to ask about it,” he said. Even though it was a long time ago, Twilight had spent a lot of time learning to read the tiny inflections in Macintosh’s voice, and if she was right that was news that it cost him to deliver.

“You two aren’t- I mean, you broke up?” Twilight asked, hating the faint hope for a positive answer she could feel inside herself. The stallion looked at her with something so much worse than anger or hurt- he pitied her, Twilight realised, and she couldn’t bear it.

“A year ago, Twilight,” he said softly. Closing her eyes for a second, Twilight reeled. Had it really been that long since she’d asked after him? Unwilling to think it over further, she turned her attention to the crate, business creeping into her tone, and Big Mac took the hint and stood a little straighter.

“Celestia sent you this to bring me? Why do you think she did that?” Twilight asked out loud, as she pulled the top off the crate with her magic. Inside, resting on straw packing, there were three clear bottles. Each contained a liquid in a different colour; the first was effervescent and clear, the second a thick, creamy strawberry pink, and the third was black as tar. Each bottle had a label on it with a number, and there were likewise three numbered scrolls nestled at the bottom of the crate.

“Can’t rightly say,” said the stallion. “But Ah’m supposed to make sure you do as the Princess wants. You’re to read that first letter now, and it’ll tell you when your first lesson is. When you’re done, you open the second letter, and when you’re done with your second lesson you open the third letter there. You follow?”

“Yes, absolutely. Lessons one at a time until I’m finished,” Twilight sighed. “Not that I’m likely to learn anything.”

Twilight realised one incongruity with the delivery, and looked up at Big Mac with confusion.

“Wait, why are you delivering this? You don’t do the mail, do you?”

Big Mac shook his head. He looked a little frustrated at Twilight, if she was any judge. She was starting to think that when it came to Big Mac, though, she wasn’t as good a judge of his moods as she’d used to be.

“Ditzy got married a spell ago, not that y’came to the wedding. She’s moved away. Ah’m taking on the job now,” Big Mac muttered. “Farm needs the money. Ain’t your concern.” The stallion nodded at Twilight and started to take his leave, ambling out of the door with that steady stride Twilight used to admire so much.

“Your first appointment’s soon, Twilight. Y’should open your letter,” he said as he left, letting his head slump a little as he left the library. Twilight watched him leave for a little, trying to ignore the hot tangle high in her chest. She shouldn’t feel this awkward around him, she thought to herself. He’d left her. She was entitled to ignore what was going on with his life, she decided, and shut out the nagging voice in the back of her head that reminded her that ignoring his life was what had caused their problems in the first place.

Magic was what was important to her, she reminded herself. She opened the first scroll and read it. It might even be fun to see what Celestia had planned for her, she thought to herself, but as she read the letter she realised that was a false hope.

Twilight Sparkle,

The first of your tutors is going to teach you about pegasus magic. Take the first elixir with you to the pond at the outskirts of ponyville and your tutor will meet you there at eleven a.m. The elixir will enable you to understand their magic more clearly, and is attuned to your tutor, who is the most powerful practitioner of pegasus magic in the realm.

Yours,
Princess Celestia

Holding the elixir up to the light, Twilight got a closer look at it- it seemed clear at first, but as soon as the sun cut through it it was refracted into a brilliant spectrum, bouncing little rainbows over the walls of the library that shimmered and shifted as the elixir bubbled. It was fairly clear, she thought, that this was attuned to Rainbow Dash. The most powerful practioner of pegasus magic in the realm? That was complete nonsense, Twilight thought to herself. Rainbow was fast, sure, but her power was all athletic, not magical. If Rainbow Dash had received a summons to this meeting with the same language, she’d be intolerable.

With a sigh, Twilight resigned herself to an afternoon of being lorded over by the brash pegasus, and she slipped the elixir into her saddlebags before setting off for the pond.

Pegasus

Twilight got to her feet, squinting at the new town hall clock in the distance. She concentrated for a moment, her horn glowed, and the air in front of her warped into a lens. Through it, she could clearly see the time- 11.25. Exasperated, Twilight shifted her saddlebags and set off towards Rainbow Dash’s cloud house at the edge of town.

By noon, Twilight was returning to the pond and about ready to scream. Rainbow’s house was absolutely nowhere to be found. Iit wasn’t where it should have been and it wasn’t anywhere Twilight had looked. She’d looked everywhere, as well; with the assistance of a Mindslide spell she’d borrowed the eyes of the birds in the area and could now confidently say that Rainbow’s fluffy little palace wasn’t anywhere within five miles of Ponyville. She’d just sat down by the pond, ready to write the afternoon off entirely and go home, when she heard a familiar, brash voice behind her.

“You’re really late,” Rainbow Dash said, unamused. The pegasus walked round in front of Twilight and glared at her, and Twilight snapped right back.

“I’m late? You were twenty-five minutes late! I went looking for you at your house and then I couldn’t find the thing. Where in Equestria did you hide it?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that, and Twilight could see a hint of amusement cross the pegasus’ face for a second.

“Twilight, I sold that house ages ago! I think it got towed to Cloudsdale or something. I live at the boutique now. You really have been living under a rock, huh?”

“I’ve just not had time to waste, okay?” Twilight said exasperatedly. “The Starswirl Bursary is a really big grant and I have to work hard to justify the university choosing me as their recipient. It’s a big responsibility so I’ve not had time for-”

“-anything and anypony else?” Rainbow interjected, shaking her head and cutting Twilight off.

“Look, I didn’t come out here to shout at you, I’m not angry,” Rainbow continued. “I came out here because Princess Celestia asked me to. I came late because I didn’t really want to see you that much and I was deciding whether or not I was going to blow the whole thing off.”

“You didn’t want to see me? But we’re friends,” Twilight said, and her voice sounded petulant even to her.

“Nah, not really,” dismissed the pegasus with the awkward expression of someone breaking minor bad news. “We used to be friends. And you’re probably still, y’know, a nice pony and all. But you haven’t talked to me in like a year and a half. You didn’t come to my Wonderbolts audition, or help out when I got suckered into that stupid dice game with Blueblood, or come get me when I got all freaked out about Rarity talking about the future and I booked it back to Cloudsdale for a couple of days. You haven’t been there for the big things, Twilight, and you sure aren’t there for the little ones, so no. We aren’t friends.”

Twilight could feel her eyes watering up. Rainbow wasn’t even being cruel- she was just being honest. Twilight had been in her own little world ever since she got the grant, but that was how it was supposed to be, wasn’t it? She was finally putting her mind to use bettering all Equestria. If that meant she had to lose out on some social connections, then that’s what it meant. Steeling herself, she steadied her voice and replied.

“I suppose you’re right,” she admitted, and saw Rainbow relax a little. “I’m not here to waffle on about the past or anything either. I’ve got to learn about pegasus magic, as per Celestia’s request, and I’ve got an elixir and no clue how to start.”

“Hey, don’t worry! I totally put a lesson together, it’s going to be awesome,” said Rainbow, smiling. “First things first- that elixir’s basically me in a bottle. You drink it and you’ll be able to feel what I feel for a bit. There’ll be some other effects too, but it’s all aimed at getting you to understand what being a pegasus is actually like. So drink all of it and watch me go.”

Rainbow waited for Twilight to retrieve the elixir from her pack, and smiled as Twilight started drinking it and her eyes immediately began to water. It was the sharpest, spiciest thing she’d ever tasted. She was put in mind, for a second, of lemon and chilli peppers, and then suddenly the taste changed, becoming smooth and milky-soothing, with hints of raspberries and other summer fruits. As soon as she’d downed the elixir, Twilight realised she felt lighter, as though she was only connected to the ground by the barest of tethers. She also felt expectant, as though something great was going to happen. And a little hungry. And kind of angry, but not as angry as she’d been earlier today. Twilight observed herself feeling these alien emotions, and narrowed her eyes a little.

“Is this some sort of feedback? Rainbow, I think I’m feeling what you’re feeling,” Twilight said carefully.

“Cool, that means it’s working. Now watch close, okay?” Rainbow said, winking once at Twilight and suddenly beating her wings hard, launching herself into the air. Twilight expected to feel her stomach fall away, but it didn’t happen. Instead, she was visited by the most wonderful sensation of freedom, a feeling of power and joy that extended from the bottom of her hooves to the top of her head, concentrated around her shoulders. Twilight couldn’t help but let out a whoop of delight as Rainbow Dash lazily looped the loop above the pond before coming back in to land- and the moment that the pegasus’s hooves touched the ground, that feeling of extraordinary lightness faded from a blinding light through her body to a quiet glow between her shoulder blades. Twilight could feel it there, a dampened sun wanting to shine and blaze through the skies again, like an itch that could only be scratched with flight.

“Is this how you always feel?” Twilight asked, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably and noticing that the anger she’d felt a moment ago had almost entirely washed away.

“Pretty much,” Rainbow said, downplaying the genuine pleasure Twilight could feel that her old friend had taken in impressing her.

“Now look at me properly for a second,” Rainbow said, and as she slowly flared her wings out Twilight gasped.

With every stretch of Rainbow’s wings, Twilight could see a flowing rainbow line appear across her friend’s body, swirling in her shoulders before splaying out across her wings and down her legs, tendrils of colour stretching around the pegasus’s chest and neck with every movement of her wings.

“See? The elixir lets you see the magic. It lives in my wings and it flows when I move them. Just like your magic lives in your horn. Now watch, I’m gonna show you a pegasus spell.”

Twilight didn’t have time to ask for a clarification before Rainbow lifted off the ground again, lazily circling to a nearby cloud. Twilight felt the raw, shining joy of flight thundering through her body; when Rainbow was off the ground, the coloured lines of magic spreading from her wings seemed brighter and more intense.

“Watch carefully!” Rainbow shouted, and turned her back on the cloud.

Twilight had seen pegasi kicking away clouds before, but she’d never been inside the kick like this. The bright tendrils of magic seemed to condense around Rainbow’s wings as she pulled back for a second, and then suddenly sprang down her legs when she kicked out at the cloud. Then, flashing red, the lines of magic actually extended beyond Rainbow’s hooves, circling the cloud for an instant before tightening like a net. The cloud was shredded in the blink of an eye, dissipating into the air as though it had disappeared.

More than that, the flash of red was accompanied by an emotional surge, a sudden, intense burst of righteous fury that was gone almost before Twilight could identify it. Rainbow set back to the ground, and Twilight could feel the pegasus’s satisfaction as she landed and her magic dimmed once again.

“Rainbow, why were you so angry for a second? When you kicked the cloud, I could feel it,” Twilight asked.

“Oh, that? It’s no big deal. Pegasus spells, like moving clouds or kicking them or the Rainboom, they all need you to have access to emotions. You don’t need to be feeling them completely at the time, but you do need to be able to feel them. Does that make sense?”

Twilight shook her head, and Rainbow rolled her eyes and started again.

“Okay, the cloud? I need anger to kick it, but I don’t need to be angry at the cloud. I was pretty angry at you earlier, so I just tapped into that. If I’m moving clouds around then I need to feel a duty to something, and for the Rainboom I think I have to feel absolutely, completely trusted. So I can’t pull that one off very often ‘cause I secretly think I’m a bit of a flake. That’s why I’m the best in Equestria at pegasus magic. Because I don’t lie to myself about how I’m feeling. Ever. You follow?”

“Yes, I think so. Except earlier you said you weren’t angry at me. I’m inside your head now so I know you’re still pretty angry,” said Twilight, and as she did so she could feel her friend’s fury bubbling up, feeding into her own desire for answers and loosening her tongue.

“So what are you angry at me about? I feel like I have the right to know-” Twilight asked, and then before she knew it Rainbow was right in front of her face, practically screaming at her.

“You abandoned me! You abandoned everypony! Applejack nearly lost her farm a couple of years ago and I bet you don’t even know about it. Spike started returning the care packages Fluttershy was making for you because you didn’t even open them. When I didn’t make the Wonderbolts and you didn’t come to see me I know Rarity wrote to you, asked you to come visit the boutique and cheer me up. I know you didn’t get those letters, because at first I thought it was Spike’s fault and after I tore a strip off him he said you had instructed him- no, you’d ordered him- to deliver no personal messages. Because they were a distraction. I was in really bad shape, I’d had the worst week of my life, and then I found out I was just a distraction to you?”

Rainbow’s eyes were watering, tears crawling down her cheeks, and this seemed to confuse the pegasus even more.

“Ugh, it’s making me feel awful saying all this. I’m really sorry, Twilight. No, no I’m not! I’m not sorry! What the hay is going on?”

Rainbow slumped back on the grass, gulping great breaths of air in in an effort to keep from crying and twisting her hooves into the soft grass. Twilight took a deep breath before speaking in a quavering voice.

“It’s- that’s the elixir. You’re getting some feedback. It’s me, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Twilight sat down by Rainbow, almost touching her, and let herself cry for quite some time. After a while, she felt a cautious foreleg around her shoulders.

“Yeesh, you really are sorry,” said Rainbow, her voice a little clearer. the pegasus reached round with her other foreleg and tilted Twilight’s face up until they were looking at each other. Twilight could see the tear tracks down Rainbow’s face, and the tired little smile she used to know so well.

“Look, if you want to mean it- the sorry, I mean- then you’ve got work to do. I can talk Rarity round, you know I can, but you really hurt Fluttershy and Applejack’s pretty furious at you over that. And how you and Big Mac ended up. She’s pretty furious in general since the farm got into so much trouble and she doesn’t have anywhere to point it, so watch out there.”

Twilight nodded carefully. Rainbow was right- if she wanted to make a proper apology, then it needed to be done in person. To all her friends. To do that, she needed information.

“The Apples nearly lost the farm?” she asked quietly.

“Oh yeah, it was this whole big stupid thing. They had a bad crop- a few of them, actually, all one after another. It turned out there was a salamander nesting under the ground, drying out all the soil while he slept. Nopony’s fault. Fluttershy dealt with the salamander, they use the little fella to heat the forge these days. Problem was, they didn’t have the bits they needed to keep running, so they took out another mortgage and that’s when they really got in trouble.

“Filthy Rich stumped up the cash, but Big Mac didn’t read the fine print as finely as he should have. The thing’s dotted with big balloon payments and if the Apples pay a day late on any of them, Filthy gets the whole farm. When the first one showed up, they didn’t have the money and Rarity just signed away the boutique, right there and then. Didn’t even think about it. But then she didn’t have anywhere to stay, and Rarity’s home is where she works, so that wasn’t a good situation. I had a think about it and realised the cloud house my folks left me was pretty nice, so I sold that and we bought back the boutique. It worked out okay.”

Twilight thought for a second before asking a question.

“You didn’t make the Wonderbolts?” she asked.

“Nope. Stage fright,” Rainbow said firmly, and Twilight realised that that line of conversation was closed. She reached for something she’d been putting together since she’d felt for herself how Rainbow felt whenever she flew.

“A long time ago you told me living in the cloud house was like flying all the time, even in your sleep,” she said carefully.

“It was,” said Rainbow quietly, looking up at the sky. “I didn’t say it worked out great, Twi. I said it worked out okay.”

The two old friends were interrupted by a shouting voice near the pond, from behind one of the bushes.

“Yo! Dash, where are ya?” Twilight and Rainbow both recognised Scootaloo’s voice, and Rainbow shouted back to confirm their location before whispering to Twilight.

“I’ve been training Scoots a little recently- don’t tell her, but I think she’s a better technical flyer than I ever was. I never had the patience. She’s here for a bit of a surprise for you.”

Scootaloo turned the corner, beaming at Rainbow, and Twilight’s heart sank a little- she really had sequestered herself away. The young orange filly she remembered was no more, replaced by the strong, brash young mare in front of her with a wicked little grin and more ear piercings than Twilight could count in one glance. The grin faded away, however, as soon as Scootaloo saw Twilight.

“Wait, Dash, you never told me she was going to be here. You just said you needed a favour.”

“Yeah, I’m teaching Twilight about flying,” said Rainbow. “I needed a spare pair of hooves to give her a lift, let her get up in the air so she can see what it’s all about.”

Scootaloo frowned, before fixing Twilight with a stare that contained genuine hatred. Twilight was shocked- what had she done to anger Scootaloo so much?

“Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry but I can’t help you. I’m not touching her. I get enough crud on my hooves as it is.”

Rainbow frowned at Scootaloo for a second, clearly confused.

“Scootaloo, knock it off! What are you-”

“Ain’t gonna happen, Dash. You can yell at me about it later. But for now, Miss Twilight Researcher Sparkle with the big grant and so many special responsibilities, I’m afraid I’m way too busy with my life to spend any time assisting you with yours. Sound familiar?” Scootaloo spat at the grass in front of Twilight, and the unicorn recoiled for a second. Even Rainbow was too taken aback to say anything before Scootaloo had launched into the air, powering away towards the town on broad strokes of her wings.

“Scootaloo!” Rainbow shouted, uselessly, before rubbing her mane and turning back to Twilight.

“I didn’t know she was mad at you. Do you know why?” she asked, and Twilight shook her head. It was probably worse that she didn’t know, she thought to herself. How had she managed to generate such animosity without even knowing it?

“Well, I think this old mare’s still got enough in her to get you home, at least!” Rainbow smiled, trying to gloss over the situation. “Look, this is easiest if you hold me around the neck and I hold you around the waist, like a hug.”

Rainbow walked over to Twilight and roughly pulled her up to balancing on her hind legs before the unicorn could object, holding her tight around the middle. There was a warmth to the hold that Twilight had almost forgotten, and as she wrapped her own forelegs around Rainbow’s neck she could feel herself relaxing in a way that suddenly reminded her of a thousand little tensions she’d been ignoring. She could feel Rainbow relaxing too- the elixir was still feeding back.

“You really needed a hug, huh?” Rainbow murmured, trying to keep a note of amusement in her voice.

“Yes,” Twilight admitted, burying her head in Rainbow’s mane. It smelt of cheap soap and a little like tangerines. “Rainbow, I’d like to be friends again. If you’ll let me.”

Twilight felt herself lift off the ground, suffused with joy, and knew Rainbow had taken flight.

“I’d like that too,” said Rainbow. “But you gotta mean it this time, okay?”

They didn’t say anything else for a while, and as they flew Twilight could feel the elixir fading away. As it did, she could feel a calm, cold clarity descending around her thoughts- while she’d been under the effects of the elixir, it had been so much easier to let her emotions guide her. She didn’t think she’d lied, but that desire for companionship wasn’t burning as brightly now. It was still something she wanted, though, she admitted to herself. Her reverie was interrupted by a sudden bank to the left, and she realised Rainbow was circling downwards. Snapping back to reality, Twilight suddenly noticed that Rainbow was sweating profusely, and grunting with effort.

“Rainbow? Are you okay?” she asked, worried.

“I’m fine! Just- sweet Celestia, Twilight, how much do you bucking weigh?” Rainbow snapped out through clenched teeth. “I’m having to put us down early and you cannot be angry when you see where!”

“What?” Twilight asked. Holding Rainbow as she was, she could only see the sky. “Where are we landing?”

Rainbow didn’t answer, and as they spiralled tighter towards the ground Twilight realised why.

She could smell apples.

Glow

Rainbow dropped Twilight about a foot and a half from the ground, unceremoniously depositing the unicorn on her rump. The pegasus herself landed heavily on all fours, stretching her back out until Twilight heard a large cracking sound.

“Ah, that’s heaven!” Rainbow said, a look of relief on her face. “It’s been a long time since I actually flew somepony around.”

While her friend was stretching, Twilight took a panicked look around. She had not expected to be on Apple property today, and she knew full well she wasn’t likely to receive a warm welcome. They’d landed near the barn, and grabbing Rainbow by the hoof Twilight half-dragged her inside.

“Sweet Apple Acres?” she hissed. “You had to find somewhere to land and you picked Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Hey, I told you not to be angry,” said Rainbow. “Look, it’s not the best situation. For you. But I think that elixir took something out of me. I’m beat, I’m thirsty, and I needed to put down. It was this or drop you, Twilight.”

“I guess it’s not the end of the world. I can just teleport home-” Twilight was cut off by Rainbow pushing her behind a hay bale.

“Hey there, Big Mac! How’s it going? I was just on my rounds, looking for stray clouds, you know how it is, and I thought I’d take a quick break!” Rainbow said, loudly. Twilight rubbed her side where she’d fallen onto it and bit her lip in worry. She could hear heavy hoofbeats entering the barn, and if Big Mac knew she was here-

“Ah’m okay, Rainbow. But y’shoved Twilight pretty hard. You alright back there, Twilight?” Big Mac drawled, his expression as stoic as ever.

“Twilight? What gave you that idea, she’s nowhere around! Hey, you wanna, um, race or something?”

Rainbow’s voice was far too high pitched. Besides, Big Mac wasn’t easy to turn round on an idea, especially when he was right. Twilight knew that much at least. She stood up, dusted herself off, and walked round the hay bale to see Big Mac properly.

“I’m fine. Rainbow was giving me a lift and she had to put down here. I don’t mean to trespass- if you give me a minute to catch my breath I can teleport home.” she admitted sheepishly.

“You look tired,” Big Mac observed. “Come to the kitchen. Y’all can grab a cider and cool off for a few.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a great idea, Macintosh. If your sister knew I was here she’d be pretty mad.”

“Eeyup,” said Big Mac, already starting towards the big farmhouse. Rainbow and Twilight didn’t really have much of an option except to follow him. As they did, Twilight couldn’t help but notice the changes that had been made to the farmhouse since the summer she’d spent living here. The gutters were black painted iron now instead of wood, and there were little frescas of ponies carved into the beam above the front door, but there was so much that was mended. The shutters looked like they’d been broken and repaired many times over, and the front porch seat now sat on wooden blocks instead of hanging from chains. Twilight could see holes in beams patched up, planks out of place where a temporarily cheaper stopgap had been used instead of a more comprehensive repair.

“The place looks different,” Twilight said, and immediately regretted it, trying to focus on the few improved qualities the farmhouse had. “The new guttering must be a boon.”

She winced at herself and Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her. The guttering must be a boon? Had she forgotten how to speak to Big Mac completely?

“It’s solid, sure enough,” Big Mac said quietly. “Spike’s real good with m-metalwork and since we had the forge put in he’s been bringing in a steady flow of business. That old salamander might pay for himself yet.”

Big Mac and Rainbow carried on into the house, not noticing that Twilight was standing absolutely still. The unicorn was looking at the house with new eyes, searching for every scrap of ironwork, and suddenly it was everywhere- black iron hinges on the doors, on the shutters, a new grate covering the drop to the cellar. Twilight walked up to the house and looked carefully at the hinges- the work really was excellent quality. Is this really what Spike had been doing with his free time?

Twilight walked into the kitchen to see a relaxed Rainbow Dash practically salivating as Big Mac pushed a mug of cider across the table towards her. He filled another and Twilight accepted it gratefully, holding it with her magic and taking a small, refreshing sip before picking a question to ask from the swarming multitude that had filled her mind.

“Does Spike spend a lot of time at the farm?”

“Eeyup. Most days. He’s near as strong as Ah am now, and he’s good company for Applebloom. We’ve been having to work pretty hard recently. Ah think it’s helped her out some being able to talk to somepony goin’ through the same sort of things she is, even if that pony is a dragon.”

“They’re going through the same stuff?” Rainbow interrupted, licking her lips. “What, is the library failing?”

Big Mac silenced her with a steady gaze, and Rainbow retreated back into her mug of cider.

“Ah meant neither of them have their parents around, and their big sisters haven’t got the same time for them they used to have. Nor her big brother, in Applebloom’s case. Applejack and Ah work every hour Celestia sends on this farm and everypony knows Twilight’s real busy even when she’s not at some Canterlot conference. Applebloom puts in more work than we could ask of her to keep this place afloat, and Spike does too. It’s good for them to be able to talk about it to somepony they don’t feel like they owe.”

“What do you mean by that? Spike doesn’t owe me anything. He knows that,” said Twilight, almost snorting the last few words.

“Ah don’t mean nothin’ bad. Look, come with me. Ah can show you what Ah mean better than Ah can say it,” said Big Mac. Putting his mug down on the table, the stallion set off up the stairs, not looking to see if Twilight was following.

Twilight sat down at the table and sullenly sipped her cider. This was turning out to be another round of “let’s tell Twilight how she’s letting everypony down”, and she was tired of them. If she got back to the library now, she realised, she could start a full cycle of tests and have them done by 3 am. Twilight tested her magic for a second, and she felt perfectly capable of teleporting. She pulled her magic together and was about to flash back to the library when she felt a hoof under her chin. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow leaning across the table, glaring at her.

“For Luna’s sake- just go with him, okay? This is exactly what you did wrong in the first place. How many times did I come in to your science room and tell you we were doing something cool and that you should come?”

“Well- a lot, I suppose, but I usually happened to be busy,” dismissed Twilight.

“You’re always busy! I was asking you to make time! You always promised to come as soon as you’re finished and you never did!”

“It’s not work that really finishes-” Twilight protested. Rainbow cut her off with a snort.

“I don’t care about your work! I’m saying that you don’t engage. I even had plans for making you hang out with us, but Rarity always- my work isn’t my life, okay? Yours is. Rarity’s is too. I’ve been with her long enough that I get that, I understand her. So I understand you better than I used to, maybe. But I let you have too much space because- I dunno. She’s smarter than I am. She always talks me round. I should have just dragged you out of there.”

Rainbow slumped back in her seat and took a long pull of her cider. She looked calm, tired even, but Twilight could see a tiny quiver in her wings that belied how genuinely angry the pegasus was.

“You need to understand that you’re making a mistake right now. You wanna be my friend, you go follow Big Mac and you talk with him about Spike.”

Twilight started to respond and then stopped herself. Very carefully, she took a mouthful of cider. Without saying anything, she stood from the table and walked up the stairs after Big Mac.

“Atta girl,” said Rainbow, smiling to herself.

Neither she nor Twilight noticed that on the unicorn’s flank, one of the little greying stars in her cutie mark flickered for a moment before settling on a pure, steady white.

Twilight topped the stairs and saw that the door of their old room- just Big Mac’s room, now, she corrected herself- was ajar. She pushed it open and walked in; the room was almost exactly as it had been when she’d moved out. There was still the dreamcatcher over the bed that Zecora had made for her as a moving-in gift, and that she’d not had the heart to take. There was still the carefully framed array of charcoal sketches Applebloom had made of almost everypony she knew when she’d started taking her art seriously. Big Mac had made sure none of them ever got thrown away, crafting a new frame for each one. With an unfamiliar wrenching feeling, Twilight noticed that the dresser only had Big Mac’s things on the left hand side- the right side, her side, was bare. As she walked up to the window to look at whatever Big Mac wanted to show her, she saw that the picture frame on his bedside table had been carefully put on its face, hiding away the subject.

“There,” said Big Mac, indicating the yard out below. Twilight could see Spike and Applebloom both walking around what a vast number of long, metal rods, all stuck into a big wooden base at one end. Most of the rods were bent in quite a few places. There was certainly a sinuous sort of pattern to it, Twilight could see, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was.

Applebloom and Spike were talking, but the window was closed and they’d be too far away to hear what they were saying in any case. Twilight concentrated for a second and pressed her horn to the window- it rippled outwards from where she touched it as though the glass was water. After a second, the window started to vibrate as Spike and Applebloom talked, projecting their voices- with a faintly tinny quality- into the room. Big Mac raised an eyebrow.

“You have been busy,” he said, with the slightest hint of reproach.

“Oh, shush, it’s not permanent. I wanted to hear what they were saying,” Twilight said, and they both listened as Spike and Applebloom got to work.

“Alright, Spike, here and here,” Applebloom said, pointing to two places on one of the metal rods. Spike nodded, and carefully blew a short, intense flame at the sites Applebloom had indicated- as soon as he’d finished, Applebloom grabbed the rod and started twisting it into shape, using the hotter, softer parts as joints.

“Have you even decided what it is yet?” asked Spike, amused at Applebloom’s efforts.

“Ah decided ages ago, little brother. Ah just didn’t tell you, ‘cause if Ah did you’d heat it where you thought it should be heated instead of where Ah wanted it heated.”

Applebloom stepped back and wiped her brow, eyeing her latest change critically.

“Hmm. That’s good for now. Alright, this one next, here and here,” she said, stepping towards the half-finished sculpture, and Spike just folded his arms.

“I’m not just a portable blowtorch, y’know,” he said. “If you tell me what it is I’ll still do what you ask for. You’re the artist.”

“Yeah, and don’t you forget it!” Applebloom said, bumping her flank- complete with an apple-flower cutie mark- into the dragon. “Alright, that ain’t the reason Ah’m not telling you. But Ah ain’t telling you the real reason yet, alright? Trust me on this one.”

Spike levelled a stare at Applebloom, who glared right back at him until Spike snorted a giggle.

“Little sister, you have the worst serious face I ever saw on a pony.”

“Hey! Where d’you get off calling me your little sister?” Applebloom shouted in mock anger, stamping the ground for emphasis.

“I dunno, maybe because you’re younger than me?” Spike said, rolling his eyes. Twilight could sense there was a sort of ritual to this little fake argument. They must have had it hundreds of times.

“Well, that don’t matter none. Ah was in the family first, you came in second. So you’re my little brother and that’s the end of it.”

“Okay, sure. Little sis.” Spike grinned, waiting for Applebloom to rise to the bait, and the young mare turned to face him with an extremely serious look on her face. Slowly, without changing her expression, Applebloom stuck her tongue out at Spike as far as it would go. Spike tried to keep a straight face as she did, but soon burst out into loud peals of laughter. Since when did Spike laugh that loudly? Twilight wondered to herself, and with mounting guilt realised she couldn’t actually pinpoint the last time she’d made the dragon laugh.

“Okay, you win. I’m your little brother today,” he snorted, sitting down in front of the statue.

“Darn straight!” Applebloom grinned and sat by the dragon. “You looking forward to your party? It's getting to be pretty soon.” she asked, and even through the glass Twilight could tell Applebloom was picking her words.

“Yeah, the day after tomorrow! It should be a blast. Everypony’s been invited. Pinkie’s even making me an emerald crumble, whatever that is,” Spike said happily. Twilight thought about the books she’d got for Spike’s birthday this year, wrapped in a ribbon back at the library. She hadn’t planned anything else.

“Did you invite Twilight?” Applebloom asked quietly, and Twilight could see Spike stiffen up slightly.

“Yep. I put it in her social calendar a month ago. She knows when it is.” There was something brittle in the dragon’s voice, and Twilight hated to admit it to herself but it was with good reason- Twilight hadn’t checked her social calendar in about six weeks, and the last time she had it was just to send out apology notes in advance. She’d had no idea about the party until now.

“Just make sure you don’t get your hopes up too much, Spike. It’s not about you- Twilight doesn’t come to any parties. Ah don’t think this one is gonna be any different,” said Applebloom gently.

“Well she’s invited anyway. If she can’t make it it’ll be because she’s too busy. Her work is really important, Applebloom! Some of the stuff she’s working on could save lives. She’s my big sister. She raised me. I’m not going to stop inviting her to things just because she can never make it,” Spike said, but there wasn’t much enthusiasm in his voice. He ran his hands through his spikes and stood up, exhaling loudly and turning to Applebloom.

“Can we talk about something else? This is the only argument I keep having with Scootaloo. I don’t want to have it with you too. I’m not quitting on Twilight, okay? I know she’ll find time. Eventually.”

Applebloom stood up and pulled Spike into an awkward hug.

“Alright, little brother. Whatever you say.”

Twilight turned to Big Mac for a moment, looking up at him with unsure eyes.

“How long’s Spike been calling Applebloom his little sister?” she asked.

“A while,” Big Mac said. He couldn’t hold Twilight’s gaze, and they turned to look back out at the yard- Fluttershy had left the house and was walking towards Applebloom and Spike.

“Hi Fluttershy!” Applebloom said with glee. The reason for her joy was pretty obvious- the pegasus was carrying a basket with sandwiches and a little cake inside it. Fluttershy set it down beside Spike and Applebloom before speaking.

“Hello you two. I saw you were working on the sculpture again and I thought it’d be a good time for a lunch break. Spike, there are a few sapphires in the bottom for you,” said Fluttershy. The dragon’s eyes lit up as he fished out a handful of gems from the bottom of the basket and crunched into one noisily.

“Oh, before I forget, Big Mac left you both letters on the dresser in the dining room. I think they’re from Sweetie Belle, they've got the Canterlot postmark.”

“Really? Great!” Applebloom said, and Spike nodded his assent- his mouth was much too full to say anything. Swallowing, he glanced at Applebloom before asking Fluttershy a question.

“Er, Fluttershy, is it okay if I go visit Scootaloo this afternoon? I got all my chores done earlier today.” Twilight looked closer. Was Spike blushing?

“So long as you got your chores done, Spike. Thank you so much for helping out, and tell Scootaloo I said hello. I honestly don't know how we'd cope without you here,” Fluttershy said, smiling at Spike. He was grinning back the same way he used to when Twilight complimented him on a job well done. Not that he’d stopped doing a good job, Twilight thought to herself. It’s just that their paths didn’t cross as much as they used to. She made a mental note to herself to leave Spike an actual note thanking him for his hard work the next time she got the chance.

“That’s so unfair!” Applebloom pouted. “If Ah only slept two hours a night I could get all my chores done in the morning too.”

“Sure, Applebloom,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “You’d totally use a three-in-the-morning start to-”

Spike glanced up at the house as he gesticulated, and then did a double-take at Big Mac’s window, cutting himself off and leaving his mouth open. He narrowed his eyes, focussing in on Twilight, and in a burst of panic she backed off into the bed, concentrated for a second and teleported back to the library.

------------

When she arrived, Twilight looked around at the library and breathed a sigh of relief. She felt safe inside the old tree. Everything here was just how she wanted it, from the balcony window (kept two inches ajar) to the kitchen cabinets (coffee in the leftmost cupboard, right beside the mugs) to her writing desk (lit from behind in the afternoon at an angle, so sunlight hit the page but not the eyes).

Twilight shook her head at herself for teleporting out. Still, if Spike had seen her, he'd have mentioned it to Fluttershy, and she'd have told Applejack and Applebloom and then things could have really gone south. Trying to put it out of her mind, Twilight walked over to the crate on her table and fished around inside it for the second letter and elixir. She set the elixir down and opened the letter.

Twilight Sparkle,

The second of your tutors is going to teach you about earth magic. Take the second elixir with you to the park at the centre of Ponyville and your tutor will meet you there at eight a.m. The elixir will enable you to understand their magic more clearly, and is attuned to your tutor, who is the most powerful font of earth magic in the realm. They will be accompanied by an experienced practitioner of earth magic, since it is poorly understood and has not been studied thoroughly. You will need, in effect, a translator to help you understand how the magic works.

Yours,
Princess Celestia

Twilight lifted the elixir and studied it carefully. It was thick, swirling like cream when she tilted it, and it was a bright strawberry pink. Twilight looked at the elixir for a second and double-checked the letter.

most powerful font of earth magic in the realm

Twilight lifted the elixir again. There was no pony this could possibly belong to except Pinkie Pie, surely, but the most powerful earth pony in the realm? Pinkie Pie? Really? Twilight shook her head and started up the stairs to her bedroom. As she did, she caught sight of her writing desk, and an idea occurred to her. Before it had even formed fully, Twilight was sat in front of her desk, carefully rearranging various notes and ledgers.

The Starswirl bursary was an extremely generous gift of money as well as academic freedom, Twilight thought. Most of her experiments were theoretical rather than the expensive practical kind, and she’d been carefully investing and saving almost all of it. With a conservative estimate of the value of Sweet Apple Acres, if she could free up enough money she might be able to help out.

Twilight pulled up one of her investment contracts in front of her, and started carefully going over the clauses that allowed her to remove her money early.

Earth

“Twilight? I think you have to get up now.”

Twilight didn’t recognise the gravelly voice for a moment, and when she lifted her head up from her desk one of the contracts she’d been looking over was stuck to her face. She peeled it off and blearily focused on Spike, who was gently shaking her awake.

“Did I fall asleep at my desk again?” Twilight murmured, wiping her face and blinking a couple of times. Spike placed a mug of hot coffee in front of her and she smiled in delight. Even the smell was waking her up a little.

“Yeah, I think you were doing some finance stuff? I finished off your last ledger for you and filed away all the papers you hadn’t trapped under your face. But you have to drink that fast because you’ve got a meeting at eight, according to the note you left on the table, and it’s half-past seven already,” Spike said, ticking the items he was discussing off a little list in front of him.

“Ah!” Twilight sat bolt upright, swallowing an enormous mouthful of slightly-too-hot coffee. “Augh, Spike, why didn’t you wake me earlier? I can’t be late for this!”

Twilight jumped up from her desk and went to grab her saddlebags, rubbing her eyes with a hoof as she did so. It was really her fault she’d slept in so late; she’d been fairly thorough in tying up her money, as it turned out, and she’d stayed up until three or four in the morning trying to work out how to free some of it up. Unsuccessfully, she had to admit to herself.

“Sorry, Twi. I gave you a half-hour to get ready, at least. You just looked like you could really do with the sleep,” Spike answered, looking chastened.

“No, it’s fine. You’re right, I had a late night,” said Twilight as she opened the door. Suddenly, she remembered something, and with almost an expression of surprise turned to speak to Spike.

“Oh! I almost forgot. I’m really going to try and make it to your party tomorrow, so expect me there, alright?”

Spike raised an eyebrow. He looked more confused than pleased, Twilight thought.

“Alright,” he said, stretching the word a little, almost making it a question. “Your coriolis experiments are at a critical stage though, right? I know there’s a big magical flow into the Everfree coming and you wanted to observe it, so if you can’t make it that’s okay too.”

It was Twilight’s turn to be surprised. If Spike knew that, then he’d been following her experiments more closely than she’d thought.

“Well, in any case. There’ll be another tidal flow eventually, Spike. I’m really going to try, okay? You do a good job and it’s your birthday after all,” said Twilight, hoping Spike didn’t know that the wave of magic she was waiting for only happened every four years. She could set up instruments to get the bulk of the data she needed if she worked hard at it tonight.

Spike’s reaction still wasn’t what she’d hoped for, though. He seemed cautious, even if his face had lit up a little when she’d mentioned how hard he worked.

“Okay then, Twilight. I’ll expect you at the party,” he said, smiling slightly even if he did look a bit bamboozled.

“Good. I’ve really got to go- I don’t want to be late!” Twilight said, smiling at Spike before setting out to the park. The smile didn’t last long, though. Spike was, unfortunately, quite correct- if she didn’t get that data tomorrow it would really set her work back, and her measuring instruments never worked like she expected when she wasn’t there to make last-minute calibrations. Maybe, Twilight thought to herself, if I’m a tiny bit late to the party that’ll be okay. Just as soon as I’ve made sure my readings are coming out properly. Twilight frowned as she trotted towards the park, trying to untangle the problem.

------------

When she arrived in the park, Twilight still hadn’t come up with a practical solution. Putting her problems to one side, she scanned around the park for Pinkie- Twilight was a little early, but the bubbly earth pony was often surprisingly punctual. After a brief wander, she spotted Pinkie chatting animatedly with the mayor, who was giggling at a joke the pink pony had just finished. As Twilight got closer, Pinkie waved to her and whispered something to the mayor, who nodded and left with a smile on her face.

“Hi there Twilight!” said Pinkie, a broad, genuine smile on her face. “It’s so good to see you! We’ve got so much to do today- you’ve missed two birthday parties and three of my birthday parties and at least two nightmare nights and tons and tons of other stuff! Plus the last time I snuck into the library to invite you to Gummy’s birthday, you’d fallen asleep at your desk again, so Spike asked me not to wake you up and I had to hide your piece of the invitation cake in the laboratory.”

Twilight took a second to process the sentence. Pinkie was still as exhausting as she remembered, but at least hidden cake solved the mystery of her otherwise inexplicable mouse infestation from a few months ago.

“Pinkie, are you here about the magic study?” Twilight asked, and Pinkie started bouncing around Twilight as she answered. Her glee at Twilight’s company was a little infectious, and Twilight couldn’t help but let a smile creep across her face.

“Yep! I’ve got to teach you all about earth magic, which is funny because I don’t really know how it works. But that’s okay because it means we get to hang out and that means we get to be proper friends again! It’s not been the same without you,” Pinkie said, coming to a stop in front of Twilight and suddenly pulling her into an enormous hug.

“Applejack and Rarity said I had to stop inviting you to things because you never showed up and I’d wait for you the whole time and they were worried it was making me sad, and that was making them sad, and then I thought about it and I thought maybe they were right. So I figured as soon as you were ready we’d get to hang out again and be proper friends again and look! I was right!”

Pinkie broke off the hug and started rooting under a nearby bush. Twilight was a little stunned. Had Pinkie really just been waiting for her to come round and say hello? After a while it always seemed to Twilight like it would be so much work to rekindle her friendships, like she’d have to take everything really slowly and carefully to build them back up to the point where she could just enjoy a pony’s company. Pinkie didn’t seem to need that, though. She seemed to like Twilight just as much as she always had.

Pinkie popped her head out of the bush with an enormous book in her mouth and deposited it on the floor in front of Twilight. The cover was pink, with little felt versions of Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Twilight herself all laughing and stuck onto the cover. The title read

Twilight’s Party Book

and the whole thing looked like it weighed about half as much as she did. Twilight went to open the book and looked at Pinkie for confirmation that it was alright to do so, and Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. Twilight flipped the book open to a random page, which was titled “Rainbow’s Half-Birthday Surprise Party”. On the page there was a carefully cut out and glued in likeness of Rainbow Dash shrieking in surprise, again done in felt. There was a little rolled-up streamer and an unpulled party popper taped to the page, and lots of little folded pieces of paper glued in at one corner. Twilight unfolded one, and it had Pinkie’s impeccable cursive on it, squeezed up small.

Pin the Tail on the Pony
Rainbow went first but she didn’t know Luna and I were playing a little prank on her! The pony was a cutout of Rainbow Dash and we switched out her normal tail for a picture of Rarity making a smoochy face, and Rainbow stuck it right over where her cutie mark should be! She was super embarrassed when she took off the blindfold but Rarity was giggling so much she soon saw the funny side. We played properly after that and Applejack won, so I gave her a prize, which was one of the rainbow cupcakes I made for the party. She gave that to Fluttershy and I thought that was so cute that everypony deserved a prize cupcake! I gave one to everypony and they were really tasty. Rarity and Rainbow argued over whose cupcake was better, but you could tell it was one of their fun arguments and not a bad shouty one.

Twilight folded the note back in carefully, and flipped through the scrapbook to a few more pages, all of which had the notes and the pictures and the unused decorations. She read the titles on each to herself, slowly realising just how much time had gone into the scrapbook.

Luna’s Birthday (she wouldn’t say how old she is) Party
Whooves Family Goodbye Party
Lyra And Bon-Bon’s Fourth Anniversary Party
Twilight’s Birthday Party

Twilight looked closer at that one. It was just a picture of Pinkie with a cupcake, and a single piece of paper folded up, which Twilight opened.

Twilight’s Placeholder
You didn’t show up for our planning meeting again this year so I couldn’t throw you a big bash. It wouldn’t be the best party even if I did, because it’s hard to have a party where the guest of honour doesn’t show up and you’re always too super busy for parties! I hope your studies are fun too. So I made you a cupcake and I put it in the freezer and it should stay good, and IOU one party! You can cash that in whenever you like.

Twilight looked at the note for quite a long time before folding it back up and closing the book. She didn’t look up from it when she spoke.

“I think this is the nicest thing anypony’s ever done for me,” she said quietly. “I’m coming to Spike’s party tomorrow, okay? I promise. I promise I will. I’m sorry I missed all this. I-”

Twilight was cut off by Pinkie lifting her into another giant hug, and suddenly she could feel her tears against Pinkie’s neck.

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Pinkie said. “Spike explained it to me. You’re just busy is all. Do you really mean it that you’ll come to the party tomorrow?” Twilight could hear the hope in her friend’s voice, and she pulled back so they could see each other, sniffling a little.

“I really mean it. Thank you so much for not forgetting about me,” she said, and then fell back into the hug. Unseen by Twilight, another of the little grey stars on her flank lit back up to white, almost shining for a second before settling. She couldn’t say how long the hug had gone on for when she heard a pointed cough from her left.

Twilight and Pinkie broke the hug and returned to their hooves to see who the newcomer was. Twilight was surprised to see them here- it was one of the last ponies she’d expected- but Pinkie seemed to take it all in stride.

“Hi there Granny Smith!” Pinkie chirruped. “Are you here for the lesson too? The Princess told me I’d need a translator but I didn’t think it’d be you!”

Granny Smith rolled her eyes for a moment and addressed Twilight directly.

“I’m here because the Princess asked for an Apple to show up. Applejack straight up said no, Applebloom said she didn’t think she could do what was asked of her and I wasn’t about to let Macintosh come and spend the mornin’ getting his heart broke all over again. So you’ve got me. Now get yer potion out and drink it up because I ain’t got all day.”

Twilight let her ears droop and fished the pink elixir out of her saddlebags. Granny Smith had always been a lot sharper than she liked letting on, and even though the two of them had come to a comfortable peace when Twilight and Big Mac were together, there was no illusion that they were friends. This was not, thought Twilight, likely to be an entirely pleasant morning.

Unstopping the flask with her magic, Twilight began to drink the elixir and almost immediately started to choke. It was as thick as honey, cloyingly sweet and nearly impossible to swallow, and if Granny Smith hadn’t taken the liberty of tipping the end up she thought most of it would have come out of her nose. As soon as she’d forced down the first glutinous mouthful, the elixir changed; now the sweetness had a delightfully tart note, and the whole mixture became much easier to drink. As Twilight finished off the bottle and licked her lips, she became aware of a slightly metallic aftertaste, like steel. That was quickly overpowered by a feeling of genuine, uncomplicated joy, that washed over her and coloured the whole world. The flowers were so beautiful today! Twilight thought to herself. Granny was so kind to come and spend time with me even after Big Mac and I broke up! And the scrapbook, all those missed parties carefully preserved for her by Pinkie- it was the best gift she’d ever had. She picked it up with her magic, smiling at the cover, and realised she was crying again. That seemed funny for some reason, and Twilight suppressed a giggle before turning to Granny Smith.

“Granny, thank you so much for coming out to help me today! I really mean it. It’s very kind of you,” she said before she could frame the sentence better. Twilight observed that from somewhere in the back of her mind, realising that she’d need to be careful about deciding to speak while under the effects of this particular elixir.

“It ain’t no nevermind,” Granny said, without looking directly at Twilight. “I’m here for the Princess, not for you. Now, Pinkie, I need you to just go and have a walk through the park for a minute or two. Twilight needs to get a good feel for what it’s like to walk around as an earth pony.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!” Pinkie said, and started wandering through the park, sniffing the flowers and looking at the trees. As she did, Twilight began to hear something faint, like someone cautiously testing a trombone over and over, and turned her head to try and get a better fix on the sound’s location. As she did so, she saw Granny smiling at her quietly, and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Give it time, missy. You’ll work it out eventually,” Granny said. It was only when Pinkie abandoned her steady trot and starting bounding around after a butterfly, all four hooves bouncing off the floor at the same time, that Twilight realised what the noise was. Somehow, it was coming from Pinkie- every time she hit the floor with all her hooves, a strong, brassy chord rang out.

“Is that the magic? Can I hear the magic?” asked Twilight excitedly, and got a satisfied nod from Granny.

“Yep. That’s the magic alright. It’s in the hooves, y’see. We don’t do spells like you do or a pegasus does. There’s nothin’ deliberate about it an’ we can’t turn it off. Our magic goes into the ground with every step, flows out into the world. After a while you start to feel it in your hooves, and if you give out enough- or you just live long enough- you start being able to hear it through ‘em, too. You listen to Pinkie for a moment and you’ll hear the kind of world she lives in.”

Pinkie was bouncing after the butterfly still, and it sounded to Twilight like a brass band practicing notes. Then she was distracted by seeing a frog hopping across the path, and started tiptoeing after it- the notes changed from bold brass to careful, deep bassoon notes, and Twilight had started nodding her head before she realised there was actually a tune to it.

“Wait, is Pinkie playing a song? Is that deliberate?” Twilight asked, delighted.

“Well, yes and no. It’s not like playing a musical instrument. Y’don’t just hit the ground a certain way and make the note you want. But she is walking and wanting the music, so out flows a tune from her. All the time. I reckon your friend there puts out more magic than any other pony I’ve met, and I’m thankful for it. Keeps the park green and the apples red.”

Pinkie bounced back over, her little froggy tune interrupted by a fanfare as she thudded across the park towards them.

“Granny, how’s Twilight doing? Does she understand earth magic now?” Pinkie asked, excited.

“She’s doin’ alright, I reckon. There’s a couple of other things she needs to understand, though, so I’ve arranged a little demonstration. Twilight, Pinkie, go and stand under that there tree.” Granny said, pointing at a particularly large oak.

As they walked over, Twilight suddenly realised that her own walking made noise, too. Instead of the bold notes Pinkie produced every time her hooves hit the ground, Twilight’s hooves made a faint tinkling noise, like glass wind chimes in a light breeze. Pleased with this discovery, Twilight started to alter her steps a little, trying to make a more pleasing tune, and as soon as she’d settled on a rhythm Pinkie joined in. The earth pony’s footsteps sounded like big bass drum beats, and Twilight found that as she started matching the rhythm, her tune fitted it better. Pinkie started to almost dance along with it, and in the twenty seconds it took them to reach the tree they’d both started to make it more complicated, giggling to themselves over the sounds that only they could hear.

“Are you two quite finished there?” Granny Smith shouted over sharply. “Now stand absolutely still for a minute and listen with your hooves. I want y’both to see if you can hear the tree growing.”

Twilight closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. At first, she could only hear with her ears- the faint rustle of the wind through the trees, the distant sounds of a pony’s hooves hitting the road. After half a minute or so, she started to hear through her hooves as well- the hoofbeats she could hear became melodic, almost like a cello. Concentrating hard, she focussed her attention on the tree behind her, and suddenly heard a high note, impossibly high and quiet, slowly getting louder as it descended like a slide whistle. Opening her eyes in surprise, she looked to her left to see that Pinkie’s tail was twitching madly, and then the noise reached a crescendo-

WHUMP

Twilight felt a sudden pressure on her back and was forced flat on the ground by a heavy weight that almost immediately rolled off her. After a moment, the worried face of a young pegasus colt appeared close in front of hers.

“Are you okay Miss Twilight Sparkle? I was real careful not to hit anything too hard when I landed on ya.”

Twilight blinked for a second before realising that the colt was Pound Cake, and as soon as she’d nodded her head with a tired smile, indicating that she was fine, Pound trotted over to a pleased-looking Granny Smith.

“Did I do good? Granny Smith, did I do it good?” he asked, loudly, and Granny Smith nodded and produced a single bit and two red apples.

“You did real good, Pound. Here you go, and I know if I ever need any other little jobs doin’ I can count on you, right?” Granny smiled genuinely, ruffling Pound’s hair.

“Yep! Totally!” Pound said, before starting in on one of the apples ravenously.

Granny gave the youngster an indulgent smile before walking over to join Pinkie and Twilight, and the old pony offered Twilight a hoof to help her up. Twilight was about to say she could get up herself when she realised there’d been something discordant about the sounds of Granny walking over. Thinking carefully, she decided to take the offered hoof, and without putting very much weight on it at all awkwardly got to her feet. Granny smiled at her as she did so, honestly this time, and Twilight felt like she’d passed some sort of test.

“Good girl,” said Granny. “Now, did you see how Pinkie heard that coming?”

“Yes!” Twilight said, excitedly. “I heard it too! Except it was so quick I didn’t have time to work out what it was.”

“I didn’t have time either!” Pinkie chimed in. “I just heard it and then my tail twitched and that meant something was about to fall!”

“See, Pinkie listens to her magic properly, Twilight. It’s not something that’s easy to explain to anypony who can’t hear it. An’ if Pinkie here told you she heard music all the time, then before today you’d have just rolled your eyes an’ thought no more of it.”

Twilight was about to protest, and then realised Granny was absolutely right. She’d barely studied earth pony magic, and in the past had been happy to write off Pinkie’s “Pinkie Sense” as just another one of the weird things that tended to happen around the pink pony.

“Now then, Pinkie, you run along. I’ve got a bone to pick with Twilight,” said Granny.

“Okay! Twilight, I’ll see you tomorrow!” said Pinkie cheerfully. She gave Twilight a bright smile before leaving, and Twilight could feel that there was no doubt in her friend’s heart that the unicorn would be at the party tomorrow. There was a wonderfully uncomplicated trust there, instead, and Twilight reaffirmed to herself that she would definitely attend. At least, until she saw Granny Smith’s face.

“I need you t’be clear with me, Twilight. You’re comin’ to the party tomorrow?” Granny Smith asked, and there wasn’t a trace of levity in her voice.

“I am,” said Twilight simply. It didn’t matter if anypony else didn’t want her there, she realised. She needed to make it to Spike’s birthday party for him. Granny Smith sighed.

“Well, I’ll do what I can t’make sure you’re welcome,” she said with a resigned look. “I don’t need to tell you it’s the girls who’ll need talking around the most. Macintosh’s always pleased to see you, but that’s a problem in and of itself.”

Granny Smith looked Twilight in the eye and Twilight could see that there was a deep hurt there, something the older pony was almost afraid to ask.

“I’m askin’ you not to lead Macintosh on. If you’re not interested in him make it clear and if you are then darn well mean it. The boy’s still stuck on you. If you’re gonna hurt him again then do me a favour and make it a big clean break. Not a slow hurt that he has to clean out himself, like last time.”

“I promise. For what it’s worth, Granny, I am sorry about what happened. It didn’t end how I wanted either,” said Twilight, picking at the ground.

“Don’t try and sell me that, missy. You never knew what you wanted. That’s the mistake I’m askin’ you not to make this time. Now get on with you, I’m late for m’nap,” said Granny. She gave Twilight a brief, tired smile before setting on for the farm.

Twilight walked back to the library with a spring in her step, listening to the magic in the world around her as the elixir faded away and mulling over the morning. Her new scrapbook of the parties she’d missed sat heavily in one of her saddlebags, making her list slightly to one side, but she didn’t care. There’d been a lot of good news today- Pinkie was her friend again, and it didn’t seem like she’d ever stopped, just pouring her friendship into the book until Twilight was ready to listen again. Granny Smith wasn’t her ally, necessarily, but st least she was a neutral voice in the Apple family for her. Twilight blushed a little as she went over one last fact- that Big Mac was still sweet on her. She’d need to sit down and work out if she could fit a relationship into her life properly, she owed him that, but would it be so hard? It would be worth it, wouldn’t it? That thought took her all the way to the door of her library, and she’d entered and taken off her saddlebags before she realised there was somepony waiting for her.

Standing in the centre of the library, clearly mid-pace, Scootaloo stared at Twilight as the two ponies acknowledged each other’s presence. Scootaloo jutted her jaw forwards slightly as Twilight fixed her with a questioning look, and the younger mare planted her hooves firmly and took a deep breath.

“Sparkle, we need to talk.”

Shine

Twilight heard the door swing shut behind her, and carefully reviewed her options. Yesterday, Scootaloo had made it perfectly clear that she wanted as little as possible to do with Twilight. The last thing she’d expected was for the young mare to be waiting for her in the library, barely controlled animosity visible in every line of her face.

“What, are you ignoring me too now? I said we need to talk and I’m not going anywhere until we have,” said Scootaloo. Twilight could tell that the pegasus was on the verge of losing her temper. Carefully, Twilight dropped off her saddlebags and answered.

“Okay, Scootaloo. We can talk as long as you like. Have I- I mean, did I let you down at some point? I know I’ve been a bit overfocused on my work,” said the unicorn. Scootaloo snorted and started to reply with an extremely level, controlled voice.

“This is not about me. You’ve never been a big part of my life. That’s fine, nopony has a problem with that. I’m here to talk about Spike.”

“Spike?” Twilight answered, genuinely confused. She’d spoken to Spike just this morning- they weren’t as close as they used to be, but he was growing up now. It was only to be expected that his interests would diverge from the library’s at some point, and in fairness to him he’d not let his new responsibilities and connections limit his role as Twilight’s assistant in any way.

“Yeah. He said you were coming to his party tomorrow,” Scootaloo said, and Twilight nodded in response. Scootaloo shook her head, frowning.

“Why would you do that to him? Look, letting him down is one thing, we’re all used to that. But you’re building his hopes up and it’s not fair. You can’t let him down again tomorrow and I’m not going to be the pony who watches it happen.”

“I said I was coming to the party, Scootaloo. I’m not really sure what more you want from me,” said Twilight, genuinely confused.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Scootaloo said, almost sadly. “I don’t want you at the party. It’s Spike who wants you there- wants you at every damn thing he’s ever done- and you’re never there.”

“If Spike needs me then all he has to do is ask, Scootaloo. He knows he can come to me about anything.”

“Does he?” Scootaloo said coldly, and then all of a sudden she was inches away from Twilights face, shouting .

“He worships you, you stupid mare! He thinks you’re so great and everything you do is so bucking important- he actually thinks he’s less important than your research. Not that you think it, we all know YOU think it, but he actually agrees with you! He defends you every time you come up and you don’t see what’s going on, do you? When Sweetie Belle moved away to Canterlot, she and Spike were so bummed about having to call it a day. Applebloom and I were the ones who found him crying, did you know that?”

“I didn’t- I mean, Spike didn’t say-” Twilight stuttered.

“You should have been paying bucking attention! Rarity was the one who got him to open up about Sweetie Belle! She fixed his heart, not you! She took him out to lunch every day- every single day- for two weeks until he was ready to talk, her best gems every time, and then she listened. They still have their little lunch date every Thursday! Do you know what you did? You know what you did the week his heart got broken? You sat him down and told him you’d made a fancy new dragonfire spell! You told him you didn’t need him any more!”

Scootaloo backed off, her chest heaving, and sat on the floor. She rubbed her eyes hard with a hoof, and pretended not to notice it came away wet.

“This isn’t how I wanted this to go. I didn’t just show up to shout. I’m sorry I swore,” said Scootaloo, breathing unsteadily. Twilight wanted to interrupt, to try and calm Scootaloo down, but she couldn’t find the words. The pegasus took a slow breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, and when she spoke the brashness had completely fled her voice.

“I came to tell you to please, please show up at the party tomorrow, no matter what. I don’t want to see him waiting the whole time, half his mind on you. He deserves a good day.”

“I’ll be there, Scootaloo. I promise, okay?” Twilight said softly, but the younger mare just nodded and held up a hoof.

“I’m not quite done yet, Sparkle. I have to tell you something. After the party tomorrow, I’m going to- I mean, Spike and I have talked about it, and he’s coming back to mine instead of to here. To stay overnight. With me. He wanted me to make sure you knew.”

Twilight took a moment or two to understand what the pegasus was implying, and when she realised it she was a little taken aback. Scootaloo and Spike? She’d been fairly sure Spike and Sweetie Belle had stopped seeing each other when the little unicorn had moved to Canterlot to train her singing voice in Madame Soprano’s conservatory, but she’d honestly had no idea that Spike had started seeing the dishevelled, angry young pegasus in front of her.

“Are you asking for my permission? Because I’m not sure that-” Scootaloo cut Twilight off with a loud snort, all vulnerability gone from her voice.

“As if! Nah, we’ve already talked to Applejack and Fluttershy together about it and they said we’d clearly thought it through, you know? Big Mac had a discussion with Spike about being a gentlecolt and Rarity designed me a new dress. And told me she’d bite my face off if I hurt him. So everypony who counts is covered. You’re not a big part of his life, Sparkle.”

“That’s not fair, Scootaloo. I raised Spike from an egg. I’m his big sister,” said Twilight, defensively. “We’ve drifted apart and I get that that’s been a problem, I’ve been talking to Pinkie, but I don’t think Spike would like you to speak to me like that.”

The pegasus stood up and held Twilight’s gaze for a long moment before shrugging. She seemed to have come to some conclusion.

“Fine, whatever you say. Look, I’ve been seeing Spike for eight months now and we’re not just rushing into this, okay? So Spike can talk to you about it at the party, and if you’ve got a problem with it let him know then and we can all discuss it together. We’re not being stupid about this.”

Twilight nodded cautiously.

“You really care for him?” she asked quietly.

“Somepony should,” Scootaloo snapped, and then immediately backtracked. “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t shout at you. Your research saves lives, it’s super important, I should cut you a break.”

That last sentence was said with almost a sing-song voice, and Twilight realised that Scootaloo was repeating something Spike had said.

“Thank you,” said Twilight to herself, and when Scootaloo raised an eyebrow she cleared her throat and spoke again, this time louder, more sure of herself.

“Thank you, Scootaloo. It’s good Spike has somepony special in his life. I’m glad it’s a pony who’s willing to stand up for him when she thinks he needs it.”

Scootaloo seemed a bit confused. She was still braced for an argument, hooves planted. Twilight could tell she hadn’t expected her approval, however grudgingly it had been given.

“I have some things to prepare for the party tomorrow. For Spike. So unless there’s anything else?”

“No, you get back to your research. I mean, party preparations.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes pointedly as she left the library, speeding off into the sky and leaving the door ajar.

Twilight watched her leave- watched Spike’s lover leave, she reminded herself- and she could feel a weight on her chest. Scootaloo wasn’t the pony she’d expected Spike to pick, but that wasn’t the problem. She’d said that Twilight had rejected Spike in the same week as he’d lost his first marefriend. Twilight pulled three books off the shelf, and placed them on the table in front of her next to the party scrapbook Pinkie had made her.

Twilight had made some additions to the library after Spike’s greed-growth spurt, years ago now, in case of any other draconic surprises. “Thee Almanac of thee terrible Dragonne” was the most outdated, but also the most extensive. It was a big book, rebound by Twilight in silk after she’d hastily removed the original dragonskin, and it took up half the table. The other two books were much smaller- one was in Equestrian and the other in Draconic. “My year with Razorfang”, a first-hoof account of living with a dragon as part of his hoard, was written by Horizons New, a renowned explorer with a pearlescent coat. The other roughly translated to “Memories”, and was produced by a group of kobolds who had worshipped a great, dying dragon for many years, writing down her rambling stories about her youth as scripture.

Opening all four books, Twilight levitated over a quill and parchment. This was going to be a long night.

--------------

Spike crept into the house a few minutes before midnight, moving on all fours to stay as quiet as possible. He was also trying to ignore the dull ache in his shoulders- his wings were coming soon, he was sure of it, and he honestly had no idea whether working a hammer at the forge all evening had made it hurt more or less. He padded into the main room of the library and sighed at what he saw. Twilight had fallen asleep at her work table again, snoring quietly into her parchment. Spike rolled his eyes and set about tidying up. It didn't take him long to realise she was researching something about him, not about the coriolis effect as he'd expected. That was strange, Spike thought to himself. She's not looked up anything about dragons in years.

As far as Spike could tell, Twilight's theories were already reshaping equestrian science. She'd developed a way to store unicorn magic in its rawest form, and then it could be used to power all sorts of things, even if the storage devices did run kinda hot. Now she was supposed to be finding out if she could trap magic as it swirled around the everfree forest, or at least use it to power things as it moved, and instead of that she'd got four books on dragons open. Spike couldn't help but catch a paragraph or two as he marked Twilight's places and put the books back on their proper shelves.

"And thee dragonne's growth, we have determined, ys notte a function of thee dragonne's age but a function of his or her coursing emotionne. Thee dragonne feels more powerfully than anye pony, and these feelings are thee basis of anye dragonne's ascent to adulthood."

Page 214, Spike noted, putting the big book back on its shelf. He should really look through these at some point, he reminded himself. They had a lot of information in, even if it was from a pony's point of view.

"While Razorfang seemed to delight at the concept of a talking posession, there were areas I quickly learned were not up for any type of discussion. Any question about his formative years, for example, were bluntly refused- and should I press the matter further, my formerly gracious host was liable to fly into a rage, and I would have to hide from him until his wrath was spent."

Page 32, and this should be in biographies, not research. Spike altered the numbers Twilight had inked onto the little slip inside the book and put the book back on the little cart- he could reshelve it tomorrow.

The third book was in draconic, which Spike had never gotten the hang of reading, but Twilight's translation was underneath it. Spike gave it a quick look as he put the book back on the shelf by the big dragon encyclopedia

"12And so the Godhead's children were driven from the nest, with mighty flame and hurtful word. 13The Godhead was sad, and rent her scales, and wept rivers, for she feared her children would never return. 14Of the seven children she had driven out, four returned, grown to seven cubits, and asked to be reunited with her, and the Godhead was glad. 15Two did not return, and were seen at a height of twenty-seven cubits, with wings of their own, and the Godhead was also glad that they had survived, and wary of the challenge they would present unto her. 16One did not return, and the Godhead wept, and she ate the fragments of his eggshell that he might be born again should the Godhead wish for another clutch of children."

The last book was one Spike hadn't seen before. He tilted up the cover to get a look at the front page- Twilight's Party Book- and with a look of interest turned back to where Twilight had left it. There was a little picture of him there in felt, looking all skinny and gangly, like just after his first growth spurt, and the page's title proclaimed it as a record of one of the birthday parties Pinkie had thrown him. He unfolded a scrap of paper and read it to himself, squinting past the distortion in the ink- it looked like somepony had dripped water over the note, and the letters ran and swirled in places.

Spike Didn't Have The Best Time
I asked Luna about this and she said I should be totally honest so I'm going to be. Spike had a good time at the party, I mean there was cake and gems and good friends and music and balloons so who wouldn't have a good time? But he wasn't really all there and I think he was waiting for you. So I asked him and he said yeah, it would be a perfect party if you showed up, but you were busy and he understood. But I don't think he liked understanding because sometimes he didn't smile all the way up to his eyes, and that's not a proper smile at all. I think he had a good time but not the best time.

Spike snorted quietly as he read the note, carefully folded it back up and closed the book, leaving it on the table. Personal books didn't get shelved in the main library. He was a little annoyed at Pinkie writing that down, though- he'd always promised himself he wouldn't be a bother to Twilight and mess up her research. He was her number one assistant, and as far as he was concerned that did not include getting all teary at her over a couple of missed parties.

Before heading upstairs to catch a couple of hours sleep, Spike remembered about the elixirs, and picked the last one out of the crate. It was inky black, thick and swirling with a faint shine to part of it, and it was heavy in his hand. he put it on Twilight's desk and unfurled the third scroll- he was halfway through reading it before his eyes widened in horror. He looked at the clock, let out a yelp and started to shake Twilight roughly awake.

"Twilight! Wake up! You're going to be late!"

Twilight blearily opened her eyes and sat up, glancing over at the clock.

"Late? Spike, it's nearly midnight! Why in Equestria would you wake me?" asked Twilight petulantly, before taking in her surroundings properly.

"Oh, did I fall asleep at my desk? I guess I am late for bed, I suppose," she murmured with a sheepish grin.

"No, that's not what I meant. Look, would you just read this?" Spike pleaded, shoving the third lettter from Celestia under Twilight's snout.

Twilight Sparkle,

The third of your tutors is going to teach you about unicorn magic. Drink the third elixir just before midnight, in a calm and

"Ah! Where is it!" Twilight looked around for the elixir and saw it on the table, popping the top off the bottle with her magic and downing the contents as fast as possible while she stared at the clock. She was seconds away from missing her deadline. As soon as she'd finished the elixir, her eyes fluttered, and Spike was luckily fast enough to catch her as she fainted dead away.

Placing her carefully on the floor, Spike read through the letter again, double-checking its contents.

Twilight Sparkle,

The third of your tutors is going to teach you about unicorn magic. Drink the third elixir just before midnight, in a calm and comfortable place. The elixir will have an immediate soporific effect, sending you to sleep. Your tutor, the most skilled practitioner of unicorn magic in the realm, is going to travel to you through oneiromancy and your studies should take you through to the sunrise. My little pony, please write back to me after you have completed your studies of magic. I dearly wish to hear how you are.

Yours,
Princess Celestia

Spike reached absently up to one of the shelves, his worried gaze fixed on Twilight. Pulling down a large dictionary, he flipped through it with practiced claws until he came to the entry he wanted.

Oneiromancy (o-NEIGH-ro-MAN-see)
1) Magic spells of or pertaining to dreams or dreaming
2) Practice of those spells

Spike breathed a great sigh of relief, and put the dictionary back on the shelf.

He carefully picked up the sleeping pony, ignoring the protests from his shoulders, and carried her up the stairs to her room. After laying Twilight on the bed and pulling the covers over her, he opened the curtains so a beam of moonlight would enter the room. Twilight always slept better with a little light, he thought to himself, and suddenly had an idea. Quietly, he opened the bedside cabinet and pulled out a large, light purple candle. He set it on the cabinet and pursed his lips, igniting the wick with a tiny burst of flame.

As the scent of lavender slowly filled the room, Spike slid a pillow under Twilight's head. Her eyelids flickered occasionally, her hooves twitching. Spike could tell she was in a deep slumber. Abandoning the idea of sleep for the night, he decided to get back to the farm. There was work to be done in the forge, and he wasn't going to get any rest tonight sitting and worrying about Twilight in the other room. Making a mental note to return at five to make Twilight some coffee and her favourite blueberry pancakes, he left the library, locking the door as silently as he was able and walking towards the outskirts.

As he did, he realised what midnight had meant- it was his birthday, now. He smiled to himself a little at the thought.

"Happy birthday, Spike," he whispered to himself, and his smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

Unicorn

Twilight woke slowly, the deck shifting beneath her, and she staggered to her hooves as she got her bearings. The sky was dark and ominous, heavy with rain and crackling with lightning, and morning was hours away. Heading for the helm, she noted that her crew were performing admirably against the great, slow roll of the storm, and placing her tricorn hat firmly on her head she gave the helmspony his bearing- directly due home. The dark pony at the helm saluted her smartly, and she returned it as she retired to her quarters to consider the situation.

In her quarters, there was her writing desk, with the afternoon sun playing across the pages, and a golden goblet with the remains of a drink in it. That was important, Captain Sparkle thought to herself as she eyed it more closely. The drink it contained had been black as night and slow as molasses, but it was bubbly and light on the tongue. It had tasted of blackberries and ash and bitter, unripe fruits. Why was that so important?

She sat in her writing throne and considered the goblet carefully, holding it up in the sunlight to get a better look at it as the ship heaved back and forth rhythmically below her. Suddenly, the door to her chambers opened, and an unfamiliar pony stood in the door, tall and proud in her bearing. Captain Sparkle levitated her cutlass and threatened the interloper.

"Who dares invade the captain's cabin? I'll have you keelhauled, ye loathsome wretch!" shouted Twilight, ready to charge. The newcomer simply raised an eyebrow. Her horn glowed and suddenly Twilight's perceptions changed. How was her writing desk in a ship? Why did she have a ship in the first place? Suddenly recognising the pony in the doorway, Twilight dropped her cutlass with a clang and started apologising.

"Princess Luna! I'm so sorry about the cutlass. I think I didn't recognise you for a second. What- what's going on?" Twilight could hear panic starting to creep into her voice, and was grateful when Luna walked into the swaying room and started to explain things.

"You did not find a calm and comfortable place to drink the elixir you were given, Twilight Sparkle. Your mind appears to have conjured up the image of a storm at sea for our meeting."

Luna sat on the floor, and the room stopped swaying. She gesticulated with a hoof and Twilight sat next to her, suddenly smelling lavender in the air. Luna seemed to smell it too, smiling as she recognised it.

"It seems as though your assistant has placed you in a more relaxed location. I am pleased. If you were seasick, this lesson would be even harder for you to learn." Luna said, placidly.

"Really?" Twilight asked, peeved. "I don't know exactly what you're going to teach me, Princess. I don't mean to be pushy, but you're not even a unicorn. You're an alicorn- a pegasus and unicorn together. That's got to affect your magic. Plus, you raise the moon! The letter said you were the most powerful practitioner of unicorn magic, and I believe it, but how am I supposed to copy any of your spells?"

Luna stood and indicated the door, and Twilight opened it with her horn. Instead of the ship, the door now opened onto a meadow studded with limestone rocks, lavender flowers dotting the landscape and the sun blazing overhead.

"I am powerful, yes, but my sister is far more powerful than I. However, so many years of responsibility for lifting both sun and moon have given her far more strength than finesse when it comes to unicorn spells and she never had the same head for theory that I do. In any case, I am not here to teach you spells, Twilight. I am here to teach you about magic," said Luna.

The alicorn leaned over and tapped Twilight on the forehead with her horn, and Twilight's vision changed. Suddenly the alicorn in front of her had distinct structures visible under the skin. Tendrils snaked around her hooves, her wings and her horn. Dark veins pulsed magic in each one, and Twilight had a moment of realisation.

"You're an earth pony!" she blurted out, and Luna smiled at her. "I mean, you're an earth pony too. I thought alicorns were just unicorn and pegasus together."

"They are, for the most part. Interbreeding of the tribes often crops up a pony of two types together, but earth pony crosses are easily mistaken for just a particularly hardy unicorn or pegasus. My sister and I are a different breed. We two, and we two alone are all three types of pony together. We are immortal. I wanted you to understand- I am not half a unicorn or a third of a unicorn. I am a full unicorn, a full pegasus, a full earth pony."

Luna dismissed the visualisation spell, and Twilight saw the Princess was looking up at the sky, turning the sun to the moon with a glance.

"If only it were always so easy," she murmured to herself before turning back to Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle, I have two things to teach you. I do not think either of them is going to be to your particular liking, but I am not leaving until you have heard each one, and understood it. Fully. One is to do with unicorn magic, and one is to do with Spike. There is also something I would like to discuss with you, if you are able to speak openly about it."

Twilight could feel the princess's emotions feeding into hers, as with the previous two elixirs, but this time it was more detached. It was a good job, too- the Princess was hurt and heartbroken, angry and sad. Twilight didn't think without the buffering power of the dream she'd have been able to avoid getting swept away in them.

"How about we talk about what's bothering you first, Princess?" Twilight said. "Then we can get to talking about Spike and magic." As she finished, she could feel the Princess tense up a little. She looked nervous, Twilight thought to herself.

"Twilight Sparkle, I wish to ask a question. Has Pinkamena been- has she mentioned me? At all? I was neither courteous nor respectful in our last exchange. I would know what she thinks of me, if you feel at liberty to tell."

"I honestly don't really know, Princess," Twilight grimaced. "I didn't even know you'd had an argument. I've been falling out of touch with- well, with everypony, I suppose. I could ask her tomorrow, if you like."

The answer clearly wasn't the one Luna had been hoping for. She slumped down, and as she did the world around them shifted, great mountains rising around them as they sank into a stony canyon.

"At Spike's birthday party, yes?" Luna asked. Twilight nodded, surprised that the princess even knew about it.

"I was invited," Luna admitted, staring at her hooves. "I told her six months ago that I did not believe she loved me, and she has invited me to her friend's birthday party. I will confess that I do not know what to make of it."

"Why did you think she didn't love you?" Twilight asked, too curious to hold her tongue. "Didn't she take your relationship seriously enough?"

Luna looked up at Twilight and smiled, sadly. Looking away from Twilight, she started to speak clearly and precisely, as though she was narrating a story she knew off by heart.

"There was only one alicorn in the beginning. She became fond of an earth pony- an orphan- who broke into her garden and tore up all the roses. She treated her as a younger sister, and treasured her irreverence. When that pony came of age, the alicorn offered the orphan a gift. Pegasus wings, a unicorn horn, an elder sister who would never die, who would never abandon her. An alicorn can only do it one time, only raise another pony to be a true alicorn once, and she'd been so lonely for so long- she was my big sister, Twilight, and the thought of getting old and dying and leaving her so alone again-" Luna took a great, shuddering breath and pressed on, closing her eyes and ignoring the tears coursing down her cheeks.

"I chose immortality because I loved my sister, Twilight. When I offered it to Pinkamena- when I asked her to be my paramour, to live forever beside me- she was so excited at first, and I thought my heart would burst with joy. Then the next day she came and told me that she couldn't do it, that she couldn't watch everypony she loved so much die when she was never going to. She was so quiet, Twilight. She explained that she'd lose so many friends she'd forget how to do anything but cry. She didn't want to carry on forever. I tried to say we'd have each other, but she said she couldn't do it. I lost my temper, then, and I have a lot of temper to lose. I said such terrible things to her, Twilight."

Luna scraped at the ground with her hoof, blinking away her tears. Twilight could feel her own forming as she tried to find the right words, and before she could stop herself she asked another question.

"Do you love her still?" she asked, quietly.

"Yes," Luna said, clearly and precisely. There was no doubt in her voice.

"Enough-" Twilight swallowed, hoping the question wouldn't make the Princess angry. "Enough to watch her get old? To be with her her whole life? Even if she can't be with you for yours?"

"Yes," Luna said, and there was a tone of admission to it, of letting a painful truth free into the world.

"Then come to the party tomorrow. I'll be there. You can work out how to apologise then, " said Twilight. "I'll help you. Whatever you said, she'll forgive you, I'm sure of it."

"How sure?" Luna asked quietly, and Twilight realised that that was the question Luna had really wanted to ask from the start.

"Well, she forgave me for missing an entire scrapbook of parties and not speaking to anypony for a year or two. So I'm pretty sure." Twilight walked up to the princess and sat down beside her, and for a long time neither of them said anything at all.

"I would attend Spike's party, but I fear I am unable. It relates to what I have to tell you about Spike. Rest assured, I will find a time to speak to Pinkamena, as soon as I can." Luna said after a while. The princess stood up and her horn glowed so brightly that for a moment Twilight couldn't look directly at it. When she opened her eyes again, they were in a room she knew quite well- the grand entrance hall of Canterlot castle. The only thing missing was the hustle and bustle of servants and petitioners, government officials and tourists. Instead, the place was eerily quiet, save for the clicking of her hooves and Luna's slippers on the polished marble.

"Now, we should attend to your lessons. Do you wish to learn what I have to teach you about Spike first, or what I have to teach you about unicorn magic?" Luna asked, looking away from Twilight so the unicorn couldn't see her face.

Twilight considered her options for a moment. While the unicorn magic lesson was technically her reason for being here, if there was a problem with Spike she wouldn't be able to concentrate if she didn't know what it was. It would be good to know why Luna couldn't come to his party, too.

"Could you tell me about Spike?" she asked quietly, and Luna turned to face her again. Her face was grim, and Twilight could suddenly see in the princess that force of will that had led her to become Nightmare Moon.

"Twilight Sparkle, you have been a careless mother," Luna proclaimed, and Twilight withered for a moment before anger flushed her cheeks.

"I'm not his mother! I'm his- I'm his big sister! He's my assistant!" She shouted back at the princess, forgetting her surroundings and their roles.

"You were all he had. You raised him. You were his mother whether you admitted to it or not," Luna explained bluntly, and Twilight found she didn't have an answer.

"I have no doubt that you love him," Luna said, and Twilight felt her rage coil back up inside her. "But you rejected him at an emotionally weak moment- whether you intended to or not- and you triggered his next stage of growth. You have caused us an almighty political headache, Twilight Sparkle."

"I have?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Dragons are occasionally adopted by ponies, in cases such as yours. In those cases, care is taken to ensure that the dragon bonds to an ordinary pony, and not to myself or my sister. The dragon council is very firm on these matters- they will not entertain the concept of Celestia or myself raising a dragon child at any stage of his or her growth. This is an extremely serious matter to them. They fear a Princess's dragon on the Throne of Quartz, a puppet leading their people, and they will resort to war to prevent it if they feel they must.

"When Spike entered his most recent phase of growth, he wrote to Celestia, and said he felt abandoned- his marefriend had left for a different city and his mother had informed him he was no longer required. Celestia was unable to reply. The council did not wish to risk Spike emotionally bonding with her. Celestia could not even contact you about the situation, because the council feared she would manipulate you into fully rejecting Spike and pushing him further towards her or me. Her every letter to you has been carefully scrutinised and limited, since Celestia believes it is the best way to prevent war.

"Luckily, your friends care for Spike too, and the council had not foreseen this. Spike moved a great part of his life to Sweet Apple Acres, and one mare there- Fluttershy- almost immediately began to treat him as a member of the family, as her child. His emotional turmoil was eased by conversations with your friend Rarity to such a degree that his growth slowed to a crawl, even to the point that his wings have yet to develop. Had this been all, had Spike left the library and moved to the farm, then the council would have been satisfied that his parental bonds had shifted, and the princess or I would have been free to openly contact you.

"Spike's loyalty to you, his love for you, has caused the political beartrap in which we find ourselves. He has not shifted his emotional bonds fully. He still cares for you, fulfilling not only his duties as your assistant but his new duties at the farm. He has neither left the library nor fully stayed there. As a result, the council have forbidden the princess and I from freely contacting you- or your friends- until the situation is fully stable and resolved.

"Your fading cutie mark has been a stroke of luck. Celestia practically invented healing in Equestria, and the council allowed her to send you one package, so long as they could investigate the contents. They could not prove the last elixir was tied to me, and they do not understand oneiromancy in the slightest, so I have finally been able to tell you all this."

Twilight's mind was buzzing with information. She'd been right in her research before she'd fallen asleep- she'd actually caused Spike's growth spurt. It all seemed very clear, very obvious when the Princess laid it out in front of her; Twilight understood it all, even understood why the Princess's letters to her had changed so thoroughly in tone. What she didn't understand- what didn't make sense, now- was why she'd acted the way she had. How had she become so distant from everypony? From Spike?

"What should I do?" Twilight asked Luna in a small and shaky voice. The Princess gave her a sad, quiet look, and stretched a wing around Twilight before continuing. Twilight was almost as shocked by the familiar gesture as by how much comfort it gave her. She had missed touch, she thought to herself. If the last few days had shown her anything, it was that she'd missed holding another pony, or being held.

"There are options," Luna said in an encouraging tone. "You could have Spike officially adopted by his newly formed family. You could attempt to rekindle your bond with him. You cannot ignore the situation any more, however. The council are starting to get very insistent that we simply remove Spike from Ponyville altogether."

"I won't let that happen. I'll think of something. I promise." Twilight could hear the resolve in her voice, and she was pleased with it. It was a relief to know that she would not budge on that matter, that Spike would not leave Ponyville if she had anything to say about it.

"Well, that covers your dragon friend. Now, we should proceed to the lesson itself. Would you follow me to the observatory?" Luna asked formally as she set off up the stairs. As Twilight followed, the surroundings warped slowly. Twilight realised the grand staircase was narrowing and twisting into the tight spiral stairs that led to the observatory, which would normally be a full seventeen floors higher. As the two of them entered into the grand dome, Twilight had a surprising pang of homesickness- the telescopes in here were all scaled-up versions of the ones she had at home, in the library, except for one in the corner, covered in dust. That was the one she'd left up at the farm when she'd moved out again. She remembered why, now- she'd hoped, at the time, that Big Mac would use it. That a little piece of her could stay there and stay with him.

Luna pulled Twilight out of her reverie by clearing her throat loudly, and started her lesson.

"Twilight, it is my sister's opinion- and I share it- that your fading cutie mark has something to do with a flaw in the way you perform magic. I must stress that I do not mean that your magic is somehow ineffective."

Twilight stopped bristling, and sat down.

"I mean that there is an unforeseen consequence to the spells you have been performing, and it is somehow draining you. Removing your passion for life, friendship and eventually for your studies, I fear. I am going to perform a spell now and you should look outside the observatory to see what flashes through my mind as I do so. In this place, the process is slowed down tremendously."

Luna concentrated, and a soft glow appeared around her horn. One of the telescopes was surrounded by the same glow, and as it started to rotate, Twilight suddenly saw an image flash up on the walls of the observatory- a great, bleak, grey expanse, cratered and pitted, and a round blue planet in the night sky behind it. As soon as the image flashed up, the blue planet discoloured, becoming as grey as the plains around her, and then it disappeared.

Luna stopped concentrating, and the walls of the observatory went blank again. The telescope slowly wound down to a stop, and Luna moved to sit in front of Twilight.

"Did you see what happened when I cast? What happened?" Luna asked Twilight. The structure of the lesson, demonstration and then questioning of her observations, was familiar to Twilight- this was exactly how she'd been taught in Canterlot, before she'd moved to Ponyville. It was familiar, comfortable, and she was thankful Luna had decided to organise her lesson this way.

"You formed your concentration and focused on the telescope, to make it rotate. When you did I saw- I think I saw one of your memories. Was that the moon?"

Luna nodded, smiling at Twilight's correct assumption.

"What does that imply? What else did you see?" The princess asked, encouraging Twilight further.

"I think you used a memory to fuel the spell. But you didn't use the memory up, did you?" Twilight asked, and Luna nodded her assent. "I think you desaturated the memory. Pegasus magic needs you to currently feel an emotion, and Earth pony magic makes emotion easier to feel- were you pulling an old emotion to the surface? Putting it into the spell?"

Luna clapped her hooves together for a second, smiling at her student.

"Exactly! I took a memory and I stripped the emotional weight from it, and used it to drive the spell. As soon as the spell stopped, the emotional impact returned to the memory. If you remember your studies, you were probably told not to run a spell too long?"

Twilight nodded, although at what the princess had said a nagging thought had arisen in the back of her mind.

"It's true that the main reason not to run a spell to long is simple mental burnout. It's hard to concentrate, really concentrate, for any length of time. But the other reason is that you risk detaching the emotional foundations from the memories that rest upon it, so- my little pony? What's wrong?"

Twilight's eyes were flickering from side to side, and her lips were moving as she worked something out.

"Princess, do you know what my research has been in? I've been learning how to store magic. I've been storing my magic. It's got so many applications, it can be used so many ways and I've not been seeing any side effects. I don't get any burnout when I do it, but-"

Twilight whined to herself, clearly distressed, and Luna leaned in, worried.

"I've been getting so distant," admitted Twilight. "Everything seems so much less important than it used to, and Macintosh told me - when he left me he said he couldn't find me any more, like I wasn't there. Luna, I think I've done something awful to myself."

Luna stood, clearly distressed.

"You've been storing your magic? Not aiming or concentrating it, just putting it somewhere else? Twilight, we must cut our lesson short. You must destroy the devices that are containing your magic. This could destroy you, Twilight Sparkle. I am invoking my royal privilege and demanding that you do this," said Luna, and Twilight could feel as much as hear the fear behind her words. The walls started to trickle and run as Luna's voice became thick and compelling.

"Twilight, I'm forcing you out of the dream ahead of schedule. You're going to wake up in
three
two
ONE"

Sparkle

Twilight woke cold and damp, suddenly bolt upright as she took deep, gasping breaths. She wiped her brow with a hoof and rolled out of bed onto unsteady hooves, taking far longer than was usual to find her balance. She took a deep breath and forced herself to start walking down the stairs, first to the main library and then to the cellar door. Pushing it open with a hoof and igniting her horn to a soft glow, she walked into her cellar- her laboratory- and down the stairs there, to see her work laid out in front of her.

Over one hundred and fifty cylinders were laid out on the bench in front of her, each an innocuous little ceramic shell containing coiled wire and unicorn hair inside around a flawless diamond core. The hair was all Twilight’s own, the wire was a copper-aluminium alloy of her own design and the diamonds were the perfect crystal control matrix for the energy they contained, according to Twilight’s painstakingly-constructed equations. She hadn’t been wrong- by her own conservative estimates, she’d charged each of the terracotta devices with enough power to run an intensive care ward for a year, or to run a full passenger train from Ponyville to Canterlot and back with juice to spare.

Twilight picked one up at random off the bench, and dropped it on the floor. It was such a little thing, she thought. It was peculiar to think that it could have done her so much damage. She raised a hoof over it and held it there for a second or two. Luna wouldn’t lie to her, she trusted the princess that much. This was a dangerous thing she’d been doing.

But it didn’t feel dangerous.

Twilight put her hoof back on the ground and thought back over the last couple of days. It was undeniable that when she’d been under the influence of the elixirs, she’d felt things more strongly than she had in years, but could this really be why? This little thing? Twilight put the device back in its proper place on the bench, and looked over her work. If she destroyed them, what could she use her research for? The storing of energy was going to open so many doors for Equestria, for science and technology, she knew it.

Science, thought Twilight. That’s actually a really simple way of dealing with this. Twilight levitated up a device that looked no different from the ones around it- this one was half-charged, maybe a little less. Certainly not full to capacity and not too much work to replace if Luna’s theories were wrong.

Twilight levitated the device in front of her, working out the best way to break it. The diamond was unbreakable, so that was out. The ceramic coating was just so she could handle it safely without shifting the wire or hair. The hair would probably be the easiest thing to remove- Twilight concentrated, seizing the hair inside the device, and yanked it out through the contacts at the top.

Nothing happened. Satisfied, Twilight put the device back on the bench, promising herself to repair it tomorrow, and started walking back up the stairs. As she started to leave, she felt her breathing change, suddenly becoming ragged and tense, and before she knew it she could feel tears falling down her cheeks, feeling frustrated and abandoned. What had brought this on? the last time she’d felt like this was-

She’d written to the Princess for advice. She knew she was becoming distant from her friends, she could feel it, and she’d written a long, rambling letter about her friends and Spike, and how to rekindle what felt like a fading friendship. She’d asked the Princess to write back as soon as possible. Whenever she’d done that in the past, it had been followed within an hour or two by either a visit from the Princess or the advice she needed, and this time, she’d waited a whole day and a half for a reply, and when it had arrived it was only a sentence.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I have every faith that you’ll solve your problems with your friends.

Yours,
Princess Celestia

Twilight remembered how frustrated she’d been. How had she forgotten? She’d been so irritated she’d come down to do some late-night research to calm down and she’d partially charged one of the devices, and-

Oh.

Suddenly, that frustration wasn’t all that she was feeling. Twilight was all at once angry and sad and joyous, irritated and amused and lonesome for her lover. It didn’t wash over her; it washed through her, battering the sides of her mind and scouring her thoughts clean as memories bubbled up to the surface of her consciousness. After a time hard to measure Twilight picked herself up, her breathing raw and her chest heaving, back to herself again after the torrent of emotion.

This couldn’t be, Twilight thought, looking at the desk in front of her. One hundred and sixty-four little prisons for her feelings, where she’d broken what had happened away from what it meant and locked that meaning away. Twilight looked at them, and thought about how it felt to open one of them and have all that feeling rush back. She was exhausted from it, her face damp with unbidden tears, and that one wasn’t even full. She couldn’t do it a hundred and sixty-four times. She just couldn’t.

But she could do it once.

Yanking a hair from her mane, Twilight concentrated on it, feeling its essence, and found its sisters within each of the devices in front of her. One hundred and sixty-four little magenta auras appeared on the desk, one around each of the devices. Twilight took a breath and steadied herself. This would be worth it. This would be worth it. Do it. Come on, Twilight, just do it.

Wincing, she pulled at the hairs all at once, stringing them through the conduits. In less than three seconds, all the devices were destroyed, the stored magic- the stored feelings, the colour of her memories- free and charging back towards her. Twilight winced and waited for the emotional wave to hit.

She had time to open her eyes and breathe a too-early sigh of relief before it did.

-------------------

Fluttershy and Applejack both woke all at once to an peculiar sound, a great tearing noise in the front yard. The noise put Fluttershy in mind of her wedding, when she’d managed to rip her dress on one of the rocks outside the barn and Rarity had put a stop to the whole thing for half an hour to fix it, while Big Mac and Twilight stepped in to pacify the crowd with liberal quantities of cider and an impromptu magic demonstration respectively. The sound was so specific, thought Fluttershy. She’d never forget it. She thought for a moment she’d dreamed it, but her wife was already out of bed and looking out of the window.

“Aw, for Celestia’s sake- it’s Twilight! She’s teleported herself or something. You stay in bed, Ah’ll get her moving again,” said Applejack in a tired voice. Ordinarily, Fluttershy would be more than happy to let Applejack deal with a three-in-the-morning problem, but this didn’t feel right. That noise was so personal.

Outside, there was a great shrieking wail. Fluttershy was to her hooves and out of her bedroom before she realised she was doing it, suddenly fully awake. That was an animal noise, a pony in real pain. Fluttershy didn’t know why Twilight was here and right now it didn’t matter, because the unicorn was hurting. I can be mad at Twilight when she’s all better, Flutttershy thought to herself, and as she left the house she could hear Big Mac and Applejack behind her.

She couldn’t have prepared for what was waiting for her in the yard. Twilight was suspended in midair, surrounded by a great magenta glow, her eyes wide and white as she convulsed. Fluttershy had never seen such a display of raw magical power from a single unicorn and as Big Mac and Applejack exited the house behind her she felt the familiar urge to hide behind them, to let them take care of it.

That urge fled the moment she saw Spike exit the forge on the other side of the yard, sweat running down his brow as he hefted his hammer onto his shoulders. Fluttershy felt as though somepony had slid an ice cube down her spine, and a quick glance at Applejack and Big Mac told her that she was the only pony who had noticed Spike, or the fact that Twilight had seen him too.

“Applejack, I need you to get Macintosh back inside now please,” said Fluttershy firmly, catching her wife’s eyes for a moment. Applejack for her part picked up the tone, and turned to firmly push Big Mac inside. The big stallion didn’t seem to want to budge, though.

“You heard Fluttershy, you big lummox. Get inside!” Applejack growled at her big brother.

“B-but T-Twilight-” he stammered back, clearly distressed.

“Fluttershy’s going to handle it, aren’t you Fluttershy?” Applejack said in the same tone of voice, and Fluttershy turned to look at Big Mac for a moment.

“Yes,” said Fluttershy simply, and she could see the fight drain out of her brother in law. “Please, Macintosh, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be out here. I can handle this. Let Applejack take you inside, okay?”

Applejack shoved her brother back inside, clearing the yard of everypony except Fluttershy, Spike, and the twitching Twilight suspended in the air between them.

"Twilight?" Fluttershy asked clearly, pulling the Unicorn's attention to her. "Twilight, what's happened?"

"I don't- Aaa! Ah! Fluttershy, I can't find him! I need Spike! I can't, I can't, I-" Twilight gibbered as an arc of energy flared from her towards the fence, setting one of the posts ablaze. Fluttershy could see that Spike was looking to her to know what to do, desperate to help.

"Twilight, Spike's asleep in the forge," said Fluttershy, with a meaningful glance at the dragon. Spike got the hint and backed slowly into the forge, crouching behind an anvil. Fluttershy could still see the reflection in his eyes, round and worried.

"You don't want to wake him up, do you? That's not why you came here," said Fluttershy, slowly walking towards Twilight. Her voice was clear and soothing, the same tone she would use to deal with a wounded predator. The last thing anypony needed was Twilight lashing out.

"No, not wake hiiiim-" Twilight's voice stretched out the last syllable and warped into a low, hurt moan. "I've gone so wrong, I don't- I can't control it! Fluttershy, don't come any closer! I don't want to hurt you!" Another bolt of magic connected to the weathervane on to of the house, and Fluttershy heard it slide down the roof and crash into the yard behind her.

"I know you don't," said the pegasus, still advancing, still keeping the same calm tone in her voice. "You're not going to. If you can't control your magic then you can flare it away like fireworks, and that's okay. I know you're not going to hurt me when you do it."

Fluttershy advanced closer to the panicked unicorn, feeling the strange heat of magic on her face, ruffling her mane and feathers. Her heartbeat was steady and fast. As she got closer, Twilight looked directly at her with blank, shining eyes and willed her hooves back on the ground. The aura around Twilight contracted, moving away from Fluttershy, and the pegasus could feel the heat on her face start to fade away. Twilight's horn was glowing so brightly Fluttershy couldn't look directly at it.

"I mean it, Fluttershy, back off! This is dangerous! I could hurt you if I can't control this!" Twilight shouted, and her voice was more controlled than it had been a moment ago. Fluttershy felt herself breathe an inner sigh of relief.

"You'll hurt yourself trying to control it, Twilight. Just let it go, okay?" Fluttershy said, walking still closer as Twilight shrank away from her. An arc of magic crackled right past Fluttershy's ear, and it took every bit of control she had not to flinch away from it.

"I didn't realise. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." Twilight whispered, and Fluttershy realised that the unicorn was crying, sparking tears burning trails through her lavender hair. Fluttershy looked straight into the empty white pits of Twilight's eyes, and smiled.

"Twilight, it's okay. Now just let it go."

Twilight reared, threw her head back and wailed, light pouring from her eyes and mouth into the open sky. For a moment, the farm was lit noon-bright, and as soon as it darkened again Twilight slumped forwards, caught into a hug by Fluttershy, sobbing and burbling nonsense words into the pegasus' shoulder. Fluttershy made soothing noises, stroking Twilight's mane and keeping a wing around her as she put the unicorn back on her feet.

Fluttershy looked back towards the house to see that Big Mac, Spike, Applebloom and Applejack were all standing in the yard. Spike lifted the weathervane and whistled softly, inspecting where it had been flash-melted away from its base. Fluttershy nodded to Applejack, who exchanged a brief word with the others and trotted over to talk.

"You alright, sugar? That was some light show," said Applejack, clearly concerned.

"I'm fine. Maybe a little singed, but that's all. Twilight's going to need to rest for a little while, so I need you to get three blankets and the blue pillow and put them in the living room. Spike and Applebloom should check for any fires and put them out and if Big Mac could warm up some of the soup we had for dinner and get her an apple brandy I'd be very grateful," said Fluttershy quickly and precisely, still rubbing Twilight's back with a wing.

"Whatever you say. She can't go back to the library tonight?" Applejack asked, ready to trot away and hand out instructions.

"I'd feel better if I kept an eye on her here. You understand, right?" Fluttershy asked, suddenly worried.

"Course Ah do. She ain't the first stray you've brought home," Applejack answered with an indulgent smile, and started back towards the family, handing out instructions. Applebloom had a pretty easy time tearing Spike away, since the fires were an immediate concern, but Applejack almost had to push Big Mac back inside again. He didn't seem to want to let Twilight out of his sight.

Fluttershy helped Twilight inside as the farm buzzed to life around her, a couple of hours earlier than usual. The unicorn didn't seem to really know where she was, alternating between sobbing and apologising, and it wasn't until Fluttershy had sat her down with a bowl of soup and a restorative brandy that she came back to her senses. After a drink, her sobbing stopped, and she started to eat the soup. Fluttershy stood behind her, brushing her hair and humming a tune, trying to make the environment as soothing as possible. She'd asked Applejack to keep Spike and Big Mac from coming in, and neither of them seemed to be able to do anything other than sit at the kitchen table and wait. Fluttershy hummed, and brushed Twilight's mane while she ate, and waited for Twilight to say something coherent.

After she finished the soup, Twilight carefully put the bowl down, and whispered something without turning to face Fluttershy. Fluttershy put down the brush and started to rub Twilight's shoulders, attempting to push some relaxation into the tired, tight muscles.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you, Twilight. Could you say that again?" Fluttershy asked, as gently as possible.

"I said thank you." Twilight's voice was small and raw.

"You're very welcome. I knew you wouldn't hurt me."

"I didn't mean about that. Well, that too, but I mean thank you for not letting me see Spike straight away. He might have gotten hurt. And for the care packages. And for looking after him while I've been so awful to everypony."

"You've been busy with your research," said Fluttershy, but it sounded hollow even to her. Twilight had neglected Spike badly, and it was good that she knew it, but it was hard to know what to say.

"Don't I know it," muttered Twilight to herself. "Fluttershy, I think I need your help. I hurt myself with my research. It's why I've been so far away. I think I'm okay, now, but I need to know a few things so I can work out what to do to make it right. If I can make it right. Can you help bring me up to speed?"

"Sure, that's okay," Fluttershy said, pressing out the knots in Twilight's neck. "What do you need to know?"

"Is Spike happy here?" Twilight asked, bluntly, and Fluttershy thought for a moment before answering.

"No," she said quietly. "He's got a lot to do and we appreciate his help. He's happier here than he would be waiting around the library with you ignoring him all the time. But I don't think he's truly happy."

"Oh," Twilight said softly. "Does he mention me?"

"A lot. We've been hearing all about your research. It does sound like you're working very hard."

"I have been," Twilight said, but it wasn't defensive. There was a tone of resignation in her voice. "What about Big Mac? And Applejack? How do they feel about me?"

"You know how Big Macintosh feels about you," Fluttershy said softly. "He hasn't changed his mind for years, even if he doesn't really understand you any more. Applejack's angry at you on Spike's behalf, for leaving him to deal with things on his own, and she's angry at you for me too. She understands what it is to have to work hard and she appreciates that your work needs solitude, though. She misses you, I think."

"What about- What do you think about me?" Twilight asked, and Fluttershy could hear the fear in her voice. She stepped around in front of Twilight, sat down and took a deep breath before replying.

"I think you worked too hard. I think you forgot what was important. I think you were cruel to Spike, and to me, even if you didn't mean to be. I can forgive you for me but I worry about you hurting Spike in the future. Rarity does too." Fluttershy took another breath before continuing, seeing Twilight on the verge of tears again.

"I'm worried about you, Twilight. You were really scary out there. What happened tonight?" she asked.

"I destroyed all the things that were making me sick. I didn't know they were making me sick until just now. All the magic came out at once and I didn't want to burn down the library so I tried to control it and then I wanted to see Spike or Macintosh, I didn't know which, and then I was here and you talked me down.

"I think I'm better now. I really do, and I think I need to start apologising, and I think I've worked out where I have to start. Listen, Spike's nearly grown, but he still needs parenting. I'm going to get my head back in the game there but I still don't think I can do it alone. I don't know him as well as I should. I was thinking that maybe, if it's okay with him, you would want to formally adopt him. With me, alongside me, I mean. I know you love him. I know you look out for him so much more than I do but I can't just hand him over and say he's yours, I love him so much, I swear I didn't mean to-"

Twilight started sobbing again as Fluttershy swept her up into an enormous hug, shushing her gently and holding her tight, letting her cry until she sniffled to a stop. She was back again, Fluttershy thought to herself. She wouldn't abandon Spike but she wasn't pretending she could do it on her own. Her solution had been carefully thought through, and she was trying to make sure everypony was where they wanted to be. That was just like Twilight used to be, Fluttershy thought happily. She gently rocked the mare in her forelegs and felt herself let go of a tension she'd been made to hold for far too long.

Unseen by either of them, a third white star flared back to brightness in Twilight's cutie mark.

"I got your mane all wet," Twilight said apologetically as she finally pulled out of the hug, wiping her nose and sitting down heavily on the sofa. "I've got so much to do today," she said to herself.

"The first thing you've got to do is get some rest," said Fluttershy, and a quick look silenced Twilight's reply. "I'll wake you at nine, Twilight, don't worry."

Fluttershy pulled a blanket around Twilight as the unicorn lay down, and she fell asleep almost instantly. Fluttershy smiled at her old friend, and silently left the room, latching the door as quietly as possible.

"Up you get, Twilight. It's eight. We've got ourselves a busy day."

The voice slowly permeated Twilight's mind and as she cracked her eyes open she identified the speaker before she remembered where she was.

"Applejack? What are you doing at the library?" she asked blearily, rubbing at her eyes as she rolled to her hooves. The pony in front of her didn't change her carefully neutral expression, or break eye contact. When she spoke, her voice was carefully, consistently level.

"Ah ain't at the library. You're at the farm. Eat your breakfast-" Applejack nudged the table next to her, which had an apple and a glass of water on it- "and Ah'll expect you in the yard in five minutes, so don't be dallying."

Applejack turned and walked out of the door without another word. Twilight stood and tried to eat the apple, but she couldn't find the appetite. She'd been hoping, she admitted to herself, to put off this particular conversation until last. After she'd had a chance to speak to Rarity and Big Mac at the party, perhaps. Twilight drank her water, took a last, half-hearted bite out of the apple, and went to the yard.

Applejack was sweeping up, and seemed a little suprised to see Twilight.

"You're on time," she said bluntly. "Didn't expect that. Now, Ah want a word with you but Ah want to be on the move while Ah have it. Helps me think. Shake a leg, we're walking into town the long way."

Applejack set off at a trot, not looking to see if Twilight was following. Taking a deep breath, Twilight followed after her on shaky legs. Applejack turned to talk to her almost as soon as she'd caught up.

"Don't worry, Ah'm not gonna push you too hard. Fluttershy said you'd be all wiped out after last night. Ah expect she's right?"

Twilight nodded. She felt exhausted.

"You know Ah had a bunch of stuff Ah was gonna yell at you and you've gone and ruined more than half of it," said Applejack with a peeved expression. "Fluttershy says Ah ain't to shout about her because you two're most of the way to made up again and she don't want me rockin' the boat. Ah was gonna shout about you not caring properly for Spike but with what you're offering, sharing custody with Fluttershy and all? Ah guess you do care more than you've been letting on. And even that was some magic sickness thing Ah don't quite understand, so Ah can't even be angry at you about that!"

As she'd been speaking, Applejack had unconsciously sped up to a canter, and she slowed down again to let Twilight catch her breath.

"The point is, Twilight, Ah'm still powerful mad at you but Ah don't have that many good reasons any more," admitted Applejack.

"If there aren't any good reasons, maybe that's a good thing?" Twilight asked cautiously. "I'm not asking to be best friends straight away again. I know I let you down even though I didn't mean to. But it would be nice to spend some time with you again, and I'd at least like to be on speaking terms. If Fluttershy and I share custody of Spike then I'll be visiting the farm a lot."

"Ah didn't quite say there were no good reasons, Twilight," Applejack said as they walked along. "There's still some stuff you did that Ah ain't ready to let go of. You treated Big Macintosh awfully."

Twilight's heart sank. She'd been hoping, unreasonably hoping, that Big Mac just wouldn't come up in this conversation. She really wanted a chance to speak to him first.

"Look, Ah know he's not me, he's my brother, and he's free to make his own mistakes," Applejack said, and Twilight felt the sting in it more than she'd expected. "You're still the mare he's mooning over, and Ah can't control that. Can't ask a pony to feel other than how they feel. But Ah can ask you not to take advantage of that, 'cause Fluttershy said you're getting all your feelings back. That means you're gonna get lonesome, and Big Mac's gonna be right there waitin' for you and you are gonna have to be the one who says no." Applejack's voice was all business. She may as well have been talking about the best way to harvest the east field; Twilight had heard more emotion from her when she was comparing pies.

"I don't want to say no," Twilight said without thinking, and Applejack stopped in the road.

"Say again?" the earth pony asked, looking away from Twilight.

"I don't - I wouldn't say no. If Big Mac asked me to be part of his life again." As she was saying it, Twilight realised how uncomplicated the whole situation was to her. If he wanted her back, she'd be with him, and she'd be happy. More than happy. If he didn't, she could cope. Her feelings were set.

"You are the most selfish pony Ah ever knew, Twilight Sparkle." Applejack said quietly, her voice almost cracking with the strain of not shouting. Then a dam burst somewhere inside the farmer and she turned, screaming at Twilight.

"You didn't say no! You didn't say yes, neither! You left him hanging for six months without an answer because you weren't sure and you disappeared into your work! He made himself sick with worry and you barely noticed! Thank Celestia for Rarity, Ah certainly couldn't talk any sense into him, but the day you left- the day he asked you to leave the farm- he started getting better. You made him sick you cared so little about him! You never loved him!"

A slap echoed across the path, and for a second both ponies looked equally stunned by it.

"Don't you dare, Applejack. I have never loved anypony like I love your brother." Twilight's voice was cold, and she could feel a stinging pain in her hoof where she'd slapped Applejack.

Applejack looked pensive for a moment, and sighed. She stood up straight, looked Twilight square in the eye, and punched her in the face.

-------------------

Twilight came to a moment later and Applejack was standing over her with a worried expression.

"You loved him?"

"Yes," Twilight said, regaining her senses. Her face really hurt.

"You still love him?"

"Yes! Ow! You punched me in the eye!" Twilight shouted.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that. Just- why in the hay didn't you say yes when he asked you to marry him, then?" Applejack asked, helping Twilight to her hooves. The anger seemed to have left Applejack at least, thought Twilight, even if it had been through her face.

"Because I didn't know if it would be a good idea," Twilight admitted. "I had a lot of research to do. I'd already started hurting myself with the magic I was doing, I think, so that had some part of it, but I was suprised by the proposal in any case! I was worried it would change things."

"Well of course it would!" Applejack almost laughed. "You'd be married. What'd be wrong with that?"

"Well, nothing. I'd like it. I really would. I mean, I would have liked it then. I really started hurting myself around that time, though. I think I forgot why he was so important to me. I can't believe you punched me in the eye!" Twilight felt her face- her eye was hot. It was going to come up as a real shiner, she was certain.

"Well you slapped me in the face!" Applejack said defensively.

"You said I never loved Big Macintosh!" Twilight could feel herself getting angry.

"Ah thought you didn't!"

"I do!" Twilight shouted, and just barrelled on. "I still love him! I'd marry him today if he asked me to and you can like it or lump it but I am not going anywhere. Everypony says he still loves me and I don't know if it's true but I intend to ask him. Today! So get used to it!"

"You'd really fight for him, wouldn't you?" Applejack asked, a wondering expression on her face.

Twilight sighed in exasperation and started cantering towards town before realising how tired she was. And that she'd just been hit in the face. And that Applejack could catch her up anyway. It wasn't long before the orange pony did, and the two of them walked next to each other in a tense silence. Twilight broke it, a nagging question bubbling up to the front of her mind.

"You mentioned Rarity earlier. Is it her who convinced Big Macintosh to break up with me?" Twilight asked, her voice brittle.

"Yep," Applejack said, her voice low. "Ah couldn't do it, but you should know Ah tried. Rarity talked him round, got him to see that you weren't as happy with him as you were with your research."

"I wasn't happy anywhere," Twilight snapped. "Still. It's probably best that he did break up with me. If I'd been stringing him along this whole time I don't think I could repair things with him. Or you. Or Fluttershy and Spike, I guess. Or anypony." Twilight raised her head, and it felt like she was seeing things more clearly.

"I'm sorry I slapped you. I didn't mean to lose my temper," Twilight offered. After a few seconds Applejack responded.

"Ah'm sorry Ah hit you in the eye. Ah did mean to lose my temper but Ah only meant to shout. It was a stupid thing to do and Ah'm sorry, too. And Ah'm glad you still love Big Macintosh."

"You really belted me, you know," smiled Twilight.

"Ah know. You didn't exactly hold back either though, did you? You're near as protective of him as Ah am." Applejack returned the smile, and the two of them went back to walking.

The silence was a lot less tense, now, as the two of them made their way into town. It almost reminded Twilight of the walks she and Applejack used to take, back when she lived at the farm. They both loved the scenery of nature, and of their friends they were the two who appreciated it in the most similar way- Rarity would get either bored or inspired, Fluttershy would inevitably find new animal friends who needed her help, Pinkie would monologue incessantly about how great everything looked and Rainbow Dash didn't seem to understand the appeal in a slow, contemplative walk. The two of them had made it a little afternoon ritual, every Thursday. They never said much, but it had brought them closer together than Twilight had ever thought possible. Twilight turned to tell Applejack, and saw that the farmpony had her head tilted back and her eyes closed, sniffing the crisp morning air.

"Ah've missed this," she said to nopony in particular.

"Me too," said Twilight, and Applejack turned to look at her and gave her a wide, honest grin.

"Ah'm still mad at you," Applejack said, as one of the stars on Twilight's cutie mark brightened to a steady white. "Friends again?"

"I'd like that," Twilight said happily, and the two of them walked into town, standing a little closer than before.

---------

Applejack whistled low as she accompanied Twilight into the library. She hadn't been in here for a good while, and with Twilight in her current state she'd been half-expecting the library to be a creaking, dilapidated mess. It was actually tidier than she'd ever seen it.

The shelves were all dusted, and the returns cart was almost empty. The card catalogue actually looked like you could use it to look up a book, if you were so inclined. Fresh posies adorned a little vase by the writing desk and the whole place smelt faintly of lemons.

"Twilight, Ah gotta say Ah'm impressed. Ah figured you'd be too busy to keep this place running smooth. It looks better than it ever used to."

"Hmm?" Twilight looked up from the writing desk, where she was laying out papers and unscrewing a pot of ink. "Oh, yeah, that's not me. Spike takes care of the place, really. I honestly couldn't tell you who's got a book out at the moment."

The unicorn sighed to herself and looked straight at Applejack, and for the first time today Applejack could see how tired the unicorn was.

"I couldn't tell you when I stopped caring, either," Twilight said wistfully, before returning her attention to the task at hoof.

"First things first, I have to write these letters. I should be getting a reply in about an hour for each one. Then I need to put on a load of laundry, and perform a fairly complicated spell, and tidy up the cellar- what time does Spike's party start?"

"It starts at one. We got about four hours before we should start moving."

"That's okay. I've got time, then. Now, would you say that Scootaloo is a pony of good character?" Twilight asked and stared at Applejack. The shift in conversation faintly unsettled the farmpony, and she found herself stumbling over her words at first.

"Ah don't- Ah mean she's a good pony, Twilight, and she's real good for Spike. She works hard at both her jobs and that counts for a lot with me. She's neat and tidy and good with the foals at the flight school, so Ah hear from Rainbow, and if you're thinking of-"

"Applejack?" Twilight interjected, amused. "I just meant would you please say that she is a pony of good character? Out loud? I need to put references down on here."

"Oh, uh, sure. Scootaloo is a pony of fine character."

"Excellent. Then I've got to make sure that I get the right forms on this one, and I should probably pen a letter to Celestia to let her know I'm on top of this, and- oh! Luna'll want to know, maybe she can make the party after all."

Twilight was almost mumbling to herself as her quill danced across the parchment, and Applejack cleared her throat pointedly.

"Twilight? Is there something Ah can do to give you a hoof?"

"Oh! Actually, yes. Could you go upstairs and strip my bed? Just put the sheets in the laundry basket, I'll get to them later. And then if you could I'd really appreciate it if you started packing my personal effects up."

Applejack frowned. Twilight was packing? Was she moving out?

"Twilight, Ah don't know that this is the best thing to do. Ah mean, you got stuck in this mess because you were running away from your responsibilities an' your friends. Ah don't see how doing that again is going to help."

Twilight signed and furled one of the letters before she replied.

"I know it looks bad. But I promise I have thought this through. I'm going to do what's best for everypony, and that includes me." Twilight started furling another letter, levitating some documents from her writing desk into it. "That means I'm going to have to leave the library. I don't really belong here any more."

Applejack stamped a hoof and pushed Twilight away from the letter she was working on.

"If you think after this long- after that apology you made- Ah'm just gonna let you up and run off? You came and found me once, Twi. Made me take a hard look at myself. I will follow you to the end of Equestria to find you and do the same for you. So why don't you just-"

The door to the library burst open, and before either pony could properly react to it a figure dashed into the library and shoved Applejack away from Twilight, interspersing themselves between the two ponies. It took Applejack a moment or two to realise it was Spike, fists balled and eyes tight with fear, flames playing around the edges of his mouth.

"Get away from her! I don't want you to hurt her!" he shouted, chest heaving. Applejack let him take a good look at her before replying- her hat was on straight and they'd had time to recover from the walk. It was clear, she knew, that she hadn't been brawling, and it was best to let the dragon work that out. As soon as she saw a flicker of confusion in his eyes, she spoke quietly.

"Ah ain't gonna hurt her, Spike. Ah don't want to. You're a good kid for standing up for her, but she don't need it."

"Don't give me that! You think I didn't see her eye? What could she have done to deserve that, huh? You don't hurt her!"

"Spike?" Twilight said from behind him, and as the unicorn walked between herself and Spike Applejack could see the dragon's bravado disappear.

"I actually hit Applejack first. She and I had an argument about Big Mac, and we both know we were wrong to get physical about it. We've apologised to each other," she said, and as she did so she wrapped a foreleg around Spike, pulling him into an awkward hug. "Thank you for looking out for me."

Spike dropped his eyes from Applejack's, returning the hug just as awkwardly, and Applejack could see the dragon deflate, his nervousness leaving him as he started to relax. She smiled at the dragon, raising an eyebrow.

"What in tarnation are you doing here anyway? I thought Fluttershy had got you and Applebloom on fire control duty."

"We finished that ages ago. I was in the forge, trying to relax. Then Applebloom needed it for her sculpture, and it was already half past eight so I thought I'd check in on Twilight. Granny Smith said she'd gone with you to town and Big Mac and Fluttershy looked so worried I came chasing after you." Spike smiled at himself, leaving the hug and sighing in relief.

"I honestly didn't know which one of you I was trying to save! I figured you'd have gotten into a fight but I didn't know who'd come off best."

"Hah!" Applejack couldn't resist a laugh. "Spike, you honestly thought Ah couldn't hold my own against Twilight? She's the skinniest darn thing Ah ever saw. Ah mean- whoah!"

Applejack suddenly felt a pressure around her tail, and suddenly she was staring at the floor. She'd forgotten just how much Twilight could lift, even on short notice.

"You've made yer point," she admitted, as Twilight let go, dumping her in an unceremonious heap.

"Well, it didn't help me earlier." Twilight indicated her eye, which had already swollen half-shut and was starting to turn an impressively dark colour. "Spike, I'm definitely going to make your party. Applejack's going to help me with all my chores today. You're free, and I won't have you spend your birthday tidying the library. Go do what you like!"

Spike frowned slightly, and after a nod from Applejack he rolled his eyes and held his hands up in agreement.

"Okay, okay. But don't file anything, you don't know where it goes. And don't touch the card catalogue. Oh, and there's an unopened shipment of books in the storage room, but you can-"

"Spike, Ah'll handle it, Ah promise. Twilight and Ah both want you to have a free day. Why not go meet Dinky and her folks for breakfast? When they replied they said they'd be getting in on the first train."

Spike brightened at that, and let Applejack gently herd him out of the door.

"Okay, but you two can't fight. And please don't be late to the party? And the brass could use a polish and I keep that under the sink, so make sure-"

Applejack ejected Spike and shut the door on him, and his voice muffled slightly.

"Okay. You've got it. I'll get moving."

After a moment, Spike strode off towards the train station, and Twilight interrupted Applejack before she could say anything.

"Applejack, I'm not leaving Ponyville, okay? I just don't belong in the library any more. I'll still be around and I'm not running away," she explained quickly. "Although- there's something you can do other than pack my things, if you like? I've left a bunch of debris downstairs. I think. I could do with having it tidied up and thrown away, and it's likely safer for you to do it than me."

Applejack nodded and opened the door to the cellar, raising an eyebrow as she looked around the place. The whole cellar could do with a darn good sweep and mop, in her opinion, and the little notes attached to everything reinforced the impression.

Spike! DO NOT TOUCH, very sensitive

Spike! This is NOT TO BE CLEANED it is very delicate

Spike! Leave this alone please, it is an experiment

That last one looked like it had been absently stuck to a coffee mug, the bottom of which was now sprouting a veritable forest of mould.

"Blech!" Applejack said to herself, before she spotted what Twilight had been talking about- a pile of little broken ceramics, gems, wire and hair. As she stepped towards it, there was an odd trembling to the debris with her every hoofbeat, as though she was stamping hard enough to shake the floor. Applejack shrugged and grabbed a broom and started sweeping up.

After a few minutes, Twilight stuck her head around the door.

"I've sent all my letters! I've got to start packing now. Could I ask you to separate out the diamonds? They still have some value and I might need them." Twilight said before ducking back upstairs.

Applejack nodded, and returned to her work, but as she separated the diamonds out, she found the darn things didn't want to let go of her hooves. They seemed to be the thing that was reacting to her hoofbeats, as well, forming in little arcing lines away from her every time she stepped heavily. She ended up having to use a test tube rack as a sort of makeshift scraper, tugging the things away from her hooves and into a bucket. It took a lot longer than she'd thought- after an hour or so she was interrupted by Twilight, who had a peeved expression on her face.

"Applejack, I've got to go to Canterlot. I'm getting tied up in bureaucracy and I think it's going to be faster to get some of this stuff done face to face. I'll be back in time, okay? And, er, could you finish my packing as well? I keep getting distracted by these stupid letters."

"So long as you're back in time," Applejack said cautiously. "What exactly did you do to these diamonds, by the way? They're all sticky."

"Sticky?" Twilight frowned. "Maybe there was something on the floor. I mean, I didn't really keep this place sterile. I've got to get going- catch you later!"

Clutching a fat file of documents in her horn's grip, Twilight's eyes went blank as she concentrated hard- in a flash of magenta magic, she was gone, leaving a smell of ozone as the only evidence of her presence. Applejack knitted her brows. She hoped Twilight would be back in time, but there was a knot of worry in her stomach that reminded her of every moment Twilight had let somepony down over the last couple of years. There was only one way to deal with that sort of fretting, Applejack thought to herself, and buckled down to the task at hoof, losing herself in the work as the hours ticked past.

Spike's Party

"Ah said hold the darn ladder, Big Macintosh! You ain't concentrating!"

Big Mac looked up to see his youngest sister frowning at him as she hammered the banner up across the front of the barn. She'd been right to yell, he thought as he steadied it with his hooves. He hadn't been paying attention to her. He'd been looking over at the dragon who was attempting to relax with his marefriend, both of them lying down, chatting and pointing at clouds, her head on his chest. Every time there was a noise Spike didn't recognise, though, he stopped speaking, lifting his head slightly to see the path up to the front gate, squinting into the high, early afternoon sun.

Big Mac sighed at himself. They were both bucking down the wrong tree, waiting for Twilight and setting themselves up for a disappointment. He should just settle down and enjoy himself. John and Ditzy Smith were back in town for this party, and it'd be good to catch up with how they were doing in Fillydelphia. Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow had all showed up early to help prepare, and Sweetie Belle was back for a visit too. She and Dinky were both helping Applebloom out by moving her art project into the barn for her big reveal later, and there'd been a steady flow of ponies from town who knew and liked Spike for one reason or another. There was a lot to like- the bulk of his time was spent around the farm or the library, but even in his off hours Spike was always looking for something to do. He'd almost become the town's handypony, helping out anypony who asked and needed it. There was even talk- and Big Mac was happy to say he'd encouraged it- that in a few year's time the little dragon should consider running for assistant mayor.

There were some tasks even Spike wasn't allowed to do, though. Applebloom had been firm with Spike that he wasn't allowed to help set up his own party, eventually stealing his apron and banishing him to the fields with Scootaloo after she'd caught him helping Granny Smith ice some of his own birthday cupcakes.

It was five minutes until the party officially started, and neither Applejack or Twilight had arrived yet. Big Mac sighed again, and cast another furtive glance at the road. There was a pony galloping up to the gate, almost a silhouette against the sun, and Spike had seen her too- Big Mac felt his heart rise in his chest until he recognised the shadow of his sister's stetson hat. Big Mac tutted to himself- he'd been foalish to think things had changed. Lowering his eyes, he turned his attention back to the ladder.

"Happy Birthday, Spike!"

Big Mac perked up an ear. That couldn't be the voice he thought it was.

"Hi Twilight! I knew you'd make it! I knew it!"

Spike's voice was almost cracking in his glee, and Big Mac turned away from the ladder to see Twilight greeting an incredibly enthusiastic Spike. Scootaloo was watching the scene with unabashed confusion- it was clear she hadn't expected it at all. Big Mac realised his expression was likely almost exactly the same, and pulled himself together.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Now, I've set up a few things- presents, I mean- but I can't give them to you just yet because I need to clear some things with other ponies. I also need to have a talk with you and Fluttershy later, but I promise it's about good things, okay?"

"Okay! I'm so glad you're here- Applebloom and Pinkie have been planning a ton of fun stuff to do, I know you'll love it."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is good that you're here. Thank you." Scootaloo pitched in, and smiled at the unicorn, her brows still pulled down in confusion.

"I'll catch up with you two in a little bit- I have somepony I need to talk to," Twilight said, flicking her eyes to Big Mac for a moment. The big stallion could almost feel his blush starting, and silently kicked himself for it. Twilight looked back to Spike, and then up to Applejack's hat on her head.

"Oh! Before I forget- Applejack said I should give you this. I didn't have time to get everything done that I needed finished, and we were both going to be late. Applejack said I should make sure I got here on time and to take her hat. She said you'd know what it meant."

"It's something we do when we take a picnic," Fluttershy said as she emerged from the barn, her delicate voice carrying across the yard. "If Applejack's too busy working, we take her hat and then we know she'll be along eventually to pick it up."

Fluttershy took the hat from Twilight and put it firmly on her own head, smiling quietly.

"I'm so pleased you could make it, Twilight. I was thinking- is now a good time to have that discussion we mentioned earlier? I think it's best that we do it sooner rather than later."

"I think maybe you're right. Scootaloo, you should listen to this too. It's important."

Scootaloo and Fluttershy both stood closer, and as Twilight started to explain she didn't look away from Spike for a moment.

"Spike, I love you. I do, but I've been letting you down." Spike opened his mouth to object, but Twilight silenced him by holding up a hoof.

"The first thing I have to say is that you are never going to stop being part of my family. You're my little brother. But-" Twilight's voice faltered for a moment, and she took a deep breath and carried on.

"But your family's bigger than just me now. It includes the Apples, and I think it would be a good thing to recognise that. What I've suggested to Fluttershy- and she thinks it's a good idea-" Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically, the too-large stetson wobbling on her head as she did so.

"What I suggested was that maybe she could adopt you too. I'm already your formal guardian and that wouldn't change, and Fluttershy would have the same set of parental rights and responsibilities. You'd join the Apple family officially. If you'd like, I mean. I've got the papers right here if you want to sign them right now but you don't have to, I mean if you want to think about it then that's fine too."

Spike looked stunned for a moment, looking back and forth between a smiling Fluttershy and a nervous Twilight. After a few moments, he opened his mouth and spoke quietly.

"I'd still be your brother?"

Twilight moved forwards and lifted the dragon bodily with her magic as she reared, pulling him into a hug. She whispered something to him that Big Mac couldn't hear, and both of their eyes were bright with tears when she finally let him go. They were smiling, though, and that could only be a good thing. Spike turned to Fluttershy almost bashfully.

"You want this too, right? I'd love to be part of the family. Officially, I mean, but you want to be the one who adopts me?"

"Of course," Fluttershy said simply. "You're very loved by everyone in the family, Spike, but I'd like to be your parent. I know you've always had a big sister. Now you have a little one, too, and Big Macintosh and Applejack treat you like a nephew, but you're my son. You know that, don't you?"

Fluttershy wasn't really asking, Big Mac realised- she was just letting Spike confirm it. The dragon nodded, and gave Fluttershy an awkward kiss on the cheek.

"For a long time," Spike said, and then the four of them suddenly erupted into motion- Fluttershy wiped her eyes as Scootaloo pulled Spike into an excited hug, babbling to each other about what this would mean, and Twilight pulled a quill and a small stack of forms out of her saddlebags and started showing them to Fluttershy one at a time. The pegasus tilted the stetson back on her head and started initialling clauses and signing at the bottom of each page.

"Hey! Hey Big Mac! Guess who's gonna be your nephew-in-literal-law!" Scootaloo shouted, waving Big Mac over. He started off towards them and was rudely interrupted by a heavy weight on his back, as Applebloom jumped down from the ladder and bounced off him to land in front of him wearing an amused scowl.

"You are just plain bad at holding ladders, Big Mac. Come on, we gotta go congratulate everypony! And Spike!"

Applebloom bounced over, nuzzling Spike almost hard enough to push him over.

"Whoa, easy there, Applebloom! You know this makes you my official little sister, right?"

"Hah! You wish! Ah used t'be your big sister, and this makes me your auntie-in-law, you dunce," Applebloom grinned as Spike slapped his forehead in mock horror. "Anyhow, Ah can't be your big sister any more. Fluttershy says Twilight's out from under her rock for good now, so she's got that covered. Ain't you, Twilight?"

Applebloom turned and smiled at Twilight. Or at least, that's how it looked if you didn't listen to her too closely. Applebloom wasn't about to pick a fight just yet, but there was an edge in her voice that Big Mac recognised. It meant if anypony looked at her wrong they were in for a world of hurt.

"Yeah, I'm doing a lot better now, Applebloom. Fluttershy's right. You'll be seeing a lot more of me at the farm, too."

Twilight's voice had a tightness to it as well, and Spike and Big Mac both seemed to spot the brewing argument at the same time. Spike threw an arm around Applebloom's shoulders and started asking about party games, and Big Mac went with the old standby of just walking in between the two of them and turning to talk to Twilight.

"Twilight," Big Mac said, before realising he had no idea what he wanted to say. Twilight seemed to have the same problem, each of them looking at each other for a few seconds before Twilight spoke.

"Walking!" she shouted all at once, before rolling her eyes at herself and blushing. "I mean, we should go for a little walk. Fluttershy, are you okay with the paperwork?" Fluttershy nodded, not looking away as she initialed another clause in her immaculate copperplate.

Big Mac took a moment or two to work out what he wanted to do. It gave him a chance to get a good look at Twilight's face, and he realised what was wrong with it- her eye was swelling up something fierce.

"You get into it with AJ?" He asked, indicating her black eye with a nod of his head, and Twilight nodded hesitantly.

"Er, sort of. We had a bit of an argument, and it got a bit, well, physical." Twilight wasn't quite looking him in the eyes, he noticed, and her voice had an uncertain little wobble.

"I actually started it. The fighting part, I mean. I slapped her and she punched me in the face and that's the whole thing. We were arguing about-"

"Wait, wait," Applebloom weighed in, wriggling out of Spike's grip around her shoulders. "Applejack hit you in the eye? That ain't right. Didja put ice on it?" Twilight shook her head, and Applebloom sighed loudly before continuing.

"There's some in the kitchen, Ah guess. Look, we need to all get in the barn so's Spike can come in and we can get everything started. Twilight, come with me and we'll get you an icepack. Everypony else, just get yourselves in there, alright?"

Applebloom trotted off towards the front of the house, giving Twilight a curt nod to follow her. Twilight gave Big Mac a pleading look, and he shook his head a fraction of an inch. If Applebloom wanted to speak to Twilight before he did, she was gonna get her way somehow, and the easy way was best here. Twilight nodded and bit her lip slightly- she always bit her lip when she was nervous, Big Mac remembered in a rush- before trotting off to catch up with Applebloom.

Spike and Big Mac both watched them go, each with almost identical worry etched into their foreheads, before Scootaloo snapped them both back to attention with an exasperated sigh.

"Yeesh, would you two quit worrying? It's a party, in case you forgot. Fluttershy, Big Mac, we should get in the barn. Scales, give us a couple of minutes before you come in, okay babe?"

"Sure," nodded Spike, but he was still frowning, looking after Applebloom and Twilight. Big Mac let Scootaloo herd himself and his sister-in-law inside the barn, as soon as he'd helped Fluttershy collate all the adoption documents into a neat pile. She carried them into the barn, a big daft smile across her face- Big Mac reckoned she was mostly done with them. He couldn't help but smile at it, even if he was a little worried- Applebloom and Twilight had never really clicked even when she lived at the farm. Casting a last look towards the farmhouse, he entered the barn.

---------------------

Twilight followed Applebloom silently into the kitchen of the farmhouse, waiting while the younger pony rummaged through the freezer. Applebloom emerged with some ice cubes wrapped in a checkered red-and-white tea towel, and Twilight gratefully levitated it over and pressed it cautiously against her eye. It stang and Twilight winced involuntarily.

"Y'got to be careful with it. Hold it there for about three minutes or so, until it's gone numb. It's probably a little late to prevent it swelling shut tomorrow morning, but it'll help." Applebloom said conversationally, and Twilight groped for a reply.

"Thanks. I mean, this is nice of you to do."

"Y'need it," Applebloom shrugged. "Applejack shouldn't have hit you. Ah'm plenty mad at you but Ah wouldn't have hit you."

"Are you mad at me because I've not been there for Spike?" Twilight asked quietly.

"Yup. Ah heard you've been sick and all or something, but it don't fix everything. Y'still haven't been part of his life for too long and he's giving you a real easy time about it. He's the forgiving type. Good for you, Ah guess." Applebloom motioned towards the door, but before she could leave Twilight cut her off, burbling all at once.

"It is good that Spike is so forgiving because it means we can fix things, eventually, but he's not the only pony - dragon - being that I've neglected. I know I've hurt your brother too and that's between me and him but I actually wanted to speak to you too because I think I could do you a favour. If you want it."

Applebloom raised an eyebrow and Twilight barrelled on.

"It's something I should have done if I'd thought about it at the time, but like you said I've been getting sort of disconnected and I didn't click everything together until recently. But the university- I mean, Celestia's Universal Academy for Advanced Learning and Gifted Youngsters- they have an art program that's really good, and I had a quick chat with one of the professors there this afternoon and I showed him this-"

Twilight levitated an old piece of paper out of her saddlebag and unfolded it into a sketch. The fold lines were still clearly visible, but the sketch was of Twilight and Big Mac- she was clearly in the middle of conversation and he was looking on, listening intently.

"He said it was a little rough but showed real promise. So I told him it was over two years old and you'd not stopped working and you'd moved on to sculptures too, and he said he'd set up a visit to have a look at your stuff if you like and there are some great scholarships I think you might qualify for if he says your work is good enough. I think it will be. I always liked it."

Twilight trailed off, taking a deep breath and trying to read Applebloom's expression. Eventually, the younger mare spoke slowly, as though the words were coming from far away.

"That's mighty kind of you. But if you think- Ah mean, if you're expecting me to-" Applebloom shook her head, and her words came out very softly. "Ah feel like yer trying to buy me. As an apology to Big Mac."

Twilight's eyes widened and she shook her head vigorously.

"No, not at all! That's not what I meant at all! Applebloom, I'm going to talk to Big Mac today and this won't come up. You are a great artist, okay? I could have helped with that and I didn't. This is part of my apology to you, for that, and for- for everything. This is me trying to get square with you. Whether you want it or not or you tell anypony else or not is entirely up to you. I just wanted to say sorry. This is so you know I mean it."

Applebloom gave Twilight a cautious nod and a small smile.

"Well thank you for apologising. Ah'll think about it. Now, Spike's waitin' on us, Ah'll bet, so let's get ourselves to the barn."

Twilight fell in behind Applebloom as the two of them left the kitchen, still pressing the cool icepack against her eye. Applebloom had been pretty good to get this for her, Twilight thought, slowly realising why Applebloom had made the effort- she’d just resigned herself to Twilight being back, being in the lives of the men she loved. There was something admirable about it, Twilight thought. Applebloom wasn’t trying to control Big Mac or Spike at all. She was just trying to be the best sister she could be to them, and if that meant putting up with Twilight’s presence, then that’s what it meant.

“They’re lucky,” Twilight said out loud, half deliberately.

“Say again?” Applebloom asked over her shoulder as they walked around the front of the barn and saw Spike sitting and waiting for them to go inside. He gave them a little wave and Twilight returned it.

“Spike and Big Mac are lucky to have you around. You’re a better sister than- you’re a great sister to them.”

Applebloom raised an eyebrow at Twilight and chuckled as they entered the barn, shaking her head. Twilight couldn’t help but notice the slight cooling of conversation from the ponies gathered inside- Applebloom clearly noticed it too, speaking with a slightly raised voice.

“Twilight, you can come to the back and help me unveil my gift to Spike. Big Mac, let Spike know he can come in.”

They walked towards Applebloom’s gift- it was taller than Big Mac, Twilight realised, and draped with an old tarpaulin. She could feel the mutters bouncing around the room- Bon Bon was whispering something to Lyra and Cheerilee was glaring daggers at her. There were a couple of welcome faces, though- Rainbow winked at her, Ditzy and John gave her a big smile, and a gangling young unicorn she didn’t recognise waved enthusiastically at her for a couple of seconds before Twilight identified her as Dinky. She was so tall these days! Twilight made a mental note to find time to speak to them, the knowledge that she’d missed their wedding twisting around in her gut.

As Big Mac leaned out of the door to call Spike in, Rarity glided through the crowd, moving past Twilight without acknowledging her and leaning in to speak with Applebloom. She looked worried, Twilight thought, despite her rather majestic dress- a confection of grey silk that could only have been her own design.

“Applebloom, dear, I was wondering if you were absolutely sure that Twilight was the best choice to help you unveil your masterpiece,” Rarity said in a half-whisper that carried painfully clearly back to Twilight’s ears.

“Yup,” Applebloom said loudly, without looking at Rarity. “We had a conversation. Now take yer place, Spike’s about to come in.”

“As you say,” Rarity said, turning and walking back to Rainbow’s side. As she passed Twilight, she flashed her a cold, brittle smile. “Twilight, darling, so good to see you up and about.”

Twilight’s ears fell as she took her place by the big sculpture and Big Mac came back in, nodding. As Spike started to open the door to the barn, Twilight caught a glimpse of Pinkie Pie in the crowd near the door, bouncing up and down and frantically mugging an enormous smile in Twilight’s direction. Twilight only just managed to perk up her expression before the door was thrown wide open and the embarrassed-looking young dragon in the doorway saw the whole room.

“Happy birthday, Spike!” the crowd shouted in unison, and Scootaloo bounded out of the crowd to give Spike an enormous hug and a kiss on the cheek. He grinned broadly at everypony there and disentangled himself from his marefriend.

“Thanks, everypony! This is just- this is great. I’m not much for speeches, so let’s all just get ourselves a drink and-“

“Actually, little nephew, you gotta get your presents first,” Applebloom interjected loudly, rolling her eyes. “This first one is from me. Twilight, grab your end and pull!”

Applebloom grabbed the edge of the tarpaulin in her teeth, and forsaking her magic for the moment Twilight did the same, pulling the old cloth away from the sculpture. There was an audible gasp from everypony in the barn, and when Twilight looked up she could see why. Applebloom’s present to Spike was a sculpture of the dragon himself, made of curling, twisted iron cables. There was a sense of motion to it, and despite the simplicity of the construction it was certainly Spike- he looked like he was about to leap skyward, half extended from a crouch, elegant and lithe.

Spike looked at it for a moment, his jaw agape, before he walked forwards and pulled Applebloom roughly into his arms.

“It’s wonderful,” he said in a small voice, and Twilight could see the shine of tears in his eyes. “Thank you. Is this really how I look?”

“It’s more how you are,” Applebloom said, returning the tight hug. After a moment, she pulled away to indicate a pile of presents on the nearby table, which Spike eyed cautiously.

“Don’t worry none, Spike, most of this stuff is for eating or using. Ain’t no chance of you hoarding it,” whispered Applebloom, and Spike’s eyes lit up. He moved over to the pile of gifts and most of the ponies in the barn clustered around him as he started opening presents. Rainbow took the opportunity to sidle over to Twilight, her eyebrows knitted.

“Twilight, I need a favour,” she asked quietly, her eyes darting over to where Rarity was waiting in the crowd and watching Spike gleefully unwrap a bumper crop of fireworks that John and Ditzy were explaining to him.

“Look, Rarity’s not super pleased with me for making up with you. She’s being all reasonable about it, saying like I can go and spend time with anypony I like and it’s no skin off her nose and stuff. Could you have a word with her? I’m going to keep hanging out with you whatever she says but as it stands she’s going to keep being polite at me about it. I’d really appreciate it if you two could make up even a little bit and she’s not going to be the pony who makes the effort, so...” Rainbow trailed off and tried to fire her most charming grin at Twilight, but she just looked faintly pained.

“I actually meant to talk to Rarity anyway,” Twilight said, biting the bit. “I need to talk to you both together too, and I need to talk to Scootaloo and Spike.” Twilight looked over towards Big Mac, who was talking over his gift to Spike. As Twilight looked more carefully at it, she felt her heart leap into her throat- that was Big Mac’s copy of ‘Colt’, dog-eared and stained. His favourite book.

“I really have to talk to Big Mac too,” she murmured, almost to herself, and Rainbow gave her an enormous wink and nudged her with a wing.

“Yeah, I bet you do. Talking. I bet that’s totally what you’ve got planned. Just make sure you chat to Rare before you get all talked out, okay?” Rainbow smiled at herself and wandered off before Twilight could respond beyond a furious blush.

Twilight made a list in her head and ran through it. First, she needed to talk to Spike about his presents. Then Scootaloo- well, her and Spike together, after he’d finished off his presents. Then Rarity. Then Rainbow and Rarity together, then check in with the Whooves and Sweetie Belle, and then finally Big Mac. Right, she thought to herself. We’ve got a list. Let’s do this.

Spike was in the middle of an ecstatic mouthful of emerald crumble when Twilight finally got to the front of the crowd, and the pile of presents was a lot smaller. The stand-out so far was definitely the statue, but there were a couple of close seconds- Big Mac’s first edition of his favourite book and a brand new tuxedo hoof-stitched by Rarity had both been extremely gratefully received.

Spike took his next present from the pile, and it was Twilight’s- a selection of books that had been wrapped in a purple ribbon at Applejack’s insistence. Spike took then and looked them over, pleased but hardly enthralled, before he spotted the note tucked into the side.

“’Ask for details.’ There’s details? Twilight, what’s going on?” he asked, a smile playing around the edges of his mouth.

“Well,” Twilight took a deep breath, “there are two other parts to your present. The first is that I think everypony here will agree with me when I say you’ve been doing the practical work of running the library for the last couple of years.” There was a rumble of assent from the crowd, some of it slightly sharply aimed at Twilight. She ignored it and continued.

“So I got in touch with the library commission and signed a few forms, and this one right here-“ she pulled a form out of her saddlebags- “is all signed and sealed except for your signature. It would make you the official librarian of the Ponyville library.” She handed over the form and Spike looked it over with a raised eyebrow and a quiet smile.

“You’re giving me a job?” He asked quietly, scanning over the form.

“Not really,” Twilight murmured. “I’m just recognising the job you’ve been doing. You are the librarian, Spike. It’s just high time it was made official, and that includes fair compensation.”

“You mean I’d get paid for doing what I already do?” he asked, looking quite pleased at the concept. “I could do what I liked with the money?”

“Yes, and there’s likely some back pay too,” Twilight admitted. “I technically quit as librarian when I got the bursary, so there could be quite a lot. I’ve not had the chance to go over the details yet. The other thing I wanted to give you- which is to do with the bursary too- is this.”

Twilight handed over a bundle of scrolls all at once, and Spike gave her a confused look.

“Those are registration documents. You’ve been my number one assistant for years, but that’s not enough now. If you’ll accept, those documents will register you with the university as my number one student. You can work towards a theoretical magic qualification. And we’d spend twenty hours together a week, guaranteed, learning about magic. Together.” Twilight couldn’t read Spike’s expression at all, and that in itself was faintly distressing. Had she overstepped? Twilight could feel her carefully planned sentences unravelling as she spoke, and the silent eyes of everypony in the barn seemed to be burning a hole in the back of her neck.

“I know I’ve not- I haven’t spent as much time with you as I should have. I’ve missed you, and I thought maybe if we had a reason it would be easier-“ Twilight felt her sentence catch on a choked sob, her eyes burning, and she was about to turn and just try to leave when she felt familiar, warm arms around her neck.

“Easy there,” Spike said calmly. “I love you. Okay? I love you. Thank you for this. I’ll make a great student, I promise. I learned from the best.”

The grand magenta star on Twilight’s flank glowed brightly enough for a moment that it lit the barn. The gathered ponies gasped- none of them had ever seem a grown pony’s cutie mark ever change before. Now the mark had the same intense, bright colours it had always had, except for one small white star which remained stubbornly grey.

“Well ain’t you two a sight for sore eyes,” drawled a familiar voice from their side. Twilight turned to see Applejack had returned, and Spike let go of Twilight and gave her a quick hug.

“Applejack, have you seen all the stuff I got? Applebloom made me this statue and Big Mac gave me his favourite old book and I’m gonna be Twilight’s student!”

“That’s great, Spike. Now, Ah’ve got to go and find mah hat. Ah wondered if Twilight’d help me track down Fluttershy and bring me up to speed while you finish off your presents, if you can spare her for a moment?”

Spike nodded and gave Twilight a grin as he turned back to the crowd of well-wishers. Applejack and Twilight detached themselves from the group, walking over towards Fluttershy as Twilight grilled Applejack under her breath.

“Did you get the paperwork for the library?”

“Yup. In my saddlebags. What in the hay just happened to your cutie mark?”

“Nothing bad, it just means I’m getting better. And the cloud seed?”

“Same again. It took exactly as long to mature as you’d said. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine, I promise! What about the-“

“Sugarcube, you’ve been out of the world for a while but Ah ain’t changed that much. D’you really think Ah’d come here without finishing every single item on that list you left me?”

Twilight had the good grace to look embarrassed. Fluttershy lifted her head up from her paperwork as they approached, the overlarge stetson rocking back on her ears, and Applejack kissed her on the cheek as she retrieved it. Fixing her hat firmly back in place, she looked at the paperwork and was about to ask a question when Fluttershy cut across her.

“It’s all finished, Applejack. Everything signed and sorted. I just have to file it with the mayor’s office tomorrow and then it’s official!” Fluttershy’s smile was as broad as Applejack had seen it in years.

“What’s official?” Pinkie asked, popping up beside Twilight.

“I’ve adopted Spike,” Fluttershy said proudly, and Pinkie took a colossal breath in, her eyes sparkling, before Applejack clapped a hoof over her mouth.

“We’re all real pleased about it, Pinkie, but today’s Spike’s birthday, okay? No turning it into a party for his adoption too.”

Applejack couldn’t take Pinkie’s tearful stare for more than a moment.

“How about you throw him a separate adoption party? The day after tomorrow?”

“Woohoo!” Pinkie bounced around in a circle before returning to the group. When she did, she was immediately distracted by something shiny on the floor. “Hey, is that a diamond?”

All four ponies looked down to see what Pinkie was looking at- it was a fine-cut diamond that Twilight recognised as the centre of one of her magical storage units, bouncing and jittering across the floor towards Pinkie. Applejack sighed and reached towards it, and as soon as her hoof got within a couple of inches of it the diamond jumped up and affixed itself to the bottom of her hoof.

“Consarn it! Ah thought Ah’d got all the darn things off back at the library. Hang on a tick.” Applejack pulled her hat off and deftly used the brim to scrape the diamond back onto the floor. As soon as she did, it started twitching again, slowly wobbling in the general direction of Pinkie. Twilight watched it with growing fascination and could feel an idea forming in her head- how long had it been since she’d been this excited about a new discovery?

“Pinkie, “ she said carefully, “can you jump up and down a little bit for me? I want to check something.”

“Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie started bouncing, and the diamond began to bounce with her, edging closer and closer until it leapt and stuck fast to the front of her hoof.

“That feels tingly!” she said happily, holding it up for inspection.

“I think it’s storing your magic,” Twilight said, thinking out loud. “I think if we could find a way to get the magic back out then you could use this to grow things. Or heal ponies. I need to read up a bit more on earth pony magic, but I don’t think this is like what happened to me. Earth ponies pour magic out into the world all the time. I think this is just storing some of it for later. I wouldn’t touch it with unicorn magic, but this could really change things!”

“Actually, I think you’ll find you’re keeping things exactly as they were.” Rarity said clearly from beside Twilight. “Twilight, Rainbow said you wanted to speak to me. Shall we?”

Rarity walked out towards the door of the barn and Twilight looked around the group for a second, but nopony seemed quite able to meet her gaze. She was about to leave when Applejack pulled something out of her saddlebags and handed it over- a small wooden case with a simple latch.

“Here’s the cloud seed, hon. Keep your head up. And, uh, Rarity’s got a mean left, so stay on her right side.”

“Thanks,” Twilight said quietly, and left the barn. Rarity was waiting outside, a study in tension.

“Hi Rarity,” Twilight started. “I’m glad you agreed to talk to me.”

“Don’t thank me for that,” Rarity snapped, before turning to glare at Twilight. “Dashie has practically demanded that I try and patch things up with you and I can’t say no to her. But I doubt that we can be- I’m getting ahead of myself. I owe you one apology.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Was Rarity planning to apologise for talking Big Mac into breaking up with her?

“I was wrong about you. I thought you’d come to your senses when I convinced Pinkie and Rainbow not to bother you any more. I thought you’d miss us. I read you badly. I’m sorry for that. I’m not sorry for anything else.”

“I don’t care that you’re not sorry! You’ve probably done the right thing most of the time. If I was well. But I wasn’t well, and you couldn’t have known. Apology accepted. I’ve got some apologies of my own to make-“ Twilight dropped the wooden case as Rarity leant in to shout at her.

“Yes! You should be in there making them right now! I mean, you’ve showed up to his party but I don’t see how that fixes anything. He needs to learn he can trust you and I need you to be trustable. Fluttershy explained that you’ve been sick and I don’t care. It doesn’t mean you’ve neglected him any less and it doesn’t mean that you were in the right. You hurt ponies, Twilight, and what happens at the first social occassion I see you at in years? You’re planning an experiment!” Rarity had a full head of steam now, advancing on Twilight and shouting at her, and Twilight could see that whatever Rarity had planned to say was coming uncoiled under the force of her anger.

“You’re exactly like you used to be! Everypony seems fine with it! I had to listen to Rainbow talking about getting you out of your shell for a Celestia-damned year! She barely talked about anything or anypony else- I don’t think she even knew who she was living with half the time! She was obsessed with some negligent shut-in who cared more about her books than about her son, who, by the way, is a kinder and more generous soul than I have ever seen you be, and-“

“Enough.” Rainbow’s voice was small, almost broken against Rarity’s tirade, but it stopped her in full flow. Rarity turned to see Rainbow with tears in her eyes, trying to set her face into a scowl.

“Dashie, I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” Rarity said, her chest still heaving with the force of her shouting. “I meant for-“

Rainbow moved closer and stopped her with a kiss, still crying as she pulled away.

“I love you, you idiot. You. You’re being cruel and you’re being jealous again and I still love you. Twilight wanted to apologise to you. Let her.”

Rarity opened her mouth and then closed it again, thinking better of speaking, and Twilight stood up straight and retrieved the case from where she’d dropped it.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry I’ve not been around. And to say thank you for stopping Rainbow and Pinkie and Big Mac from getting even more hurt. And for looking after Spike- I don’t know how he would have coped without you- and for helping out with the farm and everything.” Twilight could feel herself stumbling over her words, and put the case down carefully on the floor. She used her magic to pop the latch and opened the case to reveal a tiny white cloud, tethered to a blue sapphire and floating gently in the breeze. Rainbow gasped, and Rarity just raised an eyebrow.

“This is a thank you. So you know I mean it.” Twilight said, and Rainbow’s eyes were wide. Rarity looked to her for explanation, and during an excited barrel roll Rainbow explained what it was.

“It’s a cloud seed, Rarity!” Rainbow rolled her eyes as her marefriend blinked in confusion, and elaborated.

“A cloud seed is a shapable semisolid cloud structure that can grow in response to pegasus magic, so...” Rainbow trailed off in the face of matching, faintly disbelieving stares from Rarity and Twilight.

“What, you didn’t think I could talk the talk? Look, Rarity, here’s the bottom line- it’s a house. It’s a new house for me.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at Twilight.

“You made her a house?”

“Actually,” said Twilight, allowing a smile at her good work, “I’ve made you both a house. The sapphire it’s tethered to will keep it anchored to the boutique through any storm, and it’s got a spellshape in it. Rarity, if you touch the sapphire with your horn it should teach you how to perform the walk-on-clouds spell, so you can go there too. I know you’ve both felt a little cramped in the boutique and Rainbow misses her old house, so-“

“This is the best present ever!” Rainbow shouted, squeezing Twilight tight in her forelegs and wings before realising something.

“Oh!” she shouted, letting Twilight go and spinning to face Rarity. “This means we can actually move in together!”

“Dashie, we’ve been living together for quite some time now, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“No we haven’t! I’ve been living with you in your house, and it’s been great, babe, but now we can live in a house we both own! This is perfect!” Rainbow kissed Rarity hard for a moment before flying back towards the barn.

“I gotta tell AJ!” she shouted over her shoulder, leaving Twilight and Rarity standing in awkward silence.

“So is the cloud seed okay?” Twilight asked sheepishly. “I mean, is it alright that I went ahead and made it for you and Rainbow? I didn’t want to overstep.”

Rarity stayed silent for slightly too long.

“Twilight, it is a very thoughtful present. Thank you.”

The silence crept back in, and Twilight couldn’t quite bring herself to look up at Rarity. The white unicorn sighed theatrically and spoke again, but Twilight could tell it cost her.

“I have a standing sauna appointment at the spa on Monday afternoons. If you’d like to join me, you can consider this an open invitation.” Rarity smiled, half at herself, as she spoke.

“I’d like that,” Twilight said, beaming. “We should get back in the barn, though. I have so many ponies I have to say hello to, and I don’t want Spike to think I’ve wandered off!”

“Quite,” said Rarity as they walked back inside. On Twilight’s flank, the final grey star didn’t seem to change at all.

Back in the barn, Spike had finished opening his presents and the party was in full swing. Rarity seemed to melt into the crowd the moment they entered the barn, and Twilight thought about trying to follow her for a second before deciding it was more important to pin Scootaloo down- they had things to discuss. Twilight decided to aim for the statue at the front and see if she could find Spike on the way, but as she got closer she started to regret it- the two young mares in front of it were clearly having a fairly urgent conversation, their voices low.

“Ah don’t see how it changes anything! It ain’t happened yet and until it does-“

“Oh come on! I mean, look at this thing! It’s gorgeous, Applebloom. There’s no way they’ll keep you off an art course, and that means you move to Canterlot, and that means we can actually see each other!”

“Sweetie, Ah know you’re excited, and you know- there’s nothin’ more Ah want in the world than to be close to you, but this is Spike’s day and Ah don’t want to be dredging things up- can’t we just keep doin’ what we’ve been doin’? For now, Ah mean?”

“There’s always a reason, isn’t there?” Sweetie Belle looked on the verge of tears, and Applebloom moved closer to her before speaking very softly.

“In the past they ain’t always been good ones. When we got started it was our little secret, right? Letters all flyin’ back and forth, almost never seein’ each other? It was more romantic t’keep it secret. Ah guess recently Ah just been running scared, though. This still scares me sometimes, because Ah- Ah mean, it’s you, and you’re so- look, just today. We can tell ‘em all tomorrow, okay? Ah promise.”

“You mean it?” Sweetie Belle asked, her eyes bright.

“Ah do,” said Applebloom softly, and leaned in towards Sweetie Belle. At the last second, she glanced left and right, and saw Twilight awkwardly pretending she wasn’t there.

Applebloom practically jumped backwards from a momentarily disappointed Sweetie Belle and tried to put on her best nonchalant face.

“Twilight, there you are! Were you looking for Sweetie Belle as well?” she said loudly, as Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

“Actually, I was looking for-“

“Well, we’ve found her now! Ah guess we can ask her together!” Applebloom shouted with a big fake grin. “Sweetie Belle, we thought now would be a good time for you to give Spike your present!”

“We did?” Twilight asked, amused.

“Well of course we did! Ah mean why else would we be trackin’ her down, there ain’t no other reason, Twilight, you’re so funny! Ain’t she hilarious, Sweetie?”

“Yeah, she’s a laugh riot.” Sweetie Belle deadpanned, and took a couple of deep breaths before concentrating for a moment. Her horn glowed and Twilight could see Sweetie’s magic condense around her throat for a moment before disappearing- the next time the young unicorn spoke, her voice had been amplified to fill the barn and silence any ongoing conversation. Her voice was clear and silky, and Twilight could see a faintly dreamy expression slide over Applebloom’s face.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, it’s time for me to give Spike my present!” In the background, Pinkie turned off the music and gave Sweetie a smile, as a wave of ponies in the barn parted to let Spike and Scootaloo to the front of the crowd. Sweetie took another deep breath, and in her enormous voice began to sing.

“Happy BirthdaPRINCESS LUNA!” Sweetie Belle’s exclamation came out terrifically loud, and the entire crowd turned to the doors of the barn, where Princess Luna was trying to sneak in un-noticed.

“Um,” she said with a nervous little wave. “Continue with your song, Sweetie Belle. I will extend my congratulations to Spike afterwards.” The crowd was about to settle again and Sweetie had taken another deep breath when Pinkie finally unfroze.

“Luna! You actually came!” Pinkie’s voice was louder than either Sweetie’s or Luna’s. The pink pony bounced across the room at colossal speed, throwing her forelegs around Luna’s leg and kissing her hard before breaking away and bouncing in a little circle.

“You’re not mad at me any more?” Pinkie asked, looking a little worried. “I’m sorry I couldn’t marry you.” A murmur ran through the crowd at this news

“You thought I was still angry with you?” Luna asked, her eyes flickering to the crowd occasionally. “I was staggeringly cruel to you when you rejected my proposal, Pinkie. I had assumed that in my foolishness I had destroyed any chance of continuing our relationship. I came to apologise for my behaviour.” Luna bowed low as the crowd gasped, and she only raised her head when Pinkie giggled.

“You were kind of a meanypants, but I understood why. I mean, it isn’t much fun to have someone say no when you offer them a gift, even when it’s for good reasons. I thought I’d see if you’d forgiven me for it by giving you an invitation, and look! Here you are! You do forgive me, right? That’s why you’re here?”

“Well- well, yes, but I don’t think you have anything to apologise for and I was actually trying to apologise myself-“

“Well then you’re forgiven too! Come on, let’s go on a walk and talk it over and then we can make out. Sweetie Belle!”

“Y-yes?” Sweetie Belle’s artificially loud voice came from the back of the barn.

“Hit it! Luna and I are goin’ for a walk!” Pinkie bounded off in the general direction of the south fields, and after standing in the crowd’s collective gaze for a couple of seconds, Luna rubbed her forelegs together, cleared her throat and ran off after her.

Everypony stayed silent for a few seconds, and then Sweetie Belle started to sing. The silence became deliberate; the song was a simple birthday tune, but her voice was genuinely astonishing, warm and smooth and powerful. Twilight caught a glimpse of Applebloom’s expression as she watched Sweetie Belle singing, and permitted herself a small smile- if Applejack and Rarity caught sight of that then she and Sweetie Belle would have a lot less explaining to do than they thought.

As Sweetie Belle finished and hooves began to hit the ground in thunderous applause, Twilight pushed her way to the front of the crowd to pin down Spike and Scootaloo. She got there just after Spike had finished thanking Sweetie Belle for her performance, and managed to hustle the two of them away from the bulk of the crowd.

“Twilight?” Spike asked. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing bad! I’ve got another present for you. Well, for Scootaloo really, but it involves you too, if she wants it, I mean. Now, both of you, I’m going to ask you to let me get through this whole thing before answering, okay?”

“Okay,” Scootaloo replied, as Spike nodded his assent.

“Well, I do- I mean I did- two jobs at the library. I was the librarian there and now Spike is, right? But the librarian job doesn’t actually mean you live in the library. It just means you work there. The other job is maintenance, keeping the place clean and working. It’s not much work, maybe an hour a day, and the pay is low, but the big upside is you get to live there rent free.” Twilight took a breath to continue and held up a hoof to prevent Scootaloo from interrupting.

“Spike, I know that you spend a lot of time up here at the farm. I’ve discussed it with Applejack, and you can move into Big Macintosh’s old room if you’d like to live here. I know the Apples would all love it. Scootaloo, if you want it, I’m offering you the position of library maintenance. All my stuff is packed up and you can move in when you like- I know you’re lodging with Lyra and Bon Bon at the moment, but rent can really put a dent in the money you make and I’d like you to think it over.”

Scootaloo and Spike looked at each other, her eyes wide and his narrowed. Scootaloo turned back to Twilight, smiling despite her efforts to keep a straight face.

“Are you kidding me? You’re giving me a bucking home rent free! Yes. From me. If Spike wants to move out, otherwise I think he should get it.”

“I don’t know,” Spike admitted to the pair of ponies in front of him.

“Twilight, this is generous of you but where will you live? I’d love to live at the farm. It’d be great to get Scootaloo out of that little box room and I know she could do the job. But where will you live?”

“Well,” Twilight admitted, “I’m not certain yet. But I have a lot of options! I mean, there would be a room at Lyra and Bon Bon’s I could pick up until I work out something more permanent.” Twilight thought, for a moment, of the half-lived-in main bedroom here at the farm, before trying to kick it out of her mind.

“That won’t be necessary,” interrupted Rarity from behind Twilight, and she almost jumped.

“You have got to stop sneaking up on me,” she muttered before seeing that Rarity’s eyes were shining with tears.

“You can live with Dashie and I. We’re getting an extension,” she said with a smile, “so we’ll have the space. This is a wonderful thing you’re doing for Scootaloo, Twilight. I won’t see you without a home.”

Rarity blinked her tears away and smiled at Twilight, honestly, for the first time in years. Twilight didn’t feel the final star in her cutie mark brighten, but she did feel something warm creeping up through her hooves and bones, a sort of centred contentness that she hadn’t felt in years.

“Come on, we have to tell Dashie, Twilight. Assuming of course that Spike is happy with your plan?”

“I’m- yes? Everything’s sort of happening at once. Twilight, are you happy with all this?”

Twilight looked up at Spike with tears running freely down her face, and kissed his cheek.

“I haven’t felt this happy in years. You should attend to your guests, Spike.”

“Wait, so I definitely get to live in the library?” Scootaloo interrupted, practically vibrating with excitement.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Absolutely!” Twilight answered, and the young pegasus whooped with delight before dragging Spike off, shouting to Dinky to come and hear their news.

Twilight lost track of the evening after that. She and Rarity tracked down Rainbow, who seemed almost exhaustedly relieved that Twilight and Rarity had started to patch things up; she talked with the Smiths about Fillydelphia and found that Ditzy was blushingly pregnant again, and that Dinky was following her mother’s hoofbeats into organised sports; once Pinkie and Luna finally wandered back in she and Luna spoke at length about the magical nature of cutie marks, and Twilight actually lost herself a little in the conversation. There seemed to be a hundred and one ponies that Twilight talked to, but she didn’t have the time- or the courage, yet, she admitted to herself- to talk to the one particular pony, even though she kept spotting his head above the crowd and hearing his sure, deep drawl in quiet conversation with his friends.

---------------

“Naw, Twilight, that’d never work. Ah need the west fields planted the very same day we wrap up winter or we don’t get our crops in time,” Applejack explained, taking a pull of cider as the darkness started to set in. Most of the guests had left, leaving only a few of the more dedicated partygoers and Spike’s closer friends behind.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong, if you assume that it’ll take the same amount of time for the crops to come good. But this soil treatment shouldn’t just increase yield- it should mean you can harvest a full week early. I really think it’s worth putting off planting for three days to get all those extra nutrients back in the soil with the new treatment,” Twilight explained. “Think it over, yeah?”

“Ah would, Twi, but y’gotta admit this is something pretty experimental. Ah mean, what if it-“ Applejack trailed off midsentence, looking over Twilight’s shoulder, and sighed deeply. “Ah mean, this sounds interesting but Ah should go look it over in the study, crunch some numbers. Catch you later, Twi.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion before turning round to see Big Macintosh standing there, solid as ever, smiling quietly at her.

“Everypony’s been telling me you wanted t’have a conversation,” he said gently, and Twilight just nodded before blurting out a garbled bundle of sentences that had nothing to do with the conversation openers she’d been carefully crafting all evening in the back of her mind.

“Would you like to take a walk?” she almost shouted, before wincing and correcting herself. “With me, I mean! We should go for a walk together. I like walking. With you.”

Blushing furiously, Twilight turned and started off slightly too fast. She had a definite destination in mind, and was relieved to hear Big Mac’s heavy hoofbeats behind her as the big stallion caught up. They slowed their pace, and as they got closer and closer to the lake, Twilight could feel herself relaxing more and more, Big Mac’s presence seeming to unknot her stomach and calm her mind. Just like it used to. As they reached the big pond, Twilight thought she could feel the faintest amount of trepidation from Big Mac, but it might have just been her own worries feeding back on themselves.

She sat by the lake edge, and Big Mac sat wordlessly beside her, close enough that they could feel each other next to them. Twilight longed to lean in, against him, to feel that big bass heartbeat again, but instead she took a deep breath and looked away from him, almost speaking to the stars as much as anything else.

“You brought me here a long time ago,” she said, and her voice was lost in the susurrus of the wind in the trees. She started again, stronger this time.

“You brought me here once to ask me a question, Macintosh,” she said, and felt him shift slightly beside her. Was that surprise? Panic? Joy? “You asked- you asked me if I’d marry you, and I said I needed time to think it over. I’ve had a lot of time, Mac.”

“Twilight-“ Big Mac started, a note of worry in his voice, but Twilight cut him off.

“Macintosh, I was so wrong not to answer. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I said no, didn’t I? Not out loud, like you deserved, but I said no by not saying anything for too long. I don’t want to pick up where we left off, Macintosh. You’ve changed, I’m sure you have even if I don’t know how yet and I know I’ve changed too. I wish- I wish I’d said no.” She said out loud, almost shouting it, starting to feel tears prick at her eyes and choke her voice.

“I wish I’d said no because I want to ask you to start over. But I can’t ask you that because I didn’t even end it properly with you. I’ve done it all wrong,” she said, leaning into him, pressing her head up against him. The smell of him- the familiar smell of hard work, soap and apples- broke through her, and she started to sob.

After a few moments, Big Mac put a foreleg around her, pulling her closer in as he spoke.

“Ah’d like to start over,” he said quietly, and Twilight could feel his voice through his chest as much as hear it. “Ah know we messed it up. You got far away, and Ah let you. So let’s do this over. A good clean break.”

He took a deep breath, and pulled away from Twilight for a second so that she could see him, almost smiling.

“Twilight, will y’marry me?” he asked quietly.

“No,” Twilight whispered, hating the answer and desperately hopeful for what could follow if she’d read him right.

“Alright,” said Big Mac with a hint of regret, before smiling broadly. “Then do y’want to come round for a picnic on Thursday? Just you and me.”

“Yes!” Twilight shouted, grabbing Big Mac with her forelegs and saying it over and over, punctuating it with kisses. After a minute or two, they slumped down against each other, both emotionally exhausted.

“It’s been a long day, huh?” Big Mac asked her, the two of them staring at the reflection of the stars in the still pond.

“It’s been a long time,” Twilight said, pushing herself against him harder, and there was something final about it. Big Mac kissed her on top of her head, and Twilight sighed contentedly, letting the noise of the night and the solid presence of the stallion she loved lull her into sleep.

END

--------------------

EPILOGUE

At three in the morning, the diamond lay nestled in the roots of the apple tree where it had finally fallen off Pinkie’s hoof as she and Luna had walked through the grounds. A moment ago, it had had a faintly pink sheen, but now that light started to become brighter, pulsing against the ground until it settled on a steady pink shine. The tree seemed to shake for a moment, and then with a sound like cracking bones started to grow at a colossal rate, higher and higher, apples growing from green nubs to full red fruits in fractions of a second. By the time the diamond stopped shining, the tree was a full forty feet tall, laden with enormous, juicy apples.

Back in Ponyville, the slight tremor of the ground as the tree grew was only enough to wake the lightest of sleepers, and in this case he wasn’t even asleep. Spike had been lying in the starlight in the library bed next to Scootaloo, watching her breathe with a faint smile on his face. She snored quietly, he’d been pleased to find out- whenever Twilight had been away on university business he’d always found it hard to relax without the noise of somepony else in the house. Tucking part of Scootaloo’s mane over her ear and away from her eyes, he scratched at his shoulders as he wandered downstairs for a drink, feeling faintly odd. This wasn’t home any more, he thought to himself- but it felt like home again. The farm felt like home too, and so did the company of his friends.

Scratching again at his aching shoulders, Spike couldn’t see that he was scraping the scales away from a compressed wingtip. He filled a glass of water and drank it, then lit a candle to read a book, and felt more free than he ever had before.