> Across the Boundary
>  by Forthwith
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Sailor Moon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Batten down the hatches! Furl the mainsail! I want you scallywags pulling double time! We all want ta live ta see another day!”

The crew chorused back, “Yes, Captain Luna.”

The small, blue filly alicorn barking orders was wearing a tricorn hat with three necklaces dangling from her neck. Despite the crash of the waves and the rage of the lightning storm, she made herself heard loud and clear across the ship.

“What was that, you filthy sea dogs?”

A general murmur of conversation passed through the crew on deck before they corrected, “Aye, Aye, Cap’n Luna!”

“That’s more like it! First Mate Tia, I need you!”

“Yes, Cap’n?” reported Celestia, a much larger alicorn than her little sister with a lovely pink mane and tail.

Being nearly a half hoof taller than everypony else, she managed to wear two necklaces without making it look as completely ridiculous as her sister did with three. Upon her brow was a golden tiara with a red sun gem on the peak.

Celestia was trying very hard not to trip and fall under the heaving of the boat as she approached her sister at the helm.

“I’ve lost the stars ta the fury of the trice scorned lady above! I need ya ta chart a course through clear waters as I steer!”

The boat flew off of a particularly large wave and sent Celestia flying while Luna clung to the wheel.

“Tia! No!” Luna screamed as Celestia fell overboard into the ocean, her splash being drowned out by fury of the storm. “Mare overboard! Throw her a line! On the double, you bilge rats!”

Celestia saw nearly a dozen ropes thrown overboard in her general direction. Grabbing hold of one, the crew pulled her back onto the ship while she used her waterlogged wings to help as much as they could.

With a few coughs, Celestia thanked her shipmates for helping her out of the ocean.

“First Mate, are you fit ta stand before the mast?”

“Yes, Cap’n! Ready ta resume my post!”

“Then get yer flank up in the crow’s nest before we hit a reef, ya fool!”

“Right away, Cap’n!”

Climbing the rigging awkwardly up to the very top of the main mast, Celestia hopped over the railing of the lookout and peered into the torrents a whole hundred hooves.

“It’s no good, Cap’n! The storm’s too strong! I can’t see a thing!”

Luna scowled as she screamed, “By the powers! This be the worst storm I’ve ever heard tell of! All hooves, brace yerselves! I’m turning the ship hard ta starboard ta bring ourselves against the gales!”

The boat lurched under the sudden change of direction with the aid of a wave crashing over the top of the ship and spinning the backside. Soon the ship calmed to a bucking stallion from the frenzied draconequus it had been but the deck remained as flooded as it had before.

“We’ve taken on too much water!” shouted Luna. “I want to see buckets moving before your maggoty sires were born!”

“Cap’n Luna!” Celestia yelled in panic. “It looks like we’re headin straight inta the worst part of the storm! We’ll never make it!”

“Then we’ll die at sea like proper sea dogs! Storm, I challenge ye! Give us yer worst and we’ll return it a hundred times over!”

On cue, a burst of lightning ripped a massive hole through the vessel, causing it to rapidly flood. Within moments, dozens of ponies fled from the hold below onto deck.

One of them cried out in distress, “The hull’s breached Cap’n! We have ta abandon ship. It’s our only hope!”

“I’ll be the one ta tell ya when there’s no hope!” Luna reprimanded. After a dramatic pause, she shouted, “Say yer prayers and abandon ship! May the ocean have mercy on yer souls!”

Celestia scurried down the rigging to join her sister who was standing stock still at the helm, watching the crew board the lifeboat and ensuring that nopony was left behind.

“Cap’n, we need leave! The ship won’t last much longer!”

“No,” Luna said while caressing the lower section of the wheel. “The captain always goes down with her ship.” Luna turned towards her sister, eyes overflowing with determination. “Now, go! That’s an order!”

Celestia scooped up her little sister in a tight embrace. Despite her squirming, Luna was unable to break free until Celestia let go.

“I’ll never forget you, Cap’n.”

Leaving her sister and captain, Celestia rushed down to the deck and jumped on board the lifeboat, not looking back once lest she ruin everything. Joining the rest of the crew in their labors, they lowered the boat down into the rough waters with a complicated system of ropes and pulleys.

Once they reached the water, the crew cut themselves free from the main ship and rowed away from the sinking ship.

In minutes, the last of the ship slipped below the waters and Celestia sent up a magical signal flare. The storm abated and the seas calmed. Everypony on the rowboat remained soaked, but at least the biting wind and bone-chilling waves had ceased as the moon and stars returned to the sky.

Addressing the assembled ponies, Celestia said, “Thank you all for humoring my dear sister.”

“Anything for you, Queen Celestia.”

“It was fun, my queen, in its own way.”

“Perhaps a bit too over the top.”

“How many times must I say this?” Celestia asked pointedly. “Don’t call me a queen. I have no wish to be anything like that vile Discord. If you must insist on foisting titles upon me, go with princess at most.”

“Of course, qu–princess. But will your sister really be alright?”

“As long as she isn’t silly enough to go down too far. She doesn’t really need to breathe, but she can still suffer from…uh…what did she call it? The narrows?”

“I think it was the bends, Your Highness.”

Celestia scowled inwardly at the title but said nothing. “Right. From the books she’s been reading from the pre-Discordian era, it’s supposed to be rather painful. She would be rather too distracted to use her magic and it paralyzes a pony which would prevent her from swimming.”

“Is that where she got the idea for that wooden monster?”

“Yeah. She called it a boat. Or a ship. I don’t really know what the difference is, if there is one.”

“Do you know how it manged to float in the water without telekinesis? I mean, I’ve seen sticks and stuff float in creeks, but that thing must have weighed tons.”

“No idea. Luna babbled on about some sort of buoyant force for a little bit, but none of it made any sense. The first three she conjured sank right to the bottom of the bay, but the fourth one stayed up.”

Sighing, Celestia continued, “It’s all she’s been doing lately. Reading that is. Her most recent binge has been these boats and star-based navigation. And something about…pirates? That sounds right. I think we were reenacting some story or something.”

“Is that why she made us speak with those weird accents?”

“Yep,” confirmed Celestia, “but I think she was the only one that really got it right.”

With a splash, Luna surfaced next to the boat.

“Welcome back, captain,” Celestia said, levitating Luna into the boat with her.

“That was so much fun, Tia! Can we do it again sometime?”

“Maybe if you ask your ‘crew’ nicely enough and don’t forget to thank them.”

“Oh, right.” Turning to her crew, Luna said, “Good work, everypony. You’ve all proven yourself capable hooves before the mast.”

Bumping Luna on her head, Celestia said, “That’s not a thank you, Luna.”

“Ow,” Luna moaned and then quietly said, “Thanks.”

“They didn’t hear you,” chided Celestia.

Melting under her sister’s glare, Luna lifted the restraints on her voice. “Thanks.”

“Better,” Celestia said, “but you could be a bit more verbose in the future.”

Once she had finished, the other ponies gave their responses.

“It was no problem, little princess.”

“You can ask me again anytime. I really enjoyed it.”

“Anything for a cute little filly like you.”

“We’ll never let our captain down.”

Gently petting Luna’s head, Celestia said, “Now that that’s all settled, I’ll teleport us home.”

With a flash of her horn, all of the ponies disappeared in an explosion of light with an accompanying crack of the vacuum left behind filling itself back up with air.
> Magic Kindergarten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m sorry to call you both in on such short notice,” Prose Myth, Twilight’s magic kindergarten teacher, said, “but I wanted to talk about Twilight’s social behavior.”

Night Light tried not to show his sudden drop in interest towards the situation. As far as he could tell, Velvet was similarly trying to pretend she was still hanging on Prose Myth’s every word.

Prose Myth was a fine teacher, but she completely misunderstood why Twilight was even at magic kindergarten. They treated the public school system more or less as a daycare for Twilight who would be busy teaching herself while the other students learned to read or to use basic telekinesis.

Honestly, Night Light felt they could probably leave Twilight home alone, but the idea did not sit well with him. He was especially concerned about lunch: Twilight always had to be reminded to stop reading and eat on weekends.

“You see, she doesn’t seem to be making friends, or really paying attention at all. I even caught her sleeping in class a few days ago.”

Night Light did his best not to sigh. “Yes, we are aware of her” – Night Light glanced at Velvet to make sure she was not giving her the look every time he brought this up – “problems.”

“Please do not take this the wrong way, but I am worried that she may autistic.”

This time Night Light did sigh. This conversation had played out many times before, and he was not really interested in having it anymore. Besides, Velvet was much better at making a point.

“We can assure you she is not,” Velvet said as if she were describing a patient and not her daughter. Prose Myth was clearly stunned as Velvet continued. “She does seemingly share many symptoms of the condition, but they stem from a different source. I suspect the school still has records of her brother, Shining Armor, who was a similar case. You may wish to review them as you develop an approach to manage Twilight.

“Now, was that all you wished to address?”

Prose Myth slowly came to her senses and nodded. Departing with appropriate goodbyes, Twilight’s parents left the office.

Night Light enjoyed a small chuckle at Prose Myth’s expense as he reflected on her reaction.

“Good work in there, Psychologist Velvet.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “Psychologists are just philosophers with fancier chairs and cigars instead of pipes. And I think you meant psychiatrist.”

“Hmm… Maybe. You’re not going to start smoking are you?”

Laughing, Velvet rolled her eyes again. “No, of course not.”





“My apologies to call you in again” – Night Light told her not to worry and apologized for Velvet’s absence – “but your daughter isn’t even pretending to pay attention anymore. She just ignores everypony and doodles all day.

“I’m still really concerned about her and I did check on her brother, but he was nowhere near as extreme as Twilight. It’s also attracting the wrong kind of attention from her classmates.”

“Do you happen to have the drawings?” Night Light asked. “I’m sure she’ll want them back. I kind of want to see them too.”

Prose Myth opened up her desk drawer and started pulling out various toys and knickknacks that had been confiscated from other foals. After her desk had become a foal’s dream, she pulled out a sizable stack of papers and pushed everything else to the side.

Night Light took the stack and shuffled through a few of them taking a close look.

“Miss Myth, may I ask how good you are at evocation spells?”

She turned away blushing, and quietly said, “Not as good as I would like… Why do you ask?”

Setting the papers down, Night Light pointed to a particular image with his hoof.

“This is a spell fragment from the standard fireball spell.”

“What!” Prose Myth shouted, taking the paper out from under Night Light’s hoof.

“If you look carefully, you’ll see the other ones around it are modifications. That’s the only one I can recognize out of the stack, but the rest are probably for other spells. It seems I’ll have to have the ‘research safety’ talk with her sooner than I thought.”

Prose Myth looked up from Twilight’s supposed doodles, desperately trying to put words together. “But– I don’t– How– I– She’s six.”

“Yeah…” Night Light rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of someway to not sound rude. “We didn’t mention this before, because neither of us can find a way to put it that’s not…incredibly insulting…but honestly we’re using this school as a daycare to supervise her and to make sure she eats.”

“…I see…”

“So if you could ease up on her, that would be great. We’re planning on enrolling her in Princess Celestia’s school once she’s old enough. Until then, well, she doesn’t have any academic peers her age so it doesn’t really matter where she is so long as she has the freedom needed to teach herself.”

“But what about making friends and learning social skills? Those are important parts of education for young fillies.”

“My wife and my son both agree that if she’s not interested we can not and should not force her.”

Not willing to lose that opening, Prose Myth asked, “And what about your opinion?”

“Definitely worried, but she’s normal enough around the family and her foalsitter. And she’s happy. That’s the most important part.”

Prose Myth sighed, giving up. “Very well. I’ll give Twilight room to continue her own education and hopefully I’ll be able to manage the other foals’s attitude towards her.”





“Oh, Celestia help me,” Prose Myth said. She was sitting on her office couch with Twilight Velvet next to her giving emotional support.

“Whatever happened, it’ll be okay. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“I messed up. This is all my fault.”

Sigh. Everyday I feel more like a psychologist. Why does everypony come to me with their problems?

“Your husband told you about our last meeting, right?”

Nodding, Velvet asked, “Did you take the reverse approach too far?”

“Yes.”

Prose Myth seemed close to losing it and Velvet did not want to deal with that, but she couldn’t think of anything to say to avoid it.

“It sort of worked at first. Twilight was free to do whatever, and the other foals mostly ignored her. I tried to fix that as best I could, b–but it never worked out.

“Then they started actually bullying her. I never managed to catch them, but it was minor stuff until today. Now Hearts’s parents are calling for…” Prose Myth nearly bit her lip to shreds before continuing. “They’re calling for blood. The principal isn’t listening to anypony. She’s just trying to keep this quiet.”

Getting impatient, Velvet demanded, “Please just tell me what happened.”

Gasping and taking a few breaths, Prose Myth calmed down from Velvet’s small outburst.

“Twilight injured a student in self-defense.”

“Really? How injured?”

“Enough that it doesn’t look like self-defense. Quick Hearts had a few legs broken in the fall and was burned severely before then. Of course, we started healing them right away, but it will still take a few days.

“The real problem, aside from the psychological trauma, is the minor brain damage. Nothing too serious, but not healable with magic.”

That was bad. It was hard to believe that happened in self-defense. With some more prodding, the story continued.

“A week ago, Twilight told me she was going to start casting defensive spells on herself that would trigger if anything got too out-of-hoof. I almost told her not to, but I had to admit that she might need them so I said nothing. Of course, now it’s obvious that she did.

“A group of foals ambushed her while I was away and started a scuffle. From what she said, she made short and gentle work of most of them, but some of the older students joined in.

“Age counts for a lot in terms of magic when ponies are that young, so they could at least compete with her. A few got solid hits in and eventually her defenses started triggering and– Well, you can see the results. Quick Hearts was hit the worst.”

Good work, Twilight, Velvet thought, but said, “So she’s going to be expelled then?”

“Almost certainly. I’m so sorry. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“It’s alright. She’ll probably enjoy being at home instead anyway. We can manage homeschooling until she’s eight.”
> Merry Solstice?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight fidgeted underneath Princess Celestia’s huge wing. It would have been just as comfortable as it had been every other night for the past two seasons, but with the winter solstice coming up soon, a question that Twilight just had to have answered had kept her awake.

“Princess Celestia? Are you awake?”

“Hmm?” was all the princess said, quite obviously on the verge of sleep.

“Can I ask you a– a personal question?”

“Can it wait until morning?”

“Well…”

Crossing a yawn with a sigh, Princess Celestia roused herself, shaping the cloud underneath her so that she did not have to use her muscles to sit up. She snacked her lips no less than three times and fell into another yawn.

Finishing, Princess Celestia said, “No, of course it can not.” Yawning one last time, she continued, “I suppose you wish to fall asleep at some point tonight. So, what is on your mind?”

“It’s just, Hearth’s Warming is in two days–”

“I am not telling you what presents I got you or what your family got you.”

Twilight shook her head. “That’s not at all what I wanted to ask.”

“Oh?”

“I was just wondering, why?”

“Well, the tradition goes all the way back to just after I defeated Discord. The story of Hearth’s Warming managed to survive through Discord’s reign, and everypony felt it was appropriate to make a holiday of it.”

Impatient, Twilight said, “No, that wasn’t what I meant. Hearth’s Warming is held on the solstice. But it seems so arbitrary. Couldn’t you make the solstice whenever you want?”

“…I suppose–”

“And why do we even have a solstice at all?”

“When I–”

“Because you move the sun around all on your own so it seems kind of inefficient and annoying to have to get the wobbling of the sun just right.”

“Actually–”

“And I kind of get why we have seasons if we presume that things evolved to need seasons, but that’s putting the cause after the effect. And–”

“Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, her voice firm but patient.

“Oh, um… I guess I was rambling again. Sorry.”

“It is quite alright. That very spirit is what got you here after all.”

Twilight smiled and blushed, idly playing with the blankets on the bed with her hoof.

“Your question has a simple answer, but if you tell anypony else then I will deny having said it unconditionally.”

Even trying as hard as she could, Twilight could not avoid showing her spiking interest.

When Princess Celestia finished giggling, she said, “You see, the secret of the solstice is…”

Twilight leaned closer. “Is…”

Princess Celestia looked to her left and her right with huge, dramatic turns of her head. Then she leaned in closer to Twilight to whisper, “I am actually very bad at moving the sun.”

After sitting back upright and giggling some more at Twilight’s reaction, Princess Celestia continued, “There is a reason why I had to change the calender. Too many years that were a week – or more – too long. It only took a few centuries before I noticed that I could make weather management much easier by altering the amount of time the sun remained in the sky.

“From there, it was just trial and error. You see, I move the sun along two axises. The first is…in and out would be an acceptable way to phrase it. This axis is responsible for day and night. The second axis is up and down. The further up the sun is, the easier…”

Princess Celestia thought for a moment before continuing, “Quicker might actually be a more suitable word to use here. The quicker it is to bring into the sky

“Now, this is the embarrassing part. I have never been able to get the sun to stop moving up or down. I merely reverse the direction on the solstice. That is the only reason I ever discovered that having solstices is a good idea.

“So, in the end, your thoughts were exactly right. The date of the solstices are completely arbitrary. Even the length of the seasons was just a mix of finding what works and what is sane. Fortunately, one-hundred days per season is almost the perfect length, so the new calender is sane.

“Did that satisfy your curiosity enough to go to bed?” Princess Celestia asked, then quickly added, “After thinking about it for an hour on your own after I go to sleep.”

“Um…yeah.” Twilight said, briefly emerging from her thoughts to reply. “Thank you. And goodnight too. Again.”

Princess Celestia collapsed back onto her barrel. After fixing the changes she had made to the bed, she pulled Twilight close again with her wing.

After taking a deep, slow breath, Princess Celestia murmured, “Goodnight, my faithful student.”
> Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight blinked. Something was wrong.

“Are you okay, my faithful student?” asked Princess Celestia. “You seem a bit dizzy. Do you wish to lay down for a moment?”

“No, princess… Just– Just please give me a minute.”

Okay, I’m at our usual location for lessons. We are talking about how raising the sun and moon works.

Twilight looked around her ‘classroom’. Princess Celestia believed in hooves on learning and that meant lots of open space. The gardens were the best place in Canterlot if they wanted nice weather, but they had nothing on the badlands of the south.

Orange and brown rock stretched all the way to the Macintosh Hills which just barely stretched over the horizon. The occasional spire dotted the landscape and Twilight could see a dust storm pillaging the land of further debris as it traveled.

Seems normal enough.

Next, she turned her attention to herself. She was still a normal purple unicorn. She had no wounds, nothing was attached to her, and her light telekinetic shield was keeping her coat free of the dust clouds she and the princess had been kicking up all day.

Finally, Twilight started checking the enchantments she always placed on herself.

I really should have done this first, but it’s the princess. She wouldn’t–

Her alarm spell was not triggered. That was not what she used it for. Instead there was a spell signature subtly weaved into it that nopony, not even the princess, could duplicate without instruction.

And somepony had put their dirty horn all over it.

“Princess Celestia, has anypony else been here?” The fury she felt was seeping into her voice and gave her teacher a start.

“No.” That was the answer Twilight expected. “What is the matter?”

“How dare you!” The innocence with which the princess asked caused Twilight to snap. Her magic was instinctively burning up the surrounding area – both metaphorically and literally. Fire blazed from her mane and tail, her coat turned white, and her eyes became a glowing red with a lava like texture.

Princess Celestia took a step back and hesitantly stopped. She then cast a spell which halted the damage being done to the ambient magical field, although Twilight was still blazing.

“My mind is mine.” – Twilight’s voice reached the Royal Canterlot level – “That includes every single memory within it. Even as a princess – as a goddess – you have no right to touch it.”

Twilight did not know what she was waiting for; nothing really seemed appropriate. She did know that the last thing she wanted to hear was an apology.

“I’m sorry,” the princess whispered.

A pillar of fire erupted where Twilight stood. When it died out she was gone, leaving behind only sparkles from her teleport.





Hours later, Twilight lay above the top of Mizyl Rock, a gigantic, top-heavy spire that had no business standing high among the other rock formations of the badlands. The natural magic in the area produced enough upward lift to keep the spire buoyed with plenty to spare for a young unicorn to float around.

Twilight had been reduced to a smolder, emotionally and physically, after a few minutes. She was still mad, but she had no idea how to make things better.

Sunlight pooled in front of her and formed into the only shape sunlight ever forms into – though it was a bit burnt.

“What do you want, Celestia?” spat Twilight. She regretted it immediately, but her indignity and remaining fury would not let her own up to it.

If she was affronted at the lack of formal titles, Princess Celestia did not betray it. An unpleasant crunch echoed off the not too distant mountains as the princess sat down on her charred barrel and legs. Twilight winced at the sound, but her mentor’s neutral face did not so much as frown.

“I want to…fix…us. It pains me to admit it, but I have not had many friends. They are rather difficult to find when you rule a country. I would hate to lose another before…before it was time.”

The fire in Twilight’s mane and tail instantly went out and returned to a more ordinary light-gray smoky tone and texture. However, her coat remained white and her eyes only reverted to a solid red.

“You consider me a friend?” Hay, now I feel guilty. “I really don’t know what to say to that. Erasing memories is a serious breach of a friendship.”

“I know. I accidentally said too much and you discovered something I really, really do not want the world to know. It is a big change talking with a pony smarter than myself.”

“What? That doesn’t–”

“It is true. You lack the raw knowledge and experience, but you learn and create faster than I do. I imagine you will surpass me a little after your first century if you keep this up. That is to say nothing of the original discoveries that I am sure you will no doubt make as well as the ones you already have made.”

“Celestia, regular ponies don’t live that long. I would think you of all ponies would know that.”

“That’s not quite true.” The princess smirked as she continued, “Look up the little known polymorph spell sometime soon. It will keep a pony alive and young until their magic runs out. The average lifespan of the rather skewed data set I have is about two-hundred years.”

Twilight’s mouth hung open. “…I don’t understand. How is that not a standard medical spell?”

With a sigh, Princess Celestia said, “Three reasons primarily. The first is the spell itself is hard to cast.”

“So study harder. Medical magic is already hard.”

“Yes, but I meant it more in general as a qualification for the next two points.

“The second reason is it requires frequent touch-ups. There would be a serious supply and demand issue. Doctors would spend their time doing nothing but casting polymorph. A self-correcting version can be cast, but only the most talented unicorns are able to use it.

“The third reason is a practicality problem. It takes a lot of magic to sustain a polymorph. Having all of Equestria polymorphed would drain the ambient magic quickly and the world’s reserves of solidified magic would deplete even faster. Few ponies would be able to supply the power alone. Even fewer could power multiple instances.”

“I guess that makes sense. Logistics and all that. Good news for me either way, I suppose…”

“Well, moral dilemmas aside, I am glad you have calmed down,” Princess Celestia said, gently flapping her wings to get closer to Twilight.

Looking at her coat, Twilight found it had returned to its regular purple color. Presumably her eyes had reverted to purple as well.

“I suppose I am. That doesn’t mean I’m not still mad, as interesting a distraction as that was.”

“I know.” The princess gathered Twilight – who was not even a third her size – awkwardly into her wings for a hug.

“I might not be able to forgive you for this.”

“Nor should you. I can understand how strongly you feel about this.”

“I probably won’t be able to trust you again. At least, not like before.”

“…I realize that. The damage has been done.” Still hugging, the princess continued, “Twilight, should we go force the castle kitchen to make us a huge cake?”

Looking up, Twilight could see a huge smile on her mentor’s face.

Laughing, Twilight answered, “Yeah, some make up cake sounds good. Let’s go home, Celestia.”
> Cadance, Romance Writer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dusk Shine, newly crowned a princess after marrying Princess Sunny Skies, was just beginning to realize what her new status meant. She had recently told off some of her more persistent admirers who were hoping for some less than honorable favors, and actually had the guard drag them away to wherever it was that guards drag ponies.

Curiously, Dusk Shine rung a bell and a young earth pony maid entered her room.

“You rang, Your Highness?”

“Um…yes,” Dusk Shine said, realizing that she did not actually have a request, “I did.”

Even as the silence grew longer, the maid simply waited for her princess’s orders.

“Could– ah… Could I get a…a cookie?”

“Of course, Your Highness. I shall fetch one immediately. Do you have a particular flavor in mind?”

“Err… Something with chocolate?”

“Very well, Your Highness. Your will be done.”

The maid departed as quietly and gracefully as she had entered.

“Huh. …I wonder if…”

Dusk Shine grabbed a large bell in her magic and made to ring it, only to stop just short.

This is a bad, bad, terrible, awful idea…

With a blush and some guilt, Dusk Shine rang the bell anyway in small, shy movements. In an instant, a guard stepped inside.

“Your Highness, is something wrong?”

“No. Uh…I just need to t– Would you have my broth–your commander come here?”

The guard silently nodded and slipped back out the room, leaving Dusk Shine to her own devices. Working quickly, she opened her dresser drawer and fished around for a quad of long, stripped socks while she, at the same time, fumbled around in her vanity for a scrunchie.

Usually not paying any attention to her appearance, Dusk Shine tied her mane back clumsily into a tail knot which she had always been told she looked cute in; although, she never had figured out why anypony would think that. Then there were the socks. Princess Sunny Skies seemed to think that there was something unbearably attractive about them and she figured they would work just as well now.

A knock came at the door and Dusk Shine quickly hid underneath the blankets of her bed, chickening out at the last moment.

“…Enter.”

The maid from earlier entered the room bearing a small pile of double chocolate chip cookies on a silver plate.

“Oh,” Twi said with a breath of relief. “It’s just– I mean, thanks for your hard work. If you’d just set them on the table for now…”

Obeying quickly, the maid asked, “Do you require anything else?”

“No, that’s all. Thank you.”

Dusk Shine hid fully under her covers as she waited for the maid to leave. Only once she was sure the door was closed by checking with her magic, did she emerge. Feeling terrible about her cowardice, she got out of bed and floated the largest cookie she could find into her mouth.

Munching greedily on the sugary treat, she completely missed the door opening and her brother entering.

“Ehem,” Rock Shine cleared his throat. “If– If you’re waiting for your wife, Dusky, I should come back later.”

Dusk Shine bit clean through her cookie in surprise and it fell to the floor. If she had noticed him entering, she almost certainly would have hid herself again.

“W-why d-d-didn’t y-you k-k-knock?” she stammered.

“Um, sorry,” Rock Shine said, looking away with a huge blush on his face. “I didn’t think you’d be…indecent.”

Dusk Shine’s blush inflamed to a red brighter than the sun. Putting up no small number of privacy spells, she packed away her shame into a corner of her mind and tried to bring out the same seductive looks that Princess Sunny Skies always managed to elicit from her.

“A-As you know,” she began, “I’m a princess now. A proper one, unlike you, with all the authority that that comes with. Including o-over you. So, I order you not to say anything about what I’m going to do to anypony.”

Rock Shine looked back to his sister with a confused look which somehow managed to seem hopeful. It only fueled Dusk Shine’s courage. She crossed the room and kissed–





Inkwell sighed and riffled through the rest of the manuscript he had been reading. On a few occasions, he stopped to read a page or two in more detail but each time his frown grew more entrenched on his face. Finally, reading the last five pages, his frown was replaced by a mixture of disappointment and embarrassment.

“I’m sorry Princess Cadance, but I can’t read any more of this.”

“What!” Cadance exclaimed. “What could you possibly find wrong with it this time! I fixed all of the problems with my previous stories! This is a masterpiece!”

Inkwell sighed again. “No, you really haven’t. You just swept them under the rug. And there are more…problems than usual with this manuscript.”

“Like what?” Cadance was beginning to lose her patience with Inkwell as she always did when she brought in a romance novel to her editor.

Sighing, yet again, Inkwell answered, “I think you should just give up trying to write romances in your spare time. Just stick to high fantasy. You are fantastic at high fantasy. But romance…there’s really no other word for your proficiency in it but abysmal.”

Pouting, Cadance demanded, “Answer my question. What’s more wrong this time?”

Face on hoof for a fourth sigh – a new record for frequency between the two ponies – Inkwell said, “Do you really need me to spell it out?”

“Yes,” put Cadance in no unclear terms.

“…Very well. This will ruin your marriage. I sincerely hope you haven’t given a copy to Prince Shining or the young archmage. Really, it would be disastrous for you if anypony read it.”

“Why?”

“Do– Do you really not realize?” Cadance shook her head. “…Please do not freak out on me. This is obviously a fanfic of your life.”

“How so?”

“Dusk Shine? Twilight Sparkle. Rock Shine? Shining Armor. Princess Sunny Skies? Princess Celestia. Princess Rhythm? Princess Cadance. Besides the superficial details, the parallels I saw from just reading the first third of the story are all over the place. And look here” – Inkwell hoofed the manuscript open to page ninety-eight over to Cadance – “on the bottom of this page, in the last paragraph, you even made the mistake of writing Twi instead of Dusk Shine.”

Cadance blushed at her mistake. …Maybe he’s got a point…

“Look, what goes on behind closed doors in the royal family is none of my, or anypony else’s, business. I would bet that this is all fiction in the strictest sense, but not from your perspective. On one of the pages I saw, you messed up even more than on ninety-eight. It was something to the effect of ‘Cadance realized how much she loved Twi as they kissed, almost as much as her husband.’”

Inkwell held Cadance’s gaze until she looked away with an even bigger blush, biting her lip the whole time.

“I truly think you need to work through whatever feelings you’re bottling up. Maybe talk to your husband and Archmage Twilight. Maybe even Princess Celestia herself. I made sure to read the ending in detail. That was perhaps the most troubling part of the whole story. And one of the biggest problems with it as a narrative. Four-way marriages don’t work out in real life, even if you are the one making the laws.”

Leaning forward in her chair so that her head dropped down past Inkwell’s desktop, she heard him add, “At least, none that I’ve ever heard of. The royal harems of other countries tend to self-destruct into infighting and backstabbing. I suppose I don’t know any attempts by the common pony, but–”

“Please,” Cadance interrupted, “just stop. I get it. I have problems. Now that you point it out, it’s obvious. I’m sure Twi hasn’t noticed, but Shining probably has…” Of course he has, he knows everything about me, even things I don’t notice. Like when he pointed out that I was pregnant with Star Charmer. Or when he told me about my nervous twitch. Or when gave me that zap apple jam.

“So?” Inkwell waited for Cadance to look up. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I…” What should I do? Shining hasn’t said anything to me about it. Could I just let it go? Cadance shook her head to herself. I can’t do that to Shining. I need to talk to him about it. He deserves my honesty, belated though it is. Hopefully, his silence means he doesn’t mind…too much.

But not Twi. She’ll never notice on her own and I’d rather not have anypony tell her.

Gasping, Cadance hurriedly continued her thoughts, But Aunt Celestia! She always knows things about the ponies around her she’s not supposed to know. But she’s a sedulous secret keeper. Maybe I can just say nothing to her.

Relaxing her muscles for a moment, Cadance breathed deeply and then got to her hooves.

“I think I need to go home, Inkwell.”

With a faint, encouraging smile, Inkwell said, “Of course, princess. I wish you luck, whatever you’ve decided.”

“Thank you.”
> A Day at Court
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight pulled out the fragmented remains of Star Swirl’s catastrophic failure. She had found them quite by accident in an ancient ruins that was, until two weeks ago, inhabited by a doomsday cult preaching the coming of eternal night.

It was usually EIS’s job to disperse such gatherings, but their leader had somehow managed to acquire a powerful, and corrupting, artifact known as the alicorn amulet. With the amulet in the picture, the mission was a bit beyond ordinary agents so Twilight had gone herself.

It had been an unusually amusing task, with the sharks and monologuing and all other manner of ridiculous evil plots. Twilight knew she would remember it fondly for years to come, but that was another story altogether. The real delight was discovering the lost spell.

Having worked nearly twice as hard as usual – an epic feat considering the archmage already slept on average one hour a day – Twilight managed to clear her schedule for the next week. Putting off research on the scraps of the spell she found for two weeks had been hard, so Twilight eagerly plunged into it with fervor.

And yet, Twilight managed only a single hour of study before duty called once more.

Celestia appeared in a condensing mass of light. Twilight had never given Celestia the magical signature required to teleport into her tower, but it never seemed to matter. Celestia’s variant on the teleport spell, which she still refused to teach Twilight, went right through the tower’s wards and traps.

“Twilight, I am really, really sorry to ask this of you, but could you please hold court for me today?”

Holding court was one of the many aspects of politics that Twilight loathed. Petitioners grouped into a conga line and if they performed the dance right, would extract a random favor directly from the crown.

The one time Twilight had attended, not held, court when she was younger had ended in sufficient disaster for Celestia to excuse Twilight from the requirement to attend.

Twilight bit her lip and tried to calm down, meeting with partial success.

“You know, I did clear my schedule for the entire week to work on something utterly unrelated to politics. Do you know how hard that was?”

Celestia knew exactly how hard it was to get a free day, let alone a free week. In more than a thousand years of ruling, she managed a free week perhaps once or twice a decade.

A moment of Celestia’s awkward shuffling passed, accompanied by a deep sigh from Twilight.

“Only half the regular time, okay?”

Celestia nodded, giving Twilight a genuine smile, not the eternal calm smile that otherwise dominated her face. “Thank you. I am sure you will think of a way I can return the favor later.”

Twilight smiled too, but unlike Celestia’s happy smile, this one was clearly malevolent. “Oh, I too am sure of that.”





The court heralds had hauled out and dusted the archmage’s throne and had placed it on the dais below Celestia’s unoccupied throne.

Twilight’s seat was similarly unoccupied, but she stood waiting nearby. Her constant absence from open court gave her the perfect opportunity to make a spectacular entrance and she was not going to let it go to waste.

With the aid of a few spells, Twilight could see and hear everything that went on in the court hall. The heralds went through the usual motions and speeches and brought a crowd of ponies into the hall. There seemed to be some confusion concerning the presence of the second throne, but ultimately it passed unremarked.

There were many nobles, several wealthy businessponies, and a wingful of regular ponies. The nobles assembled at the front of the line according to their current rank in the complex social game they played.

Behind the nobles stood the nouveau riche who had long since learned that they would leave court without a headache if they just let the nobles go first. A few of them with more family history managed to get into line in the midst of the nobles.

At the very end came the plebeians who assumed some sort of fair ordering had just taken place.

The heralds called for order according to the script and everypony turned their attention to the throne, ready to bow to their princess.

Twilight had told the heralds in advance that she intended to have everypony wait a bit, so they stood at attention, awaiting her arrival. The petitioners had been given no such warning, and within a few seconds began to show their confusion.

Once Twilight felt the suspense had sufficiently built, she began a few of her more theatrical spells.

Slowly, Twilight appeared on her throne, solidifying and bringing together distant shadows to create her body.

She was sitting with her back on the throne in the manner of a seapony with her hindlegs crossed. Her head was held in her left hoof as she leaned into the side arm of the throne. A small glass of red wine floated nearby, suspended in Twilight’s telekinetic grip.

Twilight was wearing the torc of her office and a pointed hat that would have looked silly if any other pony had worn it. Upon Twilight’s brow, it evoked images of the legendary Star Swirl.

Each and every noble and nearly every businesspony had one thought, Perhaps I should come back during the next open court.

Twilight grinned just enough for it to be visible, but not enough to suggest she was actually happy to be here. A small giggle escaped her and somehow it echoed across the entire hall multiple times before fading.

The front of the line looked around nervously, nearing full panic.

In a chilly voice, Twilight called out to the lead herald, “Summon the first petitioner.”

Even with an advance warning, the heralds gulped. Their leader then unrolled the scroll listing petitioner names and called out, “Count Wildgrass!”

The count stood at the front of the queue and looked around for any escape. Finding none, he took a cautious step forward and stopped, his courage lost.

Even in fear, his speech was as eloquent as usual. “Please excuse me, Archmage Twilight. I have just remembered an important matter I must attend to.”

Count Wildgrass waited for a small nod of approval from Twilight that was slow in coming and executed slower. Afterward, he bolted from the court in a manner completely at odds with his diction.

Twilight nodded towards the lead herald who once more unrolled his scroll. However, this time he was interrupted by a series of polite excuses from multiple ponies who had also suddenly remembered important matters that required urgent attention.

Soon, only the ponies at the end of the line remained behind.

Twilight waited a few moments more. Once she was confident that nopony else was going to leave, she let the masquerade fall apart.

“Alright, now that everypony with trivial problems has left, call the first petitioner.”

Everypony remaining in the hall relaxed and Twilight could actually hear many of their sighs. The lead herald opened the scroll and frantically tried to determine who was currently at the front of the line.

Seeing the inevitable failure coming, Twilight interposed, “Whoever is currently at the front of the line, please come forward and help our poor herald out.”





Celestia was…not exactly exasperated. There were a lot of conflicting emotions running through her, but disappointment and admiration were competing to become dominate.

She had returned to Canterlot Castle to the cries of several nobles asking she hold a second court today. Of course, Celestia had made it quite clear that she would not be holding court again until the regularly scheduled time, but nevertheless had listened to their complaints.

“Twilight, do you think that, in any way, what you did today was appropriate?”

Taking a few seconds, Twilight pretended to reconsider her actions.

“Yep. I’m pretty sure I addressed exactly the set of ponies with real reasons for being there.”

Celestia really wanted to say something scolding to that, but the truth was, she often wanted to do the same thing and could never figure out how. It was one thing to scare a crowd once, but it was another thing entirely to do so twice.

Sitting down, Celestia rubbed her forehead with her hooves. Nothing Twilight had done was illegal, even in the most technical, word of the law, sense, so there were no legal grounds to punish her with.

Still, something had to be done to placate the nobility who were even more inflamed against the archmage than usual. That, and Celestia wanted to get even with Twilight for getting the nobility entrenched outside her chambers.

“I really wish banning you from open court was a punishment…”

Twilight could not help laughing at that. “Why don’t we just consider ourselves even? I technically did hold court for you, so you can deal with the fallout for me.”

“Ugh… Fine. I suppose I have a mob to go fight now…”

“Have fun,” said Twilight, face beaming.

Celestia rolled her eyes as her horn glowed. Dissolving into light, she disappeared.
> A New Land
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equestria! What a wonderful country. The ponies were friendly, love was everywhere, and Tarsus had a spring in his step. Sure there were some less than savory ponies, but the country was practically a paradise.

For years Tarsus had been told over and over that Equestria was an amazing land, and he dreamed of the day his family would leave Germaneigh and move there. Finally, finally, it had happened last year and it was everything he had been promised.

No longer would he or any of his family go hungry. Equestria was large and filled with opportunities. It had been a sad moment when the family split up for different cities, but they were never truly apart.

Tarsus himself had left for Canterlot. There he had experienced so many new and amazing things. Tonight he was coming home from a friend’s house. Friend. Just thinking the word sent quakes of joy running through him. He never would have imagined having friends outside the family back in Germaneigh.

Dancing along the street, pretending he was participating in what the Equestrians called a heartsong, Tarsus swung around a lamppost. All he needed was some rain and a partner to sing with to make this a duet. He made a great leap from where he was hanging at the beginning of his imagined finale and heard a strange twang and a crunch as he landed.

Was that a real heartsong starting? I would love to be in one!

An angry yell was coming from nearby, which pretty much dispelled any hope Tarsus had of more song and dance. Still, his mood was in the clouds and he continued on his way. It seemed that the yelling was following him.

“Hey! Brown unicorn! Where do you think you are going?”

Tarsus turned around to see what was going on and found a gray earth pony staring directly at him. Her mane and tail were both jet black and her cutie mark was a treble clef.

A brief moment of confusion before Tarsus looked at his dark brown coat and matching yellow-brown mane.

“Oh, you mean me. What’s wrong?”

“‘What’s wrong?’” the mare said with the full force of her inexplicable anger behind it. “Is that all you have to say for yourself?”

“Huh?”

“You must be kidding me! You just broke my cello and you did not even notice!”

Completely at a loss, Tarsus innocently asked, “What’s a cello?”

This seemed to be the final straw and the anger in the mare snapped. Her eyes blazed with fury as she began her assault. The brute strength she had as an earth pony would have easily overpowered Tarsus if not for the combat training he received in Germaneigh.

Even then, he had not practiced in a few months and was feeling out of shape. His experience managed to keep her at bay, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he tired and her magic kept her going unaffected by the exertion.

The alternative options to being beat to a pulp were flight and trying to talk. Tarsus fully expected that he would be run down if he tried to flee, so that left talking.

“I’m sorry for whatever I did.”

“No you’re not! You don’t even know what you did!”

The mare brought a swift kick sweeping just past his jaw.

“Please, I wasn’t looking where I was going. I can’t feel sorry if I’m unconscious.”

That seemed to make some sense to the mare. She aborted another incoming kick mid-swing, and although her anger was as strong as ever, a sense of begrudging understanding came from her.

“Fine.” The mare was clearly trying to sound calm, but her voice came out strained. “Come with me.”

Tarsus was led back to the lamppost he had leapt from and saw a large black case lying crushed on the ground. The hinges on the side were broken and the latches had been forced off on the other. A small metal coil protruded from a gap in the case.

“This is my cello. You jumped on it and broke it. I find it hard to believe it was not malicious. As a unicorn, you should not weigh enough to naturally produce this kind of damage. Not that that excuses you.”

The mare’s delectable love for the cello came through loud and clear to Tarsus making it hard for him to feel bad. Regardless, the accident was still his fault, and if he had learned anything at all in Equestria it was that apologizing for wrongs, intentional or not, was important.

“I see. I really did not see it there. I am unusually heavy, comparable with earth ponies, so I will need to be more careful in the future. I can tell you loved this cello a lot, and I know it will not make up for what I’ve done, but please allow me to pay to repair it.”

Tarsus did not know if it was the apology, the acknowledgment of the mare’s love, or the promise of payment that did it, but the earth pony’s mood softened into a dull sadness with only a slight tinge of outrage. Perhaps it was some combination of all three.

The mare sighed, and said, “Alright… I will not be able to get it repaired: It is too badly damaged. Maybe the archmage or Princess Celestia could mend it, but that will not happen. I shall have to get a new one.”

Somewhat warily, Tarsus asked, “…How much will that cost?”

“It is difficult to say. Bids on the very best cellos can get a bit out-of-hoof. This one cost roughly eighty-thousand bits.”

Hoping the mare did not hear him gulp, Tarsus regained his composure.

I…could rob a bank. Nopony would ever know it was me… No, I can’t do that. Maybe she’d consider treating this as a loan.

“Um… Do you need a replacement immediately?”

“No, I have others I can use, but this was my first and my favorite.”

The sadness in the mare intensified at the admission, and a new feeling of resignation arose.

Tarsus shuffled back and forth on his hooves, trying to figure out how to console this mare, but he knew one trick and only one trick. He would try to make friends.

“I suppose this isn’t the best way to meet,” Tarsus began, “but my name is Tarsus.”

The earth pony looked up from her cello, eying Tarsus a moment. Giving in, she extended a hoof, “I am Octavia Melody. My friends generally call me Tavi.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tavi. I guess you can’t say the same about me, but maybe you could get your anger out by reeducating me.”

“Reeducating?” Tavi asked, confusion now overpowering her other emotions.

“Well, you seemed particularly upset when I said I didn’t know what a cello is. Perhaps you could inform me.”

The mix of emotions in Tavi was difficult to get a read on, but while she was thinking, happiness was clearly sprouting.

“I suppose that could be arranged. One moment.”

Tavi, wedged her hoof into the broken cello case and pulled out a business card.

“Come there tomorrow, and we shall see if we can inject a little culture into you.”





Tarsus held Tavi’s business card next to the address on the building to make sure he had the right address. When he heard that cello cost eighty-thousand bits, he knew he had gotten involved with a reasonably wealthy young mare, but her studio was in the ritziest business district in Canterlot.

There had never been any reason for Tarsus to come to this part of Canterlot, being of modest means himself, so it was with some trepidation that he entered the building in front of him.

The first floor the building held a small lobby and a high-end restaurant. A valet whose dress just screamed wealth approached the obviously out of place Tarsus.

“Excuse me, sir. Might you be looking for any location in particular?”

“I need to get to Ta– Octavia Melody’s studio.”

“You would want the fourth floor then. Please follow me.”

The valet guided Tarsus through the lobby to the elevator. Once inside, he turned Tarsus over to the expertise of the lift operator. A steady hum came from the thaumtech lift and a small bell rang on arrival at the fourth floor.

Leaving the lift, Tarsus took his first steps into Tavi’s studio which seemed to double as her home if first impressions were to be believed. From a few rooms over, Tarsus could sense four happy but focused ponies engaged in weaving musical magic.

Taking the nearest seat, Tarsus relaxed and simply let himself enjoy the quartet’s song. The piece sounded familiar from somewhere, but as he had so untactfully demonstrated the previous night, he had nowhere near enough musical knowledge to place it.

After well over half an hour, the music stopped and the moods of the ponies began shifting. Flashes of happiness and sadness, pride and dissatisfaction came but their overall mood remained positive.

Another half hour later and three unidentified ponies walked into the room he was resting in. Each carried a small black case similar to the one he had crushed in every way except size. Two were smaller and one was a little big larger.

They passed by politely enough but their curiosity was clear as day to Tarsus. He recognized it as the kind of curiosity mares expressed when they found something new to gossip about. He would have to apologize for that as well.

Finally, Tavi herself appeared and motioned for Tarsus to follow her back the way she had come. She led him down a short hallway into a strangely designed room. She briefly mentioned it was a sound room and was designed to produce a clearer sound in the absence of unicorn magic.

Tavi then turned her attention to exhuming one of the many black cases piled in the room, each of which Tarsus assumed contained a cello. Wondering what possible reason one could need so many of the same instrument, he spotted the broken remains of the last night’s cello piled in a corner.

The remains seemed to occupy a place of honor. A small shelter had been built of other cellos and musical props to protect its place of rest. Tarsus was beginning to really feel the sting of what he had done. Though he never had possessed anything he loved so much as his new friend adored her cello, he could at least appreciate the care and devotion she had shown it.

Tarsus sighed. At least Tavi seemed to have banished her misery from last night. Now she only had a constant anticipatory feeling as she finally recovered the case she wanted.

From the case, Tavi pulled a large, brown, wooden device with four strings. This Tarsus safely assumed was a cello.

Accompanying the behemoth of an instrument was a small wooden device which appeared to sport hair taken from Tavi’s own mane. To this, she took what looked like solidified tree sap and rubbed it along the hairs.

Once this was done, the silence was finally broken as Tavi said, “This is a cello, and this is a bow. For my revenge” – Tavi was smirking now and her enjoyment growing – “you are going to learn to play this instrument.”

Tarsus stared dumbfounded before he asked, “Me?”

“Of course,” Tavi said, holding out the bow and cello.

“You’re giving me free lessons for revenge?”

“Well, I do not normally teach, so I think the free factor weighs in less. You will either enjoy this and my work will be done, or you will hate this and my revenge will be complete. You shall just have to hope it is the former. I have been told I am a terrible teacher, so be prepared.”

Tarsus took the bow in his right hoof and the cello in his left. It was surprisingly easy to balance himself on his hindlegs with the cello acting as a third. Tavi was frustrated as she stared at Tarsus.

“You know, I have always imagined it is a thousand times easier to play with telekinesis, than by hoof.”

“Oh… um… This is your revenge so it wouldn’t do if I didn’t learn to play the same way you do, right?”

“Hmm… I suppose. But if you lack proper hoof control like every other unicorn I have met then you are not getting a choice in the matter.”

“I’m sure I can manage.”

Picking up her own cello and bow, Tavi prepared herself to start the lesson.

“Alright, first we will start with playing by ear. We will introduce the basic notions of music into your uncultured brain and then we will move onto sheet music when you prove yourself less than incompetent.”





Tarsus was incredibly bad at playing the cello. His hoofwork had surprised Octavia with its quality, but they both quickly came to two conclusions. First, Tarsus was tone deaf. That could be worked around with enough practice. Second, he couldn’t keep a beat even with six metronomes ticking as one and Tavi trying every other approach she could think of to keep time for him.

Despite this, both Tavi and Tarsus were determined to make this work, and if it just so happened to take years, then they would just have that much more time together. Tarsus guiltily tried to ignore his partner’s budding affections for him, but they were too good to resist.

And then, the strangest thing happened. He began feeling something no one in his family had ever felt before. He was in love. The family had always attempted to surround itself with as much love as possible, and when able, to have the emotion directed specifically towards them. However, it was unheard of for the feeling to be reciprocated.

Perhaps it was Equestria itself that was working changes on the family. Perhaps it was the physical distance they put between each other for the first time. All Tarsus knew was he had found a pony more important than them.

The days passed by quickly and turned into weeks and those weeks became months in a blink. Tarsus sluggishly became a passable beginner cellist. Far more quickly, the two started spending more and more time together outside of lessons, seeing plays, playing games, attending parties, and so much more.

In the midst of his newfound feelings, there was one thing that always weighed on his mind. Even though the broken cello was what brought them together, it meant a lot to Tavi and she still felt sad every time she saw it. Tarsus had wanted to fix his mistake for months and finally he had the chance.

Today, Tavi would be out performing all day and while he would be at the later half of her concert, his job would prevent him from attending the first half. At least, that was what he told Tavi. While it would usually be true, he had managed to get today off and spirited away the broken cello.

Tavi herself had made it clear that Princess Celestia did not take small, personal requests like mending cellos during open court and his friends and colleagues agreed. He could not blame the princess for this. His own queen behaved the same way and he could imagine just how many problems would be laid before them if they started helping with the small things.

But unlike most ponies, he was going to make an exchange, not a request. In trade for fixing the cello, Tarsus would betray the family. He would tell the princess everything: who he was, what he was, who his queen was, where she was, everything. So far he managed to hide his intentions from the family, but he did not know how much longer he could continue to do so. Whatever happened to him afterward, he needed to make his deal now.

Open court was surprisingly easy to get into. There was essentially no security which allowed Tarsus to enter, cello in tow, without resorting to any unpleasant tricks. When the heralds called for attention and lined everyone up, he was relegated nearly to the end of the line. Only six ponies stood behind him, but that was okay. The less witnesses there were to his betrayal the better.

Attention was called once again and everyone turned towards the throne, however Princess Celestia did not appear. Tarsus worried for a moment that the princess had somehow received word of his coming and had opted to skip this session of court. It was a silly notion, but it was paralyzing nonetheless.

And then the archmage appeared instead in the most overtly evil manner Tarsus had ever seen, read about, or imagined. When the first noblepony ran off frightened, he nearly joined the noble’s retreat. Checking himself as he took the first step out, he stayed in line as nearly every pony fled. Only a dozen or so ponies at the end of the line like him remained behind.

And then, Archmage Twilight Sparkle’s emotions did a full about face, shifting from boredom, anger, and sadistic pleasure to a mother-like caring and eagerness.

Tarsus gaped with the rest of the crowd. Partially because the incarnation of evil had turned into a sweet, loving pony, but mostly from the sheer shock of the act’s effectiveness. The archmage actually managed to fool Tarsus by manipulating her emotions. Surely that had to be unintentional.

When his turn came, Tarsus noticed the archmage’s eyes fixate on him. At first there was heavy suspicion but almost immediately it faded as she exploded with curiosity.

Before Tarsus could say a single word, the archmage cut him off. “I would speak with you in private after court. We can discuss whatever your problem is then too.”

Confused, Tarsus bowed and stepped off to the side to await the end of open court.





Tarsus waited backstage while Tavi played an encore performance. At his side was the repaired cello. Neither he nor Tavi had yet spoken of their feelings towards each other, but Tarsus knew them for a fact all the same. He tried to use that knowledge as little as possible, but it didn’t change the fact that he knew.

In particular, he knew exactly what answer he would get when he asked Octavia to be his marefriend tonight. It made him a lot less nervous than he had seen a few of his friends asking out their own sweethearts.

Applause came and the concert was finally over. A good thing too because Tarsus was getting impatient. But then the director came on stage and started talking. And talking. And talking some more. If Tarsus could sense his own emotions, he knew they would be overpowering frustration. Frustration strong enough to overwhelm every other assembled pony’s feelings put together.

Finally the annoying little pegasus was finished blathering on about nothing and Tarsus managed to control himself enough to only want to drain most of the director’s life away. Of course, he would not actually hurt anypony. He had not since he arrived in Equestria and if possible he hoped to keep it that way.

While Tarsus was amusing himself with all of the delightful ways he could put the director in his place, Tavi came into view and all of the annoyance disappeared in an instant.

“Tavi!” Tarsus called out, waving.

Walking over, Octavia gave him a small hug. “Hey, Tarsus. What did you think?”

“You know I’m tone deaf.”

“That does not mean you can not appreciate a good song.”

Tarsus smiled and laughed a bit to himself. “If you already know it was good, why do you need my opinion?”

“Well…” Tavi was blushing profusely. “Because…”

There wouldn’t be a better time than this, so Tarsus worked up what little courage he needed and blurted, “Tavi, I love you so much. I didn’t even know I was biologically able to love before I met you. Would you be my marefriend?”

A little clunky, but it had the intended effect. Tavi’s emotions were a swirl of happiness and love and the answer was as obvious from that as it was from the kiss.

Tarsus had once read that since the invention of the kiss there were only six kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure.

This one may not have left them all behind, for he could tell there was lust in Tavi as well, but he knew he would not find a better partner to share it with. And for that, he said fie on those kisses. Purity was overrated. Passion was all that mattered.

When they finally broke apart from each other, Tavi noticed the cello case at Tarsus’s side.

“Did you bring the cello I gave you?”

“Hmm?” Tarsus said, still dazed. “Oh, no. This one’s a gift for you.”

“You did not have–”

Tarsus put his hoof on her lips and said, “Just open it.”

Nodding, Tavi knelt down and flipped open the lid. When she saw her very first cello inside, she gasped and nearly fainted.

“I don’t understand. Who did you find that could fix it so perfectly?”

“The archmage did it.”

“What? But she doesn’t take personal requests. She doesn’t even show up to court.”

“She did today. I was actually expecting Princess Celestia, but the archmage showed up instead and pranked everypony. She did hold court after that and helped everypony that didn’t run off screaming. I think the princess was out of town or something.”

“Are you serious?” Octavia’s emotions were an elegant mix of confusion and appreciation. Getting confirmation for her first question, the next soon followed. “Did she really just help you? You didn’t have to do anything, did you?”

Tarsus looked around nervously. He may have been able to act well enough in Germaneigh to hide among ponies, but he was absolutely terrible at lying when a question was directly asked of him.

Seeing the familiar tells of her new coltfriend, Tavi asked, “What did she ask of you?”

“Well, I may have, more or less, that is to say, in a manner of speaking, sold her my soul.”

The incredulous look on Tavi prompted Tarsus to clarify. “There were extenuating circumstances. If I were a regular unicorn, I may have been able to work out a simpler deal. But…”

“But what?”

“There’s…something I haven’t told you about me. I think we should go somewhere private before I say anything.”

“Alright. Give me a few minutes to pack up and then we can head over to my place. Could you grab my other cello?” Tavi asked, picking up her gift.
> Serious Business
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight gazed upon the meeting room she had constructed, re-dubbing it the Council of the Elements over its old name: Vacant Room 4-B.

With her hasty construction and her Sweetie-Belle- and Pinkie-Pie-proofing of her lab competing for her time, the interior design was minimal at best. A single spell lit the room, and the walls were flat and uninteresting.

In a circle about the center of the room Twilight had built a small, satisfying moat with a spell generating a clockwise current to avoid stagnating the water. On a whim, she had fetched a pink and white lotus to place in the moat as decoration.

Spanning the gap were six, evenly spaced miniature bridges leading to six chairs placed about a circular table. On the eastern chair, Twilight had engraved her cutie mark.

Only one task remained.

How do I make this socially optimal?

Teleporting on top of the table, Twilight faced the western chair and engraved her adorable student’s cutie mark on it. Or at least an interpretive imagining of what it would look like. She went with a mix of one of Rarity’s diamonds and a six-pointed star.

Hmm, I wonder if that’s too presumptive of a choice. Cutie marks are pretty personal. Twilight tapped a hoof on the ground a few times and dismissed the thought.

No. She wears my cutie mark on her saddlebags, so it’s probably fine.

I might want to have a talk with her about that, actually. I never did that with Celestia and it’s still kind of uncomfortable.

Anyway, Sweetie Belle goes across from me so I don’t have to look at anypony else. Then I can put Lyra and Trixie flanking her. I think she’d benefit from alternative views on magic.

That leaves Pinkie Pie at my right. Which is…less than ideal. And then Flash Sentry…

No. Let’s start over.

Twilight removed every cutie mark but her own and Sweetie Belle’s and promptly placed Flash Sentry’s to the right of Sweetie Belle’s.

No, no, no! Flash Sentry does not get to be that close to my student!

Removing off both of their cutie marks, Twilight placed Sweetie Belle’s to the right of hers and put Flash Sentry’s on the seat directly across.

She promptly erased it, ear and eye twitching once.

Unacceptable. Flash Sentry does not sit across from me.

Instead, let’s put Trixie to my left and then Flash Sentry right after. That way Trixie being Trixie will completely blot him out.

Twilight gave herself a magical pat on the back and then frowned.

Okay, so that doesn’t work. Trixie would probably throw a fit.

Sighing, Twilight took a step back – metaphorically and literally – and sat down. Summoning a small illusion of the table, Twilight placed her cutie mark on one seat.

Alright, so let’s treat this like the simple logic puzzle it is. There’s rotational and reflectional symmetry, so that cuts down the solution space by twelve.

Parameters then.

I refuse to sit next to or across from Flash Sentry, Twilight thought, adding his cutie mark to the two available spaces.

I want Sweetie Belle next to or across from me. That leaves only two non-trivial choices for her, and Flash Sentry’s placement forces her next to me and him across from her.

Nodding to herself with a slightly smug grin, Twilight checked to make sure she had not idly removed either of their cutie marks and then forgotten.

Right, now for the other three.

Trixie probably does not want to sit next to me.

I do not want to sit next to Lyra Hear – next to Lyra.

Well, that just leaves Pinkie Pie between Flash Sentry and me. I guess that might work out. She’ll provide a buffer with her antics. But at the same time, her being next to Flash Sentry might fuel his…ugh…infatuation.

I can’t ask her to not wear Kindness, even if she seemed to manage being apart from it well. But still, I am not going to start dating – especially not now and with him – and Pinkie Pie’s meddling could cause problems. Maybe I should just take one for the team and sit next to Lyra.

Twilight lit her horn and summoned up her magic only to let the power fade away.

It’s – it’s too soon for us to sit next to each other. Sure, it’ll distract me from Flash Sentry, but not in a good way.

Sighing, Twilight carved Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark into the chair to her chair’s left.

For the greater good…

Sighing again and standing up, Twilight walked across the table to the remaining pair of chairs.

So the last question then, is who sits across from me, and who sits next to Sweetie Belle? Either should be fine next to Sweetie Belle. They both know magic to an appreciable degree, so they’ll both be good for her.

On the other side, neither of them know Flash Sentry, so that should be an irrelevant factor. But then again, Flash Sentry might know of Trixie since she’s apparently famous now to some degree instead of infamous.

But I don’t want a seapony next to Sweetie Belle. Hmm… And yet, Lyra definitely doesn’t act insane or psychopathic. Maybe a bit too much of an overdeveloped sense of fear. Perhaps in a case of overcompensation in the transformation from seapony to unicorn.

Now that I think about it, she’d be an pretty good test subject for the mental effects of polymorphing. Celestia and I are never much affected, but Lyra does seem to exhibit a remarkable difference. But at the same time, it could be that external circumstances played a key role in her behavior. 

And in comparison to my other shapeshifting science project, she didn’t evolve to have that magic form a core part of her species. Not that seaponies evolved in the classical sense.

Anyway, changelings don’t seem to be affected by the change much either. Although, I did do those studies shortly after Esp started ‘finding himself’ so Note to Self: Rerun the species-based transformation tests on Esp now that he’s had more time to work acting out of his system and to spend with Octavia Melody.

Or ideally find a changeling foal – or foals – that was born and raised in Equestria.

Idly playing with her hooves, Twilight made a preliminary review of which tests she wished to rerun when a thought struck her. Knitting her brows, she asked, What was I doing…

Actually noticing her surroundings instead of merely looking at them, Twilight facehoofed.

Oh right. Social optimization. Of course.

The question remains then. Who do I put across from me?

I suspect Trixie would be a better mentor figure for Sweetie Belle, but at the same time, she’s another unicorn. I think Celestia and I can cover unicorn magic well enough that if I were to choose between another unicorn’s take on unicorn magic and a sane seapony’s, I would go with the seapony’s to provide variety. Our magic is essentially identical, but the focus is heavily skewed given the drastically different ecosystem.

And that also keeps us out of direct line of sight of each other.

But it puts Trixie and me in direct line of sight. Hmm… I don’t dislike Trixie, but does she hate me enough to justify swapping with Lyra? I guess if Luna is anything to go by, the answer is yes.

Yet, I do know enough courtly niceties to know that she could also take the displacement as a slight against her. It sounds like Luna raised her as Celestia did me, so she probably knows that tradition as well. But that argument could run both ways if she thinks I’m putting her there for that reason.

Ugh, I have insufficient knowledge to make this decision.

Twilight fell to her rump and pulled out a coin from her bag of holding.

Heads, and I place Trixie across from me. Suns, and I place Lyra across from me.

A flip of a coin later and Twilight placed Trixie’s cutie mark on the western chair, directly across from hers. She then finished by placing Lyra’s cutie mark on the remaining chair, took a deep breath, and nodded once.

Alright. I’m finally done here. Now I just need to go pick everypony up. I suppose since I haven’t told Sweetie Belle who her teacher really is yet, I should probably go pick her up first.

Horn flashing with power, Twilight teleported away.
> That Strange Feeling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A rooster cawed out across Sweet Apple Acres and roused Applejack from her sleep. Contrary to her well-crafted image in Ponyville, she was not a morning pony.

Darn sun. You couldn’t just skip a day and leave poor ole Applejack alone, now could you?

Applejack rolled over under her covers to escape the morning light peeking in from her window. Burying her face in her pillow, she fell back into a dreamy haze between sleep and consciousness. A wonderfully pleasant feeling that was interrupted by a horribly unpleasant noise.

“Wake up, sis!”

Darn, wake-up call. Why ain’t she sleepin’ in like every other filly her age?

Applejack shoved her forehooves underneath her pillow, let her ears droop to the sides of her head, and rolled the edges up to cover them. It was uncomfortable, but it helped keep the world at bay from yet another sense.

The door burst open and following the sounds of small galloping hooves, Applebloom pounced onto Applejack, shouting, “Wake up!”

“Durn it, Apple Bloom! Just this once! Just this apple pickin’ once let me sleep in!”

“You know, I can’t do that, sis. I’m under strict orders from Granny and Big Mac to get you up every mornin’, grumpy or otherwise.”

“Go tell them I’m still workin’ off my hangover from the reunion. Somepony spiked the cider something fierce.”

“That was two days ago.” Apple Bloom started nudging Applejack every second and said, “It ain’t happenin’.”

“Ugh…” moaned Applejack.

“Wakeup. Wakeup. Wakeup. Wakeup. Wakeup. Wakeup. Wake–”

“Alright already!”

Rolling over again and bending at the barrel, Applejack flew up and threw Apple Bloom off her and onto the floor where the filly landed with the grace of experience. Obviously contented, Apple Bloom turned to leave.

“I’ll be down soon as I get showered up. You tell Big Mac to save some breakfast for me, you hear?” said Applejack, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

“Sure thing, sis.”





Applejack entered the dinning room in a sleepy haze. She had tried taking a cold shower but nothing seemed to be helping this morning. Even with a full day of rest yesterday, her muscles were still aching to return to bed so soon after the family reunion.

Lazily taking her seat, Applejack found herself left with a pair of flapjacks, a glass of apple juice, and a bowl of oats in milk.

Ain’t exactly my favorite. Suppose I can’t complain what with being this late.

Except for the clink of silverware hitting plates and the squeak of her chair, there was only one other noise while Applejack ate. A terribly annoying noise at this early hour.

Granny Smith was snoring in the living room.

Sighing, Applejack picked up her pace to get away from thoughts of sleep.





This place is messier than a pigsty.

That was Applejack’s first thought as she opened the barn doors. The family gathering had not been kind to the first floor. Remains of food littered the ground and makeshift beds of hay were haphazardly placed everywhere. There was even a cow eating one of them.

The upstairs storage was still packed with items rescued from Apple Bloom’s clubhouse, but from the look of things, a reordering had been undertaken since yesterday.

“Sugarcube, you up there?” Applejack half-shouted.

“Yeah!” replied Apple Bloom.

“You’re supposed to be cleanin’ the barn!”

“I was, but…I got distracted!”

“You better not be wirin’ things up inside the barn again!”

“I’m not! Honest!”

Deciding to get a firsthoof look at whatever trouble her sister was making, Applejack ascended the ladder to the second floor. Once she reached the top, she had to shuffle around piles of junk in order to walk anywhere. Apple Bloom only had cleared a path large enough for herself.

After Applejack shifted a box of old blueprints, Apple Bloom finally came into view. She was lying on the floor with a quill gripped in her forehoof with her magic and a vial of ink nearby. In front of her was a mostly empty sheet of draft paper. Some trees and dimensions were depicted and a few notes appeared on the sides, but it was otherwise empty.

Apple Bloom gave a weak smile and sighed, “Hey, sis.”

“What are you drawin’ up? A new clubhouse?”

Apple Bloom shook her head slowly and then said, “A lab.”

Taken by surprise, Applejack echoed, “A lab?”

“A lab.”

“What in tarnation do you need a lab for? If you burn down Sweet Apple Acres, there’s gonna be a mighty reckonin’ comin’.”

Apple Bloom said nothing, opting instead to make a note on the paper that read, “Do not burn down home.”

“Hey, sugarcube,” Applejack said, concern lining her voice, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothin’,” deadpanned Apple Bloom as she continued working.

“Nothin’ my hoof. You’ve obviously got somethin’ on your mind.” Applejack sat down next to her sister. “Why don’t you tell your big sis what’s wrong?”

“Nothin’s wrong. I’m just thinkin’.”

“Now don’t you go lyin’ to your sis, now. Why are you doin’ this?”

Apple Bloom threw her quill at the ground and snapped the tip, shouting, “Cause I don’t need a clubhouse anymore! Happy?”

Once the shock died down, Applejack immediately pulled her sister in for a hug. A few sniffs later and Apple Bloom started crying into Applejack’s coat.

Patting her sister on the back, Applejack whispered, “Don’t you worry none, sugarcube. Your friends ain’t goin’ away forever. You’ll see them again before you know it. Just let it all out till you’re feelin’ better.”

Seconds turned to minutes and those minutes rolled on and on as the two sisters hugged one another for support. Apple Bloom’s tears were pulling Applejack toward less savory thoughts herself.

“You know, two of my own friends are movin’ too. I’m sure gonna miss Rarity and Dash. Even if Dash pilfers our apples and Rarity tries to shove her froufrou nonsense onto me. But we’ve promised each other to stay in touch and get together for visits every now and then. I’m sure both’ll have Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo with them when they come visitin’.”

“I know,” Apple Bloom said, though it came out muffled by the hug. “And Sweetie Belle has all sorts of nifty tricks to talk with me, but it just ain’t the same. And it’ll never be the same again.

“Scoots is off to some fancy school to become the best of the best. And I know she can do it. Even without her wings, she’s gonna do it.

“Sweetie Belle’s got herself somepony who’s probably the best teacher for her in the entire world. She’ll be as famous as the archmage and the princess when she’s grown up.

“And where does that leave me? Just some filly from the Apple family. Even if Granny gave me the farm and the family nobility, it wouldn’t mean a thing to them. I’d just be some noble with a dumb accent that they used to know when they were borin’ old normal ponies.”

“Apple Bloom…that’s…that’s not how friendship works. Your friends won’t care if you’ve got nothin’ to offer them. They’re your friends, Apple Bloom, and they’re always gonna be.”

Pushing away from Applejack, Apple Bloom said, “Don’t try that with me, sis. I know that’s not how the world works as sure as I know Princess Celestia raises the sun. Maybe in an ideal world it’d be like that, but not in this one.

“I’m just a filly, but Ponyville’s a small town. I pay attention to what happens to relationships round these parts. We even tried for pony watchin’ cutie marks once. I – I don’t wanna let them go, sis. I don’t…”

“Apple Bloom–”

The filly in question turned her back and said, “No, I’m not listenin’.”

An pregnant silence grew, broken only by the occasional sniff from Apple Bloom.

“…Is that why you’re buildin’ a lab?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “It’s the only thin’ I’m good at that nopony else is. Maybe if I work hard enough, I’ll be interestin’ and important too. It’s not like I’m short on bits or anythin’ with the royalties.”

Granny Smith is the custodian of your income though… She’s not gonna be too keen on this, Applejack thought but did not have the heart to say anything. Maybe if I don’t mention her motivation…

“I–” Applejack began but faltered for words. “I’m glad to see you interested in learnin’…I guess. I’ll talk to you about this again tonight when you’re in a better mood.”





A rush of apples fell toward the ground under the force of Applejack’s buck. The baskets placed at the bottom of the tree altered the paths of the apples so they would land gently in a pile inside the containers. No bruises. No mess.

Nearby were a dozen farm hooves. Half were also bucking apples. The other half were running filled baskets to a mostly empty apple cart and bringing the empty baskets to the next tree that needed them.

At a tree behind Applejack, Big Mac was bucking trees as stoically as ever alongside her.

Sighing, Applejack moved to the next tree and gave it an extra hard kick to let her frustration out. Apple Bloom’s words rarely had left her mind since she left the barn and whenever they did, she kept worrying about her own friendships with Rarity and Dash.

She never really got to know the mare, but she had heard that Fluttershy was moving away as well. Even Pinkie Pie was oddly distant.

Now that I think about it, has anypony even seen Pinkie Pie round about lately?

Something definitely was turning Ponyville upside down. Even the usual string of disasters had abated recently. That could not be a good sign.

Sighing again, Applejack turned to her brother and said, “Hey, Big Mac. Do you ever get the feelin’ that there’s some big story goin’ on that you’ve been right left out of?”

Big Mac aborted a buck he was about to give to a tree and looked suddenly thoughtful. He put his forehoof to his jaw and rubbed it slowly, string into space the whole time.

Finally, he said, “Eenope,” and went back to bucking trees.