Chapter 1

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Celestia stood completely still, with Spike balanced between her wings, as the large crowd of ponies gathered on the palace grounds cheered. She gave a soft sigh, turning her attention from the large crowd to the pony held in chains on the small stage with her, “Dream Wish, do you have any last words?”

This silenced the crowd. They all glared at the stallion. He didn’t look at Celestia, his gaze was unfocused looking out at the city in the distance, “I still believe what I did was right. That mare was trying to steal your throne.” This statement drew a huge round of booing and shouting from the crowd. Any further words the stallion had were lost to the noise.

Celestia walked a few paces away, and her horn glowed. There was a jolt of magic and the stallion collapsed. The crowds negative calls suddenly turned into cheering. Four unicorns dressed in Army Uniforms lifted the body and carried it off. Spike was still watching the body be carried away as Celestia headed for the palace door.

Just inside was a soft tan colored unicorn holding a clipboard in her magic, “Princess, the Griffon Embassy has sent you and Lady Sparkle a gift. It’s been put in her room.”

“Thank you, Jot Down,” Celestia said softly, not slowing her pace. When she felt Spike sit down on her back she asked, “How does it feel, Spike?”

The little dragon looked a little more lively than he had in the past year, “Good. It’s finally done. It’s been so long.”

Celestia nodded, “It has, but Twilight would never forgive me if we bypassed the rules. He had the right to those appeals and investigations.”

Jot Down flipped pages on her clipboard, she was trailing a few paces behind the Princess, “As per your wish the rest of your week is free of any items.” She stopped walking as the Princess approached the door that led to her bedroom. “Please let me know if there is anything we, the staff, can do. We all miss her.”

Celestia looked back and gave a very small smile, “Thank you. Tell the staff they can have tomorrow off. Everyone. The palace will be closed.”

Jot Down nodded, “Of course.”

Spike gave the friendly mare a small wave as he and Celestia walked into her room. The door closed quietly. Celestia’s usual bedroom had been renovated. One of the walls had been removed so that her room was open to the room next door, nearly doubling the space. Her huge bed was pushed back into the other room, where a sleeping purple unicorn currently laid, hooked up to all manner of magical and medical devices monitoring her condition. A smaller bed that Celestia now slept in was a few feet away from her old bed, and between the two beds was Spike’s basket. The other side of the room was a large work study so Celestia could watch Twilight while she worked.

Celestia approached the bed and looked down at Twilight. “It’s nearly been a year,” she said softly as Spike jumped from her back to the bed. “The doctors keep saying the same thing. There’s no change.”

Spike’s voice was firm, “She’ll wake up.”

“I’m starting to lose faith,” Celestia replied.

“It’s Twilight. You know she’s coming back. She’ll be upset if you’ve given up on her.” Spike sat down next to his friend and surrogate mother, “Or given up on Equestria.”

The Princess nodded, “Don’t worry, Spike. I’ll handle Equestria just fine.”

“I meant more how you’re handling international relations,” Spike commented, long ago the two had agreed to just be straightforward with each other. “You could at least let the Prime Minister visit Twilight. You know how close they are.”

Celestia sighed, “Very well. Next time he visits he can come see her.” She moved away from Twilight’s bed, her horn lighting up as she magically grabbed a book from the nightstand. She gently pulled herself into her own bed and opened the book to the page where she had left off earlier. She started to read aloud, reading to Twilight.

Spike, after a few minutes, silently got up and left, most likely to find lunch for himself and the Princess. Celestia continued to read, her gaze focused on the word in front of her to prevent herself from just watching Twilight sleep.

Several hours later, the sun nearly set, Celestia heard a sound she had not heard in a very long time. A soft groan. Twilight’s soft groan. The one she gave when she woke up, usually after pulling an all nighter. Celestia jumped up and looked to the bed next to her, sure enough, Twilight had moved slightly. “Twilight?”

The unicorn groaned again, “Five more minutes.”

A single tear rolled down Celestia’s cheek at the sound of Twilight’s voice, “Twilight. It’s me… Celestia. Can you hear me?”

Twilight’s eyes slowly opened, focused on Celestia’s face, “Mmmmrr.” The noise that she made wasn’t anything understandable, but it’s tone suggested that Twilight wasn’t really awake yet. “Princess…”

Celestia leaned down and hugged Twilight tightly, crying openly now. “Oh Twilight!”

The sound of her mentor crying was enough to get Twilight to wake up more, “W-what’s wrong?”

“I’m so glad you’re awake!”

With Celestia practically laying on her, and with that ethereal mane waving about randomly, Twilight couldn’t see anything. She spared a single moment to examine the amount of medical devices attached to one of her legs, recognizing most of them. She felt no discomfort from their presence and left them alone, knowing better than to mess with medical equipment. Instead, she focused on the fact that Celestia was openly weeping and clinging to her in a manner unbecoming of a Princess. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Twilight asked again.

Celestia pulled away, just looking into Twilight’s eyes. They sat that way for nearly a minute before Celestia finally said, “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I should have insisted you take a guard with you. Especially after we received the threats.”

Twilight quickly thought back to her past few weeks. They had gone to the Crystal Empire to meet Ms. Harshwhinny, and they had helped reform Discord. Before that Dash had gone off to the Wonderbolts Academy, and there was that issue with Trixie, but Twilight couldn’t think of anything that came with threats.

“What threats?” Twilight asked, a confused look on her face.

Celestia gasped slightly, “You don’t remember what happened?” Twilight shook her head no. “Dream Wish, the stallion that had been pestering you about your position, cursed you. You fell into a coma because he cast it improperly. Thankfully, that is. It would have killed you outright had he any skill in cursing.”

Twilight blinked and slowly worked through that. She knew of some curses, but not any that could just kill a pony. More importantly, she didn’t know any stallion by the name of Dream Wish, let alone one who wanted to kill her. “I don’t remember Dream Wish at all. Or any curses… How long have I been in a coma?”

“A little over 11 months, it’s nearly been a year,” Celestia said softly. “Spike and myself have been taking care of you.” She gestured to the other bed in the room.

“How are my friends doing? Did he curse them too?” Twilight asked, looking around at all the magical and medical devices around her bed. The room looked like one of the palace rooms, but not any she had been in before. She could clearly see where they had taken out a wall to make the room larger as well. When she looked back at Celestia she was greeted by a very confused look.

Celestia just looked at Twilight before softly asking, “Friends?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said cautiously. “From Ponyville?”

Another awkward pause, Celestia’s confusion still plastered on her face, “I didn’t know you went to Ponyville. When was this?”

It was Twilight’s turn to look confused, “What do you mean? You’re the one who sent me there… At the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Right at that moment the door opened and Spike walked in, followed by the doctor who had been attending to Twilight. The two stopped mid-step and gasped. “Twilight!” The doctor rushed over, “How long has she been awake?”

Celestia jumped back, not wanting to get in his way, “Only a few minutes. I was just about to summon you. She doesn’t remember the attack.”

The doctor began examining Twilight and the machines around the bed. “That’s not uncommon for ponies who suffer mental trauma. She might remember in the future, or she might never remember it. All that matters is that she survived it.” After a few more minutes of examination he smiled, “Well, her readings are mostly normal. Obviously I don’t think she should jump up and get back to work for a few days at minimum.”

Celestia nodded, “Of course. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

The doctor turned and headed back for the door, “Very well. I’ll check back in tomorrow at a more reasonable time. Good night, Princess. Good night, Lady Sparkle.”

Spike quickly climbed up onto the bed and hugged Twilight tightly, “Oh Twilight! I’m so glad you’re awake! I’ve missed hearing your voice and it’s just not the same without you!”

Twilight hugged him back, but looked to Celestia, “Princess, what’s going on? Why don’t you remember sending me to Ponyville to stop Nightmare Moon?”

Celestia and Spike shared a look before asking in unison, “Nightmare Who?”

Chapter 2

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“Nightmare Who?” The silence that followed was unnerving. The tick of a nearby clock rang out, sounding a hundred times louder to Celestia. Her gaze slowly moved from Spike to Twilight, back to Spike, and finally stopping on Twilight. She had first thought Twilight to be confused after waking up, but this was a bit more serious than just mild confusion.

Twilight’s jaw opened and closed several times before her voice started to function again. “Nightmare Moon! That’s what Luna called herself when she went all evil and tried to bring about eternal night!”

There was another silent pause before Celestia turned her head slightly to address the young dragon sitting next to Twilight. “Spike... Who is Luna?”

“I’m not sure,” Spike replied. “No pony I’ve ever met.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack as she stared at Celestia. How could she forget her own sister? How could she forget banishing Luna for a thousand years? Celestia turned back to Twilight. “Are you sure it wasn’t from a dream you had while you were out, Twilight?”

“A dream!” Twilight shouted. “This is your sister! Princess Luna! She’s not part of my dream!”

Spike and Celestia flinched at her outburst. With a calm voice Celestia simply said, “I don’t have a sister, Twilight.” Seeing Twilight’s confused face turn into one a pure disbelief she continued, “I am as old as the world itself, and have been watching over it since then. The sky is a part of me and I keep the sun and the moon running smoothly across it. I have no family, aside from those I take in. I know you’re confused, Twilight, but please try to remain calm. We will answer any questions you have.”

In a very soft voice Twilight asked, “Princess… Are you saying that Luna isn’t real?”

Celestia nodded. “I am.”

Twilight closed her eyes and muttered to herself, “This has to be a prank. Discord must be behind this.”

“Who’s Discord?” Spike asked, his question ignored by the two ponies.

With a practiced move, Celestia hopped onto the bed next to Twilight. “What’s the last thing you remember before waking up here, Twilight?”

Twilights gaze looked off as she recalled the last few weeks and the adventures she had been on. “We had just gotten back from the Crystal Empire two days ago. Yesterday, Spike helped me tidy the library and do some shopping. We had gone up to the Crystal Empire to meet the Equestria Games Inspector, as it was the chosen host for the games. We ended up meeting the wrong pony, though everything worked out in the end. Before that, we had spent a week reforming Discord. It was mostly Fluttershy who achieved that, though. That’s why I think this must be his doing, we released him and he lied to us about being reformed.”

“Tell me about Discord,” Celestia said softly. “Pretend I don’t know anything about him.”

Twilight turned to her, about to say something about the Princess’s memory, when she noticed the look on Celestia’s face. It was a mixture of concern and understanding. But her eyes had that look that meant she expected Twilight to do as she asked even though she had objections. She was very familiar with that particular look from her days as Celestia’s student. Twilight sighed softly. “Discord is a being of pure chaos. He actively seeks to cause chaos and undo the harmony of friendship between ponies and all other things. His appearance is rather monstrous, being made up of many animal parts. He has nearly unlimited magic, I don’t think there’s anything he couldn’t do if he wanted to, except resist the Elements of Harmony.”

Celestia nodded. “Magical artifacts of great power, I imagine.”

“Yes. Kindness, Honest, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. Six virtues that make up the best in ponies. I hold the Element of Magic, and my 5 friends each have one of the others. We used them to save Princess Luna, and encase Discord in stone when he broke free not too long ago,” Twilight explained. The lack of any recognition from her mentor and Spike was concerning, but for now she needed to figure out why they didn’t remember any of this.

After a pause to recall her encounters with Discord, she continued, “Last time Discord was free he spread chaos all over Equestria. Dirt turned to soap, the sun and moon changed positions every few minutes, and the laws of nature stopped working! He even managed to corrupt my friends’ minds and make them unable to use the Elements of Harmony. I had to use a memory spell to… A memory spell!”

Celestia blinked, surprised at the sudden outburst. “A what spell?”

“I developed a memory spell to help my friends come back from Discord’s corruption. It helps bring back shared memories. Things we did together. If this is something Discord did, it will allow you to remember the proper past!” Twilight leaned forward and touched her horn against Celestia’s skull, and without waiting, cast her spell.

A moment later, Twilight’s magic died off abruptly. Celestia blinked a few times. “That was fascinating, I’ve not seen a spell like that before....”

Tears were forming in Twilight’s eyes. “It… It didn’t work… Your memories aren’t gone… They never existed in the first place…”

Celestia grabbed Twilight in a hug, pulling the crying mare to her chest. “I know it’s hard, Twilight. I promise you I’ll be here to help you adjust back to your life here.” Spike joined in the hug, not wanting to see Twilight so sad. Celestia nuzzled her former student and whispered softly, “I’ll protect you this time.”

When Twilight woke up the next morning, she had a request: Parchment and quills. If her memories were wrong, or something else was going on, she wanted to know the truth and she wanted to document all of it. Celestia carried several stacks of parchment and a dozen quills with numerous ink bottles in her magic. Spike was riding on her back, reading her the newspaper headlines.

“Dream Wish’s funeral is tomorrow, just outside city borders.”

“Make a note that to alert the citizens that no protesting or riots will be tolerated. He has paid for his crime, and it is time to let his family and friends mourn,” Celestia commented, keeping her own emotions from rising up.

Spike scribbled out a note and turned back to the paper. “Manehattan had a small riot. Looks like an Anti-Griffon group and an Anti-Twilight group were protesting on the same day, and things got out of hoof. No deaths, but several injuries and property damage charges.”

Celestia shook her head to express her disappointment, but didn’t comment. Spike continued, “Speaking of Griffons. There’s a note here, looks like that the Canterlot Inquirer is hiring a Griffon author to do a column for them. Goldia Swift. She just moved to Equestria. They have a good photo of her as well, she’s very pretty.”

“Perhaps once Twilight is back up to speed, we can invite Ms. Swift over to the palace for formal introductions,” Celestia commented.

Spike scribbled out a reminder. “Of course. Assuming Twilight even wants to. She’s seems a bit different.”

“Spike.” Celestia stopped walking, just a few steps from the door. “I know this is tough, but she’s still Twilight. The last thing she needs is for us to treat her differently.”

“I know, but… She’s not the same Twilight that threatened the Griffon Prime Minister. She probably doesn’t even remember his name.”

Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle at that memory. “Actually, Spike. I believe she is. Just because she doesn’t remember doesn’t mean she wouldn’t make the same choices given the situation. Let’s just give her some time to recover.”

Spike sighed, “Of course.”

She continued to walk back to her room. “Now then, while I talk with Twilight, can you start writing up a draft for the announcement that Twilight has started to recover? No details, just let the population know that she’s awake again.”

“Sure thing, Princess,” Spike replied calmly.

Celestia’s magic grabbed the door and pushed it open as she approached. Twilight was sitting up in bed, a tray of nearly eaten food next to her. In her magic she held a fork and knife as she worked on her pancakes, cooked by Spike earlier as the palace staff had been given the day off.

She looked up as Celestia walked in. “These are good, Spike! Really good!”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Spike said. He jumped off Celestia and headed over to the large writing desk across the room.

“I’ve brought what I hope will be enough parchment for you,” Celestia said with a grin as she floated over the large stacks.

Twilight’s magic wrapped around one of the stacks and one of the quills, taking them from Celestia. “Perfect, thank you!”

The Princess set the rest down before climbing into bed with Twilight. “Now then. Where did you want to start?”

“My foalhood. You don’t have a sister, Princess Luna, but is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza real? She prefers to be called Cadence?” Celestia shook her head. “So Cadence wasn’t my foalsitter when I was small?”

“No, she wasn’t. I don’t know of any pony by the name of Cadence. As far as I am aware, you never needed a foal sitter. Your parents work allowed them to be with you,” Celestia answered.

Twilight scribbled down some notes. “Is my father still an astronomer?”

“Yes, he is.”

“And my mother is still a teacher?”

“Well, she’s a professor at the Academy. She’s in the magical research department so she doesn’t do much teaching,” Celestia explained, watching Twilight’s quill write out the details as she said them.

Twilight’s face scrunched up in thought. “Academy? Is that what you call your school? I assume I attended it.”

“And graduated with multiple degrees with honors,” Celestia said proudly. “It’s the Celestial Academy for Magical Studies. You got a degree in Theoretical Magic, Magical Research, and Applied Magics.”

Spike chimed in from across the room, “You also have minor degrees in Cultural Studies and Library Sciences!”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled. “Wow! That’s amazing, I assume it’s unusual to have so many degrees at my age?”

Celestia nodded. “Very. Most ponies your age only have one, if that. Your family was very proud of you. As was I.”

“So I attended the Academy, but I was also your student, right?”

Another nod from Celestia. “Yes, Twilight. During your first year at the Academy, I felt a strong surge of magic. A colt in your class had attempted to overpower you and use a form of mind control magic. It’s called the Simple Suggestions spell. Do you remember it?” Twilight shook her head no. “The target remains conscious and seemingly normal, but the caster is able to plant suggestions into the target’s mind. For example, I could implant the suggestion that Pegasi are lesser beings than other ponies, and you would start to act racist towards Pegasi without realizing you were under the effects of the spell.”

“That’s horrible! Surely such spells are illegal?”

“They are horrible and they are illegal. This colt had managed to figure out the casting based just on a description of the spell from a book. He attempted to use it on you to make you do his homework for him. Thankfully, your magic was able to stop him from tampering with you…” She paused. “However you experienced a magical surge. You started casting a number of spells at random without control. No damage or harm was done, but it frightened the students from becoming your friends after that.

“I felt the surge and came to find you. I offered to teach you control, as not many unicorns have the magical strength that you have. We became friends, and I decided to take you as a full-time student. Your passion for learning was unmatched by any unicorn in the past hundred years. I have great expectations for the things you will create in the future, Twilight.” Celestia gave her a warm, friendly smile.

Twilight’s quill jotted down all the information before she forgot any of it. “Wow! That’s so different than… My version.” Her gaze drifted over to Spike. “What about Spike?”

Celestia gave a knowing smile, “During the first few months of my tutelage, I had you attempt to hatch Spike. Doing so is perfectly possible for me, but beyond all but the most powerful of unicorns. The fact that you were able to do so on your second try, and at such a young age, was one of the reasons why I took you as my full-time student.”

Spike was suddenly at the bedside, holding up several pieces of parchment, “If you’re done talking about me like I’m not here, Princess, I have a draft for you to review.”

“Thank you, Spike. You’re a huge help,” Celestia replied with a small laugh, taking the parchment from his grasp.

Chapter 3

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Twilight sat quietly as Celestia and Spike talked. The document Spike had wrote appeared to be some sort of announcement that Celestia would be releasing to the press, about her waking up from her comatose state. After a minute her attention wandered back to her notes; she had nearly filled an entire page. She’d have to later go through and categorize the information.

The fact that so much of what she knew from her life was either wrong or completely missing was rather unnerving. Cadence was the one of the few ponies Twilight trusted completely. She had just been getting to used to thinking of her as her sister-in-law and now she didn’t even exist. How would Shining Armor react to that?

Twilight froze mid-thought. A frightening thought crept up from the back of her mind. Something she hadn’t considered before. With her parents being mostly who she remembered them to be, she had assumed her brother was too. But what if he wasn’t? “Princess.”

Celestia and Spike’s conversation stopped instantly, Celestia turning her full attention back to Twilight. “Yes, Twilight?”

“Do I still have Shining Armor as a brother?”

An unusual silence fell over Celestia and Spike as they exchanged looks. Celestia cleared her throat and spoke softly. “You did. He was a number of years older than you. He joined my royal guard at the same time you started at the Academy. Unfortunately, he was killed during his first assignment.”

Twilight’s eyes shot wide open. She had been bracing herself for being told that he wasn’t real. The fact that he was real but was dead was almost worse than if he hadn’t been real in the first place. “W-what? He…”

“He was stationed in a small town. A group of unicorns killed him while robbing a train that was passing through,” Celestia’s voice picked up a bit of volume. “He’s buried here in Canterlot, if you wish to visit him.”

Tears started to form in the corners of Twilight’s eyes. She looked away, trying to hold them back. “Can I be alone for a while, Princess?”

Celestia wanted to reach out and nuzzle her friend, but she simply nodded and got up. “Of course. I’ll come back when the doctor arrives to check up on you. Spike?” Spike climbed wordlessly on to Celestia’s back and the two of them quietly left the room. Only then did Twilight start to cry.

Twilight gently rubbed her foreleg where the needles that had kept her alive while she was in the coma had been. The doctor had taken them out after being told she ate pancakes without any troubles. He had run all sorts of magic over her and left after taking a quick blood sample. All traces of the curse were gone, but Twilight’s memory was still incorrect. The doctor had no explanation and recommended that she see a specialist.

Celestia had stayed in the room, but a distance off to give Twilight some privacy. Spike would be bringing in some tea and snacks soon. After leaving Twilight that morning, Celestia hadn’t been in to see her. Spike stopped by to see if she wanted lunch, but she had turned him down.

The door closed gently behind the doctor and his samples from Twilight, leaving Twilight and Celestia alone in silence. This silence was broken by Celestia. “How are you feeling?”

Twilight gave a soft sigh, rubbing her leg again. “Confused. Upset. I just… I still can’t think that something must have happened… That my Equestria is out there and this is… Some sort of bizarre mirror world like in the comic books Spike reads!”

Celestia couldn’t help but laugh at that statement. “Twilight, if you want to do research into comic books to try and figure out a way to return, you may. But I have a request.” She waited for Twilight’s attention. “Please also consider that this is the real world, and continue to try to remember or learn what you can so that you may continue your life here.” Twilight was about to respond when Celestia cut her off. “Just in case you are stuck here. Better to be prepared, correct?”

Twilight’s brow dropped slightly as she considered Celestia’s words. It did make sense to prepare for that outcome, as it was the most likely situation she had to admit. Celestia wasn’t saying she couldn’t do research and figure it out, just that she also had duties to this world as she was currently this world’s Twilight Sparkle. “Very well. I can do that. Even if it turns out I am not your Twilight Sparkle, I am still a Twilight Sparkle and I will always do my best to assist you, Princess.”

“I know you will, Twilight.” Celestia gave her a friendly smile. The door opened once more as Spike pushed a small cart into the room. Some tea and snacks were laid out, enough for all three of them. “Ah, good timing, Spike.”

The small dragon brought the cart right over to Twilight’s bedside, Celestia coming over behind him. Twilight leaned forward. “Is that chocolate cake?”

Spike grinned, “I went out and got it special for you.” He and Celestia climbed up and sat at the foot of the bed. Celestia’s horn lit up and started to distribute the snacks.

Twilight took a heaping forkful of cake and sighed happily. “Oh! This is so good.”

Celestia gave one of her famous small smiles. “I’m glad you still like chocolate cake. If you didn’t, I’d be convinced you were some mirror world Twilight.” Twilight, with cake crumbs on her face already, gave her an unamused look, which only made Celestia and Spike laugh.

Once the laughter died down, Celestia decided it was time to ask some questions. “Twilight, what do you remember about griffons?”

“Griffons? Well, I can only remember ever meeting one, and she wasn’t exactly the nicest… Why?”

Celestia gave a small smile. “You were close with the Griffon Prime Minister.”

“I was?” Twilight asked, a bit mystified at that thought.

“Actually, it’s a really good story. Spike, could you tell it?”

The young dragon nodded. “Oh yeah! It’s one of my favorites!” He set down his cake and grinned. “So Celestia and the griffons haven’t had the best relationship. Griffons are a bit aggressive and they see Celestia as being too soft. So when the trade agreement was running out, Celestia asked you to go in her place. The griffons were not happy that Celestia didn’t come in person. You told them that you had just as much power as she did and that your word was just as valid.”

Spike jumped up and held out an invisible sword. “One of the Griffon Ministers challenged you to a duel, to prove you were worthy. He pulled his sword and pointed it at you! It’s an old griffon custom that is rarely used, but still valid. You grabbed a sword off another griffon and told him first to draw blood was the victor!”

Twilight’s jaw dropped slightly. “I did what?”

Spike continued on with his story. “He launched at you, and you managed to fight him off pretty easily. After a few moments, you called out ‘Now it’s my turn!’ You lunged forward and stabbed the sword through his leg!” Spike paused, making the stabbing motion with his invisible sword. “You pulled the sword back out and pointed it at the Prime Minister and told him that if any other griffons challenged your authority you’d declare war and that you would personally kill all the Ministers!”

“But-! I would never-!”

“The Prime Minister loved that,” Spike cut in. “Griffons love shows of power like that. You then managed to negotiate a much more favorable trade agreement and after several months even created a free travel agreement. We built out our railroads into their country and connected some of the larger griffon cities.”

Celestia smiled. “You were bluffing, Twilight. You would never declare war over something so petty, but you knew that putting on a tough stance would improve the griffons’ opinion of you. It just worked much better than either of us expected.”

“I had no idea you even knew how to sword fight; it was awesome!” Spike plopped back down onto his rear and picked his cake back up.

“The Griffon Prime Minister even came personally to visit Equestria when the railroads were under construction. The two of you spent time chatting, and you seemed to regard him almost as a friend,” Celestia explained. “Thanks to your efforts, we’re much closer allies with the griffons, and you’ve become somewhat of a public figure in their country.”

Twilight’s jaw slowly closed, having been hanging open since she had been told she stabbed someone. After a moment she just took a deep breath to calm down. “That sounds extremely unlike me, but it does sound like a great plan to help international relations. But why send me? Why not send a trained government official?”

Celestia suddenly laughed. “Oh, right, I’m sorry. I should have known you wouldn’t remember how Equestria operates.” She recomposed herself after her laughter, taking a sip of tea. “Tell me, Twilight, how do you remember Equestria's government running?”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t like being wrong, even if she couldn’t help it. “Well, you and Princess Luna select members of the court. The court makes the laws. You also select judges to preside over any cases. You and Luna can also step in above the judges and make decisions yourself, if you wanted to.”

“How many ponies were in the court?”

“Oh, um, I think it was around thirty.”

Celestia nodded. “Well, Twilight. It does work similar here, with one minor difference.” Twilight waited patiently for her to continue. “You see, there are only two ponies serving on the Royal Court. Myself, Her Royal Highness Princess of Equestria, and the equally beloved and powerful Countess of Canterlot.”

“Countess of Canterlot?” Twilight asked. “Who is she?”

“You!” Celestia giggled. “I gave you the title and made up the idea of the Royal Court just to give an excuse as for why you were suddenly making decisions about how Equestria is run.”

Once again Twilight found her jaw flopping open, “Me? But, what?”

Spike snorted at her reaction. “That’s the same reaction she had when you first gave her the title.”

Celestia laughed and leaned forward to nuzzle her friend. “I graduated you from being my personal student, and granted you a title of nobility above the Knights and other noble families. Technically, Canterlot as a city, as well as most of the government run programs, like the weather factory, rail lines, and mail system, are yours to rule as you see fit. I can, of course, override you, but so far you’ve done a wonderful job.”

Twilight’s eyes rolled up and she fainted, her plate of half eaten cake gently falling as her magical grasp vanished. Spike started laughing. “Yup, she did that the first time too!”

“Looks like we’ll have to help build her self confidence again, if she doesn’t start remembering it soon,” Celestia commented. She gave a small smile and tucked Twilight in under the sheets. “Come on, Spike, let’s go release that press statement. And then you can fetch her parents for dinner.”

Spike started to clean up the snacks, snapping her a fake salute first. “Sure thing!”

Chapter 4

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Twilight awoke to a gentle rocking motion and a familiar warmth under her. She opened her eyes to find Celestia’s mane in her face. An unfamiliar hallway slowly moved past on the other side of the multi-hued mane. She glanced back to find that she was indeed laying on Celestia’s back.

“Oh, good. You’ve woken up. I was just about to wake you,” Celestia said softly, coming to a stop. She used her magic to gently set Twilight down. Her legs were a bit weak, but she could stand on her own weight. “I hope you’re hungry; it’s time for dinner.”

Twilight flashed an embarrassed smile. “Did I really faint?”

Celestia gave a soft giggle. “You did.”

“I’m sorry-”

“No need to apologize, Twilight. You fainted when I first gave you the title and position.” Celestia smiled warmly. “Now then, I have brought your parents in for dinner tonight. They’ve missed you very much. I’ve told them you’re having issues remembering things from before the coma. For now, let’s keep your alternate memories between us, okay?”

Twilight nodded once, “Of course, Princess.”

“Another thing. Please call me Celestia. We’re basically equals politically, and you’re my friend, Twilight.”

“I’ll try… Celestia. I’ve only ever called you Princess that I can remember, though, but I’ll try nonetheless.”

“Thank you, that’s all I can ask of you.” Celestia turned and pushed open a nearby set of doors with magic. A small dining room was on the otherside. Twilight somewhat recognized it; she had been in a dining room similar to this one when she was studying under the Princess. Of course, it didn’t match up with her memories properly.

Already at the table were two ponies. Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Her parents. They looked exactly as they had the last time Twilight had seen them. She was about to run over to them when her parents finally looked up to see them walk in. “Twilight!” Twilight’s mother ran over and wrapped Twilight in a spine crushing hug, openly weeping as she nuzzled against the side of Twilight’s head. “Oh, my little Twily!”

“Now, now, honey. Don’t hurt her.” Twilight’s father said as he approached the Princess. “Spike said she was having some issues with her memories?”

Celestia nodded, her gaze fixed on Twilight. “Her memories from before the curse are muddy. The doctor didn’t find anything wrong, we hope that with some time she’ll be perfectly fine.”

Twilight’s mother’s grip tightened even more, “Oh, my poor sweet Twily!”

“Mom! Can’t! Breathe! Need! Air!” Twilight’s face started to turn blue as she gasped, trying to take in as much air as she could.

“Allow me,” Celestia said calmly. She grabbed Twilight’s mother with her magic and forcibly pulled her away from Twilight. Twilight fell to the floor taking several deep breaths. “We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Twilight again.”

“Sorry for loving my daughter,” Twilight’s mother mumbled, giving Celestia a dirty look which went completely ignored. Celestia’s full focus was on Twilight. Twilight Velvet sighed and turned back to her daughter. “How do you feel, Twilight?”

Once she had regained her breath, Twilight slowly stood back up. She put on a smile. “I’m okay, mom. I am having some trouble remembering things, but Spike and Celestia have been helping me.”

Her dad stepped over and gave her a much more reasonable hug. “I hope you are planning on taking some time off from work to recover.”

“You know me dad, just a few days and I’ll be right as rain.” Twilight nuzzled him and turned to the table. “Now, let’s eat. I’m starved!”

As if he had been waiting for the cue, Spike walked in. “Food is served!” He called out as he pushed a cart covered with plates. “Next time, Celestia, wait for the staff to be back before holding a fancy dinner.”

The meal was mostly quiet. Night Light politely asked Celestia about some recent news he had seen in the papers, to which she was happy to share her opinions on. When Celestia asked him about his work in the observatory, he had some big news to share. “We’ve recently agreed to a cultural exchange… With the griffons!”

“Griffons?” Celestia asked, genuinely surprised. “I was unaware they even had an interest in the stars.”

Twilight’s father laughed. “Ever since Twily gave them a talking to, apparently they’ve been gaining interest in some of our sciences. They have telescope technology, obviously, but they never really developed a science behind them. We’ve got three griffons who just came to Canterlot that are going to be learning from us. Likewise, three of our senior astronomers left for their brand new observatory to help them get everything set up.”

Twilight figured she would have been excited about the prospect of griffons and ponies getting along and exchanging information. It was certainly the type of cultural exchange she would recommended, if Celestia asked for her opinion. A part of her did find the idea of teaching the griffons astronomy exciting, she wanted to meet with them, so she smiled at him. “That’s great, dad! Maybe once I’m back to 100%, I can come meet them.”

Celestia smiled warmly. “That’s a great idea, Twilight. Actually, one of the newspapers here in Canterlot just hired a griffon writer. Perhaps we should hold a semi-formal function to meet our new neighbors and co-workers?”

“Sounds like fun!” Twilight said. She’d have to do some research to regain her general knowledge on griffons, but actually meeting some of them would be a great experience. She had met griffons before, in her version of her memories, but she didn’t know if they were still accurate.

Twilight’s father seemed equally excited by the prospect. “I know they would all love the opportunity to talk to Twily. They asked about her when they first arrived; she’s quite well known in their culture now.”

“The Prime Minister even sent us a pair of very expensive looking swords and a small pile of bits right after news of the curse came out,” Twilight’s mother commented. “He seems like a very nice pony… Er, griffon I mean.”

Twilight quietly finished up the food on her plate as Celestia and her parents talked about Twilight’s relationship with the griffons. She was listening--how could she not--but she couldn’t help but notice that the usual warmth her parents had was missing when they addressed Celestia. Likewise, Celestia spoke to her parents like she spoke when she was in court. There was a very noticeable distance between her parents and Celestia, one that wasn’t there in her version.

Spike tapped her on the side, before whispering. “Everything okay, Twilight? You’re staring off into space.”

“Yeah, was just thinking. The food was really good. When did you get to be such a good cook?”

He blushed at the compliment. “I’ve had some free time since you were… You know.”

The sound of silence caught Twilight’s ear. She looked back up to find that her parents and Celestia had finished up their meals. “Well, that was rather enjoyable. Thank you, Spike,” Celestia said, her tone more formal than Twilight was used to.

“Yes, thank you, Spike,” Twilight’s parents echoed.

Spike grinned. “Glad you liked it.”

Celestia stood up. “Twilight, let’s walk your parents to the front gate. I think a little walk will be good for you.”

Twilight and her parents got up. “Sure, Celestia.” Twilight walked over and started to follow Celestia, her parents on either side of her. They made idle chat, telling her to rest up and get better. Telling her not to worry about anything and to take things slow. She just nodded and agreed, not wanting them to be too concerned.

Twilight kept catching glimpses of Celestia peering back at her, but they never made eye contact. She would ask Spike next time she could; he would be sure to have some idea as to what was going on. Celestia might be honest with her, but she didn’t want to run the risk of upsetting the Princess.

She gave each of her parents a hug and told them she would come see them again soon, once she was back to full strength. They left with a brief goodbye to Celestia. “Did you enjoy seeing them?” Celestia asked quietly as they watched the two ponies walk down the path back to the city.

“Of course,” Twilight replied. “I just wish I was the right Twilight.”

“You’re still Twilight, even if you can’t remember. You don’t need to worry about being right or wrong. You are you,” Celestia said, her voice still soft. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

Twilight was about to say she felt fine when she suddenly gave a huge yawn. “Bed sounds good,” she answered instead, giving Celestia a friendly grin.

The walk was short, with Celestia staying next to Twilight the entire time. When they reached a simple looking door, Celestia spoke up. “I have some paperwork I need to take care of before tomorrow. Spike should be around if you need anything.”

“Oh, alright, Celestia.” Twilight gave her a friendly smile. “Have a good night.”

“Sleep well, Twilight.” Celestia gave her a quick nuzzle before walking off slowly.

Twilight watched Celestia walk off before heading into the room. Spike was fluffing up the pillows in her bed. “Oh, hey Twilight.”

“Hi, Spike,” she replied as she climbed up onto the bed. “Can I ask about something that bothered me? Maybe it was something I knew about before...”

“Of course! I’ll answer if I can,” he replied happily, helping pull the sheets over her.

Twilight bit her lower lip, hesitating slightly. “My parents and Celestia seemed to be… not that friendly.”

Spike sighed. “Well, ever since Shining Armor passed away, you’ve been all your parents had. Celestia took you in as a student, so you moved here to be with her. You only see your parents once a year, at Hearth’s Warming. They’re just a bit unhappy with Celestia for taking you away.”

“But it was my choice, right?”

“Of course it was, and they are happy that you’re so successful and doing something you love. But they are still unhappy about you being gone from their lives. After the curse, I overheard them and Celestia arguing. I think your mother blamed Celestia for what happened, and Celestia actually yelled at them.”

Twilight was a bit shocked. “What did she say?”

“I didn’t catch all of it,” he admitted. “But I did hear her say you were the most important pony in her life and that she would do everything she could to protect you.”

“I see.” Twilight wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that Celestia and her parents didn’t get along, but she could somewhat understand her parents point of view. But Celestia calling Twilight the most important pony in her life? Twilight couldn’t figure that one out. At some point during her train of thought, her breathing slowed and she fell asleep.

Twilight was woken up the following morning by the sound of conversation. She groaned as she pushed herself to sit up, opening her eyes. In the room with her were three mares dressed in french maid costumes. Or perhaps those were uniforms, as they appeared to be in the middle of cleaning the room.

Twilight blinked. They had been cleaning the room. Now they were frozen mid-movement, staring at her. The silence seemed to stretch on forever until Spike’s morning groans filled the room. The young dragon got up from his basket and stretched. “Good morning,” he mumbled as he started to shuffle towards the bathroom.

“Good morning, Spike,” Twilight replied automatically, her attention still mostly on the three maids in the room.

All at once they gasped and came running over to her. “Lady Sparkle! You’re awake!” Twilight’s ears flattened as they began to bombard her with questions and statements. Eventually, after a few minutes, they suddenly went quiet. “We’ve got to get the Princess!” All three mares took off for the door, leaving Twilight a bit stunned.

Spike came walking back in from the bathroom. “Ahh, good morning Twilight. Feeling any better today?” Twilight just flopped back, her body bouncing as it hit the pillow. She gave a long sigh as her answer.

Chapter 5

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“You need to greet ponies as you walk by. Just a simple ‘Good morning’ should be enough, but you usually greet everypony by name. You’ll have to start relearning those.” Spike was brushing Twilight’s tail as he explained to her how she was supposed to act walking around the palace. The maids had not returned once they ran out to get Celestia, thankfully giving Twilight and Spike time alone for him to talk through things with her.

He had already gone into great detail all about the report that Celestia put out that he had written. It was huge national news when she had been cursed; after all, she was a high profile public figure, second only to Celestia herself. Twilight had been a bit embarrassed to know that the whole country was aware of her condition and now recovery. Obviously the part about her memories being mostly wrong was kept a secret.

A brush floating in Twilight’s magic was brushing her mane gently, trying to get it under control before they left the room. Tangles were tackled and dismantled with smooth efficiency. “Okay, greet ponies. I hope I’m friendly towards the staff?” Twilight asked.

Spike nodded. “You are, so give them a smile. But remember that we are headed for breakfast, so we’re not expected to stop and chat. Most of them will bow and address you as Lady Sparkle, so don’t act surprised.”

“Right,” Twilight said with a bit less confidence.

“Oh, and you need to wear this!” Spike jumped off the bed and ran over to a dresser. He pulled open the top drawer and rummaged through it for a brief moment before he removed an ornate jewelry box laced with winding trails of gold and platinum. “Celestia gave this to you, and you always wear it when you go out.” Popping open the chest with one quick flick, the inside revealed a necklace with a thick silver chain and her cutie mark printed on the front. It reminded Twilight of a similar but smaller version of Celestia’s own neck-piece in shape.

She gently took it with her magic and slipped it around her neck. After a moment, she commented with interest. “It’s a lot lighter than I expected. I can barely feel it.”

“Well, it’s enchanted,” Spike said casually as he put the box away. “Now, we need to get going. It’s nearly time for breakfast.”

Twilight moved over to a nearby mirror and quickly double checked that her mane and tail were presentable. “Okay, I’m good to go.” When Spike didn't climb onto her back she turned to him, frowning a bit. “Don’t tell me you don’t ride on my back.”

Spike blushed a bit. “No, I did. It’s just that I didn't want to add any extra strain for you. I mean, you struggled a bit-” He was cut off as Twilight’s magic grabbed him in a lavender aura.

He was gently lifted up and placed on her back, the brief--nearly forgotten--sensation of weightlessness sending a small bout of butterflies to run amok in Spike’s stomach. Twilight turned and gave him a smile. “There we go. I feel much more relaxed with you there. It’s a... familiar weight.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Spike sighed, giving in. If it made Twilight comfortable, he wasn't going to argue the point. Besides. The nostalgia of riding on Twilight’s back was enough for him to be silent and savour the old feeling. “Do you remember the way to the dining room?”

Twilight nodded and headed for the door. “I believe so. Tell me if I miss a turn.” With almost hesitant trotting, she slowly made her way out into the hallway. It was empty, but the sound of hoofsteps echoed from around the corner. With a deep breath, Twilight held her head up high as she started to walk down the hall.

Spike sat as he normally did on her back, his claws gently holding onto the fur of her coat near the base of her neck. “Last chance for breakfast in bed?”

“Not going to happen, Spike,” she whispered. She rounded the corner and froze mid-step. There were dozens of ponies all standing about in the hallway, talking to each other idly. Only a few mares dressed in maid outfits walked down the hall with any purpose.

Somepony spotted Twilight and called out. “Lady Sparkle!” Almost immediately the throng of ponies were lined up along either side of the hall, watching her. Even the maids had cleared a path for her, and stood diligently should they be called upon by the Countess.

Twilight forced a smile and started walking down the hall. The sight, admittedly, was rather unnerving. “Good morning, everypony.”

The crowd bowed, somehow completely in sync. “Good morning, Lady Sparkle,” they replied in unison.

Awkwardly, Twilight continued to walk down the line of bowing ponies. Once she was most of the way through them, though, she stopped. “Please, as you were.” It might have been an awkward command to give, but it seemed to work. All the ponies raised their heads and began milling about once more, breaking the neat lines they had formed in seconds. Spike gave her side a tap and she continued walking before any pony attempted to start a conversation with her.

As she rounded the corner she could hear them muttering to each other about her being awake and looking just as good as ever. It was a bit strange and it made Twilight feel uncomfortable. As it turned out, she did remember the right path. And after only a few more encounters with staff members, Twilight grasped the handle of the door and swung it open gracefully. At least her comatose state hadn't dampened her ability to cast magic, to her knowledge.

Celestia was just getting settled in her usual seat. She looked up at the sound of the door. “Twilight! I didn't know you were feeling up to eating here. I was going to order breakfast to be sent to your room.”

Twilight gave the princess a warm smile as she walked over. “I’m feeling just fine, and I don’t want to be stuck in bed all day.” She let Spike jump off before she sat down. He took a seat next to her, putting Twilight between him and Celestia.

“Then I am very glad to have your company,” Celestia gave her a smile. “I see you’re wearing your necklace.”

Twilight glanced down at it; she had already gotten completely used to it’s weight. “Spike said it was a gift from you. It’s very pretty.”

“I gave it to you shortly after granting you your title. I very rarely saw you without it on after that.” A joyful expression threatened to arise from Celestia’s face. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you with it on again.”

Spike leaned forward, looking over at Celestia. “All of us being here like this is almost like how it used to be!”

Celestia chuckled softly. “Almost, Spike.”

The door opened as three stallions marched in, each carrying a large plate of food in their magic. They floated the plates over in varying hues to the table and set them down gently. They bowed in unison. “Breakfast is served,” the middle stallion said.

“Thank you; you are excused,” Celestia replied. She waited for them to swiftly leave the room before turning to Twilight. “So, tell me Twilight: What was life like in your version?”

Twilight grabbed her silverware with her magic, surprised by how good her food smelled. “It wasn't as busy as this, that’s for sure. I think the staff was only a dozen or so ponies, minus all the nobles and politicians who came in every day.”

“Only a dozen? How did everything get done?”

Twilight tapped her chin. In hindsight, she never questioned it before. “You know, I have no idea. I never saw anypony cleaning, but it was always spotless. Must have been magic.”

Celestia and Spike chuckled softly. “And you never helped run Equestria, right?” Spike asked.

“No, I was typically too busy studying to pay any attention to court or politics,” she answered with a blush. The conversation died off for several minutes as they started to eat. The food before her tasted even better than it smelled, which was quite the declaration. Questions started to form in Twilight’s mind about her history in this world. Eventually she had to ask. “Celestia, in my memories, I’m still considered your student… What made you decide that I was ready to be graduated and work on the court?”

Celestia hummed softly as she thought back. “You know, I think it was your idea.” After another brief pause she nodded. “Yes, I’m sure it was. I believe you started asking if you could help me. I gave you an actual court case to work on, disguised as a hypothetical assignment from me. I applied the solution you came up with and it worked. When I told you what I had did you were furious with me. You thought it was irresponsible to let ‘a mere student’ make such big decisions. So I graduated you on the spot and over the next few days the royal court gained a second member.”

Twilight blushed a bit; she completely agreed with her other self about it being irresponsible to apply her solution to a theoretical problem to a real world solution. “That does sound like something I would do…” She muttered, a bit embarrassed.

“If you’re feeling up for it, I would like for you to spend your day with me in court,” Celestia said, suddenly changing the topic. “I anticipate a large number of ponies will show up simply to see you once more.”

Nervously, Twilight nodded. She wasn't expecting Celestia to ask her to do something of this magnitude so soon. “Of course, I think I can handle that. As long as you don’t make me make any huge political decisions, I believe I should be fine.”

Celestia laughed. “No, I wouldn't do that to you.” With a quick spell, a golden ethereal pocket-watch appeared in front of her, before it vanished just as suddenly. “Let’s say... Forty minutes from now we get settled, and then we’ll begin court shortly thereafter.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Twilight replied.

“Spike, please make sure you get her up to speed on court procedure. If you need me, I shall be taking a hot bath.” Celestia winked at Twilight and vanished with a flash. The pop of the teleportation spell seemed to echo in the empty dining room.

Spike groaned, but continued eating without even pausing to finish his groan. “Well, there goes my plans. Once we’re done eating, I can take you to your office, I guess.”

Twilight blinked several times;she had been staring directly at Celestia when she teleported out, and nearly blanked out in thought. “You had plans?”

“It’s double donut day. I was going to go pig out until I couldn't move, but I suppose helping you is a better use of my time,” he replied casually. Twilight blinked once more, this time out of surprise. “Better eat up; court usually lasts ‘til sundown.”

“R-Right.” Twilight was a bit shaken by the sudden change in events. What had been a nice breakfast had suddenly turned into her last few minutes of free time before her entire day would be spent trying to learn how to be a good leader for an entire nation. A nation whose history she only somewhat knew.

Spike was standing on a large desk, ruler in his hand. He swung the ruler out and pointed it at the purple unicorn in front of him. “Again!”

Twilight sighed and resisted the urge to pull the ruler away from him. “Be courteous, but firm. The best solution may not make them happy. Think of the bigger picture. When in doubt, trust my gut judgement of the situation. Above all else, don’t ever trust Celestia’s math without double checking it.”

“Good, very good. We don’t want a repeat of when she accidentally gave the zebra tribes ten times as many bits as she thought we were giving them. That really hurt us economically.” Spike jumped down to the floor. “If you can remember all that, you’ll do just fine. I’ll be there to fill you in on anything you don’t know.”

She got up and gave him a quick nuzzle. “Thank you, Spike. You’re a huge help.”

“Well I am the personal assistant to both the Countess of Canterlot and the Princess of Equestria. I know my stuff!” He puffed out his chest and grinned.

Twilight giggled and patted him on the head. A knock on the door interrupted them, “Lady Sparkle. Princess Celestia has requested your presence in the council room.”

Spike climbed onto Twilight’s back as she headed for the door. Standing just outside the room was a tan unicorn mare. Spike smiled his childish grin towards the visitor. “Heya, Jot Down!”

Jot Down bowed slightly as Twilight exited the room. “Lady Sparkle. Mister Spike.”

Twilight had not seen this pony before now, but based on Spike’s reaction, she figured it would be best to appear friendly. “Good morning, Jot Down. I presume that Celestia is preparing for court.”

“She is,” Jot Down replied, standing back upright. “I have been asked to escort you to the council room.”

“Then please, lead the way.” Twilight gestured in what she hoped appeared to be an absentmindedly way to prompt Jot Down to lead her in the right direction down the hallway without giving away the fact that she did not know where she was going.

It seemed to work as Jot Down turned and strode off towards Twilight’s right. Twilight followed just a few steps behind her, trying to be as casual about it as she could. The layout of the palace was just different enough that she didn't know where they were headed. She had found the dining hall just because she had been there once before and could remember the path. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to see you up and about, Lady Sparkle. We were all quite worried that you’d never wake up.”

Twilight nodded, unsure how to reply to her. Even though Jot Down’s tone was formal, she could feel the emotion behind those words. Here, Twilight was someone very important to the ponies in the palace. Important to all of Equestria. She was starting to feel even more like she wasn't the right pony to be in this position.

Chapter 6

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Jot Down thankfully stayed silent the rest of the walk. The rooms they walked by were busy with staff members cleaning and going about their business. Twilight received several looks and smiles, but few ponies stopped to say good morning to her. The maze of corridors they walked through was starting to fit into place as they walked by a large ballroom that Twilight was familiar with: it was the same one used for the Grand Galloping Gala in her memories. They then passed by the main entrance, right where it should be.

If Twilight’s memory of the palace was somewhat accurate, as it was appearing to be, then they were headed for one of the most important rooms in the palace. They approached a large set of lavish double doors engraved with Celestia’s cutie mark that Jot Down opened with her magic. It was the throne room. Or at least, that’s what Twilight would have called it. There was a distinct lack of any sort of throne. A large wooden table sat where the raised platform that held Celestia’s throne should be. The room looked nearly identical to Twilight’s memory in all other aspects, even down to the way the shadows fell across the tile floor.

Celestia was seated behind the wooden table, holding several scrolls in her magic, reading through one while glancing at the others periodically. Jot Down and Twilight quickly made their way over to her, with Jot Down glancing at clipboards brimming with papers. A Princess’s work never seemed to end. “Princess, I have brought Lady Sparkle as requested.”

“Thank you, Jot Down,” the Princess replied without breaking her focus.

Jot Down cleared her throat. “Princess, I am still of the opinion that letting Lady Sparkle recover properly would be best.”

Celestia’s gaze drifted over to the mare, her scrolls slowly floating down to the table. “Thank you, Jot Down.” Her tone was less than friendly. Almost stiffly, Jot Down gave a small bow, and walked off. As soon as the secretary left, Celestia’s mood and tone brightened considerably. “Please, Twilight, come have a seat with me.”

Twilight slowly walked around the table, keeping her gaze on the path in front of her. She could feel Celestia watching her. While not intentionally meant to be imposing, the sensation left a pinprick-sensation across her coat as she traveled the length of the table. Spike jumped from her back suddenly, landing onto the table with a soft thud.

Once she had taken her seat next to Celestia, she spared a glance up towards the seemingly-towering alicorn. Celestia had a small smile on her face as she looked down at Twilight. “Why did you want me here, Celestia? I don’t mind trying to help, of course, but I don’t think I’m qualified for something like this yet. I mean, my memories-”

“--Have nothing to do with your judgement,” Celestia cut her off. “You’re still the same mare that I named Countess of Canterlot. I know you’ll do just fine. All you have to do is listen to the problem, and help me figure out what to do about it. It’s very simple.” Her smile grew. “Besides, I like your company.”

Twilight chuckled nervously. “I’ll try my best, Celestia.”

“That is all I’ve ever asked of you, Twilight.”

Spike picked up one of the scrolls Celestia had been working on, scanning it quickly. “Just relax, Twilight. You’re plenty smart for all this easy political stuff.”

“Spike. Politics isn’t easy, it’s-”

“Equestrian Revised Book of Law. Thirty-Second Edition, Section XII, Article VI, Subsection III,” Spike said, cutting her off.

Twilight remembered the book in question with ease as the knowledge sprung forth. She had read it once when she was younger, cover to cover over the course of two months and memorized it with little effort. “Any intelligent creature who purposefully commits physical, psychological, or magical harm on another intelligent creature inside the Kingdom of Equestria shall be subject to a fair trial presided by a judge of Equestria’s courts’ choosing, in front of a jury of unbiased selected Equestrian citizens.”

Spike crossed his arms. “See? You have all the laws memorized. If it’s not clear cut, just listen to them and use your best judgement. You don’t have to make everypony happy; you just have to do your best. It’s that simple.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, looking back at Celestia.

The alicorn nodded. “Really. I’ll be here to give you my opinion, and together we can come to a decision.” Twilight took a deep breath and nodded once. “Good. With that settled, let us hear the first case!” Celestia called out.

The doors, with hardly any warning, opened and a handful of ponies started to stream into the meeting and taking their seats. Twilight and Celestia sat up straight, calm and collected smiles on their faces as they were greeted. The ponies were very happy to see Twilight up and about.

The hours passed by quickly. Twilight found that more often than not her first instincts were the best option, and only once did Celestia tell Twilight that her suggestion was off-kilter. Spike was also supportive, giving her quick tidbits of history or a change in a certain law whenever Twilight’s memory was off. It was well after dinner by the time the doors closed for the final time.

Celestia yawned and stretched as she stood up. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Twilight’s head slowly fell forward and made impact with the table, causing Spike to jump up startled at the dull sound that resonated. She groaned. “I never realized how tedious your job was, Celestia.”

“Now that you know; don’t you want to help me more often?” Celestia gave a knowing smile.

Twilight slowly turned her head so she could look up at Celestia, a similar smirk on her face as she spoke with absolutely no sarcasm whatsoever in her tone. “I’d love to.”

With a grin, Celestia grabbed Twilight in her aura and casually flicked her horn upwards. The action lifted the lavender mare and gently placed her between Celestia’s wings. “There. Now, let’s go find some dinner and call it a night.”

“I’m not so tired that I can’t walk,” Twilight objected in protest.

Celetia headed for the door. “Too bad. You stay put, young lady.”

Twilight relaxed, firmly yet softly holding on to Celestia as she walked. It was a bit strange to feel this familiar with the Princess, but Twilight enjoyed it. Her Celestia had always been a mentor or a leader--perhaps even a mother--but... never a friend. She would have never called Celestia her equal.

A sour note drifted through her mind. She actually liked this version of Celestia more than her Celestia. It was almost like she was betraying her Celestia, as silly as it sounded. She wasn’t even sure if her Celestia was real or just a figment of her comatose dreams. Tomorrow she’d start looking into the possibilities of being in an alternate reality.

It was hard to believe that today was only her second full day in this alternate Equestria. That first evening when she awoke in bed seemed like so long ago. She had just accepted that this world was different and somehow that was okay. She knew she should be more upset (maybe even panicking), but she felt safe. Doubly so as she absentmindedly nuzzled one of Celestia’s wings.

Logically, she knew that perhaps it was because she really did belong here. A world without crazy magical adventures and ancient evils. A world where she was a highly respected and powerful member of the government. A world where she was best friends with the immortal Princess, instead of being just another name in a long list of personal students. But she didn’t want to give up without at least doing some research.

First thing tomorrow morning, she would head down to that Academy that Celestia mentioned. They would have a library and she would find anything and everything related to crossing realities. From her own memories, she knew that there were ponies experimenting with such magics; it would be a surprise if they weren’t doing so here. If she couldn’t find anything useful, she’d ask Celestia about any royal archives and work from there.

By the time Twilight had sorted her thoughts and created a detailed schedule for tomorrow, they arrived at the dining room. Celestia levitated Twilight down into her seat. “Thanks, Celestia.”

“Of course, Twilight.” Celestia sat next to Twilight, and requested something quick and warm for dinner. The waiter pony took off for the kitchen.

Twilight glanced around the room, realizing that Spike was missing. “Where’s Spike?”

Celestia smiled. “Spike works very hard to help you. I’m sure he’s in your office preparing all your paperwork and getting everything organized. He can take care of himself.”

“I know he can, but I can’t help but want to baby him. He’ll always be little Spikey to me.” Twilight said, allowing her lips to upturn a bit. After a brief pause, Twilight gathered up the courage to ask Celestia about her day plans. “I was hoping that tomorrow morning I could head to the Academy. I want to do some research.”

Celestia didn’t reply right away. The large, white wings on her back shifted a bit as her face took on a carefully-crafted look that bode no emotion. “On finding out if this is your real home or not?” Twilight nodded. Celestia seemed to hum quietly to herself in thought. “I did say you could go. The ponies at the academy will know you on sight, of course. You might also run into your mother there.”

“If it turns out that it all was just some dream or hallucination while I was in the coma, then I’ll tell my parents about it… But if I really am from some other Equestria, there’s no reason to worry them about it right now. I’ll just have Spike help me make something up if I run into her, I guess.”

“Twilight… If you switched places with my Twilight, what would she be doing right now?”

“If we swapped places there’s a chance she’s still… Asleep,” Twilight said as tactfully as she could. “Spike would alert my friends when she didn’t wake up. They might take me to the hospital, or contact my Princess Celestia. If she did wake up, I know she’ll figure out as quickly as I did that things were wrong, like I did.”

Celestia nodded. “I don’t want to sound cruel, but I do not think that swapping places across worlds is possible. Certainly not without any sign of disturbance.”

Twilight tapped her chin. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point. That time I used Star Swirl’s Time Travel spell, for example. It caused this huge wind and all these bright lights. Not exactly subtle.”

“Time Travel spell? You mean you traveled through time?” Celestia asked, looking rather impressed. Such a spell did not exist, to her knowledge at least.

Twilight looked up, confused for a moment. “Oh, don’t have that one? I can write it out later if you want; it’s pretty complex. One-time use, too. I was visited by a version of myself who looked like she had been in this fierce battle from a week in the future. Due to some misunderstandings I ended up spending the whole week on edge and caused all the bad things myself. Once I had the time travel spell I tried to go back to warn myself that it was all for nothing but…”

“The past you misunderstood, thus completing the loop. Yes, I figured there would be such limitations. You cannot change the past, after all.” Celestia smiled. Was there a tint of sadness, Twilight wondered. It vanished before she could scrutinize it further. “But I would appreciate a copy of that spell for study purposes. If it works, perhaps you can share more spells we don’t have.”

Twilight hummed softly. “What if I’m not from an alternate world after all? Would that mean I invented these spells in my dream?”

“Assuming they work, then yes; you would have. It would not be the first time you’ve invented a spell.” Their conversation was cut off as the waiter pony returned, carrying several plates in his magic. He laid out the dishes, some form of pasta dish that Twilight wasn’t familiar with, and left. “Ahh, smells wonderful,” Celestia commented.

“It does,” Twilight agreed. She tried a small bite to find that it tasted just as good as it smelled.

After a few minutes of quiet eating, Celestia spoke up once more. “Tell me a story from your memories, Twilight. A story about your time with the other me.”

Twilight set down her fork, thinking back through her time with the Princess. After a few moments in contemplation, she finally settled on a good story. “When I was younger, I read that strong unicorns were able to teleport. With my cutie mark meaning magic, and with you as my teacher, I felt sure I would be able to learn how. I pestered you about it for months until you finally gave in. You helped me learn all the theory behind it, all the safety concerns, before you would even let me attempt to cast it.

“I think I teleported a few stride lengths my first time. It seemed so far back then though. When I finished, I fell over panting. It was so hard! You picked up me, tucked me into bed for a nap, and told me how proud you were of me for getting it to work on my first try.” A faint reminiscing look in Twilight’s eyes arose as she sat there in silence. “We practiced together on and off for another two years before I had mastered it. I never forgot that smile you gave me that first time, though.”

When Twilight looked up at Celestia, she found that Celestia had a certain glimmer in her eyes. Was it adoration, or perhaps amusement? Twilight didn’t know as her Royal Highness spoke. “Did your Celestia not tell you how proud she was of you often?”

“She used to say it a lot when I was little. But as I got older her praises became less… Emotional, I guess,” Twilight admitted.

Celestia leaned over and nuzzled Twilight affectionately, just as Twilight frequently did with her friends. “Well, I would like to think I know how she thinks very well, Twilight. And let me tell you that I could not be any more proud of you than I am.”

Twilight couldn’t help but nuzzle back, smiling. “Thank you, Celestia.”

With the mood considerably lighter and more relaxed, they finished their meals with some casual conversation about on goings around Canterlot. Celestia had attended a showing of the world famous Wonderbolts a few months ago, during their latest tour. Twilight’s interest in the Wonderbolts had grown since meeting Rainbow Dash and she was surprised to recognize most of the names Celestia listed off as names that Dash had obsessed over.

The two mares walked down the hallway together, carrying on their conversation. Maids and other ponies moved out of their way, bowing slightly to the two members of the royal court. They arrived at their shared bedroom, something that Twilight still had some questions about but hadn’t yet asked.

Celestia’s magic grabbed the sheets to Twilight’s bed and pulled them up into the air. “Climb in, my little pony.” With a little blush on her face Twilight climbed up onto the giant bed and laid back. The sheets were gently laid down on her, tucking her in snuggly. Celestia leaned down and gave her another affectionate nuzzle. “Sleep well, Twilight.”

The young mare nodded and whispered good night, closing her eyes and drifting off. The long day finally caught up with her and she drifted off to sleep in a matter of moments.

Chapter 7

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Celestia rolled over and stretched as she woke up exactly one hour before sunrise. As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Twilight’s sleeping form in the other bed. It had become her routine to awake seeing Twilight sleeping safely near her. As silently as she could, Celestia climbed out of bed and headed into the lavish bathroom. A tiring but rewarding day of being Princess always started with a relaxingly hot bubble bath.

The soundproofing spell that she used was so easy to cast she could put it in place without hardly thinking about it. All sounds from the bathroom would be muffled by arcane barriers so that Twilight and Spike would not be disturbed. The gigantic bathtub filled swiftly, gradually filtering in a thick fog of steam into the room. She poured out a small amount of the bubble solution and couldn’t help but smile in childish glee as she watched the bubbles form. Celestia couldn’t resist dumping in another large helping in addition.

The Princess slowly lowered herself into the hot water, and after giving herself a moment to adjust in the miniature swimming pool she called her spa, let out a drawn-out sigh that spoke volumes of the pleasure she was experiencing. She leaned back and closed her eyes, letting the warm water wash over her. Celestia’s mane began floating of its own accord in the still pond of her sanctuary, water suspending the strands rather than magic. Her mind drifted and pulled up one of her fondest memories. The first time she brought the young Twilight Sparkle to join her for a bath. Twilight had just agreed to become her personal student and had spent the night with Celestia.

Twilight loved bubble baths and had been so surprised to learn that the Princess got to take one every single day. Celestia giggled to herself as she stretched, idly thinking about dragging Twilight in for tomorrow’s bath. The look on her face as they relaxed next to each other would be worth the possible embarrassment, she decided.

Celestia’s self-allotted relaxation time came to an end all too soon, and she quickly scrubbed shampoo into her mane, tail, and coat. After several hundred years of having the same morning routine, her magic and hooves worked completely on their own. Her mind drifted once more to Twilight. She was a little worried what Twilight might find in the course of her research. Or more worryingly, what would happen is she didn’t find anything.

With a gentle burst of magic, the bathtub drain opened and the water around Celestia quickly rushed down the pipes. She grabbed a large, fluffy, white towel from a nearby shelf in her aura and quickly rubbed down every inch of her fur coat, getting herself dry in less than a minute. She smirked as she used a bit of magic to dry out her mane and tail and set up the spell that kept them waving through the air. Most ponies assumed that it was natural for alicorns to have such magical manes, but it was just a little secret spell that Celestia kept. As Princess she wanted to look her best, after all.

The soundproofing spell popped with a sound much akin to a bubble as she interrupted the incantation. Celestia slowly walked through the bedroom and out into the hall, making sure that her closing of the front door did not rouse her roommates. The sun was due to rise in a little less than quarter of an hour. She had plenty of time to head out into her personal garden and raise the sun from outside; another part of her centuries old routine.

A pair of unicorn guards fell in step behind her as she walked, her usual escort after Twilight had been cursed. The months directly after the attack, Celestia had been surrounded by guards for almost every minute of the day. It took a lot of reassurance until she had managed to get them down to just a few guards whenever she ventured outside the palace.

The gardens were completely silent and dark as the Princess and her guards walked out of the palace. The moon was too low in the night sky now to provide any useful illumination, and the lunar body hung on the horizon, awaiting its descent. Not that Celestia needed any light; her ancient eyes worked just fine in the dark. On cue, however, the guards cast a simple light spell to allow them to see all around. The lush greens of her garden suddenly became clearer as two soft orbs let loose their light from their perch on the guard’s horns.

“Thank you,” she said softly to her guards. They simply nodded their heads at her; it was all part of the routine. The Princess took her place in the middle of a clearing and waited. She could feel the minutes tick past, one after the other. Her mind soon counted down the seconds, and with ten seconds to go her horn started to glow. The moon slowly drifted down below the horizon behind her, and directly in front of her the sun rose, bringing its light and warmth to the garden.

Celestia allowed herself a few minutes to enjoy her sunrise, a faint but happy smile tugging at her face. With a burst of renewed confidence that everything involving Twilight’s condition would turn out just fine, she headed back inside the palace. Her guards quickly dismissed themselves as she headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Twilight and Spike would be up soon enough now that the sun was up, wanting to get an early start on a busy day of research, she guessed.

After a short but pleasant breakfast, Twilight and a small herd of guards left the main door of the palace and set off down the street towards the city. Spike, perched on her back, had been giving her all sorts of information about the Academy all morning. It was similar to her memories of school, so she mostly focused on remembering names and classes that she should be familiar with should she run into anypony. The guards had been assigned to her at Celestia’s insistence; it would be her first time in the city since she was cursed, after all.

As they left the palace grounds and entered the city proper, it seemed like every single pony wanted to wish her a good morning and a wave. The guards kept anyone from getting too close, but they were all excited to see her. The amiable pestering of almost giddy pedestrians reminded her of the attention she received after using the Elements of Harmony, only she wasn’t surrounded by her friends this time.

“Look, there it is!” Spike called out, bringing her out of her thoughts. Down the road from them was a large building, similar in design to the palace, if not smaller. Spiraling pillars arranged in a neat, orderly column held the awning above the entrance, giving a professional feel in the air just by examining the structure. Five large towers rose above her as they approached, their grasps silently reaching towards the sky as if to touch it. At the top of the tallest one was a daunting telescope far larger than she, trained up at the sky.

The unicorn leading Twilight’s group of guards turned to her. “Lady Sparkle, do you wish to head directly to the library?”

Twilight nodded once. “Yes. This isn’t a social visit,” she replied. Spike’s advice for talking with her guards had been to be polite but talk in direct statements. She was expected to give orders, not make conversation. It was awkward initially, but Twilight was an adaptable pony. Of this, there was no doubt.

Somehow they managed to get through the hallways and to the library without being stopped. Twilight considered that to be extremely fortunate. There was a pony waiting for them inside the library, however. An older mare with glasses was just inside the library perusing a small piece of parchment as they entered. She quickly raised her head with an aged, but comforting smile. “Oh my! Lady Sparkle!”

Twilight, somewhat surprised to be greeted so quickly, jumped slightly. Spike jumped to the ground from her back. “Good morning, Mrs. Scrolls!”

Clearing her throat in an attempt to compose herself once more, Twilight tried to give the mare she assumed was a librarian a friendly wave. “Good morning,” she said softly, her instincts preventing her from speaking in a full voice inside the walls of a library. Mentally she did her best to file away the mare’s name.

Mrs. Scrolls bowed slightly to her. “Good morning, Lady Sparkle. Is there anything at all I can help you find?”

“I know where I’m headed for now. But thank you, Mrs. Scrolls. I’ll send word if I need your assistance.” Twilight felt awkward as she tried to sound confident. In reality, she had no idea where to even start looking for research on alternate worlds. She waited a few moments as the librarian mare slowly walked away. “Let’s find someplace quiet to work,” she said, prompting Spike to lead her.

He did, taking her towards the back of the room. They walked past shelf after shelf of books, and from a quick glance around Twilight could tell the room was rather large. A partially glass ceiling met her glances upward, letting in a bountiful supply of natural light into the amphitheater that was the Academy. She spotted a twisting set of stairs leading up to what she assumed was another floor of books, and potentially another floor from there. The library was something truly grand to behold. If only she wasn’t pursuing such important matters...

Spike approached a wooden door that was propped open by a small door-jam, and quickly opened it all the way. Sliding the wooden wedge into its new home, he motioned with a free claw for Twilight to come over. “This should work just fine. It’s even your usual room from your academy days.”

Twilight walked into the room. It contained a large table and several chairs with a few blackboards attached to the walls. Simple, quaint, and efficient. A perfect room to study without others peaking in on you. “Ah, so it is,” she lied calmly. “Now then, gentlemen. If you’d be so kind as to guard the outside of this room, I’d like to have some peace of mind while I work. I’ll be sending Spike out to gather my materials, so if one of you could keep an eye on him and potentially aid him when he does so, I would greatly appreciate it.”

Her squad of stallions saluted her and quickly moved into a formation outside the door without a word. “Thank you,” she said with a quick smile at them before quietly shutting the door. She turned to Spike, who was laying out some parchment and ink for her to use. “Now Spike, does the library use the Dexter Decimal System?”

“Only on mass published books,” he muttered in distraction as he stared down at a quill. He tapped a talon against his chin in contemplation, before slightly adjusting its angle. The newfound placement brought a satisfied grin to his features. “Magic journals and research data, however, would be filed-”

She cut him off. “Yes, yes, I know. First though, I want you to go to the Science and Magic shelves, and find the math and physics sections. Should be 510 and 530, if the system is the same as I remember. Look for anything related to Lay Lines or Mana Flows.”

Spike had been about to run off, but her request struck him as odd. “I thought you wanted to know about alternate worlds?”

“I do, Spike. But I also need to look into what could have caused me to move worlds without a detectable spell. You should be able to to find some books on those subjects quickly, and then I’ll have you go digging around the research sections for anything on dimensional boundaries, parallel worlds, and time travel after,” she explained as she climbed into a chair.

Spike’s eyes lit up in understanding. “Ooohhh! That’s actually a good idea! Don’t worry, Twi. I’ll be back in a flash!” He opened the door and rushed out, letting it swing close behind him. She could hear his distorted voice again and smirked in amusement. “Whoever is coming with me; let’s go! We’re headed to the west end of the library!”

As the next several hours slowly started to creep by, Spike brought more and more tomes, scrolls, and other varying descriptions of literature containing the information she requested. Soon enough, Twilight had filled her workspace with pages of notes, some stacks towering over her by a full head. She took a bite of the sandwich Spike had brought her at lunchtime; she was still only half done with it. She hadn’t found anything at all that would help her. In fact, what little she was able to find seemed to reject her ideas and concepts altogether. Any magic that could interact with dimensions outside their own seemed to be impossible to do.

She crunched the numbers for a third time and sighed. The power requirements to even detect another universe would require about thirty Princess Celestias all channeling their power together. Unfortunately, she was about twenty nine Princesses short for that. Not even the Elements of Harmony could produce that output for more than a moment, and it would take several seconds to confirm that they had detected another universe. It would take much more power to send something across the boundary.

With the sun hanging low in the sky, Twilight called it quits. Spike informed Mrs. Scrolls about the mess they had made as the guards escorted them out. Their walk back was silent. Celestia was waiting, just inside the palace, when they returned. “How did it go, Twilight?”

A heavy sigh was more than enough to answer the question. Spike was more vocal as he got off Twilight’s back. “She went through dozens of books, over a couple of hours, but no luck it seems.”

“As I know, time travel spells are unable to alter the past, so I can rule out that.” Celestia and Spike both looked over in confusion, to see Twilight starting one of her infamous rants, though mostly to herself. “Parallel worlds or alternate dimensions are just too hard to reach with magic. All the numbers show that it would take… I don’t know! Five hundred to a thousand alicorns to have enough power to send a pony across them? And then they’d have to devise a way to link their magic and figure out which dimension they were targeting. It would be a logistical nightmare, even for me!” With her tirade seemingly done, Twilight gave another defeated sigh and visibly slumped. “I guess that means I’m from here after all.”

Celestia forced herself not to smile or give a relieved sigh. Instead she stepped over to Twilight and gave her a friendly nuzzle. “Then perhaps we should try to locate your memories. Could you teach me that memory spell you used on me before? I believe you said it would bring forth shared memories.”

“Of course, Celestia. It should work on me, seeing as I must have those memories somewhere in my mind.” It didn’t seem to cheer Twilight up anymore. Her words sounded almost montone as she spoke them. Twilight’s exhaustion became palpable very quickly. “I just… I need some time alone, Celestia.”

Spike gave a worried look to the Princess, unsure of what to do. Twilight’s mood seemed to be even worse than when she first woke up from the coma. “Very well. I’ll have somepony bring you some dinner in your room.” Twilight slowly walked off, her hoofsteps echoing in the empty halls. A soft exhale left Celestia's lips as she glanced down at her friend. “Come on, Spike. You can tell me more about her research over dinner.”

She leaned down to let him climb onto her back, used to the feel of his claws grabbing her coat. Once he was seated, she slowly started to walk towards the dining room. Spike broke the silence, talking in a soft voice so they wouldn’t be easily overheard. “She went through the math over and over again. While it seems that magic might be able to send a pony to another world, it needed more magic than we could ever hope to use.”

Celestia nodded once. “I had guessed that would be the case. If it were so easy, we’d be having visitors from other worlds all the time. I guess the best case would be that I can cast this memory spell she’s invented and it returns some of her previous life to her.”

“If that spell even works. How do we know she hasn’t… you know… lost it completely?” The Princesses faltered midstep, coming to a stop. The shift in the air was instant, and nearly foreboding in nature. She very slowly turned her head to look at the young dragon. A large bead of sweat formed on Spike’s forehead at her expression. “Nevermind,” he said quickly, with a nervous chuckle.

After glaring at him for a moment longer, Celestia started walking again. “I felt the spell she cast, and it did go through my memories. I have no doubt the spell does as she says it can. What I fear is that it won’t find anything.”

“But if she’s our Twilight and not from an alternate world, then it’s gotta find her memories… Right?”

Celestia gave a defeated sigh that mimicked Twilight’s. “The curse that was cast upon her should have killed her, but it failed to take hold properly. I think that perhaps it killed the Twilight we knew but left her body alive. All her memories gone because of that pony. In the coma, she lived an alternate version of her life up to this point. She managed to hold on to the important things to her: You, me, and her family.

“But she lost the fine details that made her our Twilight. Instead, she got all these strange details. Battling ancient evils instead of doing paperwork, making friends with ponies instead of griffons.” Celestia paused to open the door to the dining room. “I know that she is my Twilight, but my heart says that she is broken.”

Spike jumped down off her back, landing with a soft thud. “Maybe we should have her evaluated by a professional. If the memories really are gone, she might need some pony who knows what they are doing to help her cope.”

The Princess huffed and glared at him once more. “Twilight isn’t crazy. I know that much.”

“You called her broken.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. She’s Twilight, but she’s not the Twilight that I…” She trailed off, her cheeks turning a soft pink as she realized just how she was planning on ending that sentence.

Spike leaned over towards her and flashed her a toothy grin. “That you love? Celestia, if I may offer my opinion, this Twilight seems to be a lot more interested in you than the old Twilight. Perhaps you stand a better chance at winning her over. A fresh start.”

“Spike!” Celestia’s whole face turned several shades of red as she admonished the drake. After a moment though, she leaned towards him and whispered in his ear. “You really think I have a chance?” He just laughed at her, making her turn an even darker shade of red.

Author's Notes:

Those of you who thought I was going to make things easy for Twilight: Eeeenope!

Anyway, we're getting into some of the good stuff now. I'm reeaaally excited about whats coming next. So hopefully that gets reflected in the quality of the chapters! At the start, I was trying to set myself a benchmark of 2k to 3k words per chapter, but now I think I'm just going to write however much I want for each chapter. I have a sort of generic outline now of what chapters contain what plot points, and I'm going to do my best to really flush those out. So longer chapters here we come.

Lastly, and I feel like I do this every week now, big shout to to my pre-reader / editor / assistant / all around amazing guy dumbgamer99. This story would be so bad without his help it's not even funny.

-- Soft Story

Chapter 8

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Word spread quickly through the palace as the ponies who worked there encountered each other in the halls. Two maids had seen the Countess of Canterlot ranting at the Princess near the front door before walking off in a depressed slump. They had rushed off and informed the cleaning staff, who told the kitchen staff, who then told the guard and butlers, and in less than five minutes nearly every pony who called the palace their place of work knew the situation. The staff cleared a path for her to sulk back to her room unhindered, the hallways around her completely void of any living creatures. Occasionally a pair of eyes would glance around a door or corner, watching the upset mare trod down the halls.

Twilight was too busy going over the numbers in her head again and again to notice that the usually busy halls were utterly empty and that her slow, methodical hoofsteps were the only noises around her. Her gaze was set on the tiles a few steps ahead of her and she only paid attention enough to avoid getting lost. Each time she finished her bout of mental calculations her steps faltered for a moment, Twilight would pause and just stand there sullenly before resuming her slow trek through the palace.

She kept getting the same answer, no matter what methods, formulas, or variables she tried to use in her equations: There was simply no realistic way of crossing realities in any way, shape, or form.

Logically, she had accepted that the world around her was real from the moment she spoke to Celestia. There was no denying that the world she saw and interacted with was real. This world wasn’t a dream. Emotionally, she had been refusing to accept it as real. No matter what Celestia and Spike had said, part of her clung to the thought that there was a home to get back to. Now she was face to face with the only conclusion she had left.

The sound of a door opening brought her attention to the world around her once more. She had just stepped into the bedroom she shared with Celestia. She didn’t even realize she had already arrived, and magicked the door open without a second thought. The twin beds positioned next to each other in the darkened room looked inviting, elegant yet remaining simple with their silky sheets. The desk covered in scrolls and parchment that Celestia and Spike worked at was off to one side, covered in all the work they did on a daily basis while her body had laid in its coma. This was her home now. This had always been her home.

Twilight brought a hoof up to her face and rubbed at her eyes. She wasn’t sure when she had started crying, but it must have been while she was walking through the halls. Very slowly, she moved over to her overly-large bed and climbed in. Not bothering to slide under the sheets, she just laid on her side and stared off into space. Her blank gaze, while unfocused, was vaguely on the large desk across the room. She sighed, and brought up her final conclusion. This was her home. No library-in-a-tree waiting for her. No friends in Ponyville looking for her. “This is my home.” The sound of her own voice, slightly echoed in the large room, sounded different than how she was imagining.

There was no wobble in her voice to show that she was crying, even though she could still feel tears running down her face. There was no hesitation at making such a declaration. “This is my home,” she said again, wanting to confirm something she had noticed last time she said it. The words didn’t sound like a lie. They didn’t sound forced or awkward. They sounded true. With a loud sigh, Twilight rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. She wished this was Discord’s doing, but it just wasn’t his style. He’d never whisk her off without following along so he could laugh at her. If he were to break apart the Elements of Harmony, he’d do so in a way that was fun for him.

“This is my home, and my memories are just a dream,” Twilight muttered to herself once again, closing her eyes and relaxing. A shiver ran down her spine as that fact settled in her mind. It was the only reasonable conclusion to draw. All the data pointed to it. She stretched and pulled a blanket over her with a bit of magic, letting the warm sheet fall over her completely, leaving only her tail sticking out. She curled up, her tears still running down her face and creating a small wet spot in the sheets, and tried to not think about anything. She wanted to clear her mind of all this.

It only somewhat worked; every time she felt that her mind was clear, something would float up from the depths of her subconscious and remind her of her previous life. She tried taking deep breaths, but that only reminded her of when Cadence used to help her calm down from panic attacks as a child. She tried counting in her head, focusing on keeping the string of increasingly large numbers going, but an imaginary Pinkie Pie would break in and interrupt her after every few hundred numbers.

Each time she was reminded of her previous life, the tears would start up again. When she remembered that Shining Armor was dead—a fate worse than simply never existing in the first place—she started to sob, her body tensing up. At one point she vaguely remembered a maid trying to get her attention, but Twilight couldn’t even collect herself enough to ask to be left alone. The maid was gone a minute later, and Twilight nearly forgot she had been there to begin with.

When her tears finally dried, Twilight pulled the sheet off from over her head and looked around. The room was dark and empty, unchanged except for a tray with some daisy sandwiches placed on the foot of the bed. Twilight wasn’t hungry, so she ignored them, instead trying to find a clock. She knew she had gotten back from the library around dinner time, and it was now late into the evening. She had laid there crying for several hours, it seemed. With a sigh she flopped back down, laying still. “What am I going to do now?” She asked herself aloud.

The answer floated up in her mind and drew her attention to it. It was rather obvious; it had been her plan from the start after all. “Learn about the world and do my best to serve Equestria and Celestia.” Her voice had a surprising amount of confidence. Twilight blinked, wondering where she was getting this confidence. Her first try at holding court had been exhausting but enjoyable, but she was still nervous about handing anything serious.

Of its own volition, her hoof moved up and rubbed her eyes to remove some of the drowsiness that had settled. Twilight began talking to herself aloud. “Listen to me, Twi. You can do this. Celestia wants you by her side, running Equestria, and you’re just the mare to do it. No pony else knows Celestia like you do. No pony else can memorize entire books like you can. You’re going to take hold of this life and run with it. No looking back now.” A hint of red spread across her cheeks. That was the sort of pep talk she imagined Spike would give her, or maybe even something Shining Armor would say. It seemed silly, but it did the job she needed it to do. She was feeling a bit better about her situation.

Tomorrow morning, she decided, would be the start of her new life. She would do her best to embrace the world she lived in, without forgetting her wonderful dream. The lessons she learned from making friends would be helpful in this life. She was sure of it. Twilight recognized she had a lot to learn about running the court and making laws, but she had plenty of time. Celestia and Spike were there to help guide and teach her. The Countess of Canterlot would bring a new understanding of friendship and magic to the royal court of Equestria. That brought a small smile to her face.

The mare in the moon was back. Twilight looked around, trying to figure out her surroundings. She was on the balcony of her library in Ponyville, looking up at the rising celestial body. The familiar shape of the mare in the moon was clearly visible on the bright lunar surface, looking the same as it had during the years before she arrived in Ponyville. The town around her was just as she remembered, down to all the details she would expect, save one. It was still. And not sleeping still. But ghost-town still.

Not a single light shone through any of the buildings, and no ponies were out for a late night stroll. It was completely dark and silent over all of Ponyville. Twilight climbed over the balcony railing and jumped. As she expected, she gently floated down to the ground. “A dream then. Figures,” she muttered to herself. “I suppose that’s all it’s ever been. That would be why I know all the details.” She took off walking, heading for Town Hall. “I mean, why else would I know that the fact that one of the four shutters on that house is painted the wrong color?” She pointed her hoof at the incorrect shutter. “I know because when Trixie took over Ponyville, that house was damaged, and the ponies that lived there were lazy about getting it repaired!”

Twilight stormed over to another house, for some reason feeling worked up and angry at Ponyville. She peered in the windows of one of her neighbors. It was furnished just as she remembered.. “And this home! I know for a fact that there are an odd number of steps to get to the second floor and that the third from the top creaks! Because this is Berryshine’s house and I’ve been over here to celebrate her birthday! Berryshine was the pony who got me to try alcohol for the first time, and I absolutely hated it!”

She ran over to a home she had never visited, the inside bare of any furniture and most likely any tenants. Twilight stared in through the window, her breath fogging up the glass, a scowling face being reflected back at her. “And I have no idea which ponies live here. I never met them. So of course my dream world left the house blank! It was enough that the house was here, to give the impression of this being a real town!” Twilight gave a half growl, half cry of frustration as she kicked a hoof against the empty house.

The thump of her irritated attack echoed through the empty town. She took several slow and deep breaths as she attempted to calm herself down. While Twilight had fallen asleep feeling better about her situation, being here in a dream version of Ponyville made it obvious that she still had a way to go before she fully accepted her new life. She would probably have several dreams like this one over the new few days, or even weeks, until she felt better about her situation. It would just take some time, was all.

A voice on the wind caused Twilight’s ears to perk up. She could very faintly hear her name being called. Her dream was changing, it seemed. Wanting to at least see what was going on, she allowed herself to calm down before she galloped over to Town Hall and leapt in the air. The dream world logic allowed her to glide through the air like a pegasus. She landed on the roof of a nearby home and looked around. “Hello?” She called out, hoping for an answer.

“Twilight Sparkle…” The voice said once more. In a way, it sounded faintly... familiar. There was a certain inflection to the tone, but she couldn’t put a hoof on it. Twilight could barely hear it, but it sounded like it was coming from the Everfree forest.

The forest looked exactly as it did the first time she journeyed into it; grim, black, and mysterious. The familiar path to Zecora’s looked unwelcoming under the moonlight. “Now you want me to go rushing into the dangerous forest. Well dream, guess what? No! I’m not going to play along with your twisted subconscious games. Whatever it is can come to me.” She sat down and crossed her forelegs, glaring at the forest as if daring whatever it was to come out.

A harsh breeze blew past Twilight, causing her mane and tail to whip about her frame in a frenzy. She raised a hoof to block her eyes, noticing something moving near the forest. “Twilight Sparkle!” The voice was clearer now. There was a pony emerging from the forest, calling her name. A very familiar pony.

Twilight’s jaw slowly opened and stayed that way. She slowly stood back up, surprise making her movements nearly mechanical, as she looked out at the shape of the familiar alicorn. “Princess Luna?”

With a soft gasp, Twilight found herself lying in bed, pressed up against something warm and soft. She looked over and found Celetia holding her, smiling down at her in the soothing light of the morning sun. “You were having a nightmare,” the Princess whispered comfortingly. Twilight’s face turned bright red as she nuzzled Celestia’s chest, hugging the larger mare as tightly as she could. Celestia hugged her back just as tight. “Want to tell me about your dream?”

Twilight shook her head, her nose rubbing into Celestia’s pristine coat. “It was just a stupid dream about my… My dream life,” she whispered back, her words slightly mumbled.

Celestia’s eyebrows raised slightly as she gave the smaller mare a gentle but loving squeeze. “Dream life? Not alternate world?”

“No… I… I don’t think I came from an alternate world anymore. It was all just a dream.” Twilight gently pulled away from the Princess and looked up at her. Celestia’s smile was warm and her eyes had a touch of understanding and pride. Twilight’s mind raced through everything she had been thinking about the previous night, all the things she wanted to explain to Celestia. The look that Celestia was giving her stopped her thoughts. The Princess understood and was there for her, for which Twilight felt eternally grateful.

A nearby clock gave a soft chime as the hour rolled over. Celestia’s smile turned into a playful grin. Twilight’s brain suddenly flashed all sorts of warnings; this was a dangerous grin. “Tell you what, Twilight. I want you to come join me for a nice relaxing bath.”

“W-What?” Twilight’s voice squeaked, her eyes snapping wide open. She quickly covered her mouth, not wanting to disturb Spike. That caught her completely off guard and sent her mind into all sorts of dark corners that she would deny ever having thought about. She took a moment to calm down and rid herself of the evil and somewhat disturbing thoughts, bringing her mind to a place safe enough where she could whisper a reply once more. She was still rambling slightly as she tried to find a way to decline politely. “I- I- I’m fine, Celestia. You don’t… I mean I’m honored, but… You don’t have—”

“I wasn’t asking you, Twilight,” Celestia said, interrupting the rambling mare mid-sentence. Her tone was still warm, but bode no room for argument. She climbed off the bed and lifted Twilight with her golden aura. “Now, you will sit calmly on my back until I tell you to get down.” As she spoke, Twilight was gradually set down on the Princess’s large back between her wings. For the second time in three days, Twilight held on to Celestia as she was carried about like a small filly.

“Yes, your majesty,” the Countess muttered softly, looking out at the bedroom. She tried her best to look as if she were bothered or annoyed, but Celestia knew her well enough to see that under the attitude was an embarrassed little filly.

The pair entered the bathroom quietly, Celestia’s hoofsteps echoing faintly. The soundproof spell was quickly applied, which impressed Twilight. She had felt the magic flow over her as it was applied to the whole room, and for the briefest of moments it was as if her senses had been muffled before returning to their natural state. The bathtub faucet flipped itself on with a burst of magic, setting it to the perfect temperature to relax in. Twilight looked down at the floor, wondering if she should get down as Celestia had come to a stop next to the bath.

“Stay right where you are,” Celestia commanded, her attention still focused on the bath. Twilight winced slightly as she attempted to relax. The sound of the water was increasing her apprehension about bathing with the Princess. Washing yourself was such a private and intimate activity, and while it was okay for a young filly to take a bath with her mentor having two adult mares share a bath was a bit… Overwhelming.

Lost in trying to force herself to relax, Twilight didn’t notice that Celestia’s magic had wrapped around her. She also didn’t notice herself being slowly lowered into a bathtub overflowing with bubbles. It wasn’t until the warm water splashed against her body that she jerked back to reality. “Wha—?” Abruptly, she was then submerged underwater as Celestia’s magic dropped her.

With a childish giggle, Celestia stepped into the tub and sat down near the side. She grabbed the confused purple lump of wet hair and pulled it up above the surface. Twilight sputtered and coughed as she cleared the water from her system. “Sorry, Twilight. I didn’t realize you had spaced out.”

“I’m okay,” the Countess replied, getting onto her hooves. For some reason, she had the impression that Celestia meant to do that. Musing to herself, she realized that the bath wasn’t all that deep now that she had recovered enough to operate her limbs. “I was just thinking about… Well, I wasn’t paying attention.” A blush quickly became visible on Twilight’s face.

A wise and knowing hmm was the only answer that Celestia gave, eyeing Twilight with a mischievous smirk. The princess lowered herself into the water, submerging herself in the bubbles save for her head. She moved behind Twilight and gave a happy sigh, stretching out.

Twilight was almost the opposite. She felt tense and awkward, sitting a good distance from Celestia. Her eyes were roaming around the bathroom, looking everywhere but at her bath partner. She could feel Celestia’s gaze pressing down on her like a heavy saddle during winter. “Twilight, why don’t you come sit next to me? I want to talk.”

Very nervously, Twilight moved closer to Celestia with trepidation and anxiety clear in her wading through the bath waters. “Sure… About what?”

“First off, relax. It’s just a bath.” Celestia pulled the nervous mare over so that they were sitting side by side. Casually and carefully, Celestia’s wing gently laid itself on Twilight’s back. She could feel how stiff and unrelaxed Twilight was. “Relax.”

Taking a few deep breaths, the Countess managed to calm down a little. Her body relaxed and she leaned gently into Celestia. “Very good, Twilight,” Celestia commented softly. “I wanted to talk to you about… Well, I suppose now I want to talk to you about your sudden change of heart. You had been so sure that your memories were real, and now you’re suddenly saying that it was all a dream. What changed?”

Twilight had been expecting this to happen, though she hadn’t been expecting it to happen in a bubble bath that would impress any foal who saw it. Twilight took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking. “I guess it was always eating at me. All my theories about alternate worlds or parallel timelines were just too farfetched to be plausible, and I knew that from the start. Spending that day in the library to see just how impossible it was was enough to get me to face what I already knew.”

Before Celestia could reply, she pressed forward. “Something about being here feels… It feels right, if that makes any sense. I realized it last night as I sat there. This is my home, no matter what my memories say. Here in the palace, with you and Spike, is home.” She finally looked up to make eye contact with her former mentor.

Celestia had a soft smile on her face, and a sparkle in her eye that hadn’t been there before. “I wish I knew the right answer, but just like you I have to go with what I feel is right. I feel that you belong here as well, and even if it turns out that you aren’t my Twilight after all... You’ll take up the title as Countess of Canterlot and stay, then?”

Twilight nuzzled into Celestia neck. “Of course.”

“Then we better wash up, for the royal court is open today.”

Remembering a past conversation, something suddenly dawned on Twilight. She had two more important people she needed to talk to. “Actually, Celestia. After breakfast, I need to go out for a bit.”

A shampoo bottle floated over Twilight’s head and deposited a load of minty gel between her purple ears. Celestia sat upright and rubbed her hooves into the dark blue mane, a faint sound of amusement leaving the alicorn at seeing Twilight wince during her sudden ministrations. “Of course. I’ll have an escort ready for you.”

After a quick but delicious breakfast, Twilight found herself once more surrounded by guards as she left the palace. The busy streets quickly passed by without any pony getting in her way and swiftly gave way to the mostly empty residential streets. A somewhat familiar-looking house was their destination, though the street it was located on was wrong according to her dream memories. A golden 87 was attached to the royal white mailbox near the cobblestone pathway that led up to the porch.

One of the unicorn guards marched up the steps and knocked, Twilight following along just behind him. The rest of the guards scanned the street, keeping an eye out for any pony who might attempt to harm the Countess again. For the moment, it was silence. Whether a good sign or not remained to be seen. “Just a moment,” a familiar voice called out from inside the house. Twilight nervously shifted her weight from one side to another. The door opened just a few seconds later, revealing Twilight’s mother.

“Good morning, mom. Can I come in?” Twilight tried to give a warm smile.

Her mother was an expert at reading her expression, however, and could tell that something was going on. “Twilight! Of course sweetie, come on in.” She stepped back to allow her daughter inside. The guards quickly surrounded the house, letting the Countess have privacy with her family.

Twilight walked into the sitting room, looking around. “Is Dad still home? I’d like to talk with both of you if I can. I don’t have much time before court.”

“He’s in his study.” Her mother stuck her head around the corner of the hallway. Her parent’s home was laid out exactly as she remembered it. “Night Light! Twilight came to see us!”

“Sorry I didn’t give much notice, but it’s… Well… It’s important,” Twilight said as she took a seat on the sofa. It was the same sofa from her memories. She and Cadence would sit here when she was being foal sat. Cadence would read her books about all sorts of things, helping to expand her interests.

Her father came into the room, smiling. “Hey Twilight, what’s the occasion?”

She waited for her parents to sit down before speaking. “I’m afraid that Celestia and I weren’t… Fully truthful about my memory loss.”

“I knew she was hiding something from me,” her mother said suddenly, with a harsh tone accompanying the bitter words. “She’s trying to keep you away from us, isn’t she?”

Twilight blinked, surprised. “No! No, it’s nothing Celestia did.”

Night Light put a hoof on his wife’s back. “Honey, please. The Princess isn’t some evil tyrant trying to steal our daughter. Twilight, please continue.”

“Right. Well… It turns out that I have lost all my memories. Everything from before the coma is… gone, or suppressed. We’re going to attempt a spell to try and draw them back out, but there is a chance they are gone forever.” Her parents looked confused. She decided she might as well go all-in. “When I was in the coma, I guess I was having an extremely vivid dream. I can remember that dream perfectly. It was similar to my life, but there are a lot of differences. What I’m saying is… I’m no longer your Twilight. My memories don’t match what actually happened anymore…”

“What do you mean? How are your memories different?”

Tears started to form in Twilight’s eyes. They sounded so bewildered, so worried. Twilight thought about backing out, claiming faintness and not have to broach this topic ever again. But she stood her ground, and recollected. “Well… In my dream, Shining never died. In fact he married Princess Cadence, and became a Prince. I moved to Ponyville and took up a job being a librarian. And Celestia had a sister who tried to take over Equestria and I saved the day, became a national hero… It was just—” Suddenly, having to explain her situation to her parents was becoming increasingly more difficult as she swallowed a growing lump in her throat. “It was different than me becoming the Countess. I remember that dream, but I don’t remember any of this. I... I can’t remember reality.”

Her parents were also crying as they began to understand what she was telling them. Her father got up and seized her in a tight hug. She hugged him back, pressing her face to his neck as she cried. Her mother, on the other hoof, moved into rage that Twilight didn’t remember her having in the dream. “That… That… That foalish mule! If he weren’t dead, I’d kill him myself!” Twilight Velvet stormed out of the room, mumbling more and more vulgar and violent threats under her breath.

Twilight sniffled and pulled away from her father. A large crash of breaking glass sounded from the other room. Twilight winced, her ears laying flat. “Has mom always been that angry?”

“It’s gotten worse since you were attacked, but she’s always had the mean side…” His voice trailed off as the fact that she couldn’t remember her mother’s anger issues sunk in. He rapidly recovered, putting on a strong smile. “You should get back to the palace; you have court to attend to, young lady. Don’t worry about your mother, I’ll calm her down.”

“Thanks, dad.” She gave him another hug, with a quick kiss on the cheek, before heading for the door. Her hooves stopped moving before she fully left the sitting room. “Tell mom I love her no matter what I remember,” she called back to her father. He simply nodded. Twilight gave him a wave and walked out of the house.

Chapter 9

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Spike was waiting outside the main doors when Twilight returned to the palace. His arms were crossed and an unhappy frown was plastered on his face. She knew exactly what his problem would be. “You went off to visit your parents without me, didn’t you?”

“I was letting you sleep in,” she replied, wincing slightly at his angry tone. His squinting, draconian eyes bored holes into her soul. “Besides, telling them about my dream was something I needed to do alone.”

Several seconds passed in silence as Spike stood there, staring in contemplation. Eventually, he huffed and all his anger melted away. There was still a bit of gruffness remaining in his voice. “Well, next time you can do it alone with me. Got it?”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle as she leaned down to give him a loving nuzzle. “Of course, Spike.” She let him climb onto her back before quickly trotting into the palace proper. “Is Celestia waiting for me?”

“Actually, she wanted me to show you some of the paperwork. I’m not going to do it all for you in the future, you know.” Twilight rolled her eyes good-naturedly at his snark. “Let’s head to your office real quick,” he replied. Twilight complied, turning down a hallway and making her way back. Spike only pointed her in the right direction when she got lost once. Spike jumped onto her desk and waited for her to seat herself behind it. “Okay, open that drawer there and take out a form.”

The drawer opened with a tinge of magenta magic, the piece of paper slowly sliding out and being set on the desk in front of her. “A form? You mean a…” Her jaw dropped as she gazed at the paper in front of her. “Oh, Celestia! This is beautiful!”

The sheet in question had been printed in a press, much like a newspaper. It was completely filled with text and various sized boxes meant to be filled out with one or two words. One section near the top had various checkboxes for different conditions. Twilight couldn’t help but be impressed with all the clean lines, margin spacing, and overall layout of the form. It was the pinnacle of organization!

Spike chuckled at her reaction, a knowing smile on his face. “Well, you should like it; you’re the one who most recently updated all the forms, after all.” Twilight didn’t reply, her gaze still locked on the paper. “Uh, Twilight?”

She snapped out of it, shaking her head slightly. In a slightly panicked tone, she attempted to play it off. “What? Yeah, no I’m good. Totally focused.” She glanced back down at the form, and quickly wiped away the miniscule drop of drool. “So what exactly is... Royal Court Form 31-1A?”

“Right,” he replied with a smug grin. “31-1A is the general multipurpose form for holding a session of court. You need to fill one out for every topic, petition, or task the royal court covers. Typically, that’ll be between ten and thirty forms a day. I usually keep notes of what goes on in court, but if for some reason I’m not there you’ll have to do it. It would probably be best if you got in the habit of taking notes all the time.”

Twilight nodded once, filling away the information. “Got it. One form per topic.”

Spike opened a different drawer and pulled out a few different pieces of paper. “Now this here is 31-1B,” he said, offering the parchment in question to her. It looked similar yet distinctly different than the A form. “The B form is used for emergency meetings of the court outside of the usual times. If an emergency were to come up, for example, you’d need to file the B form instead of the A form.” A spare piece of parchment and a quill floated past Spike as Twilight began to quickly scribble out some notes in shorthand.

Yet another form was laid on the desk. “This is an important form. 10-3C: Removal of Existing Law. If, during court, you decree that a law is now invalid, this is the form to use. 10-3A is used to add a new law, and 10-3B is used to amend or alter a law. They aren’t used commonly, as our laws are pretty stable, but you need to know about them.”

Twilight inspected the 10-3C form in front of her, spotting something that she had a question about. “Spike. Right here, under reason for removal. Why is one of the reasons Impending Personal Disaster?”

“Oh! That’s a funny story, actually. A few hundred years ago, Celestia got totally addicted to sugary treats. So, she might of enacted a law that may or may not had forced businesses to include sweets to their income tax. Turns out that even alicorns gain weight if they don’t keep a healthy diet.” He broke out into a fit of giggles, unable to finish his thought. Twilight’s mind tried to imagine an overweight Celestia, but was unable to fathom what she would look like. In between giggles, Spike managed a few more words. “So round! She rolled!”

“Alright, I get it,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. Spike still had a childish streak about him still. It was relieving, in a sense; he seemed so similar yet so different than the Spike from her dream-world. “What other forms do I need to know about?”

It took a minute for Spike to calm down enough to continue his mini-lecture. There were two more forms laid out for her to examine. “This is 20-20E. Royal Request to National Service Provider. If you wanted to change anything, like how something at the weather factory was run, you would need to send this form along with a detailed letter explaining your changes and why you are requesting them.”

Twilight made sure to note that down, with a reminder to ask about formatting and specifications of the letter. When she needed to use that form, she’d check her notes and ask Spike later. They were starting to run short on time, and she wanted to get as much information that he deemed important down. “I think this is the last one you might use. 13-1A.”

“Acquisition of Goods or Services,” she read from the top of the form. “I’m going to guess if I need something purchased with money from the treasury I use this?”

Spike gave her a thumbs up. “You got it. It’s pretty important.”

Twilight scanned it, something catching her eye. “Subclause 2: form 13-1A may not be used by dragons to acquire gems.”

“Oh… You saw that part,” Spike suddenly found the floor extremely interesting. A bright red hue tinged his face. When he looked up, he saw Twilight giving him a smirk. “What? It was worth a shot!”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Oh, Spike. Is there anything else before court?”

“Nah, that should be good for now. I can help you out; I usually do during these sessions. We should get going though, so we aren’t late.” He jumped onto her back and sat down in his usual spot. “Celestia said she’d meet us there.”

If there was one skill Twilight was thankful she acquired in her dream, it would have to be her ability to use simple magic without focusing on it. As she sat listening to two groups argue their sides of the story, her magic held a quill that scribbled out whatever notes she felt would be helpful. She didn’t even need to glance down at it to know when the quill needed to be dipped back into ink, or when she reached the edge of the page.

A dark blue pegasus stallion finished his speech and stepped back. “Very well, thank you both,” Celestia said. The Princess turned to Twilight and spoke in a much more hushed tone. “What do you think, Twilight?”

“When you boil it all down, it’s a matter of compensation for property. I think that the Wind family has the right to make their request,” she replied in an equally hushed tone.

“Though the circumstances are a bit unusual,” Celestia commented idly. There was a moment of silence as Celestia considered the other options. “Very well. I have to agree with you. Would you like to make the verdict?”

Twilight nodded and turned her attention back to the groups of ponies. “This is a most unusual case, which is why it was brought to us instead of the courts. While the law does not count clouds outside those used in cloud construction as legal property, we feel that the Wind family is entitled to compensation for the destruction of their clouds.” The mood of one group suddenly exploded with smiles and hugs, while the other group looked rather annoyed. “The land, and thus the airspace above it, is legally owned by the Wind family. The value of the clouds will be evaluated by a neutral party with knowledge of cloud formation. Thank you all for your time.”

Celestia relaxed as the two groups of ponies slowly left the room. “We should come up with a method for the courts to handle unusual cases like that.”

“I thought you liked helping ponies,” Twilight commented as she glanced down at her notes, making sure she had everything she wanted.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” the Princess said, giving Twilight a playful grin. Before she could ask about the next item of the day, a single guard walked over and handed her an official report. Celestia scanned it quickly. “Well now, that’s strange timing.”

Twilight leaned over, trying to read the paper. “What is?”

Celestia passed it over for her to read. Twilight read the message aloud for Spike’s sake. “Griffon Prime Minister spotted in border town of Gull Wing with loaded chariot. Departure for Equestrian air space. Estimated arrival time 1700 hours.”

Spike perked up. “The Prime Minister is coming to visit? That’s… Not good. Twilight doesn’t remember him!”

“Then why don’t you go teach her as much as you can as quickly as you can. You have little over an hour before he’ll be here.” A playful smile appeared on Celestia’s face. “I think it’ll be fun to play a little prank on the good Prime Minister. We don’t have to tell him that Twilight is awake right away.”

Spike laughed. “Oh, he’ll be so mad you didn’t tell him right away, but at the same time seeing Twilight will probably make him flip.”

Prime Minister Gerald Windswept was a very grumpy looking griffon most of the time. Due to the way his face sat upon his skull he always appeared to be in a bad mood, even if he was in a good mood. This would be his third trip to Equestria since he had received the news that Countess Twilight Sparkle had been attacked, and this time he was determined to at least spend five minutes with the sleeping mare.

A team of pegasi, wearing the armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard, formed around his chariot. “Prime Minister!” One of the pegasi drifted a bit closer to the chariot to speak with him. “We shall guide you to the landing pad. Princess Celestia is waiting.”

“Thank you!” He replied, giving a courteous nod of his head to the pony. He turned his attention to the four griffons pulling his chariot. “Follow them in. Smooth landing.” Four grunts were the only replies he got. Gerald leaned over the side and glanced down. The mountain gave way to the city as they swung about to approach the palace from the right angle to land. His chariot, while fully loaded with supplies, needed a bit of space to come down for a rolling landing. The smaller chariots the ponies prefered could take off and land much more vertically, so it was very rare that the palace’s landing pad was used.

Gerald spotted Celestia waiting for him down on the ground as his escorts brought the chariot around to land. She was hard to miss, after all. Even compared to a griffon she was tall and somewhat imposing. After only a moment the chariot made contact with the ground, without so much as a bump, and slowly came to a stop as the griffon team pulling it slowed it down.

Celestia had a small but friendly smile on her face as she walked over. “Prime Minister! What a surprise.” Political speak for asking what he was doing arriving in her country unannounced.

“Princess Celestia, it is good to see you. I caught word that you finally put an end to that charade of a trial for that Dream Wish pony. I simply thought I might come to… celebrate… with the Countess and her family.” Gerald gave her as honest of a grin as he could manage.

The Princess simply stared at him for a moment, as if searching for any dishonesty in him. While they were allies, Gerald would be hard pressed to say he actually trusted the immortal alicorn before him. He did trust Twilight, however, and she had convinced him to at least be friendly with the Princess. He could be friendly, even if he wanted to cower slightly whenever the magical goddess frowned.

Celestia didn’t frown, instead only giving a soft sigh and a shake of her head. “Very well, Prime Minister. I suppose we can entertain you for a few days. I’m sure it would do her some good to have a friend in her condition.”

“Yes, I’m sure it would. I’m glad that you’ve finally come around about that. Twilight is very dear to me as well,” He said with a bit of a somber tone. It only took a moment for him to perk back up and gesture back at the chariot. “I remembered to bring my own meals this time. One of my escorts can cook, so there will be no worry about that this time.” That had been a disastrous visit. He had rushed over after hearing the news about the Countess and hadn’t made any plans. Thankfully, Spike managed to sort everything out without any political fallout between the two rulers.

The Princess glanced behind him at the four griffons who had started to unload the large chariot. “Very good. Well, I suppose I can show you to the guest suite. You can get settled in before some dinner, and perhaps visit with Twilight afterwards.” She took off at a somewhat quick pace back towards the palace. “How was your flight?”

The Prime Minister was used to this treatment from Celestia. Short, brisk, and professional; this personality had only been amplified after the incident that afflicted the Countess. He walked along next to her without any issue. “Just fine. Equestria is looking better than ever, if I may say. Beautiful scenery and perfect weather.”

“We do our best,” Celestia replied.

Gerald figured he might as well inquire about the reason that triggered his visit. “I understand that Dream Wish was sentenced to death?”

Celestia nodded once as she grabbed the doors with her magic, letting them both into the palace. “Yes, he was. I took care of that personally.”

“I imagine so. Honestly, I’d be offended if you hadn’t!” His tone made it clear that while he was attempting to be friendly and lighthearted about it, he was being truthful.

Twilight, with Spike on her back, rounded the corner. Twilight had a large scroll floating in front of her face while Spike scribbled notes. “Yes, that should work. If we increase the capacity of the rune form of the ritual with quartz instead of sapphire, we should keep stability.” She gave only a minute glance at the two rulers. “Hello Celestia, Hello Gerald. Spike, what are the heat regulation calculations at now?” She continued to walk past them as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Gerald’s jaw impacted the floor, literally, as he tripped over himself. Celestia raised a hoof to her face, holding back a fit of laughter. The Prime Minister jumped back to his claws and spun around. “Twilight!?!”

The Countess stopped, lowering the scroll as she turned back to face the Griffon. “Yes? Oh! Prime Minister! I was so caught up in my research that I didn’t see you.” The scroll rolled itself up and was quickly passed back to Spike as she walked over and gave the stunned griffon a friendly hug.

The Prime Minister hugged her back on reflex, his mouth moving without any sound being made. Eventually he jumped back, pointing a claw at her. “How are you awake? The Princess said you were in a deep coma!”

Twilight shrugged. “I woke up a few days ago.”

“Indeed. You probably just missed the news arriving in your country,” Celestia said, still holding back her giggles. “I’m sure you two have a lot of catching up to do. Spike, why don’t we go finish some paperwork.”

Spike climbed down from Twilight’s back and walked over to Celestia. He gave a polite greeting to the Prime Minister as he walked by. After just a moment, Gerald and Twilight were alone in the hallway. Without the others around, Gerald was now free to be a little more emotional and personal with his friend. He grabbed her in a hug once more. “I’m glad you’re better, Twilight.”

“I’m sorry about that little prank. It was Celestia’s idea,” Twilight admitted, returning the embrace.

Gerald laughed as he released her. “No, no. It was just what I needed. Why don’t you show me to my room and we can have a nice sit down.” Twilight nodded and waved her hoof down the hall in an ‘after you’ manner. Together they slowly headed deeper into the palace, heading for the guest rooms. The Prime Minister was not one for silent walks. “If I might ask, how long have you been awake?”

“Only a few days. It seems that I awoke the evening after the execution,” she explained, doing her best not to sound unnerved. The thought of killing a criminal was still gruesome to her, but she did her best not to dwell on it. “The messenger with the news of my return to health headed out of Equestria seems to be running a bit slow.”

“Few ponies feel safe traveling outside of your borders. Not all of them are as strong as you are dear,” he pointed out. While Gerald was a good fifteen years older than her, and a different species, Twilight felt at ease around him. He projected a very relaxed and friendly air.

Twilight flashed him a playful grin. “Their loss.” Gerald gave a hearty laugh, grabbing her with one of his large wings and pulling her in for yet another hug. She was expecting him to be physical with her based on what Spike told her about the griffon culture.

He released her after only a brief moment, well before his embrace would move from friendly to awkward. In fact, none of the times he had grabbed her seemed awkward. “I’ve missed that sharp tongue and cheeky smile of yours. Oh, and I do believe this is my room.”

“Yup,” Twilight replied as she pushed the door open with a gentle touch of magic. The Prime Minister’s supplies had already been moved in and were stacked neatly on his bed. Across the room was a large fireplace, currently unlit yet stocked with wood, with a truly hideous painting hanging over it. A small sofa and an armchair were positioned nearby so that those seated would enjoy the warmth of the fire yet still be able to hold a conversation. Twilight jumped up into the armchair and plopped herself down, relaxing into its comfortable pillows. “The others of your group are next door, like always.”

The couch groaned as Gerald jumped onto it as if it were his own. A large smile plastered on his beak. “If I know you like I think I know you, there’s something on your mind that you would really like to ask me.”

Her playful grin reappeared as she looked away, letting her gaze wander over the painting above the fireplace. “And what would that be?”

“The election,” he said simply.

“I will admit that I am a tiny bit upset that I missed it. The fact that you’re still the Prime Minister is a good sign though. How did it go?”

Gerald’s happiness dimmed significantly. “I won, yes. But not by much. Only ten percent, a good fifteen percent under my estimates. I think that perhaps it was my last victory.”

“No matter what, Gerald, you’ll always be welcome as my friend here,” Twilight said, her own playfulness gone as well with the somber news.

He gave her a half-hearted chuckle. “I wasn’t worried about that, you’d have to take up a sword to get rid of old me. I’m more worried that whoever replaces me in five years will be less than willing to continue working with Equestria. We have our differences in values, but the agreements you made with us have really benefited us. I can tell my citizens that all day, but it won’t make them believe it.”

Twilight replied in a semi-serious but mostly joking tone, her grin coming back. “If they don’t agree with you, I’ll just have to show them the error of their ways. I like to think that I am a good teacher. If they don’t learn by my words, they can learn by my blade.”

That perked the Prime Minister back up. He gave a full belly laugh. “Oh my! That was so perfect. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have felt you were going to kill them.” Once his laughter was controllable, he smiled at her. “You are a one-of-a-kind mare, Twilight.”

They talked until dinner was served half an hour later. The conversation at the table was a bit more reserved as the other griffons and Celestia were present. The four griffons that Gerald brought with him all greeted Twilight with an enthusiasm similar to the palace staff. Spike, luckily, had shown her enough pictures and given her names so that she was able to greet them all by name.

After everyone present had finished their desserts, the griffon party retired for the night. Twilight promised to spend the next day catching up on both political and personal matters with Gerald. Celestia led her back to their bedroom once everything was settled.

“I really enjoyed my time with the Prime Minister,” Twilight commented once they were alone in the bedroom. “He reminds me of my friends from my dream.”

Spike yawned as he headed for his basket. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for your friends to be based off him?” Twilight and Celestia both blinked at the sudden obviousness of what Spike had just stated. “I’m just sayin’,” Spike commented when he saw their expressions.

“Yeah, that does make sense, Spike,” Twilight replied. “Anyway, I was surprised just how easy it was to act natural around him. I was so worried I was going to screw up but once we started talking it was just like we were old friends.”

Celestia nuzzled the Countess, hugging her tightly. “A good sign that, perhaps, your old memories still exist.”

Twilight nodded, returning the Princess’s embrace. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but that’s exactly what I was thinking. Once the Prime Minister leaves I can start teaching you that memory spell and we can see what happens.”

Celestia smiled warmly. “It has been far too long since you’ve taught me a new spell. I’m looking forward to it already.”

“Also, Celestia. There is one other thing I was thinking of. It might be a silly idea, but I want to go see Ponyville.” Twilight climbed into her bed. When Celestia didn’t reply, she explained herself. “I know it’ll be different. But I feel like it might be good for me to see it.”

The Princess climbed into her own bed, a neutral expression on her face. Once she was settled in she gave her reply. “Of course we can go. I just don’t want you to be too upset at what you find.”

Twilight pulled the sheets over herself. “Thank you.” Celestia’s magic turned all the lights off plunging the room into darkness instantly. Soon enough Spike’s snoring filled the room. Twilight sighed. Counting the short time she was awake the night after Dream Wish’s execution, this was her fifth day here. Her fifth time falling asleep as the Countess of Canterlot, and not as Celestia’s most faithful student. A smile pulled at her cheeks as she relaxed. She was starting to enjoy this life.

Chapter 10

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Prime Minister Gerald Windswept’s visit was the highlight of Twilight’s week. She spent an entire day with him, catching up with him and taking him out to see some of Canterlot. Princess Celestia spent the day alternating between paperwork from their previous day of court, and pacing about her bedroom doing her best to not worry about Twilight. Not only did she have the Prime Minister and his guards with her, but a full squad of unicorns would be trailing them. Spike did his best to keep her calm, but there wasn’t much that he could do. Paranoia was a difficult thing to quell.

Her constant worrying was for naught, though, as the day ended uneventfully. Twilight and Gerald returned to the palace in one piece, laughing about something they had seen out in the city with boisterous camaraderie. Twilight once again informed Spike and Celestia about how surprised she was at how easy it was to get along with the Prime Minister. Even just going off the events that Spike had told her about, she had managed to figure out exactly what sort of relationship they had and acted accordingly, without any suspicion from Gerald. Celestia happily pointed out that it was a sign that perhaps her memories were still buried in her mind, and she was drawing from them subconsciously. Twilight was hesitant to lean one way or the other about the state of her memories, but she hoped that Celestia was right.

The following morning Gerald and his group packed up and left, with Twilight promising that she’d introduce him to her parents to him the next time he was in Equestria. Her parents had unfortunately been busy the day before and couldn’t meet up with the Prime Minister. After a brief lunch, Twilight and Celestia held court for the rest of the afternoon. With the news of the Prime Minister’s visit having spread all around town the day before, most of the court session was spent discussing various aspects of their current agreements with the griffons. When they had time in-between cases Twilight started to explain the basics of her memory spell to Celestia, with a promise that after dinner she’d do a full write up of the spell.

As Celestia rose the sun on Twilight’s seventh day out of her coma, she read through the three pages of spell notes Twilight had produced the previous night. The spell itself was simple; it was the underlying principles that were hard for her to grasp. They were significantly different compared with the mental spells she was familiar with. Even with her many centuries of experience, it took her two days of studying and practicing to be confident enough about her skills to cast the spell on Twilight.

Just after sunset, the Princess mentally prepared herself to cast the spell. She sat on Twilight’s bed, looking into the eyes of her former student as she gathered her nerves. She didn’t want to mess up Twilight’s head because she was unfamiliar with the spell, or do something wrong in a panic and end up hurting her. The last thing Celestia wanted was for Twilight to enter another coma. “You’re sure I’m casting it properly?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, her impatience with Celestia showing. “Yes, for the thousandth time. It worked on Spike, and it’ll work on me. Now touch your horn to my head and cast the spell. Try focusing on a very strong memory to start with.”

Celestia was so hesitant to attempt the spell it was actually starting to make Twilight a bit upset. Twilight wanted to know if her proper memories were buried somewhere inside her head just as badly as Celestia. If they were, she’d be back to normal and all would be fine. She would be able to say with certainty that her dream was just that, a dream. If her memories were gone, not a single trace of them left, then it would be hard to say anything. The curse cast upon her could have destroyed her memories or she might really be from an alternate world, as unlikely as it was.

“Very well,” Celestia whispered as her horn gently pressed against Twilight’s mane. A blinding flash of light briefly came from the tip of the Princess’s horn, but nothing happened. There was no sudden memory rising to the surface for Twilight. Celestia closed her eyes and tried once more, focusing on a different memory, only to have the same result. Desperation seeping in, Celestia channeled more into the spell and rapidly began trying for anything at all that would stick, anything that would elicit a forgotten recollection. Several minutes passed. Nothing.

After a moment of silence, Twilight looked up at Celestia. The Princess was crying, silently. “It was a long shot,” Twilight said softly, grabbing her friend in a tight hug. Celestia simply wept into Twilight’s shoulder. “I’m okay, Celestia. I’ll make new memories and I’ll learn all about my past. Everything will be just fine.”

The Princess squeezed her tightly. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I won’t let anything bad happen to you again. Ever.” Celestia held on to Twilight the entire night, even after they had both fallen asleep. While Twilight wasn’t surprised the spell failed to find any memories, she was a bit disappointed that that there wasn’t going to be an easy fix to her situation. As she snuggled with Celestia that night, her feelings of unease slowly melted away.

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and she stuffed her hoof in her mouth to prevent herself from calling out. In the two weeks since Celestia had tried to return her memories, she found herself dreaming of Ponyville and Princess Luna several times. This was her fifth time having the nightmare, and each time she awoke with a startled shout. At least she was getting better about silencing herself before she disturbed Spike.

The dream was mostly the same each time. She was lucid, aware that she was dreaming, and could freely explore Ponyville as she remembered it. Time seemed to have no meaning, but eventually she’d start to hear Princess Luna calling her name from the Everfree Forest. Twilight still refused to give in and venture out in search of Luna; she didn’t trust what would happen to her psyche if she did. The Princess of the Night would then exit the forest of her own volition and Twilight would wake up.

This time, Twilight had entered the library and just laid in her old bed. It felt like hours past with her just laying there, wondering why she was dreaming this same scenario, over and over again. When she finally got up and looked out the window, Luna was exiting the forest. And then she woke up.

Something large and soft brought Twilight’s attention back to the present, waking world. Celestia was climbing into her bed, levitating the sheets up as she slid in next to Twilight. “Another nightmare?” Twilight nodded. “You’re having them more and more.”

“They’re nothing,” Twilight whispered as Celestia pulled in her for a hug. “And once you’re here, they don’t bother me again.”

The Princess nuzzled Twilight’s neck lovingly, holding her close. They sat in silence for a minute while Celestia waited for Twilight to relax. “Then perhaps I should spend every night holding you so that you never have another nightmare.”

Twilight blushed, glad that Celestia couldn’t see her face while they were embracing. “Celestia, really; it’s not a big deal. Just a stupid nightmare.”

“I promised to protect you. If I have to protect you from bad dreams, I will do that too.” Celestia’s tone was the same one she used during court, and occasionally when she was teaching Twilight. It was the kind of tone that projected a feeling of finality. There was no negotiation. There was no hesitation. Celestia’s word was final. “Now let us relax and go back to sleep. The sun is not supposed to rise for a few more hours.”

“Are you going to let go of me?” Twilight asked. She was still being held tightly against Celestia.

“No.”

Twilight sighed and nuzzled against Celestia neck again. “Good night, Celestia.”

“Good night,” came the soft reply. It only took Twilight a few minutes to drift off to sleep. Celestia released her hold, but stayed snuggled up with Twilight. The tiny smile on Twilight’s face was enough to make Celestia’s heart pound. She had finally done it. After the first two times she had to comfort Twilight after a nightmare, she had wanted to spend every night in bed with the mare she loved, but she didn’t have the courage to do so. The continuing nightmares gave her the perfect opportunity.

She knew that by tomorrow Twilight would most likely forget their midnight conversation, or have dismissed what was said as an attempt to comfort her. But Celestia was going to try her luck and join Twilight in bed from the start. If it was too much for her, or if it made Twilight too uncomfortable, she would go back to her own bed. But for now she wanted to sleep next to Twilight. She wanted to feel Twilight’s warmth. She did also want to help stop the nightmares Twilight seemed to be having. The Princess slowly drifted off to sleep, a happy smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Celestia didn’t sleep long as her body woke up in time to start her morning ritual. She was reluctant to leave Twilight’s side, but with their plans to head to Ponyville today she knew throwing off her routine would mess up their schedule. She went through the morning on autopilot, her mind focused on Twilight. The past few weeks Twilight had fully embraced her new life, and talk of her memories had died down. In fact, ever since the Griffon Prime Minister visited, she had seemed much more like her old self.

But Twilight still wanted to go see Ponyville, and Celestia didn’t have a good reason as to why they shouldn’t go. Before she knew it, Celestia found herself standing next to Twilight and Spike as a chariot was pulled around for them. “I think it’ll be good to get out, I haven’t left the palace in over a week,” Twilight said to Spike, a smile on both their faces.

“No kidding. You nearly slept in your office the other night. That’s really not good for your back, you know.” Spike’s tone mimicked that of Twilight’s when she was lecturing him. They both giggled at the reversal of their usual roles, and how funny Spike sounded trying to sound like Twilight.

Four white pegasi pulled the chariot over to them, stopping right in front of Celestia. “All set, Your Highness.”

Celestia and Twilight climbed up into the chariot, with Twilight levitating Spike up between them. “Thank you. Depart for Ponyville, please,” Celestia commanded once they were settled. The four pegasi easily pulled the chariot up into the air, smoothly guiding it up to just under the cloud level for the city. The Princess’s gaze was drawn over to Twilight, who was peering over the edge of the chariot getting a good look of the city as they quickly passed over it.

After a few minutes of silence they cleared the city limits. The mountain dropped out from under them, leaving them much higher in the air. Ponyville quickly grew as they moved towards the small town. “It’s different,” Twilight said suddenly.

“What is?” Celestia asked, knowing she was talking about the town.

“Ponyville.” Twilight’s gaze didn’t break from looking out at their destination. “I can already tell the shape of everything is different than my memories. The streets are unfamiliar.”

Spike, who couldn’t see over the edge of the chariot, climbed up onto Twilight’s back so that he could see what she was seeing. “Well, you said it yourself. It was just a dream.” Celestia flinched on the inside, keeping her calm exterior. Spike was rather blunt about the whole situation.

Thankfully, Twilight wasn’t bothered by it. “I know, Spike. But still… I guess a part of me was expecting to find it exactly like how I remembered.”

“Well how about as we walk around, you can talk about what it was like in your dream. That way we get to know more about your dream and you get to know more about the real Ponyville!” Spike’s cheerful attitude was a bit infectious.

Celestia smiled warmly. “I would like to hear about it as well, if you feel comfortable.”

Finally Twilight looked away from the small town. She looked up at the Princess and nodded once. “I don’t mind. Maybe it’ll be good to talk about it again. I didn’t even come close to telling you two everything.” The chariot started to descend, heading for the center of town. Twilight looked out at the town once more. “The library where we lived should have been somewhere over there.” She pointed to the West side of town, where several streets of boring looking houses sat.

The guards brought the chariot down to the ground near the City Hall. Ponies all around stopped what they were doing and stared as Celestia and Twilight gracefully stepped down from the chariot. Celestia started to address the crowd, but Twilight wasn’t paying any attention. She was too busy looking around for any sign of something familiar. Town Hall itself was completely different. It was now a two-story, nondescript brick building with a large sign that read “Ponyville Town Hall” above the entrance.

What used to be a large marketplace North of City Hall was now a large grouping of buildings with store fronts. In fact, the part of town around the town hall felt more like a city than the small town vibe of the Ponyville in her memories. All of the buildings around were commercial in nature, with what appeared to be apartments in the upper floors.

Celestia, finished with her impromptu speech, leaned down and gently nuzzled Twilight to get her attention. “Are you okay?”

Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin, Spike clinging to her neck so he didn’t fall off her back. “Ah! Don’t do that.” She took a deep breath to relax. “I’m fine, I just didn’t expect it to be this different.”

“What? Town Hall?” Celestia asked, giving a look around.

Twilight nodded. “This whole area. In my dream, the town hall was a wooden structure, and this whole area was more open. There was a small marketplace with stands; none of these stores. It felt a lot more… More like a small village, and less like a city.” She looked up at the sun and got her bearings. “Let’s start going this way.” Twilight led Celestia down a street, looking around at all the various stores and homes.

Eventually Twilight stopped at an intersection in the road, looking around. “I think Sugarcube Corner would be somewhere around here. This area, anyway.”

“That was a bakery where one of your friends worked, right?” Spike asked. “Was the food good?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “They had the best cake. You wouldn’t believe how perfect it was every time.” She started walking again, picking a direction at random. “The library where I lived would be up here a ways. Just on the edge of town.” Before she could continue with her thought, she came to a dead stop.

Spike tumbled off her back as he hadn’t been holding on at that moment. “Ow! What gives, Twi?” he murmured in slight pain, wincing as he clawed some dirt off of his face.

Celestia looked down at the Countess, and then followed her gaze to see what had caused her to stop. A simple looking store sat between two homes, the sign over the door bearing no text. It displayed a large quill and a large sofa. Twilight’s jaw slowly dropped. “What is it, Twilight?”

“That’s Quills and Sofas,” she stated simply. “I would have Spike go there to buy me quills.”

There was a moment of silence between the three of them as they all stared at the store. Spike finally spoke up. “That’s a really weird combination for a store. Only quills and sofas? How do they stay in business?” Just then a pair of unicorn mares came walking out of the store, each one levitating a sofa and a box of quills. “But… What?” Spike asked no one in particular.

“Yeah, in my dream he did pretty well. I never really questioned it, but apparently it was a solid business model,” Twilight commented softly, her gaze still locked onto the store.

Celestia cleared her throat after several moments of stunned quiet. “Well, perhaps we should go find somewhere for lunch?” When neither Spike or Twilight replied, she simply grabbed them with her magic and turned around. They had passed a few cafés on their walk. She would simply have to pick one if Twilight didn’t snap out of her current state.

In fact, Celestia not only picked a café, but ordered food for the three of them before Twilight returned to her senses with the arrival of a quaint, earthy soup. “But I dreamed up that store!”

“Yes, you did,” Celestia replied as she took a drink of the tea she had ordered. “You also dreamed about apple farms, and there are indeed apple farms nearby. Such a coincidence is not surprising.”

“But such a randomly specific thing!”

“Twilight, while I agree it is unusual, think of this: What if you had heard of this store before your dream? Such a strange detail that, while you might not have mentioned it to me or Spike, had perhaps been incorporated into your dream world? Just as myself, Spike, and your family were.” Celestia explained as calmly as possible, not wanting to draw a scene. Thankfully, most ponies in the area were giving them the space and privacy they wanted.

The Countess mulled that over before sighing heavily. “I guess that sounds plausible. It’s just such a weird detail to find here. I honestly expected to find nothing but vaguely similar buildings and maybe see a pony with a familiar color and cutie mark. But not anything like that.”

“So wait,” Spike interrupted. “Did the store itself look the same? Or was it just what they sold?”

“No, the store itself… Was different. You’re right, Spike. The idea of a store only selling quills and sofas was in my dream, but it didn’t look like that in my dream. In fact, it was in another part of town entirely!” Twilight’s stress seemed to vanish entirely as the pieces fell into place.

Sometime before her coma she had heard of the store; perhaps in one of her outings outside the palace. Spike could have been elsewhere or not paying attention at the time. The strange store, which Twilight knew she would shop at given the chance, stuck in her mind until she was cursed. It made sense and it fit in with the other things she had been considering.

The waiter arrived with the food Celestia had ordered, and Twilight decided to steer the conversation away. She brought up some of the cafés and restaurants she and Spike ate at in her dream, and other details she could remember about the town. Quills and Sofas slowly faded to the back of her mind.

Chapter 11

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After the shock of Quills and Sofa, Twilight was almost glad that the rest of Ponyville was completely foreign to her. They spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the small city just enjoying themselves. Spike found a comic book shop and purchased a few discount comics, while Celestia and Twilight chatted briefly with the mayor. Just before they returned to the chariot, Twilight had thought she saw one of her friends walking down the street. It had just turned out, though, to be a stranger with a mane style and color that was somewhat similar to Rarity’s. Thankfully she hadn’t pointed out the similarity to Celestia or Spike before she realized it wasn’t one of her friends.

Spike sat between Twilight and Celestia on the trip back to the palace, a comic book firmly in his grasp. Twilight couldn’t help but smile every time the young dragon giggled at something in his comic. The visit, aside from the one incident, was exactly what she needed: Ponyville was not the home she remembered it to be. She had no ties there anymore. Hopefully her strange dreams about Luna in Ponyville would stop now.

It didn’t take long for the familiar grounds of the palace to come into view. The chariot touched down only a few minutes later. Twilight yawned as she stepped down from the chariot. Spike zipped off, comic books tucked under his arm, and headed inside the palace to find a place to read in peace before Twilight could ask him to do anything. Celestia leaned down and gave the Countess a friendly nudge. “Do you want to lay down? We don’t have to work on the paperwork until tomorrow morning.”

Twilight sighed. “We should start on it tonight, but we can deal with it later. I’m too worn out to think about it now.” When she looked over and saw the grin on Celestia’s face, she sighed again. “You’re a bad influence on me.”

“Well, Countess, you simply need to understand that all ponies need time to relax. Yourself included. Now let’s get into bed,” the Princess replied cheerfully, pushing Twilight into the palace with one of her large wings. Twilight walked forward, not wanting Celestia to carry her again.

The staff greeted them warmly as they worked their way through the hallways. Twilight glanced around their shared bedroom looking to see if Spike was around, but he had found somewhere else to hide. She climbed up onto the large bed and flopped down onto her side, bouncing on the soft mattress. To her surprise, Celestia climbed on right behind her. The two of them laid there in silence for a number of minutes before Twilight felt the need to ask a question. “Were you serious when you said you were going to sleep next to me every night?”

“I was,” was Celestia’s simple reply. “Unless you feel uncomfortable with me being this close…”

“No, no, it’s okay. I just wasn’t sure if you were being serious or not.” Twilight relaxed a bit, subconsciously snuggling up against Celestia. Had she turned to face the alicorn behind her, Twilight would have seen a rare mix of embarrassment and happiness. “After seeing the real Ponyville, I feel more comfortable saying my version was imaginary,” Twilight commented.

When Celestia didn’t offer any opinion, Twilight continuing with her thinking. “It’s a small town surrounded by farm lands. My version took that much more literally, making a village where everypony knew everypony else. But some of the things I had just accepted as normal, like a bakery being made to look like a giant gingerbread house, are quite strange.”

“I recall you saying that you lived in a library that was built into a giant living tree. That seems very strange,” Celestia said a bit playfully. “Perhaps we should try to come up with some spells to allow such buildings to be made.”

Twilight gave a soft laugh. “I never thought about how hard it would be to build a complex structure without hurting the tree. I just accepted it as something that was already done.”

The conversation died out somewhat as Twilight yawned. She suddenly found herself being pulled into a hug. “Get some rest, Twilight. I’m here for you,” Celestia whispered softly to her. Twilight didn’t reply; she was too busy trying not to die from embarrassment as the Princess cuddled her like a stuffed toy. She knew for certain her face was a bright shade of red.

Slowly over the next hour, Twilight and Celestia drifted off to sleep, still snuggled up closely. When Spike finally arrived to go to bed, he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the two of them. He laid a blanket over them before climbing into his basket. Twilight’s dreams were free of any strange encounters with Ponyville or Princess Luna.

Sure enough, Celestia continued to share a bed with Twilight every night after that. Several nights had past and Twilight was finally starting to get used to sharing her bed. So much so that unless she could feel Celestia’s fur coat against her own she couldn’t fall asleep. One morning, just before lunch, they were both in Twilight’s office while she worked on some paperwork from the previous day of court. The Countess sat at her desk, quill floating as she read through papers and filled out various forms. Celestia sat not too far away with a book floating in front of her.

Twilight had begun to notice some new behavior in Celestia. During the day she was getting a lot more relaxed and... physical. If they were walking down the hall together, Celestia would drape a wing on Twilight’s back and pull her so they were walking side by side. When they ate their meals, Celestia wouldn’t hesitate to reach over with a napkin and clean Twilight’s face like she was a foal. Whenever they had time to relax, Celestia wanted to be laying such that she was touching Twilight in one way or another. Aside from when she was in the bathroom, Twilight spent nearly every minute of the day with Celestia. Even if they were just sat silently in the same room as each other.

She didn’t mind the contact with Celestia; it didn’t feel uncomfortable in any way, but it was definitely... unusual. This Celestia, unlike her dream version, was very friendly and close with her. More like a best friend than a mentor. But Twilight hadn’t realized just how close they apparently were before her coma. She was starting to feel bad about not knowing about their closeness. Without looking up from her work Twilight spoke up, breaking the silence they had been enjoying for the last hour. “Mind if I ask you something, Celestia?”

The Princess looked up from her book. “Of course not.”

Twilight took a moment to organize her thoughts and figure out how best to word her question. Her quill floated down and scribbled a quick note onto the form she was filling out. “The last few days you’ve been… more relaxed, and close with me. Is this what our relationship was like from before my coma?”

When Celestia didn’t answer right away, Twilight looked up. The emotion on Celestia’s face wasn’t one she normally displayed. Sadness. Almost regret. “No, we weren’t. We were friends, certainly, but there was always a bit of distance between us.” Celestia knew exactly what Twilight was going to ask, and answered her before she could speak. “It was something I said to you that created that distance. Now that you don’t remember it, I guess I’ve been taking advantage of the situation.”

The Countess had no idea how to react to that confession. Celestia obviously felt bad about how she had acted, and about whatever she had said in the past. “What did you—”

“Let’s go out to dinner,” Celestia said, interrupting her. “Just the two of us. Someplace fancy in Canterlot.”

Somewhere in the rarely-used part of Twilight’s brain, something took control of her mouth. “You mean a date?” She asked the question before she could even think about it. Surely Celestia, Princess Celestia, the many thousands of years old immortal goddess, was not asking her out on a romantic date.

Celestia nodded once, knowing what was going on in Twilight’s head. “Yes. A romantic date, and all that it entails.”

Twilight’s jaw slowly fell as her brain quickly attempted to prevent her from fainting. “What?”

“I asked you out on a dinner date.” Celestia seemed to hesitate, but she wanted to be truthful with Twilight. “I asked you out once before. Before the coma, I mean. We went on a date, but you told me that you didn’t return my feelings. We stayed close friends, but there was a line that I made sure I never got too close to, for fear that you’d think I was trying to further our friendship.”

Twilight slowly nodded. “I think I understand.” She wasn’t really sure that she understood Celestia’s feelings, or even her own feelings, but she could understand what Celestia was getting at. Celestia had feelings for her, for whatever reason.

Twilight had never gone out on a date before, however. At least not in her dream. Being social and going out like that wasn’t something she took interest in until she moved to Ponyville, and even then she mainly focused on being with her friends. As far as potential romantic partners go, Celestia was a good catch. Twilight considered her to be the most beautiful pony she had ever seen, and this version of Celestia was much easier to get along with than the one from her dream. A smile cracked on Twilight’s face as she made up her mind. “And I would like to go out to dinner with you.”

Celestia looked rather surprised. “Really?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I? You’re one of the very few ponies I trust completely. You’ve become my friend. And if I have to admit it; you are very beautiful,” Twilight said with a blush. “It’s just dinner, right? It’s not as if we’re going to be married after one little date.”

“Well… Yes… But, I honestly didn’t expect you to agree.” Celestia got up and walked around Twilight’s desk, grabbing the smaller mare in a hug. “Thank you.” Twilight couldn’t help but give Celestia’s neck a nuzzle; it was instinct. Celestia pulled away after just a moment. “I’ll go make a reservation and then I’ll join you for some lunch in half an hour?”

Twilight nodded and gave her a friendly smile. “Yup, I should be done with all this by then.” She watched the Princess walk out of her office. She slowly counted to ten before charging up a teleportation spell. With a loud pop, she appeared right next to Spike, who was laying on her bed reading a comic book. “Spike!”

The young dragon screamed and threw his comic across the room at the sudden noise. When he stopped panicking and noticed it was just Twilight standing over him, he released an annoyed sigh. “Jeez Twilight, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Spike! Celestia just asked me out a date!” At the word date, several parts of Twilight’s mane decided to spring upward, giving her an instant disheveled look. One that Spike had seen before.

He instantly went into panic reduction plan four: Get Twilight to understand the logic behind something she was unfamiliar with. The last time he had used plan four on her was for the exact same reason. “Sit down and take a deep breath, then calmly explain what happened.”

Twilight did as ordered, flopping herself into a seated position with a thud. She took three breaths and started to explain. “Celestia and I were sitting in my office. After breakfast I went to finish up some paperwork, and she followed along. I made a comment that the last few days she’s been close with me. We hug more often, she puts her wings around me; things of that nature.” Spike nodded, for he had noticed that too. “I asked if that was what we were like from before my coma. She then asked me out to a dinner date, and told me that before my coma I turned her down.”

“You did,” Spike cut in. “I believe you said that you loved Celestia as a mother, and couldn’t really see her in a romantic way. There was a bit of a fallout, but you two remained very close friends and still managed to work together in court just fine.”

“Was there anything else?”

Spike thought back. “I, uh, I heard you tell Celestia something about it not being fair that you’re mortal and she’s not. Though I was eavesdropping and it was hard to hear.”

Twilight ignored his last comment. “That is a good point. Statistically I only have another 70 or so years left to my life. What will she do when I’m so old I can’t remember anything? How will she handle me dying? I know that we’ll have all that time together, but she’ll have so much more time after I’m gone.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Do you really think that’ll work? She’s loved you for years now, Twilight. As soon as she found out that you didn’t remember the past, she started thinking about if the ‘new you’,” Spike made quotation marks with his claws, “would be willing to give dating a try. She would really rather have a relationship and lose you than not have you at all.”

“But! I—”

“Twilight. She. Loves. You.” Spike punctuated each word by tapping her nose with one of his claws. “Did you agree to go on this date?” Twilight simply nodded. “Then you will go with her and have a good time. Don’t worry about the relationship just yet. You need to figure out how you feel about Celestia.”

Twilight looked a bit confused. “How I feel?”

“Yes. Do you agree with your past self about her being more of a mother figure? Are you not attracted to mares? Are you willing to give love a chance?” Spike walked off the end of the bed, dropping to the floor with a thud, to fetch his comic book. “Just take things slow and think about what you want. Celestia can figure out what she wants, so leave that to her.”

Once she had thought through the advice Spike was giving her, Twilight realized he was mostly right. She should first focus on her own feelings. If she wanted a relationship with Celestia, they could work out the details together. “Well, thank you for calming me down, Spike. I guess I’ll know more after tonight.”

Once he had fetched his comic book, Spike walked back over to her. “It’s what I’m here for.”

She gave him a loving nuzzle. “Lets go get some lunch.” He quickly climbed onto her back and the two of them headed out.

The restaurant Celestia had gotten them into was probably the fanciest and most expensive place in Canterlot, aside from the palace itself. Twilight was rather shocked when she was led into a private room in the back. Out of the giant windows she had an amazing view of the city, all lit up as the sun had just set.

Celestia walked in behind Twilight, a sly smile on her face. “I hope this is good enough for you, Countess Sparkle.” Twilight was speechless and simply nodded. Without magic, Celestia pulled back one of the chairs so that Twilight could sit down.

Taking her seat, Twilight’s head swiveled around looking at the fancy decor and the view out the window. “This… This is beautiful.”

Celestia laughed as she took her seat. “I booked this entire room and had them set it up special for us. I hope you aren’t upset that I pulled the Princess card to get them to do it.”

Twilight gave a polite laugh. Before she could speak, two unicorns entered the private room. One carried a large bottle of wine and two glasses in his magic. The other had two bowls with salad and various dressings. They silently set it all out on the table and left without so much as looking at the two ponies. Celestia gave a nervous smile. “I ordered everything for us, so I hope you enjoy what I picked.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Twilight replied. An awkward silence filled the room. “So, how was your afternoon?”

Celestia started to pour the wine. “Just fine. I finished reading my book, it was quite good. Perhaps I could lend it to you?”

“Oh, sure. I’d like that.” Celestia floated Twilight’s glass of wine. “Oh, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Celestia replied calmly. The room went silent as they both sipped at their drinks. A full minute went by before Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight, are you okay?”

Twilight jumped a little at the sound of her name, nearly dropping her glass. “What? Yes, yes I’m just fine. Sorry. I’ve… Well… I’ve never been on a date… Ever. Guess I’m a little nervous.”

Celestia looked a little surprised. “Never been on a date?” Twilight shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m sorry, Twilight. If I had known, I would have done something less extravagant.”

“No, no! This is just fine, Celestia. Really.” Twilight blushed, her face feeling extremely hot now. She sat awkwardly, fidgeting it a bit.

Celestia’s surprise turned into concern. “Talk to me; what can I do to help you relax?”

Twilight looked away. “I don’t know. I’m just not all that familiar with romance. And I mean, you’re immortal. I’m not. Our relationship would always have that deadline.”

“Oh, is that what has you worried? Don’t worry about that Twilight. I have a spell.”

That grabbed Twilight’s attention. She looked back at Celestia, who was grinning. “A spell? A spell to do what?”

Celestia’s grin grew even wider, and for some reason it made Twilight’s stomach drop. “Make you immortal.”

Chapter 12

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“Make you immortal.” Celestia’s three simple words echoed around inside Twilight’s head as she sat in a stupor. All her worries and arguments seemed to vanish. She was even unsure of why she was concerned about Celestia being immortal in the first place. Before her thoughts could spiral out of control, she was jerked back by Celestia’s voice. “Twilight, are you okay?”

She took a moment to compose herself and get all her thoughts back in line. “Yes, sorry. I just didn’t expect that such a spell would exist.”

Celestia suddenly looked a little nervous, her playful grin gone in the blink of an eye. “Well, I haven’t actually cast the spell on a pony before. I did try it on a bird once, and it worked.”

“A bird?”

“Yes. I named him Harvey,” Celestia said proudly. “I let him go once I tested to make sure he was actually immortal.”

Twilight’s brain threw up a red flag at that. The way she had said tested led Twilight to believe that the process was anything but innocent. “How do you test for immortality?”

Celestia cleared her throat and sat up straighter. Her voice took on a more formal tone. “Twilight, what do you think immortality means?”

“The aging process stops and without any accidents you’ll live forever,” she replied without thinking about it.

The Princess nodded. “The immortality I am speaking of is different than that. I cannot die. No matter what happens, I will eventually heal and be back to full strength. I still feel pain, and can be temporarily wounded to point of unconsciousness, but I cannot be killed. That is what I am offering you with this spell.”

“Any wound?” Twilight asked. She was so used to thinking that the Princess’s long life could be ended by a fatal wound that the thought of true immortality seemed unbelievable.

The playful grin that made Twilight feel uneasy returned to Celestia’s face. “A very long time ago I was in a battle, and lost focus of what was going on around me. The next thing I knew my head was no longer attached to my body, and then I lost consciousness.” Twilight gasped. “A day later I was perfectly fine.”

Twilight looked amazed. “A day? You recovered from being decapitated in a single day?” Celestia simply nodded. “That is both disturbing and amazing!”

After a moment’s pause, Celestia started to giggle. “You’re so cute when you get excited like that, Twilight.” The unexpected compliment caused Twilight to blush and attempt to regain her composure. “Well, I’m glad you’re not afraid of the idea.”

“When I was a foal, in my dream at least, I wanted to be a Princess. When I learned about your immortality, I thought it was perfect. I’d be able to live forever and learn everything.” Twilight blushed deeply. “I just never expected it to be a simple spell though.”

Celestia nodded once. “It’s not complex, but it does have certain requirements. Why don’t we talk about it more after we eat? We still have a meal to come after these salads.” Twilight wanted to know more about the spell, but she allowed Celestia to change the conversation. The two of them slowly ate away at the salads in front of them as they discussed books and music.

When the meal came, a delicious pasta dish that Twilight didn’t even know the name of, the conversation had turned towards Celestia’s past. While she remembered much of her history, there were gaps where she simply couldn’t remember anything of any importance. She remembered the dates by her age, not by the calendar year. From her 2874th birthday up till her 2898th birthday, all she could remember was that she fell into a volcanic hot spring while on vacation and built Equestria’s first hot tub as soon as she returned home.

The dessert was an amazingly good slice of chocolate cake. The conversation had slowly died down as they enjoyed the rich flavor and Twilight used that time to get back to the immortality spell. “So what are the conditions needed for the immortality spell?”

A soft sigh escaped Celestia’s lips. “I knew you’d want to know more about it. I’m starting to regret mentioning it to you.” The Princess finished off her glass of wine, the bottle on the table empty as well. “Firstly the spell won’t turn you into an Alicorn. All it will do is grant you immortality. Secondly it requires more magical power than I have. The amount of magic needed depends on the creature I’m casting it on. I can show you my math later but, based on the energy I needed to cast it on Harvey the bird, I believe I will need around forty powerful unicorns to channel most of their energy into the spell with me.”

Twilight looked shocked. “Forty unicorns? That’s a lot of magical energy.”

Celestia nodded. “And as such, using that much energy is dangerous. If anything were to go wrong you could get badly hurt. I don’t think I could live with myself if the spell failed and I hurt you.”

“I trust you,” Twilight replied instantly, her face slightly blushed. “But maybe we should wait on the immortality spell a bit. I want to… I want to figure out our relationship before worrying about that.”

The Princess was quiet for a moment as she finished the last bite of her cake. She gave Twilight a smile. “Good thinking. I didn’t mean to overwhelm you with it anyway. I have all the time in the world, after all.” Twilight chuckled nervously at Celestia’s joke. As the Princess waited patiently for Twilight to finish her dessert she began to plan the rest of their evening together. “Are you feeling up for a walk?”

Twilight finished her last bite of cake and nodded. “Of course.”

“The weather is clear tonight, so there will be a great view of the stars from the palace gardens. I thought perhaps that would be a pleasant way to spend the evening.” Celestia suggested. Twilight agreed and the two of them left the restaurant walking side by side. The air was cooling down, but it was still warm enough to be outside enjoying the moonlit night. Celestia laid one of her large, white wings over Twilight’s back as they returned to the palace.

A thousand candles had been laid out all across the garden grounds, bathing the area in a warm light. It was just enough to light up all the flowers and plants, but still dim enough that it didn’t impact the view of the stars. Twilight gasped as the two of them entered the gardens. “It’s beautiful!”

Celestia gave a coy smile. “I just thought it might make our walk more memorable.”

Twilight wandered away from Celestia’s side, walking through the candle-lit paths. Her head swiveled around, as if this were her first time in the gardens. After a few minutes she walked back over. “Celestia, this is beautiful… How did you get this arranged so quickly?”

Celestia chuckled. “I may owe a certain young dragon quite a lot of gems… And ownership of the greater Fillydelphia area. I’m sure he’ll make a great Duke when he’s older.”

“Oh Spike!” Twilight laughed. She could clearly imagine him making such outrageous demands and bargaining for as much as he could get for being tasked with so much work. She’d have to tell him what a great job he did.

The Princess joined in with Twilight’s laughter, not wanting to tell the Countess that there was a document waiting on her desk to grant Spike the fiefdom. She once more placed her wing on Twilight’s back. “I believe there should be a blanket for us to relax on over near the cherry trees. We can take a scenic route.”

Twilight found herself leaning against Celestia as they walked through the garden. The sounds of the bugs and wildlife around them was just loud enough to be heard over their hoofsteps. Every so often Celestia leaned down and gave Twilight an affectionate nuzzle. Twilight found that, even though the gesture made her blush, she rather enjoyed the feeling of warmth Celestia gave off. It made her feel safe, like when they slept together.

Eventually the pair came across a large white blanket laid out in the middle of a grassy patch. Candles surrounded it at a far enough distance to cover it with a low amount of light. Several pillows were scattered across the blanket. A single bottle of wine with two glasses sat just off to one side. Celestia smiled warmly. “Looks relaxing.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at Celestia and trotted away from her, heading onto the blanket and flopping herself down on a large pillow. She grabbed the wine with her magic, pouring it into the glasses with ease. “ I hope you don’t mind if we talk while we drink.”

“Of course not. What did you want to talk about?” Celestia asked as she joined Twilight on the blanket. She sat down on a pillow right next to Twilight, but far enough so that Twilight’s personal space wouldn’t be crowded.

A glass filled with wine floated over to Celestia, who took it in her own magic. Twilight waited a moment before speaking. “This might sound strange, I’m not sure what I was like before the coma… But I don’t really know much about being a special somepony… I was hoping you could teach me.”

Celestia had been about to take a sip from her glass when she froze. She should have seen this coming once Twilight mentioned she had never dated anyone. “Teach you?”

Twilight nodded once. “Just explain it to me, briefly. I don’t want to end up in a relationship and not have any idea what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“Twilight,” Celestia started, suppressing a soft groan. “There isn’t anything you're supposed to do. Being in a relationship doesn’t come with an instruction manual and checklist of tasks. It’s just about being emotionally connected to your partner and being with them. We’ll continue holding court the same way. We’ll still eat in the dining hall with Spike.”

The Countess seemed lost in thought. After several seconds of spacing out she nodded twice. “Right, I think I remember Shining Armor saying something similar when I asked him about his relationship with Cadence.” Twilight suddenly blushed. “Is it true that kissing your special somepony is…” She waves a hoof through the air as she was at a loss for an accurate word.

Celestia burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it, Twilight’s innocent nature was too much for her to handle. It took her nearly two full minutes to get herself collected and to focus back on Twilight. The young mare was blushing furiously. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I didn’t mean to make fun of you. Yes, kissing feels good, but it’s the emotional connection to your special somepony that makes it better.”

Twilight fidgeted nervously. “I see. Then, maybe-”

“No,” Celestia interrupted. “You want to kiss me and see how you feel about it, right?” Twilight nodded once. “You shouldn’t have to kiss me to tell, Twilight. I don’t want to kiss you just as an experiment, either.”

With a sigh, Twilight’s head drooped. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Twilight.” Celestia scooted forward and nuzzled her friend. “Let’s just spend the evening together, watching the stars and drinking this wine. We can worry about the relationship later.”

Twilight opened her eyes. She and Celestia had just gotten into bed. She had fallen asleep with her back pressed firmly against Celestia’s chest. Yet now in the distance she could see dream Ponyville. Her mind tried to set a red flag about the view of Ponyville, but Twilight couldn’t quite place what was wrong. It was a perfectly normal view of Ponyville, one she had seen many times on her trip out of the Everfree Forest.

“Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight literally jumped in the air, screaming as the sudden loud voice of Princess Luna spoke right into her ear. She landed on the ground with a thud, falling onto her side as her hooves slipped out from under her. Princess Luna was looking down at her with a concerned look. “Are you okay, Twilight Sparkle?”

“I’m fine,” she replied as she pushed herself back upright. “You scared me.”

Luna lifted her with magic, setting her down gently. “That was not my intention. I have been searching for you for many days now. I am glad that I have finally found you.”

Twilight chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I know.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “You knew I was searching for you? And yet you did not come to me?”

“I wasn’t sure what you want to do to me in this dream. So I just waited until I woke up.” Twilight admitted, feeling a little foolish. She wasn’t really sure what she thought Luna might do to her, but something in her gut told her it wouldn’t be good.

Luna looked even more confused. “What do you mean, wake up from this dream?”

Twilight gestured back at Ponyville. “This. This is all a dream. I’m asleep in my bed in the palace right now.”

“Twilight… You are in a coma. You have not woken up for weeks.” Twilight’s jaw dropped slightly. “I have been trying to find a way to contact you while you slept, but it has been very difficult. A mind in a coma and a mind dreaming are somewhat different.”

Twilight started to stutter. “A- A- A- A coma?”

Luna nodded. “Yes. A spell failed and you have been non-responsive ever since. Spike alerted Celestia and your friends. You’ve been in the Ponyville hospital ever since. Nothing we’ve tried has woken you.” This was too much for Twilight. That was exactly the same story she had been told when she woke up here. “Now that I have found you, however, I believe we can wake you up.”

“But- But-” She stuttered again. “But that was all a dream! A dream I had while in a coma. You’re not real! This is just a dream!”

Luna once more looked concerned. “I am quite real, Twilight Sparkle. Your friends and family are waiting for you to awake.”

“No, I mean, yes this is a dream right now. But when I wake up I’ll be in Canterlot with Celestia and Spike. That’s what’s real here. You and the Elements, that was a dream,” Twilight tried to explain. “My subconscious must not fully want to let it all go, but it was just a dream. You’re not real.”

That seemed to make Luna slightly angry. “I assure you Twilight I am very real! You remember me, do you not? You remember your friends?”

“Of course I do,” Twilight replied before thinking about it.

“And how much of the world you’re in now do you remember? Dreams often start in the middle, and yet they seem so natural that you don’t care that you have no memories of anything prior to the start of the dream,” Luna explained.

Twilight frowned. She wasn’t expecting Luna’s arguments to sound so logical to her. “I might not remember this world, but I certainly did care that my memories were wrong. I looked into all the possibilities, tried everything I could think of, to figure out what had happened. This world feels right, like I belong here.”

“Twilight Sparkle, I have been dream walking for many years. Dreams are reflections of your inner desires and fears. If you needed a place where you belong, then the dream created one for you,” Luna said calmly. “Now, let me attempt to wake you and I will show you what is real.”

Luna started to approach Twilight. Before Luna could reach her, Twilight stepped back. She had just realized something about Luna’s appearances in her dreams. “You said all of this is a dream… Then how come you’ve never appeared to me when I was awake? If I’m in a coma, then it shouldn’t matter if I’m dreaming in my dream, you should appear to me whenever. Yet you only appear to me when I am asleep.”

That seemed to catch Luna off guard. It was a tough question for her to answer. Luna was not knowledgeable about what exactly made a coma-dream different from a sleep-dream. “I am not sure. I’ve been trying constantly, at all hours, to contact you. Only a few times have I gained access to your dream.”

That was exactly the answer Twilight was hoping for. “Then you are just part of this dream. If Princess Luna were real she’d be able to access the dream when I was awake. You’re just a part of my subconscious.”

Internally Luna screamed with frustration. She could not understand why Twilight did not believe her. “Twilight Sparkle. You are in a coma. This fantasy dream is not real,” Luna tried to explain again, calmly. “I am here to take you home.”

“How did I fall into the coma? What spell failed?” Twilight asked, ignoring Luna. She wanted to find more evidence to prove her point. She was sure that it was just a dream. As much as she wanted it to be real, this was just her mind playing tricks on her. She’d wake up next to Celestia just like she had been doing for the past several nights.

Luna sighed but answered the question. “It was Star Swirl the Bearded ‘s unfinished spell. Celestia thought you might be able to figure it out and complete it. But you attempted to cast the unfinished version. The magical backlash put you into a deep coma. Spike discovered you several hours later.”

“Unfinished spell? I’ve not heard of that. I don’t remember Celestia asking me to finish a spell by Star Swirl either. I returned from the Crystal Empire and was suddenly here,” Twilight muttered to herself. Was it possible that this world was the dream, and that Luna was correct? She could feel the part of her that wanted it to be true calling out. But then, how would that explain why her coma induced dream was nearly identical to what had happened in reality? Was a part of her mind aware of what was going on? But if it was, then why was this world so different from the one with her friends?

Luna continued her explanation. “It was supposed to help you ascend. To become an immortal Alicorn like Celestia, Cadence, and myself. Celestia felt you’d make a good Princess of Equestria.” That piece of information was all the proof Twilight needed. Luna was a projection of her uncertainty about abandoning her friends and her world. But it was just a dream. It was drawing from her memories. Now it was even picking up on the conversation she had with Celestia just a few hours earlier about the immortality spell.

Twilight stepped back from Luna, glaring at her. “Now I know that you are simply part of the dream. Celestia is planning on making me immortal and I’m having mixed feelings about it. But what I’m sure of is that I belong here.”

Luna was confused. She wasn’t entirely sure what Twilight was talking about. But she could tell from the tone of Twilight’s voice that Twilight was upset. Even angry. She did not know Twilight to get so aggressive so easily. “Please, calm down. We can talk-”

Twilight cut her off. “No! I don’t not wish to hear any more of this. I have made up my mind. I am the Countess of Canterlot and Celestia’s best friend. I want to become immortal and rule by Celestia’s side. I want to be her marefriend. In order to do that, I must be rid of these nightmares. You are no longer welcome in my dreams.” Twilight lowered her head and fired a directed bolt of magic at Luna.

Before the bolt could impact the Princess of the Night, Twilight was jolted awake by Celestia. “Twilight!”

“What?” She said groggily, blinking several times as her eyes tried to adjust and make sense of what was in front of her. Her mind was still clouded with the discussion from her dream. The next thing she knew she was being squeezed against something white and warm.

Celestia hugged her tightly. “You were fidgeting and squirming again. I tried to wake you but you just wouldn’t wake up. I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Twilight gasped for air and wheezed out a response. “It… Was… Just… A… Dream…” Celestia finally let go of her. She and Celestia were still in the bed together. Spike was awake and was sitting down by Celestia’s rump. He was watching her with a concerned look.

“Twilight, I want you to tell me about these nightmares. I want to help,” Celestia said, her tone nearly pleading.

Spike nodded. “Yeah, Twilight. Celestia was calling your name and shaking you for at least five minutes before you woke up. It even woke me up. Something is really wrong.”

“Fine, I guess it won’t hurt to tell you about it,” Twilight said, giving in.

Chapter 13

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The singular clock in the large bedroom ticked and tocked quietly in the early hours of the morning. Twilight, Celestia, and Spike all sat on Twilight’s large bed, a single candle lit on the nearby table to provide some light for them to see. Celestia had taken it upon herself to pull Twilight close to her. The smaller mare was snuggled up like a stuffed toy against the Princess’s body.

“I remember the first dream. It was the day I spent doing research on travel between realities,” Twilight started softly. “I was back in Ponyville. It was dark and the town was completely empty except for me.” She took a moment to remember that first dream. “I was just so upset that I stormed around the town. I had spent all day reading about how impossible it was for me to be in a different world and now I was lucid dreaming about being back… But I was alone. Or so I thought.

“I started to hear a voice calling my name from the Everfree Forest. Princess Luna’s voice, actually. For some reason I was afraid of seeing her. So I just stayed away and eventually I woke up.” The Countess fell silent as she tried to remember if there was anything else she needed to share about those dreams.

Celestia wrapped her in a hug before she could continue. ‘Twilight, it’s just a dream. She couldn’t hurt you.”

“I know, and I knew that from the start, but I was still afraid of her. Afraid of why she was inside my dream, I guess,” Twilight replied. Her words were mumbled as her face was pressed against Celestia’s warm chest.

Spike chimed in, looking a bit confused. “But that doesn’t sound all that scary. You’ve been tossing and turning like it was something terrible. Especially tonight’s nightmare.”

“Tonight’s was different,” Twilight answered. Celestia released her grasp on Twilight to allow her to explain more. “I wasn’t in Ponyville. I was out near the forest. And Luna was next to me. She spoke to me.”

“About what?” Celestia asked.

The Countess drew a deep, relaxing breath. She took a few seconds to collect herself. “She told me that this place is a dream. That my memories are real. That she was here to wake me up.” Spike and Celestia traded concerned looks. “I don’t believe her,” Twilight said hastily, realizing her previous statements could be misunderstood. “But that’s what she was trying to convince me of.”

Celestia spoke before Spike could comment. “I have many, many years of memories, Twilight. Including many with you before your coma. I do not believe this world to be your dream.”

“I don’t either,” Twilight reiterated. “But when she said that world was real… There was a part of me that got so excited. A part of me that was ready to believe her.”

“So why don’t you?” Spike asked.

It took Twilight a minute to come up with an answer. “She couldn’t prove to me she was real. She only appears when I’m asleep, but if I’m dreaming all this, she should appear to me here as well. And the story she gave me as for why I am having this dream was too similar to reality here.”

“What do you mean by too similar? Did she say you were in a curse-induced coma?” Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded. “Very similar. Apparently I cast an incomplete spell, which I know not to do without proper safety setup in case of an accident. The backlash put me into a coma.”

Celestia hummed softly to herself as she thought of all the types of spells that would have a powerful enough backlash to cause a coma. Usually a spell backlash would cause some minor pain, or temporary magical nasua. “What spell was it?”

“A spell to make me into an alicorn,” Twilight replied softly. Celestia’s eyebrows shot upwards in surprise. Had the situation been different, Twilight might have burst out laughing at the unfamiliar expression on Celestia’s face. “I know, it made me rather suspicious. You tell me about the spell and suddenly Luna tell me that the Celestia from my memories was going to have me become an alicorn. A full Princess, even.”

An awkward silence soon filled the room. Celestia and Spike weren’t sure what to say at this point. They both knew for a fact that their lives weren’t part of a dream. If Twilight had been from another reality, they might have believed that, but they couldn’t accept that their world was just in her dream. It didn’t seem possible.

Celestia cleared her throat. “How did your conversation with Luna end?”

Twilight looked meek and her face flushed red as she got embarrassed. “I might have gotten a little emotional… I told her she wasn’t welcome in my dreams and tried to zap her with a stun spell. I woke up before I could get the shot off, though.”

“Probably not the most diplomatic way, but I suppose it could have been worse,” Celestia commented. “I think that if your nightmares are to stop, you should try to make peace with Luna.”

“Make peace,” Twilight repeated dryly.

Celestia nodded. “If she is a part of your mind, finding a path to peace is probably good for your mental health. If she’s real, and what she is saying is true—”

“I’m staying here,” Twilight interrupted. “I don’t believe she’s real.”

“If she is,” Celestia continued on. “...If she is real, then making peace with her might make her stop giving you these nightmares.” The look on Twilight’s face made it clear she didn’t want to believe Luna was real, but the purple mare nodded once. “I also think that perhaps you should go see a professional.”

“A professional what?” Twilight asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

Spike chimed in once more. “A shrink!”

“Oh, a psychiatrist. I suppose it would be reckless to assume that having my life so completely turned on its head wouldn’t affect me in any way,” Twilight commented more to herself than to Spike or Celestia. “I agree. Spike, make an appointment for one of my days off next week.”

Spike gave a playful salute. “I’ve got a doctor in mind already!”

Once more Celestia grabbed Twilight in a vice-like hug. “Let’s try to get back to sleep. We do have a day of court to attend tomorrow.” Spike jumped down from the bed and returned to his basket, more than happy to go back to sleep. Twilight relaxed against Celestia. She knew that any sleep she got would be uneasy and still leave her tired in the morning. So she resolved to think about ways of making peace with Luna.

Celestia laid back down into her normal sleeping position, but held Twilight tightly still. It only took a few minutes for the sounds of Spike snoring to put Celestia to sleep. Twilight rather enjoyed the warmth Celestia gave, and found it very relaxing. By the time the sun had come up, Twilight had only gotten a few hours of sleep. But she had a plan for talking things over with Luna the next time she had that dream.

The next two weeks were some of the most interesting days of Twilight’s life. More intense than being Celestia’s personal student and more socially nerve wracking than trying to make friends with the five ponies who you helped save the world with. She took Celestia out on a date a few nights after their first date. The plan was for them to go bowling and then head to the theater for a play. As it turned out, without magic, both Celestia and Twilight were terrible at bowling. The more they laughed at each other the worse they got and by the end of the game neither of them could throw the ball without giggling. They had so much fun they nearly missed the start of the Canterlot Royal Theatre Group’s production of The Merchant of Manehattan.

A few days after that, Celestia took Twilight out flying. Twilight rode on Celestia’s back as they headed up above the clouds. A simple cloudwalking spell allowed them to enjoy a cloud-top picnic and watch the sunset. That evening on the clouds they shared their first kiss, at least to Twilight’s knowledge. Twilight nearly fell off the cloud after their lips parted. Her mind, for the first time in a long time, was completely blank aside from the feeling of Celestia’s lips pressed against hers.

That night was awkward for the both of them. Once more they slept snuggled up together. Celestia gave Twilight a quick goodnight kiss on the lips. A few hours later, Twilight was awoke from some rather explicit dreams involving Celestia. Judging by the flushed and sweaty look on Celestia’s face, she was having similar dreams. Twilight tried to put some space between them, but Celestia’s forelegs wrapped themselves tightly around her and held her still.

In between the sessions of court, on their days off, after dinner, and any moment they found themselves with free time, they would spend the time cuddled together doing one activity or another. Some days Celestia would share with Twilight everything she could remember about Twilight’s life from before the coma. Other days Twilight would read to Celestia out of various scientific and magical texts. A few times they found themselves simply enjoying each other’s company in pure silence before something would pull them away.

Twilight visited the psychologist twice. Both sessions went well in that Twilight found the stallion to be professional and friendly, but he had never encountered a case like Twilight’s. He wasn’t sure if anything could be done about her memories except learning to cope with her sudden life changes. He was happy to hear that Twilight had already come to that conclusion herself. In the end it was decided that once-a-month visits for a year would be plenty, unless she started to show signs of needing help.

At the end of two weeks without nightmares, Twilight once again found herself in a lucid dream. She was standing inside her library bedroom. The wooden walls of the tree no longer felt like home. Without hesitation, she leapt from her balcony and glided to the ground, heading off in the direction of the Everfree Forest. She didn’t hear Luna calling her name, but assumed she would find the Lunar Princess there.

Sure enough she spotted Luna’s dark blue coat and astral mane sitting on a small hill near the forest’s edge. Twilight approached silently and sat down next to the Princess. Luna looked over with a small amount of surprise on her face. “I did not expect you to approach me.”

Twilight didn’t look over at Luna. “I’m sorry for trying to blast you with magic. Even if I don’t believe you’re real, that was still rude of me.”

“It was not the first time I’ve been shot at and it will not be the last. I do not hold it against you,” Luna replied calmly.

They sat next to each other in silence for a few minutes, neither one sure how to start the conversation. Eventually, Twilight decided to break the ice with a question. “I don’t believe you are real. I think that you are a manifestation of the part of me that can’t let go of my memories. So I know your answer will just be what I want to hear, but I still want to ask. How is everypony doing?”

“You mean your friends and family? They are concerned, but have not yet given up hope. I told Celestia of our last conversation and she felt I should try talking to you again before we told anyone else what had happened,” Luna replied, her tone indicating that she disagreed either with Celestia or with Twilight. Most likely both.

Twilight nodded once, that answer making sense. “I see.”

“I must admit, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna started, her tone once more turning neutral. “I am still confused as to what exactly is going on. Why do you not believe I am real? You know of my ability to enter dreams.”

Finally, Twilight made eye contact with Luna. She looked just the same as she did during the few interactions Twilight had had with her before. “My recent trip to the Crystal Empire is the last thing I remember about, well, a dream I was having. My friends and I were supposed to meet with Ms. Harshwhinny in order to help get the Crystal Empire selected as the host of the Equestria Games.”

Luna nodded. “I am aware of your trip.”

“Right. Well after I got back to Ponyville, I woke up here.” She remembered that they were sitting in her dream world right now and quickly amended her previous statement. “I mean, I woke up in Canterlot. A different Canterlot to the one I can remember. Almost everything about my life and the world around me was different. You, Cadence, and all of my friends don’t exist. My brother was killed while serving as a guard. I’m a member of the royal court and work alongside Celestia in ruling Equestria.

“At first, I thought I had been sucked up into an alternate world. Or perhaps some sort of parallel timeline. Maybe a prison of Discord’s creation. But the more I looked into the magic behind them, the more I realized that there wasn’t any way that was possible.”

Luna interrupted her, concern worn easily on her face. “Did you not think you were dreaming?”

Twilight gave a knowing smile. “Of course, briefly. But I would sleep and dream, only to wake up and still be here. As the days passed, I realized that it was just too real to be a dream. I was really there. Celestia told me about a faction of ponies who believed that I was somehow trying to take the throne for myself. One such pony attempted to cast a killing curse on me.”

That shocked Luna. Such spells were highly illegal. “Surely Celestia didn’t let that happen?”

Twilight nodded. “The damage was done. He had thankfully cast the curse improperly. It left me brain dead, in a coma, for nearly a year. The pony was sentenced to death and executed before I woke up. All traces of my memories from before the curse were gone. Instead I remember you, my friends, the Elements of Harmony, and all those crazy nonsensical adventures I went on. The more time passed, the more that seemed to be just a dream I had while I was in the coma.”

Luna looked doubtful. “You can’t tell me you so easily gave up? You just declared your entire life was naught but a dream?”

“No, not so easily. But this world, the world where I’m asleep right now, makes so much sense. It feels so right. Everything just fits nicely into place. And the world you come from, with Discord and Changelings and who knows what else seems so… So… Fantastical!” Twilight gave an exasperated sigh as she forced herself to remain calm. “And the day before you spoke to me, I went out on a date with Celestia. A romantic date. She explained to me that she had harbored feelings for me since before I fell into the coma. She offered to make me immortal so that we could be together without worrying about the day I die. When I fall asleep, you give me nearly an identical story.”

Now it was finally starting to make sense for Luna. “I see,” she replied as her hoof rose up to idly scratch her chin. Twilight’s life had been completely flipped upside down and she had come to terms with it. She might even prefer it. Then Luna tried to give her the same story again, and flip her life back. “But do you not even want to try to return to your old life? If I am part of your mind, then no harm will be done. But if I am real, you can return to your friends.”

Twilight gave it a good ten seconds of thought before shaking her head. “I suppose. But I don’t even know if I want to go back. This life is everything I’ve dreamed about. I’m helping to run Equestria. My vote counts just as much as Celestia’s does, on everything. Even that on its own would be enough, but Celestia loves me as an equal. We’re… Special someponies! I don’t think I could ever leave her now.”

Twilight had found love. There was nothing Luna could think of that would convince her to leave now. The look in Twilight’s eyes told Luna everything she needed to know. The Princess stood up and turned towards the forest. “Then I shall not bother you further. I cannot compete with true love. Perhaps Cadence could have, but not I. Any attempts I make to force you to awake would be dangerous.”

Luna stood and slowly descended the small hill they were sat upon. She paused once she reached the bottom to look back up at Twilight. “Be happy, Twilight Sparkle. Do not come to regret your decision.”

Twilight smiled. “I will. Good bye, Princess Luna.”

“Good bye, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna slowly walked off into the Everfree Forest. Once she was out of sight, the dream world vanished. Twilight awoke with Celestia many hours later, feeling extremely refreshed. Gone was the nervousness about becoming immortal. She felt content in her choice.

“Good morning,” Celestia muttered, drawing Twilight into a tight hug.

For just a moment, Twilight forgot about her conversation with Luna. Her entire world was the warmth from Celestia’s body. When she finally pulled away a large smile was stuck to her face. “Good morning, Celestia.” Luna’s final words to Twilight drifted back through her mind. “I dreamed of Luna last night.”

Celestia woke up a bit more at those words. She had been waiting patiently for Twilight to have the nightmare again. “You did? I didn’t feel you struggle or wake up in the night.”

“It wasn’t a nightmare. I explained everything to her.” Twilight placed a kiss on Celestia’s neck. “She told me to be happy. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”

Chapter 14

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Pre-Chapter Author's Note: If you didn't read my blog post, there has been a change of plans. This story is not ending in this chapter. There will be more chapters to follow. That is all. Enjoy Chapter 14.

Twilight glanced down at the calendar on her desk as she moved a small stack of papers off the side. It had been two full months since she had woken up from her coma, and three weeks since she had her last encounter with Princess Luna in her dreams. She didn’t want to jinx herself, but the last three weeks had been wonderful. She quickly fell into a new routine with Celestia: Getting up before sunrise to share a bath before enjoying breakfast together. Those few hours before they had to go be Princess and Countess were some of Twilight’s favorites moments of the day.

But once it was time for court, they became professional and restrained. Celestia would occasionally lean over and nuzzle Twilight after a long discussion, but that was as far as she ever went. The Princess had taken her out on a few more dates, which were all great, but most of their time together was spent around the palace. Spike seemed to be happy about their new relationship as well. He would offer to do paperwork for Twilight so that she and Celestia could have time together at the end of a busy day.

The only thing Twilight had to complain about was how routine her life was. She wasn’t off on a weekly adventure with her friends and there wasn’t any ultimate evil out to destroy Equestria that she needed to stop. It wasn’t a bad thing—she certainly didn’t miss putting her life in danger—but she did somewhat missed the excitement and fun she had with her friends on those adventures. Then again, if she was still with her friends she never would have found herself in a romantic relationship with Celestia.

A loud knock at her door drew her attention back to reality. “Come in,” she called out, straightening out the items on her desk. The stack of papers left to review was about the same as the stack she had finished, giving her another good two hours of work left for the day. She hastily grabbed the top most sheet and moved it in front of her, so to appear like she was working and not sitting lost in thought.

The door cracked open and a familiar white head peeked in. “You busy?” The tone was friendly, but with a formal edge to it. She needed Twilight for something.

A large grin wormed its way onto Twilight’s face. She was always happy to do something for her special somepony. “Of course not, Tia. Come on in.” Using the nickname she had come up with for Celestia always gave her a little feeling of butterflies in her stomach.

The Princess walked into the room and quietly closed the large door behind her. Twilight got up from her desk and walked over to embrace her special somepony. They shared a quick hug, one of Celestia’s large wings gently resting on Twilight’s back. Celestia smiled warmly at Twilight as they pulled apart. “As much as I want to spend some time with you tonight, your parents are here to see you. They’re waiting in the lounge.”

The mare’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. The butterflies in her stomach returned, this time for all the wrong reasons. Twilight hadn’t seen her parents for over a month, and she wasn’t sure what to expect from a sudden visit. “T-They are? I haven’t seen them in weeks! Oh, I’m sure they’re angry at me for not stopping by more often! They were angry, weren’t they?!”

Celestia cut off her panic attack before it could get into third gear by grabbing Twilight in another hug. “They weren’t angry, Twi. They just wanted to see you.”

Twilight nodded on instinct before shaking her head to clear her thoughts. The embrace was like a switch, draining all the pent-up energy in one smooth gesture. After they parted, Twilight looked visibly relaxed. “Right. Thank you for that. I... guess I’ll see you later tonight.” With a quick peck on Celestia’s cheek, she quickly left the room and wandered through the halls until she came to the open doorway for the lounge. She wasn’t sure why she hesitated, but she came to a stop and peered around the doorway. Her parents were sitting on a sofa, chatting softly.

Her mother glanced up just at the right moment to spot her, ruining any chance to eavesdrop on their conversation to get a feel of their mood. A confused, but stern look was sent towards the Countess. “Twilight Sparkle! Are you hiding from your parents?”

Trying her best to not look guilty, Twilight entered the room slowly. “Of course not, mom.” She approached them and gave them each a hug. “It’s good to see you.”

Once the round of hugs was over, they all sat back down and everything was amiable. Her parents took their places back on the sofa and Twilight sat in one of the chairs nearby. Twilight’s father spoke up first. “How have you been doing, Twily?”

“Really good, actually. I’ve really gotten the hang of things, and I love being the Countess. Working in court is something I’m really good at,” she explained with a smile. “I know hearing that probably sounds weird, but it’s just so different from what I was dreaming about in my coma.”

Her parents exchanged awkward glances, her mother voicing their concern. “We’ve talked a bit about that. You suddenly dropped that on us and then we didn’t see you for quite some time, after all.”

Twilight chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry about that. I just got so caught up trying to adjust to my role as Countess and the nightmares I was having… It just slipped my mind.”

“Well, Spike took some time last week to come visit us,” her mother continued. “He explained everything about your nightmares and your memories. So, we thought we would bring you something.” Her horn lit up as she levitated a large book out from a saddlebag sitting on the floor next to the couch. Hesitating for the briefest of moments to run a gentle hoof over the binding, she passed it over to Twilight.

There was nothing on the cover aside from an image of her cutie mark. She opened the cover and was greeted with several pictures of her as a newborn foal. Twilight’s brows furrowed in interest. “A photo album?”

Her parents smiled. “We put it together for you; it has photos from your birth to you becoming Countess. We thought you might enjoy seeing them.”

Twilight flipped through a few more pages, her face growing slightly flushed as she looked at her baby pictures. Each one had the faint edge of familiarity, and she recognized the extremely young Shining Armor instantly. But a small voice in the back of her mind told her that she didn’t truly remember any of these. The events might look similar to her memories, but they are not the same. She will never remember the events of the photos as anything more than pictures in the book.

She closed the book, tucking it safely into the seat next to her as she attempted to banish those dour thoughts. “Thank you. I… I don’t know what to say, that was very thoughtful.”

Her mother laughed. “You’re welcome, Twily. I figured that Celestia wouldn’t have thought to show you any baby pictures. She probably only has photos of the two of you together,” her voice rapidly shifted from polite and warm to rather cold.

Twilight resisted the urge to groan at her mother’s sudden change in tone. “Mom, really. She isn’t as bad as you think she is. She’s not trying to take me away from you.”

“Twily, dear, I think a mother knows when somepony is taking their daughter,” she chastised lightly. “You’ve been cooped up in the palace for weeks now. She’s just keeping you all to herself.”

“If you must know, I have left the palace recently,” Twilight countered, taking a slightly smug tone. “Celestia and I went on several dates, out to fancy restaurants in the city—”

A chilled silence quickly fell over the room as Twilight realized what she had just admitted to her parents. Her mother’s left eye started to twitch, and her father had his mouth slightly ajar. “Twilight. Please tell me that was just a figure of speech and not you just confessing that Celestia has been pursuing you romantically. Again.”

All Twilight could do was laugh nervously and mentally prepare herself for casting the strong shield spell she knew. The lack of response only seemed to have an adverse reaction. Her mother’s voice grew more frantic by the second as she started to mumble and rant about Celestia, denouncing her and becoming livid at ‘the audacity of that mare to prey upon my Twily while she has amnesia.’

It very quickly grew into the usual rage her mother expressed whenever something like this happened. Twilight winced as her mother grabbed a pair ofl decorative vases off one of the shelves in the room with her magic and smashed them against the floor. Guards making their rounds down the corridor took one look at the scene, and did an about-face while briskly trotting away in veiled terror. Her mother was only a few steps away from foaming at the mouth, her explicit swears and curses aimed at Celestia no longer making any sense.

And like a saving grace, her father attempted to calm down his wife before a catastrophic meltdown could fully occur and she left to go attempt to murder the Princess. “Honey, honey.” Three more pieces of pottery met their end as they were hurled across the room and smashed into the wall. Twilight watched as her father temporarily lost his nerve at the display, before his resolve hardened. “Stop and think about this for a moment. Twilight’s a grown mare and she can make her own choices now. You know that she still loves you. Right, Twily?”

Twilight jumped as she got put on the spot, but seamlessly flowed into the opening her father gave her. “Right! Of course I love you, mom. Celestia could never take that away from me. Really!”

The impending explosion of utterly righteous anger never came. Instead, her mother simply deflated with a loud sigh of defeat. One final vase that was floating in her magic was gently placed back on the shelf it came from. Twilight thought it would be rude to mention the increased indentation of her wrinkles. “You’re right. You’re... you’re both right. I’ve been acting silly about this, haven’t I?”

Feeling safe from any more shards of broken glass for the moment, Twilight got up and jumped onto the couch next to her mother. She hugged her tightly, whispering into her ear. “I love you, mom. No one will ever get between me and my family.”

Her mother eventually returned the embrace strongly. “I love you too, Twily.”

“Why don’t we meet up for dinner, twice a month, just the three of us,” her father said suddenly, nervously glancing around at the huge mess his wife had made. “Just so we all have a set time to get together as a family?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’d like that, dad. It’d be good to have some home-cooked meals every now and again.” She stayed sitting on the couch next to her mother as they started to work out the details of the Sparkle Family Bi-Monthly Get Together Dinner Day. Twilight insisted that everyone call it the SFBMGTDD as it was an easy-to-remember initialism. Every time she used it, her parents would start to laugh. They found her need to give things complex names only to reduce them to strange acronyms just as funny now as when she was younger.

The night vanished quickly, and Twilight walked her parents to the front doors of the palace. The first group of maids that they passed, Twilight stopped and quickly explained that the lounge would need cleaning, leaving out any details or reasons for the mess. Their departure left several baffled mares, before they dejectedly sighed and made their way towards the crime scene. Twilight carried her new photo album in her magic, careful not to let it bump into anything and treating it as if it was a fragile piece of porcelain. A warm hug and a promise to see them at the first SFBMGTDD sent them on their way back down the road. Twilight decided to head back to her office and flip through the photo album some more.

Celestia was long gone, and all her paperwork was finished and piled neatly on her desk. Twilight would have to thank Celestia for that once again; she really hated doing those reports. Idly, she began flipping through the pages of the album. Every few pages, she would appear to be slightly older. A timeline of a life she only vaguely recognized. Her first steps, being potty trained, her first day of magic kindergarten...

She was about to flip another page when something caught her eye. A particular image nestled between a picture of her and Smarty Pants, and a photo of her giggling joyfully as she swung on a pair of swings. She was still a foal, in that frozen moment of time—probably still in magic kindergarten—holding up a drawing she had made.

Her name was scribbled on one edge of the paper, meticulous writing even at such a young age. The drawing was of a large pink pony. With both wings and a horn. Her mane was tri-colored yellow, pink, and purple. And on her flank, was a large blue heart. There was no mistaking who this pony was. Twilight had drawn several of these in her dream past for the greatest foalsitter in the history of foalsitters.

It was Princess Cadance.

Chapter 15

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Twilight blinked a few times, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. The picture of her as a foal holding the sketch of Cadence remained unchanged. She continued to stare at it for several long and silent minutes, as her mind rapidly prepared itself for the oncoming panic attack that was bound to happen once she snapped out of her trance.

Slowly, a few stands of Twilight’s mane unfurled and sprang free of their usual resting places, giving her a slightly disheveled look. One of her eyes started to twitch as her brain finished processing what was in front of her. Her jaw dropped and she jumped up, grabbing the photo album with her magic. The only thing she could think of was running to find Celestia.

She didn’t remember how she got there, but Twilight got from her office to her bedroom in record time. The doors nearly blasting off their hinges as she charged in, her magic crushing the doorknobs as she simply used brute force to open the doors. “Celestia!”

The Princess and Spike were sitting on Twilight’s bed. A small novel was floating in front of Celestia’s face while Spike was holding a brand new comic book, the duo sitting in content silence. Content silence that was easily shattered by the distraught Twilight as she flew into the room, startling both of them. Twilight wasted no time jumping onto the bed and pressing the picture album into Celestia’s face. “Look!”

“What am I looking at, Twi?” Celestia asked, her voice mumbled by the thick book covering her face.

Twilight pulled the album back and pointed at the picture in question. “There, that sketch I’m holding. Look what it is!”

For a brief moment, Celestia began trying to comprehend what was happening as her eyes were cross-eyed staring into a multi-colored blob. She blinked a few times as she gently rubbed her nose, feeling a bit confused as to why Twilight had suddenly shoved something into her face. She looked down at the picture and gave a smile of recognition. “Oh! Are these your foal pictures?”

“Yes, but that’s not important,” Twilight said, her voice taking on an urgent and panicked tone. She slightly shook the album in her magical grasp. “Look here, at this sketch!”

Celestia looked up at the state Twilight was in and quickly realized that her marefriend was far from excited about the pictures, but rather panicked over them. She scrutinized the sketch closely, seriously analysing the photo before her. “It’s a pink alicorn mare with a questionable mane coloring. Why is this—”

“That’s Princess Cadence! From my dream! I mean, exactly down to the detail; that’s her. I’ve drawn similar pictures to that one in my dream when she would foalsit me,” Twilight explained.

“Really?” Celestia looked at the photo some more. A brow slowly levitated and vanished into her mane. “Are you sure?”

Twilight gave an annoyed huff, her face pulling down into a large frown. “Of course I am. Pink alicorn, blue crystal heart for a cutie mark, curly mane. This is her. How is this her? She’s a character from my dream!”

Spike moved over so he could see the picture. “Hey, she’s rather pretty. Didn’t you say your brother marries her in your dream? Way to go, Shining.”

His comments went completely ignored as Celestia moved to hug Twilight. “This might just be like that sofa and quills store from Ponyville: something bleeding through into your dream. Maybe your dream pulled up this design from your memories when it needed to add a pony to your life.”

Twilight seemed to mull that over as she sat silently for several seconds with her head resting against Celestia’s side. She hadn’t thought of that in her panic. “But, an entire pony is different than just the idea of some store—”

“Is it really the entire pony?” Celestia asked. “I don’t see anything on this that labels your picture as Princess Cadence. It’s just a sketch of an alicorn.” Twilight once again fell silent. Celestia gave her an encouraging nuzzle. “She’s not a real pony Twilight, I promise. I think I would find out if there were any other princesses running around out there.”

Spike laughed at that, but Twilight still stayed quiet. After a short while, Twilight gave a loud sigh as she slumped over against Celestia. “It was just so surprising that I couldn’t even think clearly. But what you said makes... a lot of sense. I should have thought of that at first, instead of just freaking out.”

“If you didn’t freak out, we’d think something was wrong with you,” Spike said, with a cheeky grin on his face.

Celestia chuckled at Spike. “As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. Twilight Sparkle without panic attacks wouldn’t be Twilight Sparkle. It’s not a bad thing. I’m always here to help you calm down.”

Twilight turned and kissed Celestia on the cheek. “Thank you, Tia.”

“Of course, Twi. Now, let’s look at these photos.” Celestia grabbed the album with her magic and opened it back up to the very front. Twilight snugged up against the Princess so they could look together, the anxiety of her panic attack already subsiding to the depths of her mind. Spike returned to his comic book, having seen the photos before.

The next day, before court started, a large griffon arrived at the palace with a note for Celestia and Twilight from the griffon Prime Minister. After politely dismissing the messenger, Celestia read it over before passing it to Twilight. Out of habit of dictating to Spike, she started reading sections aloud. “Border negotiations between two border towns… Tax free trade for local businesses… Merging the towns… Request a meeting tomorrow to discuss these issues.”

Celestia sighed softly, giving a clearly fake look of hurt. “I suppose that means I should let you go. It’s been a while since you saw Gerald. I shall endure the loneliness that your absence will make.”

Twilight smiled as she suppressed a giggle. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’ll only be for a few short days.”

The Princess grabbed her in a hug, briefly enveloping the smaller mare in her wings. “Do try to get work done. Go get a chariot and I’ll send Spike to join you.”

They shared a simple kiss and headed off in opposite directions. In under half an hour, Twilight had packed a suitcase for a few days stay and met up with Spike outside. They climbed onto a simple chariot and took off. Spike pointed out that a second chariot with some unicorn guards was following them. “Celestia probably sent them to keep an eye on me, in case someone should try to curse me again,” Twilight answered, a slight edge of nervousness in her voice.

She had been so excited to visit with Gerald that she had forgotten that there were ponies out there who wanted to hurt her. Spike gave her a big grin. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’re used to dangerous adventures from your dream, right? It’ll work out.” Twilight had to resist the urge to point out that her dreams were simple fiction and that the real world wouldn’t be the same. Instead, she gave him a hug and did her best to seem relaxed for the rest of the two-hour trip.

The border was nothing like Twilight was expecting. A massive stone wall was clearly visible as they approached, erected and cutting the land into indisputable halves. Two small villages had sprung up on either side of the wall, near a large tower with a gate. Even from a distance, Twilight could make out all the griffons flying around over the village on the other side of the wall. “We’ll land near the edge of town and find accommodations before we venture off,” Twilight said to both Spike and the pegasi pulling the chariot.

A few minutes later, and they touched down in a grassy patch near the road leading into town. The second chariot landed beside them, four additional unicorns stepping off. Twilight addressed the group of pegasi guards briefly, keeping her voice down so that Spike wouldn’t hear her. “We’ll be here for a few days. Find a place to store the chariots; I want you to be present for our stay. I’d feel safer if we had some wingpower to go with our spellpower,” she admitted.

They all smartly saluted her and replied in unison. “Yes, Lady Sparkle.”

Twilight smiled sheepishly and walked back over to Spike, lifting him up with her magic and gently placing him on her back. “Now then, let’s go find someplace to keep our bags. Keep your eyes peeled for a hotel or an inn of some sort.” With their escorts in place, they headed into town. Most ponies recognized her on sight, others just stared at her escort with vague trepidation. The few griffons that were in the town recognized her and called out friendly greetings, ones that she answered with a broad smile and a silent wave. Apparently, she was somewhat well known to the griffons because of her previous negotiations with the Prime Minister.

It didn’t take long for them to find a small hotel in the center of town. Twilight got three rooms: one for her and Spike, and the other two to be shared by her guards. They dropped off the bag Twilight packed and returned back out into the town. Some helpful griffons told her that the Prime Minister was across the border, so they made their way to the gate.

Twilight was stopped by several griffons in armor who very quickly and politely made sure she wasn’t bringing anything illegal across the border. With no baggage accompanying them, however; it was a brief process that ended up being more of a formality than anything. She couldn’t help but feel some anxiety as she walked away from the checkpoint; was the trafficking of illegal goods so common that they had to enforce it with magic detectors and armed guards? The thought perturbed her.

The griffon village was nearly identical in feel to the pony village, despite the shift in architecture. Griffons went about their lives, greeting Twilight with large smiles, and the few ponies who were on this side of the wall were clearly doing trade or business.

Someone must have informed the Prime Minister that Twilight was out and about, because he soon came flying over towards her. Two silent Griffon bodyguards accompanied him as he got within shouting distance. “Twilight! How good to see you again!”

She looked up as he landed a few steps away from her. “Gerald!” They shared a brief hug. “How have you been?”

He looked rather happy, his usual cheer obvious in the way he almost seemed to be bouncing on his talons. “Good, good. Things are just fine politically, which is why I have time to engaging in something as offbeat as this.”

“Yes, your letter sounded quite interesting,” Twilight replied.

He waved off the conversation. “But let’s save that talk for tomorrow! Come, let me treat you and friends to dinner tonight. We’ll catch up and just enjoy ourselves before we have to worry about... bleh, politics,” Gerald suggested with a comical expression of disgust.

Twilight beamed at the thought of just getting to relax with her friend for the evening. “That sounds lovely; thank you.” She followed him as he led her through the town to wherever he had in mind for dinner, which ended up being a modest little restaurant. The evening was spent chatting about everything that had been going on in their lives. Twilight was thrilled when Gerald congratulated her on her relationship with Celestia; she had a hunch he’d be fine with it, but she was still nervous nonetheless. Spike was friendly enough, but remained mostly quiet as he knew Twilight and Gerald were good friends and wanted to catch up.

Several hours later—with Celestia’s sun long since dipped under the horizon—Twilight and Spike headed back across the border. As they approached the hotel, something caught Twilight’s eye. A blue pegasi with a rainbow mane and tail was trotting briskly down the road. For a second, she didn’t realize why the mare seized her attention. That is, she didn’t until Twilight did a double take as her brain called out that she had just seen Rainbow Dash.

When she scanned the road again, however; it was void of any rainbow-maned pegasus. There was a sky-blue pegasus mare not too far away, but she had a storm-cloud gray mane. Said mare seemed entirely unaware that she stopped the Countess in her tracks as she mosied along on her route, passing Twilight without a glance. Twilight scanned the area for another few seconds, before heading inside and roughly shaking her head. It had to have been her imagination.

It had to have been.

Chapter 16

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Twilight had a difficult time falling asleep that night. That brief glimpse of Rainbow Dash kept replaying in her mind, over and over until it overridden any other possible thought process. She was so sure that she had seen that familiar messy mane that she was having a hard time telling herself that Dash wasn’t real. Dash, and all her other friends, were figments of her overactive imagination during her coma and they didn’t really exist. They had to be. But, that part of her was so certain that she had seen Dash for that split second, simply wouldn’t listen to logic.

Spike had asked several times if Twilight was feeling alright and she attempted to reassure him, but it sounded forced. It did nothing to alleviate his concern. Eventually, though, Spike gave up his efforts and chalked it up to the stress of their current objective. So, the two of them drifted off to sleep; Spike snoring loudly as he peacefully slept curled up at the end of the bed. Twilight’s sleep was less restful and was often plagued with visions of Rainbow Dash. Several times through the night, seemingly every hour on the hour, Twilight’s eyes would snap open after a particularly rough dream. Most of them were Dash yelling at her for abandoning her friends and betraying their trust. How real those dreams felt sent shards of icy glass through her heart.

She wasn’t entirely sure why this was happening. Twilight hadn’t thought about her friends in such a way since she came to the conclusion that the other world was fake. While it hurt to think that she betrayed them in any way, she kept telling herself that they were not real. The best thing she could do would be to take what lessons she learned from them and apply them to her current situation. Surely that would be enough to satisfy her mind.

Somehow, she managed to get enough sleep to somehow feel more refreshed than a corpse when the sun rose over the horizon. After a short bath and some breakfast that Spike set up, she was feeling wide awake and ready to meet with Gerald about his proposal. Her escort of guards led her back across the wall (and through yet another inspection by the Griffon checkpoint) to the meeting point the Prime Minister had spoken of the night before during dinner.

Gerald was waiting for her, looking to still be in a good mood. He may had noticed the bags under Twilight’s eyes, but he certainly didn’t show it nor called it out. “Countess, welcome. You’re right on time.” A small bow was given in her direction.

His use of her title was to be expected. Spike had informed Twilight about all the formalities that would be used and expected of her. She gave a miniscule curtsy of her own. “Good morning, Prime Minister.”

“Please, have a seat,” Gerald said, waving one of his claws towards two chairs sitting across from a spacious circular table. He took a seat on the other side of the table while Twilight and Spike took their seats, Spike pulling out paper to take notes for Twilight so she could focus on the discussion. “You read my letter, so you know the general idea of what I would like to propose. Correct?”

Twilight nodded. “You want to merge the two towns and remove the import taxes for crossing the border.”

The Prime Minister grinned. “Exactly. The local government officials have received a number of complaints about the import taxes when they are simply sharing their goods with the ponies across the wall. Obviously, having the border checkpoint is still required even with our current free-travel agreement, and it will still be required to properly tax goods headed through the town. But for food and goods that is simply going from one town to the other—a very short distance across the wall, mind you—I think that the tax can be ignored. The towns could simply become one town legally and owned by both nations.”

Twilight tapped her chin in thought, her mind thinking over all the issues that would make. There were many. “How would the town be governed if both nations owned it? Which set of laws would they have to follow? There are a lot of details that would have to be ironed out if we were to jointly share a town like that.”

Gerald seemed surprised, as if he hadn’t anticipated Twilight to question his plan. He paused, frozen in thought. “Oh. Yes, I suppose you’re right. I hadn’t really thought that far in advanced.” Twilight suppressed the instinct to wince. Gerald was a good friend, and a good Prime Minister, but from what Spike had told her he wasn’t the best at thinking through his ideas all the way. In a funny sort of way, he could be considered bird-brained. “But I’m sure together we can come up with something that everyone is happy with.” Gerald’s grin returned, giving off an aura of confidence.

“Before we discuss anything further, I think it would be best if I spoke with some of the ponies in the area. If they object to this idea, Equestria will have to decline your proposal,” Twilight said calmly. “I propose a five-hour break at which point we will be in a better position to discuss your ideas.”

The Prime Minister nodded once. “Of course, Countess. That is a more than reasonable request. We shall meet up here at,” he paused to glance at the clock, “three this afternoon.”

That gave her nearly five and a half hours, which would include a lunch break at some point. If they moved swiftly, they would have plenty of time to flesh out a census, maybe even of the entire town. Twilight stood up, smiling as Spike put away his unused paper and ink before getting up with her. “We shall see you later this afternoon then, Prime Minister.”

“I shall be waiting, Lady Sparkle,” he replied with a friendly wave.

Several hours later, Twilight was sitting by the wall on the Equestrian half as she went over her meticulously-compiled notes with Spike. Her guards formed a protective crescent around her workspace. It seemed that even with such a large expanse of time, they barely finished with ten minutes to spare. “How many ponies did we talk to, Spike?”

“Two-hundred and twenty,” he replied without looking up from his own page of notes. His eyes widened as he realized how many they actually conversed with, before he tapped on writing further down. “Town’s population is three-hundred and seventy-eight as of last year’s census data.”

“Thank you,” she replied absentmindedly, scribbling out a few statistics. “Overall then, if our sample could be considered representational of the whole town—which it can—there was a 44% positive response to merging the towns. Of that 44% however, 80% was hesitant about sharing ownership with the Griffons.”

Spike grabbed a different page of notes. brows furrowed in a contemplative expression. “Yet here, we have a 89% positive response about intermixing griffons and ponies in a town populated by both species.”

“Right. So they don’t have any issues with the griffons themselves, just their government. Granted their government is a bit more strict, but overall their laws are nearly identical to Equestria’s,” Twilight muttered, thinking out loud. “I wonder if they fear that they will be less than other Equestrian citizens for living in a town owned by both countries.”

“What is the rest of the statistic you just calculated? You said only 44% were positive. Does that make the rest negative?” Spike asked.

Twilight looked back at her notes. “Not at all, actually. 44% was positive. But 41% were neutral to positive, 11% said neutral to negative, and only 4% were fully against the idea.” An appraising smile appeared on her face. “That’s pretty good...”

Spike’s face lit up. “That’s great! If 85% are in favor, than we can go ahead with the plan, right?”

“Yes, but...” Twilight’s face fell in thought. “There is one issue. I spoke with the mayor while you were napping after lunch. He was very worried about losing his office. Elected mayors are a big part about what makes a small town successful. They work hard to ensure the town gets exactly what it needs to keep growing. The griffons use appointed officials, not elected ones, to run their smaller towns. When the towns merge, who gets to remain in control?” Twilight asked.

“Well, they could just take turns,” Spike answered quickly. He pressed on when Twilight gave a look of interest. “If the griffons allow their official to be voted into office instead of appointed, it could simply be that every other term the candidates are ponies or griffons.”

Twilight closed her eyes. “Hmm. I remember reading that griffon cities have to reach a certain population density level before elections can take place. Gerald might not be able to make an exception on this.” A frustrated, but exhausted sigh left her. “It might just be best to have both mayors working together at the same time.”

“But would the griffons be able to vote for the pony mayor? Would they be able to run for mayor? They would all be citizens of the town, so wouldn’t they be eligible?” Spike pestered, keeping the discussion going and seeming intent on covering all the bases. “For that matter, wouldn’t this make the griffons living in town citizens of Equestria?”

Abruptly, the small stack of papers floating in Twilight’s magic suddenly dropped to the ground in a messy pile. She began shaking in barely-suppressed irritation, before Twilight fell onto her side, groaning in exasperation. One could say the sound was reminiscent of a dying, bleating goat. “This is too complex! We’re not going to be able to figure this out in a day. Maybe not even in week!”

Spike started to straighten out the discarded notes, looking fairly dejected. After wiping off some trace dirt particles that latched onto the parchment, he glumly scratched the back of his head. “Maybe we should send a letter to Celestia and ask for some advice.”

“We can do that after we meet with Gerald,” Twilight muttered in a defeated tone. “We should head over there so we aren’t late.” She pulled herself up off the ground and levitated all their notes into her bag. Spike climbed up onto her back as they headed off toward the Griffon side of the wall once more.

It was a short walk to the meeting room, Twilight’s guards surrounding her as she walked, as always. Gerald was waiting just outside the room for them, a smile on his beak. “Good afternoon, Countess. I trust everything went well?”

She gave him an exhausted but friendly smile. “Indeed it did, Prime Minister.”

He opened the door for her, a smidge of worry marring his chipper demeanor. “You look tired; here, please sit down.” He waited for her to enter before following in after her. Twilight plopped herself down into a chair rather unladylike, letting Spike jump off her back first. “Shall we begin discussing my proposal?” Gerald looked hopeful as he sat down across from her.

Realizing that this was still a business meeting, Twilight pulled herself up and tried not to slouch. “The ponies we talked to seemed to be interested and willing for a merging of the two towns to happen. And they are even willing to take in the griffons as neighbors into their community. The issue we have, however, with your proposal lies in the details.” Twilight couldn’t suppress a grimace. “Or rather the lack thereof.”

The Prime Minister’s smile slowly vanished, his shoulders visibly slumping an inch. “I see. Still, it is good that you are willing to think about such details. What in particular has you worried?”

“The main point is the lack of clarity on leadership and law. With both nations owning the town, who will decide what laws are enforced?” She answered her hypothetical question before Gerald could think to. “The town mayor. The issue then is who is the mayor? Your town uses a government-appointed representative, if I recall correctly.”

Gerald’s face lit up with sudden understanding, nodding. “We do. Equestria uses elections for all government positions—including the mayor—no matter the size of the city.” He stopped himself as revelation arose on his beak. “That does pose a bit of a problem.”

“A problem with no simple solution that I can see,” Twilight admitted. “The proposal you have come up with is much larger than either of us anticipated, it seems.”

Before Gerald could continue, there was a loud series of knocks on the door. “Lady Sparkle, a griffon messenger has news for both yourself and the Prime Minister! He says it is urgent!” One of the unicorn guards called through the closed door.

“Let him in,” Twilight replied.

The door opened quickly and a panicked griffon guard stepped in. The disheveled appearance of the antsy soldier attracted the meeting’s full attention. “Prime Minister. Lady Sparkle. A pony was just arrested at the border crossing.”

Both Twilight and Gerald jumped up, shock evident on their faces. “What?”

The guard continued, faintly gasping for air. “He was in possession of a large quantity of an... illegal substance.” He trailed off, staring in vague horror at Gerald. Twilight glanced over in confusion, and froze.

“Don’t tell me,” Gerald said softly. His expression had turned several shades darker. His brow lowered, making it look as if he intended to harm the messenger. His voice took on a rough quality that Twilight hadn’t heard before, and a snarl entered his tone. “Kalki seeds.”

Spike gasped, a look of shock on his face at the mention of the seeds. Twilight’s attention turned away from Gerald and the messenger, the latter cowering in front of the former. “Um, Spike. What are Kalki seeds?” She asked him quietly, hoping Gerald wouldn’t overhear.

Her assistant hesitated only briefly to assemble his explanation. Then, he began to quickly fill her in on the details. “It’s a plant that’s native to Zebrica that we use primarily as an ingredient in medicines. We bred a new version of Kalki that makes it more resistant to magic. When we shared it with the griffons, it turned into a weed and started spreading all over, killing their other crops.”

Twilight was stunned. “How did that happen?”

“We aren’t sure,” he answered with a shrug. Twilight could see a nervous twitch that hadn’t been there before. His draconian eyes flickered restlessly from the messenger and Gerald, but his voice was relatively stable. “No one has figured out why it behaves so differently across the border. But last time, it took out nearly a quarter of their annual crops, so they outlawed the seeds from entering the country; they only import the grown crop, and even that’s sparingly.”

Gerald’s abrupt shouting ended their hushed conversation instantly. “What! How much?!”

Twilight and Spike turned their focus back on the griffon duo, who were having their own private conversation. Well, maybe it was more ‘interrogation’, than ‘conversation.’ Gerald looked ready to foam at the mouth. The messenger winced, looking extremely nervous. “Tw-twenty kilos, sir.”

“Twenty?” Gerald looked like he couldn’t believe it. He roughly sat down, as if he legs had given out on him. A moment passed as he dragged a talon over his beak. “Doesn’t he know much damage all those seeds could do if spread over a large area?”

Twilight stepped forward, cutting into the conversation. “Who was attempting to smuggle them in? Did you get a name?”

“Not yet, Lady Sparkle,” the messenger replied. He seemed more than ready to latch onto reporting to Twilight, since his Prime Minister seemed ready to detonate. “We took him to a simple holding cell near the border for now. I came to inform you both of the situation straight away.”

Gerald snarled once more as he flung himself upward and quickly headed for the door. “I want to meet this pony.”

Fearing what the Prime Minister might do to one of her citizens, Twilight levitated Spike up onto her back and hurried after the angry griffon, nervous messenger in tow. She had no idea what the protocols would be in this situation, so she would have to rely on her knowledge of the law and Spike’s memory of past dealings to figure it out. Hopefully everything would be worked out without serious issue, and before the day was out; they could undo the damage caused by this pony.

For now though, discussion on merging the towns would be put on hold.

Author's Notes:

I don't know about you ponies who read this, but I am a winter lover. I much prefer the cold and the wet to the hot and the dry. Unfortunately, it's extremely hot where I live this summer, and my day job doesn't have air conditioning. So I waited until I got home to the safety and loving embrace of my personal air conditioner to post this chapter. And what chapter it is!

This plot idea came out of nowhere as I was working on the outline for this chapter. Originally they were going to have a short discussion and then move on, Twilight would go back to Canterlot. But the more I thought about how much trouble it would be to have a town owned by two countries, the more I realized that it wouldn't be a good ending to just have Twilight figure it all out easy-peasy. And then this happened.

Anyway, we'll get more into exactly what's going on with these Kalki seeds next week. If you want constant updates from me check out my tumblr thing!
-- Soft Story

Chapter 17

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Twilight and Spike followed closely behind Gerald as he stormed out of the building, furious stamping of talons echoing off the stone walkways in his wake. The Prime Minister’s expression sent a slight shiver of fear through Twilight every time she caught a glance of it. It also seemed that both pedestrians and guards alike noticed as well, for they promptly averted their eyes, lest they sparked his ire.

She was so distracted by that observation that she didn’t notice Gerald had come to a stop just outside the destination until she walked straight into him. He hardly seemed to acknowledge the accidental bump, eyes glaring at the scene before him. Gathered all around the building were worried looking griffons, all trying to ask questions of their leader.

“Now, now, please!” Gerald called out, trying to get them to quiet down. Reluctantly, the group simmered down at the exasperated tone. “I promise you that everything is under control. Lady Sparkle and I are looking into it,” he said calmly, pointing at Twilight who was still standing behind him.

The crowd flared up again, apparently just noticing the mare, as they shouted questions at him and her. Twilight chuckled nervously as she took a step back, unease causing her fur to raise on ends and her horn to reverberate. “They aren’t going to riot over this, are they?”

Gerald turned to face her with a sigh soft enough that the crowd wouldn’t hear it. Even if they could, their oncoming panic-attacks would’ve blotted out the sound, regardless. “No, but I’m curious as to how they all found out something was going on.” He turned to the messenger guard, eyes glinting in silent command.

The griffon got extremely nervous, anxiously wringing his claws together as he tried to focus on the crowd. “Oh, well, the pony may have, uh... made a scene when we arrested him.” Something resembling a cringe flashed across his beak. “There were a number of witnesses that probably spread the word.”

“Great,” Spike quipped sarcastically from Twilight’s back, though in such a low snarky grumble that only she heard it. “I bet the ponies are also wondering what’s going on.”

The Prime Minister sighed once more as he rubbed his temple with one of his talons. Twilight could very easily see the irritation bubbling in his face as the din of the onlookers increased. “Give me ten minutes here and I’ll have them calmed down. You take Lady Sparkle to see the pony.”

The guard gave a swift salute, looking relieved that he wasn’t in trouble for being the bearer of even more bad news, and to most likely not have to deal with crowd control. “Right away. It’s a short walk, Lady Sparkle.” He turned and gestured off down the road with one of his wings.

Twilight offered a nervous smile to Gerald, who seemed to be quietly clearing his throat in preparation for the tirade of questions about to be dropped on him. “Good luck. I’ll send a guard across the border to see what the situation is like on the Equestria side. We don’t want to cause a rift between our people over this.”

“I don’t think our friendship is so weak that a single incident would break it,” Gerald commented, his expression finally relaxing. He politely shooed her off as he returned his attention to his citizens, answering their questions as fast as he could.

The Countess gave one last look at Gerald as she was led down the road back towards the border, her personal entourage still creating an obvious defensive circle around Twilight. A small building on the edge of the town was their target; it was serving as a guard post and contained several holding cells. Twilight asked one of her pegasi guards to head back across the border and tell the mayor exactly what was going on. The stallion saluted and marched off towards the gate without a word.

The griffon guard opened the door for Twilight and the rest of her escort. Several griffon guards inside the building turned to see what was going on as she walked in. A large female griffon approached her, a friendly smile on her beak. She gave a polite bow as she greeted them. “Lady Sparkle! Welcome. I’m Lieutenant Whipwing.”

“Hello Lieutenant. I’m guessing you know why I am here,” Twilight said passively.

The Lieutenant nodded once. “The pony we arrested. He hasn’t answered our questions, simply saying he wished to be returned to Equestria. Normally we would do so, but this is obviously, a rather serious offense. Is the Prime Minister not with you?”

Twilight smiled out of pity. “I’m afraid he was held up in town. He will be joining us shortly.”

“Very well. We can discuss the current situation more in the meeting room,” she gestured to a nearby door.

“Of course,” Twilight agreed, heading into the indicated room. It was much smaller than the meeting room she and Gerald had been meeting in previously and the walls were covered in shelves and filing cabinets.

Lieutenant Whipwing looked a bit embarrassed as she followed Twilight into the room. “I apologize, this room also doubles as storage. We’re a bit cramped for space at the moment.”

“Don’t worry about it, Lieutenant. My office gets more cluttered than this.” Twilight took a seat near one end of the table, Spike sitting next to her. Two unicorn guards began to enter to flank the inner door, before the Countess quietly rose a hoof. They gave nods of respect, and guarded the exterior with the rest of the escort. Twilight returned her focus to the Lieutenant before her. “Now, tell me about this pony.”

Whipwing sat down across from her, lazily rearranging some documents. “He’s being uncooperative, refusing to answer any of our questions. We haven’t even gotten a name from him yet. He’s a pegasus with a light gray coat, blue mane and tail, and his cutie mark is a lightning bolt. No other identifying marks, and not a soul on either side of the Wall recognize him.”

“Has he said anything to clue in on?” Twilight asked.

The Lieutenant sighed. “Not really. He’s just asked to go back to Equestria. I don’t even think he understands the smuggling charges we arrested him on.”

“The messenger that came to get us said he was trying to bring twenty kilos in, yes?”

A nod. “He was pulling a large cart. The border checkpoint asked him what he was doing with the cart and he replied that it was a shipment of goods to a farm. He had proper paperwork about the import tax being paid in advance from the buyer. One of my guards took a quick look in the cart and on the surface it appeared to be some tools and seeds. The Kalki seeds were mixed in with everything else in the cart; it was pure luck that the guard managed to spot them.”

Twilight turned to Spike. “We’ve passed through the border several times, and the check for illegal goods doesn’t seem to be that active nor thorough.”

“It’s mostly a deterrent,” the Lieutenant explained. “The smugglers are less likely to attempt to get through if we check everyone, even if the checks are quick.”

“Do we know anything else about him?” Twilight asked.

Lieutenant Whipwing shook her head, her voice taking on a softer tone. “No, he’s refused to answer our questions. A full interrogation would usually be conducted once he was transferred to a proper facility. But we’d really appreciate it if you would talk to him, try to get him to answer our questions now.”

“Oh, I intend to,” Twilight replied. “But we should wait for the Prime Minister to arrive. He should be present if I’m questioning someone arrested under your law.”

The griffon nodded. “Right, of course. While we wait, can I get you anything to drink?”

Gerald showed up less than half an hour later, in a markedly better mood. Of course, by better mood, it was more a transition from ‘bloodlust-rage’ to ‘extreme-irritability’ than anything too cheery. He had calmed down while he explained the situation and answered questions from the worried griffons in town, though. Twilight and Spike sat in the meeting room, each with a cup of tea, as he walked in. “Everything settled?” Twilight asked, pouring him a cup of tea with magic.

He slumped down into a chair, muttering bitterly to himself. A few seconds passed before he seemed to realize what Twilight said. “Yes, thankfully. Some of the nearby farms were hit hard by Kalki and any mention of that cursed plant gets them nervous.” A talon was reapplied to his temple as he accepted the proffered cup from Twilight. “What’s the news with our smuggler?”

“Nothing,” Twilight replied. “He won’t talk to the griffons. Lieutenant Whipwing has asked me to meet with him. She thinks that perhaps he’ll be more willing to talk with me than with griffon guards.”

Gerald nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a good plan. Have you gone to see him yet?”

“We were waiting on you,” Twilight answered with a smile.

Just at that perfect moment, Lieutenant Whipwing stuck her head into the meeting room. “How did you want that again, Lady—” When she saw the Prime Minister, her asking died on her beak as she stood at attention. “Prime Minister Windswept! Welcome.”

He smiled at her. “Lieutenant. Thank you for watching over my guests here,” he nodded to Twilight and Spike.

“My pleasure, sir,” she answered, refusing to drop from her rigid pose. “The pony is ready to see you now, Lady Sparkle.”

Twilight stood up, grinning. “Excellent. Please lead the way, Lieutenant.” Spike and Gerald followed her and the Lieutenant down the halls to an interrogation room. On the other side of a large window sat a gray pegasus, just as Lieutenant Whipwing described, quivering in terror as he sat in front of a small table. “Spike, take notes,” Twilight said as she confidently headed for the door leading through to the other room.

She opened it with her magic and walked in calmly, shutting the door behind her. The stallion looked surprised at his new visitor, quickly bowing his head in recognition. “L-L-Lady Sparkle!”

Twilight smiled as she took the seat across the room from him. “Good evening. As I understand it, you’re in quite some trouble, Mister…” She hesitated, hinting for his name.

“B-B-Bolt, ma’am!” The stallion stammered out nervously.

“Bolt? Well, Mister Bolt, have the griffons explained to you what you were charged with?” Bolt simply nodded once. “And are you aware that the seeds you were attempting to bring into the country could cause the collapse of their entire farming industry?” He shook his head no several times, eyes dilating in revelation and dread.

The Countess cleared her throat, taking on the tone she used when she was lecturing less-intelligent ponies. “You see, the seeds you were attempting to bring across the border would grow into a very dangerous crop. Your cart had enough seeds to easily cover more than half of all the farmland in the entire country. It would then kill off all the crops and the griffons would be left attempting to stop the plant from spreading even further. They would be forced to import food from other countries, raising the price of food, and damaging their economy. And seeing as Kalki seeds are very commonly used in Equestria, it would make us look suspicious and put a strain on our international relations.”

She pressed on, leaning forward as she spoke. “You don’t seem like the sort of stallion who wants to do that to me.” A challenging glint arose in her eyes. “Or am I mistaken?”

Bolt was looking extremely nervous now. “I… I just took a job, ma’am! I promise, that was it! I didn’t know it was going to be anything like that!”

“Who did you take the job from?”

“S-some unicorn in Woodsdale. ‘Said if I took the cart across the border and gave it to a red Earth Pony, they’d give me two hundred bits,” Bolt explained hastily. “‘No contract, no strings, no hassle’, they said.”

Twilight frowned. “Did this unicorn have a name? What was their cutie mark? Stallion or mare?”

Bolt shook his head. “Didn’t give a name, and they was in a hooded coat so I didn’t get a look at their cutie mark or face. I ain’t even sure if it was a guy. White coat though. That’s all I can tell you.” Twilight was silent, staring off into space. “Am I going to be able to go back, Countess?”

That brought Twilight back to her senses. “That will be up to the griffons, Mister Bolt. It is their country that you threatened, even if you did not know you were doing so.” She stood up. “Please cooperate with the griffons; it will certainly help your situation to do so.”

He nodded several times. “I-I will, Countess. Thank you...”

Twilight left the room, magically shutting and locking the door behind her. Gerald, Spike, and Lieutenant Whipwing were all waiting for her. “I don’t believe he knew what he was transporting,” Twilight said confidently. “It sounds like this unicorn was behind it.”

“I have to agree. Guy seemed too naive,” Spike reflected. “The unicorn’s probably a member of one of the anti-Griffon or anti-Countess groups that are popping up over Equestria.”

Gerald snorted. “Even if this unicorn was real, we have no way of finding out if it’s true. We can’t go searching Equestria for him, because I sincerely doubt that unicorn is still in Woodsdale.” A tone of finality entered his voice. “Mister Bolt will have to face the charges, as he was the one to cross the border.”

Twilight frowned. “We will launch an investigation into his story. If we can find the pony who set up this job, I hope that you will be willing to release Bolt.”

Gerald actually looked insulted by that. “Of course; we would never hold someone innocent captive. But seeing as we have no evidence of this imaginary unicorn, we will continue on with putting Bolt on trial.” An unsettling silence hovered over the group, with both the Countess and the Prime Minister giving sour looks towards the ground. Eventually, Gerald sighed. “I am sorry, but our law on Kalki seeds is very strict.”

“I know, Prime Minister.” Twilight said neutrally. “Spike, do you have the notes?” He nodded. “Then we will depart for the day.” She put on a smile and said her farewells to both griffons before leaving with her guards. The guard she had set back across the border was waiting for her with nothing unusual to report. It seemed no ponies even bared witness to the arrest.

Twilight retired to her room and dictated a letter to Celestia detailing the Prime Minister’s plan as well as the Kalki seeds incident. Spike sent it off right away, though he said they probably wouldn’t get a reply right away. Unlike in her dream, Spike’s fire breath sent the messages to Celestia’s desk, not straight to her. She was going to have some choice words about the inefficiency of that to Celestia later.

In the meantime, a bottle of wine with a note was sitting in her room. Gerald had sent it earlier in the day, with a brief letter about drinking to the future success of his town merging plan. Twilight wasn’t a big drinker. She had only had wine once before at a function in Canterlot before her move to Ponyville. Applejack had shared some hard cider once as well, but Twilight only had a few sips.

After the stress of her day, Twilight decided that a glass of wine to help her relax would be a good thing. After Spike went to bed, she popped the cork and poured a glass. Like magic of its own, the tension in her body faded. Half an hour later, she was pouring out her sixth glass and was feeling completely unable to function like a normal pony. She sat next to an open window, looking up at the night sky as she tried using the fresh air to right her psyche. The stars seemed to swirl around randomly, though a part of her knew it was simply caused by her drunken state.

“Well now, sugarcube. Aren’t you lookin’ a bit tipsy?” Twilight looked down at the street below. Three blurry forms of Applejack was looking back up at her, their faces in amusement. Twilight blinked, but the Applejacks remained. “Well, we all need to relax—you ‘specially—so I can’t blame ya.”

“What are you doing here?” Twilight attempted to ask. The slurred mess that left her mouth sounded vaguely like what she was attempting to say. A sad smile arose on the now singular mare in the street, and what looked like a faint shimmer appeared around her. Twilight’s magic wavered and she dropped her wine glass, causing some wine to spill out on the floor. She looked down at the mess she made, frowning at her lack of control. When she groggily looked back out the window, Applejack was gone.

Twilight continued to stare out the window for another minute, looking around for the cowpony. Eventually, she decided that she was just imagining things. She put away the mostly-empty wine bottle and crawled into bed. Applejack was not real, and she had no reason to be out at the griffon border if she was. It had to just be a drunken hallucination.

She was sure of it.

...Right?

Chapter 18

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The sun was barely over the horizon when Celestia stepped out into the palace gardens. The morning air was crisp and smelled of the various flowers and plants scattered around the grounds. But she couldn’t stand about and waste time. She needed to have a rendezvous with a certain somepony. Closing her eyes, she sent a wave of magic out towards the Griffon border. Her magical senses had been honed over the past few years to find and keep tabs on Twilight, to the point where it was almost reflex. Instinct. In less than a second she found her marefriend, laying in bed at an Inn. Celestia charged up a teleportation spell and silently popped back into existence at the foot of Twilight’s bed.

It was a gross intrusion on privacy to use that spell, as the spell told her exactly where and what Twilight was doing at any moment. With practice she could use it on anypony she wanted, but for now Twilight was the only one she had trained herself to seek out. She had used it once before, directly after the report of the attack that put Twilight in a coma reached her.

Spike’s loud snores soon filled her ears. He was curled up right on the end of the bed, sleeping soundly and undisturbed by Celestia’s teleport. Twilight was sprawled over the bed, not even under the sheets. Celestia spotted a mostly-empty wine bottle over near the window, with a single glass on the floor still stained with droplets of wine. A quick magical investigation revealed traces of high levels of alcohol in Twilight’s body.

Celestia frowned at that fact. Twilight hadn’t even so much as looked at alcohol since she awoke. When asked, Twilight simply stated that she had no interest in drinking. She would have a little at a function, but otherwise she was fine with juice or water. “Twilight,” Celestia whispered, giving her marefriend a gently nudge.

The Countess grumbled softly but remained asleep. Celestia tried again, nudging a bit harder. After a third nudge, Twilight awoke with a protesting groan. “Who is it?” Her speech was mumbled and nearly incomprehensible, the final proof that for some reason Twilight had drank far too much wine last night.

The stay must have stressed her immensely, the Princess thought. “Hold still, Twi,” Celestia whispered as she charged up one of many complex spells from her repertoire. She touched the glowing tip of her horn to Twilight’s head and let the magic go. It covered Twilight and cleansed all the alcohol from her system, as well as preventing any hangover symptoms. For a normal unicorn such a spell would be extremely difficult to pull off, so it was limited to being used to treat alcohol poisoning or to clear up some pony who was arrested while drunk.

Twilight moaned once more, this time sounding much more together and awake. “What was that?” She asked, looking up at Celestia. Revelation arose on her face. “Oh! Tia!” She jumped up, instantly awake, to give her marefriend a hug.

The Princess laughed as she returned the tight embrace. “Good morning, Twi.”

“What are you doing here?” The two pulled away from each other, a smile on both their faces. Spike groaned and rolled over, the noise Twilight made waking up disturbing his sleep.

Celestia gently nuzzled Twilight as she spoke. “I got your letter. I think it would be best if you returned to Canterlot now. We can resume discussions with the Griffons later.”

Twilight’s brows furrowed in confusion. “But what about this pony who was smuggling seeds across the border? If somepony out there is threatening peace between us and the Griffons, we need to find out who paid him to—”

“The Griffons can conduct their investigation; it is their law that has been broken after all. Not ours,” Celestia said firmly. It was so firm in fact, that Twilight flinched at the authority. Celestia’s voice became less harsh, but her eyes didn’t lose their passion. “And even if we had reason to investigate, the ones behind this are most likely the same ones that want to cause harm to you. You are the last pony in Equestria I would allow to look into this. For now you should stay with me in the palace, where I can protect you.”

A defeated look of understand passed over Twilight’s face as she mulled over what Celestia was saying. “I... suppose that makes sense.”

Celestia nuzzled her marefriend once more. “Besides, as Countess it is your job to run the country, not conduct investigations.”

A flare of her own passion swelled inside Twilight as she stepped back from Celestia. “Then allow me to appoint somepony to work with the Griffons and investigate this smuggling job. I can’t let this go. Somepony out there is trying to hurt me and my friends.”

There was a tense moment of silence as Celestia stared into Twilight’s eyes. Eventually, the Princess sighed in defeat. “Very well. But in return you must promise me that you’ll not go running off.” Gently, some may dare say obsessively, Celestia stroked Twilight’s mane. “You’ll stay where I can keep an eye on you, and can protect you if something happens.”

“I can agree to that,” Twilight answered as she leaned up and gave Celestia another hug.

“Ugh.” Spike’s voice suddenly cut through the room. Twilight and Celestia looked over at the bed to see that Spike had woken up. A disgruntled expression marred his face as draconic eyes glared at the pair. “I thought that coming out here would mean you two wouldn’t be all over each other at sunrise.”

Both mares broke out in a fit of giggles at Spike’s disgust for their display of affections. Twilight walked over and gently nuzzled him. “I’m sorry we woke you, Spike.”

He pushed her away, but not before a small smile could worm its way onto his face. Celestia stepped over to the two of them. “I will let you two have something to eat before we depart back for Canterlot. I’ll inform your guards that you’ll be returning via teleportation and not the chariot.”

Twilight’s first order of business once returning, after unpacking her bags, was to find a pony to lead the investigation. It was already well after lunch by the time she and Spike learned of a pony who they could ask. His name was Bronze Spear and he was a former member of the palace guard. He currently held one of those mostly ceremonial positions working as an advisor, which mostly amounted to being sacked by paperwork.

The door to his office was ajar as Twilight, with Spike on her back, approached. Blankly, and without warning, the familiar scene reminded her that she never informed Gerald of her early departure. She would need to remember to apologize for that, at a later time. Shaking it away, Twilight poked her head in through the doorway. “Bronze Spear?”

The dark orange coated earth pony stallion jumped. “Yes? What can I do—” he immediately froze when he realized just who it was peering through his open door, mouth frozen as his words died on his lips.

Twilight grinned and walked straight in. “Aha! See, Spike; I knew I’d find his office.” She gave his office a quick look-over as she moved to stand in front of his desk. It was rather banal, all things considered. Though one wall seemed to be covered in photos and awards from his time serving in the guard. A few photos behind his desk showed him posing with a light green pegasus mare.

“Only took us half an hour,” Spike grumbled in response, loud enough for everyone to hear his displeasure.

Bronze finally unfroze, looking somewhat panicked as he tried to stand up straight and salute her. The heavy thud of his hoof’s arrival to his forehead caused Spike to wince. “Lady Countess! What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to ask a favor of you, Bronze Spear,” Twilight said very formally. She waved at him to stop saluting, which he tentatively did. She decided she should use the same tone she and Celestia used while making declarations in court. “It’s purely voluntary, so feel free to say no.” Bronze nodded once, still listening attentively. “While I was visiting the Griffons, there was an incident. A pony tried to smuggle illegal goods across the border. He claims he was just paid to run a delivery, and I’m inclined to believe him.” Twilight’s smile slowly vanished. “The first thought that comes to mind is that it is one of the groups who are… unhappy… with my current position.”

Twilight gave a firm nod, and stared into Bronze Spear’s eyes. “ I’d like you to look into this for me, and see if we can pin anything on these ponies.”

The stallion looked somewhat stunned as Twilight explained everything to him. Once she had finished, Bronze took a moment to collect his thoughts. A flabbergasted look overcame him as he absentmindedly rubbed the back of his head. “That sounds really important, Lady Countess. Why are you asking me, of all ponies?”

Twilight’s smile returned. “Celestia spoke highly of your service, and some of the others I spoke to said you had… plenty of time for a side project.”

Bronze chuckled softly, knowing exactly which ponies would have pointed the Countess to him. “Well, I suppose I do. I suppose it also helps that I have a few old friends who have gotten themselves mix up in some of the groups you were talking about.”

That was surprising to both Spike and Twilight. “Really? Then you might be the perfect pony for the job. If you want it,” Twilight added quickly.

“I probably am,” he agreed. “And I don’t want anyone to hear that I turned down the Countess, so I’ll do it.” Bronze saluted her once more.

Twilight rolled her eyes at the gesture. “Please keep me updated on anything you can find out about these groups and their goals, and if they are behind the smuggling crime.” Twilight and Spike spent the next half an hour telling him all about what had happened at the border, getting him up to speed. When they left, Twilight felt that the investigation was in good hooves.

Several hours later, after getting all caught up with Celestia about what had happened in the two sessions of court she missed, Twilight decided to return to her room early and take a long bath to relax. Celestia was still working on paperwork elsewhere in the palace and Spike had run off without a word after they had finished dinner. Tired after all the events that had happened, Twilight couldn’t help but sigh as she walked down the long corridors leading back to her room.

A maid cleaning the hallway that Twilight hadn’t noticed before turned to face her. “Feeling down, Lady Sparkle?”

Twilight turned to give the maid a friendly smile, stopping to chat a little. “Just worn out. It’s been a long few days.”

“Oh, I can understand that. You must be super duper busy being the Countess and all. Why, I bet I wouldn’t even understand half the things you do everyday!” The maid’s tone was bubbly and friendly.

Something about that voice struck Twilight as being very familiar. She focused on the maid’s face, trying to see if she recognized the pink mare in front of her. Suddenly, like a dam exploding, she realized just who was talking to her. “Pinkie Pie?”

The maid gasped in an overly dramatic fashion. “You know my name!? Oh my gosh, the Countess knows my name!”

Twilight stared at her, dumbfounded beyond belief as the maid—Pinkie Pie, bounced around in happiness. “Pinkie, what are you doing here? How did you get here?”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head to one side, ceasing her gravity-defying jumping. “Whadda mean, Lady Sparkle? I’ve always worked here. In this hallway. With this cute costume!” She jumped in the air and spun around in a circle, the frills on her maid dress flaring out. “Isn’t it awesome?”

“What are you doing here?” Twilight asked again, her mind unable to come up with any sort of logical reasoning why Pinkie Pie would be in front of her. A accusatory hoof was leveled towards Pinkie. “You shouldn’t exist!”

“I shouldn’t? That doesn’t sound very fun,” Pinkie replied, looking sad. She perked back up instantly. “But if I’m not here, then how are we talking?”

“I don’t know!” Twilight replied. “What were you doing before I got here?”

Pinkie tapped her chin. “Hmmm… I think… I think I was throwing a party…” Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh my gosh! Sorry Lady Sparkle, I’ve got to run. Some of my friends are all super duper sad about a friend of ours who is sick! I need to cheer them up! Bye!” She took off running down the hall before she could finish her sentence, leaving a smoke trail behind her.

After a moments pause to figure out what had happened, Twilight took off running after her. The smoke trail vanished quickly, leaving Twilight with no way to know which way Pinkie ran. Eventually she came across two guards, diligently patrolling the halls. She skidded to a stop in front of them. “Have you two seen a pink Earth pony mare dressed as a maid?”

Despite the rather absurd question, neither of the stallions flinched. The guards both simply shook their heads ‘no’, the one on the left replying to her. “No, Lady Sparkle. Are you looking for someone in particular?”

Suddenly realizing that what she had just seen was most likely part of her imagination, Twilight laughed nervously. “Oh, no… Heh… I just thought I saw someone… Carry on!” Her horn lit up and she teleported herself to her bedroom with a loud pop. They would surely inform Celestia that she had been acting strangely, but for now Twilight just needed to wrap her head around what had happened.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and now Pinkie Pie. She was seeing visions of her past friends, and they were becoming more and more real. She had actually had a, admittedly short and confusing, conversation with Pinkie Pie. Were her friends just her mind playing tricks on her, or was there something more to this? She’d have to start looking into it, without Celestia getting too worried about her.

Twilight started to draw a hot bath as her mind raced through all sorts of magical and physical tests she could prepare and run the next time she saw one of her old friends in front of her. She’d need to gather proof that they were nothing but hallucinations. Because if they weren’t hallucinations…

She didn’t want to think about it.

Chapter 19

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Not that she would ever admit it, but there was one thing that really got on Twilight’s nerves more than most things: Not being able to run a test she had designed. For the past two months she had gone about her usually routine as Countess of Canterlot, ready to run several spells and tests the next time one of her friends appeared before her. Yet since the night she started to plan out her tests, she hadn’t had a single sighting of any pony she knew from her dream.

Two months of her checking around every corner as she walked the halls of the palace. Two months of her going out of her way to speak with every single pony she encountered just to be sure they weren’t from her dream. Two months of dodging Celestia and Spike’s questions about her odd behavior and why she had learned a spell to instantly summon a pre-prepared collection of potions from anywhere in the palace. Yet she was determined to catch her hallucinations and prove them to be only in her mind.

To add to her list of things that were not going the way she wanted them to, was the fact that Bronze Spear had reported nothing of interest to either his investigation into the groups that conspired against her or the smuggler Bolt’s story. Gerald had sent a letter that they were able to find some information about the pony the smuggler was delivering to, but that the pony was long gone by the time they received the information. Without any evidence from Equestria to back up his story, Bolt was convicted of smuggling illegal substances and sentenced to five years in a labor prison.

And of course, Celestia had added one more item to Twilight’s plate as well. Last month, she had taken Twilight out for a fancy dinner on the day of her three month “Waking Up From A Coma” anniversary. Tomorrow would be her fourth anniversary and they were once more going out to a very fancy dinner in Manehatten (at Celestia’s insistence). Twilight stood in her bedroom surrounded by various dresses and outfits that were all custom made for her. She was supposed to be picking one to pack and wear tomorrow, but she was having a hard time deciding. The fact that she laying in bed trying to finish up the last chapter of a particularly good mystery novel was adding to her inability to focus on picking a dress.

“Really, darling, I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of uncultured excuse for a dressmaker designed this.” Twilight glanced up from her book to look at Rarity as she held up a pale blue dress. “It’s completely the wrong shade to go with your colors.”

Twilight’s attention instantly returned to the book. “Yeah, I guess,” she said noncommittally, once again being absorbed by the dramatic reveal of the mystery.

Rarity sighed at the lack of response from her Twilight, gently setting the attire back into its previous position. Squinting her eyes and rubbing a hoof underneath her chin, she decided to devise a way to capture the bookworm’s attention. A sly grin appeared on her face. “Really, Twilight. Picking a dress is much more important that some silly old book.”

It worked exactly as she hoped. Twilight looked up, launching into a defense of her book. “What?! Rarity, this book is great! The mystery is just complex enough that it leaves the reader wondering what clues might turn up next. I know it might…” She trailed off from her lecture as she realized that she was currently talking to a very smug-looking Rarity.

“Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about your outfit.” Rarity grabbed up three dresses with her magic. “Now, I know you normally want a more simple look, but I want you—”

“Rarity!” Twilight magically threw the book up into the air as she jumped up onto her hooves. She leapt off the bed, landing inches from Rarity’s face. “Rarity, you’re here!”

To her credit, Rarity barely flinched as Twilight invaded her personal space, though she did raise a brow at the energy in her friend’s declaration. “Um, yes I am? Are you feeling okay, darling?”

Remember her tests, Twilight’s horn quickly started to go. “Sorry! Rarity, I need you to hold still for a minute.” Twilight closed her eyes and quickly cast a multitude of spells crafted specifically to detect living creatures. After a moment the arcane cocktail confirmed that there indeed was one other living creature in the room with her. She opened her eyes and looked around to confirm that she was alone with Rarity.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked, tilting her head in worry as a single strand of hair sprung out of Twilight’s mane. “Do you mind telling me what’s wrong?”

“You’re real?” Twilight muttered. Ignoring Rarity, she cast her summoning spell to bring a flask of a specially-made potion to her. She popped the cork off and took a quick sip. In less than five seconds, Twilight’s head started to spin. Her fashionable friend could only stare in perplexed wonder. It lasted a few moments, but once it was cleared any hallucinations Twilight might have been having should have been cleared.

Rarity was still there looking at her with grave concern. Cautiously, she took a step backwards, slowly as if her speed determined its visibility. “Twilight, what’s going on?”

“But… you’re just a hallucination,” Twilight murmured to herself. Her eyes were frozen in a thousand-yard stare, and the strength in her hind legs left her. Roughly, she sat down on her haunches. “T-the spells shouldn’t have detected you!” Twilight stammered. She shook her head, rubbing her temple with a hoof. “Did the spells potentially misfire? Maybe I cast it incorrectly...”

Rarity placed a hoof on her friend’s back, gently rubbing circles into her coat. She was surprised at the tension she was feeling. “Take a deep breath, darling, and tell me what’s wrong.”

The Countess did just that. A few deep breaths later and her crazed expression had diminished. Slightly. “You aren’t real, Rarity. You and the other girls were just part of a dream I experienced when I was in a coma.”

“Well I can assure you, Twilight; I am quite real,” Rarity replied, still rubbing Twilight’s back reassuringly. “I mean, I’m here and I’m talking with you, right?”

Twilight nodded. “You are, and the spells I cast confirmed that you are real… But you can’t be real.” Frantically, but not unkindly, she shrugged away Rarity’s hoof. “You shouldn’t be real! You don’t exist. I never moved to Ponyville, we aren’t the bearers to the Elements of Harmony, and you aren’t real.”

“Are you sure of that? I recall all of that happening. And you remember all of that happening, as well,” Rarity started to reason.

She was cut off by Twilight. “It’s not true! It was just a dream! This is the world that is real. It has to be. Don’t try to… to confuse me on this!” With a sudden stand, the Countess began pacing around the room. “I just need to figure out why you and my other friends keep appearing. Then I can make it stop.” Twilight’s posture got rigid and she glared slightly at her friend.

Rarity sighed in defeat. “Very well. I know how you can get when your mind is set on something. Shall we talk fashion then?”

“Don’t try to change the subject. You’re just trying to distract me from the issue at hoof.” Twilight quickly walked over to Rarity and gave her a look over. “There has to be something that proves you’re just a horrible hallucination. Some missing detail or something.”

Rarity sat still as Twilight slowly walked around her, examining her closely. “Twilight, if I were your hallucination, then wouldn’t I appear exactly as how you think I should appear? After all, the hallucination would draw from your knowledge of how Rarity looks, right?”

There was an awkward silence as Twilight mulled over that idea. “You make a good point. But if you were a hallucination, then you might just be saying that to prevent me from figuring out you’re a hallucination!” There was another awkward silence as Rarity simply raised an eyebrow at Twilight, giving her an incredulous look. Twilight sighed and her posture relaxed a little. “Yeah, that was a little too paranoid even for me.”

“But really, Twilight, it doesn’t matter if I am a hallucination or not. I’m your friend, I’m here for you, and it seems you’re having a hard time picking out formal wear. I say we make good of the time we have together, no?” Rarity offered with a friendly smile.

Twilight wanted to object, but seeing as all her tests failed, pointing to the fact that Rarity was indeed really there with her, she decided that for now she’d just give in. Once she had some free time, she would reevaluate her testing methods and try to come up with a few new spells to run. “Very well, Rarity. I do need help picking a dress.”

“Fabulous! Now what is the occasion? Something formal, judging by the selection you have here.” Rarity walked over to the pile of formal dresses, using her magic to hold some of them up.

“Yes, Celestia is taking me out on a date as a celebration—”

“A date! With Celestia! My goodness!” Rarity exclaimed loudly, hearts appearing in her eyes. “Oh, you simply must entrance me with all the details about your relationship.”

Twilight winced at Rarity’s enthusiasm. “There’s not much to say. Celestia loves me, she’s taken me out on some dates, and we’re just sort of… Together.”

Rarity swooned a little. “Yes, but dating the Princess! Our Celestia was always so closed off about her personal life, and most ponies just assumed she had no need for a suitor.”

“I know,” Twilight replied. “But the real Celestia is much more… like a regular pony, I guess.”

Rarity’s horn lit up and she grabbed the three dresses she felt would look best on Twilight. “Now then, these two are both very formal. The last one would be better for a slightly less formal meeting, so we can exclude it from our choices. You have to look absolutely amazing for the Princess.” One of the dresses floated away and was set down.

Twilight examined the two in front of her. “I like the one on the right more.”

Rarity smiled. “Exactly what I was thinking.” She put away the rejected dress and, with a simple spell, quickly dressed Twilight in the once she chose. After a minute of making sure it fit right on her, Rarity stepped back. “There! You look amazing!”

“Oh wow,” Twilight said softly as she turned to face a nearby mirror. “This is perfect! Celestia will love this.”

“Of course she will. You look stunning. Now then, darling, you need to make sure that before you go out you do your hair up properly.” Rarity used her magic to simulate an effect on Twilight’s hair. “Something like this would look best. A bit of curl, lots of sheen.”

A knock at the door interrupted Rarity. “Lady Sparkle! A message has been delivered for you.”

Twilight walked over and opened the door. A maid with a bundle of scrolls was waiting on the other side. “Oh, thank you very much.” She levitated the scrolls into the room and closed the door. “Sorry Rarity, this might be something import—” When there was no answer, Twilight looked around the room. Rarity was nowhere in sight. “Rarity?”

The alabaster mare was nowhere in sight, and all the dresses were laying where Twilight had originally left them. When she caught a look at herself in the mirror, she was no longer wearing her dress and her hair was back to normal.

It was as if the entire encounter with Rarity hadn’t happened.

The scrolls fell to the floor as her magical grip on them suddenly vanished. Twilight walked around the room, searching for any sign that her friend had been there. She had been so sure her friends were simply hallucinations, brought on by the fact that her life had completely flipped on its head due to the difference between her dream world and the real world. But both Pinkie and Rarity had seemed so real. Twilight could still remember the warmth of Rarity’s hoof on her back and the slight twinge when Rarity’s magic slipped the dress over her body.

Her spells had said Rarity was real and her potion didn’t clear away the hallucinations as it was designed to do. After several minutes of pacing about the room trying to decide if the encounter was real or not, Twilight remembered the scrolls that had been delivered to her. She turned and reached out with her magic to pick them back up, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Hold still, darling. I can’t take the dress off of you if you keep walking around,” Rarity commented, with a bit of an attitude to her voice.

Twilight screamed and jumped as Rarity was suddenly standing next to her once more. Startled by the sudden outburst, Rarity quickly backed up, away from Twilight. “Rarity! But, what happened? You were just gone!”

“Gone? Twilight; I’ve been here the whole time.”

“No, I went to open the door when the maid knocked on it, and when I turned back around you were gone!” Twilight rushed over to Rarity. “Where did you go? You are just a hallucination, aren’t you!”

Rarity kept backing up until her rump was pressed against the wall, yet her face remained passive. “Honestly, Twilight: we’ve been alone this entire time. You put on the dress, I quickly did your mane, and you started walking around to get a feel for it. I haven’t gone anywhere!”

Twilight’s eyes seemed to lose their focus on Rarity as she started to pace around the room, giving Rarity her personal space back. The Countess started muttering to herself, weighing in the different options of if Rarity was real or a hallucination. If Rarity was real... it would mean that her world was fake. Her title as Countess was fake. Her relationship with Celestia was fake.

“No! It... it couldn’t be,” Twilight whispered to herself. She was suddenly shaking, and she leaned against a dresser for support. Her world... it was real, wasn’t it? The life she was living; it couldn’t be a dream. If it was... she didn’t want to think that.

Abruptly, the world around Twilight went dark and she slumped over. She tried to move her legs and get back up, but found that she couldn’t. One by one, her senses winked out until she was utterly numb. And then, a warmth started to encompass Twilight as a bright white light appeared in the void around her.

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself being held tightly by Celestia. The Princess was cuddling her like a young filly cuddled a doll, and sweet nothings were being murmured into the Countess’ ear. “Don’t worry, Twilight. I’m here.”

“Tia?”

“You fell asleep reading your book and had a nightmare. I’m here now. Nothing will hurt you.” Celestia leaned down and kissed Twilight on her forehead. She almost didn’t notice the golden glow still surrounding Celestia’s horn. “I’m going to protect you.”

Feeling safe against her marefriend, Twilight closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep. Not once did her mind think back to Rarity’s visit, the scrolls, or the failed spells and experiments.

All that mattered was that Celestia was there for her.

Chapter 20

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Manehattan at night was a sight to see. All the buildings were lit up and glowing with soft lights. Twilight sat in the middle of an extremely fancy restaurant at the top of a tall tower wearing the dress that Rarity had picked out for her, the large windows on each wall looking out over the skyline. Across the small wooden table sat Celestia, wearing a similarly elegant dress. Most of the restaurant was empty, the other patrons seated along the edges of the room, giving Twilight and Celestia some privacy. Royal guards stood evenly throughout the room without their armor, keeping an eye out for anyone who might make a move against the Countess or Princess.

Celestia smiled warmly as the couple sat, just looking at each other in the peaceful quiet. The empty plates and glasses on the table served a reminder that their food had not yet been served. “You just look so stunning in that dress, Twi.”

“You said that three times now, Tia,” Twilight replied, her face turning a soft shade of red as she shyly turned her head away.

“That doesn’t make it any less true,” Celestia countered, her gaze locked onto Twilight’s.

Twilight’s face only turned a brighter shade of red. She looked around the restaurant, looking for any sign of the waiter. “I wonder why our waiter hasn’t returned yet,” she asked nervously, hoping to change the topic of the conversation away from her looks. Celestia’s fierce attention was making her somewhat embarrassed.

The Princess’s magic grabbed a bottle of wine sitting on the table. “Here, why don’t you have a drink while we wait.” She poured out two glasses, floating one over to Twilight.

The Countess accepted, looking at the liquid that filled her glass. “White wine? I thought you preferred red.”

“What do you mean, Twi? It is red wine,” Celestia said, a bit of concern in her voice.

When Twilight looked down at the glass floating in her magic she did a slight double take. The wine was now clearly red. “Oh... I could have sworn it was white for a moment there.”

“Your main course, ladies,” the waiter said, appearing at the side of the table. Twilight jumped slightly startled by his sudden presence, as if he blinked into existence. Several plates floated down from his magical grasp and placed themselves in front of the two mares.

“Main course? But what about—” Twilight halted her thought mid-sentence as she watched the waiter removed a plate of half-eaten salad from in front of her. She didn’t remember the salad ever being served. In fact, she had been fairly certain the plate was empty. She must have spaced out.

Celestia levitated up her silverware as the waiter vanished just as suddenly as he appeared. “Don’t worry, Twi. I know you’ll love this. I’ve been trying to get this chef to move to Canterlot for years now.”

Forcing herself to smile and pretend like nothing was wrong, Twilight mirrored Celestia and readied her own silverware. “It smells amazing.” She cautiously took a small bite, feeling Celestia watching her. It tasted just as good as it smelled. “Delicious,” she commented, a smile tugging at her lips.

Celestia grinned, her gaze never wavering for a moment. “I told you you’d love it.”

Their dinner continued smoothly, with Twilight bringing up a recent case they encountered while holding court. Several times Twilight would misplace her silverware, having set them down only to find them on the other side of the table, or not there at all. At one point she was utterly convinced she had finished her plate, only to look down and see that there was still some left. Thankfully she had still been hungry.

Once the triple chocolate fudge cake had been served and eaten, Celestia led Twilight out onto the streets for a walk to a nearby park. The two of them walked side by side, one of Celestia’s large wings resting on Twilight’s back. The royal guards surrounded them in a protective formation and had donned their armor. The city’s lights were so bright that when Twilight looked up, all she could see was the full moon looking back down at her. For some reason, the lunar sight made her stomach clench in anxiety.

“Ah, here’s the path,” Celestia commented. A rough dirt path led from the street into the park, weaving around the trees and bushes. Nearby, a small sign informed Twilight that this trail was created nearly four-hundred years ago in honor of an ancient explorer whose name sounded vaguely familiar.

Celestia quickly led Twilight down the A.K. Yearling Memorial Trail and soon after the city vanished behind the grove of trees that made up the bulk of the park. As they walked through the wooded area, Twilight’s gaze flittered from side to side, taking in all the plants and animals that surrounded them. In a small clearing off to their right, she saw a very familiar-looking yellow pegasus with a long pink mane sitting with some squirrels. She couldn’t see the pony’s face, but from the back it appeared to be Fluttershy.

“Twilight,” Celestia said suddenly, drawing the Countess’s attention away from the pink-maned pony. She barely registered the fact that Celestia was now blocking Twilight’s line-of-sight involving the doppelganger. “Have you given much thought to the immortality spell I mentioned?”

As soon as the word ‘immortality’ registered in Twilight’s mind, she came to a stop mid-step. They hadn’t discussed the spell in months, not since Celestia had first brought it up and let it go just as quickly. At that time, Twilight was still unsure of her relationship with the mare of her dreams. In the time since then, Twilight had become much closer to the Princess. She trusted Tia to help her with everything.

“I’ve been considering it,” Twilight finally replied. “Why do you bring it up?”

A guilty look appeared on Celestia’s face. “This morning I got a message from some ponies I trust. They said that there is a planned attack coming for you sometime in the next month, hoping to remove you from power for good. I want to cast the immortality spell on you as soon as possible so we won’t have to worry as much.”

Twilight had spent most of her day at Celestia’s side and she never remembered any letter coming to Celestia, but then again perhaps it simply was another case of her misremembering events. She had been doing it more frequently, after all. She filed away the notion of a small vacation. “Do we know who? Can’t we send in the guard and stop them?”

“I’m afraid they weren’t able to get any of the details,” Celestia answered. While a tentative step was taken towards Twilight, Celestia’s smile was anything but hesitant. “This way we can be together forever. I’ll even start trying to figure out how to make you an alicorn, if you want.”

Twilight’s mind pulled up what seemed to be a distant memory of Luna explaining that Twilight was supposed to become an alicorn. A quick glance past Celestia’s new position told her that Fluttershy, if it even was Fluttershy, was gone. There was no sign that anyone or any animals had been there recently. It would make sense, Twilight mused; Fluttershy was the only one of her friends she had yet to see. She slowly turned her eyes back to Celestia, nodding once. “I think I’m ready. You can cast the spell on me.”

A huge smile appeared on Celestia’s face, one that could be argued unnatural. Her eyes even began tearing up as she grabbed Twilight in a tight embrace. “Oh, Twi’; thank you. I promise I will do everything I can to keep you safe and happy.” Twilight returned the embrace, resting her head on Celestia’s shoulder. “Forever,” Celestia whispered into her ear.

Behind Twilight, a stallion nervously cleared his throat. “Princess, your presence is required.”

Celestia didn’t let go of Twilight, nor did she even so much as glance to acknowledge the guard. After a few moments, though, she responded. “What is it?”

“A messenger has arrived,” the stallion replied. Twilight could tell by his tone that whatever it was wasn’t good.

Reluctantly, as if it pained her, Celestia released Twilight. “I’ll be right back, Twi’. This won’t take too long.”

“It’s fine; take your time. It sounds important,” she replied, smiling warmly.

Twilight turned and watched as Celestia walked off, being led back down the path by a guard. They soon rounded a bend in the path and were gone from Twilight’s view. With nothing else to do, Twilight cast a glance around the park once more. In the clearing just off the path sat Fluttershy and her squirrel friends once more. This time, however, Fluttershy was looking back at Twilight with a smile on her face.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked loud enough for the mare to hear.

“Hello Twilight. Oh, um, I mean Countess.” The reply was so soft Twilight nearly missed it.

Twilight smiled warmly as she walked into the clearing. “How are you doing?”

Fluttershy smiled back, shyly hiding behind her mane. “Oh, I’ve been okay. What about you? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Twilight sat down, careful not to catch her dress on anything as she did so. It was strange; now that she agreed to the immortality spell, she didn’t feel as bothered or anxious about this final meeting with the last member of her group of friends as she expected. “I’ve been good.”

“Oh, um, really? I mean. I heard about what happened with Rarity. Doesn’t that sound serious?”

Twilight’s gaze suddenly locked to the ground between herself and Fluttershy. “Oh. I guess that is a little serious. I mean, I don’t even know if Rarity was real. I don’t know if you’re real either, to be honest.”

A sudden tone of serious determination filled Fluttershy’s voice. “It doesn’t matter what is real and what isn’t.” That statement caused Twilight to jerk as if she had been slapped. “All that matters is that you are our friend, Twilight. We love you and we’ll do everything we can to help you. Whether in reality, or your heart. Just remember that one thing for me. Your friends are here to help you.”

Twilight looked up at her friend, surprised by the force Fluttershy spoke with. Did it truly not matter whether her friends were real or not? Every hair on her body believed Fluttershy and knew that she was telling the truth. “I… I will… I mean, of course I know that…” Twilight stammered out, still mentally working through the change in Fluttershy’s demeanor. The expected wave of anxiousness had arrived thirty seconds late.

Fluttershy got up and hugged Twilight, whispering to her. “Trust me when I say that Luna will help. You don’t need to be afraid.” The Countess felt her eyebrows furrow; what did Luna have to do with anything?

“Twilight?!” Celestia’s voice called out through the forest, echoing slightly off the trees. Fluttershy and the squirrels vanished, the warmth that had been pressed against Twilight disappearing with a breeze. In their wake was skittish pondering.

Fluttershy had said to trust Luna, and Luna had said that her current life was all a dream. Did Fluttershy mean that what Luna had said was true, or that when Luna next appeared it would be to help her, like all her friends had done? “I’m just over here!” She called out, still rooted to the spot.

Celestia came rushing into the clearing, horn alight with anticipated divine righteousness. “Twilight, what are you doing? None of the guards saw you walk off the path. You could get hurt without an escort!”

“Sorry, Tia. I just wanted to see this clearing.” The Countess looked up at the empty night sky. Where the moon had gone, she wasn’t sure. Celestia, her anger at Twilight merely walking off, departed as she followed Twilight’s gaze. “If the buildings were all gone, there’d be an amazing view of the stars from here.”

Twilight suddenly found herself being embraced gently by Celestia, her horn returning to a peculiar glow she had not seen since the one time she had awoken from her nightmare. “Is everything okay, Twi?”

“I... think so,” Twilight replied, leaning against her marefriend. Despite the words coming out in a level tone, she definitely didn’t feel like everything was okay. But there would be no reason to worry Celestia; especially since she was part of the dilemma. A sigh left Twilight, and her eyes gently fluttered shut for a moment. “I think so.”

Celestia had set up the next Saturday, right after lunch, as the time to gather the required amount of unicorns to assist in Celestia casting the immortality spell. The days between their date in Manehattan and the day of the spell past quickly for Twilight. Numerous times throughout her day, she would encounter situations where the details of her world suddenly changed.

During an economic meeting with some bank offices, all the numbers Twilight had been discussing for three hours suddenly changed, making all her mental calculations completely useless. Luckily, Spike was able to step in and assist her with the new maths. Celestia was concerned though that Twilight was working too hard, but Twilight turned down the offers to take some days off to rest. She would be getting plenty of rest after she was immortal, Twilight conceded.

Bronze Spear appeared after a day of court with a bit of good news: The ponies responsible for hiring Mister Bolt to smuggle the illegal seeds across the border had been found and turned over to the Griffons. A retrial was scheduled for the Monday following the immortal spell. According to Celestia, Twilight would need several days of bed-rest following the spell while her body recovered from the amount of magic that would be pumped into her during the spell. So, she asked Bronze Spear to attend the retrial in her place and report back to her immediately.

Celestia surprised her, the night before the day of the spell, by bringing her parents to the palace for dinner. Twilight and her parents were able to spend several hours together before it had become late enough that she headed to bed. Spike was already asleep in his basket when she walked into her room. Celestia laid in the bed, a book floating over her frame.

“Nervous?” Celestia asked without looking away from her book.

Twilight climbed up into the bed with her. “A little.” She snuggled up against the side of the larger mare.

Celestia finished the page and set the book aside, turning to fully embrace Twilight. “I will keep my promise to you. Nothing will ever hurt you.” Twilight’s eyes closed as she relaxed against Celestia’s chest. The Princess’s horn started to glow yet again as she whispered softly into Twilight’s ear. “No one will take you from me again.”

Chapter 21

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Twilight sat behind the table where she and Celestia sat during court in the main room of the palace. For the first time since her few times holding court, Twilight felt like she shouldn’t be sitting at that table. Dozens of unicorns were standing about the room, waiting for Celestia to be ready. At first Twilight had tried talking to them. She had wanted to get to know the participants of the spell that would be determining whether she lived forever or perished, after all. However, she very quickly realized that the moment she walked away the unicorns would all change appearance and personality, so it was pointless for her to even try. In fact, she had been having a bad feeling about the spell from the moment she woke up.

Celestia had done her best to get Twilight to relax, but was more preoccupied running over the spell so that everything would be perfect. If the spell went wrong, there was without a doubt the possibility that it could seriously injure Twilight. Or worse.

“Twilight, it’ll be fine. Stop worrying so much,” Spike commented as he walked over with a glass of water for her. Spike seemed one of the few who wasn’t as nearly as affected by the shifting of Twilight’s memory. Maybe because he played such a pivotal role in her dream? She couldn’t say. But she was thankful for him being that one unchanging variable.

Twilight grabbed the glass within her aura and took a long chug, draining half the glass at once. A vaguely-at-ease sigh left the mare as she slumped in her seat. “Thank you, Spike. I just can’t relax. I have a feeling something is going to happen today, and I’m not sure I want to know what.”

“Well of course, today is the day that Celestia makes you—” Spike stopped himself by slapping his claws over his mouth. Celestia was keeping the spell a secret until they were sure it worked. “Today is the day that the spell gets cast,” he finished softly. “That’s something, isn’t it?”

Twilight smiled a little at his slight slip-up. “It is, Spike. But I think something else is going to happen. Something bigger.”

Before Spike could ask what she thought it was, Celestia walked into the room once again. “Gather up, everypony,” she said loudly, her voice cutting through all the other conversations. The forty unicorns all clumped together, facing Celestia. Twilight quickly walked over to stand next to her marefriend, feeling a bit nervous in front of the large group.

Celestia smiled warmly at them. “Thank you all for agreeing to this experiment. I know I didn’t provide you with many details, but until we can confirm that this spell works, we don’t want to spread any details around.” There was a slight murmur in the crowd as they all asked around to see if those standing around them knew about the spell in question. Twilight tried not to focus on the randomizing color palettes of their coats and manes changing every two seconds.

Celestia once more spoke over them, silencing their restless chatter. “Your task will be simple: you will all channel your magic towards me. I will then add it into my own magic and cast the spell at Twilight. The casting should last no longer than five minutes. If it works, Twilight will be completely unharmed and able to verify the spell’s success.”

Twilight now felt much more nervous about the whole ordeal. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted it anymore. But at the same time she felt as if she would disappoint Celestia if she backed out. So instead, she just stood next to Celestia, silent and indecisive, as the Princess started to space the forty ponies into a large semi-circle. She continued to provide the group with their instructions for how to channel their magic to her one at a time.

Once everypony was in position, the room fell silent. “Twilight, are you ready?” Celestia asked calmly.

“I am,” Twilight replied, even though her inner voice was throwing red flag warnings. Something about today, the spell, everything, was wrong. But she didn’t know and couldn’t figure out why.

Celestia smiled warmly at her. “Then let us begin!” She lit up her horn, and nearly in unison the forty unicorns lit up their own horns. The room glowed with energy as one by one, the unicorns channeled their magical essence into Celestia.

Once all forty unicorns were sending their power into Celestia, she released the spell directly at Twilight. Large tendrils of magic rolled across the marble floor of the room, steadily beginning to cocoon around Twilight’s body. Like all of Celestia’s magic, it glowed with its usual golden radiance. Until after only a few seconds, the magical glow began turning sour.

Twilight gasped at the sudden temperature drop. She felt cold, frozen to her core. Her attempts to cry out for the spell to cease, or to move, proved worthless. Celestia’s smile, illuminated by the sickly glow, could be considered traumatizing and obsessive. The aura quickly shifted to a bloody scarlet as the tendrils began to spiral in towards her body, each a lance of agony.

“Enough!” A voice called out. The spell surrounding Twilight was shattered by an intense blast of magic. Smoke started to fill the room as the magic Celestia was channeling suddenly sputtered out, no longer focused by the Immortality Spell.

As everyone coughed and recovered from the sudden spell failure, a new pony stood by the door. A very unhappy-looking, dark blue alicorn.

“P-Princess Luna!” Twilight said, shocked to her core at the sight before her.

Luna’s expression softened as she spotted Twilight. “There you are, Twilight Sparkle. I am glad to see you unharmed. As I said previously, I was unable to find you except for your dream of the empty Ponyville town. So, I have brought someone who could.”

A second Celestia walked in the doorway, stopping next to Luna. She smiled tiredly, but not unkindly towards her. “My faithful student. It is good to see you.”

“P-P-Princess Celestia?! But...” Twilight glanced between the two white alicorns. “Then that means...”

“Who are you, imposter?” Tia asked, her tone harsh as she glared at the second Celestia, wings flaring with authority. Twilight thought she saw a lone hair spring out from her ethereal mane, refusing to yield to the magic flow.

“I am the real Princess Celestia,” Celestia said, standing tall next to her sister. A comforting glance was sent towards the Countess. “And that is my friend standing next to you. I am here to help you, Twilight.”

Tia stepped forward, crossing half of the Throne Room in a single movement to block most of Twilight’s view of the two alicorns. “Please. I am the real Celestia. And I love Twilight as an equal. If you think I will just hand her over to some imposter who obviously cares so little about her as you do—”

“How dare you!” Celestia called out, her voice rising in volume to remind Twilight of Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice. It was the first time Twilight had ever heard such aggression in her voice. “Twilight is one of the only ponies I would call my friend. She started off as a talented unicorn I helped teach magic to, and as a result became one of my closest confidants. She returned my sister to me. She’s saved my life and the life of her fellow ponies several times.”

Taking a solidary stomp forward, with enough force to shake the very foundations of the castle, Celestia flared her own wings. “You might say you love her as an equal, but to me she is so much more important. I will not allow her to remain here. If you try to stop me, I will defeat you. Nothing will get in my way of getting Twilight back.”

Twilight was taken back by the conviction and emotion behind Celestia’s words. She had no idea Celestia felt so strongly about their relationship. Sure, Twilight knew that the Princess relied on her and her friends, and that Celestia respected her magical talents… But to have the Princess say that she was so important...

Her thoughts were cut off by Tia wrapping her large white wings around her entire body. “Twilight, I will protect you from whoever these imposters are.” More unruly hairs broke free from Tia’s mane, giving her a near-manic expression. Her dilating pupils only added to that image. “That world is not real, and I will not let these false alicorns fool you.”

Celestia stepped forward once again, another tremor making the very ground quake in fear. “Twilight belongs with us. Release her. This is your last chance before I take her from you by force.”

Tia moved her wings, letting her see Twilight without the two alicorns across the room see her. “Twi, you need to get to safety. I will stop them.” Tia turned her attention on all the other ponies in the room. “All of you, quickly leave the palace. The guards will protect you.”

In the ensuing scramble of ponies trying to flee (and Spike lost in the initial tide as he tried to hold his position), Tia pushed Twilight away. The Countess stumbled towards the nearest door, being ushered by soldiers and scientists alike, before stopping. She didn’t want to leave, she couldn’t; she had to know if they were really the Celestia and Luna she remembered.

She had to.

Turning back towards the sudden bouts of sound and sending her charges away with a crisp dismissal, Twilight saw the two clones of Princess Celestia squared off, perfectly mirroring each other in facial expression and stance. If Twilight hadn’t known which one she had just been standing next to, she would have no idea which one was her marefriend.

With a speed that surprised Twilight, the new Celestia—or was she technically the old?—leapt into action, horn ignited in a blaze of blinding retribution. She charged directly at Tia, who deftly stepped aside and fired a bolt of magic at Celestia’s backside. The bolt seemed to bounce off a golden shield surrounding Celestia’s form, pinging off towards the ceiling and installing a new skylight for the castle’s main room. Celestia slid to a stop, spinning around and glaring at Tia. The two alicorns stood still, staring each other down once again.

Luna suddenly teleported across the room, arriving next to Twilight with a small pop of magic. “Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight jumped slightly. “Princess Luna! What’s going on?”

“Last week, after we spoke, I told Celestia all the details of that you shared with me. She felt certain she would be able to find you. We’ve come to help you wake up.” Luna gestured to the two Solar Princesses, who had now elected to start firing bolts of pure magic at each other, even though they both possessed a shield that was able to perfectly block the shots.

“Last week? I haven’t dreamed of you in over three months!” Twilight said, confused.

Luna gave her a knowing smile. “Are you certain? Time may seem like it passes in a dream world, but often times when you try to remember all the details of that time, you find that they simply don’t exist.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide as she thought back over the last three months. She did find that she could only remember key aspects of what had happened, and even then she only could remember an hour or two at a time. The important parts of her life had just been chopped together, leaving her without all the mundane hours where nothing happened. Luna leaned forward, looking Twilight in the face. “Am I correct?”

“...That means this world is the dream, doesn’t it?” Twilight’s query was soft and resigned.

Luna nodded. “It is. For the past five weeks, you have been in a coma. Currently you reside in Ponyville Hospital, under the care of Nurse Redheart and your friends. I have been told that they have taken turns staying with you so that you would never be alone. They even set up a small bed so that they could stay the night with you.” Twilight’s jaw dropped slightly. “Even now, your friend Fluttershy is in the room.”

“Fluttershy… I saw Fluttershy not too long ago… Or maybe it was just my mind’s projection of Fluttershy…” Twilight said faintly, more to herself than to Luna. “She told me to remember that my friends loved me. She said I could trust you.”

A sudden explosion seized both of their attentions. The two alicorns were pressed together, horns crossed, as they tried to overwhelm each other with magic. There was no way for Twilight to tell which Celestia was the one that came with Luna, and which was the one that had been with her all this time. No way for her to know which one had loved her. “Do you believe in your friends?” Luna casually prodded Twilight as they watched the two versions of Princess Celestia fight.

Without any hesitation, Twilight replied. “Always.”

“Then put an end to this. Trust your instincts. And if you suddenly find you cannot trust them, then trust the Elements. Trust in your friends to guide you. I know you will make the right choice. We are all waiting for you back home,” Luna said before giving Twilight a gentle push on the back.

Twilight got up and started to walk over to the battling Celestia’s, unwavering in her newfound resolve. Magical feedback in the form of lightning bolts struck the air around Twilight, but she remained steadfast. One way or another, Luna was right: it was time to put an end to this.

She nearly got all the way before one of them noticed her. “Twilight!” Both of the clones stopped fighting immediately, in fear of harming the unicorn. Their bloodlust temporarily forgotten, both of them stood there, looking at her with concern.

Now that she had walked over to them, Twilight had no idea what to say to them. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her head. Her friends wanted her to trust Luna. Luna said to trust her instincts, and her friends. To trust her when she said that this world was a dream. That one of them was false, an imposter, and one was real.

A light pressure on her back brought her attention to the world around her. She looked over her shoulder, finding Fluttershy standing next to her, an outstretched hoof resting on her side. Her usual demure smile was prominent. “We’re here for you.”

From behind Fluttershy, her other four friends walked over. All of them had a warm smile on their faces. Twilight’s gaze lingered on each of them for a few seconds, her nerves vanishing. Her attention turned back to the two alicorns, one of whom looked proud, the other confused.

“Tia,” she started softly. One of the alicorns tilted her head. “I’m going home.”

The confused Celestia suddenly looked angry, her horn glowing brightly as she charged up a spell. “No! You can’t! I won’t let them take you from me!” Tia’s mane was now a catastrophe, looking more like a mangled bush than hair of royalty. Bitter tears were starting to form in her eyes. “Please. I love you. Don’t let them take you. Don’t... don’t go...”

“Twilight; here!” Pinkie Pie jumped up to Twilight’s side and offered her the Element of Magic.

Twilight took it. “Pinkie, where did you get…” Her voice trailed off as she remembered that this was the dream world; things didn’t have to make sense. All her friends similarly had their Elements ready to go. Placing the big crown on her head, Twilight turned back towards Tia. The real Celestia had backed off. “I’m sorry, Tia.”

“She won’t love you as I do! You know this!” The aura around her ivory horn wavered. “W-we can be together forever. Me and you. I can be her, to make you happy. Isn’t that what you want? Happiness?”

“Not if it’s a lie,” Twilight stated simply. She could feel the other Celestia staring at her, but she didn’t remove her focus. “I’ve realized that hiding in this place, this dream, is no way to live my life, even if it’s filled with joy and ‘love’. I cannot stay here, knowing this. It would kill me.” The word caused Tia to flinch. “It’s time I wake up, and face whatever reality has waiting for me, inspiring or depressing.”

“No. Please,” Tia continued to beg. All of her will to fight seemed to have left her after Twilight’s speech; instead, she merely sat, horn extinguished, rivers of tears spilling down her face. Shakily, Tia reached a hoof out towards Twilight, and whimpered. “Don’t leave me.”

The Elements glowed brightly.

Twilight felt herself lift into the air.

And the world went dark.

Slowly, Twilight opened her eyes. The world around her was bright, warped, and unfocused. She could see three large shapes looking down at her: one white, one yellow, and a dark blue. “What’s happening?” She tried to ask, her mouth mumbling something incoherent.

“Don’t worry, Twilight. You’re home safe now,” one of the shapes said to her.

“Yes, remain still. The medical mare is on her way,” another shape said.

“Oh, um, oh my,” the last shape said, so softly Twilight might have been imagining it.

Slowly the world around her got clearer, the shapes turning into familiar ponies. Celestia, Luna, and Fluttershy stood around her as she laid in a soft bed. She could feel a needle in her foreleg and several small sensor pads stuck to her skin. “Celestia?”

“I’m here, Twilight. Don’t worry; you’re safe in the hospital.” Celestia leaned down and embraced Twilight, careful not to smother the unicorn with her mane. “Just rest for now.”

“I’ll, um, I’ll go get Nurse Redheart,” Fluttershy said, quickly vanishing from view.

“Do not worry, Twilight Sparkle. The confusion will clear soon,” Luna said from the side of Twilight’s bed. “You will need to drink plenty of fluids to recover from this...”

Twilight nuzzled against Celestia’s neck as Luna’s speaking became mere background noise, the warmth coming off the Princess feeling more real than anything she had experienced in the last few months. “I love you, Celestia,” Twilight mumbled.

“I love you too, Twilight.” Twilight’s heart skipped a beat, causing a nearby machine to beep loudly twice.

Celestia pulled away from Twilight once the sound of hoofsteps came from outside the room. Nurse Redheart rapidly appeared before Twilight. “Twilight! My goodness. I wasn’t sure you’d ever wake up. Magically-induced comas are all different, with various percent-chances of reconsciousness.”

Several hours of medical checkups passed quickly for Twilight. The nurses and doctors double-checked, and then triple-checked, every aspect of her health before letting her get some rest.

As she laid in the bed her door slowly opened, the light from the hallway pouring into her room. “Are you awake?” The voice was unmistakably Celestia’s.

“Yes,” Twilight answered. She was waiting for her to inevitably return. “Come in.”

Celestia slowly walked in and closed the door behind her. She quickly cast a spell that coated the walls with softly-closing strings of magic and preventing any sounds from leaving the room. “Don’t tell Nurse Redheart; I’m supposed to be letting you rest.”

“I won’t,” Twilight promised, giggling somewhat at the idea of Celestia sneaking into the hospital.

Celestia sat down right at the side of Twilight’s bed, smiling at her. The low light coming in through the window and from Celestia’s spell provided just enough light for them to see each other. “Luna has told me some of the details of your dream world.” Twilight was silent. “Your dream me was rather upset to let you go… How close were you two?”

“Very,” Twilight replied softly. “We lived together, we worked together… We were just together always.”

They both sat in an awkward silence. “Perhaps… Perhaps we can talk more about your feelings once you’ve recovered,” Celestia offered. “Because I meant what I said in your dream. You are very important to me, Twilight. I do love you. I’m not sure if it’s the same love… But we should still talk.”

Twilight’s face turned red, and she was glad that in the low light, Celestia hopefully wouldn’t see. “Alright… That sounds nice.”

Celestia leaned down and kissed Twilight on the forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll come visit again soon.” The Princess quickly left the room, the spell she cast on the wall quickly fading away.

It took Twilight a while to fall asleep without Tia pressed up to her side, but she managed to get a few hours of restful sleep. In the morning, Nurse Redheart delivered her a small breakfast. “You’ve been on an IV for several weeks, so we need to slowly get you back on regular food.” Twilight nodded, accepting the small meal. “If you want, all your friends want to see you. Visiting hours don’t start for another hour, but I think an exception could be made.”

“Yes, thank you,” Twilight replied quickly. She wanted nothing more than to see all her friends. It had been quite some time, indeed.

Less than a minute after Nurse Redheart left, Twilight’s friends came bursting into the room. Pinkie’s party cannon detonated and the entire room was covered in balloons, streamers, confetti, and a huge sign that said ‘Glad You’ve Woken Up From A Strange Coma Dream-World!’

For the first time in what felt like some time, Twilight laughed. A genuine, happy one.

She was home, truly home, once again.

Chapter 22 Epilogue

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After several days of observations and tests, Twilight was finally released from the hospital to the care of her friends. They helped Twilight back through town, walking alongside and telling her about every little thing she missed while she was asleep. The Summer Celebration passed by, though the Princesses weren’t as upbeat as they usually were during public appearances. Rainbow Dash promised her that the next Daring Doo book was the best one yet. Pinkie explained about how even though she threw several parties, they weren’t as good because not all her friends could be there. Rarity made a joke about the time Pinkie tried to throw a party in Twilight’s hospital room and got them all in trouble.

Twilight carefully shared some moments from her dream. She didn’t want to get into too much details with her friends. Especially about the aspects of her relationship with Celestia. It felt very personal and even though she completely trusted her friends, she wanted to talk it all through with Celestia first. The Princesses had returned to Canterlot the day after Twilight woke up; they had their duties to attend to after all. Twilight knew that, but part of her wished for Celestia to have been by her side.

Ponyville looked exactly like she remembered. They passed by Rarity’s shop, closed for now, looking just as prim and proper as ever. Quills and Sofas looked as she remembered this time, its welcoming store front offering the promise of comfortable seating and high quality feather quills on a sign in the window. The cafe Celestia had taken her and Spike to was just down the street from Quills and Sofas, as she remembered. That day had been a serious blow to her, and it seemed like a forever ago now.

As the group walked through Ponyville, Twilight spotted all sorts of familiar faces. Most of them were happy to see Twilight awake once more. Derpy flew overhead, her brown mane a huge mess as she tried to help the weather ponies clear the skies. BonBon waved to Twilight from the window of her shop. The Cake family, out for a walk, quickly offered Twilight a speedy recovery as they headed for the park.

Soon enough the familiar foliage of the library came into view. Its branches looking freshly trimmed and the windows spotless. “We started cleaning up right after you woke up,” Dash said with pride in her voice.

“It looks great!” Twilight turned and flashed a large smile to her friends. “Thanks girls.”

The blue front door to the library slammed open as Spike came running out. “Twilight!” He leapt at her, his short arms encircling her neck as his claws gripped her coat.

Twilight quickly embraced her number one assistant, nuzzling the top of his head. “I’m home, Spike.”

Her friends stayed for several more hours to make sure that Twilight would be okay. Spike prepared lunch and snacks for them, but eventually they all returned to their work for the day. Each one of them promised to visit every day until Twilight was back to normal. With all her friends gone, Twilight laid in bed, mentally exhausted from the sudden change in her lifestyle. If she hadn’t been woken up by Luna and Celestia, who knows what she’d be doing right now in the dream world.

“A letter from Princess Celestia just arrived, Twilight!” Spike proclaimed as he came into her room. Upon finding her about to go to bed, however, he began making a hasty retreat before she called him over to dictate the message. “My Dear Twilight,” Spike started, reading the scroll in a slightly higher pitch from his usual voice. “I have just received the news that you have been discharged from the hospital. I hope you are resting up. Unfortunately I cannot get away from Canterlot, so I have sent a train ticket dated for the day after tomorrow. I hope to see you soon, Celestia.”

Twilight finally sat up slowly as Spike held up the single train ticket, looking somewhat confused at it. “Huh? Only one? But what about me?”

“Sorry, Spike. I need to talk with the Princess privately,” Twilight replied calmly as she levitated the ticket away from him.

The train left Ponyville station two hours after sunrise. Twilight sat in a window seat, watching the familiar Equestrian landscape slide by. It was a sunny and clear day, allowing her a good view of Cloudsdale hanging in the distance. Time seemed to fly by as the train slowed down, pulling into Canterlot mere minutes after departing Ponyville.

Twilight exited the train, looking around the familiar sights of Canterlot when she was violently grabbed with magic. Instinctively, she flared her horn to defend against any kind of attack, before she realized what was happening. Allowing herself to slide across the train station, she fell into the waiting hooves of her mom and dad. “Twily!”

The rest of the morning—and well into the afternoon—she spent with her parents. A home-cooked meal for lunch made her feel much more relaxed about her upcoming conversation with Celestia. Her parents had taken a trip to the hospital with the Princesses right after they heard the news about what had happened, but with nothing that medicine could do, they simply had to wait.

After several days, with no changes, they returned to Canterlot and relied on Twilight’s friends and the Princesses to keep them up-to-date on her condition. Shining Armor also came to visit for a few days, but ultimately the work they were doing in the Crystal Empire needed him to return. Twilight told her parents that she would go visit them as soon as she could.

As the sun started to get lower on the horizon, Twilight bid her parents a good night and made her way through the city, up to the palace. The guards quickly escorted her to Celestia’s bedroom, which thankfully looked much different from her dream. It definitely looked the part of a royal chamber more than what her dream conjured up. Celestia was sitting on a collection of pillows, reading from a large scroll nearly as long as the Princess was tall. She looked up as Twilight walked into the room. “Twilight, you made it.”

“Princess,” Twilight said with a smile, walking into the room with a bit of hesitation. Before her coma she wouldn’t have thought anything strange about meeting privately with Celestia in her bedroom. In fact, she had never even been in Celestia’s bedroom before. But during the dream, this very same room had been renovated and used as their shared bedroom.

“Please, just Celestia while we’re in private.” Celestia floated over a large pillow, placing it in front of her. She waited for the purple mare to get comfortable before speaking again. “How have you been feeling the past few days?”

Twilight smiled warmly. “Much better once I got to get up and leave the hospital. My friends have been with me everyday just to make sure I’m healing.”

“I figured they would be. They are great friends, after all. Did you enjoy your time with your parents as well?” Celestia asked with a slightly-coy smile.

Twilight nodded, chuckling softly. It made sense that Celestia would tip off her family. How else would they have learned which train she was taking to Canterlot. “I did, thank you. I haven’t had a lot of time to do so since I moved to Ponyville, so it was great to just relax and catch up with them.”

“That’s good. Now, let’s get on to the more serious matters.” Celestia’s expression became grave, but she still maintained a smile. “The spell that put you into the coma.”

Twilight fidgeted; she was hoping the conversation could be delayed a few moments longer. But it couldn’t be helped, she sighed to herself with a nod. “Luna mentioned it to me. It was supposed to make me an Alicorn, yes? I saw my notes and Star Swirl’s book back at the library. Though I still couldn’t make any sense of his spell, even after I returned.”

Celestia nodded. “That is what I told Luna it did, yes. However, because of what happened to you, I feel that I should tell you the truth.” She seemed to hesitate before committing to her decision. “The Star Swirl spell is a fake.”

“It’s what?!”

Celestia winced, and uncharacteristically of her, she began to nervously shift her hooves about. “I actually invented the spell myself, a long time ago. But all it was designed to do was place the caster in a trance-esque state. However, something during the casting must’ve went wrong and the trance became so severe that you ended up in a coma.”

Twilight blinked the revelation away. “So I wasn’t going to become an alicorn then? Why, though? Why would you lie to Luna about that? For that matter, why give me a spell that would put me in a trance—?”

Celestia, apparently needing a moment to compose her response, rose a hoof to silence the tirade of questioning. After a few seconds’ peace, she began. “The transition from mortality to immortality is a harsh one. The spell’s purpose was to ease the intended target through the process to prevent any unwanted casualties by sending them into a catatonic state of mind.

“You would have become an alicorn, though. I didn’t lie about that.” Celestia paused to take in a breath, and allowed her current explanation to sink in. “However, instead of the spell turning you, I would. I don’t want Luna to know that I’ve figured out how to turn ponies immortal, though; she already holds stigma against the alicornification process. So I lied to her about an unfinished spell written by Star Swirl,” the Princess explained calmly. “Had the spell fired properly, you would have been placed into a trance and I would have teleported you to me. Once in the trance I could instruct you not to remember what happened, and I would have spent the next few hours casting the spell to turn you both into an alicorn, and an immortal.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped slightly as Celestia continued. “Once done, I would wake you up and send you back to Ponyville as Princess Twilight. The coronation ceremony would have happened right away, crowning you as the third full Princess of Equestria.” Celestia’s expression softened. “When I teleported you to my side, you fell over, unresponsive and barely breathing. I instantly knew that something had gone wrong and rushed you to the nearest hospital.”

A single detail stuck in Twilight’s mind as strange. She blurted out her question, interrupting Celestia’s flow. “Third Princess? What about Cadence?”

Celestia stiffened slightly. “Cadence is a Princess, yes. She is also an alicorn. However, she is not immortal. I had hoped for her to take up the Element of Magic when I first met her. She had remarkably strong magic for such a young mare. I adopted her as my niece and raised her myself, but in the end she wasn’t right for the role. I turned her into an alicorn and crowned her as a fellow princess, but I never finished the spell. Luna actually thinks she is a natural-born alicorn found during her exile (for now anyways), but Cadance is definitely still mortal. She attended school with your brother, growing up as a normal pony. I then met you on that fateful day and took you as my student.”

“So Cadence will die?”

“She’ll have a significantly-longer lifespan, thanks to the Earth pony mixed in her blood. But yes, she will eventually grow old and die.” Celestia closed her eyes, her head hung down. “And like her, now I will you let decide… Do you wish to become an alicorn as I intended? It will be much harder for you than it was for Cadance. Immortality is eternal, and irreversible. But by becoming an alicorn, an immortal; you’d be able to serve at my side to make Equestria a better place.”

Twilight was silent for a few moments. Just a few days ago she was about to let Tia make her immortal. She had already decided to go through with it. But Tia’s manic expression flashed through her mind’s eye. “I want to think about it for a moment,” Twilight finally said.

Celestia sighed, visibly relaxing. Her shoulders slumped as she looked back up at Twilight. “I will admit I was sure you would outright reject my offer after what you’ve been through in your dream.”

“Before you and Luna came into my dream, I was prepared to become immortal. But that was a different situation,” Twilight explained. “I was actively serving Equestria alongside you as an equal. I was… I was dating you. It was a very different life than being the Element of Magic.”

“You won’t wield the Elements forever. At least not in the same way you do now. Your friends will grow and die, while you could be immortal. Once they pass, your life will be different; the Element of Magic will remain with you, but the other Elements will find new bearers.”

Twilight blushed as her mind deviated. “…What about us?”

Celestia nodded once, her face also taking on a red tint. “Immortals have issues taking mortals as lovers, for obvious reasons. It is hard to love and lose over and over. Luna does provide friendship, but family is not always the same.” She stumbled over her words for another few moments before stopping herself. Clearing her throat, Celestia nodded again. “I mean. Yes, Twilight. We could go on a few dates together.”

Twilight suddenly paused. “And what if I don’t wish to become immortal? Would you still give us a chance?”

The question seemed to physically harm Celestia. “I... I don’t know. It would be hard, so hard, on both me and you. I am not entirely sure I can survive losing another loved one. Not again. Not ever again.” A shy smile appeared on her muzzle. “But, if you were willing to let me make you an alicorn, neither of us would have to worry, right?”

A smile appeared on Twilight’s face. Seeing the normally-so-composed Celestia blushing like a filly reminded her of Tia. The thought was quickly pushed away. That was the past, a dream; this was now, the present, reality. But could she really go through with it? Strip herself of mortality? Those icy tendrils still clawed at her coat, despite them being only fleeting, phantom sensations. She doubted she would ever fully recover and suppress what had happened in that dreamscape.

But in doing so, in surrendering herself to alicornhood and immortality once again, she could be with Celestia. The real Celestia... Her decision was made. “Yes.” Celestia looked up. “Yes, I’ll become an alicorn.”

Celestia’s face broke out into a large smile. The embarrassment vanishing, leaving only a light-red tint to her pristine white coat as she rose to her full, towering height. “Then let’s not wait. I’ll cast it right now. You should come to, once it’s all done.” Celestia’s horn lit up and before Twilight could even begin to ponder on when the spell would take hold, her world went dark.

For a long period of time, she felt cold, and numb. But it eventually subsided, and in its stead a warmth began spreading over her and the darkness started to retreat. She was still sitting on the pillow, with Celestia in front of her. Feathers tickled her back as she groaned. Her head felt rather cloudy, though it was bound to pass. “What was that?”

“That was the spell. You’ve been asleep for four hours.” Celestia’s magic reached out and pulled aside a curtain, revealing a window with the morning sky visible. “I just sent word for some food to be brought up, since we missed breakfast.”

Twilight turned her head, looking at the large purple wings resting gently at her side. “I’ve got wings,” she said simply.

“You do,” Celestia replied coyly.

“I’m immortal. And I have wings.” Twilight jumped up, flaring her wings out. She danced around the room, flapping her wings at random, even at one point lifting herself off the ground for a moment. After several minutes of this process, she abruptly lunged at Celestia, hugging the Princess tightly. “Thank you, Tia!” Twilight didn’t mean to call her that, but she didn’t seem to mind, so she too stopped minding also.

Celestia returned the loving embrace, a huge grin on her face as she wrapped her wings around the freshly-turned alicorn, and whispered into Twilight’s ear. “My pleasure, Twi. Don’t worry. Now, together, we can begin to make Equestria a better place. Forever.”

The End

Dreams About Friendship Are Magic

by Soft Story

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22 Epilogue