The Stoned Student (Rewritten)

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Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, all characters besides my OC’s belong to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I’m just borrowing them for a bit, I promise to return them.

Chapter 1: The Stoned Student

Written by MyWorld93

Edited by ThunderDash

I always felt there would be terrible days in my life, but this one took the cake. Most days had a silver lining, but not today. Everything went wrong this day and I’ve never been able to recover. Even if I had stayed in bed the results would have been the same.

Let me introduce myself, I am Dawn Pie, the primary and most faithful student of Princess Luna, one of the two primary leaders of the magical land of Equestria. It is a highly prestigious position, even if it does come with ruptured eardrums.

What’s that now, you’ve never heard of Equestria? My, but you must live a sheltered life. Equestria is an Equine paradise; it has been quickly rising to the world stage over the past millennia under the careful watch of our two wonderful princesses, Celestia and Luna. Working together they combined the various pony tribes that made up the world into a single entity through the use of diplomacy... mostly.

I’ve always thought that there was more to that story. Nothing ever works out that cleanly, but I’ve never really cared enough to question it. Besides I’d rather keep my position. My family would kill me if I lost it.

Equestria is occupied by what you might call sentient horses, but we like to call ourselves ponies. I’m honestly not sure why we call ourselves that; we act just like horses anyway. I guess somepony just thought that we should separate ourselves from our less intelligent cousins.
In any case, ponies come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors; all the colors of the rainbow in fact and more besides. It really is a little strange, makes stereotyping difficult in any case. However, while we come in a variety of different colors ponies only come in four different types.

The most numerous group is the Earth Pony. These ponies have little outward magical power, but contain incredible inner magic; they are the best at working the land, cultivating it to perfection. A famous historical story involved one of the princesses granting some Earth Ponies a small area of desert land, within a year they had transformed it into a rainforest paradise. Most Earth Ponies today work the fields of Equestria, growing food for all of the ponies. There are times that I wish I could do that, but it isn’t in my skillset.

The next most numerous group is the Pegasus, winged ponies that utilize the power of their magic in order to fly through the air while blowing raspberries at the laws of physics. Whenever anypony asks them about their ability to disregard physics they are most often told to get out of their way or more bluntly to buck off, most likely because they don’t know either. Their primary occupation is weather control, a rather necessary feature for the Equestrian ecosystem. Often they are seen working hoof in hoof with the Earth Ponies; creating weather patterns perfect for the crops and animals.

The final group is the one that I am a part of, Unicorns. We are the least numerous, excluding the princess (more on that later). Generally speaking, we are the most magically powerful group; this is not idle boasting I have heard this from ponies of all types. We are able to perform feats of magic that often amaze others. Some of us even go into showmanship, but most of us become researchers or librarians working our tails off to try and better the lives of all ponies. However, our primary position in this pony ecosystem is keeping magic within the lands of Equestria, without this all of our livelihoods would fall apart. To be more precise about it magic cannot be naturally renewed and Unicorns are tasked with the utilization of magic in order to refill what is utilized by the Earth Ponies and the Pegasi. So we’re pretty much living batteries.

Finally the Princesses, I told you I’d come back to them, are special cases. They are beings known as Alicorns, creatures that combine the abilities of all three pony races into a single entity. They have the landscaping abilities of the Earth Ponies, the flying abilities of the Pegasi, and the magical abilities of the Unicorns. Their primary position is the raising and lowering of the celestial bodies, a.k.a. the sun and moon. Princess Celestia is the bringer of the day and Princess Luna is the bringer of the night.

Although they are tremendously powerful beings, revered as deities in some of the small backwater cities where they haven’t traveled, they are, in my humble opinion just like us. They are just as prone to mistakes as any other pony and as you will see they made a tremendous one on this day.

In the end of course, none of our particular races are any better than the others, we need each other in order to survive. Without the Earth Ponies none of us would have nutrients we need, without the Pegasi we’d have chaotic weather patterns, and without the Unicorns magic would simply disappear and all pony life would disappear. The loss of any single group would end disastrously, but luckily we all seem to get along.

You’re probably getting a little tired of my exposition, so I’ll tell you a little about myself instead. Like I said earlier I’m a Unicorn stallion. My fur is dark bluish in coloration, but my mane and tail are a dark pink. You can feel free to laugh at it, everyone always does. I’m not the largest stallion around, but I’m not the smallest either. Honestly I’m pretty much average in everything else. I always felt that if it wasn’t for my strange coloration, I’d likely be forgotten as soon as I left anypony’s line of sight. Of course the picture on my flank makes up for a lot, it really is amazing how the image of shimmering sun rising out of the water makes an impact on pony’s perceptions. As for my personality and magical ability, well I think I’ll just let you find out for yourself. Maybe I’ll surprise you and be the best at everything or maybe I’ll disappoint, but I’m leaving it up to you.

In any case I was going to tell you about what was quite possibly the worst day of my life, a day that forever changed how I saw the world…
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My day, well more like night really, began simply enough: I got out of bed, bumped my head on the headboard, and placed my four hooves on the nice, padded floor.

After rubbing the little bruise on my head I trotted over to my bathroom and performed my daily routine: brush my teeth, floss, and take a shower. I am so very lucky to have magic; it makes it so much easier to perform tasks like this. I once overused my magic forcing me to do without it for an entire week. I kept falling over trying to get the toothbrush in my mouth. It wasn’t a fun time for me, but at least I gained the skill of living without magic. I’ve never used it since, but I’m sure it’ll be useful at some point.

Normally when I awoke everypony else would already be getting into their beds, it was rather late in the night by then. Besides me the only ponies that were ever awake at that hour were Princess Luna and the Night Guards. It was always very quiet and empty, in fact Princess Luna often complained to me of that very fact. Often those talks ended with my ruptured eardrums being cured by magic. Recently Princess Luna has been worrying me a little. I’ve been leaving those meetings with completely functional eardrums. I’ll have to talk to her about that later, it can’t be a good idea to keep all that locked up inside.

In any case, there were a lot of things that I had to do tonight and one thing that I wanted to do in particular. There was this wonderful mare I’ve wanted to ask out for a long time now, but with our schedules it’s really hard to catch a moment to talk to her. To be more precise, whenever she’s awake I’m asleep and whenever she’s asleep I’m awake.

We don’t even have a choice about it. When we were chosen as the students of the princesses a spell was cast on us that made our sleeping schedules match those of our teachers. They hadn’t bothered to tell us about what those spells did when they cast them, not that we likely would have understood anyway, we were just foals at the time.

The sleep spell had a rather unfortunate tendency to cause a lot of trouble for me, even beyond simply making it difficult to socialize. Quite often one of us would be found sleeping in the middle of a corridor because our respective teacher had decided to go to sleep a little earlier than normal. Ever slept on rocks? It hurts, a lot.

I have in the past tried to awaken before my teacher, but the spell always works perfectly. I was never able to get up more than a minute or two before Luna did, but this time I had thought it through and done the smart thing; I asked Luna for permission. Today I would wake up a few hours before Luna. That would give me just enough time to ask for that date. While it was unlikely that anything would ever be able to come of it… well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

It was with this depressing thought that I trotted out of my room preparing myself for the chance. Believe me when I say that the palace is huge, I get lost so often it isn’t even funny and I’ve lived here for a large portion of my life. It doesn’t help that all of the hallways have the same design covering the walls, like the architect had decided that it was better to just reuse the same patterns over and over rather than actually use their imagination. There aren’t even any signs directing ponies, supposedly it keeps any would be assassins from finding who they were looking for. It was thought that if ponies couldn’t find where they’re going then they couldn’t attack anypony. In my opinion it was just Luna and Celestia trying to be funny.

Today I made sure that I knew exactly which hallways to travel through to get to her room. I had spent all my free time in the last couple of nights memorizing exactly which turns I had to make. I knew exactly how to get there, I was perfectly prepared. Which is why I felt slightly irritated that after I’d trotted all the way over there I found that her room had been flooded the previous day and she had been temporarily moved into the room straight across from mine. Don’t get me wrong, I rather like how much easier it made my life, but it made all my plans suddenly worthless.

It also made me wonder if that picture on my flank should have been of something more coincidental, to match how often these ridiculous coincidences occur. They are always occurring to me with incredible regularity and always at the worst possible moment. Maybe I did something really good, or really bad, in my past life and it just sort of carried over into this one.

In any case, I still had to knock. I realize that I might sound a little confident in myself, and believe me sometimes I’m just as overconfident as I seem to be, but the long and short of it was that I am and likely will always be. When I was just a colt I could often be found hiding behind the leg of the nearest adult, which made it rather difficult to make friends with other ponies. As I got older it became less severe, but there are times when I still get anxious and try to hide behind objects to avoid meeting ponies.

Of course being one of the only ponies still awake during the night didn’t give me many opportunities to practice so I hadn’t really gotten any better. So you can imagine the nerve wracking experience it was for me to try and knock on that door. I was sweating rather heavily and feeling short of breath, but I had been planning this moment and I knew it was going to go well. I had done all the research on it, looked at all the angles, and examined all the lines. I mean I even wrote a script to fit the occasion and practiced it both in front of a mirror and with Luna. I knew I was ready…but maybe I’ll just waste a few more minutes and tell you a little about this mare. What do you mean I’m stalling; I’m not, I just think you’d want to know more about her.

Her name is Diamond Sparkle and she is the most beautiful mare I have ever seen in my life. Her magenta coat and purple mane were absolutely enchanting to observe and the magical diamonds on her flank didn’t hurt any either. Yes I do realize I sound like a lovesick puppy, it’s because I am a lovesick Pony. I also realize that was corny and I don’t care.
I had known her since we were foals. She had seen me hiding behind my mother’s leg, had run straight towards me, and forced me to play with her. I mean that literally, she had grabbed my hoof with her magic and made me play house with her. It was probably one of the best moments of my life; I even have a picture of it on the mantle in my room.

Okay, that’s enough of my stalling; I was going to do this. I just had to lift my hoof to the door and knock on it. I knew I could do this; I’d done it many times before. She was my friend and I knew that she would say yes or at least let me down gently. So why is it so hard this time? It felt like the local gravity had gotten much stronger. I struggled against it, I knew it was just my nerves talking; gravity couldn’t possibly change in a localized area like this. I was going to knock on that door if it was the last thing I did.

After several agonizing minutes my hoof began to slowly rise, as if moving through molasses, but I was able to get it the door and knock. You have no idea the relief I felt when I finally felt my hoof on the door and the knocking sound reverberating throughout the room.

I heard movement from inside, it sounded like someone in there had just bumped into several objects looking for a lantern… Okay really it just sounded like someone trying to move around the room and bumping her hooves into a few things, but I was making an educated guess. I waited patiently, my heart beating quickly from my nerves. Eventually I heard things settle down inside and then I heard her.

“Who is it?” It sounded like a chorus of angels to me; I was going to do it this time.

“It’s Dawn can I talk to you for a minute?” It was now or never, I had to get this just right. It was highly unlikely I would get a second chance like this, with our sleep cycles and all, but I needed to see for myself if this would work or not.

“Yeah right, try again genius, Dawn is still sleeping. So who is it really?” You know I didn’t think she would be suspicious, but I guess it makes sense. The ponies that we surpassed to gain our positions are rather jealous and ruthless; they would try and kill us if they believed it would give them even a small chance of advancement. She may have been brave, but she wasn’t without brains.

“Who is it really?”

“I promise you that it really is me.”

“Really? I’m still not sure if I should believe you. If you want to prove who you are you‘ll need to do something that only we would know.” I was getting tired of staring at this door and was willing to do just about anything at this point, I really wanted to get this off my chest. “Give me the Special Pie Promise and I’ll believe it’s you.”

Somehow I should have known it would come to this. The Special Pie Promise was almost like a magical contract, once given it could not be retracted… ever. It was developed by my Mother and Father because they were always worried that somepony was out to kill them. They taught it to me back when I was a foal and Diamond got me to teach it to her. The really surprising part about that story was that when I told my mother I had taught Diamond the Promise she had merely smiled at me and told me that she had expected it. I’ll probably never understand my mother.

Unfortunately there was one small problem with the promise, it sounded incredibly silly. My parents had taken an old foals promise and modified it, knowing that if a pony was going to say it they would have to be telling the truth, it was just so embarrassing.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eyowww!” I’d poked my hoof into my eye, it happened every time I said the promise. At this point I heard giggling from in front of me and upon opening my eyes I saw the beautiful sight of Diamond framed by the entrance to her room.

“Well what do you know, it is you. So what are you doing up at this hour?” She was smiling at me; looks like that little promise had helped me more than just get her out of her room. Hopefully she would be more likely to accept my invitation.

“What? So I can’t come and visit a dear old friend and maybe talk about old times?” I really was a wuss wasn’t I? All that practice gone to the four winds.

“Really…? Now why can’t I believe you?” She was still smiling at me. Sometimes I wonder if she can read my mind. Maybe that was why she had dragged me out from behind my mother that day, she had read my mind and realized that I really wanted a friend.

“No not really, I just wanted to ask you something…” I wasn’t able to look her right in the eye.

I saw her eyelids sliding lower, she was glaring at me. I haven’t seen that glare since we were foals. It was a glare that looked straight into my soul; it made me so very nervous. It also made me a chatter mouth.

“Iwashopingyouwouldbewillingtogoouttodinnerwithmetommorow, wellreallydinnerforyouandbreakfastforme,butyeah,sowouldyou?” And now she was giving me a bewildered look, it was incredibly cute, but I knew I had spoken way too fast at that point.

“You need to slow down a little; I couldn’t understand a word you said.”
I calmed down, I knew this would be my only chance and I was going to use it, “Would you be willing to join me for dinner tomorrow night?” I got it out, good for me.

She looked hesitant, which honestly didn’t surprise me. I doubt that I was the first to ask her out, but I was kind of hoping to be the last. However, when I looked into her eyes I saw something and came to the realization that even without the words she was about to say, she would be accepting.

“That sounds great. How about we meet at eight on Tuesday? Think you can make it?” She gave me a small smirk. I know I should have realized that she would take charge, sometimes I felt a little like a doormat to others, but for once I was really glad she had.

“I will be there, until then.” She gave me a smile and I felt my heart flutter, this night was going great for me. With that I headed across the hall to my room, not breaking eye contact until she had closed her door to her room and I had entered my own.

Once I was safely within my own room I felt like shouting out my success. So I did.

“YES SHE SAID YES. THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!” I really wish the night had ended at that moment instead of continuing. It probably would have saved me a lot of grief.
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It was almost an hour after I’d asked Diamond for a date and received her affirmation. I had just realized that I had yet to tell Luna about my success. She’d helped me practice for the big moment; I suppose I owe it to her.

Standing up I trotted out of my room, heading towards the throne room, Luna should be in there performing her Royal duty of running the Night Court. Well as long as she wasn’t goofing off. Although it would be understandable, I don’t think I’d ever seen a single pony actually attend her court. I once asked an aristocrat why, and the most they could tell me is that they preferred sleeping to politics. I think I understood it at that point.

While my mind had been on thoughts of Luna’s position my hooves had been on thoughts of the throne room, I had trotted there on automatic and it was only when I ran into the door that I realized I had arrived. I needed to stop running on automatic, I keep crashing into things.

I started to push open the door to the throne room when I heard Celestia’s voice coming from behind the door and stopped. I took a peek through the gap I had created. What can I say, I was curious. Why Celestia would still be up at this hour?

“Sister stop hitting me with that pillow, it’s getting rather tiresome.” I heard Celestia groan. Through the small crack I was looking through I could see that her pastel rainbow mane was in disarray and Luna, her starlit blue mane in just as much of a mess, was swinging a pillow she held at her sister princess. “I’m serious, stop it or you know there will be consequences.” Consequences? For hitting her with a pillow? I never would have thought Celestia would do a thing like that.

“SISTER, THOU WOULD USE THE SACRED ARTIFACTS FOR SUCH A PETTY DEVIENCE?” The look Luna gave her sister would have almost appeared hurt, if she hadn’t been smiling so widely. I had to wonder what she was talking about, what sacred artifacts?

“If it keeps me from getting ruptured eardrums maybe I will.” Celestia stated, glaring back at her younger sister, “I mean honestly why do you insist on talking in that antiquated manner? We haven’t used that voice in eons.”

“THOU BET US THAT WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO USE THIS VOICE ON A CONTINUAL BASIS. WE SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL SUCH A TIME THAT THEE GRANTS US OUR PRIZE.” Luna bellowed at Celestia, looking exactly like the goddess that she was to many, “THOU DOST REMEMBER THE PRIZE DEAR SISTER, DOST THOU NOT?”

“Um… no. I don’t even remember that bet, when did it happen and what was the prize?” Celestia appeared puzzled at the implication. I’m going to go ahead and make the guess that she didn’t remember making any such bet and no, I cannot read minds right now.

“WE WROUGHT THIS BET TEN MILLENIA AGO AND THOU PROMISED US ETERNAL NIGHT. WILL THOU DELIVER OR SHALL I CONTINUE TO USE THE ROYAL TONE?” Luna was still smiling at her dear sister. I remember Luna telling me about this prank. She thought it would be funny to try and trick her sister into thinking that she was going to bring about Eternal Night. The whole Royal Voice thing was another one of her pranks; she enjoyed using it and seeing what ponies’ reactions were. She didn’t get to have much fun when nopony else was awake at night.

“Sister, how could I possibly do that, you know that all our little ponies would die. How could you ask me to do such a thing?” Celestia looked worriedly at her sister, “I don’t remember you ever saying something like this before.”

“WHY DOST THOU CONTINUE TO PLEAD THY CASE, THOU HAST LOST DEAR SISTER AND THOU MUST MAKE HASTE WITH ACQUIESCING TO OUR DESIRES OR WE SHALL CONTINUE TO TALK IN THIS MANNER FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL MILLENIA. THOU WOULD NOT WISH ‘OUR LITTLE PONIES’ TO SUFFER THAT WOULDS’T THOU.” Seriously this was way too easy. Luna’s sister was so easy to play. Luna hadn’t been doing this for long, at least that’s how it would probably feel for an immortal Alicorn. While it would be nice for the night to last an hour or two longer so she could go and talk to some of her subjects, she told me she hadn’t had a date in millennia, she wouldn’t really ask for it. The death of so many ponies would be way too hard on Celestia and Luna as well.

“NO, IF YOU SHALL NOT GIVE UP THIS FOOL HARDY BET THAN I SHALL HAVE TO PUT YOU IN TIME OUT. YOU WILL BE SENT TO THE MOON FOR THE NEXT ONE THOUSAND YEARS.” I saw Celestia shouted pulling out set of six magical artifacts, each a different color; I have no idea what they are, but they look really cool. I could see energy starting to build up within them right before it fired a beam of rainbow energy towards Luna!
I tried to rush towards Luna, perhaps to block the beam myself, but I couldn’t get the door to open quickly enough, it was far too heavy. By the time the gap had widened enough so I could fit through it the Rainbow Energy had already reached Luna.

“NOOOOO, WE DOST NOT WISH TO BE PLACED IN THE ‘TIME OUT’ AGAIN, TIS NOT FUN.” Right after she finished her statement, the magical energy struck her and she disappeared; I suppose she was sent to the moon.

Wait, hold on… This was not happening, my teacher had not just been sent to the moon right in front of my eyes by her sister. I needed to get out of here. I would not stand for this, even if this led to a thousand years of peace due to lack of ruptured eardrums I would not allow this to stand.

“My, My, I don’t think I can allow you to leave knowing what you do…” I began to gallop faster, but I didn’t get far before I felt Celestia’s magic hit me in the back followed by the sensation of falling unconscious, “We’ll just have to take that memory away won’t we.”

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I awoke from the nap I had decided to take an hour after receiving Diamond’s answer and reading through a book I had grabbed from the library titled The Best Date: How to Make Your Mare Happy. I was going to make sure that I gave Diamond a perfect date no matter what I had to do.

I’d just finished reading the final chapter in the book and was about to go through it a second time. I had to make sure I had found all the little details that seemed to abound in the book. I was going to have a hard time remembering which fork was used for the salad.

Another fifty-nine minutes came and past while I was rereading the book, it had now been an hour, fifty-nine minutes, and twenty-seven seconds since the mare of my dreams had accepted my advance. I think most people would think it rather strange that I had been counting the seconds, but I didn’t care. At the moment I only care about a singular pony and I was making plans for my time with her.

Unfortunately, life happens while others make plans and life decided it would happen to me at the worst possible moment. I felt a little twitch behind my earlobe and my tail made some twirling motions, the tip ended up pointing directly at me. It’s rare that I get feeling like this, but they do happen. My sister was better at understanding them than I am; she always knew exactly what they meant. I could never really understand them, but whenever I got these feelings something bad happens to somepony. As such I’ve never really come to like them much.

I decided to ignore the twitching. It was unlikely that I would be able to do anything about it anyway. It’s unhelpful to know that something bad is going to happen, but have no idea where, when, or to whom it was going to occur. Once again that was my sister’s talent, my mother was also better at it, in fact all the mares in the family were better at it than any of the stallions in the family.

I began to feel odd, my hoof felt like it was asleep even though I hadn’t been sitting on it; I tend to walk about while reading. I tried moving it around a bit, still engrossed in the book, but the feeling didn’t go away. In fact it just spread to my leg. I wasn’t able to keep my mind in the book any longer; the feeling was starting to worry me. It almost felt like my leg wasn’t even there anymore, like it had been disconnected from me.

Turning my gaze to my leg, I saw it was turning a stone grey color and was quickly spreading farther up my leg; I had lost any feeling in those grey parts. I was worried; I don’t think I’d ever seen such a thing before.
Unfortunately I have the bad habit of staying calm when I should be in a panic over things like this. It’s possible that if I yelled out and screamed instead of calmly trying different spells to get rid of the grey I might not have to deal with the problems that would come later.

The grey color continued to spread no matter what I tried, including flesh from stone spells. Nothing I did slowed down its spread, instead it seemed to merely grow faster and faster. It was up to my neck at this point and I was finding it hard to breath. Of course it was only now that I decided screaming for help would be a good idea, but the grey stone had already reached my mouth; I wasn’t able to utter a sound.

My last thought before the stone covered me and I knew no more was that I should have left a note for Diamond.

Author's Note: I reworked this chapter mainly to make it so that it always be in the first person instead of changing randomly in the middle. It simply flows better. It won't affect the plot in any manner whatsoever.

Edit: I would like to thank ThunderDash for helping me clean up this chapter and subsequent chapters.

Rehabilitation

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Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM it is owned by Hasbro and Lauren Faust. The only thing I own are my OCs. Yes I have no idea how I wrote this as I don’t even have a computer, I think pie was involved though.

Chapter 2: Rehabilitation

Written by MyWorld93

Edited by Thunderdash

I can’t tell how long I’ve been trapped in my stone prison, but can tell you that it is maddening. Most of the time I’m not even aware of anything going on around me, it’s only in the presence of another pony that can I think and function. If you’re curious as to why I can even do that, well… I’m a Pie and my family is weird. That’s all I’ve got.

At the moment the only reason I am able to think is presence of my guest, the Princess of the Sun Celestia.

“Well Dawn this is one of the strangest predicaments that I’ve ever found myself in. I realize that you can’t hear a word I’m saying, but I’m going to provide you with an explanation anyway. I think you deserve it. The Spell has been activated for the first time since its inception. Do you remember the spell placed on you when you were awarded the position of Luna’s student?” She looked at me like, I suppose she was expecting me to respond. Well guess what! I am not going to respond, stone can’t speak! So if you decide to wait, you’ll be waiting for quite a while.

Yes, I do realize that I’m a little antagonistic; when you get locked in stone then you can tell me that you don’t have some feelings of misplaced aggression.

Soon enough she seemed to understand that a response wouldn’t be forthcoming and continued regardless, “That spell had a special component in it, if the student’s teacher, i.e. Luna or myself, was somehow rendered incapable of her duties then that student would be locked into a form of suspended animation until the teacher is able to return to her duty. It was designed to make it so that the student would always have their teacher available to mentor them; so that power would be maintained between us. Hopefully you understand.” I really had no idea how that explanation made any sense whatsoever. Couldn’t the student simply have studied texts while they awaited their teacher’s return? I mean come on, why would they even need a way to maintain power between them if only one of them was available to lead. However, my lack of arguing ability made my points rather moot.

Celestia watched me for a little while longer, I really couldn’t tell you why, before trotting out of the room. I could see a small smile on her face and hear her excitedly muttering to herself about not having to deal with any more ruptured eardrums. She’s always been a little weird.

You know, now that I’m stone I have a lot more free time to think. A few days after Celestia’s visit they moved me into the Royal Garden. At least the view is more interesting than the one I had while I was in stuck in my room. It also provided me with more time to think as ponies were almost constantly traveling through the garden, mostly during the day.

The only part that I don’t like about being out here in the garden is my placement. They put me right next to one of the ugliest statues that I have ever set eyes on. It was made of so many random parts; I can’t understand why anypony would create a statue like this one. It was made up of a smorgasbord of different creatures: the head of a pony, an arm of an eagle, an arm of a lion, and way too many other parts. I was getting a headache just by looking at the thing. The thought of such a creature surviving its birth made no sense to me. It was a biological impossibility. The different parts would have rejected each other. The only saving grace was that I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, which saved me a lot of grief.

The first thing I am going to do when I get out of this prison is research what that statue is meant to represent. I need to know otherwise I think it will drive me insane. The second thing I’m going to do is check up on Diamond. Actually I think I’ll check on Diamond first before I research that statue, priorities you know. The third thing I’m going to do is buck Princess Celestia in the face and make her tell me who created this incredibly unintelligent spell and freaking kill them. I know I should also blame Luna, what with her being the one to leave, but I can’t blame my incredible teacher. She’s basically my best friend.

Of course it’s not all bad. I get to hear all the juicy gossip from the upper echelons of pony society. You’d be surprised how often ponies come here to have little trysts, the kinds where they do a little of this and a little of that, you know what I mean. You’d think they would avoid doing that kind of thing here, what with so many guards patrolling the area, but what do I know. At least I could use it as blackmail material when I get out, if they’re still alive anyway. Some of them are pretty old. Maybe I’ll just hold it over the heads of their descendants. I might need to get reintegrated into society and blackmail is one of the fastest ways in. Eh, I’m sure it won’t come to that. Luna will come back from wherever she went soon and we’ll be back to working on the creation of new spells together.

Hey look its Diamond! Maybe she’s coming to visit me. That basket she’s carrying makes her look extremely, what with the red checker patter on the basket and blanket. Wish I could tell her that I’m sorry I won’t be able to make it to our date, but being made of stone and all makes it rather difficult.

Diamond set out her blanket on the ground in front of me or to be more exact my statue. She sat down on top of the blanket and took out two sandwiches from basket she was carrying, keeping the other for herself and placing one upon my pedestal. It almost felt like a taunt, but I knew it was supposed to be a gesture of kindness towards me. I was touched that she went out her way to make me something, even as simple as a sandwich, even if I wouldn’t be able to eat. She held her sandwich with her magic and ate in silence.

Finishing the sandwich she looked at me and I could see tears brimming in her eyes, “You know today was supposed to be our date… we could’ve had a wonderful time, but this had to happen.” Her tears fell silently and I felt the strongest urge to reach out and comfort her or at least weep tears of my own, but stone move and stone can’t cry. I could only feel miserable, nothing else.

“I hope that you come back soon, but if I never see you again I want you to know that I think we could have worked out. I truly think I love you…” I heard her voice trail off into silence and felt at least partially responsible for her depression. I agreed with her and knew that the first thing I’d do after getting free from this prison was go see Diamond. I hope.

She watched me for a long while, far past the rise of Luna’s Moon, simply sitting in silence. Eventually she fell asleep, not awakening until Celestia came to collect her. She gave me one last, long, pleading look before she reentered the castle.

Every year since that day Diamond has brought a picnic out here, a sandwich for each of us. Generally the gardener or some pigeons would eat it after she had left. Those moments were some of the most interesting for me. She would tell me what happened to her in the last year and what news worthy events occurred.

Each time she came she would always be alone, but it didn’t feel like long before she began to bring a friend with her, a stallion.

I think it had been about five years since I’d been turned to stone. It was the anniversary of that date never to be.

Diamond was trotting towards me and had brought her customary basket, but she wasn’t alone this time, she’d brought a stallion with her. He was a white Unicorn with a blue mane and a flank mark of a flower bouquet.

The way she looked at him… I could tell that something had changed during the past year. She had found someone new to love and I couldn’t blame her for it. I could only hope that I still held a small place in her heart.

Diamond looked at me, “Hello Dawn. It’s been a year since I last saw you. I’d like you to meet someone. This is my coltfriend Buxus Anchusa.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Buxus stated pleasantly, but I could tell he didn’t really believe that, he felt silly talking to a statue. He probably didn’t believe there was anypony inside of it. To be fair if I had been in his position I wouldn’t have either. Just the fact that he was willing to do this for Diamond, no matter how strange it was, gave me a good feeling about him. I was hopeful they would do well together. At this point I doubted I would be getting out anytime soon.

The rest of the meal they just sat talking to each other. I heard very little of it, but at least they looked happy.

I did get my customary sandwich. It had yellow tulips in it this time.

I’ll admit that I was jealous of Baxus, he could be with her while I couldn’t even speak to her. I knew I felt that way and yet I still believed he was good for her, I knew he would do her right. He even came and asked me for permission to marry her, no matter how silly he looked. Diamond was with him of course.

I knew that it was the anniversary of that failed date, but for some reason Diamond hadn’t shown herself at all today. Luna’s moon had already risen to its zenith. I wondered if maybe she had forgotten about me. Not that I would have blamed her, talking to a statue couldn’t have been that interesting. I found it rather odd that I wasn’t asleep, most likely a gardener was working nearby, out of my sight.

There was still a little time left before the day ended so I still held some hope in my heart of her coming to see me, with or without her coltfriend.

It seemed that my hopes would be answered because out of the corner of my eye I saw Diamond and Baxus trotting towards me. For some reason both were dressed in fancy attire. Usually they dressed in simple clothing, if they wore any clothing at all. In the moonlight Diamond looked radiant, the same as when I’d first seen her framed by her door frame on that night. Baxus also appeared to clean up nicely.

Diamond carried a single sandwich, but didn’t seem to have her basket with her. I found that rather strange, what were they going to eat?

“Come on, please, do it for me?” I heard Diamond softly say to Baxus, looking at him pleadingly. That was rather curious, I hadn’t seen that look since we were foals, but if it was anything like back then Baxus was going to do whatever she asked. Diamond was just amazing like that.

“Fine, I don’t understand why I’m doing this, but if it makes you happy.” I heard Baxus reply, grumbling. Diamond gave him a kiss; I don’t think I’ve ever been so jealous of anypony in my entire life.

Baxus trotted over to me. He gave me a rather strange look, as if trying to find some secret hidden in my depths. I wish he’d look harder, maybe he could find the magic speech button I seemed to be missing.

“I don’t understand why I’m doing this, I mean you’re just a statue, but Diamond asked me to.” He took a deep breath, “I love Diamond Sparkle with all my heart and I’d like to marry her. Would you please grant me your permission?” I could tell that he didn’t think this made any sense. I didn’t know why Diamond would want my permission, but I had long ago given it, but it seemed that she was looking for something more concrete, more real. I’d did my best to give her a sign.

I tried to channel any magic I could into my horn, it didn’t really feel like anything was happening, but something did happen. No matter how much I think about it, I’ve never been sure if it was something I did, if Luna helped me out, or if it was simply a coincidence.

A small blue and pink flower growing at the base of my pedestal was hit by a beam of moonlight and began to brightly sparkle. Baxus looked down to the flower and slowly raised it to face height.

“Is this what I think it is?” I heard Baxus say, “It is, it’s a Wedding Band flower!” No matter what it was, it was a beautiful flower, but I remember hearing about these. They were a very rare and special flower given to the bride after her wedding by family members or friends. It was utilized in a special potion that was… uh used for special purposes during the honeymoon. I think that’s specific enough.

Either way it seemed that it was enough for Diamond to take as my agreement for their marriage. When Baxus gave her the flower, she had smiled broadly and kissed him again. I was glad. She deserved to be happy, even if I couldn’t be.

This year the sandwich had two daisies, I wish I could have had a little nibble.

A few years later, at least I believe it was a just a few years it is rather difficult to keep time without a calendar, I saw the cutest little Unicorn filly galloping around me laughing. She was such a little cutey, her magenta coat and blue mane were simply adorable. I felt that there was something familiar about her, but it was only when I heard someopony call out the child’s name that I realized who she was.

“Zelda dear, come here please, I don’t want you to get hurt.” It was Diamond and Baxus, the little filly must be the newest member of the Sparkle family. She had grown up so fast, it was only last year, at their previous picnic, that I had heard Diamond was pregnant with a foal. The resemblance was strikingly obvious now that I knew what to look for.

The little filly galloped back to her parents, who were sitting on that same blanket as they did every year. They just looked so happy together, smiling and laughing. I really wish that I could have been a part of that little family, even if I was only there as a friend. I may have given him permission, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t wish I was the one in his position.

I still got my sandwich, just like every other year. Little Zelda brought it to me. She placed it at the bottom of my pedestal as she couldn’t reach up high enough to place it on top. She had looked adorable trying, her face scrunched up in the cutest look of determination that I had seen. I wish I could have patted her on the head or at least given her my thanks. I pretended I could anyway and even though I knew the smile that blossomed on her face had nothing to do with me I took it as a job well done.

The sandwich was filled with dandelions this year, it had been my favorite. It was quite the treat, even if I couldn’t eat it.

They continued to come every year after that. I saw little Zelda grow from a cute little filly grow into a beautiful mare. Everything I saw made me think that she was very similar to her mother; she was outgoing and didn’t let others stop her from doing what she wanted to. They all looked so happy together.

Which is why I found it odd that only Zelda and her father came to see me this time, Diamond had never missed a single one of these little outings. Zelda placed the customary sandwich on my pedestal. It was made with black lilies. It made me wonder. You see us ponies can’t actually eat black lilies, so why would she give me a sandwich with one of them inside? The only time we ever used black lilies was when… oh…

The red and puffy looks in their eyes made more sense now. I felt like crying, but my stone nature once again denied me that release. I knew that she was getting older and that the time was growing closer, ponies didn’t exactly have long lives, but I hadn’t expected it to be this soon.

I didn’t only feel a sadness of loss for myself. I also felt a sense a loss for these two. I may have been her best friend, but this was her family. They had to be hurting at least as much as I was. I felt I’d come to know them as family even if they had never come to know me. I wish I could have given at least one tear for their grieving as well as my own, but my stone nature once again defied me that release.

We were there in silence well beyond the setting of Celestia’s sun and the rise of Luna’s moon. While my own mourning would remain with me for the rest of my life, one can never forget their first love; I would always wonder what they were thinking as they sat there, eyes still puffy with fresh tears.

I had hoped to, maybe, be released before the funeral took, so I could have at least have a closure with my first love, but it wasn’t to be.

Zelda brought her own family each for a picnic each year, first with her father, and soon after with her own husband and children, giving me a sandwich on each time. Somehow though, I really don’t think they believed I was anything more than a statue. It had merely become tradition for them, one that I still appreciated.

Unfortunately for me, just like every mortal pony Zelda fell to the ravages of time as well. Her children continued the tradition and their children as well. It had become a part of the Sparkle family. It was simply something they did and I appreciated the company.

The tradition continued each year until I was released from my stone prison.

You know you’ve been alone for too long when you start to see things, especially when you’re just a statue. It’s been almost 986 years since I was trapped here and I think I’m starting to go a little insane, I keep seeing a bouncing pink pony that tells me that I’m going to be released pretty soon and that she’ll throw me the best “Getting Released from Stone Party”. Honestly she reminds me of my sister, she was a rather strange one, but that wasn’t a bad thing.

Many ponies still came to visit me, but mostly to look at the beautiful scenery of the garden and maybe learn a little bit about the history of the statues. My own history had been altered greatly over the years, which is strange as Celestia knew exactly what had happened. Maybe ponies just didn’t believe her when she told them or she just hadn’t told them at all. I’m not really sure which I prefer. Honestly I’m surprised at how popular my statue is, apparently they really like to look at me… or maybe they like that mixed up statue, no it’s probably me. Just looking at that thing could scar a pony for life.

Diamond’s descendants still come and have a picnic at least once per year. I’m amazed that the tradition is still continued almost a thousand years later. I thought that it would eventually die out a couple hundred years back. Those brief visits are still the highlight of my year.

Their last picnic was one of the nicest. The entire family was able to come. At least one member of their family always comes, but often the others were busy and weren’t able to make it. The Sparkle parents are generally the busiest and the least likely to make the trip to see me, most of the time they’re out of the country itself conducting business meeting. Their children though always seemed to have the time to come visit. I’ve learned quite a bit about them from those little gatherings.

The elder child had gained the prestigious position as head of the Royal Guard. His preferred name of Shining Armor seems to fit his position, although I doubt that it was his real name. It’s rather incredible that he’d been given such a prestigious position at his age, but he had come from a rather incredible history, but it was his younger sister Twilight Sparkle that interested me more.

She was only six years old, but she reminded me a lot of Diamond. I mean I realize that they are related, but there should have been far more genetic drift. There were differences in her look compared to Diamond, she had a purple coat instead of magenta and a magenta mane instead of purple one, but otherwise she looked like an almost exact duplicate of the long-departed Diamond Sparkle when I had first met her as a colt. The biggest difference was her flank marking, in the shape of magenta star surrounded by six white stars, which doesn’t really mean much as even twins have different markings. From what I understand, her marking is meant to relate the concept of magic, which seems rather vague to me. Although honestly I couldn’t really complain, my own marking was rather vague as well.

If it had just been the uncanny resemblance to Diamond, I wouldn’t have thought any more into. There was more however, she had also garnered the coveted position of Celestia’s student. The same one that Diamond had been given, even at around the same age. Apparently she had released a huge magical bolt, enough to turn her parents into plants, and had attracted Celestia’s attention. Honestly, I’d known that she had some major power, but I hadn’t realized just how much. I remember one time she had come to visit and practiced her levitation.

On that day there was nopony else in the garden, so until Twilight arrived I wasn’t really cognizant of anything going on around me. It seemed to me that she had run ahead of her family on their way to their annual picnic.

I watched as she ran around, playing in the flowers excitedly enjoying her short freedom from her parents. She eventually stopped in front of my statue and pointed her horn in my direction, scrunching her face into the cutest look of concentration that I’d seen since Zelda had been a filly. I thought that maybe she was trying to practice her magic on me. I wasn’t worried about it. Foals her age couldn’t lift things anywhere near my own weight before I was a statue, let alone now.

It was rather strange though, the purple glow of her magic wasn’t covering me at all. Instead it seemed to be wrapped around that annoying statue; I guess she needed to work on her aim. I watched as she began to try harder, putting more power into her horn, but that didn’t hold a candle to what was going on behind her. The statue that has been annoying me for years was floating into the air. If I could have dropped my jaw I would have. There was no way she should be able to do that, there was no way such a small body could have had that much power. I was suddenly very glad that her aim was so poor.

“Twilight! Where are you precious?” I heard her mother call out to her and watched as Twilights eyes shot open, the glow disappearing from her horn and the statue falling back onto its pedestal with a thunk.

It seemed that Twilight had missed the entirety of her amazing feat and instead thought herself a failure. Her face was the picture of disappointment as she trotted dejectedly back to her mother. I wish I could have pointed it out to her.

The sandwich had pink roses in it this time.

I think I was probably the only one at the time that knew how much power Twilight held in that small frame. That kind of power had made her perfect for Celestia’s form of magic training.

Maybe I should take a moment and give a little background about how Unicorn magic works. There are two different forms of Unicorn magic, power magic and control magic. Celestia is a master of power magic, which as the name implies requires prodigious amounts of energy. The spells they use tend to be used in large scale works, affecting many ponies or objects at once. It’s actually harder for them to only affect a single target than it is for them to affect ten. They tend to fail spectacularly when they try, often affecting a much larger area than they meant to.

Control magic on the other hoof is under the purview of Luna and as you can guess is my specialty as well. Our spells tend to work best on the small scale, but we tend to lack the power needed to affect a large number of targets at once. We can utilize it to alter the genetics of a creature down to the very last genome or move single pony or objects across very large distances, generally with far more precision than our power counterparts. This isn’t to say that ponies that are in the control group can’t use power spells or visa-versa, it is possible to do so; it’s just not something that can be done without a lot of practice.

Finally, we control and power Unicorns can link together to get a project done. Often the power Unicorn provides the energy for the spell, while the control Unicorn performs the actual spell. When using this method, the magic that can be performed is on another scale entirely.

I was hoping I would get out here soon; I really wanted to meet this generation of Sparkles. I think I would have some fun at least.

A number of years passed quickly. I think this is the thousandth anniversary of that day. Also for the first time in those thousand years none of the Sparkle family came to visit me. They were all very busy, the Sparkle parents had to go out of the country for some meeting and both Twilight and Shining had work to do for the Summer Solstice.

Twilight had been sent to check on the preparations of the Summer Solstice in Ponyville, wherever that was while Shining Armor was in charge of preparing the entire Royal Guard for its ceremonial jobs at the Summer Solstice in Canterlot. This is the first time that the Solstice had ever fallen on this day.

It was rather strange that I was even conscious of what was going on around me, there wasn’t anypony else around. I think that the entire garden had been abandoned in preparation for the party later today; even the gardeners had been invited. I wonder if it meant anything. Perhaps today was the day Luna was going to come back and I would be released from my prison, but it seemed rather unlikely, the sun was quickly setting and the moon quickly rising. It looked like it would be just another day of being stuck in stone.

A rather odd sound reached my ears, it sounded almost like a crack. My back hoof felt a little odd, like a weight had been removed from it. I was a little worried that maybe my stone had started to erode and that I would soon fall to pieces, but that’s when I felt an actual breeze moving across my hoof.

A feeling of hope rose in my heart, but before that hope got too large I had to make sure that I wasn’t setting myself up for disappointment. It was possible that the feeling was simply a phantom sensation that my mind was producing, it had happened before after all. I tried to move my hoof slightly, the lack of actual receptors in my hoof making it impossible to tell simply by touch if it had broken free, but the distinct clop sound that I heard made my heart soar.

I began to struggle, trying to hasten the destruction of my stone prison. Even with my struggles it was slow going, the moon had easily risen to the top of its arc by the time I had been mostly released. Strangely, the moon had been at its zenith for quite a while.

The only piece of my stone prison remaining was the bit on my horn. I raised my head high and rammed it into the ground to break it off. Finally, after a thousand years of imprisonment I was finally free! My body may have felt stiff and my magic slightly weak, but any sensation at all felt glorious. I began galloping around the garden, reveling in the feeling of freedom that I had not felt for a thousand years. I even took a bite out of the plants near my pedestal. Yes it’s mine now and I’m going to keep it as a souvenir. I’ll probably use it as the cornerstone of my house. The flowers tasted like ambrosia flower covered in golden honey, it was the best thing I had ever tasted. I wish I had gotten my sandwich, I could only imagine what it would have tasted like.

Soon enough I began to fall from my high on freedom. The more I calmed down, the more I felt a strange strumming on my horn. It felt extremely familiar, and slightly awkward, like something I’d felt long ago but had nearly forgotten about. It felt like, like… it felt a lot like my teacher. I remember now, it felt just like when she had raised the moon. It had felt just like this, which meant that Luna was here! My teacher was back, which in retrospect should have been obvious. I mean Celestia told me that I would be released when Luna returned, but to be fair to myself that had been a thousand years ago.

Not that any of that matter anymore, I was going to see my wonderful teacher again for the first time in a thousand years. We would spend time getting reacquainted and then we would work together to learn the spells that had been created since my imprisonment and begin to craft new ones. It would be perfect. I mean it wasn’t like something strange had happened since she had gone… wherever it was she had gone.

I couldn’t help imagining the tantalizing details of how the world had changed since my imprisonment. I had only able to see what occurred in a small part of the garden, it was a rather limited view, and learn what others said around me, so I really have no idea how the world had changed. We would get to explore it together.

I gathered magic into my horn, preparing to cast my first spell in a thousand year, teleportation. It was an amazing rush, almost like the time when I first accessed my magic. I began to alter my focus, pointing it towards the energy of my teacher.

With a pop of displaced air, I was gone.

Author's Note: Edited slightly for the grammar and the like. Please tell me if you see any problems.

Release

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Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM. All characters besides my OC's are the property of Hasbro and Lauren Faust.

The first thing I realized upon my arrival was that I was surrounded by rock; lots and lots of rock. I had finally been released from stone and the first thing that I get to see are more stone, just my kind of luck. I think I’m going to have a deep loathing for the material for the rest of my life.

The second thing I realized was that I was in a rather small cave and I was facing towards the back wall, which meant that somewhere nearby there was an entrance where I could have warped instead and not seen more rocks. I loathe rocks.

The third thing I realized was that I didn’t see my teacher, which was odd as this was the highest concentration of her power that I could find. I’ll admit that a cave doesn’t really fit her normal modus operandi, she was more likely to be found in a palace with glowing rocks, but still she should be where her power was right?

I thought about exploring a little deeper into the cave, but upon closer inspection I came to the realization that the there was no more to the cave. The entrance was in fact right behind me and this cave was more niche in a mountain than a proper cave. Knowing that I wouldn’t be finding any princesses in here, I trotted out through the cave entrance and onto the cliff outside.

My tail began to twitch all over the place, puffing up far beyond its general shape; almost felt like it was going to pull itself off. This was one of the few forms of my family’s precognition that I was able to learn; something was going to fall and if something wasn’t done to stop it, somepony was going to get hurt.

A sound not unlike a rock falling off a cliff reached my ears; yes I realize that was oddly specific, but I the rock passed right in front of me; only missing by a few inches. Maybe my teacher had gone for a fly and accidently dislodged the rock, it would explain why so much of her power was still around.

I took a look at the sky above where I was, but I didn’t see anyone flying around or any disturbances whatsoever. Since I didn’t see anything above the cliff, I looked down below. I saw an orange pony wearing a Stetson hat was holding the hoof of a rather familiar looking purple pony by the as she was dangling over the precipice of a cliff. I guess that feeling hadn’t been about the rockslide.

I’ve always been one to try and help those in need, it’s something my family is known for, but I didn’t have enough time to reach them physically. I do have magic which is just as good; so I began casting a spell to try and save the purple pony. I was already half-way through casting it when I realized that the purple pony was none other than Twilight!

What in the world was she doing here, there wasn’t any good explanation for it. It was such a ridiculous coincidence, but I guess I should be used to those; they happen to me so very often. The shock of the realization nearly made me release the spell early, which would have made it either useless or highly dangerous, but I managed to catch myself and instead changed the type of spell and redoubled my effort.

Remember how I said that control magic can be used to change people on a genetic level? Well it can be utilized to change ponies into another type, usually only for a short while; the longest I could manage was three days and that had used up so much magic that I wasn’t able to use any for a week. If I had worked together with a power Unicorn though, it would have been possible to make it last longer, perhaps even make it permanent. At the moment, I was only trying to turn Twilight into a Pegasus for a minute or two, which was well within my range of power, just long enough for her to safely float to the ground. It would still be exhausting, but it wouldn’t take near as long to recover from.

The spell unfortunately takes a couple of seconds to complete, it is a rather complex endeavor, but it would definitely keep her safe. Floating is something that comes naturally to Pegasi, otherwise their children would likely die when they decided to jump off their clouds.

While this thought was in my head I noticed that Twilight was slipping out the orange pony’s grip, I don’t know if it was from the shock of seeing my spell light around her or if she was just getting tired from holding her, but I really didn’t care. I needed to finish this spell quickly; I had to make sure she was going to be alright.

The clock was ticking, I only had a few seconds left before something happened; I was getting nervous, but it seemed that luck was with me, I finished up just in time. The instant that I had finished the spell, the Stetson wearing pony released Twilight, but even from this distance I could see the purple wings spread wide and her floating safely downward. By the time she hit the ground, she should be back to normal.

I was panting heavily from the exertion; the spell was just as taxing as I remembered it to be. Now that I had a moment to think, I have no idea why I used such a complex spell when something as simple as levitation would have likely worked just as well; did I really need a reason?

I really wanted to go meet up with Twilight and her companions, but when I had regained enough energy to trot over, only about five minutes later, they had already wandered off. I wanted to meet with them, but I guess it might be better right now that I hadn’t. I needed to catch up with my teacher; I could deal with Twilight situation later.

Focusing my attention on my teacher’s energy, I moved magic into my horn and with an audible pop, I was gone again. Magic is really the best way to travel, isn’t it?

This time I was positive that I had located my teacher; there was just so much of her energy concentrated here, even higher than in that cavern. It simply saturated every pore of the area; I had never felt so much energy in one place. Most people would likely be intimidated by feeling this much energy, but I was actually rather comforted by it. Then again, I did know that what was releasing it wasn’t going to be hurting.

At this close of range I had a much easier time triangulating her location. From what I could tell, her power was radiating from the center of the island located across the gorge from me.

Luckily, I still do know how to teleport. I began to gather the required magic into my horn, in order to once again tear time and space to pieces. I hope that it doesn’t mind too much; it can be a very dangerous thing when space and time dislike you, they may decide you should go someplace really weird.

I had my focus locked on the center of the island and set the spell off. With a pop, the world went out of focus. I began to see fuzzy images of the outside world, and I don’t mean my own world, which was rather strange really. I closed my eyes; it was giving me a headache. Traveling through space and time often causes the appearance of strange things, but this really takes the cake. I mean have you ever seen the world try to divide by zero? That’s what this trip felt like.

With another pop I reappeared, and hoping that I wouldn’t have to go through that again, opened my eyes. With an abrupt start, I realized that the gap in front of me was the same one that I had been trying to cross. Well that was odd; I don’t think that has ever happened to me before; not even when I had screwed up the spell right royally. That had not been a pleasant experience; you ever had your inside on your outside? It was kind of like that, only worse.

I was still a fairly young colt, only having been accepted as Luna’s students a few months before. Today was the day I was waiting for, Luna had promised me that today would be the day that I learned how to teleport.
I had been almost running on the walls with excitement, which would have been rather normal for my family really. I’ll admit that I pretty young to be learning such a complicated spell, and that it probably would have been better to wait, but Luna had always been the type of teacher that would throw you in the deep end and expect you to learn how to swim. On the other hand, when she did throw you in the deep end she would always be there to make sure that you didn’t drown.

“Student, are you ready for the next step in your training? Do you believe you are ready to learn the magic of teleportation?” Luna solemn speech and serious look, while sounding and looking very impressive, made little impact on. I was so excited that I just ignored the look that she gave me; merely nodding my head so fast it felt like my neck was going to fall off. She just smiled at me, as if she had expected such a response.

“Good.” Her horn started to glow with magic, “Watch me closely as I perform the spell, when you think you understand it, you shall have a chance to try.” I watched out of the corner of my eye as the magic spread out around her body. I watched as she grabbed her magical aura and moved it to a spot several feet away from her. Than with a pop of displaced air, I saw the rest of her follow it.

A quick note on magic, in general it is invisible to the foveal vision, in other words you can’t see it if you stare directly at it. In order to see magic you have to look at it with your peripheral vision, in other words the corner of your eye, which is why it is one of the first skills taught to any aspiring magic user. If you can’t see the magic, you are not going to be able to learn it.

“So my student, did you see what I did?” Luna asked, trotting closer to me.

“I think so…” I was a little nervous about answering, as I always was, but I was pretty sure that I had seen what she wanted me to see, “You grabbed your magical aura and moved it towards where you wanted to go. This next part is just my thoughts, your body abruptly realized it no longer had magic, and quickly moved to follow it.” That’s what I felt had happened at least, I mean I hadn’t done any great amount of studying on the subject on the movement of auras, but I would do much more after this lesson. Even if I hadn’t found it interesting, teacher always made sure I knew a lot about what she was teaching me.

“That is…” I drew a breath, “correct Dawn, good job.” She smiled at me. I was ecstatic, she must have actually been proud of me; she never calls me by name during lessons unless I had surprised her. “Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Really! You really mean I can try it already!?” I was excited; teleportation was one of the most versatile spells that a Unicorn could learn. I could be anywhere I wanted whenever I wanted. I could visit faraway places that had lost magic or or travel to the highest mountain in the blink of an eye, or I could use it when I really needed to get to the bathroom. That last one seemed the most realistic and probably the most useful.

“Yes my student, I think you’re ready.” She touched me gently, “but I will be coming with you, in case something goes awry.” I had read about this; if a teleport went wrong, an experienced Unicorn could pull a pony out of it and keep the likelihood of permanent damage to a minimum. I never had found out what happened to those who messed up the spell.

“Whenever you feel ready.” I was ready; I knew I was ready for this or at least I thought I was. I channeled magic into my horn, slow and steady like how I had been taught, and shaped it into an invisible magical hand. I maneuvered the hand to grasp my magical aura. I could feel my teacher’s magic nearby, holding my magical aura, it had a calming sensation. I tried to pull my aura off of me; it felt almost like someone was trying to tug one of my hairs out. It resisted a little, but after a few light tugs, I was able to pull it out. I felt almost naked without it, but it shouldn’t last long.

I felt a great pain, one much greater than any I had felt before. It felt like I was being stretched in every direction at once, I could hear someone screaming and abruptly realized it was me.

At that moment I felt my teacher’s magic gently reach out towards my aura, grasp it, and bring it back towards where I had been before trying. I didn’t feel much after that.

Luckily for me that Luna had been there. It seemed that I had performed a beginner’s mistake; I had only sent most of my aura to where I wanted to go and had forgotten a piece or two. The pain had come because I’d been trying to separate my legs from the rest of my body; Luna had pulled the rest back into position before anything could happen. I did a much better job on the second try though; I only lost a few hairs.

Well, back on topic I still needed to find out what was blocking me from teleporting across this gap. The only thing that I could remember from my studies that could stop such a spell was an extremely powerful barrier and those things were rare, especially one that was self-powered. The only time I can remember seeing one was when Luna and Celestia had worked together to provide an example for Diamond and I, and that one had been powered directly by two Alicorns working together.
That much power was hard to come by.

That day Diamond and I had been told to come to the Royal Garden because the princesses had something they wished to show us; turned out they wanted to give us a lecture on the dynamics of teleportation. This was a few days before I had actually learned to teleportation, so it was still fresh material to me. However, being as young as we were, Diamond and I weren’t gifted with long attention spans, and the lecture had gone on for quite a while. We were getting restless and bored.

“And the teleportation matrix is utilized as a method of sectioning off one’s aura in order to make it easier to maneuver into a new location. While moving the entirety of the aura has been found to be faster, this method requires much less energy and can therefore be used to travel much longer distances. It has been shown to be much more effective for control type Unicorns than for power types as it is far easier for a power type to simply move the entire aura in a single burst.” Celestia just continued to drone on and on, while Luna stood next to her looking rather serene.

Somehow I felt that Luna had put Celestia up to this, it just seemed like her kind of style. Maybe she was getting back at me for something I’d done to her? I mean I don’t think there was anything recently. The only thing that came to mind was that time in the kitchen where I tripped over a spoon, which hit that knife, which hit the pie plate, and sent the pie right into Luna’s face. I had already apologized for it and even it was that, this seemed a little far to go for an accident.

Abruptly Diamond yawned widely. I felt my own yawn coming in response and tried to suppress it, but it wouldn’t be denied. I released my own yawn of boredom.

Celestia glared at the two of us. “So are the two of you bored of my lecture?” We quickly moved into perfect posture; whenever she used that glare, we knew that if we didn’t do what she wanted something bad would happen. In fact it was generally enough to set my body to twitching, I repressed it as best I could, but Celestia still glared at me. I really wonder if she realized that I had almost zero control over them.

“OH DEAR SISTER, DOST THOU NOT THINK YOU ARE PUSHING THEM TOO HARD, THOU TWO ARE ONLY FOALS. PERHAPS A DEMONSTRATION OF WALL’S PRINCIPLES WOULD BE IN ORDER.” I was really glad my teacher stepped in there, otherwise I think Diamond and I would have been in really big trouble. We may have been put into time out, and with Celestia you never knew exactly what that meant.

I watched as Celestia sighed, “Perhaps you are right, they are still foals. They aren’t exactly known for them skills in patience.” Celestia smiled, “I think a demonstration would be just the thing.” While I couldn’t help but be slightly stung by the insult, even though I knew it to be true, I also couldn’t help getting excited over the demonstration. It would be one of the few we had seen since we had been accepted, most of the time we were just given books to read. Diamond’s face lit up in a wide smile as big as my own, looking at her made me feel a little wierd.

“Okay, watch closely students. You are about to see something interesting.” The two of us watched closely, leaning in as far as we could without falling over. “But first I need to go find a volunteer to help us.” We both fell over, it was rather painful, Diamond still looked cute though. I heard the Luna and Celestia giggling softly as Celestia trotted off to find someone to help.

A few minutes later, but might as well have been an eternity to us, Celestia returned with a rather ancient looking blue bearded pony. Of course, even I knew that ponies would only grow beards if they wanted to, it required a lot of spellwork to make one. So it was possible that he was still fairly young and just wanted to look impressive, that part worked at least.

“Let me introduce you to Star Swirl, one of the Unicorns in our program.” Celestia told us.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He was smiling jovially, his long white beard almost touching the ground. I think he must have been using magic to keep it from touching; I could see his horn glowing just the slightest bit, “I hear that we’re going to having a bit of a demonstration on how to stop a teleportation today.” He sounded really enthused about something that sounded so very boring.

“Well we will as soon Luna and I create the barrier. As I told you earlier, I would like you to be the one to teleport into it.”

“And like I said that would be no trouble at all!” He really seemed happy to do it, I wondered if his flank picture of a clock had anything to do with keeping student’s around until class was over, seemed like that would be a very useful skill. He certainly held our attention

Diamond and I watched on, without leaning forward this time, as Luna and Celestia touched their horns together. I wondered why they were doing that. Unfortunately, I was too shy to ask, what with Star Swirl being here.

Luckily for me, Diamond didn’t have my problem, “Excuse me, Star Swirl.”

“Mhm, yes my dear, did you have a question?” He looked rather pensive as he watched the two Alicorns performing their magic.

“Yes, do you know why the princesses are touching their horns together?”

“To mix their magic in order to perform the spell, it’s a rather complex and taxing one. It requires that both a control and power Unicorn work together to cast it, being an Alicorn doesn’t make it any easier. Doing so has rather amazing properties…” I think he would have gone on further if a spark of light hadn’t brought his attention to the two princesses. I kind of wish he had been able to, but the glowing matrix that appeared in front of the two Alicorns held my undivided attention, it was just so bright. Unfortunately, it only lasted for a few seconds before fading out completely.

“Well it looks like the demonstration is ready, now watch closely.” Diamond and I focused our eyes on him, watching to see the interesting bit that was supposed to occur. For a little while nothing special happened, his horn had begun to glow and he disappeared with a pop and a bit of sparkles. He then abruptly reappeared in the same spot that he had started from.

While this may not sound amazing, both Diamond and I were flabbergasted. Not only had reappeared in the same spot, which was dangerous in and of itself, but we had seen his aura bounce off the matrix the princesses had created. Not many things could reflect magic itself, and those that could were powerful.

“Yeah, somehow I expected that reaction.” Star Swirl smiled at us.

In any case, the fact that there was barrier here and that it was still standing without any visible power source meant that there had to be a magical artifact involved, storing power for the spell to use. You see people don’t tend to realize this, but magic can’t actually do anything unless it’s connected to an energy source. Unicorns can’t just cast a spell on a broom to clean their house, leave, and expect to have the house be clean when they come back. It requires a thread of power to be connected to the horn, and it only works over a limited distance. The stronger the Unicorn, the farther they were able to make it work.

In the case of this shield that meant that there should be a link from the spell to the power source, but whoever had crafted this spell had done an incredible hiding it; I wasn’t able to see it no matter where I looked. There was no way I was going to be able to break it and cross using teleportation, not that I was sure I could have broken the link anyway, I’d have to hoof it.

The first problem I had with this endeavor was once again that large gorge between me and the island. I am not a Pegasus, so I couldn’t just fly over. Even if I were to change myself into a Pegasus, I don’t know how to use the wings. Something I should probably work on for future use.

I looked around, hoping to find some conveniently placed logs or rope; you know the kind of things that adventurers always seem to find lying around. I mean I’m an adventurer now aren’t I? That should mean that I can find them.
Unfortunately for me, it seems that I don’t fall under the rules for adventurers finding random, but useful junk. I did though apparently fall under the rules of the bumbling clue finder, because I just found a clue to getting over there. Apparently, once upon a time, earth ponies needed to cross to cross to the other side, so a bridge had once been placed here, and I just happened to trip over it. The only problem was that it had fallen almost entirely into the gorge. So really I hadn’t stumbled over a bridge, so much as I had stumbled over a ladder. Not something a pony could use very well.

I know this is obvious and really a no brainer, but to get to the other side I needed to get the bridge to the other side. I hadn’t spontaneously developed flying skills, so that was out, I’d never learned how to use a lasso, which was also out, which didn’t leave me much to work with. Fortunately I did have my Swiss army knife, Magic. By the way, what the buck is a Swiss?

Using my magic I grabbed the hanging portion of the bridge and dragged it the other side. Utilizing some basic knot knowledge, I tied the rope to the spoke on the other side, then I grabbed the other rope and tied it to the other spoke.

Now because I’m not lacking in intelligence, I wanted to make sure the bridge could support my weight before I tried stepping onto it myself. With a quick look around I found a rock large enough to approximately my weight. I tried to throw it physically, before realizing that I was a silly idea and used my magic instead. You have no idea how satisfying it was to throw that thing to a possible death. The bridge only shook a little, so I think it can likely hold my weight.

Still it wasn’t without a sense of trepidation that I stepped out onto the bridge; it had after all broken at some point. In any case, I decided to take slow steps to avoid upsetting the bridge too much.

When I had reached the halfway mark I heard a snapping sound from behind me. I didn’t bother to look at what caused it; I just began gallop as fast as I could. I heard another snap, in front of me this time; I galloped even faster than I had before, putting all other thought from my mind. I heard another snap behind me, and closed my eyes and came to a stop and prepared to fall into the gorge.

After a couple seconds, I realized that I wasn’t falling. Opening my eyes I saw rock. I had never been happier to see something I loathed so much. I looked behind me, no matter how much I didn’t think it was worth it. The bridge was hanging from the opposite side of the gorge, hanging from a single piece of rope. I had really gotten lucky.

As I looked in amazement at my escape from death, fog rolled in from nowhere. I wonder where that came from and why it felt magical in origin. In any case, I needed to keep moving. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to deal with something like that again, but my pointing tail wasn’t making me feel good about it. It was kind of pointing at me.

Since it would take a while to reach where my teacher seemed to be waiting, I began trotting quickly towards it. As I got closer, I noticed that the energy seemed to be emanating from the inside of the keep on top of a nearby hill. It looked rather old from this distance; it also looked rather small, but distance tends to make size difficult to distinguish. I knew I was getting closer; so I began to gallop.

I would never be able to beat an Earth Pony or Pegasus in a race, but I could still keep up this speed for a decent amount of time, at least long enough to get me to the keep. Luna had made sure that I kept in shape; forcing me to exercise. Strangely, this training seemed to be completely absent from Celestia’s program. Those days had been kind of fun though.

It was a cold fall night. My teacher and I were outside in the woods near Cantorlot, while they were often full of animals and ponies, the sight of Luna’s night had sent most of the ponies to bed and the sight of Luna herself had sent most of the animals scurrying away; except the bats anyway. I’ll never know why, but bats just seem to love Luna, and by extension me.

I wasn’t sure why, but Luna was dressed in a green and brown military jacket and a brown helmet. She was holding a stick with her magic. She had given me a similar outfit, only lacking the stick. I was just thinking about what these getups could possibly be for.

The sound of a stick hitting dirt got my attention, Luna’s voice held it.

“Attention! Today student we shall be working on the body rather than the mind, the body must be just as prepared as the mind if you are ever to properly perform magic!” I’m not quite sure why she was yelling so much, or why we were doing this. I’d never read anything about how strong your body was having anything to do with your magical performance, but I wasn’t going to argue with someone that many more than a millennia worth of experience.

“So what exactly are we going to be doing today teacher?” I lifted my hoof to my helmet in a salute; I’m not really sure why I did that.

Luna hit me with the stick, I grimaced that had hurt. She stared me straight in the eye. “While we are out here you will call me Madam!” I wish she wouldn’t spit in my face, it’s a rather unpleasant sensation.

“Yes madam!” She hit me again.

“I can’t hear the uppercase!”

“Yes Madam!”

“Good, to answer your question, today we will be doing a set of simple exercises. There will be no magic in use here.” She pointed at one of the most grueling courses I had ever seen in my short life. It had ladders, weights, tires, and a rather fun looking zip lines. Overall it looked like a death course, if this was her simple what in the world was her complex!?

“You will be doing this course until you are able to do it perfectly. Now, GET GOING!” I went. I had been right; it was just as difficult as I thought it was going to be. By the end of it I was breathing hard, but I had fun on it.

“Okay soldier time to go through it again! And this time don’t screw it up so badly!”

Those were probably some of the most grueling days of my life, but she had been right. I had gotten much better at magic by training my body and I’d gotten the added bonus of being able to keep up with those in the guards.

That was why it was so strange that I seemed to be getting tired, but not any closer. The keep was always the same distance away. That was when I decided to look down.

I wonder how many of you have had the experience of running while floating in midair. It’s kind of fun once you realize it. Either I had just developed the skill of levitating myself, or someone else was in control. That was never a good thing.
Since it was pretty obvious that my horn wasn’t glowing, it obviously wasn’t me. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed it before. Note to self, stop getting lost in memories when I’m trying to get somewhere in a possibly dangerous territory.

Now that I knew what was happening I could counteract it. I continued to run to keep whoever was holding me up from noticing what I was doing, or else they might increase power to spell to counteract me. I then began to slowly gather power in my horn, just a slow trickle. It would be just enough for what I wanted to do though; unless whoever was doing this was actively focused on me. I pushed my power out in a burst, which disrupted the levitation spell and let me fall to the ground.

However, my luck was just as weird as ever. I managed to somehow land in just the right position so that I had to take two steps before I could stop. On the second step I somehow ended up stepping on the only tree stump for fifty feet and flew up in the air hooves over tail. I had just enough momentum to fly through the air for a good couple feet into a rock wall. I thought that I was about to feel pain, but instead I went right through the thing and began to fall down into a pit that had been hidden behind it.

“Hey girls did you hear that?” And of course to top it all off, the last thing I hear as I fall was Twilight Sparkle; coincidence how I hate thee.

Have you ever felt the feeling of free fall, the wind blowing through your fur and mane, pushing it all up past you? The visceral terror that plunges into your very being; your heart rate jumping about a hundred fold? I actually rather enjoyed the feeling.

What I wasn’t going to enjoy was when the free falling ended; as the saying goes, the fall doesn’t kill you, the ground does. I was falling so fast that I couldn’t really think of anything I could do to save myself. I couldn’t teleport because of the barrier and I wouldn’t be able to use my magic to slow my fall at the rate I was moving; I did have one thing I could do though, I screamed. I closed my eyes; it had been fairly dark so it didn’t change much anyway.

Apparently, somepony or something heard me, because right before I became a splatter on the ground I began to slow down. A blue glow had surrounded me and brought my fast fall to a slow float. The feeling of comfort and calmness that came with it also told me something, it was Luna’s doing.

While I was hopeful that this meant she was somewhere nearby, she was powerful enough where she could have done this from quite a ways away from me. Being several millennia old will do that to you. However, there was still a good chance that she was nearby.

First things first, I had to open my eyes. This is more difficult than you might think when you’ve just been scared out of your wits. Your muscles all seem to be locked up and you can’t really move, or maybe that was just me. I’d never really asked anyone else, so I couldn’t be sure if it generalized.

While I waited for my muscles to become less tense, I had a few minutes to think about what Luna was doing. I mean she obviously knew I was here, so why hadn’t she come to meet me? Maybe this blasted teleport shield had kept her trapped as well?

No, that didn’t make any sense; she could fly and easily have gotten into range of teleporting or even just come and found me. With so little information I couldn’t really make a realistic guess; suppose it doesn’t matter much, I’ll be able to ask her why when I see her. I’m sure she’ll have a good reason for it.

My muscles had finally unlocked themselves from their terror induced immobility. I opened my eyes to see… not a thing, the room was still very dark and while I had better night vision than your average pony due to living most of my life at night, no light at all seemed to able to reach down here. Luckily, magic comes to the rescue yet again.

The first and simplest spell that we learn to cast, right after learning to see magic, is the lighting spell. It’s probably one of the more versatile spells in my arsenal. Even though all it does is create a ball of light that follows you around, not even very quickly, but once cast it doesn’t require any more concentration and only the smallest of trickles of magic. It can also be used as a flash bomb if you put enough power into, making it highly useful in dangerous situations. I wonder if they made a newer version, can’t think what you could do to it, but if there is I want to learn it.

With a soft glowing of my horn, I had soon finished casting my spell and a blue ball of light was bouncing along beside me like an old friend; lighting the way through the darkness. Luckily my eyes hadn’t adjusted to the gloom quite yet and thus I wasn’t blinded by pain.

The décor didn’t exactly inspire me; it was rather bare and built entirely out of stone. From my position I could see square like blocks dug out the surrounding walls, enclosed by iron bars; probably cells. However, it appeared to me that the cells had seen better days, the iron was rusted and the manacles all appeared to be breaking off by their chain. One of the strangest things I noticed was the lack of any skeletons, there are always supposed to be skeletons in places like this right?
Did something happen to them?

From all this evidence I first concluded that I was in a bottomless pit, than discarded that idea as ridiculous and actually concluded that I was likely in the keeps dungeon. While this wasn’t the worst position to be in, as nothing appeared to have been in use for quite some time, it still wasn’t close to being the best. If I was right about where I was, I could at the very least expect it lead me towards the keep. I guess my luck wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, or I could be totally wrong and I was actually in some long forgotten trap.

As I was looking around, trying to find out which way would lead me either to the keep or back to the surface, my horn began to thrum with the feel of my teacher’s magic; even my tail was getting into the act, pointing in front of me. Either it was leading me to my teacher, or someone was really good at pretending to be her.

If it was my teacher than she was up to something; I just wish I knew what. Maybe she was trying to get one over Celestia, I could only hope.

Not having any better ideas on how to get out of here, I decided to follow my tail. So I turned around and began walking backward. I had no idea where I was going, but anywhere was better than here. Whenever I needed to make a turn, my horn would twitch and my tail would be pointing in a new direction. I really loved that thing, even though most of the time I didn’t know what it was trying to tell me. It could do so much good for my life, if only I had been given the understanding of it like the mares of my family. Well I could still use it for this sort of thing.

After a great number of twists and turns, I had finally arrived at what I knew was my destination. The large intimidating wooden door made it pretty obvious, my teacher’s power thrumming from behind it helped as well. I couldn’t wait to see her again after a thousand years. No matter that she was at least partially her fault that I had been locked in stone for a thousand years; I don’t think I could ever be mad at her.

I pushed the door open with my magic; it creaked like it hadn’t been oiled in several years, which was fairly likely. The moment I entered the room, my light spell guttered out. It didn’t matter, there was enough light in here for me to see the pony on the other side of the room.

I galloped towards her.

“Teacher!” I shouted, still galloping towards her. Hey don’t laugh; how would you react if you hadn’t seen your best friend and surrogate mother for a thousand years?

“Hello Dawn.” It was definitely Luna’s voice, although slightly gruffer than it had been all those years ago, maybe she had a cold?

I began to trot towards her to give her a hug, yes I’m that kind of pony, but a bolt of lightning going off in the background made me stop in my tracks. It may have only been for an instant, but I had seen something that looked only somewhat similar to my teacher, but there was no way it was her. It was much too big and the creature’s coat, wings, and horn were black. Its muzzle appeared much more pointed than my teacher’s. The only thing that really resembled my teacher was its blue starlit mane.

She laughed; it wasn’t a very nice laugh. In fact, it was a lot like that laugh you hear when the boogeymare comes out from under your bed. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I fainted.

The first thing that I heard upon awakening from my nap, yes I took a nap I didn’t faint, was a rather pleasant giggling sound from where that creature had been standing.

“The look on his face.” I heard her say to herself, still giggling. I shot to my feet, the voice still sounded too much like my teacher’s for my liking; I was determined to find out who this pony was.

“Who are you!” I shouted, or at least that’s what I meant to shout, the scotch tape over my mouth made it come out more like, “Whooph phar phew!” The creature just doubled over laughing; I took the time while it was distracted to tear the scotch tape off my mouth.

“Who are you and what did you do with Luna!?” With the scotch tape no longer in the way, my discourse was much more articulate. Unfortunately, it seems I would have to wait a bit for a reply, she didn’t seem to be finished laughing at her juvenile gag. I mean it may have sounded familiar and nice, but I was still getting tired of it.

Eventually she stopped, “I have done nothing to her; Take a good look at me. Don’t you recognize me my student? MAYBE THIS WILL HELP YOU REMEMBER!” I had to cover my ears from the sheer pain that voice produced, but it also brought to mind the only person who generally used such a thing. I still needed a little more proof; anyone with a fair bit of magic could use the Royal Voice and this one was an Alicorn to boot.

“Really, like I’m going to believe that. Tell me something only Luna would know.”

She looked thoughtful, honestly she was rather convincing, if this wasn’t Luna than I was in some freaking trouble. It’s likely that at the rate she was going I would end up believing her and she would be able to trick me into helping her. However, so far she hadn’t attacked me and was acting just like Luna, but it was still worrying me, I needed more proof.

“Oh, I believe I have just the thing.” She walked over to me and I stood prepared for an attack, pushing magic into my horn, but she stopped right next to me and began to whisper into my ear. The accumulated magic in my horn guttered out.

Back when I was only ten years old, and had only been Luna’s apprentice for four years, I was sometimes given a night off from my studies. Often on these nights I was forced outside to go and play, I actually rather enjoyed reading. I didn’t mind much though. Diamond unfortunately wasn’t available to play now; it was too late in the day.

So I was outside in the garden with absolutely nothing to do. So I just began to gallop around, looking up at the stars. It was exhilarating, the feeling of freedom from my troubles for just a short while, but I really should have paid the ground more attention; it likely would have saved me a lot of trouble. I tripped over a hole near one of the trees.

Like many of the other times that this has happened to me, that wasn’t the end of it. A vine hanging off a nearby tree got in my way as I tripped, the other end of which had somehow become attached to a stick in the ground. I must have had more momentum than I thought because the vine ended up firing me out of it like I was an arrow. Seriously, that one moment completely defied physics, but I’m kind of used to that sort of thing. When I finally landed, I was on top of the flagpole in front of the castle. This was a fairly embarrassing position for me to be in, especially because it would likely taking me awhile to get down. I was just glad that nopony else was around to see this.

That was when I heard giggling below me. Looking down, I saw Luna lying on her back laughing at my expense. I was fairly embarrassed about it, especially when I realized that my fur was covered in bramble. At least it was only my teacher who saw me, I wonder if she had been involved at all, I wouldn’t put it past her.

I began to blush, that was one memory I thought I’d never have to relive again. It may not have been the most embarrassing of my little tales, but it was at one that no one else would know about.

“So it really is you teacher?” She nodded, but there was still one thing I was confused about, “Why do you look so different?” I knew it had to be Luna, she knew about the memory and the scotch tape gag was just pure Luna. Honestly, in a lot of ways it was pure me too; I’d need to get her back for that.

“It has been a thousand years you know, Alicorns such as I do mature,” Now that I had time to look and more light from Luna’s light ball, I could find several traces of my teacher, her coat and horn were actually more of a dark blue than the black I had thought them to be and as I said earlier her magic and bearing still appeared the same, “I just happened to hit my next growth period while I was on the moon.”

“Wait, what were you doing on the moon!?” I was surprised, why would she have left me just to visit the moon, particularly for a thousand years. I mean even if she had, there was no reason for her not to take me with her. I’ve been there before anyway.

“I was in exile,” She seemed surprised by my outburst; I was surprised that she had been put in exile, “Where did you think I had gone; to buy a bottle of milk?”

“I had no idea, all I knew was that one day you left and didn’t return until tonight. I’ve been waiting for you to return since you left.” I was concerned about this. Who would, let alone could, put my teacher into exile?
My teacher interrupted my thoughts, “That reminds me, not to sound like I didn’t miss you, because I did, but how is it you are still alive?” I was flabbergasted; I hadn’t planned to hold it against her, but did this mean that she hadn’t even know about that portion of the spell. Something was wrong here.

“I was placed in stone by The Spell, I’ve was trapped in there until you returned.”

“What! Who placed you in such a state!?” Seriously, either she was the greatest actor in Equastria or she truly did not know about that part of the spell. Since I knew all her tells, my teacher hadn’t been able to lie to me for quite a long time. Which really made no sense; I mean why would Celestia know about it, but not Luna?

“I don’t who cast the spell, but they are long dead anyway, but do you remember the spell that was cast on Diamond and myself when we foals,” She nodded, “Well turns out one of its functions is to place the student in stone should the teacher be unable to perform her duties.” She looked shocked, which led me to believe that she had no part in that portion of the spell, but just to make sure…

“Teacher, would you give me a Pie Promise that you had no part in the creation of the stone portion of the spell?” I knew I might be pushing it a bit, but I had to be sure.

“Of course! I would never do such a thing,” I think she might have felt a little cross at my accusation, but she did the promise anyway, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eyOWWW!” Like everybody else, she had poked herself in the eye. Maybe I could find a way to redesign the ritual a little, just enough so that when it was performed, people didn’t leave with so many eye problems.

“Thank you teacher, that really takes a load off my mind, you have no idea what it is like to be placed in stone for that long; being able to see the world, but not interact with it. To learn about someone while they knew nothing about you and one day realize that the person would never come back.” I suddenly broke, I must have been running on the adrenalin from trying to find my teacher. Now that I had actually found her, it was like a dam had broken and all my emotions from the last thousand years just flooded out. I began to cry, I know it isn’t something that males are supposed to do, but I’m not ashamed of it.

I felt myself encircled in a hug, I hugged back. “Student, Dawn, believe me I would never dream that I know the full extent of what you have felt, but I do know that I will be willing to listen to anything that you wish to tell me. I have also seen loved ones die, but I have never known people who have never known me. I am truly sorry that you had to live through such a thing.” My crying just increased, I don’t know how I hadn’t realized all this right after my release, but it all came out now. For at least a few minutes, but it felt like hours, I just cried into my teachers embrace. Soon enough, my feelings just stopped and I backed away.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“There is no need to be, I am glad that I was able to help you. You are my student, which means that I help you learn about many more things than just magic.” She would never know how truly grateful I was for her.
My eyes were still puffy from all the crying, and I felt emotionally spent, but there was still one more thing I needed to ask before I went and took a nap.

“Who exiled you?”

“Well that certainly came out of left field, but if you must know it was my sister.” When she said that I felt both the tiredness and sadness fly away from me, it seems that there hadn’t been enough fuel on the fire yet. My anger might be slow to come, but when it did it erupted like a volcano and I had a thousand years to stew on it. I was more than ready to erupt.

“Why would your own sister exile you to the moon!?”

“I really do not wish to talk about it; it was an entirely ridiculous reason in any case.” That didn’t really help me feel any better, but I believed my teacher. At the very least I now had a much larger target on Celestia, she deserved quite a bit for her transgressions.

Luna must have seen the look on my face because gave me a grin, “I’ve been working on a plan to get back at Celestia for her part in my exile, would you like to help?”

Did she really need to ask? “Of course.” My voice was rather flat, I was having difficulty keeping my anger in check, but with Luna’s help this would be fun.

Luna trotted over to me and began to whisper in my ear. My anger levels began to drop and a devious smile appeared on my lips. Luna had backed away after finishing her explanation, the same smile upon her lips.

This was going to be glorious! But first I’m going to take a nap.

Elements of a Good Prank

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Disclaimer: Hello to all, I would just like to say that I do not own any characters within the story; they all belong to Hasbro and Lauren Faust.

Dawn waved his hands if front of the Dislaimer’s nonexistent face, “Hey what about me?”

Oh right, all OC’s including Dawn Pie are owned by the author.

“That’s better.”

It was hard!

I know I said that it would be glorious; well that was before I fully realized what the plan entailed. The first part of the plan involves me going into a several millennia old dungeon to find a set of millennium old artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony; whatever they are. I didn’t have enough time to ask her about what they looked like or anything. All I know is that they are going to be the power force for our little plan.

I did have time to find out a little bit more about why Luna had been in the dungeon, even if it didn’t make that much sense.

“So Luna, why are you here?”

“Well a couple billion years ago my parents decided that they wanted to have a second child… ” I should have known, never give Luna a lead.

“You know what I mean Luna,” I could hear my exasperation leaking into my voice, “Why are you here in this dungeon.” I punctuated my point by pounding my hoof against the floor.

She sighed, “I just know that I’m going to be getting a lecture for this,” It feels good to know that I can frighten millennia old beings, “to tell the truth it’s all part of the prank. When I first returned to Equestria, I was planning to reintroduce myself into the community starting with a small town called Ponyville. It appeared to be small enough for me to use it as a test run to see how larger places would react to me. Strangely, my sister had decided to come to the same town and we got into an argument.” Luna actually looked a little hurt when she said that, like she couldn’t believe it had happened; well that was another tick against Celestia.

“What were you arguing about Luna?” I was curious; I hadn’t seen them arguing before, generally they hid it fairly well.

“She was telling me that I should still be on the moon; that my exile wasn’t over yet. I didn’t think that I should have been up there in the first place. We couldn’t reach an agreement and she left in a huff.” Luna seemed sad that it had to go that way, Celestia really was trying me. Even a thousand years later she couldn’t be nice to Luna.

“However, during our argument she let slip that she had promised a ‘Royal Presence’ in the town of Ponyville for Summer Solstice and since I’m the only other Royal around I believed it was my duty to take over the position for my sister.” She looked proud of her decision, not that I could really understand why, “However, upon my appearance a purple Unicorn stood out from the crowd and screamed that I was ‘Nightmare Moon’” She paused for a breath; it was interesting that the only purple Unicorn I knew was Twilight and that she had been in Ponyville; well it wasn’t conclusive evidence yet.

“You remember the tale of ‘Nightmare Moon’ don’t you?” Of course I remembered that tale; it was one of my favorite from when I was a foal. The book was actually titled the Mare in the Moon. It was the story about a mystical pony that was sent to the moon for a thousand years because she wanted to bring about some vague evil plan; many ponies believed she wanted to bring about eternal night. She later returned to Equestria to try again a thousand years later; where she is defeated by a set of six magical artifacts. It was also complete hogwash; Luna had written the thing in her spare time and I was the one who came up with the name of ‘Nightmare Moon’ for the rewrite. What kind of name did you expect out of a foal?

“Yes I remember the tale quite well.”

“That makes this easier; that story has seemingly become something of a myth rather than the foal’s tale it used to be. Since I’m a prankster at heart and my greeting had already gone down the toilet, what with everypony running around in a panic, I decided to go along with the story.” That was one of the least intelligent things I can remember my teacher ever doing and she’s had some doozies.

I must have displayed my feeling on my face because Luna decided to roll her eyes and continue.

“Unfortunately, it seems that some people can’t take a joke; they followed me into the forest. I tried dissuading them with a few harmless pranks, but they just ignored them and kept following me. Since I couldn’t get rid of them, I added them to my plan; it is in fact one hundred percent more interesting now.”
This whole thing sounded like the comedy of errors that usually only happened to me. I had to wonder why people always jump to the oddest conclusions.

Right after that she had informed me that I needed to go and retrieve the Elements of Harmony while she distracted what seemed to be Twilight’s group. She was purple Unicorn and I had already seen her in the forest; it just seemed logical. I felt pretty bad about this, but my need for revenge against Celestia overrode my other feelings.

The first thing I’d need to make on my little trip was to reach a stairwell that Luna had informed me about. If Luna’s knowledge of this place was correct, the Elements should be located in a safe at the bottom of the stairs.

I didn’t have whole lot of time; no matter how good a distraction Luna made, I doubted she’d be able to keep that determined a group busy for too long without keeping them from this place permanently; determination is often the perfect way to overcome magic. I was going to have to hurry, but already I had reached my first obstacle.

It was just a simple metal door, but being that I couldn’t be sure that whoever had put these Elements down there hadn’t put a spell on it, I felt it was better to be safe than sorry. I shaped my magic into the form of a bar and tried to force the door open; the door however, remained unmoved.

I forced more power into the spell, trying to brute force my way past whatever spell was on the door. Strangely though I couldn’t see a lick of magic on the door; the one who had cast the spell must have been a master at hiding it. The door still refused to be moved; it seemed to be stuck.

Since I couldn’t see the spell to simply pull it apart, I kept pushing more power into until my spell until I fell over from exhaustion. I couldn’t believe that the spell was that powerful; I may not be a power Unicorn, but I can generally force a door open.

I closed my eyes to give myself a chance to regain my energy, it wouldn’t take too long. A creaking noise caused me to open my eyes in surprise. The first thing I saw was the door swung open, outwards; that was not funny. I could feel my eye twitching up a storm and I felt like breaking something. I didn’t have time for though, so I just gathered the few shreds of my shattered dignity that I had left and proceeded to trot towards the open door.
My last thought before crossing the threshold was that when I build a house, I’m going to make sure all the door swing both ways.

The first thing that I felt when I entered the room was overwhelmed. The sheer power radiating below me was ridiculous. I almost fell over in shock and needed a moment to regain my bearings.

Soon though, I noticed the power was actually coming in two distinct flavors; one like a holy shining light and the other like something spawned from a pit of Tarterous, which most ponies simply call Hell or the bad place.

The majority of the power felt holy, which I could only hope meant that it wasn’t evil. With my luck the holy energy was actually evil and keeping the good evil energy hostage. Well, I wouldn’t have to deal with that power for a little bit, but hopefully I’ll have a plan once I know a little bit more about it.

Now that I wasn’t distracted by the sheer overwhelming power hitting me straight in the face, I could take in my surrounding. Honestly, it was in pretty bad shape; the walls were cracked and covered in spider webs; the floor was damp and musty. The only thing that gave the room any feeling of class were the candelabras that covered the walls.

The stairs were in the worst shape of all; they looked like they were about to fall apart. Several of the steps were even missing, large gaps were located frequently between the steps. There was absolutely no way I was going to try putting my entire weight on that thing, but unless I did there was no way I was going to be getting down there. This was the only pathway down there, who ever heard of creating a safe room with more than one entrance; it would just be bad architectural decision. So against my better judgment, I was going to have to figure out a way down that stairwell.

I took a closer look at the stairwell; now that I was actually looking closer, the gaps appeared much smaller than I had first thought; they appeared crossable if one was very careful. It would be better if I could just fly down, but even if I knew how the lack of lighting from my spell would have made it impossible to see where I was going.

I came to the realization that there was one thing I needed to know before I put any more thought into this idea; I needed to see if the steps could even support my weight. I raised my hoof off the ground and put a little bit of my weight onto the first step.

I felt the step give way to air and nearly fell forward into the new opening in surprise. I scrambled backwards with my hind less, trying to pull most of weight back onto the platform. I could feel myself falling forward; I was getting closer and closer to the edge, until my tail decided to help out. It grabbed something that I couldn’t see and pulled me back onto the platform.

I don’t want to see any abyss that closely again, it was the second time in one day. I was going to learn how to fly after this, there was no if ands or buts about it; it honestly seemed that it would be a necessity considering how often I seem to be falling into holes.

Well simply climbing down the steps was clearly out, there was no way that I could possibly survive the trip. It was time for me to move onto the next option in my arsenal, magic.

I had already thrown out my idea of turning myself into a Pegasus, I simply couldn’t fly; I could use my magic to create a stairwell, but I doubt that I would be able to hold it long enough to actually reach the bottom floor and falling again didn’t seem like the greatest idea. Maybe short term platforms would work instead? No, that would take even more power to create and dispel each one. Teleporting of course wouldn’t work because the anti-teleportation barrier was still up. I couldn’t think of anything else I knew that would fit this situation; meaning that my magic was useless for this task.

Since I wasn’t able to come up with any great ideas, I took another look at the stairwell. This time I was looking a little harder for anything that I could use to get down there, something that most ponies would just ignore. There wasn’t much there; only a pair of candelabras on the walls every few feet.

Actually, I could work with that; it gave me an idea; an utterly stupid, insane, dangerous, and nearly suicidal one, but an idea. I could utilize the candelabra as hoofholds and use myself as a fulcrum; by building up enough momentum I could ‘jump’ between the candelabra and move all the way down. There was a high likelihood that I would fall, but it was the only option I seemed to have; I know that I just said that I didn’t want to see another abyss, but I didn’t have many other options.

I had seen someone do this before, even if I had never done it myself; she had been one crazy mare.

I had been very excited; Luna told me the day before that Diamond and I were going to see something that would be truly exciting. We were going to meet the famous explorer Daring Doo. Personally I always was more of a fan of her Diamond Dog companion Scooby Doo, but you couldn’t have everything; maybe I’d get to meet him some other time.

Now we were waiting in one of the deepest rooms of the castle, which was often seen as some of the most dangerous places to be; what with all the traps that proliferated it. Apparently, the princesses felt that we should learn how to escape incredibly dangerous traps; I really have no idea what goes through their heads some times.

It wasn’t long before Daring Doo herself entered the room. She was a tan Pegasus mare; her flank marking of a compass rose always seemed rather common, but so many ponies used it differently; I’d once seen a painter use it to paint gardens perfectly. She was dressed in her famous green vest and white fedora. Honestly, she looked like she had just stepped off a book cover.

“Welcome class to Traps 101!” Diamond and I had huge smiles on our faces, how many foals got to meet a living legend, “Today I will be showing you how to escape some of the most dastardly traps ever devised.” I had no idea when I would use such knowledge, but she sounded so enthused that I couldn’t help but feel my own excitement rise.

“The first trap that I’m going to show you is the basic pit trap,” She pointed at a bit of floor, how that was a pit I don’t know, “these traps are often cleverly disguised by a variety of different materials. When ponies have to make them quickly they most often utilize materials like leaves and twigs to cover it up. When ponies have more time available, they will often utilize magic or stone to hide them instead.”

We must have looked like we were fading out, not that we were, because she gave a small smile and slammed her hoof against the ground. The sound of rocks falling several meters to the ground shocked us out of any stupor she had thought us to be in.

She turned towards us and continued as if nothing had happened, “Now that you’ve seen how the trap works; you did see that right?” We both nodded our heads, “Good, now that you’ve seen it go off, it’s time I showed you how to escape it.” She faced away from us towards the long, but fairly narrow hole in the ground.

“There is no way she’s going to be able to make that.” I whispered to Diamond. I simply couldn’t believe that anyone would be willing to do something this dangerous.

“Oh really? Ten bits says she makes it.” Diamond was smiling at me; whether I won or lost that was worth ten bits.

“You’re on.” We bumped our hooves and turned to watch Daring.

She jumped into the air, grabbing the two candelabras that lined the walls and swung herself like a fulcrum, using her momentum to swing onto the next one. She did this again and again. I wasn’t ashamed to say that I was flabbergasted by the sight, Diamond just continued to smile. I’d known that she was a famous for her explorations, but I hadn’t realized that this was part of her portfolio.

When Daring had landed on the other side of the gap she turned towards us.

“Now it’s your turn!” I fell over onto my side.

Diamond turned to look at me. “You owe me ten bits.” I still thought that it was a great deal.

That was one of my better memories, but I can’t stay in the past for too long. It was time to do run with this idea before my brain decided it would overwhelm my gut.

I jumped off the ground with as much force as I could muster, pushing both of my fore hooves out sideways to grab hold of the two candelabra. For a second I felt like I had missed them before I felt the sudden impact; it was a lot stronger than I thought it was going to be. It almost felt like my shoulder had been dragged out of alignment, but I needed to continue.

I pushed my back-hooves forward and backwards, setting myself to swinging. Once I felt that I had enough momentum I pushed down and back, forcing my body to fly forward to the next one. The force was again incredibly jarring; I’d be in a lot of pain tomorrow. It was almost enough to make me want to head back, but even if I had wanted to I couldn’t do that; the only reason I was still going forward at this point was my determination to reach the bottom.

Well that and the fact that the stairwell only went down.

I swung myself through three more jumps. I was about to start my fourth jump when I heard the sound of metal straining…that was not good.

The candelabrum holding up my left hoof was starting pull away from the wall; I felt fear grip my heart. I simply didn’t have enough time to make my next jump. After a thousand years in stone, and several near death experiences, I was going to die because I was collecting an artifact for a prank.

I tried to force the candelabra back into place with my hoof, but it didn’t have any noticeable effect. I tried my magic, but I couldn’t make it wrap around it; my fear was making it hard to concentrate.

I heard a final crack and could only watch as it began its descent.

I had less than a second to try and save myself. I focused all my attention on my horn, trying to force the candelabra back into position; but it still failed. I could feel as it fell off my hoof and wait to join its descent. Strangely though, I didn’t feel any of things that I tended to associate with falling; there was no wind rushing past me or my stomach floating into my throat. In fact it didn’t feel like I was moving at all.

I released a bit of focus from my horn and tried to take in what was going on around me. I didn’t seem to be falling; in fact I seemed to be in the same position that I had been when I had first begun to fall, excepting the fact that only one of my arms was on a candelabra. This was really rather strange.

I could still feel myself sitting on top of something, so I took a quick look below me. I have to say it again, this is really strange. I was sitting on top of a floating candelabrum; I just can’t believe it, I’m sitting on top of a candelabra. This made absolutely no sense, this kind of things just… not going to say it, I know my luck; coincidences like this only work when I don’t question them. I’m not going to look this gift tree in its branches.

Well, now I just have to see if I can move forward or if it just lets me float in place. I pushed my hoof against the wall and could feel myself moving forward; this was absolutely perfect. Now I just had to ride this thing, I felt a lot safer now; even if I still had no idea how it worked. I also felt like my flank was going to hurt something awful in the morning, candelabras did not make comfortable seats.

I pushed my hoof against the wall again, moving myself forward and down a little. I did this every time I lost momentum. I only had a little control over this trip; once I had given it momentum I wasn’t able to change direction until it ran out.
A short while later, I heard a click behind me; I was still moving forward so I wasn’t able to take a look behind me just yet, but as soon as I stopped I turned my head to look behind me; I did not like what I was. The bit of wall that I had just passed had slid out and blocked any possibility of using this as the way back; not that I had ever really held it as likely that this would be the way that I escaped. It was rather disconcerting though; I didn’t even have any possible escape routes left.

I decided to ignore the thought for the moment and instead focus on simply getting to the bottom. Once I had retrieved the Elements, I could worry about how I was going to escape.

About ten minutes later, I had reached the lowest level. I was honestly glad that I finally got down here, I’m not sure my flank could have handled any more of riding on that floating disaster. I quickly dismounted my makeshift ride and watched as it fell to ground and broke apart; I was glad that hadn’t happened while I was riding it.

I really have no idea what had been holding it up, my own horn had remained almost entirely unutilized; I was only using enough power to keep my lighting spell active. Now that I was down here, both that holy power and the dark power I had felt earlier were magnified a thousand fold. It seemed that I would need to get past one or the other to reach my goal; one of them had to be the elements.

I took a look around the room that I was in; just like when I was upstairs the walls were cracked and the floor was wet. It was even worse down here; the lack of flowing air meant that the smells had been trapped down here, it smelt like rotting bodies.

Overall the room was a mess and looked fairly uniform in design. The only spot that appeared any different from the others was the door. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the room, both because it was made of a heavy metal and because it seemed to have easily withstood the tests of time.
I could feel the dark power flowing in large waves from right behind it; the sheer amount was overwhelming me.

I needed to go in there, the holy power that I was looking for was also behind that door, but I wasn’t going in there without preparing myself first. I was determined, not a dullard.

I would be the first to admit that I’m not a combat expert; it wasn’t one of the lessons taught to me, but one doesn’t live for long in the world of the aristocrat or the princess’s student without gaining at least a few combat related spells, mainly to deal with the sheer number of assassination attempts. I’d focused on defense, mostly to give me enough time to cast those few attack spells that I knew or to sound the alarm. The one that I had spent the most time on was a rather specialized shield, it could stop most physical attacks and magical attacks for at least a few minutes, but it took a quite a while to cast and couldn't exactly be instantly cast. I usually prepared a few in the form of amulets and kept them on my person, but I hadn't had any on me when I’d been turned to stone. Luckily, I did have the time to cast it now; there was good possiblity that I would need it.

I began to cast the spell, imagining the spells shape in my mind and drawing its form around me. I tried to place as much power into it as I could spare; I would be in need of rest for a few minutes, but I’d rather that then die because it decided to disappear too early. With a large flash of light I finished the shield and held it in place, then fell to ground. It was essentially going to use the power I put into it to block attacks, I was only going to feel a minor drain on my personal power.
I rested for a few minutes to regain the power I had put into that spell, I wanted to be in the best shape I could be for what was likely to be the fight of my life. I wasn’t going to say that I wasn’t scared and that I didn’t feel stupid for doing all this for what essentially amounted to a prank, but I was going to do it anyway; I had come too far to turn back at this point and even had I wanted to turn back, the way back was still blocked.

I got up from the ground and pushed open the metal door, I was lucky that this one seemed to go inwards like I had thought. I was tense, prepared for something to come out and attack me. The dark power was flowing throughout the walls of the room; even the air felt dark.

I stood in the door way for a minute, but nothing happened. The room remained silent; the only thing in the room beside me was a wooden doorway, behind which I could feel the holy power. What was going on here? The dark power was just sitting there, doing nothing; maybe it was waiting for a trigger? Well hopefully it would remain that way.

I took a cautious step forward, preparing for something to simply pop out of the wall. Still nothing was happening, this was pulling on my nerves more than if something had happened. I took another cautious step forward, still nothing; another, still nothing.

Soon enough I realized that nothing seemed to be happening and began to trot cautiously towards the other door, soon reaching it. My nerves were as taut as a bowstring about to fire. I slowly and cautiously reached out with a hoof to open the door; I felt it prudent to keep my magic available to me. I moved my hoof closer, closer, until I touched it.

The room began to shake violently and my tail began to straining to pull me to the right. I could feel dark power building up behind me and followed the advice that my tail was providing me. I dodged to the left, my tail always pointed the wrong way when I was in danger; it let me use it like a spring to move faster in the opposing direction.

I felt something pass me by, the feeling of air passing right next to me was chilling; if I had been even a second slower… I felt my tail pulling me to the left this time, so I began jumping to my right; I didn’t make it this time and the creature ran straight into my shield.

For a couple of seconds I was disorientated, but soon I could feel myself bouncing into one of the walls only to bounce off of it into another like I was a pony-pinball. It didn’t take long for the momentum to bleed out from the attack, but it still felt like I had been put through a blender. My shield was in much worse shape; it had kept me safe, but it didn’t look like it would survive another hit; it was shining a bright red.

My tail pointed downward, I quickly jumped upward dodging whatever had been attacking me by mere centimeters. I heard a loud crack as it hit the wall and heard the common poofing sound that comes when something is dispelled. Whatever that thing had been, it wasn’t the main body; which was absolutely terrifying. Anything that could create copies of itself that could deal that much damage…I really needed time to plan.

I began rushing towards the door I had entered from, hoping that maybe I could use the heavy metal door to protect myself for a few minutes while I figured out what I could do to stop this.

I felt the darkness coalescing into a new creature; I forced myself to move faster. I could feel the creature getting closer and closer to me; I wouldn’t be able to outrun it. I thought about turning around and facing the thing head on, but my tail decided that it would be more helpful if I kept moving forward. It pulled itself far back behind me, somehow without slowing me down at all, and bounced back into me sending me flying through the doorway like a bullet.

Sadly, this still left me in the line of danger, the door was still open and the creature hadn’t stopped to admire the flowers. I turned around, planning on closing the door only to see the creature almost on top of me. Its sharp teeth in a beak like maw; all of which was on top of a black bipedal puppet creature. From each of its limbs a black string hung upwards. Right before it reached me it hit something, a glass like energy plate appeared between me and the creature; causing it to become a black cloud of dark energy. I couldn’t help but give a sigh in relief and then give the creature a raspberry.

That moment of jollity was short lived, the adrenaline wore off; I was forced to sit down. That was close; the worst part was that I recognized what those things were. They were Shadow Puppets, which meant I was up against a Shadow Master. They weren’t the worst creature you could call up from the depths, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a huge danger to ponies. I remember learning about these creatures.

Luna had informed me that today she would be busy so Diamond and I would have a substitute teacher. Apparently that teacher was this green Earth Pony with a flank mark of a shadow creature. On the chalkboard next to him I could see a picture of the shadow puppets and something next to that looked like nothing more than an amorphous blob.

“Hello class and welcome to Dark Creature to Avoid 101. My name is Dodgem and I’ll be your substitute teacher for the day.” He grabbed a stick with his tail and pointed at the shadow puppet. “Do you know what this creature is?”

“It’s a Shadow Puppet,” Diamond always had been better than me at recognizing creatures; I’d never really found a strong interest in them. Contrary to popular belief, dark creatures liked the day just as much as any other pony.

“That’s right Diamond, they are Shadow Puppets. They are dangerous creatures that are often called up as minions by some Unicorns and should be avoided. They are imbued with tremendous physical strength, but lack any form of intelligence, requiring a master to lead them. In addition, they lack the ability of true sigh, only really seeing the magical spectrum.” He pointed towards the amorphous blob, “Do you recognize this other creature?” We both shook our heads. I still couldn’t think of it as anything more than a Rorschach test.

“Well that’s understandable; it doesn’t actually have any set shape. They are known as Shadow Masters, creatures that create the Shadow Puppets and most often they take the shape of wherever they are. Often this means that they simply permeate the room that they inhabit. Of course they are also quite rare; the amount of sheer power and control needed to bring one into existence is nearly astronomical. Controlling them is almost entirely out of the question.” Honestly I think they sound kind of cool, but I wouldn’t want to run into one without a lot of protection.

“So how do you get rid of them?” I questioned.

“Ponies have been pondering that for years now, but unfortunately it seems that normal pony magic isn’t enough to remove them; you need holy power.”

Well that explains why the entire room felt like it was suffused with dark energy; it was because it was suffused with dark energy. The memory didn’t really help me get rid of this thing though; I didn’t know any holy spells or have any useful artifacts on hoof. I’d need to think of something else.

Luckily, it seemed I’d get at least more than few minutes out here; that shield was holding back the Puppets no matter how many were sent against me. Although I can’t say that I found the poofing sound comforting.

Even if I copied my aura, I was doubtful that all of them would go chase it. I may have to chance it though; I needed to get those Elements.

Wait it couldn’t be that simple could it? The Elements seemed to be releasing holy energy; I could feel it all the way over here, but it seemed to be trapped behind that door for some reason. If I could get some of the Shadow Puppets to knock it down, maybe the energy would escape and get rid of the Shadow Master.

Well it was worth a shot anyway; I had learned an aura copying spell when Diamond and I dared each other to learn the most useless spell we could find. If this worked, I’d owe Diamond a set of designer dresses. Oh right, she was dead; that was honestly a depressing thought, maybe I’d get them for Twilight instead.

I’d have to come back to those thoughts later; they were using up my focus and I’m going to need all my focus to make this spell work. The reason why I’d chosen it as my most useless spell was because it took a lot of preparation time, even more than my shield, for an effect that was rather pointless; most creatures searched by scent and couldn’t even see magic. It was also a spell that would be more difficult for me; it was actually more a Power spell than a control spell. This was probably one of the only times in which it would be useful; well I could hope anyway.

I pushed the magic into my horn; making it glow brighter and brighter until eventually I had stored enough power into it for the spell. Holding that power was beginning to put a strain on me, but I continued regardless. I forced the spell to take the right shape and to move across the room. My vision was beginning to swim, but I still had enough control to launch the spell.

A feeling of relief spread outward from my horn to the rest of my body; the relief of releasing that spell was incredible. Like I said that spell was huge drain on my resources; I wouldn’t be able to cast high cost spell like that again until at least tomorrow. My vision slowly came back into focus and I could see that my amazingly unintelligent plan was amazingly working perfectly. At least half of the Shadow Puppets that were trying to break down the shield turned around and ran back towards the other doorway.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the Shadow Master’s strings trying to pull it back towards me, but the physical power and interest of the mindless creature was stronger than the Shadow Master’s coercion. The closer the puppets got to the door, the more pull the Shadow Master seemed to be putting into his resistance. To my dismay he managed to stop most of them before they got anywhere close to the door. This could be a problem.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one more of the Puppets. Bad for him and luckily for me, it seemed that one of them was still free and was running towards the doorway. Unfortunately, it seemed that the Shadow Master had also caught sight of it and had sent one of his dark strings to grab it.

The Shadow Puppet had almost reached my other aura and also the door; this was it, hopefully this would work. The Master’s string reached it at that instant and began to pull it away as hard as it could. I could only hope it wasn’t enough, I needed the Puppet to break down that door, otherwise I doubt I’d be able to survive much longer; that shield didn’t look like it was going to last forever.

Time seemed to slow down as the Puppet got closer and closer, centimeter by centimeter. The Master’s string was pulled taught. The Puppet was beginning to slow down; it was beginning to look like I was going to have to come up with another plan when I heard an audible snap; which was soon followed by the crack of the door.

Snap? Neither magic nor dark energy goes snap, but it seems that in this case it does. Maybe it was because it had been a magical string? Well that was another question to add to that long mental list I had been accumulating since I had been released. It seemed that I had won; a bright white light was coming out of the room, causing all of the Shadow Puppets to disintegrate and the Shadow Master to disappear with a terrified scream. With my luck that won’t be the last time I see that guy; if it was a guy nobody had ever told me if Shadow Masters had genders.

Unfortunately, the white light also had the side-effect of blinding me and making me see stars. Honestly, they were rather pretty; mostly being of a white and purple color. A few minutes later, my vision was again clear and the room felt empty of the dark energy that had filled it earlier. I was still slightly amazed that my plan had worked at all; it had such a low chance of success.

Even though I didn’t feel any remnants of the dark energy from earlier, I still thought it prudent to trot cautiously; whoever had put that creature in here may have been smart enough to put in another one or some other form of trap. I just felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.

I took my steps slowly, cautiously watching the ground to watch for tripwires or such; however, nothing happened. Apparently, I read too many adventure novels. Nothing else could go… not going to think it, I know that will make something go wrong. My luck will take it as a challenge; I am not going to think that nothing else will go wrong. BUCK!

Well I’d just have to deal with what was going to happen when it came. First though I needed to collect those elements, I trotted through the doorway.

This room was absolutely stunning; there was no way this thing should be in a place like this. The entire room appeared to be made from solid white marble stone that reflected the light of my spell throughout it; carved with beautiful reliefs. It had been shined so well; I could literally see my reflection in the floor. Beautiful murals were painted onto the walls, depicting scenes of pony life long past; it was an archeologist’s dream.

However, the most amazing piece of the room was in the far back; set into a small alcove on its own was a raised dais, in which indentation held seven large colorful ball-like gemstones in a circle, with one in the center. They seemed to glow with holy power; there was no questioning it, these were the Elements. Strangely, they reminded me greatly of the pictures I had seen in the mare of the moon story.

I trotted closer, I was going to take these Elements from their resting place; somehow that made me feel like a grave robber. As I got closer the colors became more distinct: orange, yellow, blue, pink, white, and purple. I quickly grabbed the six of them and put them into the saddlebag I had been carrying around to hold them. I didn’t touch the seventh one in the center yet; there was just something about it that made me want to watch it, it seemed to be changing colors. Quickly switching between a pink and blue; it was mesmerizing and I couldn’t turn away.

Luckily for me, my tail doesn’t often listen to my brain; it hit me in the flank knocking my head into the ground. That brought me back from my stupor and making sure not to look directly at it; I placed it with the others.

The second that it joined the other six, a bright rainbow light was released from within the bag; very different from the white holy energy they had released earlier. It was causing me a huge pain in my retinas, almost like it was trying to burn something into it. That pain began to spread outwards; it felt even worse than when I’d failed my teleportation. I had no idea what was going on, I was both blinded and in extreme pain.

Soon I couldn’t even feel that, I blacked out.

When I woke up I still had no idea what had happened. My lighting spell had gone out; which wasn’t a surprise, without me awake to provide it power, it must have fallen apart quickly. I was still fairly disoriented, but I took a look around the room to gain an understanding of where I was.

The first thing I noticed was that it looked very similar to the room I had just been in, but everything was made out of a slate grey stone. Pillars lined the edges of the room; apparently holding the roof up and an open door at one end of the room led out into a dark forest.

The world seemed to go out of focus again and when it came back into focus nothing about the room had been changed, but a few thing had been added. Luna was sitting on the dais at one end of the room, which didn’t make any sense whatsoever, five of the seven gemstones I believe to be the Elements of Harmony were laying a few feet away from her, right in front of…Twilight Sparkle?

What in the world was she doing here? Shouldn’t Luna still being delaying her or at least her companions should be here with her? Then again, this place didn’t exactly seem real; it felt like someone had tried to create a copy of the real world and only got semi-close. I have no idea what it was supposed to be, but before I could begin to think about it Twilight began to yell at Luna.

“I will never allow you to bring about eternal night!” Her face was displaying a look of determination. I was confused about why she hadn’t mentioned me at all, as I was standing well within their lines of sight, but I just put it down to the unreality of this scene. I mean why should the unreal see the real?

“Oh? And how do you propose to stop me? Your friends are trapped outside, and you are trapped in here; with me!” Luna was usually a good actor, but like I’d said before I could see her tells, she wasn’t acting. Why would Luna want to bring eternal night? She didn’t actually get anything out of it except lectures; specifically from me. At least she told me why Twilight was all alone; it didn’t explain much about the scene, but it was nice to know.

“I’ll use the Elements of Harmony! All it will take is a spark!” Twilight began to charge power into her horn. Luna just watched on laughing; a far lower and darker laugh than any of her usual joking imitation. There was absolutely no way that this could be my teacher, she would never act like this; not even if she had been threatened, it just went against her nature. She was a prankster, she had rules.

Twilight released the spark she had built up and hit all five of the Elements of Harmony. They flashed with a black light, worrying me. I may have only seen it release their energy twice, but it had been either white or a rainbow; seeing it dark seemed rather bad.

The beam of dark energy, littered with different shades of black, flew from the Elements towards Luna; who appeared utterly shocked by their appearance. Twilight just had a small smirk on her face; I wonder what she was thinking at that moment.

I tried to run in front of the energy headed for Luna, but it passed right through me; hitting Luna straight on. I watched as her body was gruesomely warped, flesh falling off in droves. By the end she looked more like skeletal pony than a flesh and blood one. I could see that Twilight’s smirk had shifted into a look of shock; which was understandable given what she had just seen.

It seemed that all of the energy hadn’t been expended; it bounced off of Luna and headed back towards Twilight, who had been gaping at the scene, seemingly not having expected what had happened to Luna or the energy to bounce back.

I knew it was unlikely to do anything, but I placed myself in front of her to try and stop the beam from hitting her, but it again passed right through me. I could only watch as the energy hit Twilight and changed her into a gruesome pile of flesh and blood. I couldn’t stand to look at it and closed my eyes as quickly as I could. I felt the need to heave, but couldn’t seem to actually do it.

“Wake…Dawn” I heard something say, “Wake..u..Dawn.”

“DAWN WAKE UP!” I opened my eyes wide, not really focusing on much of anything; just glad to be out of there. My heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute and I was sweating like I had just run a marathon. I wasn’t really able to think about anything, fear and horror was simply overwhelming me. No I do not have any idea who is explaining this part.

I began to hear a buzzing sound; I couldn’t really make out what the sound was supposed to be, but it brought me back into the real world. Soon I realized that I wasn’t in that horrible scene anymore and began to calm down; my heart rate and breathing began to return to normal. I soon realized that the buzzing noise I had been hearing was actually somepony speaking to me.

“Dawn are you alright?” Luna was giving me a concerned look. Now that I wasn’t locked in my own head, I could feel Luna’s hoof on me.

“I think… I think I’m alright.” I wasn’t yet completely back to normal, but I still felt a lot better than I had a few minutes ago. Still what in the world had that been. The last thing I remembered before ending up in that strange place was a blinding rainbow light hitting me.

What was that anyway? Was it a vision of the future, a possible future? Maybe it was a glimpse into a different dimension in which something had gone wrong? Or maybe it had just been a dream created by all that energy hitting me at once.

“How did I get here anyway?” I really was curious about this part, especially with the anti-teleportation barrier still being in place.

“I honestly have no idea; I’ve never seen anything like it. A stream of energy seemed to come from nowhere, and eventually you just reformed in here.” That was honestly rather worrying; she had several millennia of experience and had never seen this, which meant that I don’t know if there were any side-effects for traveling that way; maybe what I had seen had been a side effect of that. All I knew is that I never wanted to do something like that again.

“I’m just glad you’re alright, I wouldn’t have sent you to retrieve the Elements if I had thought anything like this would happen.” She looked very concerned. I felt very touched to have such a concerned teacher.

That reminded me, “Speaking of the Elements, I got them.” Utilizing my magic, I pulled the saddle-bag off my back and spilled its contents onto the floor. “That’s strange, there were seven earlier, why are there only five now?”

“Did you say seven?” Luna was giving me a rather strange look, “At most there should have only been six and generally only five.” I hadn’t known that, wonder why that was. I mean there were placed for all seven of them down there in the safe, that would mean they would need to know that there were seven right?

“Is that a problem teacher?”

“Hmm, it shouldn’t be a problem for us right now, but I’ve never heard of them having a seventh in the set.” That was not good, two times in the same conversation she hadn’t known what was going on, “Well it doesn’t matter; we have all that we need for our plan.”

I was still worried, not that I didn’t trust my teacher’s judgment, but she hadn’t seen what I had. For a moment I considered telling her about it, but somehow it felt like something that should be discussed later. It was like some little voice was telling me that this wasn’t the right time for it.

There was one last thing I did want to make sure Luna knew though.

“Just one thing, don’t let them use a magic spark on these things; I don’t think we’d like the results.” Luna looked at me quizzically, but somehow I knew that I had just changed what could have been a horrible outcome into a much more ridiculous one.

Now that we had all the parts for our little prank we were almost ready to go. Luna had spent the time while I was retrieving the Elements on putting together everything else. The first part of our master plan was to gather power from the Elements of Harmony; for which we needed to get Twilight and her companions to hit the energy redirection unit. We would than utilize that energy to fire an Entropy Cannon at Celestia.

The reason that Luna and I wouldn’t be able to provide the power by ourselves was that we were both control Unicorns, we simply didn’t have enough magical energy to cast a spell that took that much energy and still overpower Celestia; the spell simply couldn’t be designed in a way to worm its way through her shield.

I still remember the day that Luna first taught me about them; they are incredible, if hard to use, magic.

I had thought my teacher to be a little strange, but this really took the cake. Apparently tonight we were taking a break from learning about magic or athletics, in order to learn something that my teacher believed was more interesting.

We were in a cave in the Hideway Hills, just outside the Royal City, that other ponies rarely set foot in. My good night vision was serving me well; I could see all of the little holes and things that most ponies would have fallen into. However, the cave that Luna was leading me deeper into really lacked something; namely room to stand in. The passageway inside was so very narrow; Luna and I walking in a line could barely fit.

Eventually we reached the end of the cave; it was full of all kinds of stuff, from the benign to the explosive. At the time I had no idea what all of it was for or why Luna would have all this dangerous stuff around her. It seemed like it would be a huge problem.

“Student, today we will be doing something fun.” She was smiling at me; unfortunately it was one of those creepy smiles that showed way too many teeth. Ponies may be herbivores, and thus have no sharp teeth, but that doesn’t make it any less scary to see all of them.

I backed away from my teacher a little, “And what will I be learning today teacher?” I wish I could say I wasn’t whimpering a little, but I’m not the best liar; I’m not the worst either.

She leaned in closer to me, forcing me onto my hind hooves and against one of the cave walls. Why was she looking like that and invading my personal space.

I felt like she was going to be eating me, “You will be learning the art of… Pranking.” She backed off suddenly and began to laugh at me. I was in shock; apparently she had just been to show me the use of this particular skill. Although it seemed a lot more like acting than anything else. I was willing to learn anything if I didn’t end up in something stomach at the end of it.

“Pranking is more than just learning how to spring the joke; it is also learning how to hide it long enough so you can set it off. In other words, pranking is just like being a ninja; but funnier.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to learn to be a ninja than?” She just continued to smile at me.

“Why don’t I just show you instead of telling you?” She began to push power into her horn; honestly I don’t think that I have ever felt her put this much power into anything and the amount of control I could see in that spell was utterly ridiculous. I wouldn’t be able to make anything like it without the help of a power Unicorn.

The worst part though was that she was aiming directly at me. I know intellectually that my teacher wouldn’t hurt me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still feel the emotion of fear; the brain isn’t always as strong as the adrenal gland. She looked me in the eye, I could see a small sparkle…and then she fired. A small black line headed right towards me, surrounded me, and then disappeared. For a minute nothing happened, Luna just watched on.

I was getting bored of waiting, and still being a foal I decided to express that point.

“Well that was boring, what was it suppose….” It was at that moment that the boxes above me seemed to shift and start to fall down on me; it was only because of my tail that I didn’t have them fall on top of me. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped aside a pebble seemed to appear in my path for me to trip on and fly right into Luna. Luckily nothing happened after that, but I knew that something had happened; there weren’t many things that could trick my tail like that.

“Still think this is boring student?” Luna was still smiling at me, so at least she wasn’t mad at me about what I had said.

“No…How did you do it?” I honestly was interested in any spell that could overcome my tail, only Diamond had been able to do that before; I still don’t know how she did it.

“What I just showed you is a spell I developed known as an Entropy Cannon.” I have no idea what that meant, “Essentially, it can create ‘bad luck’ for those it targets. It never permanently hurts anypony, but it can make their life very difficult.” Wow that sounded like the world’s best prank; I mean I know it could be dangerous, but still…

“However, it does have one problematic requirement,” I moved my attention back to my teacher, “in order to affect an individual, it needs to have more power than the one it is being used on. Still, I find it fairly fun.”

We had already locked it onto Celestia’s magical signature; it would hit her no matter where she was. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would make life more interesting for her.

That wouldn’t be until later though, at the moment we were still waiting on the power, in other words we were waiting for Twilight and company.

Unfortunately, it was likely that we would have to trick Twilight and her companions into using the Elements for us; I had mixed feelings about this. Apparently, contrary to what had happened to me earlier, one needed the power of a set of mares to activate the power of the Elements. On the one hand I really wanted to pull this prank on Celestia, but on the other hand I didn’t want to hurt Twilight. Hopefully she’ll just do it without us really having to ask; then I could take her to get those dresses I’d promised.

At the moment the only thing that we had left to do was wait. We had seated ourselves in the main entrance hall with the Elements in plain sight. It was a rather elegant room, even if it did look like it was about to fall apart; in fact it reminded me of the one from the dream.

It seemed that they were taking the scenic route; we had been waiting here for almost two hours and Luna had long ago stopped delaying them. So what was taking them so long? Maybe one of Luna’s distractions had been simply too good?

“Luna,” She looked over at me from her spot on dais, “What kind of delays did you use?”

“Apparently ones that were harder than I thought,” I glared at her, she flinched, “It wasn’t anything that bad, just some simple illusions.” Well that could be good or bad, Luna was good at illusions. She had once tricked everypony in the Royal Town into thinking that the castle had been made of a gelatinous substance; we had ponies trying to eat the thing for days. Unfortunately, she didn’t always realize that ponies didn’t have the same amount of power that she did and overdid it a bit; which is why they kept coming for days rather than hours.

“Which illusion did you use Luna?” She may be my teacher, but that didn’t mean that she was going to get away with doing something like this.

“The Lost Woods, why?” Well that was just great; she had to use that one. I remember the time she used it on the hedge maze. I hadn’t been able to get where I was going, not until Luna had finally decided to release me.

I had really wanted to take the night off, so I ditched my classes for the night, instead I was going to go on a walk in the Royal Hedge Maze. It was rather special; it contained several rare forms of plant life. Some of them would normally only grow in a desert environment. I was hoping to find some of desert flowers; I’d not yet had the chance to enjoy them.

I spent a lot time just walking around trying to find the signs that would point me towards the desert flowers, not really paying any attention to the turns that I took to get inside there. I figured that I could always find the small signs that permeated the maze.

Hours passed while I looked for the flowers and it wasn’t long before I realized I needed to leave; it was almost time for me to get to bed.

I began to try and find my way back out, but I suddenly realized that I had no idea where I was; the entire maze looked exactly the same. I began to gallop; getting worried that I wouldn’t find my way out in time; I would be tardy. There weren’t even any of the signs that I always saw that pointed you in the right direction to get out of it.

It was starting to become lighter; I had been here for far too long. I was getting worried and called out for help. However, more hours passed and eventually the spell forced me to sleep.

When I awoke again, Luna was looking me right in the face. I jumped backwards and fell over in suprise. She gave me a small smile.

“So student, did you learn your lesson?” I had no idea what she was talking about; I was supposed to learn a lesson from this? I know I skipped my classes, but this seems a bit beyond it; or maybe she had just decided to turn this into my nights lesson.

“No teacher. I wasn’t aware that there had been a lesson.” I really had no idea what she was talking about.

“Student, what is the first lesson you learned in magic?” Why was she asking something so simple, she knew that I already understood it?

“Magic can be seen from the corner of your eye.”

“That is correct, but you forgot something.” I was curious as to what she meant, “You must remain vigilant to all magical intrusions.” It was at that moment that I finally realized the lesson she was trying to teach me. She was trying to tell me that I had to watch my surrounding.

It was also at that moment that I realized why I really hadn’t been able to get out of the hedge maze.

“Teacher, did you place a spell on me?”

“Yes student, a spell known as the Lost Woods.” Then she fell over laughing at me. I was going to get back at her for this. I would use her lessons against her.

I did get back at her later; although she seemed to enjoy that pie to the face.

“Luna, why did you use that particular illusion? You know that unless you know how hard it is to break out of.” She looked rather surprised at me.

“So? Honestly, I expected that spell to last the least amount of time; I mean it never affected you after the first time.”

“I also already knew about the spell. They likely won’t be able to find their way out of there for at least a week, maybe more!” I was worried for them; I may be playing the villain, but that didn’t mean I was one. I didn’t want any harm to come to any of them, especially Twilight. I don’t know what I’d do if something had happened to her.

“Luna, you stay here; I’m going to go out and play the hero instead.” I trotted out the front entrance, wondering if Luna hadn’t left a few things on the moon; namely her common sense. I also was starting to wonder if I hadn’t left mine back in that statue.

I had already stepped outside when I realized that I could have just asked Luna to release the energy holding the spell in place. Well, I still had some dignity left and wasn’t just turn back inside and ask her; besides this would give me a chance to meet Twilight in pony.

I began to trot off to find her when I came to the realization that I had no idea how to find them. I was a little sad and about to give up on my dignity and ask Luna for her help when I remembered something special about this spell.

It was a prank spell; it was designed to not be dangerous and would keep them away from anything that could possibly hurt them. However, the important bit was that it had been designed with a way to track the spell; just because those it was cast on out of danger, didn’t mean that it kept them from being too lost to find their way back after it wore off and thus potentially be put into danger. I wonder if Luna had thought about the fact that they would still need to find their way to the keep.

I quickly cast the tracking spell and felt as my horn gave a pull; I just let it drag me onward. My tail might be better at tracking things, but it only really worked when it was important. It never wanted to help with pranks; silly pink thing. I let my mind wander a bit while I waited to reach them.

Let’s see, I need to make a plan on how I’m going to greet them. Not only will this be my first time meeting with Twilight, so I’ll need to make a good first impression, but I’ll also need to have them trust me. That’s going to be rather difficult, who would trust someone who they had just met in the middle of a forest; especially after being lost for so long. Getting them to use the Elements on Luna will probably be the easy part in comparison.

Maybe I could pretend that I had just heard them making noise and came to see how they were doing? Or I could pretend that I got lost while I was hiking and just happened to know the way to the keep because I passed it a little while earlier? The second seemed more likely than the first. The main thing that I would have to hope was that Twilight didn’t remember what I looked like as a statue; that could be rather embarrassing and make things much more difficult.

I ended my thoughts when I began to hear voices speaking nearby.

“Twilight ah think we’re a might lost.” I doused my dousing spell and hid behind a nearby bush; peeking through it to see what was happening. The speaker had been the orange mare from the cliff; from here I could see that she had a blond mane and a set of three apples for a flank marking. She looked rather tired; how much time had passed since I went down into that crypt anyway?

“I think you might be right Applejack, I can’t make heads or tails of where we are. Even the atlas isn’t helping me” I saw Twilight put the book back into her saddlebag. So the Orange pony was named Applejack, good to know.

“Hey there is no way that the amazing Rainbow Dash is lost. We just got a little turned around is all.” The blue Pegasus mare with the rainbow mane, seemingly named Rainbow Dash, crossed her arms in forehooves in front of her. She was floating in midair, seeming to dislike the ground; she remained floating in midair on her batwings.

That was a little strange; the only ponies I know with batwings were the Night Guard and they had long ago been disbanded; right after Luna had gone missing in fact. A couple of aristocrats had been talking about it as they walked through the garden. I hadn’t really understood the reason why they would be broken up at the time, but I hadn’t exactly been in a position to ask questions.

That still left the question of why a pony with batwings had shown up here, only Luna could grant the specific batwings; although she had promised to teach me the spell. I’d have to ask her about it later, but the only explanation that I could currently think up is that someone forgot to remove that genetic rewrite spell and it must have been passed on. If it had remained long enough, there probably was almost a whole new race of Pegasi. That was actually kind of cool; wonder if I could get a couple of them to let me do a study on them, maybe there were some interesting differences.

“Suger, ah don’t care what you think; we’re lost.” Applejack stated firmly, glaring at the batwinged mare. Rainbow Dash just glared right back. I think there might be unresolved tension there; not that kind of tension, get your mind out of the gutter.

“I agree with you darling; we have been in this dirty dirty forest for far too long. I don’t think I can stand it much longer.” I could see that the speaker was a white Unicorn mare with a wonderfully coiffured purple mane; she was laying back on a couch, trying to avoid the dirt. Honestly, she also seemed to be the type to abhor this kind of situation, so why in the world was she out here. Also, now that I think about it, where in the world did she get a couch from?

“Oh so even you’re against me Rarity! You’re all against me are you!? Well fine, you can all be lost; I know exactly where I am!” I watched as she flew off to the left; only to end up in the clearing again, but from the other direction; the lost woods spell at work. Of course she seemed to be surprised about this little turn of events and couldn’t stop herself from running into the final member of their little group, a yellow Pegasus mare with a pink mane. She let out the quietest scream of surprise that I’ve ever heard.

“Fluttershy are you alright!?” I heard Rainbow scream out, even if I couldn’t see her from this angle. I heard an incredibly quiet response that I wasn’t really able to make out.

The Lost Woods spell was quite the doozy; this group of five mares wouldn’t be getting out of that clearing without help. Wait, five mares? I took another look and recounted; yes there were only five ponies out there. There were six out there a minute ago, I hope that the last one hadn’t gotten lost when I wasn’t looking. I hadn’t felt a tugging in any other direction from my horn, so it was doubtful.

My tail however was trying to tug me somewhere, spinning in a way I had never seen it do before. I wondered what it was about; like I’d said many times, I don’t know what the things that my tail does mean most of the time.
“HI NEW PONY!” I jumped several feet into the air and screamed in shock. I hadn’t felt like this since the last time my sister visited me at the palace.

It was a nice quiet night at the palace, like usual most of the ponies in the castle were asleep.

I had been reading a nice book for the last couple hours, My World: How it Works. It was a rather interesting read, it explained all about why the weird things in life kept happening. I honestly feel sometimes that someone just copied my journal into and told me why those things happened.

“HI DAWN!” I jumped into the air and screamed, trying to grasp something to hold onto and somehow grabbing hold of the chandelier. I can never figure out how I get up this high when I normally the best I can jump is two feet.

“Hey Dawn what are you doing up there? I mean why don’t you come down here and join me?” I looked down at the ground to see my sister Blueberry waving at me from inside the flower pot. She was a blue Unicorn pony with a much darker blue mane and was probably the only member of my family that I felt close to. Now I know why I’m on the chandelier, my sister always makes me jump when she greets me. I still want to learn how she gets into such small places; but only the mares in our families get to know.

I dropped back to the ground; somehow without hurting myself at all, “Hello Blueberry,” I reach out to her for a hug and receive one, “It’s great to see you again. How long has it been anyway?”

“Hmm… I think it’s been nearly a month now but that is way too long we really need to see each other more often don’t you think! *Gasp* We should plan a special day where we get together and spend time together. We could call it sibling’s day and have so much cake that we burst.” Honestly, I was lucky I spent so much time around her; otherwise I don’t think I could have kept up with her.

I laughed, “Sounds good to me Blue!” I really enjoy being around my sister; she always makes me feel better, while driving everyone around us nuts. It’s honestly one of the best things to do.

How did I have enough time to have that memory before falling to the ground? I looked up; oh I had grabbed a tree branch. Looks like my reactions hadn’t been dulled from being locked in stone for so long. All the ponies in the group were looking at me now; most with surprise, but Rainbow Dash was looking at me with suspicion. I wonder why I deserved suspicion; I hadn’t even said anything yet.

“Uh hi?” I used one hoof to wave at them while holding on the branch with the other; which was a terrible idea because I fell to the ground with a thud.

While I was busy having a headache, Rainbow Dash had flown up to me and was staring me right in the eye. That was actually slightly scary.

“Who are you and what are you doing here!?” Well if that wasn’t the opening I was looking for, I don’t know what is. Hopefully I didn’t say anything too ridiculous.

“My name is Dawn Pie,” I heard a gasping noise from behind me and all the other ponies were staring at whatever was behind, although I assumed it was the pony missing from the group. Now that I think about it I still hadn’t seen what she looked like. First though I needed to finish my little speech. “And I was just hiking around here and heard you girls talking.” Why in the world did I say that, I didn’t even mention that I was lost at all; why would they possibly believe me? Strangely though most of them seemed to have a look of understanding in their eyes, well except Twilight, but none of them seemed as suspicious as they had been. Why in the world would that be?

Of course they also seemed to be moving their eyes between myself and something to the right of me. I turned my head to look in that direction …and now I know why they were less suspicious.

The Pony was bright pink with slightly lighter pink mane and seemingly seemed to be moving while remaining completely still. There was absolutely no mistaking it; she was a Pie mare. I remembered that bouncing; Pie mares couldn’t sit still if their life depended on it literally. One of my ancestors had been caught by the buffalos during a skirmish and had been sentenced to sit still or die, that seemed to be one of their strange customs for war criminals; she never stopped moving. They eventually just let her go because they also couldn’t get her to stand still long enough to be killed.

I hadn’t thought that there would be any Pie’s left; they had never visited me after all. I guess what really happened was that nopony had bothered to tell them I had turned to stone or my sister would have at least visited me. This must be her great, great, great, great, great, great, a couple more greats granddaughter. Strangely though, she also reminds me of that hallucination I had while I was locked in stone.

The pink pony opened her mouth and I prepared myself for the barrage I knew was coming; I had lived with my sister long enough to know what was going to happen.

“Hi cousin my name is Pinky Pie and I don’t think I ever met you before which is great because that means that you’re a new pony in the area and that means that I get to throw you a PARTY! It will be the best ever ‘Just Released from Stone Party’ that you’ve ever been to! Of course it will also likely be the only one you’ve ever been to. I mean how many times can one pony be released from stone anyway.” How she had known that last bit I’ll never know, but my sister was able to know things she should know; I’ll just put it up to her being a mare of the Pie family. I just hope that nopony heard that last part.

Of course now that she had made her greeting, my tail decided that it was time to do the male portion of the Pie family greeting. It shaped itself into a hoof, just in time to impact Pinkie’s hoof shaped tail; which was soon followed by an up and down motion and a circle. Pinkie’s smile seemed to grow even wider, apparently really happy to have run into another member of her family. If I hadn’t thought she was a Pie before, this confirmed it. Apparently it also brought the others out of their shock.

“How did you two just do that? Our tails are not prehensile; there is no way you should have been able to do that.” Twilight looked irritated by the impossibility she had just witnessed. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had lived with it for my entire I likely would be the same way.

“Twilight, sugar, ah suggest that you don’t question it. Ponies have been trying for years to figure out Pinkie Pie and it still don’t make no sense no how. Besides we still have to reach that castle, we ain’t got time for this.” “Well I think I might be able to help with that.” All the mares looked towards me, “I’ve come here many times and I know the way to the castle, how about I just show you the way.” With me leading the way I could force them to break the Lost Woods illusion. When something leads you through it, it can’t trick you into making a wrong turn. If you know you’re locked in it you can simply follow an ant or something; which was why I was able to escape so easily after Luna locked me in it the first time.

“Well that’s mighty kind of ya.” Most of the mares were nodding their heads in agreement; Pinkie’s head was bouncing up and down so fast I was surprised it hadn’t yet popped off. Why was this plan working?! I really wonder sometimes about the ability of ponies to overlook the most obvious detail.

“Why should we trust you?” Once again Rainbow had to be the thorn in my side and helped me regain some trust in ponykind; the rest of the mares simply accepted me at my word. However, luckily I did have an answer for this problem, sarcasm.

“Because there are more of you than there are of me? I’m related to Pinkie? You don’t seem to be going anywhere yourself? Take your choice they all seem alright to me.” I might have put the sarcasm on a little strong, because Rainbow Dash was looking at me and she was incensed.

I heard something I couldn’t make out from the Fluttershy, but I could hear Rainbow Dash’s response.

“Ok I’ll give a try for you Fluttershy, but the first time that if he tries anything; POW STRAIGHT TO THE MOON.”

“Sounds good to me, just follow behind me and I’ll lead you there.” That was way too easy, something is going to go wrong at the worst possible moment I can tell. I began my trotting towards the castle, most of them trotting along behind me; Pinkie was hopping along and Rainbow was flying.

During our little trot I realized that I still needed to have them tell me their names; I already knew them, but they had never told me. Letting them know that I had been spying on them for a few minutes, and technically Twilight for almost twenty years, would probably not be a good idea at the moment.

“Would everyone mind stopping for a minute?” Everyone ground to halt.

“Hey! What the hold up?” Take a guess who said that.

“Since the trip is going to take a little bit, I thought I should at least get all your names? I mean I already know Pinkie Pie’s, but I don’t know what to call the rest of you.”

Twilight took the initiative, “Well my name is Twilight Sparkle, my friends here are Applejack.”

“Pleasure to meet’cha” She grabbed my hoof and shook it really hard, almost hard enough to cause pain. When I felt her let go my arm continued shaking up and down. I just couldn’t stop it. Pinkie seemed to be trying to copy my arm’s movement, shaking her arm all over the place. Twilight seemed to notice my plight and grabbed my arm for me.

“Thanks Twilight.” I gave a small smile, she returned it.

“No problem.” Before that conversation could go anywhere, Rainbow decided that she should introduce herself.

“I’m Rainbow Dash! The fastest Night Pegasus in all of Equestria!” She was also one to seem to boast, but I hadn’t seen her practice so I couldn’t really say. I now know that Pegasi with batwings were called Night Pegasi.

Rarity was the next one to respond, “Well darling, I am Rarity.” She fluttered her eyelashes at me; I have no idea why she did that, but a lot of mares seem to like to do it around me. The one time I’d asked Blueberry, she had just told me she didn’t understand it either, but guys seemed to like flexing their muscles around her.

Fluttershy was the last to go, “I’m flutmphhp.”

“Sorry I couldn’t hear that, would you mind repeating yourself?”

“I’m fluttermphph”

“Flutter…?”

Rainbow decided to come to Fluttershy’s rescue, “Her name’s Fluttershy.”

“Ah, well it’s a pleasure to meet you Fluttershy.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She spoke very quietly, and I almost couldn’t hear her. Any tension that was left after our meeting seemed to have fled at Fluttershy’s acceptance.

“And I’m Pinkie Pie, I know that you said you already knew my name but everyone else was introducing themselves and I didn’t want to feel left out and so I’m telling you all because I felt like joining in.” Apparently Pinkie wanted to get in on the act; luckily I was already used to her manner of speech, in fact I wanted to learn a bit more about her, but first.

“All right, if we want to reach the keep early, we’re going to have to head out again.” A couple of different reactions occured, but eventually everyone got moving.

I was leading so I couldn’t slow down to talk to either Twilight or Pinkie. It seemed though that Pinkie wanted to talk to me, because she was bouncing all around me. I knew that the moment she started talking I wouldn’t be able to get a word in edgewise, so I took the initiative.

“So Pinkie, would you mind telling me about yourself? I’ve kind of been out of the loop for a while.” That was the understatement of the century.

She smiled at me, “Of course I’d be willing to tell a family member that has been locked in stone for a thousand years about what has happened to his family since he was locked away,” There are time when I really dislike how they can do that, especially since they never seem to remember actually saying those things, “Originally my family came from Canterlot, you seem to get confused sometimes and call it the Royal City why is that? I mean that name doesn’t even sound anything like Canterlot.” I just let her ramble on for a while, somehow eventually ending up talking about cupcakes, I knew she’d get back to the point eventually. It was actually rather nice to be near something that reminded me so much of home. I may only have been really close to my sister, but I still enjoyed spending time with the rest of them.

It seemed she was winding down a bit and about to finish her monologue, “And that’s how Equestria was made.” Which essentially was a Pie’s mare of asking you to remind them about the topic, but I had the perfect response to this.

“I love that story, it gets better every time it’s told. I especially loved that part where the cupcakes rained destruction down on the planet and brought about eternal peace.” She looked at me oddly, which makes me feel like I made the perfect response, “Also you were talking about how you came from Canterlot.”

“Oh right, well I originally came from Canterlot where I spent all my days until my father decided that we would move to rock farm, seriously a rock farm why in the world would anyone want to live at a boring place like that,” I had to agree with her; rock farms were not only boring, but they didn’t actually produce anything of value. We had quarries to get precious metals, so what was the point of them and how had they survived this long? “Eventually though I got my cutie mark,” What in the world is a cutie mark and why does that name fill me with dread, “and moved to Ponyville.”

I was going to ask her more questions about herself when I ran into our destination; literally. Pinkie was laughing at me and my nose hurt, wonderful.

Well in any case, we were here.

Failure is Always an Option

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Disclaimer: We the Fanfic writers of America do not own the rights to the MLP Universe, we do not have the freedom or liberty to use it, will not provide for the common defense of it in court.

Now all the mares were laughing at me; great. Running into the wall had just been the beginning of a new set of troubles. Afterwards it had seemed like everything was going to go well; we were only a few feet from the entrance of the keep, but things soon began to go wrong for me.

First I ended up tripping on a rock on the ground and falling onto my face. I could hear the laughter from behind me from my little accident; it was rather troublesome. That wasn’t even the last part; physics decided to throw the metaphorical hoof at me. When I hit the ground again, instead of just lying there, I bounced. That wouldn’t have been too bad if it had ended there, but it just had to get worse.

The worst part however was yet to come. When I landed the second time it turned out that somepony had dug a pit trap; as you can probably guess, I fell in. So now here I am at the bottom of it with all of the mares were laughing at me from beyond my line of sight.

There was only one thing I could do at this point.

“Ow, my pride has been mortally wounded. Please feel free to keep laughing at my indignity.” That’s right; make a joke. Which I soon realized was really lacking in forethought, it just made them laugh harder.

“Are you okay?” I thought I heard a voice say; it was such a quiet sounding noise, I wasn’t sure. The sound of laughter still coming from those mares made it even more difficult to hear. The only one who speaks that quietly was… Oh right, Fluttershy; I think that if things go well after this I’m going to make sure someone teaches her that speech should be louder than that of a moth.

“Yeah I’m fine Fluttershy, thanks for asking.” I could hear her jump and make a small eeping sound; I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she reacts quietly even when startled, “but would you mind giving me a hoof out of here? It’s a little too deep for me to get out on my own.”

I could still hear the rest of them laughing behind her. It hadn’t been that funny had it? Well maybe from an outsider’s perspective; I doubt anyone ever likes it when something like this happens to them. At least I wasn’t in any actual danger this time.

Now that I think about it; I wonder why Fluttershy wasn’t laughing; maybe she was just too kind a pony to do that sort of thing? I mean all her friends seem to have found it funny; even if I didn’t. Well I still needed to get out here; hopefully Fluttershy would help me out, she was taking a while to respond.

“Um… I think so.” Well that was good, for a second there I thought she was going to force me to beg or something; I mean I’d probably do it. I’d done sillier things to get out of places like this. It didn’t take her very long to put her hoof over the edge for me to grab; it was just barely close enough for me to grasp.

I reached out my two hoofs to grasp hers, but once I’d taken hold of it my hoof felt peculiar; like someone had just poured something cold onto my hoof. I gave my hoof a small pull and instead of separating from the other ponies hoof like usually happened; it remained stuck together.

“Hey Fluttershy, did you put superglue on your hoof?” I couldn’t believe I had just asked that, but oh well; hopefully she hadn’t heard me.

“Oh my no I would never do something like that, my little animal friends might be hurt by it.” Well I think I now know that my original supposition of her being too kind to laugh was correct. Honestly talking to her reminds me of when I was a foal.

In either case I needed to get out of this hole; so using Fluttershy’s hoof as a hanging point I tried to climb the wall; no matter how tried though there just wasn’t any real hoofholds to climb out with. Strangely it didn’t feel that she was moving at all; she must have found something really strong to hand onto.

“Hey Fluttershy, you mind giving a pull; maybe you can help me climb a little.”

“I…think so.” I felt a sudden jolt in my hoof followed by the sensation of flight. Unfortunately, that was quickly followed by the pain of landing on my backside.

When I had stopped seeing stars I looked around a bit more; understanding that somehow I had gotten out of the pit. One second I had just been holding onto Fluttershy’s hoof asking for help and the next I was out here.

This meant one of two things; either physics couldn’t survive being around two Pies and had fled in absolute terror or Fluttershy was a lot stronger than she looked. I’m pretty sure I could throw out the first theory; I could see her looking at her own hoof in wonder. So I’m going to assume physics failed or something had decided that Fluttershy should be a superhero.

Now that I had gotten that conundrum over with I promptly gave Fluttershy a smile and a thank you, but as she began to smile back at me she caught sight of her own shadow and jumped into a bush. It was a cute sight, but I really hope she isn’t meant to be a hero of some sort because if she is Equestria is doomed. Oh well, at least she’s nice.

I could still hear the others laughing at my former predicament; you’d think they would have stopped when I was able to get out of the hole. I was starting to wonder what was wrong with them; I could have been seriously hurt. I mean I know about Schadenfreude and all, but there is a point where it should stop being funny. It was time to give them a piece of my mind.

I turned around to face them; I was going to give them one of my infamous lectures, “Hey girls stop laughing I could have been seriousl…”

Twilight’s face was blue; that could not be good. I took a closer look; Twilight wasn’t the only one who was blue in the face, Pinkie was the only one who didn’t look that color. That shouldn’t even be possible, our fur covers our face.

What was worse was that I could see fear in their eyes; they were scared. They weren’t laughing at me because they wanted to; they were laughing because they literally couldn’t stop. This was…well way beyond not good; they were literally laughing themselves to death. When had this happened? I hadn’t left them alone since I found them.

Okay that doesn’t matter right now; what does matter is finding a solution. I need to get them to stop laughing. The most obvious way would be to knock them out, but that left far too many unknowns, besides which I didn’t know anyway to do so without causing rather harsh damage to their skulls. What I really need is more time to think, time I currently don’t have.

So my first goal is to make sure they have enough air to breathe; hopefully I can find a solution after that. There had to be some spell that could allow them to breathe through something other than their mouth. Unfortunately, all the spells that would come to mind were all designed to simply allow a pony to survive in places without air by creating a bubble. There had to be at least one spell that would do the job.

I heard the chirping of a bird nearby; distracting me from my thoughts. I glared over at them; the mother bird was watching over her eggs…

It was the night of the Grand Galloping Gala, the Royal gardens were completely flooded with aristocratic ponies; anyone who was anyone was here. It was the perfect time for those who were trying to gain favors from Luna and Celestia to say their piece; everypony enjoyed the setting.

“Teacher I’m bored.” I was far too young at the time to enjoy these kinds of parties, not to mention that the only other pony here around my age was Diamond and she was forced to sit by Celestia on the other side of the room. From what I could see of her expression she was just felt just as bored as I was.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy spending time with Luna, but only when I can actually talk to her. All of the other ponies were taking up all her time.

“So Dawn, bored are you?” Luna’s voice drew my attention to her; apparently there was enough a slight lull in visitors for the moment.

I shook my head quickly, “No of course not.” I am not going to tell my teacher that I’m not having fun at one of her parties.

She gave me a smile, “Dawn, don’t worry about it.” She leaned in close to me and whispered, “I am to; should I liven things up?”

I nodded my head; I could see the glow around her horn glow out of the corner of my eye. While Luna was charging her spell we both pretended to still be interested in the ponies that were talking to Luna.

A few minutes later Luna released her spell into the room. The spell remained unseen or at least unspoken about throughout the room as it spread. Soon however, shouts of wonder began to fill the hall until they themselves were caught in an egg. Soon the room was silent, but that didn’t last long.

The ponies, who had been dressed in their very best clothes, popped from their shells covered in the multicolored hues of chicken feathers. I could see as they took their first look at their new dress and as they tried to rush out of the room in a panic. The more ponies that broke out of their eggs; the larger the chaos became.

I began to laugh loudly at what I was seeing; it was just the perfect way to break up the evening.

“WHO IS RESPONSIBLE PERFORMED THIS TRAVESTY!?” My attention was drawn towards Celestia and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing harder at the sight; she was dressed in her own white chicken suit, appearing much less regal.

My laughter must have been infectious because I could hear other ponies laughing with me. It seems that everypony was actually enjoying this event now.

“LUNA!” Well, all except one.

Wait a minute that was it; Luna’s Prank spell it could keep them stable long enough. Due to the way the spell functions like an egg it feeds those it is used on air. It may be embarrassing, but hopefully they wouldn’t kill me for it afterwards.

I set to work right away; loading the spell into my horn and launching it at the group. Upon impact the spell set to work; wrapping the mares in colorful eggs that matched the color of their coats; I can only hope that it works like I remember, I don’t think that I will have enough time to figure out another one.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!?” I fell over in surprise; I hadn’t seen her approach me at all. I was about to respond when I caught sight of her eyes; they were the widest I’d ever seen on a pony. Worse was the feeling of fear that was flowing into me just by looking at them. I was shaking like crazy at the sight; at this point I’d be willing to tell her anything she wanted as long as she didn’t rip my head off.

“It’s a prank spell,” her eyes remained in mostly the same position, but they seemed contract slightly, lessoning the amount of fear I was feeling; which was probably a good thing.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” The fact that she wasn’t releasing as much fear didn’t make her any less scary though.

“I think that they were placed under a spell of some sort; they were literally laughing themselves to death.” That explanation seemed to calm her down; hopefully I wouldn’t have to deal with that again.

I had never heard of magic like that; it was incredibly powerful. The ability to look somepony in the eye and essentially force them to do what you wanted; that was beyond anything I had heard before. The most amazing part though was that it had performed by a Pegasus. I have never heard of a Pegasus that was able to do this kind of magic before; perhaps it had been developed in the last thousand years while I was in stone? I’d need to study the phenomenon more before I knew for sure, but it would be interesting to find out. It was possible that it was inborn skill like my families’; maybe she was the recipient or progenitor of a new family like mine. I was going to learn more about this, but later; there were more important things right now.

“Oh…oh my I’m so sorry about that,” I could actually hear her now; it seems that she was feeling more confident about being in my presence; if I had been able to do that to somepony I would probably feel more confident to, “but is there anything we can do?” Fluttershy was shaking slightly in place, likely she was nervous.

I don’t know what to tell her, I’d bought us some time to come up with a plan, but that didn’t mean that there was anything I could do. I needed more information before doing anything else.

“I really don’t know; I need more information about what has happened to them. Did you see anything strange happen after I fell into that pit?”

“Umm… I don’t think so…if that’s okay I mean.”

“Well that at least gives me some information to work with.” So at the moment the only thing I really knew was that whatever had happened had either been invisible to a pegasus, which was a possibility or that it had been cast earlier. Well there was one way to find out exactly had happened…A diagnostic spell.

Essentially a diagnostic spell is designed to see what magic have been affecting an pony or object over a fairly short period of time; looking out of the corner of your eye would only show you what was going on at the current time.

“Okay Fluttershy, I’m going to be casting a diagnostic spell on your friends okay?” I did not want a repeat performance of that stare; if it took me a little bit longer to get my work done because I had to explain it to her I was going to take that chance.

Fluttershy nodded her head at me; that was good, I wouldn’t have to worry about her doing that to me again at the moment. Now that I think about it, I’m going to need to watch out for her doing that later during my prank with Luna. That could completely ruin the entire thing.

I cast the diagnostic spells upon the eggs, which soon returned with a visible matrix of floating symbols and colors that represented the magic that was in use around the eggs. Nothing in the image really stood out to me; all I could really see was my own pink spell and Luna’s dark blue one.

“I can’t seem to find anything special here, but there has to be something in there I just need to look more.”

Actually for that matter I couldn’t figure out why Fluttershy hadn’t been affected by this laughter problem. Maybe it required a trigger; something to set it off? Maybe she would have been affected if she had laughed at my predicament, but because she was too kind to do so the spell hadn’t activated? There was another possibility, but it seemed so unlikely that I instantly discarded it; it just didn’t fit her actions so far. I’d need to make sure that the spell wasn’t on her after I finished; I didn’t want her to stop breathing the next time she decided something was funny. I wanted to be friends with this group after Luna and I finished our prank.

Time to get back on topic; I wasn’t sure how much longer the egg spell would last. Using my magic I magnified parts of the spell matrix, hoping that something would stand out. Maybe the spell would turn out to be a special shape or a different size; it was all I could hope for. I searched it from top to bottom, but I couldn’t find a single thing that was out of place. This was really starting to become a problem; there had to be something there. I mean they were turning blue through their fur; that does not happen naturally.

“UGH I can’t find a single thing in here!” I was getting far too frustrated, I needed to remain calm and in control.

“Um…what this green thing… if you don’t mind me asking.” Fluttershy’s voice rang out from behind me. I nearly jumped in surprise, but I was able to repress the instinct. Luckily it hadn’t been someone from my family or I’d be hanging from a tree branch right now.

“Green?” I zoomed in at the point she was pointing at; right at the point where she had been pointing was a spell matrix that I had missed. rThat was some really good eyesight right there; if she wasn’t currently pointing at it I would have completely overlooked it.

“That is some good eyesight.” I gave her a smile.

“Oh…um thank you?” I have no idea why she is questioning my compliment, but I really don’t have time to question it right now; I’d just put it on the backburner for later.

Now that I could actually see what was causing the uncontrolled laughter I was going to go over it with a fine toothed comb.

“Fluttershy do you have a fine toothed comb?”

“Um what?” She was giving one of the cutest looks of incomprehension that I had ever seen. Since I didn’t really have time to contemplate that I looked for my own, finding it right next to the yellow bus. Why was Fluttershy looking at me funny?

“Never mind; I found it.” I grabbed the small silver comb with my magic and began to brush apart the different pieces of the spell, trying to find what made it tick. Fortunately, I had seen this spell before meaning it wouldn’t take much work to remove it. It was a near exact match for one of Luna’s personal spells, one called Laugh Track. The spell just forced whoever was watching her to give a chuckle or two at whatever was going on. However there was one difference with the spell here and her normal model. This one lacked the precious time code symbols, meaning that the spell was essentially looping.

To stop it all I’d need to do was place the time symbols back into the spell; which was a fairly simple job. Taking the comb I carved the mark into the correct slot and before you could say ‘we ain’t found anything’ the spell had been completed and removed from the matrix. I’d still have to wait for the egg spell to end though.

Now that I had time to think about it where in world did this spell come from? I mean the only people who Luna ever taught that spell to were Diamond, Celestia, and me. I mean I realize that the spell doesn’t require that much power or control, it was rather simple really, but it wasn’t common knowledge. So who cast it; I know it wasn’t me and I doubt Luna would have done it, but I couldn’t give a single good reason for Celestia stopping a group that was on her side. Had she discovered our plan? It was the best idea I could think of; the only other option was rather unthinkable and furthermore highly unlikely.

I must have been in thought for quite a while because Fluttershy tapped me on the shoulder to bring me out of them; she held out her hoof towards the eggs. It seems that while I was deep in my thoughts the eggs had completed their final cycle and were hatching.

The eggs exploded into confetti revealing the five mares dressed in their mane colored chicken costumes, exactly like every other time the spell had been cast.

The sight was too much for me; while I realized that it had been a rather close shave with death for the group of them I still couldn’t help myself from giving a chuckle or two at the sight. I’d always rather enjoyed this spell; although I preferred using it at the stuffy parties of aristocrats. It was always amusing to watch those trying to curry favors be humiliated. I fell into the memories of a couple of the other times that Luna had shown me that spell.

“OH MY! What am I wearing!? This thing is an absolute atrocity; well actually it could be worse, at least it matches my mane.” Rarity exclaimed, trying to pull of the chicken suit with little success. The costume would keep themselves on by force for at least a little while longer; the spell had been designed to be humiliating after all.

“I kind of like it!” Pinkie was bouncing her pink colored beak at the ground; I guess she was pretending to be a chicken.

“BCAWCK!” Yeah I guess I was right. Honestly it was so reminiscent of my sister’s antics that if I didn’t know better I really would have thought that she was here instead of Pinkie. I was rather enjoying the sight of the spectacle, especially after how I had felt a few minutes ago.

Soon though she finished with her little act and pulled off the costume placing it in her saddlebag. Watching that gave me a headache; the space and time mechanics involved just boggled the mind, even when you accepted that it was possible. I know I use that ability as well; doesn’t mean it ever made sense to me.

“I think I’ll hold onto this.”

“Well darling, you may enjoy wearing, but I don’t. I’m just going to go over there and rip it to shreds.” It seems that Rarity didn’t share Pinkie’s enthusiasm. At least she wasn’t attacking me; it seemed that it was going well.

“I think I’ll give this to Scootaloo as a gift; I think it would fit her.” I have no idea who Scootaloo is, but at least Dash didn’t sound angry about what had happened. The last thing I wanted to do was tangle with anything that was even mildly related to the Night Guard. Those guys had been vicious; several times I’d seen them lift a pony many times their own size and weight and throw them very very far away. I knew that it was at least partially attributable to the same training that I had gone through with Luna, but a lot of that strength had come from the genetic alterations that Luna had performed upon them. I wasn’t going to be going up against someone like that without a good reason or a lot of preparation.

“Whoo Weee! Glad to finally be out of that thing.” I looked towards Applejack, apparently while I was looking at the other three they had managed to remove the costume from themselves. Likely Twilight’s doing, that spell should have held for at least a little longer. I have no idea where they put the costumes though because they weren’t anywhere around them.

“So what happened? Why were we in those costumes? Last thing I remember I couldn’t stop laughing.” Twilight was giving me an concerned look look; I had the feeling that it was more what the spell I had used was than anything else though.
I couldn’t think of a single good reason not to explain; I knew that we needed to reach the keep quickly, but Fluttershy already knew that a spell had been involved. If I tried to hide what had just happened than it was possible that I might just lose their trust.

“Well, someone or something cast a spell on you,” I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell them about my suspicions of who had actually had cast the spell; it probably would lose me their trust even faster than not telling them this, “it would have literally made you laugh yourself to death. That costume spell was the only one I could think of to feed you air while I tried to remove it.”

A gasp arose from all the mares except Fluttershy; who just hid behind her hooves shivering. Apparently the revelation that they had been near the possibility of death was shocking to them; I couldn’t blame them I would be in the same position given what happened. Being that close to death with no control of the outcome isn’t something I would wish on anypony.

“Well that was eggciting revelation, but that doesn’t matter anymore. It’s so obvious that it was Nightmare Moon; so now we just have more reason to finish her off right?” It seems that Rainbow was the first to recover; I guess she was easily able to bounce back from these kinds of things. Also I like her puns, they remind me of my own; terrible as they may be. I wonder if after whatever happens here happens she and Pinkie would want to go pranking.

“Tarnations Rainbow we all would have died if it wasn’t for dawn and you just say we should keep moving on!?” Looks like some parts of the group were slightly more traumatized by the experience than they had let on previously. Hopefully it wouldn’t last too long.

“Well what else would you have me do! Just wait around cowering as Nightmare Moon brings eternal night!?” She raised a hoof in the air and hit the ground, “We can’t just do that; we need to keep going and stop her!” I may not like all this talk about hurting my teacher, but whatever got them moving would work for me.

“I suppose you’re right Rainbow; there’s nothing that we can do about the past but keep it from repeating itself. Let’s go stop Nightmare Moon!” At least they seemed to be in the right mood, but still this whole thing worries me. If it was Celestia than our prank would take care of it, but if it wasn’t…

We all trotted into the keep.

Our entrance into the keep was uneventful; which was lucky for my slightly frayed nerves. I had expected that somewhere between then and now Celestia would have tried to stop me. However, now that we were actually in here I was much less worried; our plan was almost in motion. We walked through the entrance hall into the central room of the keep.
The room was utterly; pillars had fallen over onto the floor and the floor itself was covered in more cracks than ever. What had happened here? I wasn’t gone that long was I? Wait, there was something else wrong with this scene…

"Where the buck are the Elements!” And that was it; where I had left the Elements there were now only a set of stone shaped orbs. This was far worse than I had thought it was just from the scene of destruction that surrounded us. Without the Elements Luna and I would be unable to complete this prank.

For that matter where in the world was Luna? Had something happened to her? I couldn’t think of a single good reason for Luna to leave of her own accord, she was needed here to work the power gathering portion of the spell. What was I going to do now? Neither the Elements nor Luna were here, I’d need to find both of them and keep the mares in this keep for this to work. Okay think how do I keep a group of mares busy? Besides that anyway.

“We need to find them!” Twilight’s voice rang out nervously, “It’s the only way to keep Nightmare Moon from bringing eternal night.” Well I could work with this; get them to search the building while I await Luna’s return; hopefully she would bring the Elements with her.

“Um I might have a thought…if that’s okay with you I mean.” I could barely hear Fluttershy speak, but Rainbow seemed to have no trouble and nodded her head in agreement.

“Um… Maybe we should split up and search, maybe the Elements are down there?” I blinked, Fluttershy, the seemingly least outgoing of the group was suggesting that we should split up. There was something weird going on here, but I wasn’t going to look too much into it. It was a golden opportunity. It would give me enough time to find Luna and get one step closer to my ultimate goal…Hanging out with Twilight! I mean finishing this prank, yeah that’s what I meant.

“That’s sounds a little dangerous Fluttershy; splitting into groups like that might make us easier targets for Nightmare Moon.” That shouldn’t be a problem, Luna wasn’t likely to attack them anyway; I just needed to give her time to get back here. I think a little push might help.

“I agree with Fluttershy; it may be dangerous, but we’re not going to get anywhere just sitting around here waiting.” I could only hope that my endorsement held some water; they had just met me a little while ago, but hopefully my little rescue gave me some credibility.

“I suppose you’re right Dawn. Okay gang we’re going to split up,” Dash flew down one the corridors, I suppose she must have already been thinking about it and was just waiting for the go ahead, “into groups… Wait Dash come back! Well at least this means we have an even number. Fluttershy and Rarity, you go down that passageway, Applejack and Pinkie Pie go down that one, Dawn and I will continue to search in here. If you find anything holler and the rest of us will come running.”
This couldn’t have worked out better if I’d actually tried to set this up; positive coincidences strikes again. Now I had enough time to find out what was going on and I’d get to spend time with Twilight to boot; this was perfect, even if it still felt vaguely weird because I had really only just met her.

Well in any case I began to search the room looking for any clues about where Luna had headed off to; likely I could use that to tell the rest of the group where to go to find the Elements and we would be one step closer to our pranking goal.
Since I didn’t need my full attention on searching the room; I really was mostly stalling for time, I decided to try and make some conversation with Twilight.

“So Twilight, I never did ask why a group of cute mares would want to come to a place like this. I mean I think I’ve understood that you’re here to stop Nightmare Moon, but why you?” Now that I think about it, I probably should have got them to tell me this earlier, I’m surprised none of them have questioned me about my overabundance of knowledge about magical subjects yet.

“Nopony else would believe me; even Celestia just shot me down when I first mentioned it to her.” Really? Well that just took the cake, Celestia wouldn’t even believe her dear student? I don’t think there was single time that Luna ever just turned me down without at least an explanation about why something couldn’t be true.

“Then when Nightmare Moon actually turned up everyone else just acted scared and we didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, I think I’m best fit for this job.”

“So how did you plan on stopping L-Nightmare Moon.” If she heard my little slip she didn’t mention it; she just continued searching on her half of the room. I was starting to get worried though, I hadn’t found hide or tail of Luna anywhere in the room; I was starting to get worried, what had happened to her.

“With the Elements of Harmony; they are magical artifacts that contain the energy of harmony from all over Equestria. If they can’t stop Nightmare Moon, nothing can and that’s why we need to find them.”

We fell into an companionable silence while we continued to search. I still couldn’t find anything, but I did still have one last ace in my arsenal, my detection spell. Maybe it could shed some light on what had happened here in any case.
Taking a quick glance at Twilight to make sure she wasn’t looking, I wasn’t sure that I could have found a way to explain what I was doing, I surreptitiously began to cast the spell; making sure to make it very small and difficult to discern from the surrounding debris.

A small explosion erupting from my spell disabused me of that notion.

“Hey Dawn are you alright?” I didn’t answer immediately. My spell had literally exploded in my face, but that wasn’t the worst part. No the worst part was what I had seen and was now feeling; I had seen a dark energy approaching, surrounding Luna’s own power and it was getting bigger. I had no idea what had happened, but it was dangerous.

“Twilight get over here! Something’s coming!” I couldn’t very well tell her what was going on, why would she trust me.
Unfortunately my answer must have confused her because she just stood where she was for a few seconds, but soon enough I could see her beginning to trot over.

A boom sounded from the dais in the room; probably the only spot that had been free from the rubble. Through the smoke that had appeared with the explosion I could see Luna, but she was different. The most prominent of changes was the dark energy that wafted off of her in waves.

Honestly that dark energy was inducing a fear in me almost as strong as I had felt when under the effect of Fluttershy’s stare; which might be the only reason I was still standing or it might have been that I could still feel small bits of my teacher’s energy flowing through the dark, giving me some strength.

I don’t know what had happened to my teacher during the time I had been collecting Twilight and her friends, my best guess was a possession, but it was obviously not going to go well for anyone; Luna and I especially. I need to figure out what was going on here before something else went wrong.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE,” Too late it seems, apparently whatever had taken control of her could force her to speak, “IT SEEMS THAT THOU HAS MADE IT THROUGH ALL OF OUR TRAPS UNSCATHED. THOU HAVE BECOME A PAIN IN OUR SIDE AND THOU SHALL FEEL OUR WRATH.” She was building up power in her horn; getting ready to fire it at the frozen in fear Twilight. I needed to do something to stop her before she managed to actually fire; I didn’t want Twilight hurt and my teacher would never forgive herself if she actually hurt somepony.

Maybe I could redirect the energy beam somewhere else? Too much of a power requirement, if I could have reached Twilight I might have been able to do something, but not by myself. Maybe I could…
My thought process was shut off by a sudden change in the ambient energy; it was still, no more energy was being drawn towards the horn. I could feel it begin to build up to a point, than I felt the energy release.

“No!” I didn’t have enough time to do anything so I just waited for whatever was going to happen. After a couple of seconds of nothing seeming to happen I opened my eyes. From what I could now see, the energy had apparently been dissipated freely rather than actually fired, why had that happened?

“WHAT?” It seems that whatever was possessing Luna was as confused by the lack of firepower as I was, “FINE THAN, SINCE IT SEEMS WE CANNOT BE RID OF THOU WE WILL UTILIZE THOU TO COMPLETE OUR PLAN. THOU SHALT COME WITH US.” This was actually very good; if confusing, whatever had taken control of my teacher didn’t seem to have full control over all of her powers, which meant that we would still have a chance. Our best option would have been the Elements of Harmony, but with them missing we’d need to try something else instead. I needed to think of something
The sound of hoofbeats approaching distracted me from my thoughts; I guess they must have been attracted by the sound of Luna’s booming voice. This was very good; the more ponies we had available the more we would be able to do. I glanced towards the entrances to the room and was dismayed to see dark blue barriers blocking any entrance of the other mares.

“I would never allow you to bring about eternal night!” That line brought my attention to Twilight. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, but I had to admire the bravery it took to stand up to a possessed Unicorn; she was a lot more like Diamond than I had thought she was.

“YOU SHALL COME WITH US.”

“Not!”

“SHALL!” Wait, was Luna actually arguing with Twilight? This could be good or bad. On the one hoof might mean, if I combined this with her earlier actions, that whatever had taken her over either hadn’t finished or was too weak to do so completely, but on the other hoof we were still dealing with a relative unknown. It was possible that it was just the kind of being that enjoyed playing with its target and that the whole thing had been an act. The best chance we had still lay with Elements of Harmony; which were still currently lost. With my luck though, the stones that stood where the Elements had been were actually the Elements.

“Not!”

“SHALL!”

“Not!”

“SHALL!”

“Not!”

“NOT”

“You will take me with you and that’s final.” I couldn’t help but stare at Twilight for that response; I would have thought she’d be able to see that coming a mile away.

Luna smiled at Twilight, who had a look of dawning realization about what had just happened. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t have any time to ruminate on what had occurred because Luna teleported both of them and those stone out of the room with her. I suppose my supposition had been correct and those actually were the Elements; what had turned them into stone than?

That didn’t matter right now and neither did how Luna teleported through an anti-teleportation barrier. The only thing I needed to worry about right now was stopping whatever was possessing Luna from doing whatever it was it was trying to do. There are way to many unknowns here really. One thing I know for a fact though is that the only way to use the Elements of Harmony was with the cooperation of all six of these mares; otherwise nothing would happen.

A memory of that dream flashed into my head. It wouldn’t be doing that right? I mean there was no way it could have possibly known about that right? I wasn’t even sure if that dream had been about something real.

‘But what if it did.’ I hate it when my own mind talks back to me, especially when it was right, if it did know about that and was trying to get Twilight to use a spark of magic on them than this was about to become a much more dire and terrible problem. I needed to hurry; I needed to follow them.

“What in tarnation just happened here?” Applejack voice pulled me out my nervous thoughts; bringing me back to the present. It didn’t decrease the necessity of following Luna and Twilight however. I needed to follow them quickly and that wouldn’t be happening if I had to explain everything to the other mares; all of which now appeared to be in the room with me!

“Listen I don’t have time to explain, I need to find Twilight and Luna and stop them from killing each other!” I suddenly realized that I had just blurted out something that was not going to help my case and I also realized that I had no idea where Luna had taken Twilight. This was not going to go well for me.

“Who’s Luna and for that matter who are you really? I mean you found us in the woods while wandering around; how likely is that?” I think that Rainbow was in just as much shock as I was and was really looking for something to lash out at, but I really didn’t have the time to act as her metaphysical punching bag right now. I really needed to hurry and find them, but I’d need the help of these mares in order to save both of them.

“Listen I promise I’ll tell you everything just as soon as we rescue both of them; if we don’t stop them right away it’s possible something very bad would happen.” I hope they would buy it, I don’t have enough time to explain right now.

“I don’t believe you.” It seemed that Rainbow was going to remain stubborn. Honestly I don’t think I had done anything to warrant any more of this treatment, but at the moment I didn’t care. I’d figure out the reason later, right now it was more important that I stop what could possibly happen. I was going to pull out my trump trust card; hopefully it had remained the same over the last thousand years.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly,” I heard a gasp from Pinkie, either it hadn’t changed much over the years or it meant something really horrible now. I could only hope that it was the former; considering that only Pinkie seemed to recognize it I suppose it was likely, “stick a cupcake in my eyOWWW.” Every single time; no matter the situation, I stick it in my eye, “do you believe me now?”

“Of course I believe you no one would ever make a Super Special Pie Promise without meaning it,” I could see that Dash didn’t know what Pinkie was talking about, but I guess she decided she would at least trust Pinkie if not me, “Not that I didn’t believe you beforehoof, I know you said it so that Rainbow would be willing to let you go find Twilight and your teacher Luna.” You know I have no idea how she knew that; I’m related to her and I still can’t figure her out.

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt…for now at least.” That was likely the best I was going to get from Dash, but it would be enough. All I needed to do now was to think of a plan to actually find them. I knew some basic tracking spells from Mister E’s books on lost items, but I doubted that they would work here. They only really worked well if you had a very strange gang working with you… hmm you know this could actually work perfectly.

However, the moment before I began to ask them for help something strange occurred; my tail decided it would be helping out. I have no idea why it would do that, mostly it only works when danger would befall me; but I wasn’t going to turn down its generous offer. It was performing some odd movement that I had never seen it do before, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to decipher it myself. However, I was lucky enough to have Pinkie Pie around.

“Hey Pinkie do you know what this tail movement means?”

She nodded, “Of course I know what it means; it’s super easy. It means that whatever your thinking about is right above you just one floor up.” She gasped, “That means that Twilight is right above us, Pie Stallions have always been really good at tail tracking!” She was smiling widely at me; this was better than I had hoped for. Through the rather convenient plot device of my tail I knew exactly where Luna had taken Twilight.

Why was everyone looking at Pinkie Pie and I with such a strange look? I would have thought that daily exposure to Pinkie would have built up their immunity to the weird that came with my family. Maybe they hadn’t been around her long enough to actually figure it out.

Well in any case, now that I knew where Twilight and Luna actually were I could develop a much more comprehensive plan. I could just teleport myself up there, but that barrier was likely still in place…

Wait a second, how in the world had Luna teleported through the barrier; I don’t care how powerful she is, she shouldn’t have been able to break through it. The only possibility is that the barrier was somehow taken down; which was actually kind of scary when I thought about what would have been needed to do that. The sheer power necessary would have been far beyond even Celestia; this could be problematic. Well at least I now had a way to get to them, but I’d need to make sure the rest of the group followed me up there. Meaning my main goal when I warped up there would be to stall Luna.

“Okay here’s the plan, I’m going to teleport up there and stall them; when I arrive I’ll set up a Pie Beacon in the room for you to follow. I need all of you to get there as fast as you can, the only way were likely to finish this quickly is to utilize the Elements of Harmony and for that we need all of you. Hopefully it won’t be too late.”

Before they could even respond to me I had already set my horn alight and with a pop of displaced air I was gone. I could only hope they would come find us.

With the glow of my horn and a pop of air, I left the surprised group behind. I could only hope that they would reach us in time to activate the Elements.

My arrival into the room was greeted with little fanfare, in fact I felt outright ignored. The first thing I did was use the Pie Beacon Spell; I have no idea how it actually works, but Pie mares can track the thing down like it was the tastiest treat on Equestria.

I could feel the tension in the air between Twilight and Luna. Perhaps some remnant of the barrier was still working and had kept me from being noticed? Well whatever the reason it seems that I still had time and the Element of surprise could work to my advantage.

Now I needed to stall them, what would be the best way to do that?

“WELL TWILIGHT SPARKLE, WILL YOU HELP ME NOW? OR WILL I HAVE TO DO WHAT I HAVE THREATENED?” Luna’s Royal Voice stopped me before I could even begin to plan; it seemed louder than it usual but for once wasn’t causing me any ear damage. Normally just being in the same room as her when she used that voice was enough to make eardrums rupture.

There wasn’t any way that Twilight would do what my possessed teacher asked no matter what she threatened; if I was really lucky maybe she would stall long enough for everyone else to arrive. I shouldn’t have thought that; something was going to go wrong now; I know my luck.

Twilight nodded her head slowly, still glaring at my possessed teacher. I knew it, apparently I was wrong and that threat had been much worse than I thought it was going to be.

“GOOD, THAN PUSH THY MAGIC INTO THE ROCKS IN FRONT OF THEE.” Looks like that bit of my mind that said it was going to do this had been right on the money. I had precious little time to come up with a good plan, I could already see the spark forming on Twilight’s horn. Luckily though it seemed she was trying to take as long as possible to reach the point of firing.

Well I better think this through carefully, but quickly; no matter how slowly Twilight loaded the spell it wouldn’t take more than a minute or two. My first thought was to simply jump out there and knock Twilight out of position, but that likely wouldn’t work to well; Luna would just flash fry me the moment she saw me.

I glanced up to see how much more time I had until Twilight had built up her spark; it was already huge! I guess she was taking as long as she could to stall for time, she could have easily fired it off earlier. Strangely Luna didn’t seem to be doing anything to move her fast; I’m starting to wonder how much control the possessing creature actually has over my teacher.

Still either way I didn’t have more than a minute left.

Okay there is something obvious I’m missing here, I mean I still don’t understand what this entity was going to get out of doing this. The only thing that should occur, if that vision I saw was right which is still pretty questionable, is the death of both Twilight and Luna. I mean why would a controlling entity want to destroy its own host? I mean unless it was having a hard time controlling it! There was one option, it may be cliché but if I can tell Luna about an emotionally charged memory from her past maybe I could knock the creature out of the control or at least stall for time. There were far too many unknowns for me to really know if this plan would work, but I was running out of time and it was the best plan I could think of.

The first thing I’d need to do was keep Twilight from killing Luna and herself; those Elements are dangerous. So using what was probably the least intelligent plan I could think of; I galloped straight into Twilight knocking both of us into one of the walls.

“Oww!” Twilight smiled me; I guess she was glad that she hadn’t been able to do what Luna had asked.

“SO THOU HAST CHANGED THY MIND! BECAUSE WE ARE MERCIFUL, THOU SHALT HAVE ONE MORE CHANCE ON THIS TASK.” Since it hadn’t just obliterated us I’m going to take a guess and say that the reason it was granting us another chance was that it really didn’t have as much control as I thought it did; maybe Luna’s will was holding it back or something; likely it would give Twilight as many chances as she needed until she actually did do it.

I wonder why she didn’t mention me though; I mean I wasn’t exactly hiding anymore and she could have likely used me as bargaining chip, but if I was right than the creature controlling her might be hiding me from her sight. Catching sight of me likely would have given her enough of a push to regain full control.

“Twilight,” She looked like she was going to start asking questions but I cut her off, “Listen we need to stop Luna and we’re not going to be able to do that until all of you are together again, but one thing you must not use is use a magic spark. I promise I’ll tell you everything that’s going on just as soon as everyone is safe.”

“But what.” I knew she was inquisitive, but this was not the time for it.

“Afterwards I promise, right now I need you to repeat exactly what I tell you and I think that everyone will be getting out of this alive.” There was one memory in particular that I was sure would at the least keep Luna interested until the rest of the group had arrived; my entrance exam.

That day had been full of excitement and many other emotions. My parents had given me advice on how to succeed; as well as informed me about what would happen if I should fail. My sister on the other hand simply told me to do my best, while her own lagamorph familiar walked around talking and for some reason referring to Blueberry as Sam. I’d always wondered why he was always asking for something called a gun.

However, now I was by myself in the waiting room; everyone else had already finished with their turns. Most foals who went into the room came out with their own familiar, however, the few who didn’t were generally in tears. I could understand, when you failed you were often kicked from your family home and stricken from the record; nobody wanted a failure as part of their family.

I heard a click and turned towards the door to see the last foal come out smiling with a green dragon on her back. The three diamonds on the dragon’s markings on its tail marked him as Diamond’s familiar; not to mention that it was riding on her back.

I would have given my congratulation to her, but speaking in the waiting room was strictly forbidden. It was all part of the test I had been told; it was designed to make the foals nervous so that they would be forced to do the job under more difficult position. It may have worked on me if I hadn’t already been extremely frightened of what my parents would do to me if I failed.

Since I couldn’t speak to her I just gave her a smile; and received one in return. She quickly left; her dragon looking back at me with an interested expression.

“Dawn Pie please enter the summoning chamber; it is your turn.” I stood up from the chair and trotted towards the door. I could feel my nerves increasing the closer I got to the door, step by painful step I got closer. As soon as I passed the threshold the door slammed shut behind me.

The summoning chamber was huge; I had heard that it was designed that way in order to handle the kind of familiars that could be summoned; the largest one I had ever seen was a giant red dog named Clifford.
I took a glance downward; littering the floor was the summoning circle; filled with magical symbols and texts that denoted what it was designed to do.

However, it was the final thing in the room that surprised me the most. Sitting in the examiners area was Princess Luna. Honestly, that gave a huge boost to my ego. It wasn’t often that one of the princesses personally presided over an entrance exam. Most times it was just a high ranking unicorn; the princesses had to feel there was something special about you to even think about coming. If I passed this maybe I’d even end up as her personal student; then maybe my parents would be proud of me. I doubted it, but it was a nice thought.

“Dawn Pie before beginning please listen to these instructions. By performing this ritual you will be summoning your lifelong familiar. Do you understand?” I nodded my head in confirmation; I’d always wondered what would happen if you said no. Somehow I doubted they would just let you leave, it was somewhat of a secret environment.

“Good, although I realize that you likely already know this I am still required explain it to you. As a control type Unicorn you must wrap your magic around the circle itself and call to the creature’s nature; you will not be able to simply force it into existence like a power Unicorn could.” Huh that was weird, I’d never actually heard that before; maybe she really wanted me succeed? I’ll admit that I’d never heard of Luna actually taking a student before, but honestly considering how rarely anyone heard anything about the night princess I’d never really thought about it. Well I wasn’t going to look this tree in its branches.

“Please begin now.”

I found the magic in my center, it was only a small puddle at this point but it would grow, and grabbed it. I pulled on it, shaping it into a circle, before sending it out through my horn onto the summoning circle. That was when I felt it, something that felt like it was almost a part of me; I felt for its nature and began the process of turning my magic circle into a rope.

Once I had finished the shape change, which was actually easier than simply pulling my familiar directly like I’d planned to, I sent one end of it out towards the creature I felt and pulled. Even though my eyes were closed I could still see my familiar in my mind’s eye; it was small, blue, and pink. I couldn’t quite make out what it was exactly, but I knew that it wouldn’t matter. I’d find out soon enough.

I kept pulling harder and harder; trying to bring it to me, but something was wrong. It actually felt like it was resisting; I pulled harder anyway I was not going to fail. I kept pulling harder, but I could feel the magic fraying, getting closer and closer to the breaking point until it simply broke.

I fell to the ground gasping, but the worst part was that my heart was in the bottom of my stomach. I had failed, there was no familiar in front of me; worse I had failed in front of the Princess. My family would disown me, I’d be homeless. The worst part was that I would likely never get to see my sister again.

I started to cry, the wet tears hit the ground marring the ground. I began to stand up and turn around to leave in shame; I didn’t want to hear it when she announced my failure.

“You passed.” What did she just say? I must need to get my hearing checked. I turned around to face the princess and saw a smile on her face.

“What did you say?” My voice was hoarse from my tears.

“You passed.” She was still smiling; this had to be a hallucination, there was no way that I had passed. I mean I hadn’t even managed to call my familiar.

“I…passed?” I was hesitant, I needed to process this. I hadn’t summoned anything at all; I’d only gotten close. There was no way that could be right. The princess must be playing teasing me; I’d never thought she would have been that cruel though.

“Yes you Dawn Pie passed.”

“How?”

“Although you did not manage to bring your familiar here it was not due to any fault of your own; there was another entity involved.” She held out a piece of paper with her magic, “This is your certificate of acceptance; go show it to your family.” She was still smiling at me and I couldn’t help but smile back.

Grabbing the piece of paper I galloped all the way home. The last thing I heard as I left was something that started with a C that sounded very much like a curse. I didn’t care, I’d passed.

I continued to gallop all the way to my home and even into the foyer. My parents had been lounging in front of the fireplace when I rushed in and showed them the sheet of paper. However, when I heard them gasp I could feel my heart sink; maybe it really had been an elaborate prank by Luna and I was about to be kicked out of my home. I looked at the ground; ready to hear their proclamation, but when nothing happened I chanced a glance upwards.

My parents were smiling at me holding out the paper for me to see. Where it was supposed to give a class number instead was written Luna’s Student.

I’m not sorry to say that I fainted after that; it happens too often for me to care.

Luna’s eyes had gotten progressively wider throughout the retelling and Twilight herself seemed somewhat shocked by the story. I wasn’t really focused on any of that though, I just made sure that Twilight continued to repeat everything that I was telling her; repeating the story as many times as would be necessary for the rest of the group to show up.

I could only hope that they would get here soon though, I had no idea how long this plan would function; there wasn’t any good indicator that it would work indefinitely. Honestly I was still surprised it was working at all; it was probably the silliest and least thought out plan I had ever made, but when faced with overwhelming odds I suppose those are sometimes the best plans.

After the fourth retelling I could tell that Twilight voice was starting to get tired; I wasn’t doing much better. It may not have been the most strenuous of things, but talking for an hour straight is not an easy task. Luckily it seems that won’t be an issue, I could hear the hoofsteps coming closer to us.

unfortunately the moment that the other mares arrived was also the time at which Twilight and I had to pause for a breather; it seemed it was enough time for whatever was controlling Luna to regain control.

“THIS WILL MAKE THINGS EASIER FOR US; ALL OF YOU ARE HERE! I CAN SIMPLY DESTROY YOU ALL AT ONCE. TIS A SHAME DAWN ISN’T HERE, I’D BE ABLE TO GET RID OF HIM AS WELL.” Well there was no way that the mares didn’t know that she had at least known me. I suppose it doesn’t really matter at this point; saving Luna from this parasite was far more important than any prank or revenge.

“Okay girls I need you to use the Elements on Luna.” They all gave me a look like I was crazy I could only hope they would listen to me with that little revelation about my connection, but apparently the only thing that had made them think was that I was crazy for giving that command, “You do know how to use them don’t you.”

“Of course we don’t silly, we never bothered to read the instruction manual page of the Elements a Harmony a Reference Guide, it had too many words.”

“Oh vey, than what did you expect to do when you got here anyway.” I don’t know why, but Luna appeared to be content just watching us; I wasn’t going to complain about it in any case.

“The books I read were all very vague on the subject only mentioning that a spark would activate them, but you stopped me before I could use a magic spark; why did you do that anyway.” She was giving the cutest look of inquisitiveness I’d seen since I’d seen it on Diamond, but I just shivered from the thought of what would have happened.

“Let’s just say that the results would have been very gory.” I hoped they would leave it at that, “Well since there doesn’t seem to be any other ideas, I need you girls to just go and grab one Element each; the only thing I know for sure about how these things work is that it takes six mares.”

I could only watch as they trotted towards the stone Elements, but as Twilight took a step forward Luna reacted. I don’t know why that is, but I held her back from moving any farther.

It seems that just touching them was enough to have them turn back into their original form, because as soon as they had they were glowing with an incredible holy power. That wasn’t the end of it though; they seemed to be doing something else.

I saw a flash of bright white light flare as soon as the mares brought their hooves into contact with the stones. For at least a few minutes I couldn’t see anything at all; however, when I could see again something very different stood before my eyes. The Elements were no longer where they had been, but in their place silver bands were wrapped around each of the mares legs; upon which were a depiction of their flank markings. I have no idea what it meant, but they were glowing with even more power than before.

I heard a gasp to my left and turned to see that Twilight had seemingly also gained a set of these armbands; gold in comparison to the other mares silver. This was probably a good sign; especially since it seemed that Luna was trying to back away from us now. I could only hope that this would give my teacher back full command of her faculties.

“Well girls fire when ready!” I could see their looks of incomprehension; I could swear that I heard crickets chirping in the background.

“Dawn, we still don’t know how.” Yeah I probably should have realized that; I guess I was just hoping that it would be instinctive. You know, they would put them on and it would go into auto-fire mode and fire the mind control reversal ray or something. Too bad these artifacts didn’t come with an instruction manual or if they had at least read it if Pinkie was right...

That was when the tail decided that it was taking everyone far too long to do something and slapped Twilight on the flank; she glared at me, but light still began to flow out from Twilight’s manacles. I guess my tail knew how things worked better than I did; I certainly didn’t know how that had worked. Maybe it had been something to do with Pinkie Pie or the combination of a power and control Unicorns; I honestly have no idea and right now I don’t care. When I have some more time I’ll run some experiments.

“Oooohh it’s a power party yay!” Of course Pinkie Pie would be excited by this.

The bright light began to build up around the six mares; each one a different color. Luna just stood there on the stage; as if waiting for the power to strike her, but I could see her trying to move closer to it. My teacher was still in there and this would bring her out of it.

A bright white light precipitated the release of the rainbow energy beam. It began flying closer and closer to my teacher, but right as it was about to strike her it stopped. It was floating in midair right in front of her in the form of a ball.

“MWHAHAH NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOT EVEN THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY.”
I guess the energy decided that it didn’t like being insulted because it began to change form again into the shape of a boot. Still however, it merely continued to float a few inches from Luna.

“Ah’m sorry this don’t make no sense no how. Why isn’t it doing anything.” It seemed that it was going to take Applejacks words as a reason to do something because it soon kicked Luna right in the head before flying out the window behind her.

I could only gape at the sight; it was so far from what I had expected to happen that it just made no sense at all. I had expected it to maybe hit her full force and drive dark energy from her body, not simply knock her out. Wait it had knocked her out!

I galloped up to my teacher to make sure that she was till all right. It wouldn’t do for something bad to have happened after what I had just happened. I put my head near her mouth; the sound of her breathing reassured me that she was alright.

I was about to perform a more thorough inspection, but the sound of screaming outside the window drew my attention towards it. Looking outside I saw a sight that I wasn’t likely to forget for a long time to come; Celestia being chased by a rainbow colored boot. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to do that, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. I wish I had some way to capture this for posterity, I could have sent it to the newspaper; ruining her reputation would have been enough to satisfy my need for vengeance. Ah well, there was going to be a lot more time for me to get back at her for what she did.

My thoughts of revenge ground to a halt when I began to feel a rather familiar sensation; one that I had felt back during my entrance exam. There was no way, absolutely np way that it was here. I’d need to find whatever could approximate it that well though and deal with it.

I rushed out the room leaving one unconscious teacher and six surprised mares behind. Luna would be fine; this needed to be dealt with now.
___________

Author's Notes: I would really like feedback on this chapter so could you please take a moment to comment on it after reading? Thank you all very much.

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Disclaimer This is the Dawn Show starring Dawn Pie, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and me the Disclaimer.

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The moment I stepped outside I realized that this plan had ignored my normal, rational thought process; well okay a mostly rational thought process, I couldn’t say that I always thought things through in a logical manner. In fact I don’t think I even had a plan when I’d rushed out here, I’d just followed that feeling.

The real problem was that I had left Luna behind; I shouldn’t have done that no matter what state she had been in or whatever had been affecting me. What made it worse was that I had left her with ponies that have every reason to dislike her and in her possibly injured state, caused by the unknown effects of a set of power magical artifacts, there is every possibility that they would try and hurt her. Well okay I didn’t really think they would do that, but I couldn’t help feeling worried about it.

What’s even worse is that I have no idea what this feeling actually means; for all I know it could be a normal for ponies to feel this sort of thing now. Perhaps this feeling was caused by changes in magical fields or something. I mean I don’t even know much about what has changed since I was put into stone; I didn’t get news. I should have asked the others before rushing out here, probably even have brought them out here with me. That would have solved two of my problems at once; I would have been able to make sure they couldn’t hurt Luna and I could have explained what was going on at the same time. I mean I Pie Promised to tell them…

This is bad, this is reeeeaaaally bad. If they decide I broke a Pie Promise I’ll be in big trouble. Hopefully they consider this little issue with Celestia to be part of the ‘after it’s all over’ bit of my promise. I still remember the one time I’d seen someone break a Pie Promise.

It was the day of my sister’s birthday party. She was so happy about it, literally bouncing off the walls. Although in this case she was doing it without breaking the laws of physics. Somepony had recently invented the idea of a rubber house filled with air for birthday parties, it was rather fun to bounce in.

I had just finished playing in the rubber house and was trotting over to the food table to get some cake when I saw my mother talking to a pony I had never seen before. He was dark grey in coloration and his flank marking was a picture of two crossed hooves. I was just barely close enough to hear what was being said.

“So cousin Mendax, do you promise not to cause any trouble this time?” My mother looked at Mendax sternly. I had never heard about a cousin Mendax before and I know all of the ponies in our family for at least a few generations back. Maybe he just wasn’t a real cousin?

“Of course auntie, I Pie Promise.” I had heard ponies say the promise so often that I kind of just tuned it out; although I found it odd that I didn’t hear any sound of him poking himself in the eye. I never could get around that problem.

“Good enough for me.” My mother nodded before trotting off; waving at Mendax, “Have fun at the party.”

Once my mother was out of sight Mendax looked in my direction and smirked. I don’t know if he actually saw me or not, but he trotted off after a second or two. Since I didn’t have much else to do, I trotted after him; I wanted to learn more about this cousin I had never met, but I just couldn’t walk up to him and talk. I mean what if he didn’t like me or something.

The way he trotted was rather strange; he kept hiding behind everything he could and sending glances all over the place. I felt that he was trying way too hard to pretend to be inconspicuous; he seemed to be heading for the punch bowl, but why would he need to be surreptitious about it? It didn’t really make much sense.

He glanced backwards in my direction, my tail pulled to the left and I dodged right behind a tree. He didn’t seem bothered by what had just happened. Now that I think about it, hiding didn’t really make any sense; this was a party, hiding like this would just make me seem suspicious.

Well since I was already behind this tree I might as well watch and see what he does. Peaking around the tree, I took a glance toward him. He took a bottle out of his coat pocket and looked about ready to pour it into the punch bowl.

Now I know that I’m one of the shyer ponies around, but even I wasn’t going to let someone break a Pie Promise without trying to stop them. I galloped as fast as I could towards Mendax; I need to stop him, I don’t think he knows the punishment for breaking a Pie Promise. It was rather unfortunate that I didn’t know that trick Pie mares use to pop out of random places because than my action might have actually made a difference.

When I’d reached Mendax, a drop of the liquid from its container had already hit the punch. Even though I knew it was too late, I was moving too fast to stop by this point and ran straight into him; which gave me a front row seat to seeing the punishment.

His flank mark faded out of existence and along with it whatever special ability he may have had. It was cruel punishment, but it was very effective.

“HOW DARE YOU BREAK A PIE PROMISE!” Blueberry popped out the punch bowl wearing the ladle on her head; if it hadn’t been for her flaming eyes she would have appeared rather comical. At the moment it merely inspired fear in me; I knew she could do this, but I’d never actually seen her do it. The few others I’d seen someone nearly break a Pie Promise it had always been my mother who popped out with the flaming eyes. Seeing her like this made me Pie Promise myself that I would never break a Pie Promise without a good reason; I don’t think I could stand seeing her do it again.

That was one of my scariest memories, but there wasn’t much use crying over spilt milk. I’d deal with the consequences of my action when they arrived, but I still hoped that they would be willing to give me this little extension. I do not want what happened to cousin Mendax to happen to me; I like my flank mark.

The sound of hoofsteps brought me out of my thoughts. I could only hope that they were following me because they were curious about why I had run off and not because Pinkie had told them I had broken my Pie Promise; I’ve never been able to figure out how the mares of the family can always tell when someone broke a Pie Promise well before they see them. I really am planning to explain all of it to them as soon as I find out why I am getting this feeling. It wasn’t like there was any reason to hide it from them anymore; the prank had already failed and that had been my only reason to keep them in the dark. I hope they wouldn’t hate me for lying to them; I’d really like them to be my friends.

The sound of pounding hooves was getting louder now, but it was now accompanied by the sound of a spring bouncing. I continued waiting, ignoring the pulling sensation. Even if I had been inclined to follow it I couldn’t have, the pull was coming from almost straight up. In fact it was pointing towards where Celestia was being chased by the Rainbow Boot; far too high for me to reach without flying, which I still lack the capacity to do.

“Hey Dawn!” I blinked once, twice…than jumped into the air and grabbed a nearby candelabrum. I shook my head; even when I know beforehoof about a Pie mare sneaking up on me, certain reactions simply cannot be stopped. It was never my favorite reaction.

Now that I think about it, I’m kind of curious as to where this candelabrum came from; I mean it’s on the ‘outside’ of the keep, but I probably shouldn’t think about. It’s probably just part of my family traits.

“I knew you wouldn’t really run away and break a Pie Promise you just wanted some fresh air right?” Just like every other time this sort of thing occurred, the Pie mares just continued to talk as if the Pie stallion was still sitting on the ground normally. I was glad that Pinkie’s eyes weren’t on fire, it meant I hadn’t broken my Pie Promise.

“I mean it’s such a nice dawn. Hey that matches your name isn’t it lucky that we came out here just in time for the sun to rise! It’s so beautiful!” I suppose at this point she was just trying to waste some time while waiting for the others to arrive; which is fine with me, I can’t do anything else at the moment.

Wait a second, why was the sun rising now? It’s been night for far too long for it to have been natural. Well I suppose since the solar orbit is controlled by a pony that it’s pretty hard to call it natural, but it’s still weird. I mean right after we remove whatever was possessing Luna the sun rises? I can’t help feeling that this is more than just coincidence. Especially since Celestia was still being chased by that Rainbow Boot, she couldn’t have enough time to raise it. So who had done the deed?

I took a glance upwards towards Celestia; yup, she was still was still flying faster than the boot, but only barely. Honestly, I know that I don’t like her much, but I can’t really understand why that energy would be chasing her. I need to make sure that I get my hooves on that manual before we need to use them again; don’t ask me how I know that we’re going to need them again, I just do. They seem like that kind of artifact.

The sound of more hoofsteps approaching brought me out of my thoughts. I’m honestly surprised I can hear them over Pinkie’s running monologue. I suddenly wish that I had been listening to her, a Pie mares monologue can be fun to listen to sometimes.

Since I’d rather not be caught hanging around on this candelabrum when the others arrive, I release it and land on my hooves. That was lucky for me, generally when I drop off of an object like that I land on my flank and hurt myself.

I’m still rather curious where that candelabrum had come from; it had been the only one on the outside of the keep. Looking back towards where I had been hanging, I realized that it was gone… which was actually normal with these things; they always seem to disappear on me when I don’t need them anymore.

“Dawn, what exactly is going on here? Why did you run away right after we defeated Nightmare Moon?” Twilight was the first to arrive, with the others falling in behind her; I suppose I’d missed Twilight arrival while looking at the former spot of the candelabrum. I need to stop being distracted so easily, it’s becoming a rather disastrous issue. Well at least the first question she asked was a rather easy one for me to answer; even if I didn’t really have a good explanation.

“Honestly, I don’t really know. I didn’t really have any real desire to come out here, but it felt like I needed to.”

“What do you mean?” I suppose that’s a fair question really; I still didn’t really understand it myself. Maybe if I tried to explaining the feeling it would make more sense? If I was lucky, I might find out that this was natural for ponies today, but from what I was seeing so far I rather doubted it.

“Uhh… the best way I can explain it is that it feels almost like a..a.. pulling sensation; it feels quite like this other sensation I felt back when I was a foal. It just feels like I needed to be out here to find out what this feeling is.” The looks of confusion didn’t clear up in the least, I suppose I’d need to try and find a better simile, “Have you ever been late to an event and just suddenly realized that you were late,” They all nodded, “well it’s kind of like that, but replace being late with just needing to be somewhere. I know it sounds vague, but this feeling is rather vague and hard to explain.” Hopefully that would be enough to keep them satisfied, I don’t think that I could really explain it any better. I doubt they would know about the summoning ritual and the feeling that comes with it; hopefully I could explain a little better when I could get a few books on my hooves.

“Even if that is the case, which Am a little doubtful about, that still don’t explain how you knew that Nightmare Moon was really called Luna.” Applejack had seemingly decided to take over the questioning from Twilight. I guess it made sense; Twilight hadn’t actually been there when I had called Nightmare Moon Luna. From the look on Twilights face, I think she might also be trying to figure out more about the feeling I had just been explaining about. She never seems to let go of puzzle until she’s solved it.

Hey hold on a second, I don’t remember ever telling them that Nightmare Moon was Luna exactly; I only told them that we needed to rescue Twilight and Luna. Which makes it rather odd that Applejack could know that my teacher was Nightmare Moon. I suppose it’s possible that they made the leap of logic, but I don’t for sure. I may be being paranoid, but considering everything that’s happened to me up to this point; I think I had reason to be suspicious. Well that’s what questions are good for.

“Hold on a second, how did you know that Nightmare Moon was Luna?” I looked pointedly into Applejack, trying to see if she was going to lie to me.

“I ain’t answerin your question until you answer mine.” That was acceptable to me, it didn’t really matter much who answered first; my information wasn’t really that valuable to anyone except me. I suppose I could give it up in order to assuage my paranoia.

“Well I knew Luna before she was sent to the moon, I w-”

“Oh you mean before you were trapped in stone for a thousand years and you had to watch everyone you ever knew die. For some reason everyone seems to think that you should be sad about that, why is that anyway; they all know that Pie ponies are kind of strange in the head oh and maybe it was some kind of magical doohickie or something. I mean I don’t really know what anyone else is thinking, but come on give me a break I like to point out plot holes. I promise that it will be filled in later. Also I’m sorry if anyone feels offended by this line of dialogue, if you don’t like tell me and I’ll take it out.” All the mares looked highly confused about her latest outburst; even I couldn’t catch anything she said past the bit about me being trapped in stone and I’ve had practice with Pie mares. Even she looked a little confused about what had just come out of her mouth. Well it probably wasn’t important anyway; I’d need to deal with the fallout from the earliest bit of her monologue first. Hopefully this wouldn’t come back and bite me in the flank.

“Pinkie you’re a strange one.” Applejack was giving Pinkie a knowing grin, “There ain’t no way that happened.” I know I shouldn’t enjoy this sort of thing, but I couldn’t help feeling that I wouldn’t get such a great opening again for quite a long time to come.

“Oh! So you agree with Pinkie, that’s good because that is what happened. I was trapped in stone for a thousand years waiting to get out; it wasn’t a fun time.” The looks on all the ponies’ faces were absolutely priceless. I should feel really bad about, but I don’t; it was just too funny. It doesn’t hurt anypony and they asked for the answer. Still I hope they don’t ask for specifics; I was not looking forward to relieving those memories.

I heard the sound of air being displaced. That reminds me; what is going on with that chase? I guess since everyone else is distracted by earlier agreement with Pinkie, I could take another glance to see how the chase had progressed.
Somehow Celestia was still speeding a few feat ahead of the boot. Perhaps Celestia could move faster than I thought, but I don’t think that’s likely; the boot should be able to move at the speed of light, it was made of rainbows after all. Even if it could only move at the speed of magic, it would still be faster than her. Magic is the second fastest thing in the world, right after light.

Why in the world am I analyzing this like I actually know something about these artifacts; I don’t know anything about them! For all I know the energy is just really slow moving or something. I wasn’t going to complain about it though, the longer that chase took the more time I had to explain things before the next catastrophe. I’d rather not be stuck without my flank marking.

“Equestria to Dawn, Equestria to Dawn, come in Dawn.” The sound of Pinkie’s voice brought my attention back to the group of mares. From what I could see, the four of them were still in shock. Wait a second…four mares plus Pinkie Pie only equals five mares! That was one too few; who was missing? Let see, there’s Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and… “Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

The question seemed to snap the rest of them out of their shock. Personally I didn’t think it was that amazing of a question, but I guess they disagree with me or maybe just any sound at that particular moment would have woken them up. Hopefully, they would still answer the question.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Strangely, Rarity seemed to be the one taking the initiative; whatever works I suppose. The fact that they ignored my time spent in stone didn’t really bother me, I didn’t want to talk about it right now anyway and apologizing for things that are not your fault doesn’t really make sense anyway.

“I asked where Dash is, I don’t see her here with you.” Rarity took a glance back up towards the tower we had been in before refocusing back on me.

“It was the strangest thing darlin’. As soon as you galloped out of there, Dash took a single look at Nightmare Moon and called her Princess Luna.” She shrugged her shoulders, “Then she simply wouldn’t leave her side; no matter how much we beg and pleaded with her. I thought she was mad.” Well that was odd. I mean I’m glad someone stayed behind with Luna, a pony should not leave his unconscious teacher alone, but it still seems out of character for Dash. She had been the one who was most suspicious of me, why would she want to stay with someone that I was attached to? There wasn’t any good reason for her to stay there all alone with a potentially dangerous pony.

Well, I probably wouldn’t be able to answer this question until I get the chance to talk to her again; I’ll just put it on the slowly overflowing backburner for the moment. This did answer my earlier question, they had known about Nightmare Moon being Luna because somehow Dash had known. That answer didn’t really make me feel any better.

“AAHHHHH” Celestia’s scream drew my attention back to the sky. She was still being chased by the Rainbow Boot, it was even closer now.

“Oh no, oh no, I just attacked the Princess!!” Twilight’s panicked voice brought my sight back to ground level again, I think I might get whiplash if this keeps happening.

Twilight’s mane and tail were pointing out in all directions, “There’s no way I’m going to be getting out of this; I should have listened to her when she warned me that the Elements were unstable. She’s going to send me to back to magic kindergarten for this, I just know it!” I guess she’d finished processing everything that had happened since they used the Elements or maybe she hadn’t seen Celestia when we were looking out the window earlier. In this case either was likely; if I wasn’t who I am I would likely be in shock from all that happened.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter; what did matter was making sure that she didn’t go completely crazy because of guilt. I wish I could say I was doing this as a completely selfless act, but I’m really hoping I can keep them from asking about what it was like to be stone.

“Twilight, you need to calm down, I don’t think she’d do anything to you. How could you have possibly known what the Elements would do? And you’re her student, why would she punish you for something so far out of your control?” Twilight’s mouth fell open; somehow I get the feeling that I have yet to learn that saying things without looking at it from other’s perspective first is not the best of ideas.

“Honestly, I don’t think she will and I should know; I’m her sister’s student.” I probably should have waited to make that revelation until Twilight had gotten over her little episode, because the other mares started gaping at me again. They had only just stopped a minute ago!

“You don’t understand. One time I accidently broke a flower pot and she put me into time out for a week.” Apparently Twilight had either decided to ignore my revelation of my relation with Luna or had completely missed it. I think everpony else had decided that Twilight’s breakdown was more important than learning about me right now. I had to agree, I would be available to answer their questions later, we needed to help Twilight now.

“I’m sure that everything will be fine Twilight...that is if you don’t mind I mean.” The look Twilight gave Fluttershy bordered on absolute pleading with just a tinge of anger. She looked like she was hoping Fluttershy was right, but somehow I felt that she was going to continue anyway.

“You have no idea about the horrors that are involved in one Celestia’s Timeouts. They are the absolute worst punishment you could receive; even worse than Magic Kindergarten.” I saw her eyes widen, “You don’t think she’d send me to it again do you?” I can understand her reluctance to accept that she wouldn’t get in trouble; I felt the same way with Luna and she was generally in more trouble than I was. A student never wants to disappoint their teacher, but the fact that she had experienced one of Celestia’s Time Outs was far worse; I remember when I was put in one myself.

I’d really done it this time, I did something really bad. I needed to confess what I’d done to Luna; I’d rather be known for something I can’t change at this point than deal with the consequences of lying to my teacher.

Unfortunately, it seemed that my teacher was playing hard to get today; I couldn’t seem to find her anywhere. I’d already checked every one of her rooms and even the kitchen, but no matter where I looked she wasn’t there. My head felt it was going to explode from what I had done.

I tried to find somepony else, but everyone in the entire castle seemed to have gone on vacation or something; the castle was entirely empty. I decided that if I couldn’t find anypony else, maybe I could find Celestia; she always seemed to be around somewhere. I felt the need to tell somepony in power anyway; I really needed somepony to know what I had done wrong. I know it’s a rather strange concept, but I know for a fact that I’m rather strange.

Since it was nighttime I at least knew where I could find Celestia. I galloped up towards her room and knocked on her door. I could hear somepony moving around her room, right before the door slammed open.

“WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE SLEEP OF THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN!” Her eyes were incandescent, glowing in the dark. If I didn’t have this overpowering need to turn myself in, I likely would have galloped away at this point.

“Um, it’s me, Dawn.” She looked down at me, staring me in the eye.

“Oh, it’s you.” Her eyes dimmed down back to their normal color of blue, “You wouldn’t believe some of the things that will wake me up.” I had no idea if she had misspoken or was really implying that she was never sure about what type of creature would be waking her up next. I suppose that didn’t matter.

“So what do you want?”

“I just wanted to tell you something.” I was nervous, I’d never really felt all that comfortable being around Celestia by myself; it sometimes felt like something else was watching me.

“Go on…”

“I just needed to tell somepony that I broke that vase in the castle foyer.” I saw her eyes widen and realized that this was a terrible idea; I should have just waited until I could find Luna.

“YOU DID WHAT? THAT WAS INVALUABLE ANTIQUE THAT CAN NEVER BE REPLACED! PREPARE TO BE PUNISHED, IN TIME OUT!” She sent a bolt of magical energy at me and suddenly my entire perception had been altered. The world appeared upside down and inside out; it was almost like everything was wrong.

“I will let you out in an hour.” Even Celestia’s voice sounded muffled and strange, like it was coming over a horribly long distance. I felt that this was an unusual and cruel punishment for what had been a rather small transgression. I know which vase she was talking about, I had destroyed the one next to it; the one she Celestia had given Luna for her birthday last year. Honestly I know that it was near worthless, which was why I had been looking for Luna.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go throw up from all the colors and weird movements that I’m currently seeing.

I never want to deal with one of those again and I’d never let anypony else, especially Twilight, have to go through something like that. That was neither the here nor there at the moment though; right now I’d need to convince Twilight of that fact.

“Tw-”

“Twilight, dear, even if Princess Celestia should try to place all the blame upon you; we will all take at least a part of the blame. If you will be punished, we will be there with you.” Rarity stole my line! I mean come on, I was going to say something like that; well I would only really be talking for me, but it would have been pretty similar. Like I would ever let Twilight take all of the blame for something like this; I don’t even know what is going to happen. I really wish I had that manual at the moment.

“I ag-”

“Ah agree with Rarity,” Applejack eye twitched a little, “I can’t believe I said that, but it’s true. No matter what happens we are your friends and we’ll help you out with your problems no matter the consequences.” Why couldn’t I get my mouth open in time to get one of these lines; they are freaking perfect!

“Really? You’re all my friends?” I guess Twilight still didn’t believe that she wouldn’t be getting in trouble or at the very least that she wouldn’t be going into a time out by herself. I remember how when I had seen Twilight upset while I was a statue that the only one that she ever really seemed comforted by was her brother Shining Armor; I guess I can understand why she doesn’t feel like she can believe them, she’s never had anyone else who would try. I was going to be next in this little procession of positive influence.

“Of cou-”

“Of course we’re your friends Twilight, why else would I have thrown you that party in your library that you didn’t actually attend. That reminds me I need to make you a new party for meeting you and actually have you attend it. Oooohhhh wait a second I also need to give a party to Dawn for getting out of stone, I promised that I’d do that for him so long ago. Hmm…” Now Pinkie is doing it, will I get to make a single line in this conversation? Well at least Twilight looks happier; she’s smiling and not shaking and her hair isn’t popping all over the place anymore. Honestly I think that Pinkie is a really good influence when people seem to be going mad; her madness makes you realize it can be fun.

“Thanks you everypony.” Even if she was feeling better, I still wanted to get a line here.

“I’m gl-”

“You’re welcome…if that’s okay that is.” Really? Even Fluttershy, the shyest one in the group, is getting a line here before me. Okay everyone else has gotten to say something; well it’s my turn now.
I trotted over to Twilight and patted her on the head, “I’m glad that you’re feeling better Twilight, I was worried there.” I realize that it was probably out of line considering she had just met me for the first time a few hours ago, but I really wanted to help and get a line in. I wanted her to know that I also was there for her.

*BOOM*

A loud boom above us drew our attention. The Rainbow Boot had caught up to Celestia and hit her in the flank, I still can’t understand why it took so long, and just like what happened with Luna it seems that she had fallen unconscious.
Strangely the energy did something odd, well odder than what it had been doing before anyway. Instead of either dissipating or flying off somewhere like I had assumed it would, it split into two parts. Half of the energy flew underneath Celestia, in order to keep her supported in midair I suppose, while the other half flew into her mouth.

“What in the world just happened?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from what was going on to look at Twilight or anypony else, but I have the feeling they were all staring at the scene as well.

“I have absolutely no clue.” I have no idea what is going on up there, why would that energy fly into Celestia? It just didn’t fit any of its past actions; then again, I still didn’t know anything about it.

I could see that the energy inside of Celestia seemed to be coming out of her as small particles; forming into some kind of shape, I think an egg. This was making less and less sense the longer I watched, but that feeling I had been ignoring until now began to magnify, almost literally trying to drag me towards it; whatever was in that egg was what I had felt earlier.

Once the egg had fully formed, the rainbow energy began dissipating. I came to the sudden realization that when that energy completely disappeared, Celestia would fall. This was a problem for me; no matter how little I liked Celestia right now I did not want her dead. For the moment I’d need to resist the drag of that egg; I’d have plenty of time to deal with it when this crisis was over.

I began to form a net spell. I heard Twilight gasp, I guess she must have come to the same realization that I had; the feeling of a spell being cast right next to me confirmed my suspicion. Hopefully one of us would be fast enough; spells that could bleed the amount of momentum that Celestia was building up would take a while to cast.

*Boom*

The noise of second explosion of sound broke my concentration, it nearly made the spell I was casting go critical. Luckily I was able to salvage the energy before it did and reform it as a simple light spell. Not useful for the current issue, but at least we wouldn’t be standing in a crater. The appearance of a purple glow to my left made me think that Twilight had the same issue as I had and used the same plan to fix it.

Ignoring that issue for the moment, I looked upward; at the very least Celestia deserved somepony to be watching her death.

I blinked once; I could not believe what I was seeing. There are two trails of energy in the air, energy that is only released when a pony goes supersonic. One of them was the color of the night sky, obviously Luna’s, while the other was the color of a muted rainbow, which I could only assume meant it belonged to Rainbow Dash. This was honestly amazing; there are very few ponies that can perform a feat like this and we just got to watch two of them happen at the same time. I really need to find some way of turning memories into physical representations that anypony could see; I am getting some amazing images today.

Overcoming my amazement, I realized that Celestia was likely still falling. I almost began another spell, knowing that there would be nowhere near enough time to catch her, when I noticed that she was no longer falling towards the ground. She was being held in the air by both Luna and Rainbow Dash. I knew there was a reason that Luna hadn’t planned something that would do more than inconvenience Celestia. Well that made more sense than having the both of them just flying out there for no reason whatsoever. Still a little confused about why Rainbow is working with Luna though.

Now that I didn’t have the crisis to deal with, that feeling that had first dragged me out here was becoming much more insistent. It was literally it was dragging me towards that egg; which I suppose had somehow landed intact. Since I had no reason to resist it anymore, I began trotting towards the egg. Honestly, at this point I was curious about what this feeling dragging me even meant.

“Hey where are you going Dawn?” The sound of Twilight’s voice behind almost made me ground to a halt; I say almost because I stopped trotting, but was still being dragged towards the egg. She was trotting next to me, looking down at my hooves in wonder.

“How are you doing that?” Her eyes had widened, I guess she thought the fact that I was still moving while my legs remained still was rather strange. Honestly, I was getting used to it at this point.

“I have no idea,” She seemed rather annoyed by that answer, “but to answer your first question… do you remember that sensation that I was talking about earlier?”

“I remember, you said that you felt like you needed to be out here…” I could almost see the cogs working in her mind, her eyes widened in surprise, “wait are you saying?”

“Yah, whatever that egg that came from Celestia was, that was what’s been calling me out here.” I looked towards the groove I was leaving in the dirt, “and it’s much stronger now.”

“This is amazing, I have to study it and learn how this works! I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m coming along.” I suppose I didn’t really have a choice or any real reason to stop her. Besides, she just looked so enthused; her eyes were sparkling with interest, she looked so incredibly cute. I think I’m going to call this scientist mode.

“Sure, I could use the company.” An idea almost literally hit me in the head now, this could be fun. “Hey Twilight I have something I want to test, mind helping me?” She blinked her eyes at me; I guess I had broken her train of thought.

“Sorry what did you say?”

“I asked if you would be willing to help me with a little test.” Her eyes lit up at the word test; I don’t really understand how or why she did that, but a lot of mares seemed to be able to make their eyes light up like that. I don’t think I’d ever seen a stallion do it though.

“Of course. What did you want to test?” This was perfect; this was going to fun.

“I just need you to grab my tail.”

“Grab your tail?” One of her eyebrows rose upwards, “What would that test?” Okay, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, what could I say that would make her do this? Oh I know.

“It would test how much weight this energy can pull. Who knows when we’re going to have another chance like this?” Her eyes lit up again.

“You’re right, how often does one get to test a completely unknown force anyway!” She tried to take a bite out into my tail, but right before she did my tail decided it wasn’t going to get bitten and changed into a pair of bicycle handles.

“I don’t understand how that works, but after this is over I’m going to find out.” That could be interesting actually, maybe I would finally know if my tail was haunted or something. Maybe a ghost was haunting Pie tails and its children would live within the tail of the Pie’s child. Maybe the male ghosts were just less knowledgeable about what they could do and that was why we weren’t able to do what the females could. I realized that was an unlikely theory and threw it into the deepest reaches of my mind; I would probably end up using it later anyway.

Twilight reached out with her hooves and grabbed hold of my tail; her weight seemingly making no difference to my momentum; we continued to be pulled forward regardless.

“So where did the egg land anyway?”

“Somewhere in that direction, we’ll find out when we get there.” I couldn’t decide whether I wanted this to last a long time or not; the ground wasn’t the softest thing to slide on, but I was still having a lot of fun.

It took almost half an hour before we reached the eggs landing spot. It was a good thing that the ground had become soft about halfway; it had been starting chafe.

Now that we were here, I took glance around. It was rather strange; it looked like it had been constructed rather than grown. The egg was sitting in a nest surrounded by blue and white flowers. On second thought, maybe it had just landed on a birds nest in a tree and had crash landed in the flowers; wouldn’t be the first time that coincidence had struck.

“A dragon egg? Well that’s odd.” Twilight’s voice drew my attention; I guess while I had been studying the surrounding area she had gone straight for the egg, “I’ve never read about dragon eggs being magically formed from the body of a pony, let alone an Alicorn. I wonder if there’s anything special about it.” That is rather strange really, why would this egg come from Celestia by way of a magic rainbow and why did I feel drawn to it anyway? I mean it didn’t make much sense.

“What do you think is inside of it?” Her eyes were sparkling again, scientist Twilight is still in charge it seems.

“I honestly have no idea, maybe it’s still just a dragon? I mean there isn’t any real reason for it not to be.” She smiled at me; the sparkle was growing brighter, which was beginning to worry me. I really don’t know why that is, it was only a sparkle.

“I guess the only way to know what’s inside of it is to hatch it.” Her smile brightened; I think she was having far too much fun with something that could be potentially dangerous. Of course, I’m not going to say that I didn’t want to see what was inside as well.

“So how do we do it?”

“Like this.” Before I could ask her what she meant, she had already begun to send a straight line of power energy at the egg. What little I could see out of the corner of my eye nearly blinded me; Twilight really held a lot of magic.

Since I could do little to stop her at this point, I just looked at the egg hoping that it would react in some manner. Nothing happened and nothing continued to happen except that Twilight was becoming tired. What had once been an extremely bright beam of energy was starting to dim. I think I better stop her before she drops unconscious from exhaustion.

“Twilight stop! I don’t think this idea is working.” She looked a little downcast, or maybe it just exhaustion, and I felt the need to try and perk her back up, “I have another idea though.” She gave me a curious look, at least she wasn’t frowning anymore; I hadn’t liked how it looked on her.

“What did you have in mind?”

“Just let me have a shot.” I began to build up power into my horn. I had the feeling that the reason why Twilight’s magic hadn’t worked was twofold. First she was a power Unicorn and this egg might want control magic instead. The other reason was a little more obvious, I was the one reacting to it and it might just want my magic.

I fired a short bolt; I would never be able to keep up the kind of stream that Twilight had, but it seemed to work anyway. I could feel the magic resonating within the egg, beating like a heart.

The egg began to crack; a piece of shell flew off, barely missing my eye by an inch. I don’t know exactly why, but I felt elated by that response. I watched as bit by bit more of the egg shell was broken off and the creature inside it became visible. Finally, when the last bit of the egg was broken and the creature was visible it was obvious what it was

“A baby dragon?” I guess she had still expected something grander, which made sense when one thought about it. An egg shaped by mystical forces from one of the most powerful beings on our planet and the thing that comes out of it, is a normal dark blue baby dragon. I could understand how that might feel underwhelming, but this dragon was what had been pulling me here; I wonder why that was. In fact I could still feel the pull towards it; it was a rather strange sensation now.

“DAMN IT, I HAD ALMOST TAKEN COMPLETE CONTROL OF THAT MARE! I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE MOST POWERFUL BEING ON THE PLANET!” Holy crap! The baby dragon could talk! I’d never heard about a baby dragon talking before. Even weirder, even if I’m not an expert of dragon physiology I could tell that this dragon was female, but it had a male voice.

“EVEN WORSE, I LOST THE SECOND ONE AS WELL; BOTH ARE BEYOND MY REACH!” This was rather strange actually, I’d never heard of a baby dragon being able to take over anypony. I looked over at Twilight, who seemed to be lost in thought about something; I have no idea what. This was just too weird to make sense.

I find it rather odd that the baby dragon still hadn’t noticed us; perhaps it was too lost in whatever it was thinking about. I needed to learn more about the dragon before I did anything; there are always problems when ponies decide to take action without all the information and the best way to get information is to ask.

“Hell-” The baby dragon took a glance at me and suddenly I realized I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. Its eyes were piercing black; I could feel the power behind those eyes, far beyond anything so young should be able to muster.

“Hmm… Who are you? No matter, you’ll do perfectly.” The baby dragon opened its mouth and a black mist formed inside of it. I tried to move out of the way, but the only thing I could do was stand there; even my tail remained intert.

“Dawn!” The black mist hit me and the last thing I saw was Twilight using her magic to send up a flare of energy into the sky. I suddenly realized that I should have asked Luna to come with me.

“My, but this one is strong. If I didn’t know better, I would think this one was an Alicorn; they were the toughest nuts to crack that I have ever had the pleasure of trying. Oh, but the fun I had…”

Who was that? For that matter, where was I? Opening my eyes I began to survey my surrounding, expecting perhaps to see a hospital or something, I mean I had just been attacked, but instead I discovered that I’d seemingly gone blind; well it could be worse...

“3…2…1…” Wait what am I thinking? I’m blind, how could it be much worse than this!? For that matter, when did this happen? Where did that countdown come from? What’s going on here!?

Okay calm down; let’s deal with this one question at a time. I have no idea what’s going on right now, but let’s take a look at the facts:

“One.” I’m blind. Which is fairly bad in and of itself, “Two,” I have no idea where I am, which isn’t helping number one any, “and Three,” I really want to fix problem one and two; I wish I could at least see something other than black.

The world suddenly lit up; well that solved my first problem. It seems I hadn’t really gone blind, I had just been in a very dark room. While I was glad that I wasn’t blind, this still left me with my second problem; all I knew was that I was now in an endless room of bright light, rather than one that was black.

I took a second look around; I still could only see the color white throughout the room, but something a little strange appeared in the corner of my eye. I turned towards it, if I looked really hard I could see a very small black spot; I was honestly surprised that I had first seen it out of the corner of my eye, it was just that small. I had no idea what it was, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look at it. Maybe it would be a way out of here.

I began to trot towards it; the closer I got to it, the less likely it seemed that it would get me out of here and the more it seemed like it might become a problem. It looked much less like a dot now and looked much more like some form of animal. It stood on two legs and from this seemed to be near my own height. It appeared to be wearing something similar to a black operatic suit. I personally think that it was a rather odd choice of clothing to wear in a setting like this, perhaps it had been on its way to some kind of event? I couldn’t see what its face looked like because it was facing away from me looking at a diamond that it held in its claw-like hands.

I couldn’t help feeling that it looked familiar to something that I had seen before, but what? Where did I know it from? I racked my brain; I knew I had learned about it somewhere and I was sure that if I thought about it for a bit I’d remember.
Oh right that was where I knew it from! It was from-

A popping sound from behind me startled, breaking my thoughts from reaching their conclusion; I turned around to see what had made the sound, it could be dangerous. However what I saw was far more startling than the sound had been.

“Welcome class to Extinct Creatures that are Still Avoided 102. Once again I am your teacher Dodgem, today we will be learning about Body Snatchers.” It was one of my memories, but I’d never seen one of them like this; they’d always been in my head, not out where anyone could see it.

The familiar green Earth Pony pointed towards a board upon which was a picture of the creature I had just been looking at. You know it was rather strange that the creature was completely ignoring what was happening over here; Dodgem’s voice had never exactly been the softest in the world, actually he was rather loud. Perhaps it was just so engrossed in that diamond? It was a thought anyway, but I wasn’t going to trust it; especially when I now knew what it was, a Body Snatcher.

I turned my attention back towards the memory. It was nice how these memories of my lessons always seemed to come at exactly the right time, giving me the answer I needed to deal with the current problem I was having; they were almost like a plot device. However, I know for a fact that this is not a story and there is no way that it is one of those; it is just my kind of coincidental luck. Dodgem’s lessons had always been invaluable for me; if I ever run into his descendants I owe them one of the biggest thank you I could give them.

“Now does anyone know what these creatures do?” Apparently my memories would pause while I was in thought; that was rather useful.

For once it seemed that I would be the one to know the answer instead of Diamond; although considering that I’m currently several years older than Diamond is in this memory this memory that didn’t mean much.

“It’s a creature that lacks a true body of its own and instead leaps into the bodies of others in order to survive; they require the bioelectric energy of ponies. Due to their parasitic nature it was decided that they were a danger to Ponykind and their extermination was warranted. This led to the eradication act passing through congress and ultimately being signed into law by Luna. Today, as far as ponies know, Body Snatchers have been exterminated from existence.” Of course the fact that my younger self knew the answer makes me feel better about knowing it now. I remember learning all about those creatures because my teacher had been the one to sign that extermination into law; I had been rather curious as to why the law had been needed.

That was before I had seen the pictures of what those parasites did. They forced themselves into their hosts; gestating inside of them until they became fully grown, feeding off the host’s energy. Eventually they would burst free from the pony, leaving them a shell of the pony they had been before. Afterwards, they would begin the process again in a new pony. Their extermination had been required; Ponykind would have been destroyed if they had been left to continue. Still, it hadn’t been a decision made lightly.

“That is absolutely correct,” Dodgem smiled at my younger self, “the only information you failed to mention was how we were able to remove them from a Pony’s body without killing the host.” He looked toward Diamond, “Do you know the answer Diamond?” I don’t think I had ever learned that particular piece of information; I suppose it just hadn’t been in the book I’d read on the subject or maybe I just hadn’t been able to get past the pictures. I had been much younger when I had read that book and much more easily scared by gory imaged.

“Of course, the way to defeat a body snatcher is-” The memory faded from view, Diamond’s voice fading out before I could hear the final piece of vital information. Well that was just great, for the first time my memory had a failed me and right when I could have used it most.

Honestly I couldn’t help feeling a little angry about this; not only did I miss out on what would be very vital information, but I didn’t even have anypony to vent it to.

“Luna, do you think you’ll be able to help him?” I looked up shocked, that was Twilight’s voice. I turned around again to face towards the voice, seemingly while I had been focused on the memory in front of me, a portal had appeared behind me. Its silver surface shined brightly with Luna’s image. What was going on here? This didn’t make much sense. I’ve been saying that too often today.

“C’mon you have to help him; he’s trapped in there!” This voice was new; the only thing I could recognize about it was the gender, female. I wonder what she meant by trapped; I realize that I don’t know where I am, but I can still move around freely. Unless this is really a very large cage and I’m trapped inside of it; which I suppose is technically possible, but it doesn’t feel quite that way. It also doesn’t explain why I can see my memories; I’d never heard of a magic that can project memories like this, just ones that could show other people memories through direct contact.

“What do you mean little one?” Celestia was there too and she wasn’t attacking Luna? Why was she there and why did she sound so much nicer than she usually did? This was starting to get annoying. I’m in a white room listening in on a conversation that is happening somewhere, I don’t even know where I am, and a Body Snatcher is muttering to itself in the corner looking at a sun shaped diamond. Which reminded me that I really needed to get rid of the creature, it was a danger to all ponykind; not to mention myself.

“I don’t know how I know this, but he’s trapped in there!” The new voice snapped me out of my thoughts; I could hear the concern flowing through her voice, whoever it was obviously cared for me. While I enjoyed the feeling; I wish I knew who it was.

“He’s trapped in his own head? Yeah right, that doesn’t make any sense.” I don’t want to contradict Rainbow, but that explanation actually made perfect sense; which was nice because nothing else did. I mean it would explain all the weird phenomena that have been occurring to me since I arrived here. The way my wishing for light brought it into existence, how I could see my own memories in real time, and that countdown from earlier. It was my mind so I could make things happen in it; well unless this turned out to be my unconscious, you can’t really control you’re unconscious. If it was my unconscious, things would be slightly more difficult to deal with.

The first thing I was going to try was simply willing myself out of here. I concentrated on being back in my real world body… Nothing happened…

I heard the sound of a record scratching to a halt. This was not good; I was trapped in my own mind with a being known to kill its host’s when it was done with them. I needed to find out why I couldn’t just will myself out of here; maybe it was because of the Body Snatcher that’s in here with me? That would make the most sense; my unconscious mind wouldn’t be willing to leave such a dangerous creature alone in here, who knows what he could do without oversight.

“Hmm maybe if I just crack this thing I’d be able to take over? Nothing else seems to be working.” I could hear the Body Snatcher muttering, even at this distance I could hear it like it was standing right next to me. Which fits my theory; it is my mind, I would be able to hear anything that was said within it.

This sound revelation was interrupted by a feeling of intense pain; it felt almost like somepony was squeezing a vice on my head; it was unbearable. Whatever that Body Snatcher was squeezing was causing this pain; I don’t know how I knew it, but I did and I needed to stop him from destroying it.

I tried lifting a hoof, aghhhh… I thought the pain had been bad before, but even trying to move increased the pain tenfold. I needed a better plan; maybe magic? I began to push a tiny amount into my horn, but that brought on stronger pain; not as bad as when I’d tried to move, but enough to keep me from actually using it.

“Luna! He’s in pain we have to help him!” I guess that portal was still open; I could hear Twilight yelling through it.

“Well at least I can try to make amends for what happened to him this way.” Celestia was being nice to me? I still don’t understand it; she had never been that nice to me before. Either way I was glad that she decided to help, I could feel the pain beginning to lesson greatly; at the very least I would be able to move. For how long I was unsure; so I’d need to make it count.

The first thing I’d need to do is stop the main source of this agony, the Body Snatcher. I didn’t know how much longer I had before whatever Celestia had done ran out, so I’d need to take advantage of it quickly. For once there would be no planning, just action.

I galloped towards the creature, which still seemed to be ignoring me; I suppose all of its focus was still on that diamond. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it because it let me knock him to the ground and the diamond straight out of his claws.

The gem flew through the air and landed on the ‘ground’ before fading to become part of the white background. It didn’t make much sense, I’m thinking this way too often since I got here, but it was my mind. I suppose it didn’t really need to make sense.

“What is this?!” It seemed surprised by my intrusion, I wonder why that was. I mean this is my mind; of course I’m going to be able to be here.

He looked towards me, his face looked like a white mask with a small black goatee; reminded me of those ponies I used to see in old plays, the ones playing the villians. I’ll never understand how a black goatee indicated evil; my uncle was a philanthropist and had used his magic to grow one.

“Oh my… this is new. An anthormorphic representation of the being that I am trying to take over is actually within its own consciousness. Well now isn’t this interesting.” It rubbed its, for a lack of a better word, chin, “I wonder what it could mean?”

I stared it straight in the eye, “It means that you need to get out.” Unfortunately, it seemed less than intimidated by my statement and instead began to laugh.

“You think that something as insignificant as you can tell me what to do! Me! One who is as ancient as the Alicorns themselves! You DARE TO TRY AND COMMAND ME AFTER IT WAS YOUR FAULT THAT I WAS KICKED OUT OF MY OLD HOST! I ALMOST HAD COMPLETE CONTROL OF HER AND EVEN HER SISTER! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK IT TAKES TO GAIN CONTROL OF ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL BEINGS IN THE WORLD, AN ALICORN NO LESS?! NO I’M SURE YOU DON’T; IT’S HARD! I HAD SPENT ALMOST TWO THOUSAND YEARS TRYING TO CORRUPT HER! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE REVIVAL OF THE BODY SNATCHERS!” Honestly, I’m wondering if I should believe him about his age, his maturity sure doesn’t match up to it. I mean it sounds to me like he was whining about failing due to someone else interfering; someone as old as that would likely just think up a new plan.

Well at least this answers a few questions from quite a long time back, I’m getting the strangest feeling that Celestia wasn’t in complete command of her faculties when she was doing a lot of the things she did, but since he seemed so willing to acquiesce to my questions, I’d use that to gain some time. I wonder if all villains do this sort of thing?

“In other words, you’re the one who sent Luna to the moon.” I had no idea if I was right or not, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“Of course, one of my finest moments really. I not only got rid of possibly the only creature that could stop me, but I also managed to infect her! It took quite a while to even gain the partial control I had, but I lost that too! Why am I telling you all this anyway?” He appeared rather surprised that he was still answering; honestly, I think I knew the answer. It was my unconscious mind, the same one that controls my tail; I think. It would make perfect sense that it would be fighting back; buying me time is a pretty good way of doing that. I think I know the best way to use this to my advantage.

“So why are you telling me all this?” The most obvious question that always elicits a long monologue response from the villain in all the storybooks and since this was my mind that was likely where the inspiration for what’s happening came from.

“WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS! Wait, why am I telling you all this?” It moved its claw to his goatee and began to stroke it, “I mean I want to take over your body; it really doesn’t make much sense to tell you all about my past and plans. I need to think about this.” Okay… him have an introspective moment was not what I had in mind, but it’ll work. I may not have long, but this should give me enough time to come up with decent plan.

I really wish that memory had finished playing; I could have found out how to finish this creature off, but there was no use crying over spilt hay. I’d need a way to get it out of here and regain control of my body. The one thing I do remember about the removal of these creatures is that if you can get it out of your body then that particular Body Snatcher can’t get back in; which was the only reason Ponykind could exterminate them. If they could have jumped from body to body, they would have done so.

“An opening.” I heard the creature mutter to itself quietly; my tail pulled out to the left and I jumped to the right. His claw was in the ground where I had been standing; if my tail hadn’t warned me of that I would have been killed right then. This creature was much craftier than I had thought. Had all his speeches before been just an act? Was I fooling myself about my unconsciousness affecting him?

My tail twitched a second time, pulling to the right, I dodged again. I wasn’t going to get any extra time to plan this time was I. Maybe I should try to get it talking again? There wasn’t any real downside to trying.

“So you say that you’re nearly as old as the Alicorns; what exactly was that like?” It paused in its latest attack; I could see him straining to reach me, but it was obvious it couldn’t move. I suppose my gambit had been right, my mind was running on the Villian Monologue Rule. Which essentially meant that if you asked the villain a question they would need to answer you, they simply didn’t have a choice; it was in their contract.

“It was absolutely horrible. Do you know what it’s like to be the very first of your species? To be their king and yet to fail them horribly when it finally came down to it.” I didn’t answer, the longer he took to talk the more time I had to plan. I didn’t really bother to listen to anymore of his speech; it was likely slanted towards his own opinion and would end with some clichéd line about joining him. Just because he had to monologue didn’t mean that it would be useful or interesting. At least this time, it seemed he would actually be at it for a while; he’d take his time to finish answering that question.

Back to forming a plan, I really need a new idea about what I could do. I mean I could just try willing him out; it’s not like I have any better ideas right now. I concentrated on the thought of having it outside my mind, but of course it didn’t work. I didn’t really think it would; if it had been that easy they likely wouldn’t have needed to be exterminated.

So my backup plan, as always, is magic. The only problem is, like I said before, is that I’m not an attack specialists; I simply don’t know that many offensive spells. This means that I probably would be unable to simply kick him out of my body with an attack. Hopefully I can do something…

“Finally I’m done.” I hear the creature mutter to itself. That was far too short; I needed more time to figure out a plan. I once again feel my tail pulling to my right. I dodge to the left, opening my mouth to form a new question for him to monologue about.

“NOT THIS TIME BUCKO!” I feel its claw on my face; it beat my tail, how did it beat my tail? Nopony or creature has ever been able to beat my tail before and with his hand over my mouth I can’t form any questions to force him to monologue.

“mphm mphgmh mphhgh.” Nope, definitely couldn’t form a question with his hand over my mouth.

“NOT GOING TO WORK; I’M GOING TO WIN THIS!” I was right; I really couldn’t form the questions while its claw was covering my mouth. So the next option was magic. I really needed to hurry; I could feel the Body Snatcher’s dark energy trying to infest my mental body, which was actually worse than if it had been my physical body. My mental body was what controlled the physical body and was what made me who I am.

Ok, no more time for thinking; I needed to move into action again. I draw upon my well of magic, only to feel anything I draw drain into the creature’s claw. This could be a problem; I couldn’t do anything at all.

I could feel the Body Snatcher’s dark energy flowing faster into my mental body; it was becoming such a large amount that I could begin to see it as a dark aura surrounding my mental body and turning my mental landscape black. I continued to struggle, I couldn’t do much else; soon he would be in control of my body. I really needed some help; something I could exploit.

“What is that dark aura?” Twilight you’re a lifesaver and I love that candy.

“The Dark Aura is what appears when I’m about to take over the body of a pony; if I win than it completely covers them and they become my dark puppet, but if they win…” While the creature was distracted by his need to monologue I moved away from it. I owe Twilight something huge for that; I would be in a really big bind if she hadn’t spoken.

I was quite far away from the creature now; I was not going to let it grab me again. I could still feel the dark energy roiling inside me, if it grabbed me again it would likely completely fill me up with it and that would be all she wrote.

I tried to force some magic out of my horn again, but I didn’t even get a small spark, that thing had drained more energy from me than I cared to think about; I wouldn’t be able to cast a single spell without some more power. Wait…IDEA! A lit candle appeared hanging over my head; my unconscious mind needs newer gags.

I just needed to ask Twilight for her help; I’d just ask her to lend me some power. Unfortunately, this still left me with the task of somehow getting my real mouth to move; maybe if I concentrated, I could force the words out.

A claw filled my vision again; I guess it had decided to forgo his usual announcement that he had finished his monologue. This was going to make it much harder, not only did I have to concentrate with him holding onto me, but I also had even less time. I could again feel its energy trying to fill up my body; I really needed to hurry.

I ignored the feeling and focused on my mouth; I needed to move my real mouth, not this mental one. This would work; it needed to work.

“Tw..i..light…I...need…” I could hear my own voice coming from the portal; unfortunately it seems that the Body Snatcher could as well, the energy forced into me nearly doubled in intensity.

“Dawn! You’re okay!” I could hear the relief in Twilight’s voice, but couldn’t see her face because of the direction I was being held in, “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that I need you to let me take over. I need to rebuild my people; it’s a necessity. Let me take your body for my own and I will let everyone else live…” I have no idea what it’s talking about, but I really don’t care. He was monologuing again, which meant that I could continue my little plan with a little more breathing room.

I back off farther this time; far enough that no matter how fast this creature is, it wouldn’t be able to reach me for at least a minute or so. I concentrated again on moving my real mouth; I needed to finish that request.

“you…to….le..nd…me…po…wer.” I could only hope that it was understandable, because I wasn’t going to get another chance; the Body Snatcher seemed to have learned from its past experiences and had gigantic earplugs in place this time; I guess mental manipulation is part of his abilities. If this hadn’t been such a dangerous moment, I likely would have started laughing at the sight.

Once again his claw was covering my mouth; if Twilight didn’t do what I asked than this was it. Its energy was flowing through me again; honestly it was getting rather annoying how many times this had happened. I could feel it almost completely filling me, only a second or so was left before it won.

“You can feel it can’t you; I’m almost done. I’ll have won and you’ll have lost. You’ll be my puppet for the rest of your life and when you’re gone I’ll just take over another Pony.” I guess Twilight hadn’t understood the message; I still didn’t feel any power coming in; I was really done for… I could feel my mental faculties…sl…ow..in..g… d…o..w…n… m..y... e..y…e…s… c…l…o…s…i…n…g

…

A……b…u…r…s…t……o…f…….l…i…g…h…t…

W…h…a…t…i…s…th..is…f..eel…ing…it… feels amazing. I’ve never felt this much power before in my life, it’s flowing all throughout my body; it’s absolutely incredible. It felt like I would be able to take down even a Dragon with this and those things could resist magic like noponies business.

I opened my eyes to see the most wonderful sight I had ever seen. Twilight was standing right next to me, her horn touching my own; we were so close that if I had moved even an inch we would be kissing; I could feel myself blushing from the proximity. I could only hope that the real me wasn’t also doing that; Luna would never let me live it down and would try to play matchmaker. Hmm… ok change that last thought, I could deal with Luna teasing me if she also played matchmaker.

A second burst of energy flowed through me, it was nothing compared to the sheer amount of power that Twilight was lending me though. I had to wonder where she had gotten such large reserves; they were almost as large as what I had felt from Luna. Even power Unicorns don’t usually have this much.

That was unimportant right now, what was important was taking down the Body Snatcher. I gathered up Twilight’s power and formed it into a cleansing matrix. This spell wasn’t used too often, but it would be just perfect for this situation. The sheer energy radiating off the spell was cleansing the dark energy that surrounded it before it was even cast; I’d never be able to do something like this on my own.

A bright flash went off. The mental landscape, which had been turning black from the dark energy flowing through it, had changed to a whitish-red color that most people call pink. I don’t know why it chose that color, but it didn’t matter; I would be able to kick this creature out now.

“What is this?! I’ve never felt anything like it before! This is nothing like that Alicorn’s trick with the dragon egg!” The creature had been blasted far away from us. I ignored it for the moment, at this point it didn’t matter. I needed to give thanks to Twilight for helping me before we could finish this. I don’t know why I felt that way, but I did.

“Thanks for coming Twilight.” I said looking her in the eyes, not that I would have had much choice anyway.

“You’re welcome,” she smiled at me, “Now how about we finish this creature off?” I gave her my own smile back. I began to charge up one of the few attack spells that I actually knew; an Aura Beam.

“STOP IGNORING ME! I’M THE IMPORTANT ONE HERE; I’M THE VILLIAN, THE HERO IS ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO FACE THE VILLIAN. NOT IGNORE HIM!” I heard what the creature was saying, but I didn’t really care about it. I continued to build up energy in my horn; Twilight’s power and my control combined making it the easiest spell I had ever cast.

The spell was almost blinding, but I kept my eyes open; aiming the spell directly at the creature. Its eyes were wide with fright, I ignored its expression; it had been the one to have my teacher sent to the moon,the one to place me in stone, and tried to take over my body to hurt others; it was going down. I felt a slight jolt of increased energy flowing through my horn at the thought; I ignored it, intense emotions had the chance of releasing extra energy sometimes.

The spell was finished, I fired.

A beam of the brightest pink light was released from Twilight and my horns. It filled my mental landscape, heading straight towards the creature; there was no way it could dodge the spell. It hit it straight on.

“No, nonononono; I will not be forced from a third pony in the same day!” Its face was a mask of anger and horror. The sheer power of the spell was forcing the Body Snatcher into the air, but couldn’t yet seem to force it out. I could see it slipping, its grasp on the ‘ground’ very weak; it probably didn’t help that my mind wanted it out. I felt elation; soon I would be back in the real world.

His eyes glinted and he gave a slight smile, “Fine keep your body, but if I’m going to lose I’m taking you down with me.” In one of its claws it held an hourglass shaped gemstone; where had he gotten that from? The feeling of elation that I was feeling diminished greatly at the sight; I didn’t know what it was, but I knew what it was bad for me.

“My revenge.” He threw the gem towards the ‘ground’, flying into the dark abyss after releasing it, “Mwhaha this is my vengeance, but this will not be the end of me. Believe iittttt.”

I ignored his words, he couldn’t do anymore damage, tracking the gem as it fell to the ground. Intellectually I knew that it would merely become a part of my mind’s room, just as the last one had, but somehow it was worrying me. Its descent seemed to have slowed to a crawl, my heart beat getting faster and faster as it fell. I didn’t even realize that I had begun to gallop towards the gem, but I could hear Twilight following me. I wasn’t fast enough; the gem hit the ground…and shattered.

Memories and emotions, I could feel them flowing through my mind; that was what had been inside the gem, the memories and emotions of my time locked in stone. Somepony or something had locked them all into that little gemstone of my mind; I just wish they had made it harder to break. Now that it had been released I was relieving all those memories and emotions all over again; all in a single instant. All those visits, all those deaths, every single moment, it was all perfectly crystalized. All this time those memories had been dulled, only now did I really feel everything that I had felt before.

I could hear someone yelling at me; asking me if I was alright. I wasn’t all right, I don’t think I’d be alright again for a long time. I can’t handle this...

Author's Notes: Well here it is, the sixth chapter. I hoped you enjoyed or will enjoy, depending if you just skipped the chapter and scrolled down here or not, having read or reading the story. Remember that Stars and Thumbs points up are great, but only feedback makes the story better, so please leave me some.

Finally a quick note, the first chapter has been changed slightly; it won't effect the plot, but you can read it if your interested.

Doctor, Barber, Mind

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Disclaimer: We are here to scare you and spook you, because we don't own you. The MLP is theirs not ours. Please understand... I couldn't think of anything better

Seeing the worst moments of your life flash before your eyes, the emotions hitting you a thousand fold… I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. The scenes play over and over right in front of my eye, never ending, forever repeating. I want to stop them, but I can’t even move. I can just watch as they flow past my eyes.

I keep seeing the faces of those who came to visit me, they always looked so happy, but then it would get to that point. Their family members would come dressed in their black suits, somber, and look at me with eyes wet with tears, each time leaving that same flower, a black lily.

They never talked to me, never really saw me, and never tried to help me. I’d watch them, their eyes teary… I can’t even think of a word to describe how terrible it was. I watched the deaths of those who I’d met, those who had never known me, I couldn’t deal with this. I had so wanted friends, but I knew that even if I had been able to make them, they would always die. I just can’t deal with seeing all this again.

I wish it would all just stop. I don’t need to see all these losses again. They’re just too much for anypony to watch.

The scenes jump to a new… No, not this one again; this one was the absolute worst, I was directly responsible for what happened… I hadn’t been able to help her.

I’d been sitting on this pedestal for such a long time. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. There were even a few times that I wish somepony would knock me over and put me out of my misery, but I knew that if I waited long enough I would eventually get out, eventually someone would talk to me.

Of course the fact that I was cognizant enough to actually complain about my existence means that somepony is nearby, but the garden is empty. I suppose it must just be some gardeners nearby cutting up some bushes. Ah well, they would be gone soon enough and I could stop contemplating my lonely stone existence and go back to my own empty world where I can more easily wait out the days of my imprisonment.

“Hi my name’s Phoenix, I’m only six years old. Who are you?” What? Where had this orange and red maned filly come from? Is she talking to me? Probably not, she’s probably just at that age where talking to inanimate objects is considered fun, pretend play basically or maybe she didn’t know the difference between a statue and a pony.

“Course I know the difference between statues and ponies, I’m talkin’ to ya ain’t I. I mean who else is around?” Okay… So either this filly could really understand what I was saying or she was one of the best pretenders I had ever seen. Well only one way to find out. Phoenix if you can hear me could you please say two-thousand-sixty-seven?

“Well ain’t that a strange thing to ask, a course I can. Two-thousand-sixty-seven.” You’re kidding me; this little filly could actually hear me. I don’t know how it works, but I don’t care, I finally have someone to talk to. Do you know how rare that is when you’ve been trapped in stone for? If you can even get a single conversation out of it, you take it. No matter how silly the subject matter may be.

Phoenix would you mind telling me about yourself? I don’t get much conversation around here.

“Now why in world would ya want to know about me? Are you one of them there pedophiles?” Please tell me she’s joking. Pretty please with sugar on top; I mean I’m a statue, what in the world could I possibly do.

“Hmm that sure is a good point… Well alright I can tell you a bit about myself.” At least she didn’t think I was a pedophile anymore. “My full name is Phoenix Apple, my family comes from a long ways away, but we’re here for the Apple conv-ve-ve. Gosh darnit.”

Apple Convention? All of the gardeners were talking about it; it seems to be their favorite subject.

“Yeah that’s it; we’re here for the Apple Convention. We gets to stay in the loveliest place that Ah’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely huge; there are so many other ponies there! Even better, our entire family has come down for the convention. I get to see all my cousins. It’s the most fun Ah’ve had all year.” Her eyes were wide with excitement. I was glad that she was enjoying herself. I hadn’t had a single pony talk to me in so long that listening to anyone talk directly to me would have been great, but listening to someone excited about what the subject was even better. It was just so interesting.

“Phoenix, it’s time to go!” Some voice called out. I saw Phoenix turn towards the voice, I suppose it must be someone she knows.

“Ah shoot, it was nice talking to you mister statue, but Ah’ve got to go.” I understood of course, but I couldn’t help hoping that she would come back and visit me again at some later time, hopefully for a little longer next time. Well couldn’t hurt to ask I suppose.

Would you mind coming talk to me again? I get very few real visitors here.

“Of course, you’re fun mister statue!” Yes! Even if it’s only for a little while I’ll have someone to talk to, this is great! Oh yeah, I should probably tell her my name.

Just so you know my name is Dawn Pie.

“Good to meet’cha Dawn. See ya later.”

Phoenix visited me each day throughout that week. She was the first friend that I’d been able to make since being stuck in stone and her visits were the highlight of my day, much as Diamonds had beet. However, her final visit…

“Hey Dawn Ah’m plum sorry, but this is the last time that ah’ll get to visit ya.” I’d known it was coming, but I hadn’t really wanted to think about it. For the first time I had been given someone to talk to and so of course it had to end quickly. The only solace I could take was that perhaps there were others who would be able to talk to me, but I still wish I could give her something, anything for visiting me.

That was when I felt something odd; which was any feeling at all really. It felt like I was being slid across my pedestal. What was going on? Why was I moving closer to Phoenix? Why was Phoenix just watching me without moving; she must be able to tell that I’m getting closer to her. If she didn’t move I’d end up right on top of her…

PHOENIX MOVE, YOU NEED TO MOVE. Why isn’t she moving? Can’t she hear me?

PHOENIX MOVE OUT THE WAY, PLEASE MOVE! She still didn’t move. Did whatever she had before that let her talk to me wear off? Is this the worlds way of telling me that having a friend was impossibility for me? I tried to resist being moved, but I was stone. Stone can’t do anything.

The closer I got to her, the more worried I felt and the harder I tried to get myself to stay on the pedestal to absolutely no effect. I kept yelling at Phoenix, but she just stood there oblivious to what was going on and talking about her day at the Apple Convention.

I was teetering on the edge, I was going to fall and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I shouted one last warning before I fell; right on top of Phoenix. I’d lost all sensation in my stone body, but the lack of tactile sensations just made it feel all the worse.

I need to get off her, get off her, come on; I don’t care if I am stone, I’m going to get off her. She’s going to be okay, she’s not going to die; especially not like this. My mind strains against the stone bonds, but intellectually I know it’s useless… stone can’t move. Still I tried while staring straight into Phoenix’s eyes as her breathing became slowed and labored. I watched as that glimmer of who she is faded away, until it was completely gone. The small spark of Phoenix was snuffed out by me. I have never wanted to cry as much as I do right now; this was worse than when Diamond had died, a least she had just died of old age.

I could only watch as a few of the Royal Guards came and placed me back upon the pedestal. I ignored it, too lost in my own thoughts to really recognize what was going on.
Later that day I heard that the Apple family had pressed charges for my destruction, but Celestia had forbid it. I wish she had allowed them to do it. I’d killed that sweet little filly. It’s all my fault, I killed the only friend I’ve had in such a long time.

I only realize now how lucky I was to have that lock on my memories because I’m now realizing how I really felt. I don’t think I could handle making another friend just to have it end in the same way as all those I watched... or worse the only one I spoke to. I just couldn’t deal with losing everything again. It was better that I remain here then deal with all of those other ponies again, no matter how painful it is.

So I remained, watching my horrible memories flow past me, not even trying to escape, just watching. I sit and wait for oblivion that comes to all ponies, hoping that it arrives quickly so I don’t have to deal with the real world again. Holding all my pain to myself and reliving it, hoping that no one else will have to deal with my pain. I don’t want to bother others.

“Whoa! Never seen anything like this before.” Not another pony, please let it just be my imagination; I don’t want to deal with others, I don’t want to be hurt when they go away. Please don’t give me another friend. I don’t think I could deal with losing another one. I just stare straight into Phoenix’s eyes, trying to block out the sound of any tricks my mind decided to play on me. I needed to stay here, I didn’t want to leave.

“How did this happen?” This one sounded different from my mind’s first trick; good job trying to distract me from these scenes brain, but I don’t want to meet ponies I could lose again, I want to remain here where it’s perfectly safe from that loss. If you really want to be helpful than lock me in here tighter, until I just fade away. I just want to resign myself to this existence, where the only thing I’ll lose is myself and then I won’t have to worry about anything.

“What’s wrong with him?” The first voice was back, I guess my brain must think that it was better for me to leave. It was wrong though, it was better that I stay here.

“I don’t know, but I know we need to help him. He’s locked himself in there and I can’t get him out.” The voice sounded distressed and it was my fault. If I was dead than it couldn’t be distressed about me.

“Go away. You shouldn’t be worry about me. It’ll just hurt me too much when you end up leaving me.” Hopefully that would get rid of them. I really don’t want to meet any more new ponies; they would die like the others.

“No way are we going to leave you here to wallow in your misery. It’s pointless.” I can feel my anger rising slightly, why couldn’t they just leave me alone. This was the perfect world for me. There wasn’t anypony else I could lose here, it was just me and even that would eventually fade away.

“Go away.”

“No. There is no way I’d ever leave a friend in a place like this.” No… Please not that word again, I really don’t want friends, I couldn’t stand to lose them again.

“I wouldn’t do that either!” Two…friends… No, no, not again. I don’t want to deal with the loss again. I just can’t.

“NO GO AWAY!” I couldn’t help shouting, my fear of what would happen was simply leaking out. I couldn’t deal with them… Please don’t make me go out there and lose a new set… I could feel the tears streaming down my face, I just couldn’t stop them. “Please don’t make me come out. I can’t deal with the real world.”

“Sorry, but I can’t just leave a friend behind. We’re getting you out of here. Now are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?”

“I’m not coming out, so do whatever you want.” They couldn’t do anything, they were just figments my mind created to trick me into leaving. So let them do what they wanted, I was just going to sit here and wait for my death.

“The hard way it is then.” I just continued to look into the dark depth of my memories, watching as the flowed past when everything went black. What was happening? Bring my memories back! I needed to stay here where there wasn’t anyone who could leave me, being all alone was the only way I could stay sane.

I heard a cracking sound. Right in front of me a small crack had formed in the darkness. I don’t understand why they were doing this, I wanted to remain here where nopony could hurt me and I couldn’t hurt them.

I galloped to the crack; I was going to close this and go back to where I belonged, alone, but nothing I did made any difference, the crack just grew wider. Soon everything around me began to fall to pieces revealing a world of pink and right in front of my eyes sat a smugly smiling Rainbow Dash. I felt an urge to punch in the muzzle, but it soon faded away and I was left without much feeling at all.

“No it was perfect, a place where nothing could leave me. Why, why couldn’t you leave me in there? I don’t want any friends.” I wanted to go back there, but it was gone and I didn’t know how to bring it back. I didn’t want to deal with this, ponies would only leave me.

“No that’s just you sulking in a thousand years of pain and you know it. I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I just left you in there.”

“Why do you insist on calling me friend?” My voice was listless, I didn’t want her to be my friend, she’d just go away like all the others did, “Why couldn’t you have just left me in there, I wouldn’t have hurt anypony in there and nopony would have hurt me.”

“Why wouldn’t I help you? You helped us out earlier, do you know how much easier my job is now?” Really, she couldn’t think of a better reason

“I was also the one who got you into the problems. I was trying to get to you girls there to help complete a prank on Celestia.” She just stared at me, hopefully that would get her to leave me alone.

“Wait so you knew that Princess Luna had been turned into that thing?”

“Well no, but…”

“And you knew that the Elements would end up chasing after Celestia?” Where was she going with all this?

“No…”

“Then why should I believe that it was your entire fault. I’m not saying that you aren’t responsible for at least part of what happened, but that doesn’t mean that you hurt others. It just means that you need to make up for it.” I have no idea what she’s on about now. “Besides, do you really think that you staying in here isn’t hurting ponies?”

Ah now we were back on track, this made so much more sense to me. “Yes I do. All the ponies I knew are dead. My family is dead. Anypony who would be affected by my absence is dead.” Maybe now she’d let me go back to my misery.

“What about Luna!” A new voice spoke up. I blinked once, I hadn’t thought about that before. Luna was still around, there was still at least one pony who hadn’t left me; well mostly. I heard a cracking sound like something was breaking apart.
Before I could respond the new speaker continued, “And there’s also… well… me.” I turned slightly to see who this speaker was. In front of me sat a small smiling pink and blue dragon. Why would she worry about me, I don’t think I’ve seen her before in my life.

“Who are you?” She looked towards the ground, depression just seeming to swallow her previous expression. I could feel my heart cracking a little.

I didn’t want friends because they could leave me, but both my mind and my heart disagreed with me. They both wanted to help this little creature right in front of me, but I needed to keep myself separate from her. I couldn’t let myself be drawn in again just to be hurt, but it seemed I would be hurting her whether or not I kept myself separate from her. Besides it felt there was just something about her, it just felt like she would never leave me, like I had some connection to her.

I took a deeper look at her, there was something that was tickling the edge of my memory and it felt important… Wait a second, what was that symbol on her tail? A sun rising from an ocean, that was my….

This was my familiar wasn’t it? I’d been waiting so long to meet her. I looked at her again. She was just looking at me with her wide eyes, almost on the verge of tears. No matter how much I fear this connection, I couldn’t live with myself if I let this continue, I just couldn’t. I walked up slowly up to her and hugged her.

I felt warmer, I know that what I’m doing could potentially come and bite me in the behind, but I knew that I needed to do this… I needed to leave so I could still be Luna’s student and this one could be my familiar. I could only hope that this would work out better than before, at least this time I could actually talk to the ponies.

The small dragon just smiled back at me. Somehow, I just know that at the very least I won’t have to worry about her leaving me. There was just one question that was plaguing my mind.

“So what is your name?” Hey I might have realized who she was, but that didn’t mean that I would know her name; just because I have a direct emotional connection with her does not mean that I can read her thoughts.

“Um…” She started to poke two her claws together in front of her, “well… I don’t have one.” Wait What? She doesn’t have one? That just makes me want to cry, “You’re supposed to give me one.” I was supposed to do what? Oh right, part of the familiar ritual, it was kind of a binding I suppose, connects the two individuals on a deeper level.

“Oh right, sorry about that.” Okay I’d need to give this some thought, it wouldn’t do to just give her any name out of the blue, but I couldn’t just leave her without one. What would be a good name for her, I mean she would have to live with it for her entire life; I didn’t want ponies to laugh at her. Now she was pink in coloration with dark blue scale, kind of the reverse of my own coloration really, what would fit with that? Pinkie? Nah that one’s taken. Topaz? Wrong color. Ah I think I know.

“Sakura. Named after those trees that bloom pink flowers once a year.” I thought it fit and apparently so did Sakura because she jumped towards me and gave me another hug. I guess she liked hugging as much as I do; which is good because I have a lot of them that no one ever let me give out.

While we were hugging I felt something strengthen between us, like the bond had grown tighter. I couldn’t actually see it, even out of the corner of my eye, but I could feel it grow. Tears began to fall from my eyes anew.

Well with that little diversion, okay big diversion, over with, there were still other matters to attend to. Specifically I wanted to know how they got here, it may be my idle curiosity and need for knowledge, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to know. If I didn’t find out now it would bug me until I did. The only pony I’d ever known who could jump into ponies minds or dreams was Luna and obviously she wasn’t the one here. Even more intriguing was how they had changed that egg of memories I had been in. I’d never heard of anything that was able to change a pony’s dreams.

“So how did you get in anyway?” I really wanted to know about this. It could be so interesting.

“Because I’m Rainbow Dash and I’m just awesome like that.” She was grinning like a maniac. I stared at her. I guess she couldn’t take much of one pony staring at her because she soon looked away.

“What?”

“Do you really expect me to believe that?” The incredulousness I felt flowed out in my tone.

“Oh fine,” She pouted at me, “it’s because I’m a Night Pegasus. We’re the ones in charge of making the night run smoothly and dreams fall under that purview. Happy now?” She pouted at me, I suppose she hadn’t liked that I’d made her give a real answer.

Either way her answer made more sense, without Luna around to make the night run smoothly somepony would need to take over position. I suppose it had just fallen into the hands of the Night Guards descendants. In any case it was amazing that something like that had developed from the original genetic concepts.

“Yes.” That just left one question I needed answered and this one was probably the most important of the bunch.

“Do you know how to get out of here? Because I don’t.” That’s right, we needed a way to get out of here, I mean I don’t feel like staying in my own mind for too long, well without being able to move in the real world anyway, and I don’t think either of the other two want that either. I would think that it just involved me waking up in some manner, but since that hasn’t happened yet I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.

“Well the obvious answer is you wanting to leave here.” Well it couldn’t hurt anyway.

“I want all three of us to get out of here.” Nothing happened, probably should have guessed that, “Any other ideas?”

“Of course! There’s always the way us Night Pegasi do it. You just need to grab on.” Well I had no idea what was about to happen, but it couldn’t hurt to try. I reached out two hoofs and grabbed her tail, while Sakura grabbed my own with her teeth.

“Hold on tight, we’re getting out of here.” I suddenly didn’t think this was that great of an idea, part of me still thought I should stay here, safe and away from anypony that could leave me, but a larger part of me felt that I should try again, that I should at least try. In some ways I still felt like I should just be staying here, but more of me wanted to try and make new memories; enough to get rid of all the bad ones I had gotten when I was stuck in stone. However, I didn’t get a chance to voice my concerns before Rainbow Dash had taken to the air, dragging the both of us along with her.

The air rushed past us at increadible speeds, I’m pretty sure that we were moving at the speed of sound, if the rainbow trail behind us was anything to go by. Honestly I was rather enjoying myself. I’m not sure I could say the same about my familiar though. I could hear her screaming through my tail. I kind of wish that I had been doing this under my own power though, it think it would be more enjoyable. Maybe when I get out of here I’ll practice that transformation spell and actually learn how to fly. It would definitely be an interesting experience.

*BOOM*

I blinked once, what had just happened? Why did the breeze seem to be flowing upward now instead of sideways? I looked down, oh that makes sense. The ground was coming closer to us every second and Dash seems to be rather out of it, probably because she took the brunt of whatever we had run into.

The ground was growing closer and closer, we had maybe a second before we hit. I began to flap my arms, I know that it wouldn’t work, but I had to try something. The ground was less than a foot away now. This is probably going to hurt…

*bounce*

Huh? What just happened? I know we hit the ground, but why are flying up and down again? I mean that doesn’t make much sense. Suddenly, I remembered that we were in my mind. Of course it wasn’t going to hurt, this wasn’t real ground. Well that was a good thing at least.

We bounced a few more times before we settled down again on the ground.

“Well that didn’t work.” I stood up, “Are you two alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” Sakura sounded alright, but strangely I didn’t hear a thing from Rainbow. Turning towards her, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing; Dash was stuck in the ‘ground’ head first. Honestly she looked like nothing short of an ostrich. It didn’t take her long to pull it out, but I’m adding that one to my good memory pile.

She glared in my direction. “Yeah laugh it up. I’ve seen what usually happens to you.” I kept laughing anyway, it happened to me far too often to care, but I rarely got to see it happen to others. Sakura joined soon after, Rainbow joined in after a little while.

Dash was the first to stop laughing, followed soon by Sakura and me.

“Well that was kind of fun, but what the buck was that?” Dash glared at whatever it was we had run into, “I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been in a lot of minds.” I wish I could tell her, but I honestly had no idea. Generally from what I understood the actual entering and exiting of a pony’s mind is a rather simple affair, but altering it was the hard bit; which makes what Dash did earlier rather amazing. I mean it’s likely that she could only do it because of the fact that she had my familiar with and was able to use that connection, but still amazing. I wasn’t going to tell her that though, she already had enough of an ego. Still though, this barrier was something I’d never read about or seen anywhere.

“It’s a Psyche Locke,” I looked towards Sakura in surprise; how would she possibly know something like that, “Hey don’t give me that look; I know what you learned, you just forgot about it.” I’d heard about familiars that had that kind of ability, but they were incredibly rare and I’d never heard of one that could actually pull on memories the partner didn’t know about. That was rather interesting, but something I’d leave testing about later.

“So do you actually know what that means?” I still don’t think that I’d ever actually heard of that information before, but anything was possible.

“Yuppers!” She jumped in the air pointing towards the sky, she just looked so cute. “They’re a protection for the mind, generally created when a creature has felt some form of trauma.” That didn’t make me feel very good about my mental state right now, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it.

“So do you know how we break it?”

“Not a clue!” I had to sigh at that, but at least we knew more now, “But if I had to guess, you don’t want us to leave you alone in here.”

“Huh?”

“Hey that would actually make sense. I know that a couple of the more traumatized minds that I’ve worked with have sometimes caused me some problems, but nothing this strong. This is on a whole other level.” I guess that I still haven’t completely let go of those feelings, but I’d need to at least let some of them out, if only to get us all out of here. It’s a necessity and I’d do it.

I think I knew how to do this, but it was going to be rather strange.

“I need a hug.” Rainbow Dash blinked at me once.

“You need a what?”

“I need a hug.” I swept my gaze from Rainbow to Sakura, “From both of you.” Apparently Sakura didn’t need much encouragement, because she ran up and gave me one, but Dash looked like she would need some more reasons.

“Um why?”

“I honestly think that it will help us get out of here.”

“Well… alright I suppose, doesn’t make much sense to me, but I guess it’s worth a shot. You better not tell anyone though.” She flew at me quickly and gave me a hug, I could hear the sound of glass shattering and the world went white.

Heh, guess the power of Hugs beats out the power of Trauma any day.

It was dark again, but the reason why was obvious, my eyelids were still closed. I could feel something soft beneath me, but it still felt like one of the least comfortable things I have ever laid on and that includes the time I slept on rocks, but it was likely that I was lying on top of a bed.

I opened my eyes to confirm my suspicions and low and behold I was right. That had been fairly obvious really, but the thing that surprised me was that when I looked up I could see only white. Honestly, that was rather comforting if only because of how much of a contrast it made to the darkness I had been feeling earlier. White represented purity and cleanliness, which I could really do with right now.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” My attention was drawn to a white Unicorn standing nearby; her flank marking was hidden from my sight by the angle I was laying at, so I could only guess at her profession. That was rather unfortunate, if I could have seen perhaps I could have figured out where I was at the moment. However, her demeanor honestly reminded me of those barber’s that I used to have to see once a year, it had something to do with the look in her eye like she was trying to find out where to draw the blood from. I still remember how every year I’d have to go in for an exam and a haircut, two bits. I need to work on my puns.

“My name is Doctor Nautilia.” I suppose that I could have been wrong or maybe the term doctor is what they use instead of barber now, “and you’re in the personal hospital of the princesses.” What was I doing here? I mean I realize I’d been knocked out for a while, but I didn’t think it would have been long enough for me to end up in a medical facility. Yes I don’t know what the word hospital means. I’m just going with the idea that it’s somewhat similar to the barber’s.

“According to your medical report it seems that you have been through a rather nasty incident; you’ve been completely unresponsive for nearly a full week.”

Well I guess that would explain how they got me here. If I had been unconscious for a whole week it that was likely enough time for me to be moved pretty far. I guess I really owed Dash and Sakura one for getting me out of there. I could have been stuck in there for the rest of my life. Of course for part of it at least that was what I had wanted, but that was done with for now. I could deal with the losses because at the very least I had Luna, Sakura, and Dash. I hope.

Now though, I’d like to get out of here, there wasn’t any real reason for me to stay, I mean I’d already been sitting in this bed for long enough.

I opened my mouth to ask about it.

“…” I realized that my mouth was utterly devoid of liquid, I suppose being unconscious for that long is not conductive to getting basic necessities. The doctor seemed to have noticed my distress because she filled a cup of water for me and handed it to me with her magic.

I tried reaching out with my own magic, but I simply couldn’t seem to pull anything into my horn. My reserves felt like they were completely drained and considering what had happened to me, it was certainly a possibility. The real problem was that I had been resting in this bed for nearly a week now, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time. That much rest should have easily let me recover my magical energy; the fact that it didn’t is rather disconcerting. Perhaps the fact that my mind had actually been actively trying to pull me out of my depression hadn’t given it enough time to completely rejuvenate my ability to use magic. I could only hope that was the case and that I hadn’t somehow lost access to my magic for the rest of my life. I did not want to find myself without my magic for the rest of my life.

At the moment not being able to use my magic didn’t matter much, but it would likely become an issue in the near future. I had learned how to operate without magic, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to have it when I needed it.
In any case I still need to get a drink of that water, my mouth was starting to feel like it was covered in sand. How had not noticed this when I first woke up anyway? I grabbed the cup from the doctor with my hooves and drank it slowly; I know that if you drink water too quickly when you haven’t had any for a while it can cause water intoxication. I have no idea what water intoxication is, but I don’t want to find out. Not unless I read it in a book anyway.

The doctor quirked an eyebrow at me; I guess she found it odd that I was using my hooves instead of my magic to hold the cup. To be fair if our roles had been reversed I likely would be just as surprised. There weren’t very many Unicorns out there that would use their hooves when magic was available, if only because it was more convenient.
I saw her glance down at her paper and watched as she made a few marks on it. I wonder what’s on that paper anyway. Well now that my throat had been lubricated I could actually ask about it.

“Eh, so what’s with the paper doc?” I began to chew on the carrot in my mouth. I have no idea where it came from, but I’m going to enjoy it anyway. Asking questions about why some things happen to me has never been conductive to good mental health anyway, especially when it concerned some of the thing my family and I could do. Besides I’m hungry.

“Hmm?” She glanced up from her papers to look at me, her eyes widening slightly at the carrot before returning back to normal. I suppose she was just going to ignore the sight of a magical carrot. Considering what some I’ve seen some Unicorns do when they are hurt, I’m not really sure I would be surprised either.

“It’s your medical report; it’s missing a lot of information.” That’s odd I remember going to the barber’s just a week before I became stone, oh. Well that was probably why it was missing so much information, it was over a thousand years out of date. It was rather surprising that they still had the thing. It had been over a thousand year paper filing must have gotten a lot better, “When was the last time you saw a doctor?”

“It wasn’t that long ago really,” which wasn’t really a lie, relatively speaking. I don’t think she really needed to know the details right now, “I suppose I just had a really poor doctor.” Which was absolutely true, even from what little I could see from my bed medical technology had had advanced so much that what those barber’s knew must have become completely obsolete.

Nautilia frowned, “Well that’s not good. Without a baseline we can’t check to make sure that you’re fit for release.” That was not what I wanted to hear, I did not want to be here any longer than I had to be.

“Is there any way that I could be released earlier?” I was a little desperate to get out and thank some ponies. Besides I’ve never really liked to sit in one place for too long.

“Well if we give you a basic physical before you leave, we could probably use that for the time being. However, in the future we will need you to go to have a full physical.” Well that would work for me. Probably wasn’t the worst idea to have an exam done anyway, I don’t know if any new viruses or something like them had been developed while I was locked in stone. Even better, it might give me some information about why my magic wasn’t refilling.

“Sounds good to me.” It couldn’t be as bad as when I used to have to go to the ba-doctors.

“Okay so the first thing I need you to do is stand up. Can you do that for me?” I could feel a slight weakness in my body, but that wasn’t near enough to keep me standing on four legs. Nautilia made a mark on her clipboard, I get the feeling she is either the best prepared pony I have ever met or she had already planned to do this ahead of time.

“Good, now I’d like you to walk from your bed to the wall and back please.” This seemed a little silly to me, but I quickly did as she asked, walking from one end of the room and back. I didn’t think that it was worth to ask about what these things were for at the moment. I’d never get out of anywhere if I always asked every question that was on my mind.

“Ok, good.” She had me go through a few more exercises. She said it was to test my range of motion and basic physical conditioning. Honestly, this seems a bit much for something that only lasts a week, but what do I know I’m not a doctor. Some of the things even seemed pretty silly, why in the world would standing on your head be part of the exam?

“Okay now I’d like you to sit down on the bed please and wait a few minutes. I need to go retrieve something.” She trotted out of the room while I wandered over to the edge of the bed and sat down. I wonder what she needed to get. Ah well I’d find out soon enough.

When she came back she was carrying something that sent a chilling sensation straight through my entire body and set my tail into a jumpy mood. It looked just like a magic inhibitor…

When I was a foal I was told not to go playing in Dad’s closet because there were dangerous things in there. So of course I had the strongest desire to go and look into that closet. When would my parents learn that whenever they didn’t want me to do something they shouldn’t make it seem interesting. I mean they knew that I would always go and search anything that seemed even a little interesting.

Every time I tried though my parents would catch me before I was actually able to reach the closet. That didn’t discourage me though. It actually made me more interested in trying to see what was in there. I just needed to wait for my chance.

That chance came pretty soon after my last attempt. Both my parents needed to go out to a Royal Dinner, leaving me alone with the servants. I had long ago learned about how to avoid the servants in the house, not that they were likely to be looking for me anyway. Still it paid to be careful.

I snuck out of my room into the hallway, watching for any of servants walking along. Strangely the entire place seemed to be empty. It was rather strange really, but I wasn’t going to complain.

My parents room was really nearby so it was only the work of a minute to reach the door. I tried the door, it opened easily. You think my parents would have at least made this a little more difficult.

I took a quick look inside in order to make sure that the room was actually empty, which it was. I quickly trotted over to their closet. Honestly this was too easy, I was starting to think that my parents wanted me to get in here or maybe they were just really forgetful. They had been in a pretty big rush.

I reached for the closet door with my magic and began to pull it open, I knew I shouldn’t do this, but I did it anyway. Sitting on the lowest shelf, the only one I could actually reach, was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen, it just looked so very magical. Silver in color and covered in gemstone, it was more spectacular than anything I had seen even in my mother or sister’s jewelry boxes.

I know that it’s not considered manly to try on Jewelry, but I felt a need to it. I tried to pick it up with my magic, but it wouldn’t budge. No matter how much energy I used it would just remain sitting on that shelf. Eventually, I decided to pick it up with my hooves instead. I slowly slid it onto my horn and that’s when everything began to feel wrong.

My magic was completely missing there wasn’t even a single feeling of it. It was almost like someone had just drained me of my very essence. I tried to pull off the object, but I couldn’t it was stuck on tight. I kept trying until I eventually exhausted myself and fell into a slumber.

When I opened my eyes again my parents were looking at me. I could feel that the jewelry on my head was gone and I could feel my magic was back.

“Son, you know that we told you not to go into my closet and now you know why.” My father said to me. I nodded my head, “This is called a magic inhibitor and it’s very dangerous. So please don’t wear it again ok?” I nodded my head again.

Then they grounded me for a month.

And that’s why I’m worried about wearing anything that looks like a magic inhibitor, or Jewelry for that matter. It probably would at least settle my tail down a little if I could find out what it is.

“Um, would you mind telling me what that thing is?” She gave me a puzzled look; I guess she either hadn’t been informed about my previous ‘condition’ or hadn’t believed it. I guess that was probably for the best, considering how Twilight and her friends had reacted to my revelation and the fact that I didn’t have any idea how I had woken them up, it was probably for the best.

Nautilia wrote something else on my chart before answering me. I don’t know what, but considering what that board was I could only hope it was something good.

“This?” She tilted her head toward the object floating in her magical aura, “That doctor of yours must have been medical school dropout if she,” actually the barber had been male, “didn’t have one of these around. It’s a basic part of a medical exam, a magic scanner. It checks magical levels.”

“Oh.” I suppose that made sense; testing magical levels of any type of Pony had been thought to be important back then as well, but it had been fairly difficult and thus was rarely performed. It had been deemed to be too invasive. If they had refined it enough to make it simple enough to do such a complicated procedure than including it in a basic medical exam seemed like a good idea.

“Oh, well than go ahead doc.” I really need to figure out where all these carrots are coming from. They were some of the tastiest carrots I’d ever had.

“Okay just hold still for a moment and do not cast any spells while this device is on your horn. Do you understand?” She gave me a look to let me know she was serious, not that I would have done it anyway. There was a reason that most Unicorns didn’t put anything on their horn, it simply made it difficult to cast spells and could often cause injury due to that lack of control. There are many Unicorns who have put a decorative piece on their horn without thinking; generally I met them in the emergency room. They weren’t usually a very pretty sight, I shook slightly at the memory.

“I understand perfectly.”

Nautilia nodded at me and raised the magic scanner up to my horn and slowly slid it onto my horn, seemingly being careful to avoid causing any damage. I will admit that while she put it on my heart rate jumped a little bit. Not much, but it would have been noticeable if someone had been listening.

As soon as she’d slid it on I felt it tightening on my horn, similar to how it felt to have the magical inhibitor on my horn, but lacking in any of the loss of magic that came with it. My heart rate dropped down to normal, I hadn’t even known that it had gone up. I guess some part of me had still worried that it had been an inhibitor.

“Now the magic scanner will take a little while to finish its task, which is really why I chose to do it this early in the exam. According to what those who brought you here had said your condition was brought on by a magical mental issue. Is this true?” I nodded my head. That was one way it could be put anyway. The other of course being that it was a caused by a mental monster rampaging through my mind and releasing a large number of covered up memories that I never wanted to see again. I don’t think I’ll be telling her that unless she asks directly though.

“Because of this I’d like to give you something that is known as a Mini Mental Status Exam, would that be alright?”
An exam? At the doctor’s office? Well this is certainly different; most times when I visited the barbers they would just take my heart rate, blood pressure, and a whole host of other vitals, but I’d never heard of them giving anything, let alone an exam. I’m sure I could pass any kind of test she gave me though.

“Sure, I think I can ace it.” I was confident; I had read enough books to know quite a bit about a variety of subjects. She quirked an eye at me and gave a slight smile.

“This isn’t that kind of exam; it’s meant to give a small snapshot of your mental state.” I guess the look in my eyes had shown my bewilderment, “Think of it as drawing a picture of what your mind is like right now. Considering what happened to you I think it might be a good idea. Although you appear fairly cognizant and you motor skills are working effectively, I believe it would be a good idea to make sure.” I guess that made more sense than it being an actual exam anyway; why would someone come for a medical exam just to take a test in the middle.

“Go ahead doc.” Hey where’s my carrot? I guess I played that gag into the ground.

“Alright, let’s begin. What is today’s date?” Well if that wasn’t one of the hardest questions for me to answer I don’t know what is. How was I supposed to know today’s date, I haven’t seen a calendar in a week, let alone the last thousand years before that. I didn’t even know what year it was.

“I don’t know.” I really dislike it when I don’t know the answer, but in this case I guess I didn’t really have a choice.

“The year?” I shook my head, “The month?” Again I shook my head, although I think I can conclusively proves that she did not know about my former state of a garden mascot, “The season?” Oh finally one I could answer, I’d seen the trees during that whole trip leading up to me being here. Geeze, being stuck in stone and only waking up at certain times makes it hard to know what the date is.

“It’s Fall.” She made a notation on her clipboard before asking another set of questions about my location. I was able to give most of the answer as she had just told me where we were located, although I couldn’t tell her exactly where what floor we were on. I mean I was unconscious when they brought me here.

“Now I’m going to name three objects and would like you to repeat them back to me. Do you understand?” I nodded.

“Cup, Cantelope, and lilies.” I felt my muscles stiffen at that last word, I couldn’t explain why though.

“Are you all right?” Nautilia was looking at me with worry, I guess she wasn’t as detached as the barbers I used to know, but the stiffness I had felt had already faded. I guess it hadn’t been anything too dangerous, probably was just a leftover of lying in bed for so long.

“Just a little stiff from lying here for so long.”

“If you’re sure,” She gave me a look; I don’t think she really believed me, than again I wasn’t sure I really believed it myself either, “Please repeat the names of the objects.”

“Cup, Cantelope, and …” Lillies. I can’t force the word out of my mouth; it feels like it’s just stuck in my throat and those muscles don’t want to move. I continue to try before giving up.

Nautilia quirked an eyebrow at me, she was doing that so often that I was starting to wonder if it was her special talent. “I just can’t say the last one, it’s stuck in my throat.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting; not within my area of expertise, but interesting.” She makes another notation on my medical report; I really would like to see what’s on there, hopefully she would tell me after we finished.

“Try this list of words instead: Cord, Water, Begonias.”

“Cord, Water, Begonias.” I repeat back easily, no problem at all. I couldn’t think of a single reason why I had such problem with that one word.

Nautilia makes a mark on her board than looks back towards me, “Let’s continue. I need you to count backwards from one hundred by seven.” This was starting to get a little silly; I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what this was supposed to test, but at the moment I figured it would be easier to just go along with it, the sooner I finished this the sooner I could find out more about what happened.

“One Hundred, Ninety-Three, Eighty-Six…” I counted all the way to two, the last number in the sequence. It all went fairly smoothly after that point, Nautlilia asked me several more questions from that sheet of hers and made a few more notations, but nothing special. It was only a few minutes later that we finished.

Coincidently, the magic scanner stopped beeping at the same moment, which I suppose meant that it was finished considering the ways that the doctor’s eyes moved up to it. I suppose that could be my luck working again. Nautilia removed the ring from my horn with her magic before taking some sort of cord from it and putting it into a slot on another machine. Since I don’t know anything about what was going on, I just ignored it for the moment; I didn’t really feel like appearing ignorant at the moment.

“So what’s my prognosis?”

“Well from what I can tell you’re magic has been drained something serious; you won’t be able to use it for at least a week and even then it will likely be a little weak. I suggest that you don’t do any magic for at least the next week and then only minimally for a month.” Well that was good news; granted I likely wouldn’t be able to use my magic as I usually did for a while, but I guess those lessons from when I had been without magic will be useful for once. It was still better than not having my magic for the rest of my life.

“Now I just need to take your vitals.” I wonder why she hadn’t done that first, it seems like that would have made more sense.

“Why didn’t you do that in the exam first?”

“I didn’t take them before because you appeared anxious. If I had taken your vitals then it might have given me back elevated values. In other words, it would have given me false information.” Well that made some sense at least; if you were going to get a baseline measurement you needed everything to be at that base level. Even if it hadn’t made sense, I wouldn’t have known if it had been something that had changed from when I had been placed in stone or if it had been something new.

The rest of the checkup was completed without incident. Well except for the part where I had to turn my head and cough, that’s fairly embarrassing when the one asking you to do it is a mare. I mean we may be naked almost all of the time, but that is still a pretty big step over the line of decency.

“From what I can see you are a fairly healthy stallion.” I smiled, that was good; at least my time in stone hadn’t caused me too much damage, “There are a few things that bother me, but those are out of my expertise.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your reaction earlier to a certain word, that I will not be saying, is possibly indicative of a mental disorder, but that is outside my expertise. I suggest that you see a psychologist about it. However, because that is outside my knowledge, I can’t actually do anything more than provide you with a recommendation. In any case I believe that you are well enough to see your friends.” That was a lot of information to take in at once. Psychologist? I had never heard that term before, but perhaps they were the ponies that went into your head or something.

“Would you mind leading me to them?”

“Actually you’ll need to remain in your room until I have a chance to complete the paperwork, but I’ll be happy to get them for you. While you’re talking to them I’ll go get the release paperwork ready.” Nautilia trotted out of the room while I remained waiting in the room.

I just sat there waiting for her return, there weren’t many things that I could really do besides that. I wonder if that reaction to the lilies was some leftover from my time as stone, I mean perhaps it had something to do with the fact that those ponies would always bring those flowers.

The sound of the door opening interrupted my thoughts. The small dragon hugging my leg was even more distracting. Honestly I was rather happy about that, I didn’t really want to go into those thoughts right now.

“Welcome to the World.” Dash, batwings and all, was standing in the doorway smirking at me. I don’t know why, but that line made me feel like something might go very wrong today if I go and bake anything.

“It’s good to be back.” I realize that is conversation was rather silly, but what do I know. I suppose there were a couple of question I should ask. “So where is Luna anyway?”

“Princess Luna is still sleeping, it is daytime after all.” Huh, that wasn't what I expected, if Luna's asleep shouldn't I be there too? Perhaps that part of the spell had broken with the stone portion. Something to think about anyway.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts in time to see Dash looking out the window, “Honestly if I didn't need to be asleep to help you out thats where I would be too.” Well I’d take that as meaning that Night Pegasus are nocturnal, probably because of their jobs.

“Well it’s good to hear that she’s ok at least.” Considering how she had been when I had last seen her, this was actually very helpful to me.

“So you want to go see what’s going on in town?”

“But I can’t leave until the Nurse comes back with the paperwork.” Rainbow Dash gave me an incredulous look.”

“You’re kidding right? Come on. Let’s just fly on out of here.”

“Sorry Dash, I’ve got to wait to fill out that paperwork, it’s the rules.” And sadly I am very rule bound. I have a much easier time with laws though, I’ve seen and broken the laws of physics enough times for it to hate me at this point.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Behind Dash the Nurse had come back, “all I need you to do is sign this paperwork here, here, and here.” I pick up the pen in my mouth and start to sign where indicated.

“So is that everything?”

“No, that was just the first page.” She pulls out a stack of paperwork from behind her back. I can only gape at it, “You still have to fill out the rest of these.” This was going to take a while, but there was only one thing I could ask.

“Can I get another pen? I don’t think this one will be enough.”

Author's Notes: Okay first off I want to tell you all that I can't thank you enough for reading this story. It really makes me feel good that your enjoying it. Second I want to tell you all that if you have any feedback on this chapter at all I would really appreciate it, it took me forever just to get it like this and I can't help feeling that it's missing something that I won't be able to see, but you will.

Finally I have a little shout out that I promised to make for a fic I liked Thunderstruck: The Curious Odyssey of Shaun Davis. It's an HiE fic that doesn't make me want to go poke out my eyes, which is pretty good honestly. I like them right where they are.

Trauma Center

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Disclaimer: I've asked for a little help with this one.

"Oooh, ooh, does that mean it's my turn to speak?! Does it, does it!?"

Disclaimer: Yes Pinkie it does.

"YAAHH. Okay all you readers MyWorld93 does not own any of the MLP franchise." Pinkie looks pensive, "Well actually I think he might own Dawn and Sakura, but that's it. Remember all that and I'll throw you a wonderful remembering everything important party! Won't that be fun!"

Disclaimer: Thanks Pinkie.

Chapter 8: Trauma Center

Written by MyWorld93

My jaw muscles felt horribly cramped. I think the last time I wrote this much with my mouth was… actually I don’t think I’ve ever written this much with my mouth before. I have to wonder if it was really necessary for me to sign one-hundred of those documents to check out of the hospital. Whatever advances they’ve made in medical technology must come at the cost of millions of trees.

I think I want to become an environmentalist.

Well at least that ordeal was over with now. I could take my first steps in into a brand new world… or at least a brand new hallway. Pushing open the door with my snout I trotted out the door, Sakura riding on my back and Dash trotting along behind me.

The hallway was as white as my room had been. I suppose that was a theme with hospitals. I suppose that they use it because it gives the place a sense of purity and for a place that was built for healing it made perfect sense.

Looking around a bit more, I realized something that was truly amazing. There were no windows and no Unicorns and yet the room was still lit up. It seemed to be coming from small glass covered objects on the ceiling. I had never seen anything like it.

“Hey Dash what do these lights run on?”

“Electricity.” That doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard of before in my life.

“What is electricity?”

“Buck if I know. I’m more into the athletics then science.” Somehow I should have expected that answer. She seemed like the athletic type then the type to sit in a lab like I would.

We walked in silence for a while, but as we got closer to the entrance I saw something else that once again amazed me, I get the feeling this is going to happen a lot. I’d never seen such a thing in my life. It was rectangular in shape and had a black edge, but the most impressive bit were the moving pictures that seemed to scroll across it. It was amazing, moving pictures! I needed to know what this was called and if I could I wanted to know how it worked.

“Hey Rainbow,” She looked towards me, “What is that thing?” I pointed towards the black rectangle hanging on the wall.

“Huh? Everyone knows what that is, how come you… Oh right stuck in stone for a thousand years. Yeah that would probably make it difficult to know what that is. It’s called a television.” Well that may have given me a name, but I wanted to know more about it.

“What exactly does it do?” I really wanted to know more, I could see ponies on the screen, but where did they come from. Were they stuck inside there by magic or something of that nature?

“It show’s movies and television shows.” That was even less of an answer then before. I could say with confidence that I know what a television shows, but how does it work and what is it used for?

“So what do you use it for?”

“Ponies use it mainly to sort of forget about their problems for a while and watch someone else’s.” Okay, that was a little strange. Honestly though it just sounded like books, why would ponies go and invent something that just did the same thing that books did. I mean it doesn’t make much sense really. I’d need to do more research. Still that left me with one question.

“So how does it work?”

“Buck if I know. Ask Twilight, I just like to watch the shows.” Well that would at least give me a conversation piece for later.

During my chat with Rainbow on what exactly a ‘Television’ was, we had reached the entrance to the hospital. Considering I had been running on automatic I’m glad that I didn’t run into to anything. That would have been embarrassing.

There wasn’t much of interest in this room as there had been in the hallways. Somehow I had expected that something even more amazing then what I had seen earlier would be in here. Perhaps I was just viewing what I was seeing in comparison to what I had seen earlier.

At least the view outside was interesting. I was getting my first look at a completely new time, but honestly it looked very similar to a thousand years ago: aristocratic ponies snubbing each other, the roads uneven and out of alignment, and it still feels like somepony is scheming to stab me in the back.

My gaze into the new world was soon blocked by a pony about to enter the hospital. It’s rather strange honestly, there doesn’t seem to be anyway of actually opening the door. How did ponies get in?

I watched as the pony at the door got closer and closer to it, seriously how was he planning to open it? Soon he was close enough where if he didn’t do anything he would walk straight into the door, but something different happened. The doors opened on their own. How did that happen?

The pony stepped passed me as I walked closer to the doorway, amazed as it opened itself for me. It was amazing, how did the door know where I was? I couldn’t see any magic powering it, I suppose it was powered by the same ‘electricity’ as the lights, and likely the television were, but still…

I was broken from my daze by the sound of Rainbow Dash and Sakura breaking down into laughter. I guess my expression of amazement must have been amusing. I couldn’t really fault them. I had laughed at enough looks myself.

That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t throw them a glare of my own though. Didn’t actually help any, they kept laughing, but it made me feel a little better. I probably should have expected that, they didn’t seem the type to stop laughing because someone threw them a glare, especially Sakura.

That made me wonder how Sakura would have looked when she had first seen the electric lights herself. The image made me smile, it would have been so cute.

Since at this point I guessed that nothing would stop them from laughing besides time, I didn’t bother to try. Instead I turned towards the doorway and trotted out into the new world. Well it would be a new world for me anyway, I think most ponies have seen enough of it by this point.

The world appeared very similar now that I was outside as to how it looked inside. That was of course ignoring that the building that had only looked to be a single story from inside the hospital apparently were actually almost ten stories tall each. That was eight stories taller than any building I had ever seen. How do they do that, it’s freaking amazing. The sheer number of ponies that you could fit into one of these buildings was likely double that of any small town!

I stood in front of that door, drinking in all the changes for at least five whole minutes. I would have stood there longer, but Rainbow and Sakura ran straight into my backside.

Rainbow peered down at me, “Hey you okay?” Sakura was looking at me with concern. Nice to know they care, but I wish they would look where they’re going next time. At least I know that I had made the right choice in giving friendship another try if this was the kind of attention I was going to get for such a simple accident.

I stood up. “Yeah I’m alright.” I began to brush myself off, I may not be wearing any clothing, but dust gets stuck in fur so easily.

“Good, good. So, where should we go first?” I raised an eyebrow. Did she really think that I would know?

Rainbow responded with a quizzical look of her own, “Huh? What’s with the look?” She blinked, “Oh yeah, you don’t have any idea what would be around now would you? Let alone what would be in this city.”

“No, no I don’t.” My stomach rumbled and I blushed, it at least seemed to know what it wanted. I suppose being locked in stone followed by being unconscious for a week, without ever getting a bite to eat in between, leaves you hungry; even if they feed food into your veins. I’m still not completely sure how that works, but I’m sure there’s a book at the library about it that’ll tell more than the doctor would have.

“Heh, I think I know just where to take you.” Rainbow looked down at Sakura, “I think he’d like that place, don’t you?” What was she talking about?

“Yah! He’d love that place.”

“What place are you talking about?”

Sakura started to jump in the air waving her arms around, “It’s just the best restaurant in town!” Well that seemed like a pretty good endorsement to me, especially since she could at least partially read my opinion about things.

“So where is it exactly?”

“Heh, just follow me!” Dash spread her wings. Wait… What was she doing? She does remember that we can’t fly right? I wouldn’t be able to follow her if she took to the air and I don’t know my way around the city. No offense to Sakura, but I don’t know if I want to trust a baby dragon with direction.

Since I didn’t have much time to think of the best action I went on instinct. This of course meant that I did the least intelligent thing I could think of, taking a bit out of Rainbow’s tail and trying to drag her back. I don’t know why, but Sakura took a bite of my tail.

Now remember that I am not the weakest Unicorn around, I had been gone through the Night Guard regime and that was not easy, but that seems to mean little compared to the inborn strength of a Night Pegasus combined with Rainbow’s own training. We were in the air before I could blink, Sakura being dragged along for the ride as well.

Dash didn’t seem to notice Sakura and my added weight as she began to ascend higher and higher, the ground falling below us at a faster rate than I really wanted to think about. Instinctively I began to try and cast a Pegasus transformation spell on myself before remembering that I was completely drained of magic.

Well this was a pickle I was in. I didn’t have any magic to rescue myself from falling to my doom and I couldn’t actually talk to Dash while I was biting her tail. Since I didn’t feel like falling to my death, I went with the next best option.

I tapped her on the rump and almost got bucked in the face for my troubles. I suppose it wasn’t one of my best ideas, but I hadn’t really had many choices. It seemed that it had done as I had intended though. Dash was turning to face us, a smirk on her lips. I suppose she felt that she had given the ‘lecher’, i.e. me in this case, what they deserved. Her expression quickly changed to one of shock when she noticed the two of us hanging by her tail.

I pointed my hoof downward. I could only hope she got the message. I think she understood because she nodded her head and went into a nosedive. I wish she’d gone for a more level dive, but the feeling of wind rushing past me was enjoyable. Still I wish I could enjoy it while not feeling like I was about to die or that Sakura would fly off. You had to take the good with the bad I suppose.

The closer we got to the ground the sooner I realized that we may have a slight problem. Unless Dash slowed down well before we got the ground, Sakura and I would become pancakes. We would hit the ground well before she did.

Lucky for us it seems that Rainbow Dash was as good a flyer as she thought she was. When she got a couple of feet before the ground she slowed to a stop and simply hung suspended in the air.

“You might as well let go, it’ll be softer landing if you do.” Understanding her intent, I released my rather tight grip on her tail, falling a few feet to the ground and producing a thumping noise. Strangely I didn’t feel a second thumping noise, which was rather worrying. I mean Sakura should have made another thump.

“Hey Sakura, you alright?” I turned towards where Sakura should have landed, I realized that she wasn’t there and almost panicked. I calmed down when I noticed that she was still hanging from my tail, which had lifted above the ground to keep her from touching it. Glad it did, it was nice to know that she hadn’t been hurt from that fall. My tail moved a little and placed her on my back.

Sakura released my tail, “Yeah! That was fun.” Her eyes were shining brightly. I gave a small smile; it was one of the cutest looks I’ve seen in a long time, “Can we do it again?”

I gave her a nuzzle. “Maybe when I get my magic back ok?” I thought it would be a good idea to wait until I would be able to save us before trying that again.

“Awww…”

I turned to face Dash who had seemingly landed while I was panicking over where Sakura had gone.

“So Dash where exactly are we going? Please don’t take off flying this time.”

“I told you already, we’re going to this restaurant to get you some food. It’s called A-”

“Hey Rainbow!” My tail pulled to the right and I jumped to left, narrowly dodging a careening orange blur. It came to a stop in front of Rainbow Dash, who seemed rather happy to see whatever it was.

Now that the orange blur was standing still I could make out her features, because it was most assuredly a her. She was a small, orange, Night Pegasus filly.

Strangely the first thing that jumped into my mind was to wonder why she wasn’t in bed yet, from everything I’ve gather Night Pegasi are nocturnal.

“Wow how’d you do that? Nopony has ever been able to dodge me before.” The filly’s voice broke me from my thoughts. What did she mean by that?

The filly rubbed her chin, “Well actually Pinkie may have done it once, but the jury is still out on that one.” Did this small filly actually try to hit other ponies? I’m going to hope she meant something else. For that matter, who was this little filly?

Well I can find that out in a moment, it would be rude of me not to answer her question first.

“Well my name’s Dawn Pie and I’m related to Pinkie P-”

“You’re related to Pinkie Pie! That makes so much sense! No wonder you were able to dodge me.” I really have to wonder if this foal has some kind of speed issue.

“So then who are you?”

“Me? I’m Scootaloo, Rainbow’s little sister!” Wait… What? How did that even work? I mean they looked nothing alike, Rainbow was blue and colorful while Scootaloo was orange and kind of reminded me of a flightless bird. I have no idea why, I mean she had literally almost flown into me, but I still felt it.

I needed to find out if this was true.

“Is this true?”

“Yup, this is my little sister Scootaloo.” Dash turned to face Scootaloo, “So where exactly are you headed in such a rush anyway?”

“I promised to meet up with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle at Applebarn for a Flank Mark Crusader’s attempt.” Huh? Flank Mark Crusader’s? That group is still around? I mean I was in when I was a foal, well before I had become Luna’s student, we had some fun attempts at trying to get our Flank Markings.

The three of us sat there, Diamond, Flitterflutter, and I, waiting for the arrival of our scoutmaster for the Flank Mark Crusaders; not a single one of us had gotten our Flank Marks yet. So of course we joined up hoping to get our mark.

That isn’t to say of course that a pony couldn’t join if they had already gotten their cutie marks. Those who have already gotten their mark could join the Flank Scouts if they wanted to. I really question why they named it that.

“So does anyone know where our scoutmaster is? We’ve been here for three hours now.” I was getting a little annoyed with his tardiness. I mean he had told us to meet him here at this time.

“I don’t know bra, but I’m okay with just chillin’ right here.” Flitterflutter folded his green wings back before laying down on the ground.

I rolled my eyes. Flitterflutter had been like this the entire time. Seriously, he was way too laid back with things.

Diamond stomped her hoof, “I for one just wish he would show up already. At this point I’m about ready to leave and find him myself.” I was with Diamond on this one. I don’t think I’ve ever sat in one place for this long. Was he ever going to show up?

Well I might as well make the most of my time anyway. Turning towards Diamond I opened my mouth to begin a conversation when a bright light interrupted me. Where in the world had that thing come from?

Wait was something in there? I looked a little harder. Yah, there was something in there, but the light was too bright to make it out. It wasn’t until the light began to dim a little that I actually managed to see what the object really was. It looked like a Brown Unicorn pony with a Flank Marking of a broken clock.

He turned to face us. “Oh hello my name is Final Time. I’m here to meet three foals who joined the Flank Mark Crusaders. Is that you?”

So this was our scoutmaster? He seemed a little weird, I mean he didn’t even seem to realize that he was over three hours late.

Diamond looked like she was about to go on a screaming rampage, but I held out my hoof to stop her. Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be worth the headache.

“Hey bra, where you been, pon?” I suppose that Flitter hadn’t gotten the message, not that he ever seemed to, “Not that I mind bra, I rather enjoyed the chilling time, but I think these two would like ta know.”

“Hmm?” He leaned forward a bit as if surprised that we would ask such a question. Didn’t he realize that he was several hours late? “What are you talking about, I’m perfectly on time.” He held out his watch to us, “See its nine O’clock right on the dot.”

“But the hands are painted on!” The words slipped out my mouth before I could stop them. I hadn’t wanted the headache that would come from getting a response, but my need for knowledge had overwhelmed my logic centers.

He looked down at his watch, then tapped it once, “Hmm what do you know, you’re right!” Somehow he sounded both sincere and sarcastic at the same time, how did he do that?

“Okay, I really just got lost on road of life trying to find this place. You have no idea the kind of hazards I have to pass through to reach here. Sorry about that.” Somehow I have the feeling that either he was lying or I really don’t want to find out what he was doing before he came here.

“How about you just tell us what we’re going to be doing today?”

“Well why don’t you tell me?” I blinked, that didn’t make any sense to me at all.

“What do ya mean bra, you’re the scoutmaster, you should be telling us what to do right?”

“Now why would I do that?” Getting information out of Final Time seemed to be like pulling teeth with your hooves.

“Because it’s your job.” Diamond telling people what to do, as always, one of her more endearing qualities really.

“Yes, but my job is to get you three your Flank Marks. If I simply told you what to do you wouldn’t be very interested in it would you?” We shook our heads, “So that likely wouldn’t get you your Flank Marks would it?” That made perfect sense actually. Flank Markings only came into being when a pony found something they enjoyed doing and were willing to do it for a lifetime.

“So what would you three like to do?” I needed to think about this. I couldn’t just blurt out an ans-

“Surfin Bra.” Flitter of course apparently didn’t need time to think it through.That of course was Flitter.

“Sandcastle Building.” Surprisingly neither did Diamond. Ah well, might as well go with the crowd on this one. A beach trip seemed like fun.

“Scuba Diving.”

“Alrighty then, looks like we’re off to the beach.” A bright light surrounded us and when it had dissipated we were at the beach. How did he do that so fast? Most power Unicorns took a little longer than that to find out. Still I’d leave that thought for another time, it was time to try and get our Flank Marks.

“FLANK MARK CRUSADERS BEACH MARKS! YAH!” It was traditional, it was necessary, it was just plain fun.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach surfing, building sandcastles, and scuba diving. None of us got our Flank marks that day, but we did end up covered in tree sap. Still not exactly sure how that happened.

“You mean Cutie Mark Crusader’s don’t you sis?” The sound of Scootaloo’s voice brought me back into the present. What is a cutie mark anyway?

“Nah I meant Flank Mark Crusaders, turns out that there used to be a group like us and we thought we should respect the memory their memory.” Well that was sure nice of them, but I’m going to pretend I don’t understand the implications of that statement.

“Hold up squirt. We’re heading in the same direction. We don’t get to spend much time together, so why don’t you come with us?”

“Of course sis. I’d love to come with you guys!” She seemed really happy about it. Well hopefully it wouldn’t cause any problems.

“This is it, this is it!” Sakura seemed excited to have reached our destination. My stomach growled its agreement.

With Rainbow Dash leading us it hadn’t taken long for us to reach our destination, which honestly looked… interesting I suppose would be the best word for it. Standing at only a quarter the height of any building around it, with its red wooden walls, white roof, and the grass surrounded by a white picket fence it stood out like a sore hoof from the tall, cold, grey buildings that surrounded it.

“Don’t you think this place seems a little out of place?”

“Yeah, but their food is delicious. Isn’t that right?” Rainbow looked towards our companions.

“Yah it’s pretty good.” Scootaloo’s quickly replied, looking away from her sister. I wonder if maybe there is something I should know about this place before I entered considering how Scootaloo was acting.

“Yah! The foods great and its loads of fun!” Actually I think I’ll take Sakura’s opinion over Scootaloo’s, she seemed much more enthusiastic and somehow I get the feeling she shares some of my interests. Probably because all familiars I’ve ever met seem to do so to some extent.

Besides I was hungry enough to eat anything at this point.

“C’mon hurry up slowpoke.” Rainbow flew to the building. The rest of us followed at a more sedate pace.

There was something a little strange here, there didn’t seem to be any other ponies around. I had to wonder why that was. You’d think that the place would be hopping if it was as popular as Rainbow and Sakura made it out to be. Maybe Scootaloo was right? However, the sign on the door made it abundantly clear why there was no around.

“Uh, Rainbow this place is closed.”

“Well duh, it doesn’t open for at least another hour.” I blinked. The city had seemed so active. I’d have thought that everyone had been awake for hours. You’d never see that many people out at once a thousand years ago unless they were all going to work.

“So then why are we here now if they don’t open for another hour?”

“Because I’m friends with the owner and can get us in early.” Well that was as good an explanation as any I suppose.

Rainbow knocked on the door. “Come back later we’re closed!” That voice sounded familiar. Now where did I hear it before?

“It’s me Applejack! I brought Dawn and Sakura.” Oh! So that’s where I recognized the voice from. It was one of the ponies that I had met during that whole prank. Well this made things easier, I could just apologize now.

“Hey don’t forget about me!” Scootaloo looked a little hurt, I suppose because her sister hadn’t acknowledged her. Why hadn’t she acknowledged her anyway? Maybe Rainbow was a little forgetful, but the grin I saw her face made me think otherwise.

“Oh Rainbow, come on in.” The door opened to reveal Applejack’s smiling mug. However, she was soon knocked over by Rainbow and Scootaloo flying past her. Somehow I get the feeling that this was a normal occurrence because Applejack was smiling as they flew past. I followed them at a more sedate pace.

The inner design was just as strange as the outer portion had been. The walls and ceiling were the same color as they were on the outside and everything, from the chairs to the bar, had been made to look like they were a part of a barn. The tables for example were actual hay bales, not imitations. The strangest bit though was the small pit full of round rubber balls. I have no idea what the function of it is, but it appears that Sakura does. She jumped off my back, ran straight towards it, and jumped in laughing. I gave a smile. She looked so cute like that.

Rainbow Dash was sitting at the bar where a very large, red, Earth Pony stallion was cleaning some cups. I’m honestly not sure how she had gotten over there so quickly. She seemed to be very interested in just looking at the stallion, so for the moment I just left her alone. Besides it was prime teasing material.

Strangely Scootaloo was nowhere to be seen.

“So watcha think Dawn? Pretty nice ain’t it?” Applejack’s voice broke me from my thoughts. I suppose it was a nice place really. I’d never been in another restaurant like it in any case. Was that a good thing?

“Yeah it’s pretty nice. I like how everything looks like it came from an actual barn.”

“That’s because it did.” Ok, don’t think I expected that. How did they get past the health inspectors? “My family runs an apple farm right outside the city. We’ve done so well for ourselves that we been expandin somethin fierce. We got an entire chain of these restaurants all over the continent. Each one is run by an Apple.”

“Wait. These stores are run by fruit?” Wow! That would be amazing, the sheer amount of time you could keep the place open would be amazing.

“Hehe, Naw pardner, they’re run by my family, the Apples.” Ah, that makes more sense, but I still preferred my explanation. I was hoping they’d developed living, breathing apples. It would have been interesting to study such a change in the societal system.

That was when something very strange thought broke into my mind.

“Wait so your full name is Applejack Apple?” I blinked slowly. There was something wrong with that line.

“Sure a shootin’.”

“Huh.” Somehow that felt a little redundant, “So wait, that means you live here? I thought you lived in Ponyville?”

“Nope, the Apple clan has always lived right here in the Royal City of Neigh England.”

“So what were you doing in Ponyville for the Summer solstice?”

“Now how in the world did ya know about that?” Had she forgotten where I met them already? Well I suppose it’s possible that she could have traveled from here to there, but considering that Twilight had been in Ponyville that had seemed rather unlikely.

“I knew where Twilight had gone and I just kind of guessed afterward.” That pretty much summed up my thought process, “So what were you doing in Ponyville?” I am way to curious for my own good, someday that is going to bite me in the ass.

Applejack gave a short laugh, “Suppose that’s as good an explanation as any. Well I was selling our apple wares. It was a big festival after all, it just made sense ya know.” I nodded my head. Fairs and large events always had a lot of food sellers and they always seemed to make quite a bit of coin.

Well I had kind of run out conversation at this point, so I looked around for a new topic, spotting Dash still sitting by the bar looking at the big red stallion, I think I had a new topic.

I opened my mouth to ask who the red stallion was when my stomach gave another rumble. Oh right, I’d come here to get some food…

Applejack gave a small laugh, “Sounds like someone’s hungry. Come on let’s get ya some food.” Well that was nice of her, “I’ll just put it on Dash’s tab.” That made more business sense.

Applejack trotted over to the bar, past the oblivious Rainbow and knocked her hoof against the countertop. “Hey Big Mac!” The red stallion looked up from his latest glass, “Stop washing those dishes and come over here, ah got someone I want ya to meet.”

Placing the mug on the counter the red stallion, Big Mac I suppose, looked me in the eye. Honestly it was a little intimidating. The only reason I wasn’t galloping away as fast as I could was that he didn’t seem hostile, merely intrigued. I wonder why that was?

Applejack waved a hoof in my direction. “This here is Dawn, he’s new in town.”

Big Mac nodded his head once, “Pleasure to meet ya Dawn.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, but I’m afraid that I didn’t get your name.” Well, I kind of did, but not really.

“Big Macintosh.” For the moment at least, Big Mac didn’t seem inclined to continue this conversation any further. I didn’t mind much, I couldn’t think of anything to say at the moment anyway.

The red stallion looked over at his sister, “So where’d you meet him?”

“Well now that quite the story,” My stomach gave a rumble, “but I’ll have to tell you later, for now you think you can grab Dawn here some grub? He sounds mighty famished.”

“Eyuup.”

“Oh and put it on Dash’s tab.”

“Huh?” That lost comment seemed to have gotten through the currently slightly addled mind, perhaps by an infatuation with the Big Mac, of Rainbow Dash, “Did someone mention my name?”

“Yup, putting Dawn’s food on your tab.”

Dash blinked once then shrugged, “That’s fine. I was going to do that anyway.” Huh that was nice of her, for some reason I thought I might actually have to work the food off. I guess I’ll just save the teasing for later.

“Eh, actually don’t worry about it. This one’ll be on the house.” I was right. Applejack couldn’t really go through with taking money from a friend of hers, at least if the food is for someone else. I doubt they would be able to stay open if they just gave away free food to all their friends.

“Hehheh, I knew you wouldn’t be able to charge me Applejack.” From the grin on her face I could only feel that this type of conversation was a fairly common occurrence.

“Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t let you do that pardner. Maybe I shouldn’t let you get away without paying so easily…” The smirk on Applejack’s face, and since this was a turnabout again, made me feel this was another part of a well-known act.

“Come on Applejack, you know how this conversation always goes.” And I think this confirms it.

“Yeah, yeah I do.” She sat down in the set next to Dash and they both reached out their hooves.

“Um, would someone mind telling me how this conversation goes? I’m kind of curious.” They gave me a glare, “Um… nevermind I’ll find out later.” Hopefully I could figure out just by watching, it didn’t seem I’d learn by asking.

The two of them raised a hoof and locked them together. What in the world are they doing? I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. Are they going to try and hurt each other? I kind of doubt it, if this happened as often as it seemed anyway.

Huh… They’re trying to push each other’s hoof to the ground? What in the world is this?

A light tap on my leg has me moving my attention downward to find Sakura. I suppose I was so distracted by this spectacle that I hadn’t noticed her approach.

My tail reaches down and places her on my back. It’s being very helpful today.

“Hey Sakura, do you have any idea what these two are doing?”

“Yepperooni. They’re hoof wrestling.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a contest of strength.” A deeper voice responded. Big Mac was placing a large plate of food on the counter. The smell wafting off of it was absolutely amazing. No wonder Dash liked this place so much if the food always smells this good.

Of course I have no idea what this food is. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

“Is that for me?”

“Eyuup.”

“Thank you very much, it smells absolutely amazing.” Out of the corner of my eyes I see that Dash’s hoof is being pushed closer to the table by Applejack. I wonder if that means that she’s winning or losing.

My tail carefully lifts Sakura off my back, placing her on the seat to the left of me. I picked up the provided spoon with my hoof, luckily I had learned how to use utensils without the use of magic during that week a long time ago. Otherwise I would have needed to eat with my mouth and no one wants to watch that.

While the smell was delicious and I really wanted to take a bite, habit dictated that I needed to test it for poison. Like I said before, ponies were always trying to off me for my position. While I doubt that Big Macintosh was going to try and kill me, old habits die hard. My lack of magic however, makes this a much more difficult prospect. There are a many more ways to hide poison when there isn’t any magical means of sensing it. There are ways of doing it though, specifically through smell.

I raised the food to my mouth, as if I was going to take a bite, but stop for less than half a second before putting it in my mouth. It isn’t noticeable to anyone else, but I give it quick whiff. The enchanting smell of the food enters my nostrils, but I don’t smell even a hint of poison. Not that I had really expected to find one.

The next test was a bit more dangerous. I bring it up to my tongue and barely touch it with the food. An explosion of taste in my mouth….This food is increadible! I can’t believe how good it tastes.

I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t really eaten anything for a thousand years or what, but before I could even think more about the possible ramifications of eating food what was still possibly poisoned, my plate was empty.

“That was incredible Big Mac.” I really couldn’t believe I’d done that. I’d always tested food for poison before eating that much of it, but it had just been too good.

“Eyuup.”

“You cooked that right?”

“Eyuup”

“What was it anyway?”

“Malum Sauce.” Huh, that sounded familiar… Wait…

“That amazing tasting dish was ordinary APPLE SAUCE!?”

“Eyuup.” Seriously? That hadn’t tasted anything like apple sauce. There was no way that was plain applesauce. There must be something else in there. Perhaps they added other herbs or something to the dish to make it taste better? I needed to know!

Hey I’m one of those people who like to know everything about everything, give me a break.

“How did you do it? Did you add some kind of strange chemical additive?”

“Nope.”

“Did you cook it differently than anyone else, family recipe maybe?”

“Nope.” The sound of something hitting the bar counter distracted me from asking anymore questions about how this food was made, but mark my words, I will find out.

“It’s the apples.”

“Huh?” I turned towards Applejack, “What do you mean?”

“I mean the answer to your question, the reason the Applesauce tastes so good is that they were made with Apple Family Apples.”

“Huh, interesting,” Why would that make a difference? I’d tried a lot of different types of Applesauce when I younger and none had tasted as good as that one. Well I was willing to leave that until I could get my hands on one of their apples and chemically analyze its components both magically and physically so I could understand what makes them so delicious.

That was for later. I might as well stay in the present for the moment.

“So who won your ‘arm wrestling contest.” Considering how dejected Rainbow looked, I was going to assume it was Applejack, but I think it’s a good idea to confirm things.

“Me a course, but I’m still letting this one go as a freebie.” Rainbow seemed to perk up quite a bit at those words. I wonder if my food had cost more than I thought.

“Thanks AJ.”

“It ain’t no trouble at all Dash. The teasing I’ll get out of all this is enough of a payment.” That was a double negative. Wonder if that was on purpose… Probably not.

“Alright so we know what we’re going to do right!” The sound of Scootaloo’s voice from behind the counter interrupted the rather sweet scene.

“Yeah!” Two new voices sounded off. What was going on back there?

“Okay, on three. One, Two, Three!”

“FLANK MARK CRUSADERS RESTAURANT OWNERS! YAH!” Oh, so that was what was going on. It felt pretty good to hear that old chant again.

My tail pulled out towards the right, so of course I moved left, just in time as well. Scootaloo and another filly galloped past me, but the third member of the little trio of voices seemed to have stayed behind.

“Scootaloo you get back here and apologize!” Rainbow Dash followed the little fillies out the door. I can’t figure out why. She did the same sort of thing to Applejack earlier and she hadn’t told her to apologize when Scootaloo had almost hit me earlier. I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway.

“Applebloom you get out from behind that counter, you know you aren’t old enough to be working back there.”

“Ah shoot.” A little yellow filly with red hair and a red bow walked out from behind the bar, although she was still facing away from me so I couldn’t see her face.

“So who’s the little Filly Applejack?”

“This here is my little sister Applebloom.”

“Huh? Who’s this sis?” She turned around to face me and I felt my body stiffen, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My body wasn’t under my control any more. My vision began to go black, the only thing I could still see were those eyes, Phoenix’s eyes. Why did this filly have her eyes… Why? What did I do to have to see those eyes again? They just stared right into me, blaming me for her death. Just watching me.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” I could hear someone muttering. I realized that person was me. I’m so very sorry Phoenix, why did you have to die. Why couldn’t I have taken your place?

I felt someone tap me on the leg, “Hey you okay mister?” The darkness faded a bit and the eyes seemed to move just a little farther away, but I still couldn’t feel myself move.

“Applebloom hows about you go play with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle for a bit.”

“Aw, but I want to stay here and get my Apple Restaurant Cutie Mark!”

“Now Applebloom,” I heard the drawling voice of Big Macintosh, “You listen to your sister alright. You’ll have plenty of chances to earn that Cutie Mark later.”

“Oh fine.” The voice sounded slightly angry, “I never get to know what’s going on.” The eyes left, no longer staring at me. Their absence helped me calm down, my heart rate returned to normal. What was going on here? I mean what had just happened?

“So care to tell us what happened Dawn?” I nodded my head, talking things out seemed to help a lot when I was younger. Granted they weren’t necessarily my first choice of who to talk to, but considering how I felt right now I just wanted some to talk to.

I opened my mouth to try and speak, but found that no words would come out. I wanted to talk about it, but my throat felt constricted and I couldn’t force any air through it. They must have realized what was going on because they sat there calmly, waiting.

The tension in my throat slowly disappeared until I could get a set of words out, “You remember how I said I was trapped in stone?”

Big Macintosh gave me a confused look, “Nope can’t say that I do.” Oh, that was right… Big Macintosh hadn’t been there at the time.

“Big Macintosh, Ah promise that ah’ll tell you all about it just as soon as I can, but let’s let Dawn here finish his story alright?” Big Macintosh just nodded his head, I get the feeling he’s a very understanding pony.

“Well, there was this foal… She came to visit me and she could actually talk to me.” If I wasn’t feeling so serious I would have laughed at the stunned look on Applejack’s face.

“The times when she came to visit were probably some of my favorite times in that stone prison, but then…” I stopped, it was difficult to get the words out for this part.

“Go on.” Applejack’s voice was soft.

“But then one day something pushed me and I fell on top of the filly and she died. I couldn’t do anything except stare into her eyes as her life left her.”

“But why didn’t seeing Scootaloo affect you then?” I heard Rainbow Dash ask.

“Because she didn’t look anything like her, but Applebloom was the spitting image of Phoenix Apple.” The stunned look was back again and this time it looked like it might be staying a while longer then it had before.

“Phoenix…Apple? You killed one of our clansmembers?” Somehow I don’t think this is going to end very well.

“Yes.” I deserve whatever punishment they decided to give me, it had been my fault after all. I had been the one to fall on her, I hadn’t been able to stop myself.

“Why I ought to…” She looked like she was going to jump at me, but Big Macintosh put one hoof down on her tail and she stopped in her tracks. She was still trying to gallop towards me, but she simply wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Nope. Sis, calm down.” I am not going to lie, I am so sincerely grateful to Big Mac right now. I’ve tussled with Earth Ponies before and I have never come out without at least a few rather heavy bruises. They are the toughest group I have ever known.

“What do you mean calm down!? He killed one of our clansmembers! You know what we have to do.” She didn’t look happy about the interruption to her attack, but I couldn’t feeling that she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to attack me. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to in the first place and had just been blinded by her anger for a bit.

“I don’t think this is one of those times. It was an accident, you can see how hurt he was by it, don’t make it worse.” I really am starting to owe ponies far too many favors recently, “Remember there is precedence for this.”

“Really? Caus all I can remember is that anypony who hurts an Apple family member gets hurt in return.”

“Eyuup, but do you remember the accidental clause?”

“The what now?” Big Mac grabbed a book off the nearby table, on the cover I could see the title of Apple Family Rulebook. I’m not sure which amazes me more, that there seems to be an actual rulebook for this family or that it sounds like there was actually a legal system involved.

“The accidental clause,” Big Mac held open a page of the book titled, Accidents and You. “It says that anypony who accidently hurts an Apple family member can ask the head of the family, in this case Granny Smith, to either give him a parden or an alternate form of punishment.” Yikes, I’m starting to wish I hadn’t told them what had happened, but what else was I supposed to tell them about why I acted as I did around Applebloom. Still it might have been prudent not to tell them that it was an Apple.

“Alright, you’re off the hook for now, but I’ll need ya to come by the farm tomorrow and meet up with Granny Smith.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Right well glad that’s settled for the moment.” I’m still trying to figure out how any of this makes sense. Well either way I just need to come back tomorrow and solve this issue.

“I’ll just be leaving now.” I turned towards Sakura, “So Sakura, you ready to go?”

“Yup.” She almost looked sad to leave.

“Hey, I promise that we’ll come back another time alright?” Sakura’s sad look instantly changes into a much wider grin, “Alright hop on.” After Sakura jumps on my back we walk back out into the world.

Trotting out through the front door I heard the sound of what could be considered a lecture, if one was giving a lecture in the concept of causing property damage.

“Okay Scootaloo, you remember what I taught you right?”

“Of course sis, I’m not that forgetful.”

“Right, good. Alright now it’s important that you remember that you don’t hurt ponies, only nonliving things alright?” What in the world was she talking about anyway? I mean even hurting nonliving things wasn’t the best idea. Although, could you really hurt something that wasn’t living? I mean it didn’t actually have any nervous system and thus wouldn’t really feel anything.

“Yeah sis. I got it.”

“Good. Now go play you little scamp.” I’m glad that they seemed to get along at least, even if their subject matter made me question their sanity.

“So Rainbow-” She jumped in surprise, somehow it feels nice to be on the giving end of that for once.

“Oh hey Dawn.” I think she’s trying to look nonchalant and ignore what just happened, well that’s fine. I don’t really mind allowing her that much dignity.

“So what were you explaining to Scootaloo?”

“Huh? You were listening?”

“Yeah, kind of walked up during the end there and I’m curious.”

“Oh. Well, I was explaining the rules of dream flying to her again. She keeps forgetting them and I thought it might be important. She says she wants to come on a test run with me tonight. I figure it should be alright.”

“Dream Flying… That’s how you came into my head right?”

“Yup, isn’t it awesome?”

“Actually yes, yes it is. I know it’s because you’re a Night Pegasus that you can enter dreams, but how do you do it?”

“Oh that. Well maybe I’ll just show you sometime.” Huh that’s surprising, she can take other ponies into the dream world with her? Actually I probably should have known that already, Sakura came with her when she came into my dream world. I had thought that she had brought Sakura with her because she needed the connection to me to get in, but perhaps it wasn’t so much that.

“You can take other ponies along with you?”

“Yah, because I’m awesome! Most Night Pegasi can only go by themselves. I’m going to be teaching Scootaloo how to bring others along though. You have no idea how fun it is to see the looks on ponies faces when they enter the Dream world for the first time.”

“It really was fun!” Sakura’s voice from my back startled me a little, she was just so light and quiet most of the time that I had almost forgotten she was there, “It started out like whoosh, then boom, and the finally we saw you in your egg.” While that sounded cute to hear her do that little show, it didn’t really explain much. However, it did let me do something else.

“Sakura I’m sure if you ask Rainbow nicely she’ll take you with her on a trip back to the Dream World sometime.” I could almost feel Sakura’s eyes widening, preparing for the ultimate in attacks. The dreaded Baby Dragon Stare, seriously someone should patent that thing as a weapon. I remember seeing it completely destroy an entire battalion of ponies. I think it might be one of the reason that baby dragons are so valued as familiars.

“Of course I’ll take you again Sakura, but not for a week at least.” I suppose that the stare hadn’t actually been necessary, “It can be dangerous if you go in too quickly without being a Night Pegasus.”

“Why is that?” Rainbow gave me an odd look.

“Oh right, thousand years stuck as a garden gnome,” I think I may have used that one once, “the Dream World is guarded by creatures. Night Pegasi are invisible to these guardians, but everypony else is fair game to them.”

“So how can other ponies go to the dream world.” From what I was hearing, it wasn’t actually possible for normal ponies to pass past these guys without being affected.

“Most of the time they can’t. Only when they are with really cool Night Pegasi like myself,” Somehow I expected her to say that, “can they get past the dream guardians. However, even I can only do it once per week per Pony-” She saw the look Sakura was giving her, “Er… I mean creature.”

“Huh that’s interesting…” It really was, it’s a whole new field that I’ve never heard about before. So of course I’m interested. Still, I kind of wonder what else is going to be happening to me now that I’m here. I mean where am I going to be staying?

“So where to next.”

“How about you tell me where I’m going to be staying? I think it would be rather important.”

“Oh right. Well Princess Luna told me that you would be staying with Twilight Sparkle.” I could feel the blush starting to brighten up my face. Of course Luna saw that blush earlier and decided to play matchmaker, she tried it before back when she saw me with Diamond.

Dash’s laughter snapped me from my memory, “Oh this is rich! You like Twilight, no wonder Luna set this up.”

“Oh be quiet or I’ll tell everyone about your crush on Big Macintosh.” That seemed to quiet her down right quick.

“How did you know?” She was trying to hide it? Honestly I thought she was trying to broadcast it. I mean come on, she was looking directly at him that entire time.

“You weren’t exactly being discreet with how you were looking at him. I’m really don’t understand why Applejack didn’t notice, or Big Mac himself for that matter.”

“Well let’s just say that I think their under the impression that Night Pegasi have some strange ways of showing they’re interested and leave it at that alright?” Now I’m really curious. Was this a long standing prank of hers that she was pulling on the Apple family or was it something else?

“So truce on this?” I held out my hoof.

She hit it back, “Truce.”

“So would you please lead the way to Twilight’s home?”

“Sure.”

The trot to reach Twilight’s home had been relatively uneventful. Nopony had tried to kill me even once on the way here. It honestly felt strange that I could walk around the city without feeling like someone was planning to stab me in the back, or poison me, or… you get the picture.

Now I just needed to know one more thing, which house belonged to Twilight anyway? None of them really stood out as Twilight’s home.

“So which one is Twilight’s house?”

“You mean you really can’t tell?”

“No, most of the buildings around here look exactly the same to me.” I turned towards Dash, “Besides how would I know which one belongs to her?”

“Really? I thought it would have been pretty obvious.”

“Well it isn’t, mind pointing it out?” I know, I’m being passive aggressive, but it’s hard not to be sometimes.

Dash raised a hoof and pointed towards somewhere to the left of her, “It’s that one.” Following her hoof I realized that she had been right, I really should have realized it.

It was big, but that wasn’t all that special considering the size of the buildings around the town. The thing that really made it stand out was that it was shaped like a giant hat with stars. It looked like what the lead character used to wear in the play the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, although I still have no idea what a mouse was doing trying to learn magic. I’m getting the feeling that there was going to be a theme for the certain ponies buildings.

I had to wonder if Pinky’s house would look like a funhouse.

I sighed, “You’re right, that should have been obvious.”

“Yeah I know.”

I didn’t think there was any way for me to respond to that statement, so I didn’t bother. Instead I trotted right up to the door and prepared to knock.

“Can I do it?” I looked at Sakura, “Please?” Why not? There wasn’t a good reason to not allow her to do so.

“Sure, I don’t see any reason why not.” Sakura leaped off my back, ran up to the door, and knocked. I still couldn’t understand why she seemed so excited to do something so trivial.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, hold on a second.” Huh, that’s strange. Not only was that not Twilight’s voice, but it was male. I hope that it isn’t what I think it is. I’d hate to have lost my chance before even trying.

Nah, I’m sure Rainbow would have told me when I admitted my interest in Twilight. Besides, I doubt Luna would have set it up like this if I didn’t even have a chance. How she would know I wouldn’t really know.

Well the best thing I could do in any case was just wait for the door to open and find out. This strangely reminded me of something that happened before, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I wouldn’t have to wait long, the door was already opening to reveal a… a baby purple dragon? Why was there a purple dragon at the door? Well at least it wasn’t a pony.

“H-hey Spike…” I guess the baby dragon’s name is Spike. I wonder why Sakura seems to be so nervous around him now.

“Oh hey… ah man your summoner never did give you a name did. The big jerk.” Somehow I feel I deserved that… even if I hadn’t even known she was my familiar until she came into my dreamscape.

“Um… you might not want to call him that right now…” Sakura gave me a sidelong glance, “Besides I have a name now, it’s Sakura!”

“When did that happen?!” I don’t know why he looked so surprised, it seems like it had to happen.

“A couple of hours ago maybe?”

“So then where’s your summoner now?” I suppose that was my cue, besides I think I know why Spike’s here now.

“That would be me. My name is Dawn Pie.” From the startled expression on his face, you’d think he hadn’t seen Rainbow or I. I suppose it was possible, we had been a little ways back and he had been paying attention to Sakura. I wonder if I should be worried and playing the role of overprotective big brother.

Spike looked slightly suspicious about what I had said. I don’t know why that would be, if he would just look at my Flank marking he would know that I’m telling the truth.

“If you’re her summoner than how come you didn’t give her a name?”

“Well first of all, let me allay your fears that I’m not her summoner,” He gave me a questioning look, “And yes I know that you didn’t ask that question, but I know you’re thinking it.” It was pretty obvious really, “Just look at my Flank Marking.”

“What’s a Flank Marking?” He didn’t know? How could that be? I mean you’d think it would be common knowledge.

“The mark on my Flank.”

“Oh you mean your Cutie Mark?” Wait. Whoa. Hold on here. Did he just call my Flank Mark a Cutie Mark? I’m a stallion, I did not have a Cutie Mark… Wait! Did this mean that they changed the name to something so ridiculously girly? Not that I have any issue with girly thing, but it’s not gender neutral and it’s used for everypony. Well I’m going to keep calling it a Flank Mark, I don’t care what other ponies call it.

“Yes… that.” I know that I sounded aggressive, but I was a little annoyed by the name change.

While he was looking at my mark, I was looking at his tail. Just as I had suspected, Twilight’s marking was on his tail. This was Twilight’s familiar. I wonder why she had never brought him with her when she came to visit me. Maybe he’d been too young at the time or busy with other things at the time.

“Huh, fine. So you are her summoner. Still that doesn’t explain why you didn’t give her a name.”

“I’ve been in a coma for the last week.”

“Why would that matter, you could have named her before that.” I think he was rather protective of Sakura… hmm.

“Well I’d only met her a few minutes before going into the coma, I didn’t have enough time to name her.”

“Huh? How did that happen?” I would have thought that Twilight would have told her familiar more about what happened, but I suppose not. At least he didn’t seem angry at me anymore.

“Well it’s a long story, how about we go inside and I’ll explain the whole thing to you.”

“Hmm… How do I know that you aren’t here to do something to Twilight’s home?” Well I suppose I would be protective like this too. However, you’d think being with both Rainbow Dash and Sakura would give me the benefit of the doubt.

“Spike he’s with me.”

“Oh right Sakura.”

“Since you seem to be in Spike’s capable claws I’m just gonna jet. I got some things I have to do.” While I wondered what ‘things’ Dash had to do, I suppose it wasn’t any of my business.

“Um… Ok?” By the time I had finished that statement Dash had already flown off into the air away from us.

I turned to Spike, “Does she do that often?”

“I dunno. I’ve only known her for a week.” I suppose that made sense. Why would Twilight’s familiar have known Rainbow Dash longer than Twilight had?

Spike walked into the building, Sakura and I followed him. Twilight’s home seemed to be just as big on the inside as it had appeared to be on the outside. However, there was a lot less space for moving. Every piece of the floor had been covered in books. There wasn’t a single part of the room that had been left clean.

It was heavenly. I had always loved libraries.

“Hehe, you must really like books Dawn.”

“Why do you say that Spike?” He was right of course, but I wanted to know why he said that. Knowledge is useful after all.

“That look on your face, Twilight gets it when she visits a new library somewhere.” Interesting, very interesting. Now that I think about it, where is Twilight?

“Speaking of Twilight, do you know where she is?”

“Yeah, she went out to see the Celestia.”

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

“In a couple hours probably, she always ends up chatting with her teacher for a while.”

“That should give me enough time to at least give you a basic rundown on why I didn’t give Sakura a name when I first met her.”

“You better have a good explanation for that.” We entered another room. It was absolutely huge, books lined everything. Including…

“Spike is the furniture made of books?” Even I don’t have that much interest in books.

“Nah it’s designed to mimic the look of books so it matches everything else in here. Go on give it a try.” Sakura and I move sit down on one of the chairs. Huh, it really does feel comfy; this was some amazingly well done design. Wonder who the designer was.

“Now tell me about why you didn’t name Sakura until today, or else.” I think he was trying to look intimidating, but instead it just made him appear cute. Honestly, I know that in a few years both Spike and Sakura are going to look scary, but right now I think I’ll just admire how cute they look.

“Well it’s like this. When I first took the test I…” I told him the story about how I had actually failed my summoning exam, how I had somehow gained the position of Luna’s student, and how I had ended up in stone. I didn’t go into that much detail beyond that point, but his eyes grew larger throughout the retelling.

Strangely, Sakura seemed mostly unaffected, even though this was the first time she would have heard this story. Perhaps she had already seen it in my mind… or Dash might have told her I suppose. She likely would remember the part about her summoning.

“Well that is a very good reason why you didn’t give Sakura a name. Sorry about giving you that look earlier.”

“It’s not a problem, I know how it feels to think one way and then realize you were completely wrong.” That might not have been my best choice of words, the looks both Sakura and Spike were giving made that abundantly clear.

“I’m sorry I meant-”

“Hey Spike I’m back.”

“Twilight! You're back.” Spike ran out of the room towards where the voice came from, Twilight’s most likely. I suppose my apology would have to wait until later. I should probably go greet Twilight though.

Following Spike’s rapidly retreating backside, I soon found myself to the foyer.

“Oh, hello Dawn.” Twilight’s voice drew my attention to her. I caught sight of Twilight and was about to respond when my body froze up. I couldn’t move at all, my heart began palpitating like crazy, sweat started running down my body. I could hear somepony screaming… Who was screaming? Why were they screaming?

My body began to gallop on its own; out of the room to who knows where. I wasn’t paying attention, I felt scared out of my mind. I don’t know what’s going on, what happened to me? Why was I reacting this way?

That scream is still following me. Why had it followed me all the way here? Where was here anyway?

My legs began to feel tired, but my body kept pushing against it. I needed to get as far as possible from Twilight. I don’t know why I just did. I kept running until my body simply fell to the ground, exhausted.

I can still hear the sound of somepony screaming. Who was it? My throat felt raw… Wait, I was the one screaming, why am I screaming? I need to calm down, yeah that’s the first order of business, calm down and think rationally about what just happened. I caught sight of Twilight and then I just started to have a breakdown, what was going on…

Author's Note: Sorry this is a week later than my regular schedule. My finals took more work than I thought they would. I hope people are still enjoying this story and please provide feedback. It helps me increase the quality of the story.

EPA: Equestria Psychological Association

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Disclaimer: Today I've brought in another guest, from an entirely different show. Hope you enjoy her. Say hello to Melfeulle Sakuraba!

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Disclaimer: Hmm, hmm

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Chapter 9: EPA: Equestrian Psychological Association

Written by MyWorld93

I shook my head slowly trying to loosen the hold the spider webs had on my brain.

What exactly had happened back there? Why would I run away like that, I couldn’t think of a good reason. One moment I had been trotting along through Twilight’s house, happy as could be, and then I saw Twilight and started galloping away. I’ve never galloped like that in my life. I’d always needed a reason before. I know I sometimes hid, but I don’t gallop. I’d never really had anything that I needed to run away from. Most of time not getting hurt involved staying right where I was and defending myself, they generally came from multiple directions anyway.

Where had I ended up anyway? I hadn’t been paying attention to where I’d been going in my terror induced state. The walls and floors were a grimy mess, which didn’t really tell me much, but I was between two buildings. My best guess was that I was in the middle of an alleyway, probably somewhere around Twilight’s home, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Hey Dawn!” Sakura’s voice drew my attention upwards to where the pink dragon was hanging out of a hanging lamp. I know she’s fairly small, but there was no way that she should be able to fit in there. How had she found me anyway? Not that I had been trying to hide from her, but I had been galloping pretty quickly. I doubt she could have kept up.

“So Sakura, how did you find me?”

“Well I saw what happened back there. I was worried, you were screaming so loudly. I was going to just follow that, but you were galloping so fast. I tried to follow you, but then I tripped and now I’m hanging here from a lamppost.” She smiled, “It’s actually pretty fun! Weeee!” That sounded a lot like something that would happen to my sister… Wait… Okay so she was a female and she was my familiar, which made her part of the family. So did that mean that she had the same abilities that the mares in my family did? Which meant that I had possibly, maybe, bonded myself to someone as cool as my sister, this could be fun.

That was a thought for later though. Now that Sakura was here I could ask her about what had happened, my own memories on the matter were a little colored by fear, so it didn’t hurt to ask. Maybe an outside perspective would help me understand what was going on, or at least give me an idea of what to do about it.

First I better get her down from that overhanging lamp. My neck was starting to cramp.

“Hey Sakura. Would you mind coming down here?”

“Sure!” I moved below her, to catch her when she fell. I’d never actually watched as any mare in my family actually pulled themselves out of those impossibly small spaces that they often ended up in. The process was very interesting to watch, I’m also not sure how I missed those times before. Sakura looked almost like pink toothpaste coming out of a tube as she grabbed the edges of the lamp and pushed downward. An instant before she was actually out her body appeared to look like it had the consistency of water before she poofed back to full size.

I realize that I’m just distracting myself, but for the moment it couldn’t hurt.

Soon enough her full body was out of the lamp and, like I had expected, she fell from the lamp and landed on my back. It was lucky that Sakura was so light. Otherwise I might have gotten a few back problems.

“Weee! That was fun! Can I do it again?” I had to smile. She just looked so cute like that. I wish I didn’t have to interrupt her thoughts of fun to find out what had happened to me.

“Of course,” I wasn’t going to stop her from doing things my sister had done on a regular basis, “but at the moment I was wondering if you would mind telling me what you saw earlier.”

“No problemo! I was right behind you when you walked into that room so I saw everything! You trotted into the room, saw Twilight. Then you just froze for a bit and didn’t move. You probably shouldn’t do that, it seemed dangerous.” I saw the worry in her eye. hopefully I could keep from doing such a thing again. I didn’t really like doing it much myself. “Then you just started screaming, which kind of hurt my ears.”

I felt a little worried. She was a baby dragon and damage to her ears could give her permanent damage, “Are you alright? Do your ears still hurt?”

“Nope! They stopped hurting after a few minutes.” That was good. I did not want to hurt anypony, least of all my familiar. That did bring up the idea that I would need to get Sakura a checkup though. I mean she is baby dragon and I was doubtful that she had gotten one of those since she was born. I waited a few seconds for her to continue speaking about what had happened.

“What happened after that Sakura?”

“You galloped away faster than I could follow, I tripped following you, and then I ended up here and you asked me what had happened. Then I said that I was following you-”

“Thanks Sakura, that helps me a lot.” She pouted, I guess she had really wanted to keep talking. Still what she had told me had really helped, if only because it matched up with what I already know. For some reason I have an unreasonable fear of Twilight, but only actually seeing her. I know it didn’t happen when I thought about her or when I heard her. I wonder why it was only seeing her that did it.

The sound of flapping wings surprised me. I know that Pegasi fly everywhere, but the sound of these wings just felt different and somehow familiar. It was pretty obvious why that was when a dark blue Alicorn landed in front of me.

“Teacher! What are you doing here?” Instead of providing me an answer Luna reached out and gave me a hug. While I don’t understand quite why she did that, I wasn’t going to refuse it. Like I’ve said before I like hugs and strangely this one felt almost needed to me. Feeling another sensation on my leg I looked down and saw Sakura joining in. I still have no idea what was going on, but at least I was reassured that I have friends.

Luna backed off, but Sakura continued to hold my leg. “I heard you screaming across the town Dawn.” Either my vocal cords can reach pitches I’d never thought possible or Luna has even better hearing then I thought. I think I was going to go with the second one, I’ve never heard anyone say that I have very strong vocals. “What happened?”

“Honestly I’m not really sure… One second I was fine and the next I was galloping away, scared out of my wits.”

“You went from fine to running away? Give me a little more detail?”

“Well I heard Twilight talking, then I walked into the room where she was, I saw Twilight, and then I ran away screaming.” That explanation wasn’t as detailed as Sakura’s had been, but I think it got the point across and hopefully she’d be able to help me figure out what had happened. It couldn’t hurt anyway.

“So… You saw Twilight and then ran away?”

“Yes. That’s what happened.” Hey I said it and I meant it. I’m not one to lie to an immortal being who just happens to be my teacher, especially when I actually like that teacher. Even less so if they can help me.

Luna looked at Sakura. “Sakura can you confirm that? I wish to make sure that this is the case before I say what I believe should be done.” My word wasn’t good enough? No I suppose she’s just making sure for my sake. Telling me to do something and not getting the right answer could be devastating.

“Yuppers! That’s what happened. I was watching. He entered the room and saw Twilight. Then he just ran away.” I’m glad she didn’t mention that I’d hurt her ears. I get the strangest feeling that I would have been the one with damaged ears at the end of it.

Luna was silent for a few minutes. Actually it was starting to drag on for a pretty long time at this point.

I decided to break the silence, “So do you know what’s wrong with me?”

“No,” I blinked. That was not the answer I had expected, “but I think I know what you should do to find out. You should go see a psychologist.” Now that I think about it, the doctor told me to do that as well, after I had trouble talking about lilies. It probably wasn’t too bad of an idea. Still that left one question for me.

“What is a psychologist? I mean the doctor mentioned that I should see one as well, but I have no idea what they are.”

“A psychologist is somepony that helps you work through mental problems. Many people like to call them mind mages, but they don’t use any magic at all. A fair number of them are actually Earth Ponies. They are a fairly recent profession, but they had been of help to a great many ponies and appear to be thriving.” She had me at ‘helped with mental problems’. There was a good probability that was where my problem lay and it would likely help me. Still that left me with another question, which seems pretty par for the course really. I always seem to have more questions to ask after I hear about something new, but this one was a little different. It involved Luna.

“If they only came about in the last thousand years, how do you know what they are?”

My teacher blushed. I don’t think I’ve seen that sight for a very long time. She was generally in enough control of herself that she didn’t do that. I suppose that this must be really embarrassing to her or something to that effect. “While you were in a coma,” It’s a little sad, but I’d almost forgot about that, and it had only been a few hours, “I looked for books to assign you for when you got out. I am still your teacher after all.” That sounded like Luna alright, even when her student was in a coma she wanted to make sure that she would be ready to teach me when I got out. Honestly I’m rather touched by the sentiment, “When I came across a particular book on the subject of psychology. It looked so interesting that I gave it a read myself. While I had started reading it out of simple curiosity, I soon enough found that the session sounded like it would be a good idea for me.” That made sense, being on the moon could not be conductive to a pony’s health.

“So how did that go for you?”

“Very well, I learned quite a few things about myself. I thought it was pretty useful. It’s also helping me to get over an old fear of mine and I’ve had that fear for almost three thousand years.

“What do you do in one of those sessions?”

“Well mostly you talk through your problems and hopefully reach a satisfactory conclusion. I believe that this will greatly help you.” That was honestly one of the least informative answers that I have ever heard. Maybe you’re not allowed to talk about it? Well it still couldn’t hurt to try.

“All right.”

A couple of hours later I had an appointment, which was honestly very fast for this sort of thing. Normally whenever I needed an appointment for anything I’d need to make it at least a week in advance. That was rather annoying actually, this was rather amazing. Still I had used those few hours to great effect, mainly by sending Sakura to deliver a message to Twilight telling her about what had happened. I hadn’t received anything back, so all I could hope was that she wasn’t mad at me. Also kind of hope she didn’t pity me for it. I wanted to get over this fear so that I could actually try and get a date.

Hopefully this session would help me to understand what caused my reaction to Twilight. Maybe then I’d be able to find out how to solve the problem. One always needs to know what the problem is before they can find a solution. Hopefully the psychologist would be able to help with that.

Now though it was time for my appointment. Luna and I sat in the waiting room, doing what everyone does in a waiting room… read magazines. The room was rather quiet, other than a slowly ticking clock in the corner. I think it was only ticking every other second. I had gotten a special afterhours appointment, likely because Luna had requested it. Which meant that we were the only two in the room.

“Dawn, you want to do this right? It won’t work if you’re just doing it because you think that I’m right.” The sound of Luna’s voice was rather startling in the silence. I suppose she had a point, did I really want to do this? “Yes I’m sure. I’m willing to try anything to get rid of this fear and this seems like the best option.”

“At least you sound like you’re ready.”

We sat in silence for a little while longer. The creaking noise drew our attention to the door, that thing really needed to get oiled.

I blinked… A very familiar purple pony wearing a beard trotted out from behind the door. Who was Twilight trying to trick? I could see that it was her behind that fake beard. The sad bit was that I wasn’t running away… was the beard really that effective of disguise?

I took a glance at Luna. Her expression was blank. Either she was in on this or she really couldn’t tell that this was Twilight, and with Luna I’d never be able to know which is the truth.

“Vello Dawn. I am Dr.Freudlin. I hear dat you are having some issues vith a particular mare.” She held a hoof out to me and I shook it, her beard shook at the sudden jostling. I couldn’t help wondering what would happen when it fell, “Please follow me.”

I still don’t know who Twilight thinks she’s tricking, but followed her in anyway. It wasn’t likely that this would be too damaging and I thought it would be better to confront her about it away from Luna. If she was in on this I didn’t feel like getting laughed at.

We trotted down the short corridor in silence, eventually reaching a door marked Dr.Fraudlin. Apparently she’d really gone all out in her deception… or borrowed someone else’s office and name.

Twilight trotted in and I followed behind her. The room was rather bare, only containing what I assumed to be the bare minimum, a chair and something I could only describe as a strange couch-chair hybrid. It was raised like a chair at one end, but stretched out quite a bit farther.

As soon as she and I were seated I popped the question that had been on my mind this entire time.

“Twilight, why are you wearing a beard?” I paused for a second and then continued with the question that was really bothering me, “and why is it working?”

“I don’t know vho you’re talking about,” her glasses hid her eyes, but there was a good chance that she was looking around wildly. Diamond used to do that too, whenever she wanted to hide something. She had been a terrible liar, “and dat means dere is no vay that my vonderful beard could be doing anything. So hov about ve get started den. Ja?”

I don’t think this idea would make any sense, but since I wasn’t running away I didn’t think there was any reason not to try it. Hopefully my earlier thoughts about this not causing damage would prove accurate.

“Ja- I mean sure.” I’m going to have to watch myself. That accent was catching, if only because it would seem like fun to try.

“Ja, good.” Twilig- excuse me Dr. Freudlin, might as well go along with the full act, pulled out a small notebook and wrote something in it, “Now I vant you to tell me about your moder.”

“My Mother?” That was rather odd. What did my mother have to do with anything? She isn’t even around anymore. How could she be connected to this?

“Yes, yes, tell me about your family. Please start vith your moder.” Not sure what this has to do with anything, but it couldn’t hurt to tell her.

“Well my moder,” oh brother that was quickly going to get annoying, “my mother was a rather nice pony, but was… strict would be the best word for it I suppose. She’d always expect me to do everything perfectly. If I ever failed at anything she would threaten to throw me out of the house.” Dr. Freudlin gave me a rather strange look. I don’t know why, that was a perfectly normal threat from when I was foal, a lot of ponies I knew were told the same thing.

Still she seemed to go back to normal soon enough, scribbling something in her notebook, “Yes… Yes… interesting, very interesting…” She looked back up at me, “Please continue.”

This was just getting rather strange. Still couldn’t hurt to keep going I suppose. “Well… whenever she wasn’t threatening me with homelessness she was actually a fairly nice pony. She would give me treats every once in a while and would take my sister and I places. A lot of the time though she would leave Blueberry and I-”

“Blueberry was the name of your sister?” Well that was rude of her. I can’t help feeling that she wasn’t supposed to do things like that.

“Yes, that’s right. As I was saying, my mother would leave my sister and me alone whenever she took us out anywhere. Usually she would go and do work or something somewhere else. I never really did know what she was actually doing. Blueberry would usually do something fun with me instead. I remember this one time…”

It was a rather nice day and-

“No, No. Dis is not de time for the Flashback. Dis is the time for di talking.” I think she was starting to take the accent a little too far, I can’t tell what it’s supposed to be anymore. I mean I think it was supposed to be Germane, but now it sounded like she was mixing in some island dilect. “Now please tell me about dis memory.”

“Um alright?” What in the world was that about? “Well it really was a rather nice day. My mother had taken Blueberry and I to the beach. Then she kind of just left us there, with nopony watching us.” Now that I think about it, my mother hadn’t been very responsible. Who leaves their only children alone on a beach? Or anywhere really? Especially considering how young we were. “Blueberry played sandcastles with me until a butler came and took us home.”

“Huh, interesting. Very, very interesting. It sounds to me like you don’t like your moder very much. Is dat true?” Her beard shook a little from her mouth movement. I could only hope that it didn’t fall off.

“Um no.” I will admit that she hadn’t been the best mother, but I never actively disliked her. There were times when she had been nice; they had just been fairly far apart. “I don’t dislike my mother. I mean she raised me. It might not have been very well and most of the time it might have been a servant who was actually taking care of us and she pretty much ignored me most of the time.” You know the more I think about it, the more I realize that my mother had not been around very much.

“Hmm, yes, yes. I tink I knov vhat is vrong.” I had to wonder how she could get any kind of conclusion from what we had just talked about. As far as I could tell I hadn’t once mentioned anything that was related to the actual problem. In fact everything that we had discussed had happened over a century ago. I don’t think those things actually had any bearing on the what was going on now.

Still, couldn’t hurt to hear her conclusion on the matter.

“I believe you have an Electra Complex.” Her beard, which had been precariously hanging onto her the entire time, suddenly fell off from the final movement of her mouth. I followed it with my eyes as it fell to the ground, before glancing back at Twilight. The last thing I saw, before I galloped out of the room was a fairly cute, but dopey looking, smile on her face. I really want to figure out what’s going on here, I don’t feel like running away from her like this.

Also what was an Electra Complex?

“I’m guessing that it didn’t go well then?” The caring look on Luna’s face belied the neutral statement of her words.

Considering that I was shaking like a leaf I couldn’t exactly respond in the negative. “Yeah. It started out alright and then her beard dropped.” That sounded a lot weirder than I meant it to.

“Oh that’s too bad. I thought for sure that Twilight wearing a beard would keep you from recognizing her.” Well that at least answered whose idea that was. The beard was probably enchanted against ponies seeing who is wearing it. In other words I could recognize her, but not necessarily actually connect that fact in my mind. Still I had to wonder why Luna thought it was a good idea to place me in the same room as Twilight when I had run away before. Perhaps she had thought that I would be able to get somewhere if I confronted the problem directly? Well the best way to find out things is to ask about them.

“Luna… You knew about this didn’t you?” She nodded her head, but was smiling, “Why did you do that?” I wasn’t angry about it, I was curious.

“There were actually two reasons. One is that Twilight really wanted to try being a psychologist.” Considering all those books in her house I could see Twilight wanted to try some of them out and Luna like went along with it as a prank. I suppose I should feel grateful that I got to help out a crush at least. “The other reason is that I thought that if you confronted your fears it might help you get over them.” Apparently I had been right on the money with the second reason.

Even though I could have told them that it was a bad idea, I still feel a little bad that I had run away from Twilight.

“Luna, would you mind apologizing to Twilight for me.” Luna gave me a confused look, “For running away. I might not know why I’m scared, and it might not have been the best of ideas, but I still feel bad about it.”

“What exactly happened in there anyway?”

“Well… Twilight kept asking me about my mother and seemed to think that she had some effect on my problem. Personally I don’t think that made any sense.”

“You’re right, and I’d like to apologize to you for putting you in such a situation.” Luna looked me in the eye, “That method Twilight was rather old. I think she found the wrong books.” I get the feeling that Luna did a lot more reading than I would have thought possible in a week. Maybe she had a stronger interest in the field then I thought? “Still I think it might be a good idea to go to another psychologist. One who is trained in the contemporary methods rather than the classical methods.”

Classical methods? Contemporary methods? “What are you talking about?”

“There are a variety of different methods that are used in the field of psychology. The one she used is known as Freudlin Psychoanalytic method.” That didn’t really help, but it did give me a new subject to research later on. Actually I had way too many research topic to count at this point, I’d need to get started on those when I got some time. I hadn’t even started studying that weird statue that I’d been looking at for almost a thousand years. Hopefully I’d get that time soon, or get a notebook.

“Couldn’t hurt.” Like I’ve said before, I’m willing to try things at least once.

“Well it will take a little time to get an appointment with my psychologist, but it shouldn’t take too long.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll go read some books in the castle library to pass the time. There are so many things that I still need to learn about. I mean one thing that I really need to find out is what an Electra Complex is. I mean Twilight apparently diagnosed me with it.” Even if I still doubted that it would make any sense.

“Did you say Electra Complex?” The smile on her face worried me a little, what could be so funny about it?

“Yes that is what I said. Why do you ask?”

“Just something I might have heard about it. When you research it please tell me about it.” Somehow I couldn’t help feeling that I was about to be pranked by my teacher, but I still wanted to know what the complex was. “You go do your research and I’ll come get you when I have an appointment for you.”

“Alright… Also if you happen to see Sakura could you send her in my direction? It’s nice to have someone to talk to sometimes.”

“Of course.”

I’m pretty sure I’m lost at this point. The Royal Palace has really changed since I was last here and I’d barely been able to find anything back then. Now I couldn’t even find my own room, if it was still around here somewhere. I mean it could be anywhere really. I really wish I had asked for direction.

I better ask the next pony I see for directions. Although I really have to wonder why the palace is so empty, you’d think guards would be running all over the place trying to protect the princesses from assassins.

“Ow!” I was knocked out of my thoughts when I actually ran into another pony. I really need to stop running on automatic, I keep running into the strangest things.

Standing up, I reached out a hoof to help the pony up… “Sorry about that… Rarity?” Well that was rather surprising, I mean what are the chances that I would run into someone that I knew in the middle of a giant castle? Oh right, my luck.

“Think nothing of it darling, these things happen.” Her eyebrow was twitching a little. At least she was trying to be cordial about it, “At least this spot of floor has been cleaned well. Let’s just say that somepony would have to pay if it hadn’t.” Rarity looked up at me and her eye stopped twitching and gained a new look, one that scared me a little. I feel a lot less safe than I did a minute ago.

She batted her eyes at me. This would not turn out well, I could tell. “Actually, would you mind helping me out with something?” I really need a model for a Stallion line of clothing and I think that you would be perfect.” That chill was coming back and I almost said no, but something stopped me. I don’t know what it was, but I think that saying no would somehow lead me to a really bad place.

“I’d be happy to help.” I felt that chill roll all the way down my spine and my tail started twitching in the weirdest way. I think I’m going to regret my decision very quickly.

“Oh that Wonderful!”

“Could you lead me to the library afterwards?” I might as well get something out of this.

“Of course, now just follow me. My boutique is only a little ways away.” Her boutique was in the castle… why did that feel like it made sense?

“If you don’t mind me asking, why is your boutique in the Royal Castle?”

“Oh it isn’t, it’s right outside the castle. I’ve been given the position of Royal Seamstress by her majesty Princess Celestia, and hopefully Luna as well.” That was actually pretty high up there. The royal seamstress that I knew had sold millions of styles into the market. There is no end to what they could do with their position.

“And we’re here. Welcome to the Diamond Boutique.” Here was a slight distance outside the castle and the Diamond Boutique wasn’t exactly the most normal thing to look at in the world. It was literally the largest diamond I had ever seen in my life. It must have cost a fortune! Well either that or it was actually a fake designed to look like a diamond. I was no genius at gemology so I couldn’t tell, but it was still a rather amazing looking building and of course it also matched her Flank Marking. So I suppose that it makes as much sense as anything else.

“No time for gawking. Clothing waits for nopony!”

I blinked before looking in her direction. “Sorry about that, your place of work is just… eye catching.” Somehow that seems vaguely rude and I get the feeling that she caught that, considering the looks she’s sending my way.

“Why of course it is, it needs to draw the attention of the customer!” or maybe I was misreading the situation entirely. “It’s based off my Cutie Mark.” And there was that word again. It was honestly getting on my nerves.

“Now please walk this way.”

“I don’t think I can.” It seemed like such a hard way to walk.

Rarity gave me a strange look before a look of dawning comprehension appeared on her face, “Oh funny. Just follow me please.” I could hear her muttering under her breath a little. The joke wasn’t that bad was it?

The moment I passed the threshold of her home, my tail started acting crazy, going in every direction. I couldn’t think of a single reason for it to be acting like that. There wasn’t anything dangerous around here at all.

Rarity blinked, “Is something the matter with your tail?”

“I don’t know, it’s never acted like this before.”

“Well I think I know just the thing to settle it down. It always works on Pinkie Pie’s tail.” She magically gripped a hairbrush and started brushing my tail. My pink hairs started to calm down, which was really strange. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my tail go from anything close to a full out panic to complete calm like that before.

“Ah, looks like that works as well with your tail as with Pinkie’s.”

“How did you do that?”

“Oh I laced the brush with a nerve locking hair gel.” Ok, I’m starting to think that my tail may have had a point with what it had been doing. I don’t care how many Pie’s she has to take care of, there is no reason she should have that kind of thing in her boutique. I suppose I could deal with this though.

“Alright darling, if you wouldn’t mind standing on this pedestal here.” Okay… this is not going to be fun. I stood on a pedestal for a thousand years, do I really need to stand on one again?

“Um is there any way that we could do this while standing on the floor? I don’t really feel like standing on pedestal again.”

“I suppose, but it might be a little more awkward to get your measurements.” Now what did she mean by that. Still if I didn’t have to get on the pedestal I suppose that would be alright.

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Alright I’ll get started then.” She pulled out a measuring tape from somewhere in the room and began to measure every inch of my body. She started at my head, I guess for a hat, before moving farther downward, taking notes all the while. She measure my legs, my chest, and everything in-between. Although she was starting to get a little close to particular part of my anatomy then I felt comfort with…

“Gah!”

“Huh? Oh I’m so sorry darling. I didn’t mean to measure that, I was just so entranced by these numbers. They are absolutely perfect for my new designs.” I wish that I could say that I was glad to hear that, but I had kind of just had a very sensitive piece of my anatomy strangled by a rather sharp measuring tape. At least it didn’t seem like I was bleeding.

“It’s… alright, just… be careful… okay.” I know I should be mad about this, but I’m a fairly forgiving pony. If she does it again though, I’ll get Luna involved and have her sent to the moon for a year.

“Oh good. Although you might want to get that voice checked out sometime, it sounds so much higher pitched than it did before.” I can’t tell if she’s being serious or not. “Well that’s all the measurements I need at the moment. Come back in a few days and I should have something for you to try on.” She turned away from me, apparently ignoring my existence to get to work. I stood there hoping that she would remember her deal to lead me to the library, but after several minutes I gave up on her just remembering.

“Do you think you could lead me to the library now?”

It took her a few seconds to respond likely my words were just now filtering through her mind, “Oh of course darling. I’m so sorry about this. I just get so wrapped up in my work sometimes that I forget what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“Please just lead me.” It was the least she could do for what she did to me.

“Well here it is darling. I’ll just leave you to whatever it is you need to do.”

“Alright, see you later.” Hopefully without a measuring tape, seriously do not want to go through that kind of thing again.

Still at least she’d lead me to the right place, the grand doors and the plaque with the words ‘Royal Library’ on it both indicated as such.

I walked on through.

The Royal Library was still huge, just as I remembered it, which is fairly different than almost any other place in this castle. Every room in the castle had those new ‘electric’ lights and seemed to have some weird boxes on the walls that I had no idea about, although air seemed to blow out of them whenever I walked past them. This room was still lit by the candles. While it was less bright than anywhere else I felt much more in place than I had.

Still at least this area of the castle had remained the same. The walls lined with hundreds upon thousands of books and yet it still felt like they had fewer books then Twilight’s home. I don’t know why that is, but it just did. I suppose that it might be the lack of books covering every inch of the floor or something.

There was one difference from what I was used to though, the entire library was empty. The library had always been full of ponies researching one subject or another, no matter the time of day, so it was rather strange to see the entire library completely devoid of any ponies at all.

I wonder where all the ponies are at the moment. I mean even if all the ponies decided that there was nothing to research, there should be a few pleasure readers around.

Well there was one pony. He was a rather old looking Unicorn, but I couldn’t help feeling that he would know both where all the ponies were and where the books I was looking for would be.

“Excuse me sir. Are you the librarian?”

“Eh?” He held one of his grey hoofs up to his ear, “Would you mind repeating that sonny? My hearing ain’t what it used to be.”

“Of course. Are you the librarian?”

“Eh? Am I eating? What a strange thing to ask. No I’m not eating. My name is Mystic the Librarian.” Wow, this pony had really bad hearing. Well at least I got my question answered. Still I had the feeling that this was going to be a fairly difficult conversation. Normally I’d just help his hearing or my voice with magic, but at the moment I still didn’t have anything I could use.

Well hopefully he’d be able to hear my questions. At least he seems easy enough to understand.

“Would you mind telling me why there are no ponies around?”

“Why aren’t there any phonies around here.” His face was incredulous, “This is a library foal! Only genuine ponies come in here now and there aren’t too many of those left.” I get the feeling that he didn’t even know what I meant. Although it’s rather strange that even though he hears the wrong question, he still gives me a fairly useful answer. So there aren’t that many ‘genuine ponies’ left. Wonder what that means… I’m also kind of curious why I care so much about this. Maybe it’s the fact that the library had been kind of a sanctuary for me when I was younger.

“Hey sonny you okay there? You seem to be a little lost in thought.” The librarian’s voice drew me back into the real world.

“Sorry about that, got a little lost in thought there.”

“No problem sonny.”

“Oh thank yo- Wait you can hear me? Could you hear me the whole time?”

“Ehehehe Nope, couldn’t hear a word you said.” Mystic raised his hoof to his ear and twisted it around a little, “I didn’t have my hearing aid in.” At least he hadn’t been playing with me, he was just forgetful.

“So you mind telling my why this place is so empty?”

“Ponies don’t really like to read real books anymore.” That was rather worrying, books are important to the future, “Oh don’t give me that look. They still read, they don’t read real books though.” That didn’t make any sense to me.

“So they read, but they don’t read books?” Mystic nodded, “Then what do they read instead?”

“Hehehe Sonny have you been living under a rock?” I’m pretty sure the answer to that question was yes so I nodded, “Well they’re all on the internet instead. So this place is always pretty empty.” The internet?

“Excuse me, but what is the internet?” I saw him open his mouth, “And for the moment let’s say that I have lived under a rock for quite a while.”

“It’s a system connecting everybody to information boy! It’s absolutely amazing! But, it does mean that ponies are coming to the library much less often.” That sounded incredible, and I’d need to find out more about it later, but for the moment I’d rather just go find the psychology section.

“That’s great, but could you please direct me to the Psychology section? I need to do a bit of research.”

“Of course, it’s that isle right over there.”

“Thank you.”

I trotted over to the section. Now I need a book on, what did Luna call it? Oh right, Freudlin Psychology. Hopefully it would be in this section somewhere.

Well let’s start with the F section. There sure are a lot of authors in this section, I mean there are six whole rows for authors who’s name begins with F. The worst part is going to be trying to find anything in there. Well here goes nothing.

Several minutes of searching later and I still couldn’t find the thing. Was it hiding from me or something? Maybe I should go ask the librarian?

The feeling of a heavy object landing on my head knocked me out of my thoughts and onto the ground. What in the world was that?

Wait. Is that? It is! The book I was looking for was sitting right in front of me. Sigmund Freudlin’s Psychoanalytic Theory by Feletic, but where did it come from?

“Hey Dawn, up here!”

“Hey Sakura.” I looked from where Sakura was hanging out in space between two books far too small for her to fit in and the book on the ground.

“Sakura.”

“Yes?”

“How did you know I was looking for this book?”

“What book? Luna told me that you wanted to see me and so here I am.” That was interesting… Did Sakura have another ability I’d never understand or was it a coincidence. Considering my luck I was going to guess both.

“Hey Sakura you mind coming down here?”

“Oki Doki Loki.” I guess the look I gave her must have been inquisitive, “Pinkie Pie taught me that. Oh! Luna wants you to meet with her as soon as you get done in here. She had your appointment time read.” When had Sakura found the time to go see Pinkie Pie? I’d sent her to tell Twilight and then she must have… gah my head hurts.

“That’s fine Sakura. I’ll be sure to do so when I get a chance, but could you please come down now?” I have no idea why she seems to like popping out of such high places, but it’s going to become a strain on my neck if she keeps it up.

Seeing her drop down, I grabbed the book from the floor and brought it over to a nearby table. Flipping to the index, I found the pages that I needed. Flipping to them I began to read.

The Electra complex is a mare’s sexual attraction to and intense love for a father. Okay… That’s a little disturbing, maybe there is more information in here about it? It is part of a mare’s development in Freudlin’s Psychoanalytic theory. It begin with the filly realizing that she lacks a penis and she will believe that the penis is superior to her clitoris and thus feels mutilated. She therefore transfers her desire for a penis into a sexual desire for the father to impregnate her.

I’m not sure how Twilight got to this conclusion considering she never asked about my father, but geeze was she off the mark. I don’t think that she read this all the way through.

This theory has been essentially debunked as the data shows there to be a lack of any real scientific evidence substantiating this theory.

Well that was good to know at least. I just wish that Twilight hadn’t felt it necessary to give me such a strange diagnosis. Maybe it would have made more sense then.

“Hey Sakura, where did Luna want to meet me?” I could only hope that it would be close. I really don’t want to ask for directions again.

“The West Wing, but We need to hurry.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to be there in ten minutes.” Okay, unless the West Wing is right next door there is no way that I’m going to be getting there in ten minutes. I simply don’t know my way around this rebuilt castle well enough. I really hope that Sakura knows the way, I don’t think I’d have time to ask for directions even if I wanted to.

“Do you know where that is?”

“Yup! Just follow me.” With that she walked into the bookshelf… and through it. Well couldn’t hurt to try following her I suppose.

My arrival at the West Wing was nothing short of disastrous. I couldn’t even hold my lunch. Luckily there had been a nearby trashcan to throw it into, I don’t think I’d want to clean it up later. I think I’ve just found out why the stallions and colts in my family don’t try the disappearing act, it disorienting and causes us to throw up. That was worse than the time I failed my teleportation.

“Dawn you okay?” No, no I wasn’t okay and it was kind of her fault, but considering how worried she was looking at me I couldn’t tell her that. So I went with the next best thing, I lied.

“Not so much. Next time please remind me not to use your method of transportation, I don’t think I was designed to handle it.” That actually brings up a good question of how the mares in my family could handle it. I mean was it a special bodily function or something else entirely?

“Well Dawn. That was not how I expected to see you arrive here. Somehow I thought you might have used the door instead.” From the smile on Luna’s face I really had to wonder if she had suggested this to Sakura. I’d really like to believe that my teacher would never do such a thing, but she is a master prankster and I’m her apprentice. She pranks me all the time to help me recognize them and from how she looks, and her words, I think this was one of those times.

“Let’s just say that I don’t think I’ll be traveling this way again.” Unless I really need to be somewhere quick, but how often does that happen… And now it’s going to happen at least once a day isn’t it, those words always make something happen. “So I’m guessing that my appointment is around here.”

“You are correct Dawn. You will be meeting with the psychologist I have been meeting with for the past week, a Dr.Disim.”

“Alright.” Hopefully I could get a better diagnosis this time. I’m absolutely positive that I do not have an Electra Complex.

I trotted through the open door into a new room. It was fairly small and looked like just about any other waiting room that I had ever seen before.

I had to wonder why the room was empty though. You’d think that being the Royal psychologist one would likely get have more patients. The ponies that work in the castle at the very least.

The rooms design did highlight a single place in the room. Specifically the spot where a Orange Night Pegasus stallion sat reading a blue book. The fact that I could see another door made me thing that this was likely the psychologist’s secretary rather than the psychologist himself, or was it herself. I never did ask about that did I?

The stallion looked up from his book, “Ah you must be Dawn right?” I suppose it made sense that he would know my name, it was likely written down in the schedule planner, or it might be the fact that I was a last minute addition. I’d never been able to get an appointment on such short notice and I’m Luna’s student.

“Yes that’s right.”

“Good to see your on time, you’d be surprised how many patients show up late all the time.” He took a glance at the clock on the wall, “Even if you’re only on time by a few minutes. Still it can’t be helped I suppose.” Now what did he mean by that?

“Well my name is Dr. Disim. Your my last patient for the day.”

I blinked, “Wait, you’re the psychologist?”

“You’re not the first one to be surprised by that. You wouldn’t believe the number of ponies that come in here and see me sitting at this desk and think I’m my own secretary. Every time I have an after-hours patient to tell the truth. My normal secretary always leaves at exactly closing time and not a moment later. ” I’m an afterhours

“So I’m an after-hours patient?”

“Yes.” He smiled, “Did you think that this place is normally this empty? I’m the Royal psychologist. I take care of everyone who works in this castle.” I couldn’t help thinking that it might be a good idea for Rarity to come here sometime. Considering what she put me through earlier, I think she needs it.

“If you would please follow me?” Dr.Disim’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

As I followed him through the doorway, I took a look at his Flank Marking. It was a book with the letters D.S.M. on it. I have no idea what it meant, but hopefully it was related to the concepts of psychology.

We walked down a short hallway behind the doorway and into an even smaller room than his reception room. I moved to sit down on the sofa in the room while Disim sat in a rather uncomfortable looking chair. Although I suppose it must be comfortable for him or he wouldn’t use it.

“Now how about you tell me what brings you here today?” This was certainly different from Twilight’s method. Disim seemed to actually be trying to find out what the problem was before trying to solve it. It’s remarkable.

“Recently I’ve been in situations in which I keep running away from things that I have never before been scared of, certain ponies to be exact.”

He nodded his head and I took that as a sign that I should continue, “It happened earlier today, honestly it still amazes me that I got an appointment within a single day.”

“Yes that seems to be what happens when one has two immortal beings schedule his appointment times.” Well I suppose he was right about that.

“Well to continue my previous statement. There are two ponies I particular that I had a pretty strong reaction to. One of these ponies I only met for the first time today and I can’t think of a good reason why I would be scared of her. I didn’t have too strong a reaction to her, I didn’t run away or anything. The second one though, I’d seen her before and I hadn’t run away, but this time for some reason I ran away the moment I saw her, but not when I heard her, only when I physically saw her.”

“So you didn’t feel scared or frightened until you actually saw her directly?”

“That’s right, I didn’t feel a thing until then. In fact I was looking forward to seeing her again.” I could feel my face heating up a little. Uncontrollable facial reactions are embarrassing. However, Dr. Disim seemed to ignore it and wrote a few more notes down.

“Has anything in particular happened in the last couple of days?” This was going to be a hard question to answer considering where I’ve been for the last thousand or so years. I mean how does one tell anyone about everything that has happened to me. Although… I suppose he must have some training with this kind of thing. He has been working with my teacher after all.

“Well it’s a little bit of story there. Do we have enough time?” I don’t know why, but I assume that these visits are set on a timed schedule.

“We have all night. Like I said, you’re my final patient for the day.”

“Well okay. First you should know that I am Luna’s student.” I waited for some reaction. Whenever I mention that fact most ponies seem to show a reaction whether good or bad, but Dr.Disim was seemingly uninterested in the concept, simply nodding his head. I suppose that would make sense, there was no reason for him to know the importance of Luna or working with the princess herself might do it too. If I was used to hearing secrets about the princesses I wouldn’t react much to hearing about anyone else’s.

“So you’re Luna’s student? How is that working out for you?”

“Well it was going great for me, up until I was locked in stone for a thousand years.” To give Disim even more credit he didn’t seem to react much at all to my statement, just writing a few more notes down on his clipboard. “Then when I woke up I had to fight off, with the help of the mare that scares me and her five friends, my teacher, her teacher, and a monster who had been controlling them and who then tried to take over me. Who afterwards decided that when he couldn’t take me over he would release all my memories that had been locked up inside my head.” You know when I say it all like that even I don’t believe that it actually happened. The fact that Disim wasn’t reacting at all was actually rather startling. He was sitting there writing more notes on his paper and yet he kept his eyes pointed at me. This pony was good at this.

“So your memories were locked away?”

“Yes. Apparently my memories from when I was in stone had been locked away. I suppose in order to protect me or something to that effect. In any case that’s what put me in the coma. I simply couldn’t handle them all at once like that.”

“And what were these memories about?”

“Overall they were about watching many ponies simply walk past me, ignoring me. Those didn’t hurt so badly really. I mean they never talked or visited me, but there were a few who did. The worst memory though was when a little filly visited me. She could talk to me somehow and then I fell on her and she died.”

“How did that make you feel?” I still couldn’t believe that he wasn’t reacting to any of the things I was saying in a negative fashion. I mean I just admitted to killing somepony. You’d think he would react more to that. Maybe he didn’t believe me or something?

“Honestly, it made me feel guilty. I was one who landed on her and killed her after all.”

“Could you please tell me what she looked like?”

“Well she was an yellow Earth Pony filly.”

“And the small filly that you were scared of today?” What was he getting at?

“A yellow Earth Pony filly.” I blinked once, “Wait… Is my guilt from Phoenix being placed onto Applebloom?” That would actually make sense.

“Only you can tell me that. If you believe that to be the case then there is a good possibility that it is true.”

“Then maybe, just maybe, the reason why I ran away from Twilight is because I was scared of what happened to Diamond would happen to her.” I don’t know if this is actually the case, but it’s my best guess anyway. I mean it’s makes sense, my memories of those events had been dulled, now that they have returned I would have a stronger reaction to them wouldn’t I. Therefore, I ran away from Twilight because I was scared of anything happening to her… or this could be off the mark and it could be something else instead. I really don’t know.

Of course even if all that is true and that is my problem, it really doesn’t help me solve it.

“So is there any way that you can think of to help me get over my fear.”

“Well there are some ways, but I think that we should look into this more next session. Right now you seem to be far too into this idea.”

Author's Note: Well I'm hoping that people are still enjoying this story and feedback is still appreciated. I want to let you know how grateful I am that people are still reading this. Hope you're all having a wonderful summer.

The Hangover

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Disclaimer: Welcome to another moment with the disclaimer. Today I brought a new friend in to tell you what I used to tell you. Give a big hand for COMMANDER VOLCOTT!

A brown haired man with a mustache wearing a grey suit faces the audience, “Oh! Hello everyone out there. It’s very nice to meet you all. Normally I’m in charge of running the brigade, which is not the easiest job let me tell you, but today I’m here to act as the disclaimer.”

He smiles at the camera, “When reading Luna’s Student please sit in a bright room well away from the screen. I hope you understand.” He turns to leave the stage before seeming to remember something, “Oh right, MyWorld93 owns no part of the MLP or Galaxy Angel universes. They are owned by Hasbro and Broccoli respectively. Please enjoy the story.”

Chapter 10: The Hangover

Written by: MyWorld93

My remaining time with Dr.Disim was highly productive. Although we didn’t get into the details of what possible options there were for me to work on my issues, we did discuss them in generalities. By the end of the session, I felt that I had a better understanding of what I should do, which for the moment amounted to staying away from Twilight. There weren’t many other options that could be discussed on such short notice, but that didn’t mean I was happy about it.

Sadly, we wouldn’t be able to discuss what else could be done until next session. I’d already tried to ask him what he believed should be done, but he wasn’t willing to tell me anything about it.

Speaking of which…

“Dr. Disim?” He glanced up from his notebook, in which he had been writing things I couldn’t see from the angle involved, and looked me in the eyes.

“Yes?”

“You said that we would get into more detail about what I can do to solve my little issue next session, but when will that be?” I personally think it is a necessary thing to know about when one is supposed to come back to a meeting.

“That is a good question. Will you be available next week at this time?” I gave that a little bit of thought. Considering that I had only awoken from a coma today, I was positive that I didn’t have any plans for next week. That was assuming of course that my teacher hadn’t put any plans into place for me, which was fairly unlikely. As such, that time should work out quite well for me. The worst thing that could happen was that I would have to reschedule and somehow that seemed to be fairly minor issue.

After I finished working through this lengthy thought process, I gave the doctor a simple nod.

Dr.Disim made a notation in his notebook, “Good, good. I’ll see you next week. You should receive a call a day before the appointment to notify you that you have it.” I blinked, was someone going to be yelling at me that I was supposed to be here for my appointment?

Perhaps a call was something that had been developed after I had been placed into stone… Well it couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Dr. Disim, what do you mean when you say that I’m going to receive a call?”

He looked rather surprised by my question, which only confirmed my belief that a call was something that had been developed after my imprisonment.

I suppose he realized that fact, as a look of dawning comprehension spread across his face, “Ah, right… you’ve been out of the loop for quite a while,” That was an understatement if I had ever heard one, “Well a call is when some uses a device known as a telephone to talk to you over a long distance.” That… That was amazing, ponies could talk to each other over a distance? That would have saved a few lives in my time, my previous time anyway considering that my time was really now, ponies would have been able to call for help when they were on the verge of being assassinated. I suppose it was another item to add to my quickly growing list of research items.

“Now, our time for tonight’s session is over.” Dr.Disim’s voice broke me from my thoughts. I quickly noticed that he was looking towards the clock and followed his gaze. Wow, it was far later than I had thought it was. I couldn’t believe that this much time had passed already,

I heard the doctor stand up from his chair, drawing my attention to him and found that he had trotted over to the door and was currently holding it open for me. I suppose that was my cue to leave the room.

You know… I should probably thank him for his help. He hadn’t yet been able to solve my problem, but I was much closer than I had been.

I stopped right next to him, right before exiting the room, and held a hoof and gave my thanks, “Thanks for the help doc, looking forward to seeing you next week.”

He seemed slightly surprised by my statement, but still shook my hoof and responded with a, “You're welcome”.

The exchange finished, I trotted my way into the hallway and heard the door slam shut behind me. Well… that was a little rude of him, but I couldn’t fault him for it. If I’d been working all day and then been told that I would need to work for a few more hours beyond what I had planned I’d be in a big rush to leave as well.

So I ignored his action of slamming the door and began my short trek down the hallway towards the waiting room. Even though the best option that Dr.Disim could give me to deal with my fear of Applebloom and Twilight had been to stay away from, I felt unsatisfied by it and as such used my time on this short walk to contemplate it. I felt that there had to be an option that I was missed, something that would be obvious in retrospect once it happened

Unfortunately for me the only option that came to mind was to have Twilight wear that beard the entire time, but that wouldn’t be fair to her at all. Besides, it wouldn’t work well at all. It could fall off.

I was broken from my thoughts when my nose erupted in a short burst of pain. I opened my eyes, having closed them when I’d hit whatever I had, to see the doorway to waiting room standing placidly in front of me. For half a second I considering hitting the thing back for having hurt me, but that would have been extreamly silly. It was my own fault for not paying attention to where I was going. I really need to start paying more attention when I’m trotting. I was getting tired of running into these kinds of problems.

Dissmising that last thought I opened the doorway and trotted on through.

I took a look around the room, expecting that the room would be empty which was exactly what I found. There wasn’t any reason for anypony to be here. So I continued my pathway to the other side of the room.

“Hello Dawn." I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sudden noise in the otherwise quiet room. I quickly shifted my attention to where the sound had come from, utterly baffled as to how I had missed somepony else being in the room. There shouldn’t be any way they could have hidden from me…

Unless of course it had been my teacher, which was exactly who it was.

Sitting calmly with a small smile on her face, likely caused by my reaction to her statement, was my teacher. Even though I knew that the whole appearing out nowhere trick was likely a prank on me, I couldn’t stop a smile from growing upon my lips. No matter what my teacher did to me, I was always happy to see her.

Still, even if I was happy to see her, it still left one question for me to ask, “So what are you doing here?”

My teacher gave me a slight smile before replying to my question, “I thought that was obvious, I’m waiting for you of course. I wanted to find out how your session went.” A feeling of happiness grew inside me, it was always nice to hear that ponies care about you.

Still, the question she asked was rather loaded, I’d need to think a little on how to answer it. I’d learned a bit more about my problem which was good, but it wasn’t a panacea by any means. I suppose that there is only one answer to this question, “I think that it went very well.”

She gave me a curious look, “Would you mind elaborating?”

“Dr.Disim and I believe that we found a possible cause as to why I had such a strong reaction to Twilight.”

Curiosity laced Luna’s response, “Oh? What did he suggest?”

“Well… we didn’t go into too much detail, but we believe that it was likely caused by my time in stone. Specifically, I thought that it might have been caused by thinking that what happened to Diamond will happen to Twilight.” While the clinical setting earlier had kept me from feeling the fear from that thought, now that I was in a less formal setting I felt the fear of such a thing happening flow through me, but I continued through it, “But we couldn’t say for sure if that was the actual cause or not. The doctor didn’t want to focus too much on that idea because it was possible that it would cause me to act like that was my problem even if it wasn’t.”

An expression of thoughtfulness spread across my teacher’s face, “That seems to be a rather productive concept, especially considering what I have seen happen to some ponies who get it in their heads that they are failures.”

“What do you mean?” I had to admit that I was curious about what she meant, what happened to ponies that focused on the idea that they were failures?

“I saw ponies be called failures for their entire life. They often stopped trying to do anything because they were never told they were good at anything.” That actually made sense, if I was to believe that the cause of my problem was that Diamond had been killed, I would only focus on solutions that solved that problem, which would be problematic if the problem was caused by something else.

It also brought another idea into my mind. Perhaps I could try believing that I wasn’t afraid of Twilight and because I believe it, perhaps it would eventually cause me not to be. Well… it was worth a shot anyway. The next time that I saw her, I would simply tell myself over and over that I wasn’t afraid of her.

“Dawn, what are you planning to do now?” I glanced up back towards my teacher. I suppose that was a good question really, what did I want to do? There wasn’t much time left in the day, so it couldn’t be anything time consuming.

A yawn almost worked its way out of my throat. That gave me an idea, I think I know what I want to do now.

“Honestly, after everything that’s happened today, I’d like to go to bed.” Now that I’d said that aloud, a rather obvious problem with it flowed into my mind. My teacher, or at least I think it was my teacher, had arranged for me to stay at Twilight’s home, in which Twilight lived, and I was currently incapable of staying within her presence for any period of time… The image of me galloping away, screaming into the night and awakening everyone in a twelve mile radius flowed into my mind.

I shook my head to clear it of that thought. Well that obviously wasn’t going to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t have many other options. Being stuck in stone for a thousand years makes it difficult to meet ponies. Perhaps my teacher had another suggestion.

“Teacher.” Luna looked at me with interest, a small smile on her lips that made me wonder if this was a good idea. She was a known prankster after all, “Since… well… I mean…” This is rather emberrasing to ask. I may have felt that I could tell my teacher anything, but that didn’t make requesting things any easier, especially when they already went through some effort to get you the thing you’re requesting changed. Still, it needed to be asked, “Since I currently am unable to stay within Twilight’s presence for very long, I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to stay with her. Do you know another place I could stay… at least until I get over this little problem?”

A devilish smile grew upon my teacher’s lips, the white of her teeth contrasted strongly by the black color of her coat… honestly it was rather frightening. I had to wonder if this was a good idea at all, or if galloping away right now would save me a lot of trouble later on, “Oh… I have a perfect idea.”

Why did that sound entirely ominous? My body began to shake with fear and anxiety, I knew that my teacher would never harm me on purpose, but the way she was acting made me wonder if that creature had come back to take her over. “Uh… Mind letting me in on it first?”

She shook her head, “Now, where would the fun be in just telling you. You’ll find out when we get there.” Then she laughed a small giggling laugh that I dreaded hearing from my teacher, it never meant anything good.

“Would you at least tell me who it is I’m staying with?”

Through her giggles, which made understanding her fairly difficult, she cryptically answered me, “With someone you know very well.” I couldn’t make out her next statement through her renewed giggling, but soon enough she stopped and continued her previous statement, “Now why don’t you follow me.”

She walked out of the room and I followed. No matter how uneasy she was making me feel, she was still my teacher and that meant she would try to help me… right?

The devilish smile was still present on Luna’s lips and mirth still tainted her voice, “So what do you think Dawn?”

My tone was flat as I replied, “I think that this building needs a paint job.” It was moments like this that I wondered if my teacher’s prankster nature wasn’t getting the best of her. The building in front of me was completely out of line with my expectation, with the cryptic nature of Luna’s speech, I had expected something either awe-inspiring or disgusting beyond belief. Perhaps even a house full of a creepy and ooky family that lived in a haunted house with a hoof galloping around without any body attached.

This place on the other hoof was the complete opposite of that, it was incredibly… I suppose bland would be the best term for it really. The tall, boring, grey buildings that surrounded it seemed bright and cheerful in comparison.

I laid my questioning gaze up my teacher, a question upon my lips, “Who did you say lives here again?” I know that she’d told me that I knew the pony that lived here very well, but considering that everypony I thought I knew well was dead… well it didn’t leave me much to go on. Perhaps a dragon I’d met once lived here? They were the only creatures that I could think of that would live long enough.

That devilish grin she currently wore seemed to widen a tiny fraction, which I hadn’t believed possible, and her voice showed her enjoyment of my torment, “Your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandniece.” Pinkie Pie lived here? Well… that didn’t really fit with her cryptic clue about who lived here, unless she’s referring to how much she seems to act like Blueberry. Either way, the fact that Pinkie’s house is so bland is rather surprising. It simply doesn’t fit her personality at all, especially considering the kind of houses Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack live in. I had expected her house to be the most ridiculous, perhaps even a giant Pie.

I shook my head as I responded, “I still can’t believe it. I must be missing something. It doesn’t make sense. Pies are known for living in the very strange homes, usually ones that are uninhabitable to anypony else.” My family house had been, I don’t know if it’s still around honestly, bright pink and seemed to be growing out in all direction, literally at times. We even had rooms with doors that went nowhere, walls that moved, and ponies walking through walls. We even had a poltergeist for a while, but he ran away after Blueberry began to popping out of the ceiling and scaring him.

I miss poor Blinky and his friend Spooky the ghost. They were fun to play with.

I think that if her smile had been any larger it would make up most of her face, “I’m sure it will make more sense soon enough.” Well that statement was rather strange, I had to wonder if I was missing something about this building. Perhaps it looked different during the day? Perhaps it was actually made of mirrors and it reflected light during the day?

For some reason, the idea that Pinkie’s house was strange in some manner or other made me feel better about this whole thing.

While I had been in thought my teacher had been trotting closer to the building, I quickly followed in her hoofsteps.

As we moved closer to the building, something rather odd began to happen. Specifically, my tail began to spaz out like crazy, quickly reaching the levels it had when Rarity had been around. Considering how that experience had been I decided to pause for a few seconds to see if anything was going to jump me, most likely Pinkie Pie. However, nothing happened, which probably surprised me more. Perhaps whatever was causing my tail to spaz out like crazy was inside the building? With any luck it wasn’t Rarity, I don’t think I can take another dose of her today.

A thought popped into my head, perhaps my teacher know about what had happened with Rarity and was pranking me by having her here. Or worse! She might live here on her off days.

A shiver ran down my spine. That was a scary thought, living with Rarity… I was grateful that my teacher didn’t think to try that one. I don’t think I’d survive a week.

I suppose Luna hadn’t bothered to wait for me because when I broke from my thoughts I didn’t see her anywhere and the doorway was wide open. I was rather surprised that she would leave the door open like that, any pony who did that a thousand years ago would have been dead faster than one could blink. It seemed rather strange that my teacher would simply leave the door open like that. Was there something I was missing here?

That thought continued to haunt me as I trotted through the doorway Luna had left open, fighting my tail the entire time. While generally I was one to listen to my tail, right now I needed to go in there, I simply needed a place to sleep.

The moment I passed through the portal, I felt and heard it slam shut behind me.

That wasn’t very comforting.

Trying to look around I came to know a rather obvious fact; I was totally blind in here! I literally couldn’t see my hoof in front of my face, and believe me I tried. This was not good at all, somepony could attack me from any corner and I wouldn’t be able to see them.

The second thing I realized was that my tail stopped shaking and the shiver I’d been feeling run up and down my spine subsided completely. That was actually scarier than having those things continue to happen. I’d never had my tail go from completely crazy to absolutely nothing.

That time with Rarity didn’t count, she cheated.

The final thing I noticed was that I couldn’t see my teacher anywhere around me, which was a bad thing. Had something happened to her? I know that she was the one leading me, which likely meant that she knew what was going on, but I couldn’t help worrying. I didn’t think she would have left me like this. Perhaps if I asked she would answer?

“Luna? Where did you go?” My voice echoed through in the darkness, reverberating off the walls. When the echo died down, the sound of giggling reached my ears.

I bent down into a defensive posture, while I knew that my lack of magic would hinder my ability to defend myself I wasn’t completely helpless without it, just mostly helpless. While I hadn’t gotten into that many fights before, especially without magic, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be ready.

I waited patiently for something to attack me, perfectly prepared to deal with it.

For a few seconds nothing happened, but the lights flickered on, blinding me with their intensity. Whoever was involved in this was smarter than I thought. Most ponies wouldn’t even think to use a light as a source of an attack. Now I was both blinded and anxious, not a good combination.

I focused on using sound to try and locate whatever was coming after me, “SURPRISE!!” The screeching cacophony of voices nearly knocked me onto my flank. I began to focus a spell through my horn, but quickly abort it when the pain began to overwhelm me. Why did I keep forgetting that I didn’t currently have any magic to use, I’d think the pain would keep me from doing it anymore.

I shook my head and tried to regain my balance, none of that mattered right now. I needed to deal with whatever was currently coming after me. This preparation was made all the harder because my eyes were still adjusting to the light, but luckily I could still see a large blob of colors in front of me. My heart began to beat faster and faster, there was no way I could protect myself against such a large group, but as my eyes adjusted more I became less anxious and more surprised by what I saw in front of me. The building was packed with ponies, a rainbow of colors from wall to wall. This was absolutely ridiculous, there were far more ponies than would possibly fit in this building. It simply should not be possible.

My thoughts, and stance, were broken by the arrival of a pink blur that stopped right in front of me, but quickly resolved itself into a certain Pink pony who spoke quickly and excitedly, “Were you surprised, huh, huh, were you?!” My arm reached out on their own and gave Pinkie a hug before quickly releasing her. For a second there I’d thought my sister was here, this was exactly like something that she would do.

“Sorry about that Pinkie.” No matter how much she reminded me of Blueberry I shouldn’t treat her as if she was her.

“Don’t worry about it silly, I know you were thinking of your sister Blueberry.” How did she know that? I don’t remember telling her about Blueberry, though considering how long I was in a coma for I suppose I could forget anything. Besides that, how would she know that I was thinking about Blueberry right now anyway? I suppose I should be used to this, but I don’t think Blueberry ever read my mind.

My thoughts were again interrupted by the pink pony as her excited voice rang out, “Besides I like hugs from family members and friends. It makes everyone feel all snuggly wuggly all the time.” Well that was true. It did make a pony feel snuggly wuggly, and a number of other things. Still, this left one question for me.

“Pinkie, what exactly is going on here?” There weren’t many things I could think of that would involve this many ponies, and for some reason the first one that came to mind was a lynching.

“Why a Party Silly!” That was a much better reason than a lynching and made perfect sense to boot. Pies were well known for throwing very large and crazy parties and since Pinkie’s Flank Marking was a balloon it likely meant… wait…

“Pinkie, what does your Cutie Mark,” I paused for half a second to contemplate how wrong it felt to say that word and how much I wanted to throttle Celestia for changing it, “mean?” I know that it was a nonsequiter, but I needed to ask. I could only hope that I was wrong about what it meant, if it meant what I think it does… I can only hope it doesn’t.

Her reply was as excited as any of her other statements, “It means that my special talent is throwing PAAARRRTTTEEESS!” The over-the-top movements and streamers that flew out from Pinkie Pie couldn’t distract me from my thoughts. That had been what I was afraid of… A Pie that was born to throw parties… There was a story about one of those from almost a hundred years before I had been born. From what I heard it had been alright when she was younger, she only threw elaborate, but not dangerous parties, but when she got older, the kind of parties she threw were crazy. Everypony, even the princesses, were invited and attended. The wine and spirits was said to flow freely and well… ponies were almost sent back to the dark ages due to lack of work ethic. Hopefully, Pinkie won’t drive the country into a workless frenzy like that.

With any luck she’s still in the simple great party stages, otherwise this I’ll need to gather some ponies together for an intervention. Well… better enjoy this party before the partyocalypse occurs.

“So what’s the party for?” There weren’t that many things that I could think of that fit the occasion.

“You getting out of stone of course! I Pie Promised you that I would throw you a party after you got out!” I don’t remember that it was a Pie Promise, but I didn’t plan on stopping her anyway. I like parties and a Pie party tends to be the most fun. I should know I threw a few of them of myself. The biggest I can remember was when I threw Luna a birthday party.

It was Luna’s, I don’t have any idea really she wouldn’t tell me, but I was going to guess couple thousandth, birthday. I had been granted the lead role in planning the party because I was both her student and a Pie. In other words, they wanted a big party, something that would be talked about for ages to come.

“Okay put the moon cake over in that corner over there.” I pointed towards a corner over near the wall and watched as one of my cousins moved the big cake over into a corner. I’d never be able to understand how they’d baked that cake in such a small oven, but I’d given up feeling surprised. I’m not even sure I felt surprised by things like this anymore anyway.

That reminded me. I needed to ask Blueberry how the preparations were coming for the decorations. Where was she anyway? Honestly, she was the best at hiding that I had ever seen, so rather than search for her, I did the obvious thing. I asked for her to show up.

“Blueberry, could you come here for a moment?” The moment I finished that statement, I felt something light weighing down my tail.

“Hi Dawn! What did you need me for?” I had to smile at the cheerfulness that filled her tone, even if the fact she was currently in my tail was rather odd.

“Just wanted to ask how the decorations are coming.”

“Oooh, Ooooh, they’re coming along great!” She spread her forelegs wide, “Just look, they’re all around you!”

Looking around the room I found that she was right. Streamers with stars hanging from the end decorated the dark ceiling magnificently, making it appear to be the night sky outside, which perfectly matched what I was asking for. Blueberry had done a great job as always. She never seemed to make a mistake when it came to making the party decorations look great.

Reaching out I gave Blueberry a hug, “Thanks a lot Blueberry. It looks great.”

“You’re welcome! I always like throwing a party bash, but I’ve never gotten throw one for a Princess.” With her statement complete she ducked back into my tail and back to wherever she had been before, probably the kitchen baking with the others.

The party that night was explosive, almost reaching the levels of the legendary Pie Party Planner. Ponies were dancing the night away and imbibing drinks to their hearts content. Luna and Celestia were both showing everypony else their moves, while Diamond and I danced nearby. Blueberry was bouncing all over the place, completely outshining the rest of us.

Everypony said it was the most enjoyable party they had ever been to.

“Oooh! Look at all the colors.” What was Pinkie talking about? I noticed that there was something in my hoof. Where did I get this cup from? I suppose while I had been lost in that memory I had gone and grabbed a cup from somewhere.

Putting my nose close to it I gave the drink a sniff. Hmm… doesn’t smell like there’s any poison on it, not that I really thought Pinkie would poison me anyway, but good habits are hard to break.

“Hey, Pinkie?” She looked up at me with a big smile on her face as ponies walked all around us, “Did you see where I got this drink?”

“You don’t remember? Your tail grabbed it while you were in lost in you really cool flashback. I thought I was the only Pie who threw parties and now I know that it’s almost a Pie tradition!” She lifted a hoof to her face, a questioning expression grew upon it, “Why didn’t my family ever party than?” I didn’t know the answer to that question, I’d never heard of a Pie who didn’t like to party. Perhaps their version of a party was different from our own.

“Oh.” I realized that I felt thirsty and took a drink of whatever was in the glass. It tasted a pretty good, but a little off. While I was positive that it wasn’t poisoned, it still tasted a little off.

I took another quick glance around me, trying to figure out how many ponies were actually here. Giving up on that fruitless endeavor I decided to ask the pony who invited them, “So how many ponies are here anyway?” I still couldn’t believe how many I could see. The cacophony of colors that populated this small house was overwhelming and for many ponies could probably cause permanent retinal damage.

“Pretty much everypony in town.” I had to blink at that. I don’t think any Pie I knew, besides the legendary Pie Partier, had ever managed to get the entire town to come to their party. That also might explain why the town was so empty when I had been walking around it. She must have been setting up this party all day. Still, the fact that she had fit them all in this one building was amazing.

A new voice broke me from my thoughts. I couldn’t quite make out what she had said, but the accent provided me with the name of the speaker, “Hello Applejack. Good to see you again.” I have to admit that I hadn’t expected Applejack to speak to me this soon, considering how she’d acted when I’d last seen her.

An awkward pause filled the air for a time. I’m not one to let such a thing linger, but Applejack broke the silence before I had a chance, “It’s nice ta see ya.” There was a slight strain to her tone, but it was barely noticeable, especially over the din of the party.

A second awkward pause filled in the time. It’s silence almost drowning out the din of the party. I couldn’t take it for much longer.

“So… How’s it going?”

“It’s goin alright I suppose.” She took off her hat and looked me in the eyes, “Listen, I wanted ta apologize for how I acted earlier. You couldn’t have done anythin’, being stone and all. It’s just that I have a temper when it comes to anythin happenin to my family and I acted on it.”

There wasn’t any good reason not to accept her apology, especially when I didn’t think that she needed to make one, “Apology accepted. So should I still come to the farm tomorrow?”

“A course ya should. Even though it was a accident ya still gotta follow the rules of the Apple family.” Well that answered that question. Now I only need to find out the time.

Perhaps she was also reading my mind because she answered my question before I could ask it, “Be there around eight thirty.”

“I’ll be there.”

“See ya tomorrow.” With that she wandered off into the crowd. With Applejack walking through the crowd, I suddenly realized that Pinkie had seemingly disappeared as well. Where had she gone anyway? Well I suppose it doesn’t matter, maybe if I look around a bit I’ll spot a pony I knew.

I looked around, but the multitude of different ponies surrounding me made finding any one pony an effort in futility. I tried for a little bit longer, but quickly gave it up as a lost cause and made my way over to the punch bowl which oddly had a very large clear area surrounding it.

"Hey Dawn!” The shout would have been loud in anywhere else, but the noise of the party nearly drowned it out until it sounded like a whisper. Turning around I came face to face with a rather familiar looking Night Pegasus.

“Hey Rainbow, enjoying the party?” I absentmindedly drank the cup of punch that my tail handed me, the strange taste was still in there, but it was still pretty good.

“Heh, it’s great! Pinkie’s Parties always are, but now that I’m here it’s twenty percent cooler!” I knew she had an ego, but I still hadn’t expected that line. I drank another cup of the punch, “So where did you go anyway?”

She blushed, “Oh nothing important.” Okay, now I was curious. What could she have been doing that would make her blush? She didn’t seem the type to blush at anything, if only because she wouldn’t think about it. Normally I would leave it alone, but for some reason I felt a little braver right now.

I took another drink, my tail keeps handing them to me, before asking about, “C’mon, tell me.”

She blushed harder, I didn’t even know she could do that, “Well..I..I… visited a few dreams.” Her blush grew to atomic proportions, what kind of dreams had she gone into…

I took another drink. Whether or not this next statement was true, it would definitely make her blush even more, “So you went into another pony’s wet dream?” The atomic blush and gaping mouth told me that I had guessed right on the money.

Now how could I continue to run with this prank… Oh I know, “So let me guess, it was Big Mac’s dream?” I took another drink.

“HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?!” My drink flew right from my mouth onto Rainbow, “Ewww!”

Wiping my mouth with a hoof, I offered my apologies, only to see her fly off towards what I could only guess was the restroom. Hopefully she would come back so I could apologize.

While I waited I drank several more glasses of the punch, but remained focused on what was going on around me. Strangely the world began to go out of focus, I supposed the light must be getting to me.

Soon enough a blue blur landed right next to me, but I had trouble remembering why that was important… there was something that I was supposed to do here.

Oh right… I was supposed to apologize.

“I’m… hic… sorry for… hic… spittin on ya earlier… hic.” I thought I saw…. Something or other… I didn’t know in her eye…

Next thing I know I’m on the other side of the room looking around in surprise… How’d I get here again?... Eh…. Doesn’t matter.

Hey what was the pretty purple blob over in corner “Hic.” It looks so familiar… Oh… it’s that mare that I like… now what was her name again? Sparklelight? Twistle? Ah…. It doesn’t matter.

“Hey… hic… Twilie.” I tried to put my arm around her. Oh hey mister floor, when did you get here?

The look of surprise that appeared on her face was so adorable; I wanted to squeeze her face, “Dawn?”

“That’s my name, hic.” Ah she was so pretty… Wonder what she tasted like. I bet it’s something purple… like blueberries.

“Are you drunk?”

Ah… so kind of, uh… her to ask… She’s such a nice mare, “Of… hic… course not… I only had… hic… punch.” Why was… the world… spinning?

“The punch? Which punch did you drink?” She looked straight into my eyes, they were so pretty. I could drown in them…

It took me a while to work through the haze and answer her question, “Uhh… the pink one? Or maybe the green one?”

“Which one was it?”

“Oh.. hic… I remember… I mixed them… Well my tail mixed them.” I nodded my head. I knew… what I was talking about, I think?

I felt something hit me in the side of the head…hic, a lightbulb? Hic… that gave me an idea… “Twilight… hic… would you like… hic… to go on a date next… hic… week?”

“What really? S…” I missed her answer because at that moment I fell unconscious on the spot.

“Morning handsome.” Huh? Who’s that? I tried to open my eyes, but they felt heavy, like something was keeping them from opening, “Uh-uh, no peaking. You know what happens when you do that.” The voice was very familiar, but the seductive bent to the voice was rather different. Who was it…?

That was when it hit me like a truck, “Twilight?”

“Of course it’s me darling. Who else would be with you besides your wife?”

If my eyes weren’t being held shut, I would have been blinking my surprise away furiously, “We’re married?” You’d think that running away in fear all the time would preclude any attempt at being married. You’d also think that I’d remember going through the ceremony.

“Of course we are. Why else would we be in our bed… together.” The sultry tone in that response… I needed to open my eyes now and see what is going on.

I forced my eyes open. The first thing I saw was Twilight serenely lying next to me smoking a cigar…

“AHHH!”

“Oh horseapples, you opened your eyes.”

“AAAHH!” I burst awake, adrenalin running through my veins, my breathing quick and shallow. I glanced around wildely, fully expecting Twilight to be lying next to me with that same cigar in her mouth. Not seeing her anywhere, my breathing slowed down to a much more regular pace.

Now that my mind wasn’t reeling from my pleasant, yet terrifying, dream I began to wonder what that was all about? Why in the world would Twilight be smoking cigar? I don’t even think she smokes. I shook my head slowly, even in my dreams I couldn’t escape my fears.

The short burst of adrenalin that had rushed through my system started to flow out of my body only to be replaced by a feeling of pain.

Ugh, I hadn’t felt like this in years. Not since the last time I drank a glass of alcohol actually, which likely meant that someone had spiked the punch… again. Why do ponies always feel the need to spike the punch bowl? Is it the universes idea of a joke? Maybe Spike did it just to match his name? I knew this is my own mind and the only one that would laugh at that joke is me, so who cared that I made it.

Well none of that really mattered, I couldn’t change the past any more than anypony else could. I’d need to deal with the pain from the aftermath of alcohol like any other Unicorn… with magic.

I began to form a spell that all Unicorns in high society are taught near birth, it wasn’t a good idea to be drunk around those who were likely to want to kill you, when a new pain hit me square in the horn.

Oh… right, no magic. This was really going to be a painful day wasn’t it. Now I not only had to deal with a hangover, but also the effects of straining my magic. It wouldn’t last too long, my family was notoriously good at metabolizing the effects of alcohol, but it was going to be very painful for the time being and I needed to be at Applejacks pretty soon.

What time was it anyway? I turned towards a clock that seemed especially bright, another explosion of pain hit me straight in the horn. Ugh, this is really going to be a painful day for me. I suppose the pain was worth it though, I know the time now, it was almost eight in the morning… Oh… crud….

I’M LATE! Ignoring the pain in my head, I rushed blindly around Pinkie’s house trying to find the exit. Applejack had specifically told me to be there this morning at eight thirty and somehow I had the strangest feeling that my headache would be getting much worse if I was late.

“Hi Dawn!” Pinkie’s entirely too loud for the morning tone rung out through the air, worsening my severe headache.

My strain was poorly hidden in my response, “Hi Pinkie. Sorry, no time to talk. I need to hurry to Applejack’s.”

“Oh, oh, but there’s something you might want to know about last night!” That almost stopped me in my tracks, before I thought about the possible consequences of not getting to that farm on time. Applejack may have forgiven me, but considering what had happened when she had gotten mad the first time, I didn’t really feel like re-experiencing it. Somehow I thought that would be much worse than whatever Pinkie was talking about.

“Tell me about it later, right now I really need to fly.”

The last thing I heard was Pinkie talking quite a bit about how Unicorns couldn’t fly, she is really far to like my sister. She takes things far too literally.

I galloped with all my might to reach the Apple Farm. I really didn’t want to deal with what could happen if I was late. I mean look at how they deal with ponies who accidently kill one of their clansman… while one is stuck in stone. I could only hope that I would get a fair sentencing.

My rush to get to the Apple Family Farm came to sudden end when a particular thought hit me… I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Seriously, how did I not think about that…

Well, it’s not really worth thinking about too much, I should just do the obvious thing. Ask my tail, it would know where I should be going.

I directed my eyes towards my tail, “Hey tail, can you lead me towards the Apple Family Farm?”

My tail made a small movement, but sadly didn’t start to point towards any direction, I’m getting the feeling it didn’t know the directions to the farm any better than I did. I don’ t know why I had expected it to be able to do so.

Well, that left one other choice, ask another random pony. Hopefully they would know the way, I mean farms are generally hard to miss aren’t they?

Looking around I tried to see if there was anypony around, of which there were apparently none. Well, that was just my luck and that plan seemed to be a bust. Well there was one last place that I could look.

Glancing upwards I wonder if my luck is getting any better, as there is a single yellow Pegasus pony flying around in the sky… Honestly, I’m almost positive that I know her… Wait… Now I remember, that’s Fluttershy isn’t it? Well that’s just perfect!

“Hey Fluttershy!” Hopefully she heard me up there, she’s fairly high up after all.

It seemed that my silent request was granted because she gave a gasp before beginning to flutter in midair and looking around wildly. I couldn’t help feeling that she was scared because of me and that I should probably apologize for scaring her. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to do that until she was down here on the ground.

“Hey Fluttershy, could you come down here please!” She turned to face me, considering how high up she is, I couldn’t help but wonder how she had heard me and why it seemed that she was blinking. My eyesight was not nearly good enough to see someone at this kind of distance, not without magic anyway and I didn’t have any of that at the moment.

Still I did the obvious thing and waved before pointing towards the ground. Well, my tail pointed towards the ground, I clapped. It seems that she had received my message because she began to float towards the ground.

The yellow Pegasus landed without a sound, which is honestly very impressive. I had never heard of a Pegasus that could land that quietly, but I suppose it fit this particular Pegasus, quiet and meek seemed to be her namesake.

The memory of her screaming and staring at me floated in my mind’s eye and I shuddered a bit. Most of the time anyway.

“Hey Fluttershy, thanks for stopping.”

“Why wouldn’t I have stopped?” Well, I don’t know why, but that wasn’t what I expected to hear at all. Her eyes glanced towards the ground before coming back to my own, “Oh I hope that was okay, I’ve been reading some books on assertiveness.” Well from what I knew of her, which admittedly is very little, that seemed like a good idea. I got the feeling she ended up acting the doormat a lot.

“That’s no problem, you’re doing pretty well as far as I can tell.”

“Oh! Good.” She smiled happily at me, honestly she looked adorable.

I was about to add more to conversation when I remembered how late I was, “Listen Fluttershy. I’m sorry if this sounds a little rude, but would you mind leading me to the Apple Farm? I kind of need to be there very soon and I’m already almost late.”

“You’re asking me for help?” I didn’t know why that was surprising, “Of course, just follow me.”

So I did.

Author’s Notes: Okay, I’m sorry that this chapter took so long, but it had a lot of things happening and a case of writers block. This chapter did not want to be written and I honestly think it shows. Hopefully you still enjoyed reading it.

Please remember that while thumbs make me feel better about my writing, reviews are the only way to make it better. Thank you all for your continued readership and help.