The Old Familiar

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Trixie stared down at the substance in front of her. It had been half an hour since she’d opened her eyes to find she was in fact not dead, and that the thing with the ludicrously theme-coloured ponies had not been the result of one experimental Berry Punch drink too many after all. Half an hour, and a lot had happened. Princess Luna had taken her and Twilight Sparkle to Trixie’s residency, then set up what Trixie felt was not undeserving of the title of base camp. Her residency was, as she knew from experience, big enough to fit a small Ponyville party inside, but even then fitting Her Highness, Trixie, Twilight Sparkle and several members of the Royal Guard standing around still made it a bit tight, especially since the Royal Guard were near-uniformly big and unmoving. It also made getting about the small building more than a bit difficult. Princess Luna had insisted on their arrival that they had to drink some hot chocolate she had mixed up, and Trixie was certain it wasn’t due to some strange urge her highness had just woken up with that night, or any motherly nature. She would have suggested something stronger, but apparently between breaking in and dragging Trixie outside, her attackers had seen fit to raid her supply of drinks.

Meanwhile, since waking up, Twilight Sparkle had just quietly remained sitting in the corner of the room, eyes occasionally glancing toward the nearest bookcase. Guards flitted in and out of the room, reporting security checks not just to Princess Luna, but to her Captain of the Guard, Shining Armor, son of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, and not incidentally Twilight Sparkle’s brother. Trixie already knew him, and while she liked to think that the events of the Grand Galloping Gala had at least cleared the air between them, she was still pretty sure he didn’t like her very much.

Needless to say, Shining Armor’s presence made conversation difficult, either with Sparkle or with Luna. So Trixie stared at her drink, almost hoping it would suddenly come to life and attack her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to drink it, per se, it was just… she didn’t want to drink it. It was just chocolate powder and milk. How was she supposed to drink that? It needed something more, something else. Chili powder was always nice. The problem was Shining Armor was standing between her and the small kitchen her residency came with.

Well, he was sort of in-between.

He was standing in the general direction of the kitchen.

Trixie could certainly say with confidence he was standing, and presumably at attention, if his steely gaze was any indication.

Slowly, she decided to risk moving in the direction of Princess Luna, who was staring at a piece of paper, as several more hovered around her, held in her magic. Trixie coughed slightly. Luna’s gaze darted over toward her, and Trixie suddenly felt very small.

“Are you alright, Trixie?” Her Highness asked. Trixie hated that. She really hated it, the way her mentor and kind-of sort-of mother-figure could see through her and figure out her state in an instant. Of course, sometimes it was reassuring.

“I’m…” she started, before realising she had no idea where that sentence was going. She stared down at the hot chocolate, and a question occurred to her.

“Why is he here, exactly?” she asked. Shining Armor’s face was like that of marble. Unlike most of the royal guard his armour seemed to lack the traditional enchantments that made every guard look nigh-identical, meaning his bright white coat and blue mane stood out in more ways than one, so the comparison to a statue, Trixie felt, was fitting.

Princess Luna adjusted the glasses she had on, the glasses that she stated helped her concentrate, and gave Trixie a level stare, before glancing at what from her point of view would be the back of Shining Armor’s helmet.

“He is here,” she said calmly, but with a hint of exasperation, “because the captain of my guard believes the current climate is too dangerous for me to travel unattended. And he has remained stubbornly insistent on this matter.”

Well, Trixie almost said, it wasn’t a surprise, especially given what had happened at Tambelon, not to mention that time almost a year ago when Luna had travelled to Ponyville alone. Almost said, because she made sure her mouth never treacherously made her say that, which would have forced Trixie to throw herself from the nearest cliff, or tall building.

“I see,” she said, as diplomatically as she could possibly manage. Silence reasserted its near-total influence over the room, and her highness went back to examining reports. Then it occurred to Trixie. She hadn’t asked about what’d happened. She hadn’t asked Twilight. That was odd. Then she heard the noise coming from the kitchen. Princess Luna looked up again, and removed her glasses.

“Ah.” She stated to nopony, “the tea is done.”

Trixie blinked. Admittedly, her highness announcing that tea was ready was not the absolutely strangest thing she’d ever heard (much to her regret), but it was definitely a bizarre thing to hear, as her highness calmly made her way through to the kitchen. Trixie looked over to Twilight Sparkle, who had an equally confused expression.

“Uh,” Trixie tried to say, “what’s the tea for?”

She winced at the sheer inanity of what she’d said, as Princess Luna calmly poured the tea out into a single cup.

“The tea,” Princess Luna said, as her horn lit up, the saucer and cup glowing slightly as her magic was cast on it, “is because, for one thing it is incredibly calming. And the other is that I decided it was best to summon an expert on magic after what happened, and if I understand the pony I sent to retrieve him, he should be here any moment now, and probably half-asleep. Hence, this tea here, which shall with any luck restore or revive him to fully functioning condition.”

Trixie blinked, and guessing neither Twilight Sparkle or her brother would be much assistance, decided to ask again. Her keenly honed senses detected a sinking feeling.

“So, who did you get? And who is it that’s getting him?”

As if to answer, there was a sudden, brief bright flash of light, a loud noise, and suddenly two more ponies were present in Trixie’s official residency, one stallion and one mare. She recognised both.

The first, the stallion, was easy enough to recognise, with his blue fur, and silver hair, and slate grey eyes, which in sheer defiance of his occupation did not twinkle at all, or glimmer, or show any signs of hidden cunning and middle-aged secrecy. Trixie felt this was in some way an act of treachery for the pony’s job. He was, after all, Spell Nexus, perpetually middle-aged headteacher of her majesty’s school for gifted unicorns, and all he was doing at the moment was looking around in a mild daze. Though given the pony he was with, Trixie wasn’t absolutely surprised.

When one thought of a Princess’s secretary or aide or seneschal or chief of staff or whatever the term was for them, not counting those who worked for the notoriously unusual Princess Cadenza of Cavallia, one would usually think of stern, reproachable types, usually lacking in humour or basic decency, with all the empathy of a wet chip, and the emotional range of a stone. Their coats were usually grey, or greying, or an extremely dull purple, and their manes done up in a bun, which would also be grey. Their cutie mark was usually a checklist, or a piece of paper, and they carried themselves with the countenance of somepony who felt that the world just wasn’t organised properly, and it was entirely the fault of whoever was foolish enough to look into their eyes, which naturally would be grey, and lifeless. They’d also probably be the sort of pony who was just born old, because who had time to be young and vibrant when serious things needed doing?

The pony next to him, the one who had teleported herself and Spell Nexus didn’t meet these expectations. Well, not all of them.

She had dark blue fur, and a dark blue mane, which hung loose around her neck. Her eyes were a completely ordinary orange, which also did not glow or shine with any usual light. She had a cutie mark of a full moon, which was a pale blue colour. She was around Trixie’s age (ish, Trixie presumed. She definitely looked about the same age). She stared at the world with the air of somepony who was… if Trixie had to say it, cautiously examining it, although there was the occasional air of disappointment with whatever they saw. In terms of build, she looked about the same size as Trixie, just a tiny shade taller, but her build was more athletic. Now that she thought about it, it reminded Trixie greatly of Applejack. Or vice versa. That, Trixie found herself thinking, might have explained one or two things she’d thought over the ages. In terms of her behaviour, however, Trixie had to give up. She didn’t understand the pony in front of her. She was a walking gift to headaches everywhere.

She was called Midnight. Just Midnight, as she’d insisted when they’d first met.

“Your highness,” the mare said, calmly, “Professor Spell Nexus, as you requested.”

“Professor,” Princess Luna said, “I do apologise if Midnight was brusque in her behaviour fetching you, but I’m afraid this couldn’t wait.”

“Oh, no,” the stallion said, not exactly calmly, “no need to apologise, your highness. I am only too happy to render what assistance I can.” His smile faltered momentarily, “Even if I am not certain what it is I am here for.”

Princess Luna nodded. “Very good, professor, but first…” she levitated the cup of tea over towards the pony. He smiled, and his horn glowed, gently wrapping it in his magic. As it came nearer, he sniffed, and smiled warmly.

“My favourite,” he noted. “But how did-” he stopped, and evidently decided not to bother asking, before taking a sip. Professor Spell Nexus’ love of tea was known. Specifically, the variety known as earl grey.

“Now then,” Princess Luna said, before being interrupted by a cough from Midnight. She stopped and stared at the mare. Her horn was glowing, due to something being held within the unicorn’s magic.

“Your highness,” the mare said, “I was tasked with delivering this message.” It was a roll of paper, which was presently hanging a short distance from her highness’ face. Princess Luna stared at it, then to Midnight. “It is from the manager of the Canterlot Opera House, your highness,” the mare stated, with no emotional inflection whatsoever, “he was insistent I deliver it to you personally. I apologise for the mild damage it has suffered. The staff were inconsolable over what happened.”

“Canterlot Opera House? What happened?” Trixie asked. The mare’s ears twitched, and she turned to look at Trixie with a very noticeable air of resignation. Probably.

“Lulamoon.” the mare said. Trixie resisted the urge to correct her. After several years of hearing ponies singing a certain nursery rhyme whenever her name was mentioned, she wasn’t fond of her second name, to say the least. Midnight, as Trixie knew from experience, was incapable of calling her by anything else but her second name. Even after several attempts at correcting her, some of them more forceful than had perhaps been truly necessary.

“The Canterlot Opera House,” Shining Armor stated, “was the sight of a fire, earlier this evening, prior to our learning of the incident involving Twilight Sparkle and yourself, Representative.”

“That is an understatement,” Midnight cut in, “the building itself is irreparably damaged due to the arson.”

“Arson?” Twilight Sparkle cut in.

There was the most curious thing Trixie had ever seen on Midnight’s face just then, almost a hint of emotion, as she looked in the general direction of Twilight Sparkle.

“I thought the police hadn’t reached a conclusion yet?” Shining Armor asked.

“With all respect to the efforts of her majesty’s constabulary, no mere accidental act of combustion could destroy the Canterlot Opera House so precisely and efficiently as to render it beyond restoration, as the building staff so eloquently informed me,” the mare stated, before adding “I am highly inclined to agree with them.”

There was a hum from Princess Luna, as she gently folded the parchment up. There was a noticeably upset look on her face. No wonder, really. Princess Luna was well known for her love of the arts. She looked over towards Midnight, nodded slightly, then turned to Spell Nexus, who had finished his tea.

“Anyway,” she stopped, trying to reign in the obvious tone of sadness in her voice, “Professor. Earlier this evening my student, Trixie Lulamoon, along with Twilight Sparkle was abducted from their residencies in this town by a group of ponies for purposes we have not determined at this time. Fortunately, as you can see they weren’t injured, but I would like your help in assessing whether they retain any lingering magical maladies.”

Spell Nexus blinked, taking another sip of his tea as he did so, before responding. “I see,” he said. “But surely you do not need me for this.”

Princess Luna paused, “with all respect for you and your skills, Professor Nexus, I do not. But I do require a second opinion from a reputable source.” A dark look began to spread across the Princess’ face. “If I am right, then the magic used on them is a kind I have not seen for an age. And I sincerely hope to be proven wrong.”

Spell Nexus nodded. If he was upset or offended or flattered by Princess Luna’s prior statement, he didn’t let it show.

“Of course, Your Highness.” He set his tea down and smiled a genial smile. “Shall we get started?”

“Indeed,” Princess Luna returned the smile. “I believe we shall start with Twilight Sparkle.”

She motioned with one of her wings toward Twilight. “Shall we?”

“So, Twilight,” The professor said as they walked out of view, to one of the adjacent rooms “How have you been since graduation?”

“Well, I’m currently serving a five-year sentence for misuse of magic and escaping from the law.”

“Oh, yes. That’s right...”

After her highness and the professor began their… whatever it was, this left Trixie and Midnight together, alone, since Shining Armor had apparently decided to follow her highness into the other room.

“So…” Trixie finally said once the silence became unbearable, “Midnight… how long’s it been?”

Midnight gave her a dispassionate Look, before turning back toward some paperwork she’d been perusing through. Occasionally a sheet would vanish in a flash of light. Teleportation magic, similar to the means Trixie used to contact the princess. Similar, but not the same, since that magic wasn’t powered by Trixie’s own reserves, especially since Trixie and teleportation had turned out to be a bad mix on several occasions, despite Trixie’s best efforts.

“Two years, nine months, fourteen days and an odd number of hours.”

Trixie tried to smile her most charming smile. “Really? ‘an odd number of hours.’ That’s imprecise for you.”

“That is the amount of time that has passed since we last communicated. Since we last were in any vicinity to one another, it is eleven months, five days, eight hours and thirty-seven minutes.”

Trixie tried to recall what she’d been doing eleven months ago, which given the sheer wealth of exploits she and her friends had gotten up to was proving a blank. A big fat b-

And then it hit her. Just after Corona had returned, the thing at Canterlot Castle she and the other Element bearers had been summoned to. Had Midnight been present? She couldn’t honestly remember, but the weeks after Corona’s return had been hectic and blurry, so she wasn’t surprised a few extremely minor details would be left out here and there.

“Hey, yeah. That big thing in Canterlot.” She tried to dial her grin down from smugness to something more like pride, or hoped the dark blue mare wouldn’t notice or care. “Guess you probably heard I’m the bearer of the Element of Magic. Oh, and I got a knighthood” she added, as casually as she could manage.

Midnight’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. After a few seconds more of silence, Trixie felt the need to something more.

“And on top of all that, I finally got a position in the Night Court, right here in Ponyville.”

A few seconds after she realised what her mouth had said, she resisted the incredibly great urge to hit herself on the head.

“Well, I’m a Representative, at least.”

“I am aware of that,” Midnight stated, “I am the one who sent the form letter noting your financial arrangements.”

Trixie blinked. Memories darted back all those months, trying to scrounge out details that her brain would not supply, maybe because of everything else that had happened on that day alone, which did tend to blot out inconsequential details like whose signature was on what piece of paper that she hadn’t bothered to read. That and the drinking she’d done that night, which even by her standards had been over-doing it (as the massive headache the next day had proven), and made recalling a lot of things from that day profoundly difficult. That, and Corona’s return, which tended to blot out pretty much everything else. So Trixie decided to take Midnight at her word.

“Thought I recognised that signature,” she lied. If Midnight noticed this, she gave no indication, and simply went back to her paperwork. Not wanting her suddenly good feelings at recalling how far she’d gone to evaporate, Trixie decided to continue onward.

“So… how’s things with you?” she tried to fight down a wince at that one.

“It has been unnaturally quiet over the last eleven months” the mare noted. Trixie blinked.

“Hey,” she declared, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Simply an observation,” the mare said. “Since the reappearance of the former Princess Celestia, the average background noise of Canterlot has dropped by a considerable amount. The city’s population has decreased by point seven percent, and as a side note, my staff has become increasingly overworked due to a number of their fellows being among those who chose to relocate.”

“Your staff?” Trixie asked, before her brain added some of the words that followed together. “Hold on, you got promoted?”

“Indeed,” Midnight said, “Several times, as a matter of fact. Among my many functions I am now her highness’ majordomo pro tempore.”

Trixie blinked again. “Wait. Majordomo? I thought Princess Luna didn’t have one of those anymore, since t-“

“Since the incident regarding Quick Fix, some several hundred years ago, as Princess Cadenza is quite keen on regaling others with at diplomatic functions. I am aware of that fact, Lulamoon, as her highness Princess Luna did mention it as a factor in her ambivalence towards my instatement in the position no less than twenty-five times.”

Trixie just nodded. Considering the “incident” so-called had been a simple attempt to make a point about her highness’ sleeping habits and the design of the royal castle gone horribly wrong, with some of the diplomatic damage still being felt even in the modern day, it was kind of completely understandable why exactly Princess Luna felt twitchy about having a majordomo, especially when they tended to have the equivalent power and rank of a Vicereine, only they were outside the Night Court’s influence.

“How the hay did you, of all ponies, get that job?” she asked incredulously.

“It is quite simple,” Midnight stated, “I didn’t want it.”

“Huh?”

“I did not want it,” she repeated. “Which her highness apparently felt made me far more trustworthy than any other applicant.” There was a pause before the mare added, “It is also highly probable that her highness feels that my increased workload shall keep me from disrupting any more diplomatic functions.”

“You didn’t wear anything gold to a gala again, did you?” Trixie asked, thinking back to an incident some time before when Midnight had done exactly that (and more beside, but wearing gold for some reason stood large in Trixie’s memories). After all, the Grand Galloping Gala was a celebration of the Night Court, and so anyone wearing anything that reminded anyone even slightly of Mad Queen Corona was greatly shunned, far beyond anyone who did something that mad at the best of times.

There was an instant where something approaching a Look flashed across the dark mare’s face, before she responded. “No. This was several orders of magnitude beyond a fashion faux pas. It is entirely conceivable I damaged relations with the Griffon nations extensively.”

Trixie stared blankly, and had she not been sitting down, would have at that moment chosen to sit down.

“What did you do?” she asked in shock.

“I simply asked the ambassador his opinion on the Griffon embassy being a popular choice of banishment.”

Not entirely to her surprise, Trixie found her hoof was already halfway towards her face. Slowly, she set it back down again. “You did what now?”

“It is curious,” the mare said, as she analysed a piece of paper, “but from his reaction you would think nopony had ever pointed this fact out to the Griffons, who have historically displayed great pride in their nation and would naturally take offence at their being used as a metaphorical disposal unit from the unwanted detritus of pony politics.”

Trixie stared at Midnight’s expression, hoping any moment that she would suddenly claim to be joking. In hindsight she would admit that wasn’t ever going to happen. Midnight just continued examining the paperwork in front of her.

Yes, Equestria did tend to send ponies to the griffons, and their scraps of a nation. But it was what had been done for decades, centuries even. The griffons surely had to have recognised what was happening there. Surely.

And surely Midnight couldn’t be just sitting there, acting like what she’d done was absolutely nothing at all.

If Trixie had been about to add anything else, it was forestalled by the reappearance of Her Highness, and Sparkle, who was looking none the worse for wear after her examination.

“Trixie?” Princess Luna called out. Slowly, the mare walked towards her mentor, and teacher, all thoughts of politics removed from her mind.

Left alone with Shining Armor, and the odd mare, Twilight Sparkle sat. By technicality alone, the Princess hadn’t actually said whether she was to leave or not, and she was wondering if it would have been better to do so. This might have had something to do with the imposing form of her big brother standing nearby, gaze focused intently. Every now and then, the mare would levitate something toward her brother, who would examine it, occasionally jot something down with a quill Twilight hadn’t noticed him acquiring, then send it back to the mare. Now and then a member of her highnesses’ guard would enter the residency and present a report to Shining, before leaving just as quickly as they came. All of this passed in absolute silence. Occasionally Twilight would look towards Shining Armor, who either didn’t notice or just didn’t return the look. It was upsetting, but she expected it all the same. He was a guard after all. She knew that. He was doing his job.

After several incredibly awkward moments, she looked towards the dark blue mare, almost surrounded by a deluge of paperwork. Since arriving in Ponyville (again), she had managed to interact with other ponies, mainly Lulamoon and those who visited the library she stayed in, but so far the times where she’d done so on her own terms had been far and few between, what with being under house-arrest. Admittedly, the mare did not look interested in her, nor did she look very sociable, but she was by her own admission hardly one to judge on that account. She had been wondering how often ponies had tried to engage in social interaction with her in the past, only to be stymied by her distant nature. And if it didn’t work, it was still the acquisition of useful information.

She approached the mare, and coughed gently.

The mare went right on with examining what she was looking at. Twilight coughed again. After a long period of time, the mare raised an eyebrow, and glanced for the merest microsecond in Twilight Sparkle’s direction.

“Yes?”

Twilight grinned eagerly. “Hi,” she said, “I’m Twilight Spa-”

“I am aware of who you are.” The mare stated, her horn glowing for another instant, as the paper vanished in a teleportation flare. Twilight Sparkle faltered. Of course the mare knew who she was, she was the daughter of a Viceroy, and she’d just been in a large trial for misuse of magic, one Princess Luna herself had personally taken interest in. She was probably known all over Equestria.

“Right,” she said. “So, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It is Midnight.” the mare stated.

“Midnight…?” Twilight asked, hoping the mare would understand she was asking for the mare’s second name. Another side-glance. The mare probably understood her meaning.

“Just Midnight.” She said.

Twilight nodded, looking at the paperwork, then back to the mare. Perhaps to engage discourse with her required finding a subject she was interested in.

“Anything… interesting?” she asked. Midnight turned to look at Twilight, and there was sudden feeling of chill along Twilight’s back.

“I am currently engaged in directing the day-to-day affairs of several aspects of this nation’s government on behalf of Her Majesty, not to mention dictating the actions of the staff of Castle Canterlot itself. This is a difficult task, requiring a great detail of my not inconsiderable attention, without distraction from somepony else. Put simply: Leave me be.”

And with one last venomous glare, the mare turned back to her work. Slowly, and feeling not a little bit disenchanted, she walked back toward the other side of the room, and sat down again. Apparently Shining Armor did notice this, and walked over towards Twilight.

“Hey,” he said gently. Twilight looked up at him (which was a given when he was taller than her anyway), and saw that particular goofy, toothy smile of his. “What’s the matter?” he asked. Twilight, despite everything that had happened, found herself smiling at the sight of her brother’s smile.

“Nothing,” she said. Shining stared at her, then to the small dervish of paper that was surrounding Miss Midnight. A light of understanding lit up in his eyes.

“Ah.” She looked back up, Shining’s smile was now far less toothy. “Don’t take it too hard. Midnight’s not exactly a pony pony.” He stopped, and a curious expression danced across his face. “Okay, I’ll be honest, she’s not a pony pony. But she’s alright, when you get to know her.”

Twilight stared quizzically at her brother. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“And do you know her?”

“Any day now.” He said, before grinning slightly.

“I do hope you are aware,” came a voice from the other side of the room, “I can in fact hear you.”

“Hey,” Shining Armor smiled, “Does that mean you’re talking to me again?”

“Certainly not. I am still very much incensed with you, Captain.”

Shining’s smile faded, as the mare went back to her paperwork. Twilight just looked at Shining, then to the mare, then back to Shining, then back to the mare.

“What was that all about?” she asked. Shining Armor just shook his head.

“It’s a thing.” He said quickly.

“So,” Shining Armor spoke up, before Twilight could ask anything else, “how come those nutjobs managed to get the drop on you, anyway?”

Twilight shuffled awkwardly. “They didn’t, actually.”

One of Shining Armor’s eyebrows raised. “They didn’t?”

“I was asleep when they broke in.”

“Asleep?” He repeated. A concerned look overcame her big brother’s face. “Are you sure?”

He made of show of pondering this for a moment. “Hmm… my little sister, asleep? Now something about that just doesn’t sound right.”

Twilight bopped him with a hoof. “I might have been overworking myself. It’s lucky you’ve never seen the library here. It’s so disorganised it makes your room look like… well, like my room!”

“My room’s not that bad,” Shining said, with a mock air of defensiveness.

“It was pretty bad the last time I checked. Or have you tidied it up since you got a special somepony?”

“I don’t have a special somepony,” Shining Armor said, far too quickly for his own good. Though the practically luminescent blush that came with his statement did not help. Twilight Sparkle grinned with a malicious glint that only a little sibling could provide.

“I’m sure I recall mom and dad saying something about you having a marefriend in Cavallia.”

At that point, Shining Armor, a pony who had managed to remain stoic in the face of an enraged Corona, broke down into nervous coughs and mutters.

Then, before Twilight could torment her brother any further, Princess Luna, Trixie and Professor Nexus reappeared. Trixie looked mildly uneasy, which was absolutely nothing compared to the expression sported by Princess Luna, stone-like, but to Twilight, though she did not rate herself an expert on her highness’ mood, there was also a visible strain of concern.

“Well,” Professor Nexus declared to the room, “I’d say that’s a clean bill of health for Dame Lulamoon and Miss Sparkle, some dietary issues aside, of course.”

Her Highness, apparently having noticed this, nodded. “Indeed. You two have been partially drained of some of your magic, but it is nothing you will not recover from with sufficient time and rest, and provided you avoid any strenuous activity.”

“No lifting several dictionaries at once, then,” Twilight Sparkle said weakly, a small uncertain smile on her lips. A few seconds later, and she was finding the floor much more interesting than meeting anyone else’s gaze.

“Well,” Princess Luna finally said, “unless there has been any dramatic development on whoever it was that abducted you, it seems there is nothing left f-”

There was a sudden knocking at the door, provoking a startled yelp from Twilight. Slowly, the door opened and a guard entered, stopping when he saw Princess Luna.

“Ah, your highness,” he faltered.

“Lieutenant,” Princess Luna said, “Is there something the matter?”

“No, your highness,” he said, before coughing, and desperately scraping together what willpower he could find, and straightening himself up to boot, “one of the patrols in the Everfree found something, ma’am.”

“What?” Princess Luna asked.

“A filly, your highness.”

Two guards walked into the residence, one’s horn alight. Floating behind that one was in fact a small filly, wrapped in the glow of the guard’s magic. It didn’t fail anyone’s notice that the second pony was walking with a slight limp, for whatever reason. It probably had something to do with the way the filly was thrashing inside the magic, trying to wrench her way free.

The filly was placed amongst the group of ponies, her aggression forgotten the minute she touched the ground, and as she saw the ponies staring at her. Trixie, for her part, stared at the pony that was staring back at everyone else. Her expression matched that of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna’s exactly.

For the filly staring at her was, age and lack of a Cutie Mark aside, an exact duplicate of a pony who had once managed to fight both Princess Luna and a Cor- … a Celestia of an alternate universe, and win. A pony who had tried to kill her, and Twilight Sparkle, and their counterparts from a bizarre alternate universe. A pony who had died screaming her desire to kill them until her last breath.

“Antithesis.”

By Any Other Name

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Trixie's remark did not go unnoticed. Midnight raised an eyebrow and frowned. “I beg your pardon?” she asked.

“Where exactly in the Everfree did you find her?” Princess Luna asked the guards, her face a mask of calm.

“In the clearing where Miss Lulamoon and Miss Sparkle had been taken,” The first guard said.

As the two guards talked with Princess Luna, Trixie stared at the foal. She... It was just… sitting there, like it didn’t know what was going on at all. There was nothing of the manic look Antithesis had possessed. If anything, actually, it looked… afraid.

She noticed Midnight was staring at her. “She just reminds me of somepony I encountered a while ago.” She explained.

Midnight’s gaze moved from the foal to Trixie, and back again.

“Is she not one of the foals of this town?” The mare asked. Trixie wanted to make some kind of remark about how she would’ve remembered an actual alicorn filly if she’d seen one. But she didn’t. Instead, she just said “No.”

“It’s a long story.” Trixie hurriedly added. Midnight in all likelihood wouldn’t have believed her if she’d said she’d been to another universe, much less one where Corona was sane, and pleasant, and rational, instead of an angry ball of anger threatening to burn anything that remotely annoyed her. Heck, Trixie had been there, and she still couldn’t believe all of it.

If Midnight had any dissatisfaction with Trixie’s statement, she didn’t show it, as Princess Luna finished talking with the two guards and dismissed them. She turned, and glanced towards the filly, who flinched at the sight of Luna’s stare. She wasn’t even staring aggressively, she was just… actually, if anything, she looked intrigued.

“Your Highness?” Shining Armor spoke first. “Is something the matter?”

“No.” She said instantly, and Trixie could at least tell that was a total lie. “Nothing is the matter.”

“But that’s-” Twilight Sparkle began, before looking amazingly self-conscious. Luna nodded.

“Indeed,” she declared. “It would appear to be.”

“Appear to be what?” The captain asked.

“You Highness,” Midnight spoke up, “Does this foal have some connection to the temporary disappearance of Lulamoon, yourself, and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony some weeks prior? And the sudden reappearance of Miss Sparkle?”

Princess Luna looked at the pony, then to her captain, then to her majordomo. She motioned towards the two guards, that they were dismissed. With a nod, the guards proceeded back outside again. Once the door was closed, Luna’s head drooped.

“Apparently, yes.” She said, staring carefully at the foal for several moments. Her gaze moved around the room. “Captain Armor, Professor Nexus, what I am about to tell you does not leave this room under any circumstances.”

“Of course.” Shining Armor said.

“Likewise.” The professor said.

“Due to an unfortunate series of circumstances, Twilight Sparkle and Trixie both wound up in an alternate universe. One…” Princess Luna shifted uncomfortably. Not that Trixie could blame her, meeting another version of herself had been tremendously weird, and her duplicate had just been annoying. “Dramatically different to our own.”

Luna paused momentarily. “While there, due to an equally unfortunate set of events, that universe’s Element of Magic became broken.”

At this both Shining Armor, Professor Nexus and, in what Trixie would later realise was probably a first, Midnight looked terrified and amazed.

“Is that…” Nexus asked breathlessly, “is that even possible?”

“As a result of the circumstances we found ourselves in, yes.” Luna stated, staring directly at Trixie as she spoke. Trixie just stared at the floorboards. Even if it had all eventually worked out for the best, even if Princess Luna said she was not embarrassed, it had not been anywhere near her greatest moment.

Luna continued onward. “As a result of this, an entity was created. Malevolent and cruel from the moment of its birth, seeking only destruction and mayhem, and the deaths of Trixie and Twilight Sparkle.”

She took a deep breath. “It was called Antithesis. It…” There was another pause, “caused some trouble before Trixie and Twilight, and their counterparts, were able to defeat it.”

Shining Armor looked towards his sister. “Seriously?” He asked. Twilight was rubbing the back of her neck, and grinning nervously.

“Well… I had friends helping me.” She murmured. Shining looked over towards Trixie dubiously, but if he had any remark to make about that, he kept it to himself. Actually, from what Trixie could tell, he was probably slightly surprised.

“Then how exactly did this happen?” Professor Nexus asked. “If she was defeated-“

“Destroyed.” Twilight Sparkle cut in.

“If she was destroyed in another universe, how could this “Antithesis” be here?”

Luna said nothing. Meanwhile, Trixie found the demented pony’s last words replaying, along with far more details of those days than she really wanted.

“She said something about returning.” Trixie stated. “”If”. If she returned.”

“Your Highness?” Midnight spoke up.

“I don’t think she arranged this.” Twilight said. “She couldn’t have. She was just reacting to everything with hate and anger. She wasn’t a planner, or a schemer. Or at least not anything beyond “smash and kill”. And she spent all of the day she was alive trying to kill us. She didn't really have time for anything else.”

Trixie shrugged. "A coincidence, maybe?"

Twilight frowned. "I... don't know. A few months ago I'd have said no, but now..." she turned to look at Princess Luna, "have you ever heard of anything like this, your highness?"

Luna stared carefully. "I have encountered something similar to what has apparently happened before, yes. Long ago. But as to someone coming back from beyond, that is... incredibly rare, and would take more power than that ritual took. Of that I am certain."

She paused thoughtfully. “Even more so given Antithesis met her end in another universe.”

“Your Majesty?”

“So maybe it was some part of the ritual…” Trixie mused. Of course, if it came down to the highly technical details of magic, Trixie had to admit she was not an expert. She tended to learn by doing, by watching others casting spells. She knew a few terms, if only from hearing them repeated often enough, but beyond that, the technical details were just that to her: details, and usually boring ones at that. But even with her knowledge of magic as it was, she knew creating a foal whole-cloth was beyond even the most insane of accidents.

And then another thought occurred to her. She looked towards Twilight. “During what happened, did you feel like-?”

“Something was inside my mind?” Twilight said, uncomfortably. “Yes.”

“It felt like a spell I’ve used…” Trixie murmured, “But different. And no-one kissed either of us.”

Suddenly the mood broke, as Twilight, and Shining Armor, stared blankly at her.

“Kissed?” Shining repeated.

“The spell works best with mouth-to-mouth contact.” Trixie responded hurriedly. Quickly, she tried forcing her mouth to stay shut, but her mouth treacherously decided to add “via the tongue.”

“If I might-?”

“Excuse me, everypony,” Spell Nexus spoke up, “But I believe Miss Midnight has a problem.”

Trixie first turned to look at the professor, then to aforementioned mare, who she now noticed was staring at her desk, her head tilted at an angle. For a moment, she tried to work out what the mare was doing.

“What are you doing?” She found herself asking. Midnight turned to look at the room.

“While you were conversing, the foal made her way under your desk.” The mare paused thoughtfully as she glanced at the disorganised piles of paperwork on top of it. “At least, I presume this is your desk, Lulamoon.”

Trixie looked back to the filly, or where the filly should have been, where there was a now nothing at all.

“How did we not notice that?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“One can only assume your conversation had you sufficiently distracted.” Midnight responded. “Now, as to the matter of this desk…”

Without a word, Luna’s horn lit up, and the desk was wrapped in the familiar glow of her magic, revealing the foal, scrunched up into a ball. On seeing the desk had been moved, it stared again at the assemblage of ponies looking at it.

Trixie was, by her own admission, a lot of things. But one of her foremost weaknesses, too much bourbon aside, was children. Even though she was looking at a perfect scale recreation of a monster, one that’d spent its dying breaths telling her it’d come back to destroy everything she (and Twilight) cared about, she was finding it very, very hard to resist the basic urge to try and comfort it.

“She doesn’t seem particularly possessed of any great malevolence, your highness.” Midnight stated, as she stared at the foal, who had by now gotten to her feet.

“If anything, she seems…” Suddenly there was a strange, low rumble. Trixie looked to Princess Luna, who looked to Shining Armor, who looked to Twilight.

“What was that?” Professor Nexus asked. Midnight fixed her gaze on him.

“… That, Professor Nexus, is the sound of an empty stomach.” She turned back to the filly. “This one’s, in fact.”

Midnight gazed at Trixie. “Kitchen?” She asked. Trixie blinked, before realising the mare was asking where it was.

“Down that corridor,” she supplied, “can’t miss it. And please,” she said as Midnight began moving, “don’t rearrange anything.”

Without a word, the mare took off toward the kitchen. As she looked back, Trixie noticed Luna was focusing on the filly intently.

The filly, meanwhile, just looked nervous. Trixie had to admit this wasn’t adding up. Antithesis had been a roaring, raging thing, purely focused entirely on putting an end to Trixie, Twilight and their counterparts. She hadn’t done fear, or hesitation.

Sparkle, meanwhile, was keeping a good distance from the foal. But there was an odd look in her eyes. Not one of concern. More a cautious curiosity, like the child was a puzzle of some kind.

And then there was Princess Luna, whose intense stare was probably the cause for the foal’s nervousness, now that Trixie thought of it. She’d been there before, and there was very little in the world as unnerving as Luna staring at, and through someone, as if she was reading their very soul. Trixie was reasonably certain that ability wasn’t in her purview. She had telepathy, certainly, but she never used it for invasive purposes. Luna just always had a way of knowing things.

Shortly, Midnight returned from the kitchen carrying a small bowl, which contained something steaming. Carefully, she set the bowl down near the foal.

“It is soup,” she stated. “That’s food.” She added, when the foal’s expression didn’t change. “You eat food.”

She looked at the bowl again, “or in this case, drink.”

The foal blinked, and looked at the bowl. She sniffed the air, and slowly approached, eyeing the bowl like it would potentially explode. She took an experimental sip…

And then she looked incredibly distressed. Midnight stared at the bowl.

“Lulamoon…” she began, not noticing Trixie rolling her eyes, “if you were having soup, hypothetically speaking, what would you add to it?”

Trixie blinked for a moment. “I… uh… well, it’d depend on the soup, I guess, but I suppose for a start I’d add musta-”

Without a word, Midnight turned and walked back toward the kitchen, returning a few seconds later with what was quite clearly a jar of mustard, and a small bread-knife.

“You’re not actually…” Shining Armor began, “you’re not actually going to put that in-”

“I have a hypothesis.” Midnight replied, as she unscrewed the lid. She held the jar over the soup, and then gently inserted the knife. After a few seconds, a sliver of mustard gradually emerged, and fell unceremoniously into the soup.

“Try it now, little one.” Midnight said, with all the warmth a bureaucrat could muster. After a few seconds, the foal gradually returned to the bowl, and took another sip. This time, she seemed to like what she tasted, and began merrily drinking away, not stopping until it was finished. Then it looked over towards Midnight. And made a tiny, almost inaudible noise.

“Thks.”

Having only ever met a grand total of two insane alicorns, Trixie wasn't absolutely sure she could speak for all of them, but she was pretty certain none of them ever said “thanks” for anything.

“So, what now?” She found herself asking. The question was answered by everypony in the room staring at her.

“What?” She declared. “Somepony had to ask it.” She looked towards the filly, who had by now shuffled over toward Midnight. This led to the actually kind of funny sight of them staring at one another.

“She’s right.” Twilight Sparkle stated, just above a whisper. Princess Luna paused for some time.

“Professor Nexus?” She declared, the elder stallion jolting slightly.

“Yes, your highness?”

Luna took a deep breath. “Thank you for your assistance tonight. It has been most useful. Just allow me a few moments, and I shall make sure you are returned to your school.”

“Thank you, your highness.” The pony smiled. “I would probably say I could get back on my own, but I…” the smile turned awkward, “due to the rushed nature of my departure, I don’t actually have any money on me.”

“Wouldn’t matter,” Trixie said, “the trains don’t run this late anyhow.”

“That’s okay,” the princess said, looking at Midnight momentarily. “But I have something else to ask of you before you leave.”

There was a brief pause, but to Trixie it felt like minutes. “Trixie?”

“Yes, Princess?” Trixie asked, quickly.

“Will you be able to travel to Canterlot tom-… well, later today, actually.”

Trixie nodded slowly, before the question of why occurred to her. Princess Luna had a look about her that made Trixie nervous.

“I think perhaps we should see if…” She stopped, and looked at the filly, who was curled upon around a moderately annoyed looking Midnight’s hooves. “Goodness, all this talk, we haven’t even asked if you have a name.”

“Does she require a name?” Midnight enquired.

“Well, we’re not calling her “You”, now are we?” Trixie retorted.

“But this assumes that there will be a point to her having a name.” The mare turned her eyes toward Princess Luna. “What exactly is it you had in mind?”

“I think perhaps we should have this foal examined, by experts.”

One of Midnight’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Are there not three experts present here already?”

“Yes,” Luna stated, “but one of them is under house arrest," Twilight briefly smiled at that, before forcing it back down, "and all three require sleep.”

“No kidding.” Trixie commented. As if on cue, she found herself yawning. And for some reason the room had started swaying about.

“I still think we should probably give her a name…” Twilight said. Trixie tried staring at Twilight. She managed to stare at Twilight’s right ear.

“Such as…?”

Twilight blinked sheepishly. “I don’t know. Something nice, and normal. Like… Twinkle?”

“You wanna name her after Grandma?” Shining Armor asked. Twilight just looked down at her hooves and mumbled something Trixie didn’t catch.

Trixie looked at the slumbering foal. She hadn’t really ever given much thought to having foals, on account of issues with the very idea of… physical intimacy. It was making her feel all weirded out just thinking of it then and there. Not that she was opposed to the concept of foals in general, though. One of her goals had always been to become a noble and found her own House, which did sort of require an heir to come from somewhere. But given the timescale require she’d always assumed it would have been years before that was an issue.

“Stardust?” she offered.

“Taken.” Midnight cut in. So much for that then, Trixie thought.

“Star Burst?” Shining Armor suggested. “Or am I not allowed to suggest names?” he asked, when Midnight glanced at him.

“At last census, there were no less than seven Star Bursts living in Canterlot alone.” Midnight stated.

Princess Luna was frowning (not that she was necessarily the only one). “Well, Midnight, she seems to like you the most. Have you anything to suggest?”

The mare affixed Luna with a deadpan stare. “If I were capable of choosing a good name, your highness, do you not think I would call myself something other than “Midnight”?”

“Well, you already shot down all the good names.” Trixie retorted. “And Trixie is taken as well, so we can’t call her that.”

“A thought occurs.” Midnight said. “If she is some recreation of this… Antithesis character, why not call her “Thesis”?”

Seconds passed, as everypony stared at the foal. Finally, Trixie could contain herself no longer.

“That’s a terrible name for a foal. She should have something fun! Dramatic! Alluring and enchanting!”

“Such as Lulamoon?”

Perhaps it was because she was tired, perhaps it was because Princess Luna was in the room, but Trixie felt no better retort sufficed than sticking her tongue out at the officious mare. True, she didn’t like being called Lulamoon, ever, but that was totally different. Besides, it was her name. She was allowed to dislike it. She had perfectly justifiable reasons not to like it.

“Thesis…” Twilight Sparkle mused. “It’s… it’s not terrible.” She suddenly blinked, and shook her head, “I mean, there are worse names for a foal, right? It’s good?”

“Yes.” Midnight said, “We understood.”

“I still think it’s terrible.” Trixie muttered.

“By all means, you can spend the small hours of the morning devising a new one.” Midnight stated, “if that is your wish.”

“I’d rather get some sleep.” Trixie said under her breath. Sleep really was sounding good at that moment. Perhaps, she thought, if she got enough sleep, the events of the last several hours would make sense. But she very much doubted it. That alone would’ve suggested her life made much sense in the first place.

“And what about her?” Luna nodded at the slumbering, and newly minted Thesis.

“Oh,” Trixie said, “I’ve got a spare room, she could stay in there for the night, I guess?”

“That…” Midnight said, “may not be a good idea.”

“How, exactly?” Trixie asked, defensively.

“You talk in your sleep.” Midnight replied, in as casual a tone as she could apparently manage. From the other side of the room, Shining Armor suddenly found himself coughing.

“I do not.” Trixie quickly managed to get out, in-between glowering furiously at Midnight, to no avail. "And I've soundproofed my room anyway a- oh, shut up!"

"Trixie," Princess Luna cautioned.

Twilight coughed. “I’ve… ah, I’ve got a spare bed in the library. If staying with Trixie is a problem, she could stay there for the night.”

“It’s not a problem.” Trixie shot back, “Why would it be a problem?”

“I said “if”.”

Before Trixie could retort, there was a cough from Luna, which managed to effortlessly silence both ponies.

“That is a very generous offer, Twilight Sparkle.” The Princess said, “Thesis will stay with you for tonight.”

Trixie decided it best not to try and argue with the Princess at that moment. It wasn’t like she would have been able to win anyway, even if she wasn't five minutes away from collapsing onto the floor.

“Trixie, you had best show Twilight back to the library now. Don’t worry about tonight, I shall pass a message along to Ponyville’s mayor about what happened. And Midnight…” she looked at the mare, who was gently lifting the slumbering foal in her magic, Thesis still very much asleep.

“Right, yes,” Trixie said, “c’mon then.”

As the three ponies walked out the library, Trixie heard Shining Armor beginning to discuss something with the Princess. She didn’t hear much of it before the doors to her residency closed, but Shining didn’t sound especially happy about something. Probably leaving his little sister with Thesis.

The walk across town was amazingly quiet, neither of the other two saying anything, the only real sound coming from the guards moving around outside, and the occasional noise from the slumbering filly. After but a few minutes, they reached the town library.

Inside, the ground floor looked like a small hurricane had hit it. Trixie took a quiet appreciative whistle. “Guess those nutjobs had to make a mess when they got you, huh?” She grinned. “And just when you’d gotten a chance to tidy everything up.”

Twilight just looked about the room nervously. “Actually, this was me. I’m still trying…” there was a wince from the mare as she looked at a stack of toppled atlases.

“Well, I can do it in the morning…” she said, her voice unnervingly distant. Trixie looked toward Midnight, to see if the mare was going to be any help. She was looking about the library, and if Trixie knew anything about the mare, greatly resisting the urge to tidy everything herself.

“Yes.” Trixie stated, “in the morning. Bed for everyone.”

With a swift jab to Midnight’s ribs, which successfully caught her attention, the three began moving toward the stairs, which lead up to the second level of the library. There were two beds, on opposite sides of the room. Both of which looked so soft, and tantalising, even the one Sparkle clearly wasn’t using.

Trixie shook her head. Just a few minutes longer, and then she could get some sleep for herself.

“Well,” Twilight said, “It’s definitely been… weird, today.”

“Yeah,” Trixie nodded. “It definitely has.” The two looked as the third mare gently set down the slumbering foal on the bed, and without a word turned and walked past the two mares.

“Anyway…” Trixie said. “Good night, Sparkle.”

“Good night, Trixie.”

Trixie looked over to where Thesis, and goodness didn’t it feel strange calling her that already, was slumbering. “Take care.” She decided to add. Twilight, apparently getting her meaning, nodded.

“You too.”

Canterlot was the center of Equestria in many respects. Politics, arts, science, business, all these and more meant that the capital city of Equestria was almost always active and bustling, and especially at night, when the Princess and her Night Court did their work. This meant the streets of the mountain-side city were always packed in one way or another, even in the middle of winter, and it was easy to get lost in the throng of ponydom. Fortunate, if someone wished to hide themselves from sight, as one such figure was doing. Doing but not attempting, since trying to act inconspicuous would have drawn the attention of pretty much anyone in such paranoid times. Cloaked and hooded figures could have been anything, but in a city that not even a full year ago had been threatened with total immolation, it could have been an agent of mad Queen Corona, and therefore to be treated with utmost caution and unreason, even if everyone else was wearing them. Agents of Corona were tricky like that. So instead the figure went without their hood, trotting along like everypony else in the crowd, taking great care not to look at anything in particular, as they went along the high streets of hotels, and bars and restaurants and coffee merchants. Then, out towards the residential areas, not the larger places and estates belonging to the nobles, but the regular houses for the ordinary ponies of Canterlot. Not great buildings designed by as creative a mind money could buy, with opulent marbles and high walls, but simple, ordinary and astoundingly identical buildings, all perfectly nice and normal and ordinary and utterly inconspicuous.

The pony made their way inside one such unremarkable house, making as little noise as possible, before removing the cloak and allowing themselves a deep breath of relief. After a few moments of sitting, they made their way from the front hall of the house into the small sitting room, which was already occupied by at least half a dozen other ponies, crammed into the room and saying very little, many of them looking battered, tired and put out, or any combination thereof.

“Ah.” The figure, a unicorn male, declared. There was a pause as everyone stared at everyone. “Are you alright?”

“We’re all fine.” Came the response from a tall unicorn mare, crammed toward the back of the room, “a few injuries, and slightly cold, but nothing severe, all things considered.”

“My mane got burnt.” Came a noise from a unicorn, barely older than a colt, who was sitting in the corner and quite patently sulking. “If I go into the school looking like this, they’ll think I had an accident with my own damn magic.”

“Also,” the mare said, ignoring the sulking pony’s angry nothings, “Kicker continues to suffer from a deplorable excess of personality.”

“Bite me.” Declared a pegasus mare, her wings ruffling in offense (inadvertently hitting the ponies next to her).

“Well, I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that.” The figure allowed themselves a small smile, then sighed. “Is this everypony?”

The unicorn mare looked about. “Everypony that was there. Well, everypony but Wedge, since he was... well, you were there. You saw what happened.”

“Speaking of what happened,” Kicker spoke up, “mind telling us what the buck that was even about? One minute I’m minding my own business, the next I get peeped that we’re all throwing a midnight get-together in the freaking Everfree. And I wanna know why.”

“As unclean as it makes me feel,” the mare said, ignoring the look Kicker gave her in response, “I agree. And I’m not the only one. What was that all about?”

The figure looked at the room, of several tired and unhappy ponies, all looking at them. “Testing a theory.”

“On the Princess’s student?” Kicker asked, “and that nutjob pony who brought a Star Bear to Ponyville?"

“Vicereine Twilight Velvet’s daughter.” A different pony, quite evidently a male, supplied.

“Yeah, her,” Kicker muttered. “Why'd we have to test something out on about the worst possible choices imaginable, at the worst possible time imaginable? And when it was utterly bucking freezing?”

"I thought pegasuses were resistant to the cold?" the tall mare asked.

"Which shows how bucking cold it was, a'right?" Kicker snapped.

“All the same, she is still right,” the mare said, ignoring the unbearably triumphant grin that produced. “We revealed ourselves to the Princess, so she’ll be looking for us. Is that why... they aren’t here, now?”

“That, and they had work that needed doing.” The figure replied. Golden-orange eyes flashed in the low light. Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed, as every pony who had previously been tired or weary suddenly looked with rapt attention.

“But all things considered,” the pony said, in a completely different voice from a moment before, “everypony did remarkably well tonight.”

“Yay.” Kicker intoned. “That makes missing precious sleep, freezing our butts off and nearly getting arrested and / or killed all worthwhile.”

“I wasn’t finished.” The figure intoned. “There has been a interesting development.”

There were several confused glances. Finally, a hoof rose. "Meaning?"

"The experiment has borne unexpected results..."

One Little Mistake

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From her usual balcony, Princess Luna watched as the moon sank beneath the horizon while the sun began to rise over Equestria, guided by magic that wasn't her own, and as it went tried not to think about her sister, just as she had every morning for the last several months.

It was unusually quiet at that moment, a silence all the more pronounced with the absence of the court musician, who as she was already well aware was tending to other matters, by the Princess's leave. And without her, there was nopony else. No noble trying to engage her, no adjutant delivering a report, and no secretary trying to thrust a report into her face. A rare, quiet moment to think to herself.

Naturally, the moment didn’t even have time to sink in.

"Good morning, your highness," came the voice of Midnight, as the mare approached her highness, a small amount of papers hovering around her head.

Luna gave her a polite nod. "Good morning, Midnight," she looked towards one of the papers now floating toward her, taking it gently in her own magic, before trying to read it. "What news is there?"

"The police have found no evidence as to whom was behind the arson of the Canterlot Opera House, though they have reason to believe it is connected to the Optibeurs-Golo case." Luna frowned at that, as the unicorn continued. "In response to this event, Court Musician Octavia Philharmonica has already begun organising a benefit concert, as an attempt at funding for construction of a replacement."

Luna's ears twitched at that. She had of course gone down to see what remained of the century old building as soon as had been physically possible. She'd liked that concert hall, even if the acoustics when it had first been built were, with the greatest will in the world, awful.

"And how is that doing?" Luna asked, as she turned and walked across the room, and the large map of Equestria that was the floor, toward the door.

"It has already received pledges from several prominent musicians, and no small number of nobles. Also, the court musician apologises for her absence this morning, but she felt unable to perform her functions due to "emotional distress"."

Luna nodded at that. She had already knew that part. In fact, it was why she had given her leave in the first place. But Midnight had clearly entered with the conversation topics pre-prepared, and even if Octavia's absence was quite plainly noticeable, she wasn't about to let that take her off-script.

Of course, it was also possible Octavia was apologising again. She'd already done so at least three times when Luna had tried explaining she was okay with her being gone for one morning.

Meanwhile, Midnight moved the paper out of the way, going for the next. "Regarding the unknowns from earlier this morning, Vicereine Wallflower reports she has no knowledge of them."

Luna stopped, and looked down at Midnight, her gaze hardening. "None?"

"None," the mare stated bluntly, apparently ignoring or not noticing Luna's look. "Whoever these ponies are, they are apparently a new element, though Captain Armor suspects given their behaviour and choice of words they may be, or are related to, the sun cultists."

There was a long pause as Luna stared at Midnight. She did not state that she was incredibly unhappy with that. In return her major-domo did not respond that she understood. Tense seconds crawled past.

"What else?" There was more ruffling of paper.

"Archduke Fisher has sent another petition to you requesting more powers to root out the enemies of Equestria before they strike at the heart of all we hold dear. His words, of course. And he has not yet been informed of the night's developments."

It wasn't really fair, Luna though, that even though it was just about time for her to sleep, she should be assailed with so many reasons to go down to her wine cellar. It just wasn't fair.

"The guards assigned to watch Lulamoon and Sparkle in Ponyville report no unusual activity," the mare paused momentarily, "at least, that is none outside the usual unusual activity of Ponyville. However, their examinations found that the wards designed to ensure Sparkle did not break parole were... gone."

Luna tensed at that.

"These documents," Midnight moved a small sample of the papers she'd been carrying forward, and Luna tried not to let any irritation show at the thought of more paperwork, "require your attention at your earliest convenience, and unless there has been any late breaking developments, Celestia has not overthrown you and Equestria as we know it continues to exist for another day."

Luna nodded, taking them in her own magic. "Very good."

"Also, a reminder that you have a scheduled meeting with Professor Nexus and Lulamoon at the academy, scheduled for midday."

"Yes, Midnight," Luna recited, "Thank you for reminding me, Midnight."

By now the two had reached the doors to Princess Luna's office, guarded as always by two of the most steadfast ponies in all the Night Guard. With a glance from Luna they allowed her highness access to her own study. Once inside, she made her way to her desk, and her chair, and allowed herself to collapse into it, whereupon she stared at Midnight, as the mare sorted some of the paperwork she'd been carrying into little piles on Luna's desk.

"If I asked you something, would you answer it honestly?"

Her majordomo quirked an eyebrow. "That would depend entirely upon the question, your highness."

"Damnit, Midnight!" Luna declared, slamming her hoof against the desk. After a few seconds of tense breathing, she tried speaking again. "What happened tonight?"

"I have no idea, your highness. I had no knowledge of it."

Luna frowned. "None?"

"None," the dark blue mare replied.

"That's not good enough." Luna stated. "Simply not good enough."

"May I speak frankly, your highness?"

Luna smiled ironically, if only for a moment. "Could I stop you?"

"With all due respect, we knew this would be a concern." Midnight paused, as she looked over one of the few pieces of paper still floating in her magic. "And as time goes on, it likely will become more pronounced."

Luna sighed heavily, rubbing a hoof to stop the throbbing pain in her head. She needed sleep, she needed drink, and she needed more sleep. Not necessarily in that order.

"Alright. That will be all, Midnight." She said.

"Be sure to actually get some rest, your highness," the mare stated, as she turned to leave. "I shall return at half-past eleven, and I do expect to find you asleep."

Luna just stared at her. "Is there any point in my trying to point out you cannot actually order me to do anything?"

The dark blue pony paused for a moment, before shaking her head. "None at all, your highness."

And with that she walked out of the room.

Luna waited until she was absolutely certain her major-domo was out of hearing range, before letting out a massive yawn.

She wasn't sure where she was. It was dark, there were voices. Somepony was dragging her somewhere, and from the feel and the sound of it, it was down stone stairs.
There was an odd, fetid smell in the air. There were odd mutters, ones that didn't sound like any a pony could make.
Suddenly, the sounds changed. The stairs ended. There was now an odd echo to everything. She could hear somepony discussing something, somewhere.
She could only catch fleeting bits of what they were saying, but none of it sounded pleasant. The ponies carried her across the floor of wherever it was, first against something smooth, then against something else, before rudely shoving her again a raised surface, and tying her down, even as she struggled to get free.
Under the muttering, she could hear something else, an unpleasant droning noise.
"Is she prepared?" A voice called out from somewhere.
"Hey," another, much younger voice called out, "I think I recognise this mare. It's-"
"TRIXIE!"

Trixie's eyes shot open, to find a concerned Raindrops looming over her.

Unfortunately, panic made her cast a spell, intended to momentarily blind and disorient whoever was in front of her.

"Raindrops!" Trixie yelped, as the weathermare swore under her breath, "what are y-... what are you doing in my bedroom?!

Raindrops scowled, as she waved a hoof in front of her rapidly blinking eyes. "There were Royal Guards by your front door, and Pokey was worried."

"Hey," came the voice of Trixie's assistant, from behind the pegasus. Trixie looked to see him standing behind Raindrops. "You look like crap, boss."

"Good morning to you too," Trixie groaned, as she yawned, "What time is it?"

"Ten o'clock," Pokey replied. Trixie stared at him.

"Wait, ten? You let me sleep in?"

"No, I just had a hard time convincing your new security measures to let me in." Pokey frowned, "The hay's up with that, anyway?"

Ten, Trixie thought to herself, and winced. Assuming she didn't miss the next train, that didn't leave her long to fetch that foal from Twilight and get over to Canterlot.

Though Princess Luna probably wouldn't mind too much if she didn't arrive exactly on time for midday. But it was the principal of the thing.

"I'll explain later," she said hurriedly. Raindrops' response was a withering glare in her general direction.

"Really, I will, I've just gotta go."

"Go where?" Raindrops asked.

"Canterlot, and I've gotta be there by lunchtime. Probably won't be back until... late."

She rushed out onto the landing, and down the stairs.

"Hey," Pokey called out, "what am I supposed to do if you're not here?"

Trixie tried to turn and look at him, no easy task while on the stairs. "Congratulations, you've got a free day off."

Even as she rushed to grab her hat, cape and wallet, she could hear Pokey grumbling about not getting paid.

Ignoring that, she hurried out of the door, past the two guards standing there, and out into the street, and the blinding, frigid light of another winter's day, heading towards the library.

Trixie hammered on the library door. Seconds passed, as Trixie fidgeted about on the doorstep. Freed from the thought of walking, her mind was wandering back to the nightmare she'd been having... that, and what she'd done to Raindrops, however accidentally. Trixie noted to herself to buy the pegasus something expensive while she was in Canterlot.

Trixie looked at the door, which still hadn't opened. Her mind began treacherously going back to the nightmare, and she felt an odd chill unrelated to the weather (mercifully, her cape was keeping most of the actual cold off of her). She tried knocking again, this time more forcefully.

From somewhere inside she heard a noise. After several more seconds it opened, revealing a dishevelled looking Twilight Sparkle.

"Hey, Trixie," the mare said, blinking in the sunlight, "you're here for Thesis?"

Trixie nodded. Twilight nodded back, and motioned for Trixie to follow.

"Watch the books," she noted, as Trixie made her way inside. "Still haven't tidied them up yet..."

"Has she been any trouble?" Trixie asked, as they walked up the stairs. Twilight just looked away thoughtfully.

"Not... really."

Trixie eyed the mare suspiciously. "Meaning?"

Twilight paused again, and turned around to face Trixie, glancing back toward the door to the other room for a moment. "A few hours ago she, ah... she had a nightmare."

"About what?" Trixie asked, feeling an odd chill go down her spine.

"I don't know," Twilight said, "she wouldn't tell me. The only thing I know is the whole room was shaking while she was asleep, and when she woke up, it stopped."

Trixie frowned. Typically, most unicorn foals weren't really capable of magic until around the age they usually got cutie marks, and even then that was limited to the bare basics, and whatever they were skilled at. Typically, of course. There were the occasional, infrequent cases of newborns using magic far beyond what they should have been able to, but when dealing with an alicorn, and what was more, an alicorn apparently born from misuse of magic, all bets were off.

"That's... really not good."

"None of this is good." Twilight sighed, before glancing back to the door again. "Still, I wish I could come with you two to Canterlot. Just to see what happens," she added, hastily.

"You could," Trixie pointed out, "I am your parole officer. Pretty sure if I say you can tag along you can come."

Twilight made a small noise, then shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't think house arrest would work if I get to leave within the first few months for no good reason. I'll stay here," she suddenly yawned, "maybe try and get some actual sleep. The Mayor came by, said Princess Luna had explained everything and it was okay if the library was closed today, while I get some sleep." She yawned again, "which I do really need."

"Leaving me to do all the work?" Trixie asked, not entirely seriously.

Twilight tilted her head. "What work? You're just taking her to Canterlot for an examination."

"Have you ever tried taking a foal anywhere?" Trixie asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.

"No," Twilight said, "but why would that be a problem?"

Trixie just gave Twilight Sparkle an odd look, as she desperately tried not to think of what a Starlight family outing was like.

"It's not a problem," she said hurriedly. "Why would it be a problem? I'm just taking one foal who looks like somepony who tried to kill us to Canterlot. Why would that be a problem?"

Twilight gave Trixie another, stronger look, then turned back to the door. The two walked through to the upstairs room which looked... slightly more disarrayed than it had during the night. Thesis was sitting on the spare bed, looking at a book. It wasn't hard to miss the fact she was looking jumpy.

Not that Trixie was feeling much better, really. As much as she was trying very hard to force the images of that nightmare out of her head, they were just as determined to stay.

"Hey," she smiled as warmly as she could at the filly. "How are you feeling?"

Thesis made a small noise. Trixie looked to Twilight, who just looked helplessly at her.

Trixie turned back to the filly, and tried again.

"Okay, not the best way to start a conversation. Twilight told me you had a rough night. I get that. I didn't sleep well either."

She fished about in the pocket of her cape, and removed a small item, carefully wrapped up. "Here," she said, nudging it toward the foal, who sniffed at it, cautiously.

"It's chocolate," Trixie explained, "special chocolate. Real expensive, too. Only a few ponies in town know how to make this sort, much less want to, and they're not cheap. But it will make you feel better."

After a few seconds of nervous glancing, the foal took a small bite. After a few seconds the chocolate apparently worked its magic, and Thesis' mood plainly improved.

"So, here's the deal. I'm supposed to take you to Canterlot for this check-up thing. Shouldn't be too quick and it'll probably be a few boring science-y sorts prodding you and asking boring questions, but after that, who knows? What do you say? Wanna see the sights?"

Thesis made a noise that sounded like a yes. Trixie looked to Twilight, who was staring at the sight. Also frowning for some mysterious reason.

"Sounded like a yes to me," Trixie said.

Mercifully, they didn't miss the train, and by the time it left, Thesis seemed to have undergone a complete change. She bounded from one side of the coach to the other, looking out over the landscape in wide-eyed awe.

By Trixie's best guess, it was half an hour before the questions started. Most of them fell under the specialist subject of "What's that?" Trixie answered carefully as she tried describing rocks, tunnels, snow, rivers, some village she wasn't sure she knew the name of, and her hat and cape.

This was quickly followed by the even more obscure subject "why?"
There were an awful lot of those.

Of course, Trixie already considered herself pretty good with foals, and as a performer she was prepared for improvising, very useful when much of her audience consisted largely of foals, so she managed to explain pretty much near everything she could (though as to why nopony else seemed to be wearing capes, she could only say she didn't know). And where she couldn't explain, she would obfuscate, obscure or just outright lie (well, not "lie" per se, but just gently massaging the truth, which she maintained was different).

The questions stopped when the foal caught the first glimpse of Canterlot the train allowed. Ponyville had its charms, it grew on a pony, with its picturesque little houses and thatched roofs, and infrequent but rarely actually dangerous monster attacks, but Canterlot... Canterlot was just beautiful. Even in the daylight, there was no sight in Trixie's mind that could possibly compare with the hints, the tantalising glimpses of the city, a jewelled thing of silvers, whites, blues, purples and greens, all building up to the final glorious shot of the entire city. And frankly, Trixie thought it looked all the better in daylight, where a pony could see all of it, the city and the river and the mountain as one glorious image. Even the fact that much of it had snow over it did nothing to dampen her joy.

Soon, the train pulled in at Canterlot Central Station, which Trixie noted looked pretty busy.

She winced, and looked to Thesis. "Okay, just to make sure you don't get lost, I’m gonna have to carry you now, alright? It's a big crowd out there."

She gently wrapped the filly with her magic, and hoisted her onto her back, eliciting a few tiny squeaks from the foal in the process.

"So where's that population drop now, little miss high-n-mighty?" she muttered under her breath. "Still looks like there's an awful lot of ponies here."

Mercifully, none of the ponies present appeared to have recognised her for the moment. She turned her head to try and look at Thesis, "just a heads up, I'm about to disguise myself with magic."

"Why?" Thesis asked.

"Because I'm kind of a big name at the moment and trying to get through a crowd who may or may not want to swarm me... it's not exactly fun."

She focused her magic, letting it wash over her, removing her cape and hat from view, and turning her fur a dull greyish-purple. Thus adorned, Trixie set forth through the crowd, doing all she could to avoid bumping into anypony.

"Hey, miss, there's a sign over there with your name on it!" Trixie stopped at that, and looked about.

Indeed, hovering over the crowd, near one of the doors of the station was a sign, with her second name on it. Immediately, Trixie felt her soul sink at that. This feeling did not go away at the sign of a guard and, of all ponies, Midnight, standing there next to them, the sign held aloft in her magic.

"Hello," Trixie said to the mare as she approached. She looked toward the guard. "Who's this?"

Midnight glanced at the guard, who was now looking elsewhere in nervousness. "A guard. Pay him no mind."

"Right, gotcha." She turned to the guard and nodded, giving him a casual "hey", before turning back to the mare, "Where's-"

"Her Highness is waiting with Captain Armor at the academy. Captain Armor was concerned her highness might have been at risk from attack if she were to meet you at this location." The mare paused momentarily. "I am strongly tempted to investigate what he has been imbibing. Shall we?"

"Um," Trixie began, glancing skyward, even though they were indoors. "Now? But it's midday?"

"It's after midday, Lulamoon." Trixie tried keeping a smile on her face, to little avail.

"What's wrong with midday?" Thesis piped up.

Trixie removed the filly from her back (which earned her an "aw" and a small stab of self-loathing). "Well, you see, because of... lots of reasons, most ponies tend to stay indoors around midday."

"Why?"

"Unreasonable fear and paranoia," Midnight cut in, "can we get going now?"

"Fine," Trixie sighed, "Let's."

The dark blue mare led the group out of the station, and along the streets toward the university, which had all mercifully been cleared of snow and ice. As they walked, Thesis stared at the guard walking alongside them.

"How come your eyes look different?" He opened his mouth to respond.

"Standard enchantment for guards," Midnight stated, "similar to the one on his fur."

"Why's he wearing that stuff?"

"It’s armour."

"Why's he wearing armour?"

"It is required for guards."

"Do all the guards wear that?"

"Most, though there are exceptions."

"Why do they wear that?"

Trixie grinned to herself as Midnight responded to that question, and then the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that, and so on.

The two looked about, at the mild bustle of Canterlot in day time, a great contrast to how it was at night. Fewer ponies, for one, and even fewer carrying coffee (a necessity for most who lived there, even outside those who worked in the night hours the Princess and her Night Court were awake at), though Trixie was willing to bet that this was simply because the post-noon bustle hadn't properly kicked back in yet. That said, there were plenty of ponies going about and enjoying the snowfall, most of whom unsurprisingly were minors. More than once they had to walk through snowball fights held by children whom Trixie was pretty certain should have been in school. But there were also nervous glances around, not all of them skyward. Nopony outside of them seemed to be too engaged in speaking to one another, at least beyond the extent required for trade.

Meanwhile, Thesis had apparently run out of questions to ask Midnight, having gone back to being utterly quiet, as she tried keeping up with the larger mare, to little avail, since Midnight was already a way ahead of all of them.

Soon, they came up the open gates of Luna's Academy of Magic, where several royal guards were huddled together in a clump, eyeing everyone and everything suspiciously, though they weren't trying to block anypony's entrance to the grounds (probably because they knew a lost cause when they saw it, or possibly because several of them looked like they really didn't want to be outside. Trixie didn't blame them for that).

Past the gates were the campus grounds, where even with the horrible cold, and the harsh winter sunlight, there were some ponies apparently having a good time. Trixie could hear Midnight saying something to Thesis about the university itself.

They made their way toward the main building, maybe not the largest or the grandest building on the grounds, but certainly the one that caught the eye first, helped by the large bronze statue of her highness in front of it (looking suspiciously clean and newly polished, in fact).

Inside the atrium, which like so many buildings in Canterlot was made largely of marble, there were several more guards, all glancing about cautiously at the few students inside.

"Her highness should be with Professor Nexus, who should likely be in his office," Midnight stated, "We merely have to look for the throng of ponies."

She asked the guard, who pointed their hoof upward. Trixie and Thesis followed the two ponies toward one of the larger staircases leading to the upper floors of the building, wherein there were yet more guards and students.

It wasn't long before the stairs led past a few floors to a wide landing, with two corridors leading off to the side and one large set of doors apparently leading to some officers. Several guards were standing around, focused on them. As they crossed the landing, a tall white unicorn appeared from out of one of the corridors, practically barrelling into the group.

"Sorry," the mare blurted out. Her purple eyes focused on Midnight, "oh hey, Nighty. What are you doing here?"

Midnight just gave the newcomer a withering stare, which she just took entirely in stride. Or possibly didn't notice at all. From the look of her, Trixie suspected the newcomer didn't notice a lot of things.

"Oh, right," the mare chortled, "guessing it's something for the Princess, right?"

Before Trixie could ask who the buck the newcomer was, she noticed Thesis. There was a tiny noise as she looked down at the foal. Trixie looked to see Thesis wasn't even trying to match the mare's gaze.

"Who's this?" the newcomer asked.

"Family," Midnight said, instantly, causing the mare to look between them. After a few seconds, she nodded.

"Oh, yeah, I see the resemblance." At that the pony seemed to notice Trixie, and gasped. "Oh my gosh! You're - you're..."

Before Trixie could say anything, the mare grabbed one of her front hooves (with a surprising amount of strength). The next thing she knew everything was shaking.

"Sorry," the mare grinned sheepishly, "I've just never met an Element Bearer before!"

Suddenly the mare blinked, and looked about. "Crap, I'd love to stay and talk, but I gotta dash. I only came by to drop off some old exercise equipment."

The mare turned toward Midnight. "Let's do lunch sometime, shall we?"

And with that, and a smile that eerily reminded Trixie of some bizarre fusion of Pinkie Pie and Rarity, the mare trotted off toward the stairs.

"Who, or what, was that?" Trixie asked.

"Her name is Fleur de Lis," Midnight stated.

"What was that all about?" she asked. "And did she call you..." Her grin slowly faded as she saw the filthy look Midnight was giving her. "How do you even know somepony like that anyhow?"

"It is..." the mare paused, "a long story. Shall we?"

They walked over to the small throng, with the guards keeping a tight circle preventing anyone from getting through, until Midnight approached. They walked past through a set of large doors, into a small office, which then led into a bigger office, wherein the princess was talking with Professor Spell Nexus about something over tea, with the captain of the guard standing nearby.

"-ourse I shall ask Professor Yearling, if she ever returns from her latest trip, but I am reasonably confident what the answer shall be." Professor Nexus said.

"Yes," Luna nodded, "but it wouldn't hurt to check. As I understand it, Professor Yearling has a reputation for this sort of- ah, Trixie, there you are."

As Trixie approached, Princess Luna gave her a small nod, followed by one to Thesis, who was glancing about nervously at all the guards, trying to stay by Midnight. Trixie returned the nod with a slight bow.

"Alright, Professor," Luna said, "now that Trixie and Thesis have arrived, I'd say we can begin. Shall we?"

"Of course. Follow me," the Professor said, motioning with his hooves.

A few moments of awkward shuffling out of the way followed, as he tried to make his way past or through the clump of ponies standing in the doorway, then out into the hallway, past the gathering of eager students, still being kept away by the guards, who as the group began moving past adjusted their position to try and keep it that way.

"An awful lot of students don't appear to be in any classes," Luna observed as they went down a hallway, the guards moving to block the students from following behind, "is something amiss?"

"No, your highness," Spell Nexus replied, "though I imagine a few are likely taking advantage of this morning's weather. And of course, most of the school's music department took an impromptu leave of absence, what with that unfortunate development during the night."

Princess Luna didn't respond to that, she just stared off into the distance. Having apparently run out of conversation, they continued on in silence, through several different corridors, until finally coming to one particular room. Inside, there were several ponies bustling about, some moving things to the edges of the room, a few setting up strange things Trixie knew not what, and at least one appeared to be drawing something on the floor.

"Good afternoon, all," Professor Nexus stated, causing some of them to stop, "I take it everything is almost ready?"

"Er," one pony declared, "almost, sir. Just a few things left."

The professor nodded at that, then something appeared to catch his gaze. "Frolic, what happened to your hair?"

A bright red pony, a colt, stopped, running a hoof through a ragged looking mane. As she saw the expression on his face when his name was mentioned, Trixie felt a strange brief pang of sympathy.

"Firelock, sir," the colt stated firmly, in a way Trixie Lulamoon recognised all too well (the name too, given Ponyville had its own Firelock, a filly who was excitable a little too excitable about fireworks, and who’d nearly caused some damage to Trixie’s residency a few months back), "I, ah..." he mumbled something indistinguishable, before going back to moving some items out of the way, with more force than was really needed.

Trixie looked to Princess Luna, who had one of those looks on her face that said she was trying not to look bemused, as she returned to her conversation with Professor Nexus. Then, making sure nopony was looking at her, Trixie leaned against the wall and slid her hat over her eyes.

After a few minutes she heard the colt declare, "Professor, we're ready to begin."

"Good, make it so."

Trixie looked on as some of the ponies began examining a terrified-looking Thesis. Or tried, at any rate. As one of them started approaching the filly, Trixie felt the room beginning to shake, as the filly backed away from the scientist.

“Hey,” she declared, “you’re spooking her.”

The scientist stopped, and looked at Trixie, as she marched over the room toward the filly. The shaking stopped as she approached.

“It’s alright,” Trixie said to the foal, “they’re not going to hurt you. Right?” she asked, looking to the lead scientist.

“Of course not,” the pony said, “Professor Nexus was very explicit. Nothing invasive, or painful, just a few basics. (Not that we were actually going to do anything like that.)” he added, under his breath..

“Good,” Trixie said, trying her best non-threatening yet-still-unfriendly smile. With that, she made to walk back over to the wall. As she leaned against it again, she felt a burst of intrigue, and decided to follow it.

One spell Trixie had learnt early on when Luna was teaching her was the ability to see magic. Not in the basic way of Detect Magic, which usually only showed unicorns, but one that allowed her to see all kinds of magic. The bright pinks of the unicorns in the room (Shining Armors’, she noted, was brightest), the sky blue of pegasi, the deep green of earth ponies, the eye-searingly bright gold of Princess Luna…

And then she saw Thesis’s, and the reason why Princess Luna hadn’t taken one look at her and declared for all the world what the filly was became… Well, actually, it didn’t become clearer.

There were large areas of the filly that were gold, similar to Luna but much less bright, and there were areas that… weren’t. They weren’t pink or green or blue either. More a blotchy purple-ish colour.

A troubled Trixie frowned, turning off the spell, and decided to continue watching the proceedings.

For the next while the scientists examined her, occasionally casting one spell or another, jotting something down on a piece of paper. One or two poked and prodded at her, only for that to soon stop when it became clear Thesis tended to react to being startled by biting. Once or twice, they tried asking her something, but compared to her behaviour on the train, she was incredibly reserved, usually responding with a shrug and murmurs.

Eventually, however, they stopped whatever it was they were doing.

"Well, your highness," a sea-green unicorn who had apparently been chosen to tell the results declared, "we have done all we could and, as far as we can determine, this filly is for all intents and purposes, an ordinary filly. Albeit one who appears to be an alicorn," the way the mare stated that suggested she was having difficulty believing it.

Princess Luna frowned for a moment, before nodding. "Thank you, doctor. It is most appreciated."

With a few muttered somethings toward Spell Nexus, the assorted ponies filed out, leaving only Luna, her secretary, Trixie herself, the professor, Shining Armor and Thesis.

"So, what now?" Trixie asked.

"Well," the Princess declared, "for the time being, somepony will have to look after Thesis, until something more permanent can be arranged."

Trixie nodded, looking toward the filly, who wasn't looking especially interested, just confused. "Yeah, of course, but who?"

There was a look on Luna's face she didn't like, one that suggested the Princess was already well aware of who it was that was to be chosen. "One name does spring to mind, don't you agree, Midnight?"

There was a silence so profound it was almost possible to hear dust settling, as the mare in question stood stock still.

"What?" Trixie exclaimed.

"Me?" the mare declared, as she took on the expression usually shared by those who had a whole herd of buffalo rushing toward them. Luna nodded.

"But," the mare faltered, "I can't-"

"Captain Armor and Professor Nexus have jobs requiring their full attention, and Dame Trixie not only has a job, but she is one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

"But-!" Midnight repeated. Somehow this did not sway Luna's decision.

"How long has it been since you last took any leave, Midnight? One year? Two?"

The mare stopped looking alarmed, if only for a moment. "It... it has been more than that, your highness."

"Well then," Luna smiled, "congratulations, you get all the leave you might need, and conveniently in time for Hearth's Warming."

"Your highness, I really... I really must protest! "

"Noted," Luna said, without missing a beat, "but somepony has to take care of this foal, until the formal adoption papers can be sorted out. And you agree, I take it, that it is somepony who is already sworn to secrecy about matters?"

The mare hung her head. "... yes, your highness."

"I'll do it," Trixie said, causing everypony to look at her, "I mean, I'm not exactly the best role model a pony could ever ask for, but I'd still give it a try."

Luna shook her head, "I am terribly sorry, Trixie, but given your status as an Element Bearer, and the dangers that come with it, I do not think it is wise."

Trixie began to protest. She wanted to point out how she’d just spent the entire morning with the foal. She wanted to point out she was good with kids. She wanted to point out she could handle it. She was prepared to point out that if it was down to not being prepared, she could learn. She wanted to point out that if it was down to being an Element, her fellow Element Ditzy managed to get by. Yes, the mare did work extremely long hours just to make ends meet, and yes, there had been that incident with the ponies using her daughter to get to her, and yes, Trixie was not too great with looking after foals (the still-recent incident involving the whole herd of foals turning up on her door looking for magic tutelage came readily to mind), and maybe not the first pony who should really have been entrusted with an impressionable mind, but she still felt she could have, or at the very least should have been allowed to try.

"Trixie," Luna declared before she could say anything else, her voice stern, "this isn't a request, or a suggestion. This is an order, and that is final."

"... oh," Trixie said, trying not to glower in Midnight's direction and not particularly succeeding. "Fine."

"Good," Luna said, "then it's settled." Her gaze softened, and she lowered her voice, "I am sorry, Trixie."

She then turned her gaze to her major-domo, "Midnight, a few words in private."

The two walked over to the corner of the room and began talking in hushed voices. After a few seconds it ended, Midnight looking... well, about the same as she ever looked, frankly, as she walked back toward Thesis.

A thought occurred to Trixie, as the Princess began walking out the door. She looked over to the two, "can you stay there for a minute?" she asked, "I just need to check with the Princess about a thing."

Before she even got a response, Trixie hurriedly trotted over to Luna, and got her attention.

"Yes, Trixie?" Luna asked.

"What was that about?" she asked. Luna's frown vanished, replaced by a more resigned look, as Trixie glanced back to the two ponies sitting in the center of the room.

"You've got a plan of some kind, haven't you?"

Luna remained absolutely silent, which Trixie took as confession, or as close to as made no difference. "But why her, of all ponies?"

Luna’s horn glowed, as she began casting thoughts to Trixie.

"There are... reasons," Luna stated, “for one, while she isn’t the best choice to look after what appears to be a nascent alicorn foal, she will at least do so to the utmost of her abilities. And if this is a threat or trick of some kind… I felt it safer to risk her than to risk you.”

Trixie murmured. Then she heard the thought from Luna, “I take it you took the time to see what type of magic she was using? I saw you doing so during the examination.”

“Yeah,” Trixie thought back, “but I'm not really sure what I saw.”

Luna frowned. “Indeed.”

"I don't like this," she said out loud, to which Luna nodded in agreement.

"I cannot blame you, but for the moment, we shall have to wait and see where this all leads."

In the pause, Luna blinked heavily, "It’s only temporary, Trixie. A week or two, at the most. Now I'm sorry, but I do need to go back to the castle and, with any hope, catch some rest. Be safe."

With that, the Princess exited, Shining Armor following silently after her. Trixie turned to look at Thesis, and tried smiling. "Alright, kid, I believe I promised seeing the sights, didn't I?" she waited for Midnight to potentially object before she’d continue.

"I'm hungry," Thesis murmured. Before Trixie could say anything in response, there was a deep, primal roar from the depths of her stomach, and she became acutely aware of just how long it had been since she'd last eaten.

"Alright, then, let's go grab some lunch." She looked over to the dark blue mare, "unfortunately I was in such a rush this morning I forgot to bring enough bits for dinner. Oops."

Midnight just gave her a level stare. "Then it is fortunate that one of us happens to have money to spare."

"Isn't it?" Trixie smiled a mildly insincere smile.

"But in return, I choose the location."

Damn, Trixie thought to herself, as her smile vanished.

A short time later, the three ponies were in a small but upscale restaurant in the city center which appeared to be designed on a generically Cavallian theme. While it wasn't what Trixie would've chosen, she had to admit it was at least comfortable and warm (and as an added bonus there weren't too many ponies there).

Thesis had been initially reluctant to sample any of the food, but eventually her hunger managed to override her caution.

Meanwhile, Trixie had spent several minutes re-reading the menu trying to find something she actually wanted to eat, no easy thing when she was by her own admission a picky eater. And as for her host... when the waiter arrived Midnight looked at them and spoke thus:

"One pizza, red peppers, chilli and would it be possible to include some manner of hot sauce?"

"Uh," the waiter said, "I think so?"

"Good. And to drink I would like a glass of water."

Trixie, meanwhile just ordered something that wasn't likely to set her mouth on fire.

And as for Thesis, she had just been staring at the menu, much like Trixie. On hearing Midnight’s order, she’d just decided to ask for the same. Trixie and the dark blue mare had both looked at the filly at that. Trixie, for her part, found herself think of the foal breathing fire the minute she tried taking a bite.

“No, wait,” the filly declared seconds late, “the all-cheese one.”

Just as the waiter began scribbling down that one the filly exclaimed again, “wait, no, I want…” The foal’s face scrunched up as she examined the menu.

“She’ll have the cheese,” Trixie said quickly. Without a moment’s hesitation, the waiter hurried away, leaving Thesis with a conundrum.

“Who put all these things here?” she groaned. “How am I supposed to choose?”

“Pick one at random and see whether you like it,” Trixie suggested. “That’s how most ponies get by.”

“But they all sound good!” the filly declared. “Whoever made this thing is evil.”

Of course, that did leave the several minutes before their meals arrived, with no menu to try and look interested in, stuck with one of the most soulless, humourless ponies ever to walk across Equestria. But if she didn't find something to do, she was going to start thinking about either the nightmare or the events of that morning again.

"So," Trixie began, "ah, what Princess Luna did, that was pretty unexpected, huh?"

If the mare sitting across the table noticed the small wince Trixie had, she didn't make any indication of it.

"Slightly," the mare said, absently skewering one of the complimentary olives on a toothpick, "I had suspected she would do something of that nature, though I had no reason to entertain the possibility of myself being chosen. I’d presumed Captain Armor would have been the choice."

Trixie hummed in agreement. Awkward silence swiftly reasserted itself, as Trixie tapped a hoof against the table. "So, uh... do you ever see anypony from when we used to..." the words "be friends" lingered on her tongue for a moment, which gave Trixie pause. After a few seconds of careful consideration she decided to go for a less loaded word, "hang out?"

"Only by coincidence, never by design."

"Right," Trixie nodded.

"Though Ms. Tail did find cause to invite me to her nuptials."

At that Trixie stopped, and blinked for several seconds. "What?" she declared, loud enough to have several ponies in the restaurant looking in her direction.

"Chocolate Tail invited you to a wedding? Her wedding? You, of all ponies?"

Midnight just nodded. Trixie tried saying something, indeed anything. All she could think of was that at no point did she ever recall getting any note about that.

"How did this happen? And... when?"

"I believe it was over a year ago," Midnight replied, "certainly before the events of last year's Longest Night."

"She didn't invite me," Trixie said, looking down at her hooves.

"I believe her reasoning was more obligation than actual desire for my presence," Midnight said. She probably meant for it to sound conciliatory.

"Yeah," Trixie grunted. All she could think about at that moment was Chocolate Tail. She'd always considered the pony a friend. True, she had driven her away by boasting about being Luna's student a lot. More than a lot, actually. All the time, as a matter of fact. But still, to not be invited at all?

"Did you go?" she asked. For a moment, just a brief moment the mare opposite her hesitated.

"I considered it," the mare replied, "I was intrigued. It is not often I am invited to anyone's wedding."

Trixie had to bite back the desire to say something to that, as Midnight looked down at her food.

"So much so it would have seemed the only way I could attend one was to be the bride."

"Or if you abducted a bride and took her place," Trixie suggested facetiously.

"Indeed," Midnight said, as she stared off at something else.

"Um," Thesis's voice caused Trixie to jolt, partly because she might have forgotten the filly was even there, she'd been so quiet, "what's a nuptial?"

"A wedding," Trixie replied. The filly blinked.

"'kay... what's a wedding?"

"A ceremony involving two ponies marrying one another, followed by some manner of celebration involving speeches, cake, and dancing." Midnight said. Thesis paused for a moment, then nodded uncertainly.

No longer feeling any desire to make idle chit-chat of any kind, Trixie took out a pack of cards from the small pouch in her cape, and began idly playing with them, earning her the rapturous attention of the little filly sitting next to her. At least until the food arrived. One massively spicy looking pizza for Midnight, a smaller, much less spicy looking pizza for Thesis, and a mixed salad for Trixie.

Trixie stared down at her meal, and frowned at the absence of any carrots, or any sauces to add to the meal. All there was was some vinegar and some oils.

However, it was unlikely the kitchen staff would simply loan her some extra foodstuffs to spice up the salad, even a little bit.

Thesis sniffed carefully at her own meal, eyeing it apprehensively like she wasn't sure what to do. Trixie leaned in toward her.

"You alright there?"

The filly blinked for a moment, and pointed at the pizza. "How do I eat it?"

"For a start, you might need to use magic, unless you want to get cheese everywhere," Trixie began. Thesis just blinked innocently at her.

"Okay, like this..." Trixie's horn lit up, and one slice of the pizza was wrapped in her blue aura, hovering ever-so-slightly above the table.

"Oh," the filly said, "okay... but how do I use magic?"

"Well," Trixie coughed, "focus on the slice. Are you focusing?"

Thesis shrugged. "I guess?"

"Good enough, now, try and focus whatever magic you might have into your horn..."

The filly looked up at her horn, and frowned. She focused. Several seconds passed, as nothing happened. And then nothing continued happening.

"I don't think it's working..." she murmured, "sorry."

Trixie stared at the foal for several seconds, as she tried to think of something. "Have you tried..." she began, hoping the words would spark an idea. Then a thought went back to some months ago, when she had been dealing with Snails, his own problems casting, and the solution they’d come across.

"Try thinking of that soup you had last night." Thesis stared at Trixie for a moment, then to the pizza.

Once again, nothing happened. Trixie leaned back in her seat, as the filly stared forlornly at her meal.

"Do not be discouraged," Midnight stated, "many foals have difficulty attempting to cast magic on the first try. Even ones such as Twilight Sparkle."

Trixie watched as the mare effortlessly devoured an entire slice of half-melted pizza in one go, then looked down to her plate, where there was a lot less of the meal than there had been mere moments ago.

"Is that normal?" Thesis asked Trixie, who shook her head.

"Not where I'm from, it isn't."

"I was famished," the dark blue mare responded curtly, as she consumed another sizeable slice.

Meanwhile, Thesis had decided to try and approach her own meal as best she could without magic, which meant her hooves and teeth.

"In hindsight," Midnight declared, between another mouthful, "perhaps it would've been an idea to suggest you ate something different."

"I can do this," Thesis said defiantly, or as much as could be managed with a wedge of pizza between her teeth, its contents spilling over onto the table.

Trixie shook her head at that, and looked over at Midnight again, the mare staring at the sight next to her. A thought crept into Trixie's mind, and slowly began to take root.

"Hey, Midnight, I was just wondering… I was going to take Thesis around on a little sight-seeing tour. You wanna come with us?"

Trixie presumed the way Midnight raised an eyebrow was meant to express confusion. "Are you asking that because you actually want me to come along?"

"Absolument non," Trixie sighed, as she poured some vinegar over her salad, "but if I didn't you'd just tag along anyway." She took a thoughtful bite of a lettuce leaf, and grinned. "Like old times."

After several seconds of careful consideration, she felt the need to add "only without Chocolate Tail, or Brawny Heart or any of the rest of the gang."

"So in fact not like them at all," Midnight pointed out.

"Pretty much," Trixie admitted.

"I do have some errands I must perform," Midnight stated, as she finished her own meal, "but once I have finished those I shall meet up with you and Thesis."

Before Trixie could ask how she'd manage that, in a large bustling city like Canterlot, her horn lit up for a moment, and as it did Thesis gave off a small noise. On the small of her back Trixie could see a small light briefly appear, then fade.

"Do not be concerned," Midnight stated to the filly, "that was a simple tracking spell, that is all, so that I will know where to find you."

"'kay," the filly said, as she tried glancing to where the mark had been.

"Do you have any particular destination in mind as to where you may go?" the dark mare asked. Trixie leaned back in her seat, casually munching on some caramelised onion (inasmuch as she could).

"Well, I was gonna go buy something for a friend, but after that, not really. I was just going to see where we wound up"

After the cheque had been paid for, and a suitable tip left, Trixie and Thesis went off to do their thing. In a little bookstore not far from the train station, she spent several minutes perusing books she'd never have looked at twice (or even once, come to think of it, going by some of the covers), trying to find one suitable for Raindrops.

Eventually, she just chose one at random, one she felt wouldn’t get her weird looks while she was paying for it, and decided to hope for the best.

Once that piece of business was out of the way, she took Thesis on a walkabout the city. In contrast to earlier, the filly didn't ask a single question, instead glancing about at everything from on top of Trixie's back.

Of course, as Trixie soon rediscovered, the capital of Equestria was still teeming with ponies even when it was a cold afternoon in November. She was relieved at her good sense to have re-disguised herself before leaving the restaurant.

Not helping was that, by pure coincidence and random chance, Trixie's choice of direction wound up leading her to the Royal Art Gallery. Which by wild convenience was packed with ponies, either tourists milling about with oversized saddlebags, or taking photos of one another, or ponies who from the look of things had just wanted to get away from the cold and snow and cold and slush and cold, with the gallery being the closest place.

It was crowded, and therefore noisy. Rather than perhaps decide to go someplace else, with fewer ponies likely to be milling about in the way, Trixie decided to brave it anyway. She did briefly consider going to the castle, but going by the luck she'd had so far, something would've happened, like running into some guards with a grudge against her for something or other, yet again.

So, in desperation to avoid the swarms of ponies, Trixie and Thesis found themselves in one of the far galleries, which had barely anypony in it. And, much to Trixie's immediate relief, a bench for sitting on. Thesis looked about the room, at the various paintings, looking puzzled.

"Y'know," Trixie said, "I used to come here sometimes when I was younger. Usually when I was bored, or Luna was away, and I had nopony else to talk to..."

She smiled faintly at the old memories, as Thesis looked up at her, "I'd look at the paintings and try and imagine what they were about, make up whole ideas in my mind."

Thesis looked at Trixie, then to one of the paintings, which had a small placard next to it designed to inform whoever looked at it what the actual subject matter was.

"Not, I'll admit, very accurate, and it didn’t exactly make me very popular with visitors, but it was something to do at least," she chortled, "of course, when Princess Luna was here she'd usually talk about the pony who made them and the techniques used and all of a sudden it'd be "Trixie, why are you falling asleep"?"

Thesis snorted at that, which Trixie took as a good sign. She sighed wistfully, and leaned in towards the filly.

"I mean, I like good art as much as the next pony, but there's only so much a pony can take in one sitting." After a few seconds pause, she felt this needed further clarification, "in fairness, I was pretty young at the time."

"As opposed to now, when you are older, and wiser," Trixie's smile vanished at the sound of Midnight's voice, as the mare approached.

"You know," Trixie said, "when you said you had things to do, I imagined that it would take more than..." she faltered as she realised she'd no idea how long it had been since they'd split up.

"Then it is a good thing I did not specify how long they would take, is it not?" Midnight stated. Then her horn lit up, and a small item appeared in the air next to her head.

It was a small glass bottle, containing within a precious brown liquid. Trixie's eyes went wide as she beheld the bottle of bourbon.

"Monsieur Bourbon," she grinned, taking it in her own magic before looking at the dark blue mare, "how did you know?"

"That is easy enough to answer," the mare said as she sat down next to Thesis, "I know you, Lulamoon."

Trixie scoffed, even as she examined the bourbon carefully. "Are you a mind-reader now?"

"Not at all," Midnight said, "that would make a great many details of my life so much easier."

Trixie looked to the mare. "Thank you," she said. After a few seconds a thought started occurring to her. She looked about the room for signs of a clock, of which there was none.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Slightly after three o'clock," Midnight replied. Trixie raised an eyebrow.

"Only "slightly"?" she tutted, "somepony's standards are slipping." After a slight grin, she sighed and looked at Thesis. "But I guess I should probably head on over to the station, catch a train home." She smiled apologetically at the filly, "sorry, guess I didn't show you all the sights."

"It's okay," the filly replied, "I liked it. 'cept those ponies poking me and stuff. And this place is pretty cool."

She looked over towards one painting, "just look at that picture."

Both mares looked, to see a painting of two armies of ponies fighting one another, in perhaps more detail than was strictly speaking necessary, or appropriate for minors.

"Oh, hey," Trixie declared, standing up, "I really should go, otherwise I will miss my train."

"Yes," Midnight nodded firmly, "we shall see you off."

"That's very nice and safe and boring, and why didn't I notice that there?" she hissed, as the three walked out. "Who put that there anyhow?"

Mercifully, getting out through the massive crowd proved easier than getting in, and it was only a short (relatively speaking. Nowhere in Canterlot was exactly quick to walk to) walk to the train station.

Trixie felt a slight tugging inside at the sight of the train sitting there. From what she knew of the schedule, there was at least some minutes before it left.

"So, I'm... staying here, right?" Thesis asked, looking to Midnight. Trixie nodded, to which the filly looked confused.

"Hey," Trixie smiled as reassuringly as she could manage, "it's not goodbye. Ponyville's only a train ride away. Maybe you can come visit someday."

The filly smiled back, looking to Midnight. "Perhaps," the mare said, carefully, "we shall see."

Trixie turned to look at the train, then back to Midnight. "Look," she said slowly, "if, ah... in a few weeks it'll be Hearth's Warming. I was going to see about throwing a celebration, with some close friends and such. If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, you could always stop by."

The dark blue mare pondered this for a moment. "That sounds like an offer one makes to friends."

"So?"

One of the mare's eyebrows raised. "Do you consider us friends?"

Trixie blinked. "We're..." she began, "well, we're not enemies." She paused for a moment, "at least, I'm pretty sure we're not."

Midnight nodded. "But we've known one another far too long to be acquaintances."

Trixie nodded, "but we haven't really spoken in a long while."

The two stood there. Trixie scuffed at the station floor with a hoof. "Not doing so great here, are we?"

"If by some as yet obscure circumstance I, a pony who happens to reside and work within Canterlot, happened to find myself passing by your residency in Ponyville, on the night of Hearth's Warming, I may investigate this celebration of yours." When she finished, Midnight shifted her posture slightly. "Though I can promise nothing."

Trixie tried smiling, only to find she didn't have it in her at that moment. "Of course, I'd probably have to introduce you to some of my friends there. Who knows, you might like them?" Trixie looked at the mare's expression, and considered what she'd just said, "well, some of them. A few of them, at any rate. One or two, maybe."

There was a noise from one of the trains, and Trixie sighed. "I should probably go get on the train," she declared, absently, turning to look at the coach steps. As she did, however, Trixie found herself thinking of Chocolate Tail again. She turned to look at Midnight once more.

"Hey," she said, "this is going to sound weird, but...would you say I was a bad friend?"

Midnight remained thoughtfully silent for several seconds. "Lulamoon," she said, calmly, "you were rude, boastful, arrogant, thoughtless, reckless, insensitive. You had a poor temperament and severe difficulties handling criticism."

"You know what? Forget I asked," Trixie muttered.

"I was not done," the unicorn stated, pausing briefly, "regardless of your faults, it is plainly evident your manner has changed dramatically in the year since you've been to Ponyville." She paused again, "you did not boast once about being the Princess's student all through lunch."

There had been a smile developing on Trixie's face until that moment, when it vanished, replaced by a frown, and she glowered at the mare.

"Well," she said, "it's been... bizarre. And awkward."

Midnight nodded. "Indeed."

Trixie took a look at Midnight, then to Thesis, then back to Midnight. "You take care of her," she stated, "and don't let me find out or..."

"Yes?"

"Or else," Trixie declared, with as much menace as she could muster turning and walking into the coach before Midnight could make any retort.

Once she had sat down, she took her hat off and ran a hoof through her mane, and resisted the urge to look out the window to see whether they were there.

At least until the train started moving. Then she went to see Thesis waving a tiny hoof as she and the train station slowly receded away, until they vanished from view as the train went around a bend.

Once that happened, Trixie sighed, and took out the bottle of bourbon. After a few seconds of reluctance, she took a swig, trying to ignore the looming sense of unease, and the overpowering feeling everything had gone hideously wrong.

The two ponies stood on the platform, watching the train slowly roll off into the distance, until it vanished from sight. Minutes passed, as Thesis looked toward the distance. Then she looked to Midnight.

"So, what now?" she asked. The tall mare looked down at her, with an odd expression the filly couldn't determine (which wasn't really saying much).

"Now," she declared, "I agreed to take care you. That means I will do anything and everything I can to protect you. However," she paused, "I admit to having little experience in this manner of venture. So as you rely on me, I shall have to rely on you. If you feel I am not doing something properly, tell me so. If you feel something troubles you, inform me. If you require something, ask for it, and provided it is within reason I shall attempt to deliver it. Do you understand?"

"I... guess?" Thesis shrugged. The two stood there for some moments more, before a question occurred to her.

"So, does this make you my mom?"

The mare made an odd expression at that. "That... that might be... how about we simply say I am your sister?"

Thesis looked at the larger mare, who then looked ahead before she could ask how that made sense.

"Now then, perhaps it might be an idea to procure some essential supplies. Come along, little one."

With that, the mare strode away, Thesis hurriedly trotting after her.

Secrets and Lies

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"Okay," Cheerilee said, carefully, "a foal?"

Trixie nodded, as she took another sip of her drink (strawberry soy milk, nothing added, much to her displeasure). Her magenta coloured friend blinked several times, then frowned.

It was somewhere after six, Trixie having gathered together the other Element Bearers, and met up in the library (if asked, Trixie would claim it was because of the space) to discuss the morning's events.

"No, I'm sorry, a foal?" Cheerilee began shaking her head. She turned towards Lyra, who was frowning, "have you ever heard of anything like that?"

The unicorn hummed for a few seconds. "Well," she began, "actual stories of ponies being born whole-cloth from nothing... or almost nothing, there are actually a few. Most of them related to Princess Cadenza, but... nothing like this."

"Never mind that. Who were these nutjobs, anyhow?" Raindrops asked, from the other side of the room.

"We don't know," Twilight Sparkle said, from where she was casually putting away some books, amidst murmuring to herself as she glanced at the stacks.

"Pretty sure they were sun cultists," Trixie stated. Raindrops's glower increased.

"Sun cultists?" she repeated. Trixie just shrugged.

"Well, they were going on about "the dawn"," she said, taking another swig, "so I'm going to go out on a limb and say they were sun cultists."

"Sorry, hold on," Carrot Top declared, "why were sun cultists trying to create an alicorn?"

"I don't think they were trying to," Trixie said, "that seems to have been a side-effect."

"Creating a foal is a side-effect?" Raindrops asked incredulously, as certain ponies in the room tried valiantly not to break down giggling.

"It is when the Princess interrupts whatever they were doing," Trixie retorted, before staring down at her mug as she thought about what had happened.

She felt a hoof on her shoulder, and turned to see Ditzy looking at her with concern. "Sorry," she murmured, "got distracted for a moment there."

"So what happened to this foal, anyhow?" Lyra asked.

Trixie momentarily looked over toward Twilight, trying not to wince. "Princess Luna felt it were better if she was left with somepony else."

For a moment, the only noise was a small grunt from Raindrops.

"Who?" Twilight asked.

"A pony," Trixie stated.

"And why'd she leave this foal with this specific pony?" Cheerilee spoke up. Trixie turned back to see a worrying look in the school teacher's eyes.

"She felt they would be the best choice," Trixie recited. She'd been spending the whole train journey back from Canterlot wondering about what she'd seen looking at, mixed with what Luna had told her. "And I trust that."

"Why do I sense a "but" coming?" Cheerilee asked.

"But I'm not sure I trust the pony she gave the job to."

It was dark in Canterlot, and as always at night the city underwent a change, not least with the street lights being lit up, or the sudden change in the sort of ponies witnessed. There were now a lot less tourists, for one. And a lot more serious looking ponies.

In the now dark, but still bustling city, the foal named Thesis walked alongside her newly appointed guardian, the taller mare no longer striding ahead of her, something Thesis was incredibly grateful for, as her hooves had been beginning to hurt.

They'd gone to a place called a "shop", wherein they, or more accurately Midnight, had bought two things: A strange tiny stick thing, which she called a toothbrush, and a thing she couldn't tell what it was, which she was informed was "a towel".

Then, they'd gone on a long winding journey around and around so many strange corners, past a dozen strange-looking things she'd wanted to look at, until they came to it...

It being a large, large, large building that stretched so high up some of it disappeared into the clouds, and managed to out-do every other building Thesis had seen so far.

It was the royal palace.

Two guards in armour were standing outside. Midnight said some things to them, and after a few seconds they let the two through, glancing briefly at Thesis as she trotted past.

That made her move faster, as she found herself thinking of what had happened earlier, when two of the creepy looking ponies appeared out of nowhere and had grabbed her. These two didn't seem interested in grabbing her, though, but all the way until they reached the actual doors into the castle she kept glancing back at them, just in case.

Inside the castle was unlike anything she'd seen in the whole day she'd been alive. Beautiful sculptures, and pieces of artwork, the strange stuff the floor and walls were made of that made odd noises when she stepped on them, huge doors leading off to rooms bigger than all of Miss Lulamoon or Miss Twilight's houses put together. More than once she tried peeking through the doors, only to be gently yet firmly nudged away by Midnight's hoof.

"This is a very large castle," the mare stated, "and very busy. I would not recommend wandering off."

So, resigned to not seeing any more of the interesting rooms, Thesis trotted along after the mare. Soon enough they ran out of amazing and expensive looking things, soon entering into slightly less impressive and smaller corridors lined with doors.

"This is the servant's wing," Midnight declared on entering them, "usually reserved for most of the minor functionaries of her highnesses's Night Court who do not have their own residence either within the castle grounds or somewhere in the city."

Thesis looked around at the suspiciously brown carpeting, and the odd green glowing signs in the ceiling. "So, you live here?"

"Yes," the mare stated. Soon enough they came to one specific, but unremarkable door. For a moment, she seemed like she was about to say something else, before a set of keys appeared in a flash of light, which she used to open the door.

If somepony had asked Thesis to describe the residence of the majordomo of Princess Luna before that moment, she might have had to pause and think about her answer.

Going by what she could guess of the castle, she'd have thought the room of one of the more important ponies in Canterlot would've been grand, and big, or at least really, really expensive looking and decorated with all sorts of things.

To say that what she saw instead, which was a small, narrow room, with grey-ish white walls, and a worn, faded looking carpet, and a small arrangement of cupboards at the very far end, with one door on the left leading to another, just as narrow room with a bed, a sofa and a desk in it, was a letdown was an understatement.

"It's... nice?" she tried to say. Midnight just gave her a look. Actually, she wasn't really sure she was giving her a look. Going by the last several hours, that just seemed to be her only real expression.

"It is cheap, and cheaply built," the mare stated, "designed for a single task. It is what it is, and no more."

She moved into the darkened room on the left for a moment then returned.

"So," Thesis said, "what now?"

The dark mare paused. "We find something to do. It is too late in the year to enrol you in a school, given it is now more than halfway through November."

"Oh," Thesis looked toward the window. Even from where she was, there were still signs of snow outside. "What about that snow? There were other ponies my size playing in it. We could try that?"

"Perhaps," the mare said carefully, "though there may not be any snowfall tomorrow."

"Oh," Thesis said.

"In the immediate sense, it might be an idea for you to try a bath."

The filly stared blankly. "A what now?"

The mare motioned to the darkened side room, where a strange thing with large pipes leading up into the ceiling lay.

"Bath," the mare repeated, as her horn lit, turning one of the handles of the thing, causing rushing water to appear, "in which one bathes. It is considered very relaxing."

After a moment's consideration, she felt the need to point to the handles. "One of these will make warm water, the other cold. I will leave the determining of which is which to you."

With that, she carefully hoisted Thesis into the air, and set her down in the slowly rising water.

After the water had filled up a certain amount (not very far, but enough that Thesis could float about slightly), Midnight walked off, leaving her to enjoy herself.

And it was soothing, and relaxing. Bits of her she hadn't realised she had felt much better the minute they touched the water. Then she realised she was floating in the liquid. Experimenting, she tried moving up and down from one end of the tub to the other, back and forth. After a while of that she experimented with being under the water, or rolling over.

She looked about the small room. Aside from the toilet nearby, there were a small basin, where the toothbrushes seemed to live. Above the basin was a small mirror, which probably would have been more useful if it wasn't broken.

Eventually, she began to notice the warm water had started getting less warm, and decided to get out. Before she could reach the threshold of the bathroom, Midnight appeared. Her horn glowed, and suddenly all Thesis knew was the sensation of being attacked by something fuzzy, which was being held in Midnight's magic.

After several moments of frenzied assault, this stopped, and the towel withdrew, leaving behind a slightly dizzy but definitely dry filly.

"Couldn't you have just told me you were going to do that?" she asked, as Midnight restored the fuzzy thing onto the rack it'd been hanging from.

"Perhaps," the mare stated, "though I did feel it essential to act before you got any water onto the carpet. Princess Luna's head maid already possesses a severe animus towards myself."

Thesis stared blankly again.

"She doesn't like me," Midnight explained.

Thesis nodded, then looked down at her hooves, "so I am allowed on the carpet now?"

The dark blue mare nodded, and Thesis trotted across the carpet, and through to the other side room, the one containing the bed. Next to the bed was a small table, with a book on it, labelled "A History of Equestrian Myths and Legends".

It looked like it was old. Old, and if she had to guess (which was really all she could do) well-read.

"Hey," she called out, "is this book yours?"

"It was a gift," Midnight stated from the doorway, her tone sounding different for a moment, "from Captain Armor."

Thesis scratched her head. "That's the big, tall grumpy looking one, right? Why'd he give you a gift?"

"It was..." the mare paused, "partially to make up for the mutual embarrassment of our first meeting, and in part a repayment for assisting him with an important matter."

"Why were you embarrassed?" Thesis asked.

"Because Captain Armor momentarily mistook me for his younger sister. His attempts to -"

"I can see that," Thesis declared, earning her a blank stare for her troubles.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You do kind of look like Miss Twilight," the mare continued staring at her, and Thesis's eyes darted away, "sort of. Kinda."

"In that I am possessed of four legs, two eyes, a mane, tail and horn, perhaps. But nothing more. Now, where was I? Yes, his attempts to extricate himself from that blunder were..." the mare paused again, "for a pony whose talent requires being an authoritative presence, Captain Armor is, to put it bluntly, completely terrible with mares."

For a moment, a brief moment, she looked like she was about to say something different. "He purchased the book as an attempted apology."

"Did it work?" Thesis asked.

Midnight paused thoughtfully. "In a manner of speaking, yes."

She looked back to the book, "so, if it's a book of myths and legends, does it explain why everypony stays indoors at midday?"

"In a sense," Midnight stated, "it explains the reason behind why ponies are afraid of the sun, and why there is one Princess of Equestria, not two."

"Which is...?"

The mare's horn glowed, and the book floated over to her. "It all began over a thousand years ago..."

In the long-distant past, Equestria was ruled by two Princesses, alicorns graced with powers beyond those of ordinary ponies. One ruled over daylight, and the sun, and she was called Celestia. The other ruled over night, and the moon, and was called Luna.
Together, the two sisters protected Equestria from threats. But over time, this changed.
Princess Luna began to notice that while ponies worked and played in the day, they slept through her nights. Feeling spurned and neglected, she withdrew from others, and began pursuing ever more elaborate ways to make ponies notice her night, treading ever closer to darker powers.
Meanwhile, Celestia began to fall under the ever-increasing burden of ruling a country. The mare once renowned for her beauty and serene grace became increasingly aggressive, both in behaviour and approach.
And soon the unthinkable happened, for Celestia fell into madness, and became known by her fearful subjects as "Corona", the Tyrant Sun.
A handful of ponies sought out Princess Luna, their desperate pleas for help drawing the mare away from her destructive path.
However, Luna was the younger sibling, and could not fight her sister, even insane as she was, and win. So acting desperately, she made a bargain with the demonic monster Tirek, only to betray him, stealing his power and taking it for herself.
With this power, Luna used her magic to fight her sister, buying time until she could access the Elements of Harmony. Using these ancient artefacts, she sealed Celestia away inside the very sun she once guided. Overwhelmed by her grief at her failures, Luna took off to wander what was left of Equestria. It was twelve years before she returned to the throne, and attempted to rebuild the shattered country back to what it was meant to be.
Since that day, Equestria has limped onward, hampered by paranoia and inadequacy, claiming it is harmony all the while.

Wait... are you even listening?

It only took a moment's notice to realise Thesis was not, and that she was in fact asleep. Soundly asleep, in fact.

After a few seconds, Midnight gently wrapped the filly in her magic, and put her under the covers, before taking one of the pillows for herself, setting it down on the floor.

Then, she made her way over to the desk, and lifted a quill and a piece of paper.

From the desk of: Midnight M.
To: Her Royal Highness, Princess L. Equestris

Preliminary Observation Report
Day 1 (date 23.11.1000 AC)

Subject nomen "Thesis" (addendum: find more suitable name?) appears to be an alicorn filly, of average height, build and weight. Mane colour , dark blue. Fur colour evidently royal blue. Eye colour purple. Cutie Mark not yet evident.
Subject displays innate curiosity and interest in goings on around her, but also severe shyness and social awkwardness. Displays mild trait of stubbornness common to members of House Starlight (inherited from Sparkle somehow? Unclear, possible coincidence).
Displays similar eating preferences to that of Lulamoon.
Despite alicorn status being evident, subject appears to possess no command of magic. Possibly simple condition of youth, combined with circumstances of birth.
No evident capability of flight, also likely due to youth.
Will continue to observe and record.

"Alright," Cheerilee said, "sorry everypony, but I've got work tomorrow, so I'm gonna have to book it, now."

"Yeah," Carrot Top nodded, "I probably should go home too."

Ditzy nodded, as she valiantly fought a yawn, "me too." The bearer of kindness looked over toward Trixie. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine," Trixie lied. Ditzy just looked at her. "Okay, I'm not fine, I just don't want you worrying."

"Too late," Ditzy stated, smiling warmly as she did. Trixie smiled back, though it was ruined when she yawned too.

"Need sleep," she murmured. "Really don't wanna have to get up for work tomorrow..."

She looked over to Raindrops, who was staring at her, if only for an instant.

"Anyway," Trixie said to Ditzy, "g'night, Ditzy."

"Night, Trixie," the mailmare said as she headed towards the door. Trixie walked over to Raindrops, the weather-mare still hanging around by the door.

"Are you alright?" Trixie asked. There was a brief flash of annoyance on Raindrop's face, before she shook it away. "It's just you've been slightly grouchier than usual."

"Sorry," Raindrops said, "not your fault. Work was hectic today... and yesterday, and the day before. Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker have been arguing."

"Arguing?" Trixie repeated, "I thought Cloud Kicker was... well..."

She tried to imagine the contentious leader of Ponyville's weather team, multicoloured mane and all, arguing with her almost perpetually nervous yellow-maned executive. Somehow, the image just refused to stick.

"She is," Raindrops said, "which is why it's so weird. At least today she had the excuse of not getting much sleep."

"I feel her pain," Trixie said dryly. Then Raindrops gave her another look.

"No, Trixie, Cloud Kicker never sleeps in. She's always there. And Rainbow Dash..." a pained looked appeared on Raindrops' muzzle, like she would rather have been pulling her own teeth out, "has been getting better lately. Not much, but she has."

She sighed heavily. "I don't know what's gotten into Cloud Kicker. But every time she argues with Rainbow, Rainbow argues right back, and... one day one of them's going to do something stupid, or say something stupid and it’s all going to go to the sun. I just know it."

She scowled briefly, "and now you and Sparkle are getting kidnapped by some bozos in the middle of the night, because we needed even more to worry about."

"Eh," Trixie shrugged, "they've got the Princess on their tails. Whoever these ponies are, if they're smart, they'll know enough not to bother us again."

Raindrops just stared flatly at her.

"Yeah, okay," Trixie muttered, "they'll probably be back at some point."

The night passed, as quietly as it could manage, and soon day broke over Equestria. Across the city, with the Princess retiring for the morning, a great deal of the city's populace began to go to sleep as well.

Though this did not apply to all of them.

For example, a pair of unicorns making their way across the city, one with white fur, the other dark blue.

"Someone's looking distracted this morning," Fleur de Lis chortled, "what's the matter, trouble sleeping?"

"It's not that," her associate replied, "though admittedly sleeping on the floor proved less... than ideal."

"Then a quick run will do you good," Fleur smiled back, "fresh morning air, healthy exercise, just watch out for any ice and snow and you're good."

"Are we not doing that now?" came the reply.

"Well, I'm certainly running, Nighty, but you aren't. Your head's somewhere else." She raised an eyebrow, "let me guess: Mom issues."

"I am not-!" Midnight began, before stopping, "I am not her parent."

"No need to be coy," Fleur said, "oh, hey, careful with that washing line. Where was I? Oh, yeah, no shame in it. I've seen plenty of ponies having to deal with this sort of thing."

"You have?" the mare asked, "you wouldn't have any advice?"

Fleur scoffed. "Me? Foals?" she laughed, for a second, before staring off into the distance, "Not that Fancy and I haven't... I mean, we've discussed it sometimes, but... what with Corona, and his job, and my job..."

Recovering quickly, she looked back to the dark mare, "you must be pretty rattled if you're actually asking somepony for help though."

"The prospect is proving more daunting that I initially realised," came the retort, "I would not say I am "rattled" yet, and certainly I have enough funds to comfortably provide for her long enough to-"

"Watch the ledge," Fleur cautioned.

"Yes, thank you. It is just... she's a foal."

"Let's take five, shall we?" Fleur suggested, the two stopping for a moment, leaning against a nearby wall. "Wish I could be more help, but unfortunately, I didn't have any siblings (that I know of), and Allure wasn't the sort of parent who hoofed out advice."

Her ears twitched, "at least not the kind I can say in public. Or, admittedly, that is any use in this situation."

The two stood there, listening to the bustle of the city around them. "Do you wanna keep going?" Fleur asked, "we've barely even gotten a quarter of a way through the course. Or do you want to get back to your little sister?"

"She should be fine, for the moment," Midnight stated. "Though if you feel you cannot manage, we could just attempt to try half the usual route."

"Alright," Fleur nodded, "challenge accepted. Lose and I take you shopping."

And with that gauntlet thrown down, the two resumed their morning run across the rooftops of Canterlot.

It was slowly occurring to Thesis that she was awake. Awake, and lying on something strange and fluffy.

Also, it wasn't dark outside. Instead, it was incredibly light and bright, which made her eyes hurt a lot.

Fortunately a large shadow got in the way of the sun. And then it spoke.

"You're awake," it said. It sounded like Midnight, which she supposed meant it probably was Midnight. Unless there was some other pony who sounded exactly like her.

"What time is it?" she asked, looking about.

"Almost a quarter to nine, in the morning."

"Is that early?" she groaned, as she moved about under the sheets.

"That depends on your point of view," the mare responded, "but at the moment, for you specifically, no. Now it is time for breakfast."

Thesis considered those words. Ms. Sparkle had said stuff about breakfast yesterday. And there had been that toast she'd given her.

And as she thought of yesterday, another thought came to her.

"What about the snow?" she asked. Midnight glanced towards the window.

"That may be difficult," she stated. Curious, Thesis tried clambering onto the sofa so she could look out of the window.

In the daylight, the view was almost as impressive as it had been the night before. The only problem was the complete and utter absence of any snow whatsoever.

"What happened to the snow?" she asked quietly.

"It melted," came the reply, "either from the sunlight, or from the salt used to melt it before it became a public hazard, or from ponies cleaning it up."

"Oh." She looked back to the mare. "Will it snow again?"

"That is likely. Canterlot frequently gets snow in winter, and this winter is scheduled to be colder than most, as a response to what happened when Celestia was freed from the sun."

"So..." Thesis began, "if it snows again, can I play in it then?"

"If that is what you wish," came Midnight's response, "now come along. We'll brush your teeth before going to look for breakfast."

Daylight was pouring in through the windows. Cruel, horrible, nasty blinding daylight.

A just awoken Trixie groaned, and tried pulling her bed sheets over her head, as a shield against the assailing day. She wasn't ready to leave the comfy... comfort of her bed, not for another five minutes. Or possibly fifteen. Half an hour, at the most.

A quick glance at the clock on her bedside stand revealed it was nine o'clock. Sighing, Trixie pulled herself free from the morass of her bedsheets, and began making her way towards the door, then towards the bathroom.

Once she had sufficiently showered enough to feel awake, she made her way downstairs.

As always, the worst part of her morning was the horrible yawning sensation she had as she did so, knowing deep in her heart of hearts there would be at least some paperwork waiting for her, and that was if she was lucky. If she wasn't, it was a large pile of yesterday's unfinished business, waiting to be filled in.

And winter, as it turned out, was not a good season for paperwork. Not that paperwork was enjoyable at any other time of year.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, turned around the corner and found... a relatively small pile of paperwork, along with what turned out to be a post-it from Pokey.

It did not say anything along the lines of "sorry".

For a moment, a vanishingly brief moment, Trixie idly considered burning it all and hoping nopony would catch on. Then her common sense kicked in, coldly pointing out this would only generate more paperwork, assuming things didn't go out of control and wind up with the entire residency burnt to the ground. Which, knowing her luck, was a near-certainty.

Sighing, she turned around and headed towards the kitchen, to make herself some coffee.

Breakfast hadn't been what Thesis had expected. Though, really, she'd only been alive for a day, so her knowledge of breakfasts was pretty limited.

But instead of any sort of toast, Midnight had brought her some strange sort of thing. Something about how ponies in the castle had a wide variety of tastes and "requirements". It had ended up with her eating some strange, sweet tasting crunchy things, which had been a lot better than any slightly burnt bread.

Once that had finished, they'd left the large room they'd been in, and started going someplace else.

Something Thesis had learned quickly was that going anywhere in Canterlot involved lots and lot and lots of walking. Also, lots of stairs.

She decided she did not like walking, or stairs. As soon as she figured out how her wings could work, she was definitely going to use them all the time.

"Where are we going?" she asked, as they made their way up yet another flight of stairs.

"There are things I have to attend to," came the reply, "but once those have been dealt with, we may do whatever you so desire."

Soon enough the two exited the stairway, coming out onto a hallway, which they proceeded along until coming to one particular door, which they went in through.

Inside was a room that by the castle's standards wasn't much to write home about. A desk, a potted plant here and there, a small map of Equestria, and a yellow earth pony mare behind the desk.

"Morning, boss," the mare said, before stopping, "wait, I thought you weren't coming in, today... or, uh, ever again..."

"I am on leave, Melody," Midnight declared, "I have not been fired yet."

"Right," the mare nodded, "so you're back because...?"

There was a noise, and a flash of light, and a small pile of papers appeared from nowhere.

"These papers need to be seen to, with all possible speed." The papers landed on the desk with a small thump.

"Okay," Melody said, "sure thing."

"Very good," Midnight said. Melody tried flipping through the pile, and glanced at the filly.

"Oh, by the way," she said, "Ardent came by earlier. I think he was worried about you, because... you know, you didn't show up for work last night."

What exactly that meant, Thesis didn't know, but there was an odd sort of change to Midnight's expression, if only for a second.

"I told him to buzz off," she added, after a moment.

"Very good," came Midnight's response, before she turned back to Thesis, "come along, little one."

"Uh, boss?" Pokey's voice came to Trixie's ears, "are you alright?"

Trixie decided not to answer that one.

"I mean, obviously, you're lying face-first on your desk, and, y'know, groaning a little, but I figure it can't hurt to check."

Trixie just groaned in response, "the paperwork has drained the life out of me."

There was a pause, as Pokey looked at the nearest clock. "It's only half past eleven," he said.

Trixie looked up, and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "Feels like longer," she remarked, before looking over to the pile of papers.

There was admittedly less of it than before. Not enough to make her feel better, though.

"Where were we?" she asked.

"Well, you were doing some paperwork, and you hadn't even suggested setting it on fire once, or even making a break for freedom... so now I'm kind of suspicious. Does it have something to do with yesterday morning?"

Trixie blinked. "What do you mean?"

Pokey took a long drink from the cup he was holding. "The guards on your house yesterday. That's kind of a big honking clue that something happened."

"No," Trixie said, rubbing a hoof against her head, "pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with yesterday."

"Well, I just work here," Pokey shrugged, "you don't have to tell me jack."

"No, I don't," Trixie said.

"I know," Pokey stated.

"Glad we understand each other," she replied, firmly. Pokey nodded. Then Trixie looked down at the pile.

"... er, Pokey, where was I, again?"

His horn glowed, and a sheet floated over towards her.

"Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have you as my assistant?"

"Which answer can I give that won't get me fired?" he smirked.

"So, where're we going?" Thesis asked. The two had now left the castle, and all the fancy rooms therein, and were now walking down one of the streets of Canterlot itself, which had almost as many ponies as it had the day before. A lot of them, Thesis noticed, kept staring up at the sky like it was going to fall on them.

"We are heading to the Canterlot Public Library," Midnight stated. "There are suitably few ponies there, and it will allow you to gain a working knowledge of Equestria."

"'kay," Thesis nodded. "That's gonna involve reading, right?"

She looked about at the shops. She'd already asked to go inside some (or more accurately, all) of the ones they'd passed so far, but to no avail.

"Miss Twilight tried to make me read stuff yesterday," she said. "Well, not "make", but she did ask me if I wanted to read something... and then left a bunch of books by me, just in case."

After a few seconds of no response from the larger pony. "Is it just me, or is Miss Twilight kinda weird? I mean, I only know you and Miss Trixie... that's it, but she's still weird. All nervous and talk-y. Not that she wasn't nice," she added after another pause, "just... weird, I guess."

"Twilight Sparkle is..." the mare paused, "known for her lack of social graces. That combined with a disposition towards nervousness may be the result of her odd behaviour."

As they continued walking along, the crowds were beginning to thin out. More and more ponies were disappearing indoors, some occasionally stopping to look at the foal and mare casually walking along in the daylight.

"Should we...?"

"No," Midnight stated.

"Are you alright?" Thesis found herself asking. "You're being all quiet and... kinda grumpy."

"I... apologies, little one," she said, "that is likely because my eyes, which are particularly sensitive, are having to adjust to daylight. It is incredibly frustrating trying to walk when one has difficulty seeing at all."

"Oh." She wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that.

"But why is everyone inside? I mean, you told me that story last night, even if I did kind of fall asleep halfway through it, but... why do they do it?"

"They believe," Midnight said, "that if they remain outside after midday, Celestia herself will descend and do something unspeakable to them."

Thesis looked up in the sky. "... has she?"

"In the last one thousand years, there is only one recorded instance of Celestia descending from the sun and making off with whoever transpired to be outside. And that falls heavily into the category of extenuating circumstances " After a moment, the mare's horn glowed, and a small apple appeared from out of nowhere. She then began eating it.

"Lunch," she explained when Thesis looked at her, "you aren't hungry, too, are you?"

"Not really," Thesis murmured.

Soon, they arrived at the library, which was something Thesis was secretly glad for, since the abandoned streets and squares and parks of Canterlot at high noon were making her feel really uncomfortable.

After her stay in Twilight's library, Thesis had been expecting the Canterlot one to look much the same, with books arranged in odd stacks and piles across the room, and wooden floors and the slightly odd scents (and the weird noises from the ceiling).

So she was surprised at the vast size of the larger building, with its stone floors and multiple levels, which stretched on forever (or as near enough as made no difference to a foal).

"Whoa," Thesis murmured, as she took the sight in, before turning to look at the mare.

"So... I can choose any book and then... read it?"

"Within reason," Midnight stated, "it might be best to start with books intended for foals, first."

"Let's go, then," the filly declared, as she began rushing across the floor.

Observation Report
Day 2 (24.11.1000AC)

Subject still appears for all intents and purposes to be a foal.
No change in command of magic since previous report.
Initial exposure to literature has yielded little so far. Subject still enquires into any and all subjects available with same enthusiasm on each occasion.
Initial exposure to other ponies has yielded satisfying lack of inquiries into subject’s apparent alicorn status (likely assumption, they believe subject is a hybrid).
Will continue to observe.

Thesis was confused. She'd been reading the books she'd picked out, as far as she could manage (not easy when she either had to use her hooves or get Midnight to do it for her), and what they were saying was... different from what she'd told her. She didn't understand that. How could the book have been saying something different? And of course sometimes the older pony would come see what she was doing, and look at something in the book and say it was wrong. That made even less sense. Why would somepony have put something in there that wasn't true?

Eventually, however, she'd gotten too hungry to keep reading, even after some of those sandwiches Miss Midnight had sneaked in with her magic.

So, with the sun already going down, they'd set off in search of somewhere to eat, with some of the books from the library with them.

She considered asking Midnight about it, but hesitated. She was a weird pony. Not the slightly sad looking weird of Miss Twilight, or the funny weird of Miss Trixie, but... something about her just didn't seem right.

"Long day?" Berry Punch asked. Trixie just looked at her.

"I dunno," she said, "what time is it?"

Berry chortled, "not late enough that you should be asking that." She glanced cautiously at Trixie's drink.

"It's soda," Trixie stated before the barmare could say anything. "Time just loses all meaning when you're sitting behind a desk all day."

"What about Pokey's puns?" Berry inquired.

"Well, for that I usually just throw bits of paper at his head," Trixie replied, "barely got halfway through the pile."

Eventually, the two valiant warriors had been forced to quit their battle against the mighty flood of bureaucracy, with the sworn promise they'd try and have another go at it tomorrow.

Then Trixie had, realising she had but one slightly empty bottle of bourbon to her name, made her way to Berry's bar for succour.

She wasn't the only one there. Raindrops was sitting at her usual table, a drink sitting in front of her looking like it had hardly been touched, while Raindrops just looked vaguely annoyed about something.

"Evening," Trixie said, as she approached with her drink, which received a nod from Raindrops.

"Hey," she grunted. "How's things?"

"Oh, you know," Trixie said, as she sat down, "long life, long day. Lots of work to be done."

"You should try working the Weather Patrol," Raindrops said, "see how you feel after that."

"We could swap," Trixie smirked, "you try and deal with my workload, I try and deal with Rainbow Dash for a day."

Raindrops snorted dismissively, "you'd end up fired or imprisoned within a few hours. Either that or you and Dash would try to kill each other."

"I think I could manage," Trixie retorted. "Look at all the things we've faced since last year. Pretty sure I can handle working with Rainbow Dash for six hours."

Raindrops just took another drink. "If you say so..." she murmured.

"Besides, I'd like to see you try and endure all the horrible, pointless forms I have to deal with every day."

Raindrops just snorted. "Maybe I'll take you up on that, sometime," she said.

Seconds passed, as the two looked about the room.

"Are you doing alright?" Raindrops asked. Trixie looked away from what she'd been looking at.

"Me?" she asked, "yeah, I'm fine. Though I could do without the constant chaos happening in this town."

"You'd miss it if it stopped happening," Raindrops shot back. Trixie opened her mouth as she began to object, only for the mare to stare at her.

"You would," Raindrops cut in, "don't lie."

"Yeah, okay," Trixie sighed, "I probably would get bored."

She looked at Raindrops again, "anyway, why do you ask?"

Raindrops shrugged. "Because you looked kind of worried about something. Is it about this foal?"

"No, not really," Trixie said, "maybe... I don't know..."

She rubbed a hoof against her head. "Yeah. I do keep thinking about the foal. Or what I didn't do. I keep thinking I should've told Princess Luna to let me take her in. It couldn't be that hard, could it?"

Raindrops looked hesitant.

"What?" Trixie asked, "you don't think I could do it?"

Raindrops remained entirely still. "Do you want me to be honest with you?"

"Uh, yeah?" Trixie replied. "Of course I do."

"Then I don't know whether you could have or not. Most of the kids in town love you, yeah, but being good with kids and being good with a kid are different. Just look at my parents. Snails is a great kid, but even he runs my parents ragged most of the time. And that's with me trying to help."

"Okay," Trixie said, "good point-"

Raindrops help up a hoof. "Wasn't done yet," she stated, "'cuz there's you. On your own, and let's be honest, Trixie, you can be pretty lazy. And reckless. And stubborn and proud and..."

She paused to take a drink, "Plus, look at all the craziness that keeps happening around us. What if one day someone we've pissed off comes after after us?"

"You think I've not thought about that?" Trixie replied, "like when those thugs tried kidnapping Dinky?" She looked down at her drink. The first ponies to try and get at the bearers through their families, but sadly not the last. "You think Princess Luna didn't say pretty much the same thing?"

She sighed. "I still think I should've been allowed to try, rather than let Princess Luna just hoof her over to somepony else..."

"So, um," Thesis asked, over breakfast, "what're we doing today?"

Midnight looked over at the filly. "The same as we were doing yesterday."

"Oh," Thesis said. She looked about the largely deserted breakfast hall. "Isn't there a library in the castle?"

"There is," Midnight stated, "however, the head archivist has... views on foals being present. She seems convinced they will spread disorder." The mare took a large bite out of a second helping of toast, "somehow having failed to notice that disorder is already present."

She ate another slice, then looked back at Thesis. "Do you not wish to return to the library?"

Thesis shuffled. "I dunno. I mean, I liked the reading, even if I didn't understand all of it. It's just..."

"Yes?" the mare asked. There was something about her gaze that made Thesis feel incredibly small. The things she'd been meaning to say vanished in an instant.

"Nothing," she said.

Trixie let out a small groan, and allowed herself to collapse (though taking effort not to land on the pile of papers that had already been finished).

"C'mon, boss," she heard Pokey chuckle, "up and at 'em. These things aren't going to sign themselves."

Trixie pointedly refused to move her head from her desk. "Maybe if I wait ten minutes, some disaster will occur, and I-"

"Will have to do even more work?" Pokey smirked. Admittedly, Trixie couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smirking anyway.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a Ponyville disaster," she murmured.

"I don't think you're going to luck your way into two Windigo attacks in the space of a month," Pokey chortled. "Not even your luck is that bad."

"That's not really comforting me," Trixie said. Rearing herself back up, she stared down at the stack of papers.

"Alright," she declared, "fine. Let's try and get through this."

It was slightly before noon when Midnight had suggested the two ponies leave the library to look for something to eat, again, much to Thesis' upset (she'd been engrossed in a book about all sorts of nasty creatures. The eating of ponies seemed to be a running thing with them).

As they walked along the streets, she kept looking to the mare, trying to work up the courage to ask the question she'd been thinking of, only for the words to vanish whenever she looked up at the mare.

As they made their way across town, passing numerous closed-looking shops, she finally felt a stab of annoyance, and decided to ask it anyway.

"Mi... Midnight?" she said, or more accurately squeaked. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the street was not too full, and the larger mare turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"I," Thesis began, hesitantly, "I was wondering... shouldn't I spend time with other foals?"

An odd look she couldn't recognise passed across Midnight's face, and she knelt down to look at her.

"Little one, there is something you must understand: Ponies can be particularly slow to trust that which is new, especially in these untrusting times. And foals can be incredibly untrusting of those they've never seen before, particularly those in Canterlot. With your horn and wings, and your present difficulties with magic, they would likely cause you some form of harm."

Thesis felt her wings flutter.

"Not physical harm," Midnight stated quickly, "but harm of a subtler, more insidious kind. This is part of the reason I wished to keep you out of school here."

"Okay," Thesis said, even if she didn't really understand. "But if I learned how to cast magic, would that help?"

"It..." the dark blue mare paused, "it might just. We shall simply have to see what happens after."

Observation Report
Day 3 (25.11.1000 AC)

Subject has expressed desire to interact with foals of own apparent age.
Strongly object to this in no uncertain terms, until the truth of subject's nature can be determined, both to prevent harm (psychological or otherwise) to subject and others.

"Uh," Pokey was frowning slightly, "what are you writing there?"

Trixie looked up from what she was doing, "this?" she asked. "It's a letter. To Princess Luna. Asking her about some stuff."

Pokey nodded, "Important stuff?"

"Something like that," Trixie said. She'd been trying to walk the line between respectful and yet demanding, basically trying to find a way to say she thought Princess Luna's decision was completely wrong and she should change it, without saying it and winding up with her getting sent on a “diplomatic mission” to the Griffon Kingdoms (she was pretty sure Luna wouldn’t do that, but she also really didn’t want to find out either way).

Suffice to say, it hadn't been proving easy.

"Need any help?" Pokey asked. Trixie gave him a level stare.

"Pokey, have you ever had to ask Princess Luna anything?"

He pretended to think about that for a moment. "No," he finally said, "I think I would've remembered if I had."

Trixie just stared levelly at him. "Although, you are my assistant. And I probably could use the help..."

"Well," Pokey said, "If it's anything like talking to a parent, when you're trying to ask them for something, avoiding tiptoeing around the issue, trying not to upset them. It'll just annoy them anyway."

At that, Trixie gave Pokey a long, level look. "You sound like you're speaking from experience," she mused, before a realisation dawned, "I don't think I've ever heard you speak about your parents. Or your family in general."

"No," Pokey replied, neutrally, "you haven't."

"Weird," Trixie declared. A long, awkward silence asserted itself, as the two looked about the room.

"So, uh," Trixie managed to get out, "how is your family, by the way?"

"Fine, fine," Pokey said, "we don't talk very often, though."

"Oh," Trixie found herself saying, followed by, "I'm sorry."

At that, Pokey gave her an odd look. "For what?"

"I just assumed..."

"What?" Pokey asked, "that I had some sort of hideous argument with them?" he smirked, "not really. We just don't talk much is all."

"Oh," Trixie said again.

"Sorry, boss," Pokey was still smirking, "not everypony in Equestria has your terminal drama addiction."

"My what?" Trixie asked, as icily as she could manage.

"Just saying, boss... I don't have enemies or arch-rivals or ponies swearing to ruin my life because I made them look bad, or got a family member arrested or used the last of the toilet paper or something. Most ponies don't."

"Look," she stated, "let's just get on with this damn letter. Then you get the rest of the day off."

Pokey looked out of the window at the downpour. "Yay," he intoned lifelessly.

"Either that or I go shopping for a new assistant."

Pokey just gave her the calm look of a pony who knew he had job security. "You'd never find anypony else and you know it."

"Um..." Thesis said. Or, more accurately, mumbled. It still got Midnight's attention.

"Yes, little one?"

"I was wondering, tomorrow... can we do something different?" she blurted, hurriedly. Something about Midnight's gaze made her feel like her skin was all itchy. She didn't like it.

"Different?" the mare repeated.

"Yeah. Not meeting other foals, if you think it's a bad idea, but... I dunno, can we not to the library again?"

The mare stared at Thesis for an uncomfortably long time. "We shall see," she finally declared.

"Which, actually, turned out to be inaccurate... uh, Trixie? Are you even paying attention?"

Trixie looked up, to see Twilight Sparkle's bemused expression. "Yes, yes I was," she said hurriedly.

She moved her hat back from where it had been, positioned over her eyes. "No, wait, sorry, I might have been falling asleep."

Twilight frowned at her.

"Hey," Trixie retorted, "don't blame me, I only asked how you were doing, you went into this whole lecture about something-or-rather."

"I was talking about Equestrian history," Twilight shot back, her horn glowing as she moved several books about, either returning them to the shelves or adjusting their positions. "You were the one who stopped by."

Trixie's glance turned toward the nearest window, and the small gale that was going on outside. "Yes," she stated, "yes, I did."

Technically, she had been planning to meet up with Carrot Top, but the downpour had forced her into a detour. Only she hadn't been able to see too well where she had been going, and wound up inside Twilight's library.

Twilight was frowning at her. "Though I suppose I did get distracted slightly." Trixie decided not to pay any attention to the emphasis she'd put on that last word.

Twilight's frowned changed to a more generally puzzled look, "but to answer your question... I'm doing alright."

Trixie looked at Twilight, and her hesitant smile. "M-mostly, I mean. I do sort of keep..."

"Yes?"

"Well," Twilight took a deep breath, "ever since the other night, I keep finding myself thinking back to my worst memories. And every time I try not to think about them, it just seems to make them stand out more. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Trixie was no stranger to that sensation. In response she just nodded solemnly. "Yeah," she said, "I know what that feels like."

Seconds ticked past before Twilight spoke again, "I, uh, I did consider maybe... mailing my parents, telling them about what happened, but..."

"Yes?" Trixie asked, not liking the way the conversation was going.

"I'm worried that if I do... if I do they'll..." Twilight blinked, and gulped, and Trixie would've sworn she sounded like she was trying not to speak, "they'll try and have me removed from Ponyville."

Trixie pointedly did not say anything. She wanted to, but the words were refusing to muster.

"I don't want that," Twilight continued, "I l-like it here. I mean," she flashed a small, sad smile, "not the house-arrest, and the owls upstairs keep hooting a lot, and some ponies still don't understand the way books are supposed to be kept..." A look of brief, but profoundly deep personal offense flashed across the librarian's face for a moment, "And, uh... some of the ponies here are a little..." she coughed a polite cough, "but otherwise, I do like it here. It's nice."

"Sorry," Trixie said, eventually. Twilight looked at her.

"For what?"

"I'm pretty sure they were after me. Probably figured it was an idea to grab you as well while they were at it..."

Twilight just stared away. "Who were they, anyway? Do you know? I mean, I've looked through every reference book I could find, and I've not seen anything about anypony who uses dawn imagery. Even sun cultists tend to stay with the sun."

"No," Trixie shook her head, "I don't. Honestly? I don't know. Most of the ponies who've gone after me and the other Element bearers have at least had the courtesy to say who they are, or make some sort of "do as we say or we'll make your life miserable" speech."

There as a bitter chuckle from Twilight. "And don't get me started on that filly, on Thesis. If somepony had said anything like that would ever have happened, much less to me, I'd probably have just laughed my Cutie Mark off." She paused for a moment, "actually, I never really thought about... you know... foals... did you ever think about this sort of thing?"

Trixie met Twilight's gaze, and spent several seconds considering the appropriate response. Then she decided the hay with it.

"I am entirely too sober to continue discussing this matter. C'mon, let's go to Berry's."

"Lis..."

Fleur quirked an eyebrow at the unusual level of emotional intonation coming from her running partner.

"What's the matter, Nighty?" she smirked, "don't tell me you want to call the run off. Three days looking after your sister can't have made you that sedentary. Or is it just draining the life out of you?"

"I have a request I would like to make."

That was news enough to make Fleur De Lis stop, leaning against a chimney, as easily as she could manage with the prevailing wind.

"A request? Wow," she murmured, "I, uh... I don't really remember the last time you actually made a request of me."

Fleur liked to think she had a pretty fantastic memory, all things considered (it was a requisite for basic Canterlot socialising, never mind her other "arrangements". One had to know who was to be invited to what, who had antagonised what Duchess and who'd accidentally made that remark which had gotten into the papers, who'd slept with whoever's sister, just to make sure a tea party didn't end in lawsuits galore. And that was without having to maintain the pretence of being dumber than a bag of rocks.) "What is it?"

Midnight was looking toward the castle. "I may suffer a disagreement with Princess Luna in the following days. Greater than any before. And the events of the last year have destroyed whatever standing I already had with her."

"You think you'll be fired?" Fleur ventured. That was an optimistic vision if ever there was one. Ponies who tended to upset Princess Luna, who'd really stepped their foot in it, tended to end up very far away from Canterlot. If they were extremely lucky, they'd still be able to get a job afterwards.

"I cannot say for certain, but if what I suspect may happen should come to pass, there is something I would ask of you."

Fleur smiled. "Sure, Nighty. You can count on me."

Something was wrong. Thesis could tell.

On awakening, she'd noticed there was no sign of her supposed "big sister". In fact, she'd noticed pretty much immediately, since normally it had been Midnight who'd woken her up. A quick examination revealed not only was there no sign of her, there wasn't even a note of some kind explaining where she'd gone.

Standing alone, in the tiny, cramped little apartment, Thesis had begun feeling a lot like she had the night she'd been born. Afraid, and alone.

She was very sure she didn’t like being alone.

So, after a few tense moments of thinking she hit upon the idea of going to look for her sister, who almost assuredly wouldn't have gone far.

A though quickly occurred to her, that she was now apparently taking the strange, slightly unnerving pony's statement of being her sister as a fact. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

As to the door, it was just slightly out of reach of her hooves (apparently whoever had built the door hadn't been thinking about any foal needing to use it ever). So, bracing herself, she leapt. She managed to grab hold and pull the lever down, then thrust backwards to open it.

On seeing her spur-of-the-moment idea had worked she cheered, before seeing the door was sliding shut again.

before it could, she darted through to her freedom. Once there, she set off, feeling mighty with her victory over the door.

It took about five minutes before some of the problems with her plan began to sink in. Like the fact she didn't know where she was going. Or where Midnight possibly could have been.

It was beginning to occur to her that this was in fact not a very good plan.

Soon enough, in her random walking, she came upon another pony walking through the corridor, looking at a piece of paper. Who promptly walked right past her as she tried saying hello.

The next two ponies along were some of those strange looking guards. They at least noticed her.

"Hey, there," one of them said, "what are you doing wandering around the castle on your own?"

"Must've gotten separated from a tour-group or something," the second one said. This made the other one look at him funny.

"A tour group? It's half-past eight in the morning. What school do you know that starts that early?"

"Well, I don't know then," the first one said, "why don't we just ask her?"

"Um," the second one began, looking down at her like she was something scary, "hello there, kiddo." There was an odd noise from the first one at that, which the second apparently didn't notice. "Why are you wandering around the castle on your own? Were you with someone?"

Thesis nodded. "I'm looking for my sister."

"What does she look like, then?" the second pony smiled. Thesis stopped for a minute.

"She's kind of..." she tried holding a hoof up to show how tall she was, only to find it didn't exactly work, "she's pretty tall. And, uh, dark blue, like me. She's got orange eyes and a moon on her butt and she looks kind of like this," the "this" in question involved Thesis making the grumpiest face she could.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb," the second guard said, "and guess your sister's called Midnight?"

Thesis nodded. For some reason neither of them looked happy. The first one smiled oddly at her.

"Could you excuse us for a second? Ardent, a word in private?"

The two turned and walked a few steps away, and began furiously whispering at one another.

Of course, Thesis could naturally not help but be curious about what they were saying, and tried sneaking in.

"Ardent, what are you thinking?"

The second one, or Ardent as he was apparently called, just stared down at his coworker. "I'm thinking maybe we should help the kid find her big sis. Or were you gonna just leave her here?"

"What? No," the first one snapped, "I'm not saying that. But we don't know where Miss Creepy-As-All-Get-Out is."

"Granted..." Ardent said. As he did, his partner just groaned.

"Look, I know you're sweet on her, but whatever you're thinking is gonna happen, it isn't gonna work. We're guards, not childminders. The best we can do is get this kid to someone who might know where she is, 'kay?"

Ardent frowned, then sighed. "Yeah, I su-"

"Is something the matter?"

The two guards practically jumped out of their armour at the sound of the voice, turning and saluting toward its owner, which was none other than Princess Luna herself, followed by a small trail of attending secretarial staff (including, Thesis noticed, that yellow earth pony from the other day), along with a few flunkies, attendants, and hangers-on.

"No, Your Highness," Ardent stated, "but we found this filly wandering the castle, and..."

"Ah," Princess Luna declared, on seeing Thesis, "no need to explain." She turned to look at the attendants, "one moment please..."

The Princess closed her eyes. In an instant, her body began to ripple. Part of her seemed to split off, forming another entirely identical Princess Luna, who began walking off. After a pause, the various hangers-on began following after that one, while the other Princess Luna remained, smiling at Thesis like this was the most ordinary thing in the world.

"I do apologise," she said, "unfortunately I had a pressing need to talk with your current guardian about certain matters. I hadn't realised it would take as long as it did. In all likelihood, she and I are still talking. Lieutenant, would you and your partner could kindly escort Thesis here to the Waiting Room?"

The two guards saluted, the second one trying his best not to look annoyed, and the two turned around. Thesis took a cautionary glance at the Princess, waiting to see if she'd split in two again, then scampered after the two guards.

Several silent minutes passed, as they marched down stairs and along corridors, through increasingly over-designed looking corridors, filled with banners and paintings and statues and what Thesis could only call "things", all of which looked extremely expensive.

Then they came to a set of doors, and walked in. Inside was a surprisingly small looking room, of varying shades of dark blue and purple, with a deep blue carpet leading across the room to an even larger set of doors, an impressive mixture of blue, black and silver, emblazoned with a dark blue moon holding back a baleful orange sun.

As Thesis entered the room, she could've sworn she heard a voice coming from the other side of the room. Whoever it was, they didn't sound happy about something.

The first guard, Ardent, looked down at Thesis. "Best wait over there," he suggested, motioning to some sofas scattered to the side of the carpet, as he glanced cautiously towards the larger doors.

Thesis did so, watching as the two guards walked over to the door, and knocked on it in a very careful fashion.

The voice from inside the room stopped. Then the door creaked open slightly, and the second guard whispered something to someone. Then the door slammed shut again.

The two guards looked at one another, said something Thesis couldn't hear, and then walked out of the room.

Minutes passed, before the great door opened up, and Midnight trotted out. There was an unpleasant look on her face Thesis couldn't make out, but it vanished when she saw the filly sitting there.

Thesis couldn't help thinking it probably would have been better if it had been replaced with a more upbeat expression.

"Hi, sis," she declared, as the dark blue mare approached her, "I woke up and you weren't there. Then I went looking for you and got lost."

"I was summoned by Princess Luna," the mare stated, looking back toward the doors, "she wished to talk at me about certain matters."

"What was it?" Thesis asked.

"Irrelevant," the mare said angrily, before rubbing a hoof against the said of her head. "It need not concern you, little one."

Thesis looked at the mare for a moment. "Are you alright?" she ventured, "because you sound kinda angry."

"Do not take any appearance of ill disposition as cause for consternation,” the mare said. “My animus is not directed towards yourself.I have been suffering from a headache these last few days, but today it has chosen to graduate to the level of "screaming”. As to you, I believe you asked that today we do something other than study books?"

Thesis nodded, trying not to look too excited about not having to go to the library.

"Then let us see what Canterlot has to offer."

"Yup," Pokey nodded sagely, "it's still raining, boss. Somehow, this still has not changed from when you last asked me."

Trixie groaned irritably.

She knew it was raining. It had been raining all morning, and was going to continue on through to the evening, just as it had during the night, just as it said on the weather forecast (or would have, if she hadn't taken it down in a fit of annoyance). Normally she wouldn't have cared quite so much, save for the fact that it was meant to be her spa day. Once a week, every week, she and Carrot Top had decided, they would head down to the town spa for a good several hours of pampering.

But with the rain as severe as it was, she wasn't about to risk going outside like she had yesterday. All the more annoying, since the day after would be Carrot Top's birthday, and Trixie had been planning on some generous friend-related splurging (obviously for both of them. She felt she deserved some pampering after the week she'd had).

And just to make things worse, her head still hurt from last night. She didn't think it was fair, she'd barely drank anything.

"On the plus side," Pokey said, as he nosed through the Equestria Nightly, "there won't be any rain tomorrow."

"Yay." Trixie intoned, lifelessly.

Pokey hummed, as he continued onward. "Hey," he said, "some general's taken a leave of absence to look for his missing daughter."

As he read on, Pokey's eyebrows shot up. "You should see what they're saying about this guy. Pretty harsh to say about someone looking for his kid."

Trixie looked at Pokey. Her opinion of Equestria's most popular newspaper had dramatically plummeted after it had, thanks to some nudging from a certain noble, printed some blatantly fraudulent claims about her just after an unfortunate incident with a curse and the town's alcohol supply.

Still, it wasn't like there was much else to do. Nopony was going to file any complaints or demands with the weather as bad as it was, so her in-tray was pretty empty.

"What's it say?"

"Oh, y'know," Pokey said nonchalantly, "nothing nice. It's claiming he's abandoning Equestria in it's "hour of need" when we need "everypony to stand together" to keep us safe from Corona lest she tries burning us all." He punctuated that with a scoff.

"You don't think that's true?" Trixie asked.

Pokey turned to look at her. "I don't think Equestria is going to fall just because one brigadier-general wants to go looking for his missing kid. Grown mare or not, that's gotta be a parent's worst nightmare, not knowing where your kid is, what's happened to them or if they're even still alive."

Trixie's already sour mood turned even worse at that, as Pokey rolled the newspaper up and set it aside. "Actually kind of surprising he lasted as long as he did."

"Yeah," Trixie murmured, "surprising."

If it was a choice between staying in the library all day, or seeing the bizarre sights of Canterlot all day, Thesis was pretty sure she enjoyed seeing the sights more.

Not that she didn't like reading, but it got kind of boring and same-y. Seeing all the cool stuff, ship models and giant creatures and armour and things-that-she-couldn't-pronounce in the museum, going into the shops and just looking at stuff (and occasionally poking, though Midnight seemed kind of annoyed by that) was much more fun.

But there had been a few odd moments, like when they'd been sitting down for lunch, and she'd asked Midnight about what the funny guards had said, about what being "sweet" on somepony.

"Where did you hear that expression?" her big sister had asked.

"That guard with the funny name," she said, "Ardy... something?"

"Ardent?"

"Yeah," she grinned, "him. Apparently he's sweet on you. What does that mean?"

Midnight had gone very, very, very quiet at that.

"I couldn't possibly hazard a guess," the mare said quickly.

However, overall, the day had been pretty enjoyable.

But by the time the two eventually returned to the tiny little room, Thesis found that her hooves were hurting. And her legs hurt, and her sides hurt.

A quick bath took care of most of that, and by the time she got to the bed, she was already mostly asleep anyway.

"Hey, sis?" she'd asked as she clambered onto the bed.

"Yes?"

"Tomorrow..." she hesitated, "tomorrow can you show me how to do magic?"

For several seconds, the older mare stared at her, and Thesis wondered if she was going to say "no".

"We shall see." She eventually said. Thesis grinned, and dived under the covers. Now she was desperate to fall asleep, just so tomorrow would come quicker.

"So," Fleur ventured, on seeing Midnight show up for their run, "guessing it didn't go too well."

Midnight paused, as close as she'd probably come to screaming.

"No. It did not."

"You fired yet, or...?" she trailed off. The dark blue mare shook her head.

"No, but in all likelihood the Princess is strongly considering it. And doubtless there will be additional punitive measures."

"And so close to Hearthwarming," Fleur frowned, half-seriously.

The two looked up at the sky, as several weather patrol ponies shoved large purple clouds into position. The weather schedule had been calling for heavy rain that day.

"Well," the taller mare smiled, "what are you going to do?"

"What I have always done. I will not bend to her demands, simply because she is angry. I have never done so before, and I shall not do so now."

Fleur made a noncommittal noise of agreement. Not because she necessarily agreed (which she didn’t), but more because she knew there was no point arguing. "So you're going to try and keep Thesis?"

There was quiet for a moment, save for the wind blowing with increasing fierceness.

"By whatever means are available to me, yes."

"Good luck with that," Fleur said.

Thesis had been feeling pretty good on waking up. Even more when she remembered Midnight had promised to teach her magic.

That good feeling lasted right up until she saw Midnight staring out of the window at the rain.

"My apologies, little one," she'd said. "I had said I would teach you magic today, however the weather has put that plan on hold."

Not only was the good mood gone, now Thesis was feeling something worse, a sort of burning feeling.

She really didn't like it.

"Why?" she asked.

"It is not only far too wet, and too cold, but also quite windy. Not at all a good environment for teaching magic."

"So why don't we do it inside?"

"While I have no doubt Princess Luna might be amenable to such a thing, I do not think that would be the best."

The burning feeling was getting worse. Now her eyes were stinging for some reason, and she was finding it hard to see.

"You said we would!"

"And we will," the mare said. But Thesis didn't care. Right now she didn't want to even look at the mare. All she could focus on was the fact that she hurt.

"When?" she asked, more loudly than she'd been meaning to.

"As soon as we can."

Thesis didn't believe her on that one. "You're lying," she yelled. "You said today!"

Now Midnight wasn't even looking at her, but at one of the lights. This lasted only a moment, but it didn't do anything for Thesis' already bad mood.

"I made a mistake," she said. At least she sounded like she felt terrible about that, a part of Thesis thought. Actually, the way she said it sounded like it was about the worst possible thing she could've done. "I was so preoccupied by other matters I forgot that it would be raining today."

Thesis just tried not looking at her. There wasn't really anything else to do. She couldn't easily go into another room, unless she shut herself in the little bathroom, and she couldn't walk out the door because she couldn't open it.

Her anger seemed to have vanished, replaced by a weird empty feeling, which felt worse than the anger to her.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, as Midnight walked over towards her, and sat down next to her.

"There's no need to apologise simply for being upset, little one."

Thesis couldn't even bring herself to look up. "I really wanted to learn how to do magic," she murmured.

"I could tell," Midnight said.

A moment passed, the only sound being the wind battering the rain against the window. There was a faint fluttering sound, and Thesis found a piece of chocolate floating near her muzzle.

"It will make you feel better," Midnight said. She sniffed cautiously at it, then took a bite. True to the mare's words, she did start to feel a little better afterwards, though she couldn't help but think the chocolate Miss Trixie had given her was better.

Midnight shifted slightly next to her. "I felt it would be better for you to learn magic outside, rather than spending another day inside again."

"Oh," Thesis said. She looked back toward the window again, "couldn't we try going outside anyway?"

"That would not be a very good idea. The current conditions would make it difficult for you to focus enough on the task."

"I could try," she said hopefully.

"On that, I have no doubt."

The two sat there for a moment longer. "So..." Thesis began, "if we can't learn magic indoors..." she wasn't sure why they couldn't, now that she thought about it, but there was probably a reason, "what are we going to do?"

"Reading," Thesis said, looking at the various shelves filled with books. She followed this up with a tiny, and not-really-happy-at-all "yay."

"If I cannot at least show you magic," Midnight said, "then for the moment I shall resolve myself to teach you about magic."

"I thought I already did that," Thesis said. She wasn't really paying attention, but eyeing the books carefully.

They were presently in the palace library. It looked different from Miss Twilight's library, and the Canterlot library at the same time. It didn't seem nearly as large as either, for one thing, and there were a lot less ponies. And something about it seemed a lot less… cosy.

There was an odd look in Midnight's eyes when she looked back at her. "There is always more to learn," the mare said, "but specifically the aim is to teach you about the mechanics, so that you know what you are doing when you have a chance to perform magic."

Thesis thought about that as the two walked along the aisles of books. "Shouldn't I have know that already?"

The mare stopped and looked down at her. "That is a very Lulamoon thing to say," she declared. "But yes. Though it would only have been a problem if you were to be learning the problematic areas of magic."

She turned back to the shelves, her horn glowing as she removed one book from them.

"You know what?" Trixie declared, to nopony in particular.

"What?" Carrot Top responded, not looking at her.

"I had no idea how much I needed this."

There was a vague noise of agreement from Lyra.

Presently, there were four of the six Element Bearers gathered inside Ponyville's one and only spa. Cheerilee and Ditzy Doo were both absent due to the unfortunate fact of their jobs... well, sort of. Ditzy's boss had tried "giving" Ditzy the day off, but Ditzy had been stubbornly insistent on not taking it, and that had been that.

They were there celebrating Carrot Top's birthday... again, sort of. The actual celebrations weren't scheduled to begin until their fellow knights turned up. At the moment, they were simply enjoying Trixie's gift of extreme pampering, presently taking the foam of a good soak.

And quite frankly, Trixie's statement was striking a shared sentiment with all of them. In one way or another, they all felt they needed a good time to kick up their hooves and just relax, without any worry of some disaster or another coming to their front doorstep. Even Lyra, usually the one of them most averse to sitting still (at least once she was up and about), which might have had something to do with the candy that made up a large portion of her diet, was looking completely relaxed.

"Hey?" Lyra said, "can we just spend the rest of today here? Like, if we ask Aloe and Lotus nicely, do you think we could just have somepony bring food and drink to us?"

Carrot Top just chortled. "I think we'd have more luck convincing Corona to become a school teacher."

Trixie held up a hoof. "Non, non, non, no mentioning that name. We're supposed to be relaxing, Dame Carrot Top. There is nothing outside this spa."

"I am relaxing," Carrot Top smiled. "I am relaxed. There is no pony more relaxed than I."

"Dunno," Lyra grinned, sliding down further into the water as she did, "I think I got you beat."

"It's not a competition," Trixie said. "Besides, I'm even more relaxed."

"Hey, Drops," Lyra casually waved a hoof at the pegasus, "can you hit Trixie, please?"

The pegasus remained nigh-motionless, and with her eyes closed looked for all the world like she was asleep. "Why me?" she asked.

"You're closer than I am," Lyra replied. Raindrops paused.

"No, I think I've got a good calm going. Trixie complaining will ruin it."

"I don-" Trixie began to yell, then stopped when she realised what she'd been about to say. For an instant she could've sworn the edges of Raindrop's mouth curled.

"Sorry, Lyra." The weathermare said. The musician shrugged.

Trixie just closed her eyes, and tried to get back to relaxing. As she did, however, the doors leading through to the changing room opened, and Ditzy came in.

As Trixie opened her eyes, she saw the mailmare was still in her uniform, and still carrying her bag.

"Letter for Dame Trixie Lulamoon," Ditzy declared. "Hey, Carrot Top."

"Hey," Carrot Top casually waved a hoof, as Trixie (with no small amount of reluctance, it had to be said) hoisted herself out of the water, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, taking the letter in her magic.

"How's the day going?" Ditzy smiled at Carrot Top.

"Pretty great, so far," her friend said. "It'd be better if you and Cheerilee were here, though."

"I know," Ditzy said, "sorry."

"Don't b-"

Before Carrot Top could finish, there was a noise from Trixie. It was probably supposed to be a "what", but somewhere along the way it turned into a noise of sheer outrage. Before anypony could ask, Trixie crushed the letter in her magic, tossed the towel aside and stormed out of the room, cursing hideously in Prench.

"Should..." Lyra began, "should somepony go after her? What was in that letter?"

Ditzy made her over to it, and tried smoothing it out as best she could, before reading it.

"Oh..." she declared. It wasn't particularly loudly, but there was something about it that seemed to make the entire room tense up. "Oh, my..." she added.

A curious Lyra, now carefully wrapped in a towel, made her way over to where Ditzy was standing, and taking every effort to not spill water on the letter, examined it.

"Ah," she found herself saying.

Thesis was beginning to get more than a little bored of reading. Okay, the books did talk about all kinds of cool sounding magic a pony could perform, but that wasn't the same thing. She wanted to do magic herself. And she wanted to do it now.

Problem was none of the books had actually said anything about that (that she could tell, anyway).

She still wasn't absolutely sure why Midnight wouldn't let them practice indoors. She knew practicing in the library probably wasn't a good idea, even if only because of the cranky librarian who'd shown up and looked at her like she was somepony who needed to be watched, but she still didn't quite get why they couldn't just practice somewhere else.

Midnight probably had some reason why not. She couldn't think of any, but she was only a few days old.

Fortunately, reading had only taken so long. And then at lunch Midnight had introduced her to a thing called "ice cream", which had included more chocolate. Thesis had decided she liked that a lot, even if it tasted weird and cold to her (and made her head really hurt when she tried eating too much).

Then, after eating they'd just sat in one room of the castle nopony seemed to be using and watched the rain falling on the city.

"Thesis?" Midnight had eventually said (she wasn't sure how long it had been. The rain had made her start thinking about lots of stuff).

"Yes?"

"Tomorrow..." the mare paused again. For a moment, Thesis felt a brief surge of hope that she'd say they'd learn magic, "tomorrow I am going to be away."

"Doing what?" she asked.

"Something important, but I shall make sure you will be looked after, and have something to do. Something that does not involve reading."

Thesis grinned at that one.

"There is... another matter, as well. And this one concerns both of us."

Thesis blinked in confusion.

"What?" she asked. Midnight stared out at the rain for a long time.

"Soon, in the next few days, Princess Luna, or somepony who works for her, is likely going to ask whether you would wish to remain with me, or go with somepony else."

There was a tense silence. "Is that bad?"

"It... no," Midnight stared off into the distance, "it is what it is. However, over the last year she and I have... we have had disagreements. Vociferous disagreements, and she may not be entirely honest towards you because you are young, and she does not trust me."

"She'll lie to me?" Thesis asked. That didn't sound good. In one of those many, many books she'd looked over, it had said Princesses were supposed to be fair, and honest.

"She would frame it as something else, but in essence, yes."

Thesis couldn't believe it. She simply couldn't believe it. Yes, the Princess had looked a little scary back when she'd first seen her, but in fairness to her everyone and everything had looked scary back then (including those guards who'd found her). And Miss Trixie seemed to trust her, and she hadn't really done anything to Thesis, so she just assumed... But she lied. Thesis couldn't understand it. It was like... well, she didn't know what it was like, really, because she couldn't think of anything worse.

But she did know that if Princess Luna was going to lie, she didn't like her at all.

It had been unanimously decided, after everypony read the unfortunate letter, to find Trixie and talk to her.

By the time everypony had dried off, gotten their stuff together and gone to apologise to Aloe and Lotus for cutting their session short, Trixie had returned, looking unpleasantly resigned. It was Ditzy, still dressed in her mailmare's outfit who acted first, hugging Trixie firmly.

"Thanks," Trixie had said, before looking at the rest of them. "Sorry I stormed out, but..."

"Yeah," Raindrops said, "we kind of read the letter."

Trixie winced, "I was planning to go write an angry letter to Princess Luna, but then I figured I'd come and explain what I was doing to you first, and then tell you not to stop what you’re doing just because of me."

"We want to help you," Carrot Top said, firmly.

"I know," Trixie smiled. It should have been reassuring, and any other day would have been. "And I'm telling you not to. Go have fun, don't worry about me. I'm just going to write and letter and then I'll be right back." Trixie shifted her position, in a way that suggested she was about to rear onto her hind legs. Fireworks would probably follow.

"And then, I, Dame Trixie Lulamoon, shall-"

"Trixie?" Raindrops cut in.

"Yeah?"

"I think Aloe and Lotus don't want you letting off fireworks inside." She motioned toward the two ponies, who were staring at Trixie with a mix of mild bemusement and concern.

"They're not real fireworks," Trixie said, carefully. Somehow, this didn't seem to mollify either pony. "Anyway, you, Carrot Top, birthday party. Fun will be had."

Observation Report
Day 5 (27.11.1000 AC)

Subject has become insistent on learning magic.

Would advise that if magic is to be taught, it is in a remote locale, outside in order to ensure minimum harm both to subject and any present.

Suspect subject's initial attempts at magic may be unstable, overcasting a serious possibility.

Related: Incident involving subject demonstrates severe dislike of falsehoods, even in innocence. Untrained magic may also lead to uncontrolled bursts (light fixtures in room began shaking violently during subject's emotional outburst, ceased when subject abated.)

Previous objection to subject being placed with other foals renewed.

"So, um..." Thesis began, as the two ponies worked their way through dinner (she couldn't pronounce the name of what she was eating, but it was really hot), "who am I staying with tomorrow?"

Midnight didn't answer, as she was presently taking a very long drink after what she'd eaten (Thesis wasn't sure what it was, but just sniffing at it had made her eyes water and her throat burn).

"Is it your parents? Do you have parents?"

At that, Midnight went very, very still, and Thesis had an inescapable feeling she'd just done something very wrong.

"What are they like?" Thesis found herself asking before she could stop herself. "And if they're your parents, and I'm your sister, doesn't that make them my parents a-"

"Little one," the mare said, carefully, "please stop asking."

Thesis blinked, and looked down at her meal.

"I know you meant no harm with your questions but, and this is important, little one, sometimes there are questions you shouldn't ask of ponies."

"Why?"

"Sometimes," the mare said, "sometimes the answers can be painful. So painful that it hurts to think of it."

Thesis didn't really get how a memory could be painful, but she nodded anyway.

"Often times," Midnight continued, "ponies may not react well to questions like this. They may become angry, or worse."

"Oh," Thesis murmured. "Sorry," she added.

"That is quite alright," came the response, "you were not to know."

She looked back down to her meal.

"The answer is "yes", she heard Midnight say, "I do have parents. Or rather, did. And a... a sibling. But to answer your other question, no. It is not them."

"Who is it?"

"Fleur De Lis. You encountered her on your first day here."

Thesis paused as she thought back to that day, and all the ponies she'd seen. "Um..." she said.

"The tall one, who ran into Lulamoon on the stairs."

Thesis blinked again. Then she remembered the tall, talky and slightly scary pony with the purple eyes.

"Oh," she murmured. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," came Midnight's instant response.

Trixie awoke, and almost immediately regretted it. She was besieged by light, and sound, and taste and texture. All the symptoms of what she would have described as a "raging hangover".

Trying desperately to ignore the harsh light, the grinding sounds, the pounding in her skull, and the horrible cold around her hooves, she tried thinking back to the night before. What had she been doing? What had she been doing?

Everything was a strange, pleasant blur. There had been a party, with friends. And she'd been annoyed about something. What was it? It must've been something pretty impressive, going by the headache.

As she dragged herself out of her bed, she tried going over the events of the day before. She'd been at the spa, and then something had annoyed her (that was going to bug her until it kicked in, she knew it), and then there'd been... ah, yes, she told herself as she reached the bathroom, Carrot Top's birthday party. That was what it had been. They'd really thrown out all the stops. But someone had been insistent, hadn't they? After everything that'd happened in the last year. Who was that pony? Had it been her? It sounded like her, she’d always loved a party. Or it might have been all of them.

Now marching down the stairs, Trixie tried recalling much of the night. What she could recall was astoundingly blurry, but at least she'd been having a good time. Hadn't she?

Making her way into her office, Trixie at least felt grateful that her hangover hadn't removed her memories of where she kept Carrot Top's hangover cures (not that she always needed them, but it was always best to be prepared).

Halfway across the room she stopped, and turned (carefully, her neck was incredibly sore) to look at the bottle sitting right in the middle of her desk, in plain view. It was one bottle of Carrot Top's hangover cures, with a little note leaning against it.

She examined the bottle, then the note, which read in the careful writing that could only have been Carrot Top's.

"For Trixie," it read, "since I figure we're all going to have hangovers by the time you see this."

Trixie grinned at that. She wondered why neither she or Carrot Top had left any by her bedside table. Then, and only then, did she notice the writing further down. Her writing, to be precise.

"I did leave some on your bedside table, but just in case you didn't notice it..."

Trixie's smile changed. Well played, Trixie, she thought to herself. With that, she opened the bottle and merrily drunk the potion down.

Almost instantly, she could feel the hangover wearing off, and with that came the memory that it was, regrettably, a work day.

With all the fun of being hungover, she hadn't noticed whether there was anything to be done that day. With trepidation, she looked over at the little three-tiered tray sitting on her desk, and saw only a moderate sized pile lying in the “in” tray, nothing more than a few hours of work.

"Yay," she said quietly. Mercifully, the headache she was still sporting did not choose to make her head implode for trying even that.

"Pokey," she declared, with slightly more force. There was no response from him, not even some kind of sarcastic retort.

"Ah," Trixie said, as she recalled something important: It was not a work-day. It was, as a matter of fact, the weekend. And the reason the paperwork of yesterday was still there was because she'd given him the day off the day before Carrot’s birthday, since there wasn’t any point him being there without her. Meaning there was now extra paperwork for Monday, unless she was mad enough to try and do it on a weekend. Which she most definitely wasn’t.

And now with her good mood ruined, she found herself wondering about whatever it had been that was annoying her. For some reason, she was pretty sure Princess Luna had something to do with it...

Thesis wasn't sure she understood the pony called Fleur De Lis. She seemed nice, but at the same time, she was very odd.

Her idea of looking after Thesis had not been to take her to a library, or a museum, but to take her to places filled with clothing.

Thesis wasn't entirely sure that was actually better than another day at the library.

And she talked a lot. Just talking and talking and talking, about all sorts of things. And then occasionally she'd say something in Prench (which Thesis was surprised to realise she understood, somehow).

And she smiled even more, though there was something about it that, to Thesis at least, just didn't seem at all right. Like it wasn't real.

"You know," she'd smiled when they'd entered the first store, and the smartly-dressed ponies there had recognised her, "I used to do this with your big sister. Well, I say "do", usually I had to drag her here, and oh she'd make such a huge song and dance about it, goodness me, it’s amazing she never went into show-business."

"Why did you take her here?" Thesis asked, looking about the room. Fleur had just blinked, and then laughed.

"Oh, it was a little pet project of mine," the mare had said, as she examined one incredibly large and frilly dress, "to bring her out of her shell, open her eyes to new ideas, make her more genteel. And, of course, buy lots of clothes."

"Did it work?" Thesis asked.

"Oh, I bought lots of clothes, alright," she grinned, "sadly, your big sister remained distinctly uneducated." The mare's expression darkened as she continued, "And no matter how much money I spent on her, she always found some excuse to never wear them! "I'm claustrophobic", she'd say, "I accidentally ripped the seams", "there was a flood". Honestly, a flood! This city's on top of a mountain. How, I ask, does a mare find a flood on a mountain?"

The mare had scowled for a moment, then her expression brightened again as she saw something behind Thesis, cooed merrily, and rushed over towards.

This had continued for the first three hours or so of the day, up until she'd noticed Thesis was bored.

"Whatever is the matter?" Fleur had asked, sounding genuinely confused, if only for a moment. Then she had winced. "Ah."

There had been a long pause as she'd glanced about awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot. I'm just not used to dealing with foals. Fancy's the one who..." She trailed off for a moment, then coughed. "How about lunch?"

At the thought of food, Thesis had perked up. They'd made their way to one of the museums, which contained something called a "tea-room". It was filled with lots of old ponies, sitting around talking. She wasn't sure, but Thesis thought she saw some of them looking very angry at Mrs. De Lis as she walked past. Mrs. De Lis just seemed to keep smiling that very weird smile of hers.

They'd had tea, which Thesis hadn't been entirely sure about (it had tasted bland to her) along with strange crunchy things Mrs. De Lis had called biscuits, and then the much more interesting thing called cake.

After that she'd asked Thesis what she wanted to do. Thesis had considered that one. She'd wanted to ask about other foals, but Mrs. De Lis didn't look like she knew much about that (Thesis wasn't entirely sure if she knew anything outside of shopping and tea). She'd asked about magic, and Mrs. De Lis had made an odd face.

"That... I'm sorry," she'd said, "I kind of promised your sister I wouldn't. I don't think she trusts me to teach you anything safe... and she's very scary when she's upset."

That had made Thesis stop wanting to eat any more food for the moment. "What's it like?" she'd asked.

"Learning magic?" Mrs. De Lis had blinked. "It's... it's not easy. Even ponies who are natural talents can have difficulty with it, I know that much. It doesn't come instantly, but when it does..." she smiled warmly, "it's indescribable."

"I see," Thesis murmured, absently prodding at her slice of cake.

"How about some entertainment?" Mrs. De Lis had smiled, as if the previous discussion just hadn't happened at all, "I'll bet your sister hasn't shown you all the fun that could be had in the city."

Thesis had to admit she hadn't. So, once she'd make an effort at finishing the cake, they'd trotted across the city, to a large pile of rubble, surrounded by several unhappy looking ponies carrying signs.

"Ah," Mrs. De Lis had said on arrival. "Yes. I forgot this place had burnt down." Apparently several of the ponies nearby had heard that, and shoot her several filthy looks. Mrs. De Lis had looked about nervously, muttering something under her breath.

"The Commedia Della Luna, maybe?" she frowned. "No, too early and far too casual... and too expensive..." she muttered something again, "why couldn't they have burnt down something else? Not yet pantomime season, so we can't go there..."

After longs moments of muttering, she finally seemed to arrive at some decision.

That decision, as it turned out, was a building that looked bigger than the library, but smaller than the palace. There didn't seem to be many ponies about as they had entered. Mrs. De Lis had said something about how ponies didn't often go to wherever they were during the day, and then led her to a large, dark room filled with lots and lots of chairs pointing to a large stage.

According to Mrs. De Lis, it was called "opera". From what Thesis could tell, it involved lots of ponies leaping about on the stage wearing funny hats and wigs singing at one another (singing about what, she didn't know, but they were definitely singing it seriously). Occasionally, some of them would stop singing and talk very fast about... well, she couldn't tell, given they spoke even faster than Mrs. De Lis.

But even if she didn't really understand all of what was going on (there was a princess, and some pirates, and one pony in a really fancy hat, and the princess had been kidnapped), the songs they kept singing were catchy.

Eventually the play ended with the pirates being forgiven by the Princess for kidnapping her, then marrying the ponies who'd been trying to catch them, which Thesis wasn't entirely sure made sense, but Mrs. De Lis had simply said that was the point.

"Did you enjoy that?" she'd asked, as they left the theatre. Thesis had nodded.

"I didn't get it though. I-it was fun, but I didn't get all of it."

She'd smiled an odd smile, "well, that's incentive to come back. Of course," she had leaned in towards her, "if you like, I have a book of the play I could give you."

So they had set off through the city, with the light beginning to dim and the city beginning to bustle with life (and, Thesis noticed, an awful lot of coffee), so much so that Mrs. De Lis felt the need to carry her on her back, which all things considered was nowhere near as comfortable as with Mrs. Trixie, since the mare was thinner and bumpier. She did like the extra view.

The problem with the weekends, Trixie noted, was that they went by too fast. She had considered trying to find something to do, but most of her fellow Knights tended to spend much of the weekend relaxing in one way or another (well, except Lyra, as Trixie knew from harsh experience), and in the beginning of winter very few of them were likely to be tempted forth from their nice, warm, cosy homes to hang out.

So, donning her hat and cape she made her way forth into the chill of early evening (well, late afternoon, really) to Berry's.

Even at that time of day, the establishment had several customers present already. Berry still noticed Trixie entering, and smiled the malicious smile of a pony who was owed money.

"Evening, Representative," she said. Trixie felt an odd chill. She had already paid for the drinks Berry had provided for Carrot Top's birthday (well, everypony had chipped in, save Carrot, and Ditzy).

"Berry," Trixie said, trying to sound calm. The earth pony just casually leaned across the bar.

"Had a good party last night, huh?"

"I think it went well," Trixie said, carefully. Berry's smile didn't diminish.

"Glad to hear it. Now, about the money you owe me..."

"I already paid you," Trixie insisted.

"Oh, yes," Berry nodded, "you paid for the stuff at Carrot Top's party, yeah, but you didn't pay for the drinks you took afterward."

Trixie blinked. "What?"

"Yup," the mare said, "after you and Cherry and Lyra were done making a mess in Twilight's library you decided to come in here and have some more fun. Now," she said, reassuringly, "don't worry, I've already gone over the costs, and worked out who drank what. You only owe me... two hundred and twenty-eight bits."

In an instant, Trixie felt like she'd been thrown out of her own body, like she was watching everything unfold from a distance, as Berry stared stone-faced at her.

Then she heard the noise that sounded amazingly like somepony trying not to laugh. She turned, swivelling on her chair to see Lyra, and Cheerilee sitting there, trying and spectacularly failing to look innocent.

"W's'r'idea," Lyra snorted, pointing at Cheerilee before breaking out in laughter.

"Very funny, I think not," Trixie deadpanned, before turning back to Berry, "a soda. Unless that costs enough to buy half of Ponyville as well."

Berry stared at her for a moment, before nodding. Once she had her drink, Trixie made her way over to the table her friends were sitting at.

"How's things?" she asked.

"Good," Cheerilee nodded.

"Fine," Lyra said, "though Bonnie wasn't very sympathetic to me and my hangover this morning. But apart from that, nice and drama free." She paused, "well, in Ponyville, at least."

"I'll drink to that," Trixie said, holding her glass up. The two bumped their glasses against hers, then drank.

Then there was a loud noise from the direction of the doorway. All three leaned out to see who was making it.

It was a bright red pony, with a dark brown mane, grinning triumphantly as he sat down. It was Lotso Lots, Ponyville's one and only listing agent "Berry, pour a pony a drink, if you would."

Berry looked bemused. It wasn't often Lotso came into her establishment (in fact, Trixie couldn't recall a time she'd ever seen him in there). Going by his jubilant mood, Trixie was going to guess he'd made a sale. Probably to the Riches or the Spoons, who were about the only ponies in town who really dealt in real estate of any kind (though given the last year, there had been an increase of ponies looking to do business in the town).

"Good day?" Cheerilee's sister said, as she motioned to one of the other ponies at the bar.

"Pretty good, pretty good," said the pony, "I made one heck of a sale today."

He took his drink, and managed to down it in one go. "Some pony from Canterlot looking for a house, managed to make a sale on the first try."

"Canterlot?" Berry said, impressed, "seriously?"

"Well," Lotso's smile changed slightly, "they weren't a noble or anything, least I don't think they were. I think they were just some mid-management paper pusher or something."

With the words "Canterlot", Trixie's memory found itself being jolted, and she found herself recalling the news that she had been profoundly upset by the day before.

"Hey, Fizzy," she called out to one of the bar ponies, "gonna need the usual over here."

Despite the weirdness of Mrs. De Lis (or Fleur, as she'd asked Thesis to call her), Thesis had to admit her house was pretty nice. She'd mostly just sat in one of the rooms (Fleur had called it a "drawing room" despite there being no paintings around), reading the book she'd been given, with Mrs. Fleur flitting in and out every few minutes, until there was a clanging noise from somewhere.

She heard Mrs. Fleur talking with somepony, and then hoofsteps. Then her big sister appeared, looking... well, looking about the same as usual, really. Still, she was pretty happy to see her.

"I assume Lis has been looking after you," the mare had said.

"Of course I have," Fleur responded instantly, sounding almost offended at the suggestion. "And we had a great time, didn't we?"

Thesis nodded at that, then remembered her book and rushed over to get it, to show her sister. Midnight stared at the book, then at Fleur.

"Taking in a little culture, I see."

"Well," Fleur smiled, "no harm ever came from a little opera."

"I liked it. It was fun. There was a princess and pirates and lots of silly hats and singing..."

"Indeed," was all Midnight had been able to say to that. "But I think it's time to go, little one."

"Okay," she said. For some reason she felt sad about that. "Can I keep the book?" she asked.

"Certainly," Fleur smiled.

On the walk back to the castle, Thesis had a spring in her step as she went, not noticing the odd look on Midnight's face, the mare glancing about occasionally.

"So what were you doing?" Thesis asked.

"Attending to a small matter of business," Midnight said, "which was dealt with satisfactorily."

"So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Thesis asked, carefully. "Are we going to be learning magic?"

The older mare just remained very quiet. They were walking through a bustling street, so Thesis presumed she just hadn't heard her properly.

"Hey, sis," she said, "what are we doing tomorrow?"

"That remains to be seen," the mare said, her voice distant. "But in all likelihood, little one, it... it may not be very pleasant."

"Couldn't we do something fun instead?" Thesis suggested. For a moment, it looked like Midnight was going to say something in response to that, but she remained silent.

Thesis awoke, not recalling when she'd fallen asleep. She was startled to find Midnight was already awake, sitting on the couch a short distance away from the bed, outlined by the early light of dawn as she remained motionless.

"Wh't tm is it?" Thesis groaned, as she looked about.

"Early morning," came the reply. She couldn't tell what it was, but something was off with her sister's reply.

There was an odd feeling to the room, and an unpleasant one at that. Like the whole world was holding its breath. Slowly, Thesis got out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom. As she was halfway through combing the tangled mess that was her mane, there was a loud knocking noise.

"Miss Midnight?" A pony on the other side of the door could be heard asking, "are you in there?"

"One moment," came the reply, as Midnight walked up to the door. On the other side were two ponies of Luna's guard, neither of whom looked especially happy.

"You have an appointment with the Princess," one guard said. Midnight looked over to Thesis.

"Come along, little one," she said.

Thesis paused. There was something about this she didn't like. Not just the guards, but Midnight's entire attitude. Like she was getting ready for something. It made her want to run over to her bed and bury herself beneath the covers.

"Miss," one guard said, only for Midnight to whirl around to look at them. The guard actually flinched, before Midnight turned back again.

"Thesis, this likely concerns you as well."

Slowly, she got down off the stool and trotted over towards the door, glancing at her big sister.

In the eerie quiet, the door closing sounded so much louder than usual. Together, the four ponies marched through the corridors in an unpleasant silence. Thesis didn't like it. It reminded her too much of the forest.

Eventually, they reached the large chamber she'd been in days before, the room that led to somewhere she didn't know where. That giant pony in the armour was there, looking at Midnight with... sadness? Disappointment? Thesis wasn't really sure. He didn't look happy all the same. He nodded to the guards, and they turned and left, but his gaze remained on Midnight.

"What did you do?" he asked, sounding... worried, no, more than worried, terrified even. Midnight just looked towards Thesis, and then there was another look on his face.

"Oh." He uttered.

There was an almighty sound as the great doors in front of them opened. From behind Midnight, Thesis couldn't really see anything, until the mare started moving forward.

"Good luck," the pony said to her, as she entered. Almost immediately after she was past the doors, they slammed shut with a thunderous sound.

The captain of Princess Luna's guard let out a tremendous sigh. He seemed different from how he'd been several days ago. Now he looked more like another pony, less grim and serious, and more like someone who'd been working too long and too hard.

"What's going on in there?" Thesis asked, just barely. Apparently he heard her all the same.

"Well," he began, "the gist of it is that Midnight's gone and done something... pretty bad."

"What?" she felt moved to ask. Shining Armor just shrugged.

"I don't know. I didn't feel brave enough to ask. Normally, something like this the Princess would be angry, just give the pony a chewing out, maybe have their pay docked or demote them, but..." he sighed again.

"But what?"

"It's been a tough year for her, for all of us, but her more than most." he said. "There's Corona, and then the business at the Gala, Corona again, the Sun Cultists we've been hearing about... what happened with the opera house, and then Dame Trixie and my sister... and all the usual problems of running a country. She's feeling the strain, even if she'd never admit it, and now something like this..."

"Oh," Thesis said. She wasn't really sure what else there was to say.

From the other side of the door there was a great noise, louder than any voice she'd heard before, as Princess Luna's shouting could be heard through them.

Thesis, startled by the sudden and loud noise, squeaked in terror and ran toward one of the nearby couches, trying to crawl under it, for lack of any bedsheets to hide under. She didn't know all of what was going on, but she did know she didn't want to be there, listening to an angry princess yelling at ponies.

After a few seconds she saw a large white hoof, followed by the large white face of Shining Armor looking at her.

"Hey," he said, gently, "it's alright. She's not mad at you."

Thesis just stared at him.

"I know it's scary," he continued, "I've been there. There was this one time, about a year ago now, I saw Corona herself. It was the second most terrifying day of my life."

"What was the first?" Thesis asked.

"Learning my little sister had gone on the run for misuse of magic," he said. "It was a nightmare. I didn't know what had happened to her, or where she'd gone."

He blinked for a moment. "Where was I? Oh, right. I'm just saying, I know what it's like to be dealing with an angry alicorn. But Princess Luna would never be angry at a foal. Never."

Thesis just squeaked. There had been quiet from the large doors. Whatever the Princess was yelling about, it had stopped.

Maybe the two had made up after whatever they were arguing about. Feeling slightly more cheerful, she removed herself from under the sofa.

As if on cue, the large doors cracked open again. From inside, the Princess's voice carried through.

"Captain, if you could bring Thesis in."

She squeaked, and looked back toward the sofa. Then the captain put a hoof in front of her vision.

Not feeling at all safe, she slowly trotted into the other chamber.

Inside was a vast area, filled with large blue and purple windows. Normally, during the nighttime, they would let magically filtered moonlight in, but as it was early morning there was a different, pale and eerie light to them instead. There were two rows of steps, running up to a large chair, of a dark colour inlaid with shining silver metal.

It was known as the Selenic Cathedra. It was the center of Equestria's power, it was where Luna's throne rested, and where the great and the good (or the great and the powerful, at any rate) convened.

For a filly barely a week old, it was incredibly spooky, even without the angry looking Princess standing there. A few feet away was Midnight, and despite her relative height among ponies, she still looked so much less compared to an alicorn.

Neither of them looked at all happy.

"Hi," Thesis squeaked. Despite her obvious bad mood, Luna smiled an odd smile.

"Typically it is customary to refer to me as "Princess", or "Your Highness", but I think I can make an exception in this case. Hello, again."

Thesis just made a noise so nigh imperceptible it might as well not have been made. Luna frowned.

“I’m sorry for dragging you here at so early an hour, but… Midnight and I have been talking-”

“And shouting,” Thesis murmured. Luna paused.

“That too,” she admitted, “and while we have been disagreeing on a great many subjects lately, she insisted you be allowed the right to choose for yourself what happens, and I do agree with her on that part.”

Luna paused again. “You see, Thesis, originally the plan had been for Midnight to observe you for a week or so, to see how you would get on, and then after that, assuming all had gone well, you would be adopted by a suitable somepony.”

The words passed over Thesis, and she looked at Midnight, who was glowering at the Princess behind her back. Then they sunk it. Give her up for adoption? Observe her? She couldn’t…she wouldn’t have…

Then Midnight’s words from before came to mind. How Princess Luna would lie to her.

“She would frame it as something else”.

“Of course,” the Princess was saying, “as Midnight… reminded me, in her own way, it’s unfair not to ask you your opinion on the subject. Do you wish to stay with her, or would you rather live with somepony else? But before you choose, just consider the choice carefully for what seems best for you.”

Thesis looked up at the mare (which was difficult, because of just how tall she was). She didn’t look like she was lying, but… she’d had Midnight observe her? Was that why they’d been shouting? Was that why she was in trouble? She didn’t like any of what was going on. Something about it, and the room, and the way the whole day had been going made her want to run and hide. She’d even have taken going back to a library over staying.

And then what did she know of the mare she called sister? As far as she knew, Midnight had been spying on her. And she was kind of weird, maybe even a little creepy, but… she’d given her food, and a place to stay. She’d taught her things, even if she wasn’t sure about all of them.

“I…” Thesis began, and then stopped. Everypony in the room, all three of them, was looking at her and she had no idea what to say or to choose. It felt like her brains were starting to boil.

“I wanna stay with Midnight, i-if that’s okay.”

For a second, she could’ve sworn Princess Luna had scowled.

“Very well, then,” was all she said. Then she turned to look at Midnight. “If that is your wish.”

There was a length pause, as the mare looked at Thesis’ big sister. “As for you…”

“I’m fired?” The mare asked. She didn’t sound surprised by it, which seemed to annoy Princess Luna even further.

“Well, what would you do in this situation, if it was one of your ponies who had done this?”

Midnight rubbed a hoof against her chin. “I think… I think I would fire them, with prejudice. I have always preferred an immediate termination to a sincere and heartfelt apology.”

"Very well,” the Princess said. “Thesis can stay with you, for the time being, but I expect you and your belongings to be out of this castle by noon.”

Midnight bowed, and there seemed to be something about it that didn’t seem sincere to Thesis. Then, she straightened her posture and walked past the mare, looking to Thesis.

“Come along, little one.”

Though she had only been alive about a week, and had now know the mare for much the same amount of time, Thesis could’ve sworn there was something very off about Midnight, as she walked through the castle’s corridors.

“Um…” Thesis began, trying to catch the mare’s attention, “M-… Midnight?”

The mare stopped in her tracks, and turned to look at Thesis. “Yes?”

“What was it the Princess fired you over?”

There was a long silence that seemed to stretch out and engulf everything.

“Was it something to do with me?” she asked.

“It…” Midnight began, and then stopped, “In one way, yes. But it was not because of you directly.”

Thesis blinked as she tried making sense of that.“Then what was it?”

Midnight just shook her head. “It is of no concern,” she said, then began walking again, Thesis quickly trotting after her. Their path through the castle soon began to feel familiar to Thesis, and soon enough they came to a pair of nondescript doors. Inside was the room with that yellow earth pony mare from several days ago.

“Hey,” she declared warmly as Midnight entered. The smile on her face vanished pretty quickly as the mare walked past her.

“Oh,” she announced. “Did you, uh…?”

Without a word, Midnight walked across the room to another door, where someone had placed a crude sign with her name on it. Thesis followed her.

“This is… was my office,” the mare declared, as the filly entered.

If someone had asked her to describe the office of the majordomo of Princess Luna, Thesis would have had to think about it. Going by the rest of the castle (or at least the bits which weren’t designed for servants), she’d have said it was something impressive.

There would have been nice carpets, a fancy desk, a window with a good view of something. It would have looked like a place where serious work was done.

Instead, much like Midnight’s room, it was actually kind of unimpressive. It was barely any bigger than her bathroom, with a faded carpet of a unpleasant brown colour. The desk looked old, and barely used, and had almost nothing on it, save an odd tray thing with some papers on it, and an odd greyish-looking thing sitting on top of some papers. She looked about to see a map of Equestria and the surrounding countries (which someone had apparently been drawing on at some point), hanging from a wall with the paint coming off in several places. Nearby was a shelf with a few books. There was a box in the corner, and nearby a sad looking plant which looked like it was probably dead. There was a window, but the view wasn’t really of anything in particular.

Midnight, meanwhile, had taken the greyish thing from the desk. Now that it had moved, Thesis could see it clearer. It was an odd shape, curving to a point. The other end, meanwhile, was an odd greenish colour. For some reason it looked like it had been broken off from something.

“What is that?” she asked.

“A memento, of sorts,” the older mare said. There was a flash of light and a noise, and it was gone. Apparently satisfied, the mare walked around from the desk and out the door.

A very confused Thesis followed her back out, as the mare walked over to a now concerned looking Melody.

“But…” the mare said, “what are we going to do?”

“You’ll manage,” Midnight said. “You are more than capable.”

“But,” the mare asked, “what about the nobles? They’ll pick us to pieces. We’ll be right back to where we were before.” She gulped, staring ahead into space as she turned increasingly pale, “It’ll be the days of Cinch all over again.”

“It will not. Even Luna is not foolish enough to let that happen.” This seemed to calm the mare, and she nodded.

“Right…” she didn’t sound entirely convinced. “And what about you?”

Midnight stopped to consider that. “I am not certain.”

After another pause she nodded towards Melody. “This is goodbye. Thank you, Merry Melody. Your assistance has been invaluable.”

The mare smiled at that, as if there was something funny. “You smooth-talker, you.”

At that, there was a pop and a flash, and a small bag of what Thesis was going to guess was money appeared on the desk.

“For the inevitable party celebrating my departure,” Midnight said, “be sure to make sure they have something worth celebrating with.”

With that, Midnight walked out of the room, Thesis following after her, now feeling thoroughly confused by what was going on, and not certain whether asking would actually get any answers. Their route took them along familiar paths back to the lodging, and the room. Without a word, Midnight began going around making more objects vanish, this time including the toothbrushes and towels, and… well, not much else, actually, until she came to the pair of books on the little bedside table.

“Eight years,” she declared. “Eight years I have worked and lived in this castle.”

Thesis looked about. “Are we going somewhere?” she asked, nervously.

“I have been fired,” Midnight declared, “and since this room is property of the crown I no longer can stay here.”

“So, we’re going somewhere,” Thesis said.

“Yes.”

“Are we going to stay with your family?” Midnight turned to look at her.

“That would be difficult to manage,” she said, eventually. “No, little one. Arrangements have been made.”

Trixie was taking the time to enjoy something she so rarely got to experience: A nice, quiet, Sunday morning. While everypony in Equestria was nervous about the sun, that constant reminder of Corona, dawn was another matter.

Especially when it was quiet, Trixie thought to herself. She wished there were somepony around so she could stress just how lovely and quiet it was. Quiet mornings in Ponyville were rare and solemn events to be treasured (well, for her at least. By her own admission, Trixie was anything but a morning pony. This just happened to be one of those times where she’d awoken and despite some very spirited efforts had not been able to get back to sleep. Since she had nothing better to do, she’d decided to watch the princess at work).

Of course, as she sipped her morning hot chocolate from the comfort of her own living room, a small, annoyingly accurate part of her grimly noted that the quiet probably meant something was going to happen at some point today, almost certainly to her.

Then, as if on cue somepony knocked on the door. Trixie winced.

“You heard me think that, didn’t you?” she thought to herself, “whoever you are, you heard me think that. Well, you’d better be a horde of Corona’s minions, or a crazed golem in the grip of town-levelling fever, or something pretty damn spectacular to ruin my calm like this.”

She marched to the door, and perhaps with a bit more force than was necessary opened it. There was nopony there.

“Hi!” said a very familiar voice. Trixie looked down to see Thesis sitting on her doorstep, smiling at her.

As Trixie was not a morning pony at the best of times, her responses were usually sluggish, but she had just had the metaphorical equivalent of a piano dropped on her calm, and was now seeing a foal sitting on her doorstep.

“Hi?” she managed to get out. This was followed quickly by an incredibly confused “er”, which was joined by a “come on in?”

Thesis did so, happily trotting into the residency.

“Sorry if this sounds rude,” Trixie said, “but… what are you doing here?”

“Living here!” Thesis grinned. Trixie blinked.

And then it all made perfect sense. Of course she was. Princess Luna must have managed to pull some strings for her, cut through or around the bureaucracy so she could adopt Thesis, just like she’d asked. Trixie grinned, to think she’d actually believed that letter she’d got. It had probably been written by some over analytic flunky who hadn’t realised what they were responding to. Or perhaps Luna had managed to find a way around it.

“That’s great,” she smiled. “That’s really… really great!”

“I know,” Thesis smiled, “I could visit you or Miss Twilight whenever I want!”

The metaphorical piano had been replaced by a small falling palace. It took Trixie several long seconds to process that one. As she did, she smiled a small, glassy smile.

“Come again?”

Finding the mare responsible had been easy enough, thanks to the filly’s helpful directions to their house.

Their. Theirs, indeed. The thought of it made Trixie’s blood boil. Only the fact that it was a Sunday morning was preventing her from swearing out a blue streak, or worse.

She had eyes on the house, one of the many pleasant little thatched cottages of Ponyville, a two-floored thing hardly any bigger than her own residency.

She stood in front of the door, squaring herself, seething with anger. And then she hammered her hoof upon it.

There was a moment where the only sound she could heard was her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. Then the door opened.

Almost immediately on seeing the pony present themselves, Trixie struck, lashing out with one hoof. She barely noticed the pain.

“YOU COMPLETE-” she roared, only barely managing to stop herself saying anything worse, as she advanced, “I’m going to-”

“Parley.”

Trixie stopped, not entirely intentionally, as the word hit her. She blinked. “Pardon? Did you just-”

“Yes,” Midnight said, in that level tone that just made Trixie want to hit her even more. “I did call for parley. A truce. Cessation of hostilities.”

Trixie uttered out a long string of nonsense, before finally managing to shore herself on familiar territory. “What.”

“You are incensed at my adoption of Thesis, yes?” Trixie let her glowering speak for itself, “well, rather than risk pain and potential humiliation, perhaps we could discuss the matter like civilised ponies.”

“Civilised?” Trixie practically spat, “After what you pulled? And also, pain and humiliation? Go buck yourself.”

“As I recall, our last altercation-” Midnight began.

“Altercation? You threw a table at me.”

“You attempted to blackmail me,” the mare responded, sharply. Trixie paused, as her memory confirmed that yes, that part was definitely true.

“And that justifies throwing tables?”

Midnight just stared at her for a moment. “As I said, parley. No violence, no fighting, just discussion.”

Trixie glowered at her, hoping furiously that in defiance of all logic the mare’s head would burst into flames. Nothing of the sort happened.

The anger that had been burning through her, searing white-hot anger, was now beginning to dampen slightly. She was still furious beyond words, but it was no longer the only thing on her mind.

“What are you even doing in Ponyville?” she asked.

A short time later, the two were sitting in Trixie’s residency, after having determined it was the better place to conduct their little “discussion” (helped by Trixie’s kitchen actually having food and drink in it).

Midnight had agreed to explain what exactly had been going on, and now the mare was sitting, in her office, staring down at the floor.

Trixie had been pacing, still very furiously angry.

“Have you…” Midnight began, “have you ever had this… overwhelming feeling, this drive to do something, even if you’ve no idea why?”

Trixie stopped and turned to look at the mare. “What?”

“I cannot explain it adequately,” the dark blue mare said, “but… that day in Canterlot, I found myself thinking that I had to, needed to protect her. I do not know why.”

Trixie frowned, for the umpteenth time in as many minutes. “So, the adoption thing, what was with that?”

“That, at least, I can explain. If you had adopted Thesis, Lulamoon,” Trixie tried not to let her irritation rise even further at that, “then… your disgust at physical intimacy and occupation as a knight of the realm aside, the sudden presence of a foal at your side would have drawn attention. Less scrupulous ponies would have attempted to gain access to you through her.”

“You mean like the Night Court?” Trixie said, “Because I don’t know if you paid attention, but Princess Luna said that crap was over.”

“They are not the only ones, Lulamoon. And they are not even the most dangerous.” She paused, momentarily. “As you well know, Equestria has a great many enemies, many far more willing to do worse than any corrupt politician could to gain access to an alicorn foal. The reason I did as I did was because you are too high-profile a personage to successfully raise her safely. However, an utter unknown, a pony nopony would think to look at even twice could.”

Trixie paused, mid-pace, staring out of the window. There was a certain logic to the mare’s words. She didn’t like it, she didn’t agree with it, but it was there.

Midnight took a sip from her drink, “so I did. I may not understand the all of my reasoning, but I knew it had to be done, and done quickly.”

Trixie said nothing, not trusting herself to not swear.

“And as a result of that I lost my career. Near eight years of work, thrown to the wind for a foal I have known for barely a week.”

“So…” Trixie said, trying to sound as calm as she could manage, “you take her in because you think I cannot protect her, and then you just happen to move to Ponyville. What makes you so different?”

“Ponyville is safer than Canterlot.”

Trixie snorted derisively. “So all of a sudden, because you’re the one looking after her, that makes it okay?”

“As I already stated, there is less likelihood of somepony coming after her if she is with somepony of no importance. If she is with you, so long as you are a knight, and a bearer of one of the Elements, she will always be a potential target. What I did, however illegal it was, was to protect her, and before anypony became aware of her.”

By now the mare had stood up, and was standing right in front of Trixie. Given she was slightly taller, the effect was not helping Trixie’s already sour mood. Nor was the annoying little voice in her head saying she probably would have done something similar, had been thinking of something similar.

“I…” the mare paused, “Lulamoon, I know my actions harmed you, but that was not my intent.”

“And yet you succeeded brilliantly,” Trixie said, scathingly.

There was a long silence, the only sound from some birds twittering away to one another outside.

“Perhaps it would be best if I leave,” the mare said. Trixie didn’t bother moving.

“Yeah, perhaps it would.”

She turned to leave, the look of confusion still set on her features. At the door, she stopped to look at Trixie.

“She thinks the world of you, Lulamoon. Adores you, even.”

Trixie remained standing still as she heard Midnight call to Thesis, as she heard the filly scamper past, and say goodbye to her. Once the door was closed, and she was certain they were far enough not to hear anything through the many sound-proofing spells her residency contained did she let out a long, loud, shuddering breath, and allowed her knees to give out.

It had been a long and very bizarre day for Thesis, what with meeting the Princess again, and having to choose, and going to Ponyville and getting to see Miss Trixie again (who’d given her a book to read while she and Midnight had said angry things to one another. Ponies being angry seemed to be a theme that day), and once that was done Midnight had gone somewhere and come back with several ponies carrying or moving pieces of furniture for their new house.

She liked the new house. It was bigger than that room back in the castle, and the floor and walls were nicer, even if the view wasn’t better.

Then Midnight had actually cooked food, rather than taking them out to eat something. It had been… different from what she was used to.

But throughout the day she couldn’t help but feel something had gone wrong. Midnight seemed distracted by something. She had a suspicion it had to do with her. Problem was, she also looked kind of angry about something, so it wasn’t until evening, when she was supposed to be going to bed, that she decided to ask her.

She knocked on the door to the mare’s bedroom. It creaked open, and Midnight looked down at her.

“Hey,” Thesis said, smiling as best she could, “can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Midnight said.

“I… uh… I’m sorry you lost your job because of me.”

The mare blinked. “You were not the reason for my departure. Princess Luna has always had something of a temper. What happened was just the culmination of months of disagreement between us. It was her response to a decision of mine that prompted this, and nothing you caused.”

“Oh.” Thesis murmured. “But if I hadn’t been born, this wouldn’t have happened, would it?”

Midnight paused before she answered. “In all likelihood, even if you had not been born, and I had not done what I did, I would not have retained my position past the end of the coming summer.”

“So it is my fault?” Thesis asked, now confused.

“No,” Midnight said instantly, “it… no. It is not your fault, and I do not begrudge your presence, little one.”

After a few seconds, she leaned down toward Thesis. “Now go to bed. And tomorrow, perhaps we might be able to start teaching you some magic at last.”

Thesis grinned, and smiled. “You mean it?” she squeaked.

“Naturally,” came the response. She cheered, and hugged the mare. Or her leg, at any rate.

“You’re the best big sister ever,” she exclaimed.

“Indeed, now go to bed,” Midnight said firmly. Still grinning, Thesis trotted across the landing to her room, and once the door was closed hopped onto her bed. She felt so abuzz she was certain she’d never be able to get to sleep.

Within twenty minutes she was out like a light.

Midnight waited until she stopped hearing the ruffling of an over-eager filly rummaging around her bed, and gently closed the door.

Long minutes passed as the mare cast several spells in rapid order. Once that was done, she made her way to the center of the room and sat down, her horn still alight, as she reached out into the night with her magic, closing her eyes as she focused.

“It’s me,” she declared to no-one.

“Thank goodness,” came a reply, unheard by anyone but herself, “it’s been days. We were worried something had happened to you.”

“I was busy,” the mare said.

“What of the foal?”

“The foal is safe,” she said. There was a brief pause.

“What of you?”

“Princess Luna probably has me under surveillance, if she hasn’t already contacted Trixie, she will soon. As to Trixie herself, I am not certain. She’s definitely angry, though I’m not sure she’ll do anything further at present. I may try reparations as we go on, at least try to butter her up. Trixie doesn’t forgive easily, and she is no fool, but I think the presence of the foal will mollify her anger.”

There was an ethereal hum. “And what of the other Element bearers?”

“Uncertain. And frankly, irrelevant at the moment. At the moment the priority should be the foal. We have secured her.”

"At great cost," came the interjection. Midnight nodded.

"But necessary, I think. For the time being, I shall monitor her, guide her. Solidify our hold on her. I estimate it will be six months before the Equestrian civil service can untangle all the red tape and take custody of the foal. Maybe less if Luna decides to take a more direct approach. We should use that time wisely."

There was a lengthy pause.

“Agreed,” came the eventual response, followed by a light chuckle. “For the dawn?”

In the darkened room, Midnight smiled, her now open eyes, shaped like that of a dragon’s, glowing with an unnatural orange light.

“Yes. For the dawn.”

Author's Notes:

Okay, you all saw that last part coming.

Yeah, this chapter is... ludicrously freakishly long.
I really can't explain how it even happened. Just writing it, it kept going and going and going... and going...
There is a lot that really could've been condensed. I'm just not good at condensing.
I did think of breaking this thing in two, but... there wasn't really anywhere that was suitable...

Not helping is that this thing took the better half of 2016 to write. Lots of stopping and starting and stopping and starting and... ugh...

I did remove one bit, with the bad guys discussing the Element Bearers. There was a line in there about Carrot Top which was kind of good... bit of a lampshade hanging on how ordinary she is compared to all the others. But it was also pretty superfluous.

Last but not least, the parts from Thesis' P.O.V. are intentionally written as simplistic because, well... she's not even a week old. Even with all the book-learnin', not everything upstairs is wired up as it should be, so she's not noticing subtle things like body language or expressions unless they're real obvious.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Training Days

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Somewhere far from Ponyville, ten ponies gathered in a darkened room.
Or, in another, more accurate way, ten ponies did not gather in a darkened room.
Because there wasn’t a room for them to gather in.

Their meeting place, such as it was, was the astral plane, a shared mindscape. No-pony was actually in any of the others’ mind, nor could they share thoughts. But they could talk.

“Thank you all for attending,” said the lead pony, a unicorn with their eyes glowing an unpleasant orange, a shade matched by everypony else present.

“Now, I have some news,” they said, “as a result of the last week’s developments, our timescale has moved up. To this summer.”

Several eyes went wide at that. There were a few cautious and concerned glances, but before anypony could speak, the head of the circle raised a hoof.

“With that in mind, I’d like to wrap up a specific loose end before then. Have we had any luck in locating Star?”

“Nope,” said a bored-looking pegasus mare, adorned with a set of goggles resting on her forehead, who was slouching in her seat. “It’s been three years, still no sign of her.”

The head of the circle frowned. “That’s not good.”

“Hate to break it to you, but Equestria’s a big country, boss pony. Even a bookworm like her could hide anywhere. And that’s assuming she’s even in Equestria anymore.”

There was a sigh. “Yes, thank you, Indigo.”

After a moment’s contemplation, the unicorn looked up again. “Orange?”

“Yuh-huh?” An earth pony mare asked.

“Get in contact with those two friends of yours. See if they can’t have any luck finding Star for us.”

“Oh…” groaned the unicorn next to the head, “not those two. Can’t we use somepony more… I dunno, competent?”

“They have proven useful before,” the head said, “unless, of course, you’d like to go after her yourself, Frolic?”

The unicorn colt jolted, and then shook his head. This elicited an unfriendly smile from the leader.

“Good. And it is their attributes that make them ideal for finding our wayward friend.”

“Y’ mean you’re gonna set them loose and hope they just randomly run into her.” Orange remarked, dryly, in the unmistakable accent of a Neigh Yorker.

“Essentially, yes.”

“Just… you know, pointing this out,” Orange said, carefully, “she hasn’t shown up in three years, we haven’t heard a word from her, she hasn’t tried to get back touch with her mom and pops… maybe she’s dead?”

There was a lengthy pause as the unicorn considered this. “No,” they finally said, “no… I don’t think so.”

“Sard,” they then said, turning to address another member of the group, a Crystal Pony stallion, indeed the only Crystal Pony there at all. “What is the status on the pillars?”

“Well…” Sard began, “we’ve got three so far. Technically we’ve got two, number three is still in the works.”

“That’s... less than ideal.”

Sard shrugged. “You were pretty specific about what kind of crystal we needed. Those take time to find, and even longer to prepare.I thought that was why we were going to wait until we had six.”

“Plans change,” was all the response he got. Sard frowned.

“With three pillars so far, I can’t guarantee we’d be able to hold them completely. If we had, oh, say, four, I’d be slightly more confident. But if you want it done by summer… three’s all we’re going to have.”

“It’ll have to do,” the unicorn replied, curtly.

“For the record,” Sard stressed, “with three pillars, if one goes down… there’ll be a high chance of containment failure. And then...”

A grim silence settled over the room. “Noted. Now, onto the business of the last week, the information we acquired from Twilight Sparkle has proven invaluable, though, yes, the effort didn’t go as we anticipated.”

“You mean we screwed up completely and nearly got Wedge half killed?” a tall unicorn mare asked. It wasn’t exactly difficult to notice the anger in her voice. “How is he, by the way?”

“Alive. Recovering, but… it may be some time before he awakens. If he awakens at all. This is not to say the experiment’s fruits have not yielded unexpected results.”

“Talking about that alicorn kid, right?” Orange spoke up.

“Yes, the child. Who is now within our sphere of influence, though with some… cost.”

“Like the fact I’m out one boss, thanks to the last week.” Another earth pony mare said, “which, incidentally, is going to make things incredibly chaotic, so I wouldn’t go counting on me being much use until everything’s sorted out.”

“Yes, Merry,” the lead unicorn sighed. “We are aware that your boss’s sudden termination has made life difficult at the castle.”

Merry Melody just scowled in her seat and rolled her eyes.

“But the sacrifice was worth it to gain influence over the foal.” The pony said, reassuringly. “Even at the cost of access to Canterlot castle.”

“Not to mention likely pissing off Trixie,” another pegasus mare said. “And Princess Luna. And probably Vicereine Twilight Velvet. And her husband, and her son.”

“Indeed,” the unicorn responded. Then their eye turned to another part of the circle, specifically the tall unicorn mare who been utterly silent so far, focused as she was on her own thoughts.

“Fleur… you don’t seem taken all this. Do you have some reservations?”

“Yes,” the mare replied, icily. “I have. I don’t think we should’ve interfered. It might have been better to let the foal go to somepony else. Somepony capable of actually raising a foal.”

She paused for a moment, “I also don’t think we should have let Midnight anywhere near Ponyville, or Trixie herself for that matter. They’re going to be watching her, and if they find out about her being the ch-”

“They won’t.” came the confident reply. “And even if they did suspect, they will not believe it. Nor would anyone believe them.”

“It’s a risk,” Fleur said. “And a dangerous one. What if something happens? If Thesis becomes uncontrollable?”

“You’re the one here who’s spent the most time with her,” the head replied, “do you think that’s a possibility?”

“Honestly?” Fleur shrugged. “There was something off about her. But I just presumed it’s because she was less than a week old.”

“Maybe when the ritual went wrong, a bit of Wedge wound up in the mix?” An earth pony stallion commented. “The boy always was a little funny about his hurricanes.”

Fleur shook her head. “No, no, I don’t think so. I think this is all a tremendous risk. And it’s going to bite us all in the flank.”

“Also noted,” the pony said, dryly. “Now, in light of the advanced timescale, we have a limited window of opportunity to act. It’s time to start stacking the deck… first off, we’re going to need someone to talk to Celestia...”

Thesis woke, yawned and dragged herself out of her bed. She had been unwilling to get up, as warm and cosy as the bed was, and would have much rather just stayed there forever.

Then she looked out of the window, and saw it.

The “it” in this case was the snow. Snow as far as the eye could see (which, in fairness, wasn’t very far). Snow covering houses, and the streets and trees.

With a glad cry, Thesis rushed out of her room and along the landing, down the stairs at toward the door.

“And where are we going?” a voice asked, just as she was reaching for the handle. She turned to see Midnight sitting on one of the sofas, eating an orange.

“Outside?” Thesis ventured, “to play in the snow?”

Midnight stared at her for several minutes. There was something off about her. She was breathing in and out a lot, like she’d just been doing a lot of running.

“Alright,” she eventually declared. “And here I thought you wanted to learn magic today?”

“Yeah…” Thesis said, carefully.

“Well, then…” Midnight said, pausing to eat a slice of orange, “have some breakfast first.”

She blinked, as the words sunk in, then grinned. “You’re really going to teach me?”

“I did say, did I not? But only if you have something to eat.”

She didn’t need to be told twice.

A few minutes later the two were walking through Ponyville. More or less, at any rate, Thesis kept stopping to listen to the sound of the snow underneath her hooves, occasionally experimenting by jumping up and down on it to see what happened, or watching her breath evaporate in the cold with awe.

“Is it always like this?” she asked. Midnight stared down at her.

“The snow, or the town?”

Thesis looked about. There were a lot less other ponies about than there had been in Canterlot (also, it smelled nicer, if a pony liked apples. Thesis wasn’t sure she did, but she was sure it smelled nicer than coffee). She recalled the day she’d been to Canterlot, there had been other ponies, about her age, playing in the snow. And yet, as she looked about, there were none. Not even a one. Just her, Midnight, and the surprisingly pink umbrella the mare was carrying (“in case it rains”, the mare had said, when there wasn’t so much as a whiff of cloud in the sky).

“Both?” she eventually decided.

“Yes, to the first. As to the second, it is a weekday. Most of the ponies of this town will be inside, at work or at school. I can only guess as to what force of personality their teachers must be that there is not a single foal loose.”

With that, she turned and continued walking along. After a few seconds Thesis scurried after her.

The two walked past house after house, until the buildings began to thin out completely. Soon they arrived at a patch of snow some distance from the town, indistinguishable save for a rock. Midnight looked about, and whatever it was she was looking for she seemed satisfied.

There was a flash, and a pop, and an apple appeared in the air, held aloft by her magic.

“What’s that for?” Thesis asked. Without a word in response, Midnight walked over to the rock and placed it on top of it.

“Magic,” the mare said, as she walked back to Thesis. “There is much that can be said on the subject of magic. But magic is, at its heart, taking a thought and making it a reality.”

She motioned at the apple. “I could talk of the differing nature of magic, the varied schools and systems, the mechanics of it, but this is not a written test. What we are determining here is whether you can perform one simple spell, the most ubiquitous of all: Telekinesis. I want you to move that apple, without touching it.”

There was a moment of silence, the only sound was the breeze rustling through some nearby trees.

“Okay…” Thesis murmured, “how, exactly?”

“Only you can determine that, little one. There is no one “true” way to do it. Some imagine creating colours, some may think of a particular flavour of food, some visualise pushing the magic through their horn. Ultimately, each has their own method.”

“Uh…” the filly began, “I meant how do I lift it?”

“You should start by focusing on the apple. Picture it in your mind’s eye-”

“My what?”

“... your mind,” the mare said, “then try to imagining you are holding the apple with your mind.”

Thesis looked at her, and then at the apple, then back again. “Will that work?”

“We won’t know until you try.”

“But… what if it doesn’t?” she asked.

“Little one…” the mare said, carefully, “Every unicorn, alicorn and hybrid with a functioning horn has managed to learn this spell. It’s one of the easiest to master. I do not expect you to grasp it immediately, but that is no reason not to try at all. Both Trixie Lulamoon and Twilight Sparkle are prodigious casters. If you have even a fraction of their abilities, this will be easy enough.”

“‘Kay.” Thesis said, though she didn’t feel at all convinced.

She looked at the apple, a small dot of red and yellow surrounded by greys and brown and white.

“In your own time,” Midnight stated.

She stared at the apple, focusing on it with all the energy she could muster. She closed her eyes, focusing. In her mind, there was the apple. She tried, as Midnight had said to focus on it, imagined somehow picking it up without touching it.

She tried remembering the words she’d read in those books, about pushing magic through the thauma and the alveo, to make the magic.

Nothing happened.

She looked at the apple, sitting there, perfectly immobile. She closed her eyes and tried again.

For several seconds, nothing continued happening, as she tried everything she could think of. She even tried thinking of flavours, or colours, seeing whether that sparked anything.

It didn’t.

She glared at the fruit, as it sat there, not moving in the slightest. Now, she was getting annoyed. More than annoyed, actually. Angry. She’d been expecting it to be as easy as everypony else made it looked, like she would just cast the magic and that would be that. Only her stupid horn wasn’t doing the things it was supposed to be doing. Moving one stupid dumb apple from a stupid dumb rock.

She wanted to go over and just smash the thing, teach it not to move when it was supposed to.

So she was a little surprised by the tingling feeling, the light from her horn, followed by the apple wobbling, then unsteadily hovering a foot or so off the ground.

It took a moment for her to notice, her anger vanishing almost as quickly as it had come when she saw it, floating there in her magic.

“I did it!” she squeaked, “I did it! Sis, look, I did it.”

“I see it,” the mare said, though she didn’t have any sort of different expression on her face. Not that even that small disappointment did anything to Thesis’ joy. She was casting magic.

That was when something unexpected happened. Or rather, two somethings. The first involved the apple itself, which was being held by a small foal casting her first ever spell, and who, even with all the textbook knowledge she had acquired, did not yet understand all the fine details of holding something, the proper means of holding it. There was an incredible amount of pressure being placed on the unfortunate apple, which would either crush it, or send it flying (and in accordance with certain universal rules, likely either at Thesis’ head or Midnight’s).

Crushing was what won out, with one half of the apple smashing clean through the other.

Compared to what happened at the same time, though, that was nothing.

The ground beneath the apple suddenly burst upward, crushing whatever was left of the fruit at that point, sending dirt and ice and small tiny bits of stone flying everywhere.

“Uh…” Thesis eventually got out as she looked at the small area of devastation, “I didn’t do that…”

“I expected as much, or at least something along these lines,” she heard Midnight say. She turned to look at the mare, who was shaking bits of snow and dirt off the umbrella.

“Overcasting,” the mare said, as if this explained everything. “Magic runs deeply in the House Twilight. Both Sparkle and her brother, Shining Armor are exceptionally powerful unicorns. By extension, any foals they might have would likely be as powerful, if not more. But this comes with its own problem. It is possible to put too much energy or effort into casting a spell, as you inadvertently did. With most unicorns, the result is the object being held suffering damage. In your case, likely connected to your evident alicorn nature, the results…” she eyed the small pile of dirt, “are slightly more dramatic.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“So…” Thesis asked, “I can cast magic, but it’ll break everything if I do?”

“It is nothing to truly be concerned about, little one. This was your first spell. No-one expects a musician to play flawlessly the first time they pick up an instrument.”

As she spoke, Midnight leaned down next to her.

“Shall I tell you something? When I was your size, I had much the same problem. I could not lift anything larger than a book without causing havoc, and… some property damage.”

Thesis looked up at the mare. “How’d you deal with it?” she asked.

The mare paused for a long while. “Practice, mostly. And some assistance.”

“Oh.” Thesis declared, “so…”

“So, you have managed to successfully cast one spell,” the mare said. “How did it feel?”

“I…” Thesis began. She wanted to say it had felt incredible. She wanted to say it had been the greatest thing in her life (all eight days of it). How she felt almost like she could’ve done anything. Then she remembered the anger. “I felt angry. I was just so upset, because I couldn’t move it and it wasn’t working… and then it just… happened.”

Midnight nodded at this. “I see,” she murmured.

“I don’t like it,” Thesis muttered. “I don’t want to be angry. And I don’t want to be angry to do magic.”

“No,” Midnight said. “Do you recall how it felt to cast the magic itself?”

“I… I think so. Why?”

There was a flash, and a pop, and another apple appeared, grasped in her sister’s magic.

“Let’s try again, shall we?”

Time passed, as her sister tried teaching Thesis how to cast magic. The results were often still as destructive, on more than one occasion even moreso, though actually casting the spell seemed easy enough. It was just getting it to work properly that was proving difficult. But after several not-so-successful attempts, she was pretty sure she’d managed to get the basics down.

Then there was the matter of lifting the apple, which proved easy enough. Keeping the apple from being torn to pieces, less so. For some reason, it was near-impossible to keep a hold on it, and it was possible, just a little bit, that she was beginning to get angry after one destroyed fruit too many. Still, her sister assured her there were a lot more apples left.

Soon, though, she found her horn was beginning to hurt. Beginning to really hurt. Really, really hurt, and after that she couldn’t even make the apple wobble even slightly.

“I think, perhaps,” Midnight stated, on seeing this, “that’s enough for now. You need to let your magic return.”

“I can keep going,” she said, determinedly.

“Of that, I have no doubt. But your reserve of magic cannot. As you grow, and become more experienced with magic, your reserves will grow, but for the moment, little one, you can only push yourself so far.”

The mare lifted up the apple, and after a few seconds of cursory examination began eating it. “Besides, you have made tremendous progress today.”

Thesis smiled weakly at that. She didn’t exactly feel like she’d made much progress

“Now,” Midnight said, as she finished devouring the snack, “let’s see about rewarding that success with some lunch.”

Finding somewhere to easy proved easy enough, and Thesis did like being out of the cold (even the scarf could only do so much to keep all of her warm).

She wasn’t absolutely sure about the food she was eating. It just felt like it was missing something. A certain something she couldn’t put her hoof on. Not even covering it with mustard was helping.

It wasn’t the only thing bothering her. Her sister seemed bothered. At least, she presumed that was why the mare wasn’t saying anything.

“Is everything alright?” she eventually asked.

“Yes, yes,” Midnight replied, albeit distantly, “I was just preoccupied.”

Thesis felt an odd tug in her at that. Was she disappointed with the way her magic had come out? She hadn’t said anything at the time, but now Thesis thought about it… she hadn’t done terribly well, getting angry, breaking things, barely being able to cast the easiest spell ever...

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

“It’s not because of you, little one, I am merely pondering a conundrum.”

“Oh,” Thesis said. “What is it?”

“I made an obligation before coming to Ponyville, one that is still in effect. It means that in the weeks before Hearth’s Warming, I will need to leave. The conundrum is what to do with you.”

“Can’t I come with you?” she asked.

“No,” Midnight said instantly. “And therein lies the problem. The only pony I know in this town is Lulamoon, and the events of the last week have soured her to me completely.”

Thesis took the words in. She couldn’t imagine it, Miss Trixie being actually angry at somepony, when she’d been so nice to her.

“The trouble with these ponies is that they really hold a grudge,” she heard Midnight say darkly.

“What if I asked her for you?” Thesis suggested.

“That would be incredibly manipulative,” Midnight said. Thesis hung her head.

“Sorry.”

“But it might be worth an attempt.” The mare’s eyes moved to her meal. “Now, finish your hayfries.”

“‘Kay,” Thesis began eating again. After a few seconds, a question occurred to her. “So, what are we going to do tomorrow?”

“More magic practice. That will likely be the theme for the week, unless you wish to experience school.”

Thesis frowned at that. “Didn’t you say it might be bad for me?”

“In Canterlot, yes. Ponyville is not Canterlot. The ponies here are more accustomed to strange occurrences, and are less likely to take issue or exception to your unusual appearance.”

She nodded at this. That sounded like it made sense. “So what’s school like?”

“The answer is much the same as it was for magic, it is different for everypony. Whether excruciatingly dull or enrapturing, that would be for you to determine. I cannot say, for it might influence your own choice.”

“Oh.” Was all she could say to that.

Pokey Pierce liked to think he was observant, or at least that he had a small knack for noticing things.

He knew, for example, something was definitely up with Trixie. She’d been in an odd mood all week, in a way he couldn’t put down to Carrot Top’s birthday, or that thing with the Windigo the Element Bearers had dealt with, but now…

Trixie wasn’t one for doing work. Often there were times she’d suggest (flippantly, usually) burning down the entire residency rather than stamping another form. Often she’d get distracted by some idea or calamity and just let the stuff pile up. She’d moan, she’d complain, she’d whine. Although in all fairness to her, she was getting a lot better. Mostly.

But today, there was something new. Trixie was angry about something. Really angry. So angry Pokey was a little surprised nothing actually was on fire.

After a few hours of angry glowering, the occasional muttered thing in prench Pokey couldn’t understand (beyond a few cursory words he’d picked up over the last year), and the odd moment of grousing, he felt brave enough to risk asking what was up.

“Uh,” he began cautiously, Trixie turning and giving him a Look which by all rights should’ve been able to knock down walls, “is everything… alright, boss?”

“Oh,” Trixie said, with an eerie calm to her that made all of Pokey’s fur stand on edge, “I’m fine. Just absolutely fine and dandy.”

“No, you’re not,” Pokey replied, before he could stop himself. With that, Trixie seemed to sag into her seat.

“No, you’re right, I’m not, I just... “ she growled, then fell silent. “Pokey, I’ve got a question.”

“Uh, shoot?”

“Imagine, hypothetically, if you knew somepony, for years. Maybe you didn’t know them that great, and it’d been a long time since you’d seen them, and you weren’t really “friends” with them as such. But you figured you knew where they stood.”

Pokey stared blankly. He weighed his options and figured it was best to just let Trixie keep going.

“Now imagine they go and stab you in the back, but without the decency to do it to your face.”

“Uh…” Pokey tilted his head, “isn’t that sort of how all backstabbing works? I mean, I’m not familiar with backstabbing so I couldn’t say, but the back does seem to be an important part of it.”

“Not the point!” Trixie exclaimed. “And this stupid pony went and did something even Princess Luna can’t work around, not without it taking months (or so she says). And now she’s here! In Ponyville, pretty much rubbing my face in what she’s done!”

Trixie muttered something incredibly angry under her breath, which sounded an awful lot like she was questioning the pony’s heritage.

“And do you know what the most annoying thing is?” Trixie asked.

“You can’t punch her in the face?” Pokey ventured.

She waved a hoof dismissively. “No, I already did that. Wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped. The worst part is that she’s not being all smug about it. Instead she’s acting all confused, like she doesn’t even know why she’s doing it.”

She scowled furiously, “for all I know, somepony could be making her do it. If, IF she was just being an ass about all this, maybe I could get some satisfaction out of hating her.”

“And I keep telling myself to not get worked up about all this, only to go and get worked up about it anyway!” she groaned, thumping her head against the table. “I jus’ wanna get on with work and not think about it all forever!”

Pokey frowned. Emotional advice, particularly when he wasn’t even actually sure of what Trixie was talking about, was something beyond his job description.

“Sorry,” Trixie eventually said, “I shouldn’t be angry at you, Pokey. I’m not angry at you, I’m just… angry.”

“That’s okay,” Pokey said, smiling gently, “though… if you wanted to make it up to me, you could give me a raise...”

Despite her sour mood, Trixie grinned. “No chance in Tartaros, mister.”

“Always worth a try.” Pokey grinned back.

The next several days passed much the same for Thesis. She would wake up, have breakfast, and then she and her sister would head out to one of the fields around Ponyville to practice magic.

It went slowly. On the second day, she once again had problems casting magic, until she got annoyed about it. Actually getting the spell to work proved more difficult, and turned out to require a lot of attention. More than a few apples wound up getting smashed to pieces, or crushed by rocks and ice and snow, but Midnight insisted it was all part of the learning process.

At one point she’d suggested asking Miss Trixie or Miss Twilight for help. Midnight had gone all silent and said “no”. That had been unusual, but not so much that she felt it worth asking why. Her sister probably knew what she was doing.

After a few days, when she was pretty sure she’d gotten telekinesis… mostly right, the two moved on to moving the apple back and forth between them.

Thesis didn’t say anything, but she had been expecting maybe moving onto more… exciting spellwork. She wasn’t sure what that was, but she was darn sure she was getting a little tired of apples, squished or otherwise.

“So… wait,” Trixie frowned, as she stared down at the latest piece of soulless bureaucracy to pass across her desk, “hold on…”

A few small details on it weren’t adding up. She looked over to her “out” tray, flipped through it and pulled out one of the previous pieces. She scanned it, then it became clear what had gone wrong.

“Great…” she sighed.

The last few days had been getting, frankly, somewhat boring. There’d been no attack by anything, no threat to Equestria had emerged. She’d even been considering taking up talking with Pinkie Pie to see about finding something to do to relieve the monotony. So naturally, her brain was starting to turn to sludge with all the work, day-in, day-out.

There was a knock on her front door. Trixie got up and walked over towards it and opened the door.

And because apparently some force out there clearly felt her life didn’t have enough problems, standing there was one of the last ponies she wanted to see (a long list, at the top of which, surprisingly, was not Corona herself. She probably only rated somewhere about halfway).

“Lulamoon.”

“You,” Trixie hissed, glaring furiously at the mare. “What do you want?”

“I have a request to make of you.” It might have been Trixie's imagination, but something seemed off about the pony. Not enough for Trixie to care, though.

“What?”

“For a variety of reasons, I will be required to leave Ponyville for a period of time. In that time, I would ask that you look after Thesis.”

Trixie blinked, taking the words in, going over them carefully. “Say that again.”

“I would ask if you could look after her.”

Trixie’s expression, matching her mood, grew darker, as the anger she’d been burying for several days returned. “You want me to look after her. You stole her, refuse to give her back, and now you’re trying to get me to look after her because you can’t?”

“You make her sound like somepony’s property,” Midnight replied, “and no. I’m asking you to look after her because…”

“Because what?” Trixie snapped, “this should be great. What reason do you have, when I was apparently such a risk in the first place that you just couldn’t let her live with me?”

“Because I do not know anypony else in this town.” Midnight said.

Trixie stood there, glowering, ignoring the fact leaving her door open was letting precious heat out of her residency and worse, horrific cold in. She also tried to ignore the urge to try and punch the mare again.

“Lulamoon, I understand you’re furious at my actions.” Trixie scoffed at that.

“Do you?” she asked, “because I don’t think you do."

“I am not asking you do this as some favour to me. I make no pretense that my actions were harmful, but... “ the mare seemed to hesitate, “she does require somewhere to stay.”

Trixie glared at the mare for several seconds. “Fine,” she spat, “I’ll do it for Thesis. And only because she needs it. As far as I’m concerned, you can go to the sun and stay there. Anything else you want?”

“N-” the mare began, at which point Trixie slammed the door shut. Once done, she gave herself a small, satisfied nod at her work.

“But why do you have to go?” Thesis asked, as she finished putting her stuff in the small saddlebag.

“Obligation,” Midnight said, curtly.

“Will you be gone long?”

The mare stopped what she was doing. “I will likely be back some time in the new year.”

Thesis murmured at that. She didn’t like any of this. Not that she didn’t want to see Miss Trixie again, far from it. She just didn’t want her sister to leave. She didn’t like that.

“I will be back, little one. That you can be assured of. Until then, I wish for you to do something for me.”

She looked up at the mare’s eyes. “What?”

“Listen to Lulamoon, but do not take anything she says at face value, especially if it is about herself. Behave. Be smart. Be strong. And if you are made to go to school, it is highly likely you will meet somepony of constant exuberance.”

The mare paused for a moment. “Learn to dislike her. I would recommend you start by getting to know her.”

Thesis stared blankly for several seconds. “... okay?” she finally managed to get out.

With that, the two tried slipping the small pair of saddlebags on, and then set off towards Trixie’s residency, through the half-melted snow.

“Well, hello there, ma petite fille,” Trixie exclaimed on seeing Thesis, who just smiled earnestly back at her, as she entered the residence.

“Hi, Miss Trixie.” Trixie just raised a hoof.

“You don’t need to call me “miss”. Just call me Trixie.”

The foal frowned for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, Mi-... Trixie.”

Trixie’s grin changed slightly, if only because part of her was pointing out how bizarre the situation was. And also, maybe, because she was looking at her.

“Hope you have fun,” Trixie said, with all the feigned politeness she could muster.

“That is unlikely,” Midnight replied. Trixie rolled her eyes.

"Right. I forgot you hate fun in all its forms."

The two stood there, Trixie scowling intently.

“Be seeing you, Lulamoon.” The mare turned, and left.

Once she was gone, Trixie felt her anger evaporate, as she turned and went to look for Thesis, whom she soon found examining her living room.

Despite everything, Trixie felt a good feeling about things. She made a vow, then and there, that she and Thesis were going to have the time of their lives, and nothing was going to stop that. Not even the usual Ponyville craziness could kill her good mood.

Fire.

Smoke.

Burning.

Something was burning. But where? And how?

His head hurt. His everything hurt, but his head, it seemed, was hurting most of all. Why was that?

“Hey…” a voice, a feminine one if he was any judge, called out from behind him. “Look, he’s awake.”

There was a hum from somewhere else, this sounded more masculine.

“You know what? I do believe you’re right.” The voice’s owner sounded amused. “I’d assumed after what you two had done that… well, that was that.”

He blinked furiously, trying to will the headache away, but to no luck, as a large black shape hoved into view.

Only it wasn’t a shape, it was a pony. A pony with entirely black fur wearing some sort of black cloak. The only part of them that wasn’t black were the eyes, and their teeth, which were on full display as the pony smiled an insincere smile.

“Good evening, Duke Greengrass.” The pony said, not unkindly. “I do apologise for your injuries, but my… ah, my associates, Miss. Kicker and Miss. Zap were… well, they have issues with nobles, and unfortunately couldn’t contain themselves.”

“Sure, give him our names, why don’cha?” Another voice said, from behind him, dryly.

Greengrass wasn’t entirely listening, and not just because of the pounding in his head. Now he was beginning to remember. He’d been in his estate, minding his own business, not even plotting anything in particular. And then there had been several unfriendly looking ponies present who’d not been at all swayed by either his good looks or his charm. After that it was all an unpleasant blur.

As to how they got in there, he wasn’t sure. He was supposed to have some of the best magical security his money (and the odd bit of persuasion) could buy.

“Who…” Greengrass struggled to say. His mouth hurt too, and it felt incredible dry, “who are you?”

“That would be telling,” the pony said. Greengrass frowned, and tried getting to his hooves. There was a flash of pain on his backside, one of the ponies hitting him.

“I’d stay down if I were you, bud.” Came an unfriendly growl.

“You’re not sun cultists, are you?” Greengrass asked, trying as best he could to ignore the haze of pain.

“No,” the pony said. “We’re not affiliated with Celestia. Nor are we a cult. Cult would imply worship. We don’t worship anyone.”

“So you just happen to dress alike.” Greengrass groaned.

“For the purposes of maintain anonymity, along with presenting an iconographic image of unity, strength and mystique.”

“Is that it?” came one of the voices from behind, “thought we were doin’ it to look scary.”

Greengrass stared at the pony, and their oddly shaped eyes, the very distinctive eyes of a Crystal Pony.

“Who’s in charge here?” he asked.

“I am,” the pony said. Greengrass tried, as best as he could, to look skeptical.

“No, you’re not. Don’t bother lying, I’m a noble. I know a lie and a liar when I see one. I’ve been surrounded by them all my life.”

The pony’s expression shifted, the fake smile disappeared.

“I know you’re not in charge, and whatever purpose you have for being here, I don’t care. I’ll only talk to the pony in charge.”

The pony seemed hesitant. “With… well, I’d say “with respect”, but with all honesty, Greengrass, you don’t want that.”

“I insist.”

The pony stood up straight, looking at something behind Greengrass. “He insists.” The pony repeated.

“If he insists…” said the voice he presumed was Zap. The Crystal Pony took one last look at Greengrass, which he could’ve sworn was one of concern, and moved away.

This, incidentally, gave Greengrass a good view of the windows of the room he was in, along with two other ponies (both just as black as the other) examining something and talking, completely unfazed by the fire visible through the window.

Then his eyes were drawn to the floor. There was a noise. A faint crackling.

A small circle of flame appeared, then shot up into the air, a pillar of bright orange fire, a roaring inferno he could feel even from some distance. The heat and light faded to reveal another pony.

At this point, Greengrass was not surprised to find they also wore black.

They were a unicorn, taller than most, their eyes glowing an unpleasant shade of orange. They affixed on Greengrass, and then there was an unpleasant look on their face.

“Ah, Duke Greengrass,” the pony said, in an unmistakable male baritone. “I do hope my ponies haven’t been treating you… too roughly.”

“I take it you’re the pony in charge,” Greengrass said.

“Indeed I am,” the stallion replied, “and, first off, Duke, I do want to say, contrary to Kicker and Zap’s indications otherwise, there’s nothing personal in this.”

“Oh,” Greengrass shrugged, “of course not.”

“There isn’t,” the pony repeated, “you did exemplary work with that Opelick mess. It’s very satisfying to watch someone give those changelings a kick in the face. And I have to say, and this... “ they placed a hoof over their chest, “this is from the heart, I do admire the way you called Luna a useless cow.”

Were he at full strength, Greengrass would have disagreed. That particular phrase had just been the beginning of the total destruction of his political ambitions. It had cost him whatever standing he’d had with the Princess, and the court, and made him a disgrace.

And what was that the pony had said about changelings?

“I admire that, I really do,” the pony continued. “And we’re not… from a certain point of view, at any rate, so different. Like you, I enjoy gardening. Though my garden, such as it is, is a bit more, shall we say “lifeless”? Like you, I also wish to remove Luna from power, render her authority useless. I am just a little bit more… aggressive, in my approach. And… there is another reason.”

The pony’s expression darkened (figuratively speaking) as they continued, “you see, your methodology… manipulation, double-crossing, blackmail… you weren’t even subtle about it. You outright admitted to Trixie Lulamoon you were trying to manipulate her. It’s very frustrating.”

The pony paused, for a moment, looking about the room. “Now, I suppose you might be wondering who are we? Why are we here? How’d they get past all that security you’re supposed to have? Since I’m feeling benevolent, I’ll tell you how we managed it: Your, ah, friend Notary gave up the information on your security. Well, I say “gave”.”

At this, Greengrass felt a sudden flare of anger. He tried leaping up at the pony. “Where’s Notary? What did you do to her? If you’ve hurt her, I-”

Then there was a sensation of pain all over his body, and he collapsed. “I wouldn’t worry about your former henchpony. I’d worry more about yourself.”

The pony leaned in toward Greengrass. “You see, the purpose of our little visit here is to deal with you. Nothing personal, you understand, it’s just… let me put this in words you’ll understand. You described the Night Court as a “game”. You believed yourself one of the players. Well, as it turns out, in this case, some of us play bigger games, and for greater stakes. And in this game, my dear Duke… you were never even a player.”

Greengrass stared at the pony. Something about them was familiar. If he could only just figure it out. “So, if I’m not a player, what am I?”

“A wild card, Duke. One that needs to be removed from the deck altogether.”

Greengrass glowered as best he was able at the pony. “So, you’re going to kill me?”

“Well,” the pony frowned, “I’m not certain. You’re a smug, self-focused little turd of a pony, driven by ambition and greed. And I do, somewhat, admire that. Not as much as I admired Puissance, the mad evil old bat. It’d be like destroying a priceless antique vase.”

As if on cue there was a loud smash from nearby, followed shortly by a just-loud-enough “oops” from somepony.

Greengrass turned to look back at the pony,who seemed to be willfully ignoring what had just happened. As he did, something started to click. He liked to pride himself on his attention to detail, which was a basic requirement of surviving Equestrian politics, and now several details were beginning to emerge through the haze of pain.

“You know,” he groaned, “I think… I think I recognise you.”

The pony didn’t look alarmed, which he felt was a shame.

“Professor Spell Nexus, isn’t it?”

The pony’s expression changed. Now, instead of the false geniality, he was looking at Greengrass like he was something unpleasant that he’d trodden on by accident.

“Oh, Greengrass,” he sighed, “that was tremendously stupid. If you’d just… kept quiet…” he sighed, “now we’re going to have to do a lot more than just burn your house down…”

The pony’s horn lit up, and suddenly Greengrass felt it, like something was draining the very strength out of him…
And then everything went dark.

The Crown and the Message

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Far in the north of Equestria, between its border and the Griffon Kingdoms, lay a series of forbidding mountains known as the Skyshaper. The range was unclaimed by either pony or griffon, the result of an ages-past treaty that prevented either from accessing the vast wealth of riches that lay within, which may have had something to do with the masses of creatures that dwelt there.

Another feature of the Skyshapers were several volcanoes nestled in amongst the mountains, and it was one of these very volcanoes where Celestia, Queen-in-exile had established a new palace, as she plotted to regain her throne and country.

It was an impressive sight, a great thing of obsidian and gold, connected to the volcano by three bridges, hanging above the crater as it did. On the first floor lay the golden throne of Celestia herself, as she sat and thought to herself, something she had been doing a great deal of late.

It was far beneath this palace that the least trustworthy of all her servants, Solrath, one of the eldest dragons alive, slumbered, dragons being quite immune to the magma’s touch. He was not part of Celestia’s cause, but rather involved for his own, deeply personal reasons. Many centuries ago, after Celestia’s fall, Solrath and his brothers and father had decided to ransack the unprotected Equestria. This had led to them meeting with an incensed Princess Luna, who until then had been wandering the country in her grief. Only Solrath and two of his brothers escaped alive. From that day forth, Solrath swore vengeance upon Luna, no matter how long it took. Not so much for the deaths of his kin, but more for the fact that Luna had attacked him in the first place.

Dragons were fuelled by greed, after all. Caring about others was not something that tended to come naturally to them.

He had been lazing in the magma to himself, quite enjoying the rest and relaxation as he planned his revenge. That was when he heard the noise, for even ancient and blind though he was, Solrath’s hearing was crystal clear, even over the noise of a volcano (another reason to hate working with Celestia, the mare shouted so often, and so did her pathetic lackeys). Hoofsteps, crossing the bridge.

And not one of Celestia’s little minions. He knew their canters well. This was someone… new.

That intrigued him. With a great noise, Solrath raised himself from the lava with more speed than his bulk would have suggested, quickly ascending to the bridge.

The pony stopped as he approached, making a great show of staring at them. True, he was blind, but he could see magic, and could therefore see a pony. This one… was just an ordinary unicorn.

Most ponies, on being put face-to-face with a full-grown dragon, tended to react with fear (understandable, really), but this one… seemed calm. He could hear their heart beating away in their chest, but it wasn’t afraid.

So they were either brave, foolish, or mad. Perhaps some combination of the later two.

He rumbled to himself. “And what are you doing here, little pony?”

“I’ve come to see Celestia,” they said. It was a mare… a young one, from the sound of it. Barely above a whelp.

He smiled a cruel smile. “And suppose she does not want to see you?”

“She probably won’t,” the whelp admitted. “Then the whole trip here would be for nothing.”

“And I suppose I do not let you in?”

The whelp thought on this. “Then I would be entirely at your mercy, Solrathicharnon-Chahir-Uskirlymzolthurkear.”

Solrath was impressed, something that didn’t occur all too often, at the sign of respect. Draconic tradition had their names grow longer the older they grew, and to use a shorter version of their name was a mark of disrespect. Dragons were not a subtle species, and tended to respond to disrespect by demolishing the offender. For a pony to learn his entire name, and to use his entire name, something that hadn't happened in long ages… it pleased him. And that was something that occurred even less.

“Then you are in luck, little pony. I am of an uncommonly benevolent mood today,” he took care to stress the words, make it clear to the pony her life was only continuing because of it, “so you may see Celestia. Beyond that, however, I make no guarantees.”

The pony bowed, and then trotted further in. Solrath paused, and instead of heading back toward the lava positioned himself to better hear the proceedings.

On her golden throne in her makeshift palace, Queen Celestia, the Daystar, the Undimmed, true ruler of all Equestria, sat deep in contemplation, much as she had the last few months.

There was no denying that since her visit to Tambelon, since the demon-ram Grogar had been dealt with, there had been a change in her. No longer was she driven to reclaim her rightful place by fire and conquest. Now she sought a more peaceable means. The time for action would be soon, though. Already, new allies were flocking to her, those slighted or disillusioned by Luna’s rule, the faithful who never lost hope, and sadly more than a few who were mere opportunists, wishing to capitalise on the changing winds her return had brought.

She had been so deep in thought she’d barely heard Solrath speaking with somepony, barely heard the approaching hoofsteps. Her mind had been thinking back to Tambelon, much as she wished it wouldn’t, to that darkened chamber where Grogar had been attempting to summon… him.

The Liar, the Deceiver, the Thief. The Tyrant in the Pit. The Shadow in the Soul. Lord of All Sorrows.

Tirek.

Particularly, her mind kept going over his last words to her, his cruel mockery of her fallen status among her little ponies. He had seen how those who’d wielded the Elements had seen her as no better than Grogar… and laughed.

“All glory to the Tyrant Sun.”

“Your Highness?” came a familiar voice, snapping her out of her unwanted recollection. Kindle, of course. One of the first to flock to her willingly, a devoted servant if there ever was one (though sometimes she did think he could have stood to calm down. He seemed to think all the burden of her demands lay entirely on his back.)

He gestured toward the pony standing in the center of her throne room, an inoffensive and ordinary looking unicorn, eyeing the place apprehensively.

“You stand before her highness,” Kindle declared, as if she could not have announced herself (she really did need to have some words with him about that), “Queen Celestia, the Daystar Undimmed, True Ruler of Equestria, and of you. Who are you and what is your purpose here?”

“I am but a messenger,” the mare, the filly if Celestia’s ears were any indication, said. There was a brief tremor in them, as if she were afraid. Another pony brought in to a thousand years of lies and exaggeration about her.

“And what is your message?” Celestia asked, before Kindle could (she could’ve sworn she heard him make a noise at that).

“First, thanking you for a moment of your time. I have three messages to deliver.”

“And what are they?” Celestia asked. Her eyes were always hidden by the glow of her magic, so the pony likely would not have noticed as she used her skills to examine the pony surreptitiously. They seemed genuinely humble to be before her, but it never hurt to be cautious. As far as her magic showed, the pony was an ordinary unicorn. Completely average, in fact.

“The first, is Spellhold.”

It was astounding how, despite being in an active volcano, how utterly silent the room went.

“What of it?” Celestia asked. The great library of Spellhold had been one of the crown jewels of Tambelon at its height, one of the largest and greatest archives of magic in all the world, taken from all races and walks of life. And, Celestia thought, lost during the return of Tambelon all those months ago, vanished to some unknown place.

“You’ve been looking for it,” the foal said, “my, ah, employer knows where it is.”

“And do I dare presume that this “employer” of yours is convinced they can sell this information to me?” Celestia demanded, “Do they not know who I am? I am no noble or Griffon stray, who can be bartered with. I am Celestia! I am the Sun!”

“I know,” the pony said, backing away slightly at her words, “that’s why it's free.”

There was a small flash, and a pop, and a small scroll appeared next to the pony. “This is Spellhold’s current location.”

“How did you come by this?” Kindle asked, glowering at the pony. Celestia glared at him, for speaking out of turn again, but she did admit the question was valid.

“They happened to notice the flare of magic as it teleported,” the filly said, “tracked or traced it, I don’t know.”

Celestia said nothing. The foal was but a messenger, likely lied to by whoever sent her. She was tempted to burn the scroll then and there, but… Spellhold. The last remnant of Tambelon, the last of that beautiful and ancient city, and a priceless source of knowledge. If there was a chance, even the slightest, that she could get to the tomes that lay inside…

A thought occurred to her. “Why has your employer not utilised this knowledge for themselves?” she asked, as she tried not to think of the possibility of the information being given to other, worse options, Luna excluded there were a great deal of beings out there who would gladly have committed any number of acts to gain even a slither of the information within Spellhold’s walls. The pony just made an odd gesture.

“No idea. Maybe supreme arcane knowledge doesn’t interest them. Maybe they only trust you with it.”

Celestia stared at the pony as they said this.

“You said this was one of three messages,” Kindle mused, “what are the other two?”

“Well, the second is sort of related to the first, you see,” the pony shuffled nervously, “Spellhold is a demonstration of good faith. The second is… would you like an easy way into Canterlot?”

Celestia tensed at that. She had been seeking a way in, a way that would not require bloodshed, or fighting, just a means of getting to Luna and removing her without having to harm anypony else. And now this pony was offering her a means to do so…

It was too good to be true. Far too good.

“And what proof do you have that this is true, and not some means of a trap?” Celestia asked, her voice dangerously low.

“That’s where Spellhold comes in. You see it’s there, and that shows we’re on the level, that our offer is genuine.”

“Why did your employer not come to deliver the message themselves, if this is truly what it seems?” Kindle asked. The pony shrugged.

“Maybe they thought you might not believe them, or might try to throw them in a dungeon, for stumbling upon your…” the pony looked about, as a realisation seemed to sink in.

It was taking all of Celestia’s titanic will not to sigh at that.

“And the third message?” she asked.

The pony’s horn glowed once more, there was another flash and a pop, and to Celestia’s mild surprise, a large cake appeared. Kindle stared at it with deep suspicion, as if suspecting it to explode at any moment.

“What is that?” he asked.

“Cake?” the filly replied.

“And what is in it?” Kindle asked. The pony stared blankly at him, then at the cake itself.

“Jam?” the filly shrugged.

“And why,” Kindle asked, now sounding increasingly suspicious, “have you brought it here?”

“It’s a gift.” The pony responded.

“Poisoned?” Kindle hissed.

“If there were any poison strong enough to work on an alicorn,” the pony said, “I’m pretty sure it’d just destroy the cake.”

From behind the filly, there was a rumbling, as Solrath chuckled at that. Kindle opened his mouth to speak further, but Celestia raised a hoof.

“Enough. The gift is accepted.” She wrapped the gift in her magic, and teleported it away to the small pantry kept elsewhere in the castle (for while she had no need to eat, being an alicorn, her servants did). She also made a note to have Zecora examine it thoroughly later, as soon as the zebra returned from her latest excursion. Kindle looked to her in confusion, Celestia just stared him, and the pony bowed his head.

“Of course. Forgive me, my queen. I only felt concern for your well-being.”

“An attitude that does you credit,” Celestia said gently, “however unnecessary it is. I am quite capable of protecting myself.”

She turned back to the messenger. “Now, assuming I decide to take your employer’s… offer, I would assume they would try and dictate terms.”

“Well, ah…” the pony looked about again, “I think they said they’d wait until summer, when the Contest of Champions is over. Don’t know why, but they were pretty insistent about that.”

Celestia decided it was not worth asking whether the pony felt she could have retaken her country in that time.

“And what of you?” Celestia asked. Next to her, Kindle began smiling an unnecessarily unfriendly smile.

“Me?” the girl asked.

“Oh, yes. I am in a war with my sister. And your employer may not have valued you to send you to me, where there was every risk of capture. But since you know the location of my palace, you cannot be allowed to leave. I am sure your employer will understand the necessity to prevent their suffering the compulsion to tell all, as long as you are my guest. However,” she paused, “I am not unreasonable. And I can certainly pay far more substantial rewards than this pony who employs you.”

The pony looked about the throne room for a long while. Hopefully they were not foalish enough to try and flee. Even if they tried teleporting, they would not get far. Celestia’s throne room was warded to prevent any departures. The poor little thing looked so desperately nervous, likely as she realised the depths to which her employer had betrayed her, expecting the youth to be captured or destroyed. It saddened Celestia, the depths to which her ponies had sunk in her absence.

Then, quite suddenly, a dramatic change overtook the girl. The look of fear vanished completely, replaced by a calm, confident look.

“Yes… about that… I can’t help but notice you have your minions and a dragon, and a teleportation-dampening spell in effect.” Celestia tensed.

“And, it’s a good spell, but… the thing is… I may be guilty of more than one or two teensy-little lies, and… well...”

The mare’s horn glowed brightly for a moment. A spell washed over the entire volcano, undoing the spell’s effects in an instant.

“Bye, Princess!” The mare remarked, as she vanished in a flash of light.

For a long moment afterward, there was no noise, as Celestia stared at the spot the pony had been standing so intently it was amazing the floor wasn’t melting. Solrath just made a bemused noise, before slowly making his way back down to the magma pit below.

“We can track her, Your Highness,” Kindle said once he recovered his wits, “she’ll rue the day she dared moc-”

“No,” Celestia growled. “No, Kindle. There will be a reckoning with that one later, but not now. There are more important matters to deal with.”

She did want to find the pony, to make them rue a great deal of choices they had made, but… she was Celestia. She was the sun. She had far greater concerns, such as recovering her country. She looked at the scroll held in her magic.

“As soon as Zecora returns, you and she shall investigate these claims of Spellhold. I would wish to see if it is true… and if it is, then we shall see.”

Kindle bowed. “As you command, my queen.”

Even if it was a deception, the thought of allowing Spellhold’s magic to fall into anyone’s hooves filled her with a sense of dread. She could not afford to let such a claim not be investigated.

As to the pony, and whatever fool that employed her, they would learn the price that came of crossing Celestia.

Oh, yes. They would learn.

Trixie and Thesis

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“Okay,” Trixie declared, “I can do this.”

She was Dame Trixie Lulamoon. Knight of Equestria, Bearer of the Element of Magic. Former student to Princess Luna, granddaughter of the legendary Quatermoon, friend to the five most honourable mares in all Equestria.
And she was in trouble.

It was true that Trixie liked foals. She was good with them. They made the best audience for her shows because they whole-heartedly accepted her act. They were amazed by her deeds and tricks, regardless of how complicated they might have been.

But… the dark thoughts rose up in her memory, being good with foals wasn’t the same as dealing with them.

Even Dinky, her part-time student and best assistant ever, could make her fold like a wet towel just by applying the time honored tradition of looking ever-so-slightly sad… with those pressed ears and giant, quivering eyes and that particularly evil tremor in her voice.

(Not that she did that very often. Probably. Trixie was a good eighty-five percent sure Dinky did not do it on purpose.
Though she wasn’t willing to rule out the idea that Dinky was learning to do so. Over the last few months the little unicorn had shown a few negative traits Trixie hadn’t noticed before, and she was sure they hadn’t been there before that.)

And sitting there, in her sitting room, was a foal. One she was supposed to be looking after. There had been a list of some kind, which she’d skimmed. Some issues about problems with magic, and a note on unusual eating habits, but nothing Trixie felt she wouldn’t be able to overcome.

Maybe.

“Hey,” she said, on entering, “so I’ve got some work to deal with, but after that, I’ll try and whip up some lunch. How’s that sound?”

“Okay,” Thesis said, before she went back to looking at the book she was reading.

So, with one glance back at the foal, Trixie walked through to her office, feeling like she’d been caught flat-hoofed.

Mercifully, there wasn’t much work for her to do, with Hearths’ Warming a few weeks away, most ponies were not feeling the urge to go out and write forms. In fact, pretty much everything seemed to be slowing down. Even the weather reports, usually the biggest day-to-day cause for the Dread Paperwork, were reporting smooth sailing.
Which, Trixie had to remind herself, was a good thing. Utterly, utterly, soul-crushingly dull, but good.

Thesis had been reading a book she’d found (Golem Related Tragedies of History), when she smelt an odd smell, and heard an odd noise. Clanging, followed by angry muttering coming from the direction of the kitchen.

It was only after several minutes of this she decided it was probably worth investigating whatever was going on.

Leaving the book and moving off the sofa, she trotted out into the hallway, then along to the kitchen, the smell getting stronger as she went.

The kitchen itself seemed blurry, and as she entered it she heard Trixie’s muttering increase.

“Uh,” she said, “what are you doing?”

At that, Trixie went perfectly still, if only for an instant.

“Hey,” she said, carefully. “I’m… ah, trying to make dinner. Problem is it’s been a while since I’ve had to cook for more than just myself, and… well…” she coughed, which quickly turned out not to be a good idea with the air as it was.

“It’s not going so great.” She admitted. “Still, I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, and I shall not be defeated by some vegetables.”
Thesis looked over at what she’d been making, then at Trixie’s determined smile. “What were you trying to make?” she asked.

“Oh, well, I felt you deserved something special, and exotic… which as it turns out is difficult because I don’t have anything particularly special or exotic, so it’s mostly Whatever I Can Whip-Up a la Trixie.”

“Alright,” Thesis said. Trixie gave her an odd look at that, then went back to what she was doing.

Eventually, she did indeed manage to work together something which she felt was pretty good, if she said so herself (and as a matter of fact, she did say so).

She noted Thesis seemed to be enjoying it as well, at the rate she was devouring it.

“So, what do you want to do tomorrow?” she asked, after the silence became unbearable. The poor foal practically jumped at that.
“Well, normally, on weekdays, my sister and I go outside to practice magic.”

Trixie frowned at the word “sister”, if only for a moment before she forced herself to look more neutral.

She also found herself thinking about Cheerilee, and how the mulberry coloured schoolteacher would take learning that there was a foal in town technically missing school. None of the images associated with that were pleasant. Many of them seemed to revolve around Cheerilee, inexplicably the size of a building, her eyes glowing a horrific red, and focused entirely on Trixie.

Still, she thought to herself, it was almost Hearths’ Warming. Even Cheerilee probably relaxed her attitudes at that time of year. Hopefully.

She made a mental note to try and get the foal enrolled in a way that wouldn’t end with her on the receiving end of a Severe Talking To from her friend.

“Learning magic, eh?” she asked. “Knowing your… sister, I’m guessing that must’ve been dull.”

Thesis nudged her food gingerly. “M-maybe.”

Trixie tried not to grin. “Ah, no matter. Tomorrow, I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, shall show you magic you’ve never seen.”

Thesis gave her an odd look. “I’m only a month old. I’ve not really seen any magic.”

“Good point.” Trixie admitted.

“So what you said was pointless.”

Trixie stared across the table at the foal, who stared right back at her, an utterly malice-free expression on her face.

“Just eat your dinner,” she cautioned. Thesis did so, as Trixie shook her head. Somepony had been spending too much time around her “sister”. Either that or she’d somehow inherited more of Trixie’s traits than just her eating habits.

That was probably something else to watch out for.

Far from Ponyville, far from Canterlot, hundreds of miles to the east, near the tip of Equestria’s eastern coast, lay the city (and province) of Manehatten, probably the most populated city in all Equestria, probably beyond.

It was a far cry from either Canterlot or Ponyville, but it was not without its charms all the same (provided, of course, you knew what you were getting into by going).

Presently, as it was the middle of winter, it was grey. And raining. Huge, grey clouds hung over the city, pouring out slug-sized drops of water, as they made the grey parts of the city look even darker and gloomier.

Somehow, neither factor did anything to the average inhabitant’s attitude to one another. One such pony was bustling through the streets, either weaving her way through the crowds, or in the time-honoured tradition of just trying to walk straight through them, ignoring the annoyed calls of her fellow pony.

Eventually, the mare came to her destination, an unremarkable diner, of garish colouring and suspicious smell, and went in, making her way to one of the many bright red booths lining the walls, removed the saddlebags she was carrying and sat down.

“Hey.” She remarked, casually, to the pony opposite. Said pony was a pegasus, of a pale blue colour, with gold eyes matching her two-toned gold mane. Next to her was sat a pony who chose to conceal her appearance beneath a nondescript brown hood, the sort of attempt at anonymity that naturally drew anypony’s attention immediately. By the shape of the hood, they were clearly a unicorn, with a yellow coat plainly evident even in the shadows of her hood.

“Hey,” the pegasus grunted back. “You said you had a job.”

The pony she was addressing was an earth pony mare, with a dark orange coat, brown eyes and a mildly genial look about herself.

“And I do, I do. Don’cha trust me, Dusty?”

The pegasus looked to her friend, then back. She snorted derisively.

“Let’s hear what you’ve got for us, first, Orange.”

Orange grinned at that. “Well, it’s pretty easy, they just want to find a missing pony.”

“Find a missing pony.” The unicorn repeated. “We’re not private investigators.”

“I know, Sunset,” Orange said, ignoring the fierce glower that earned her.

“You wanna say my name a little louder?” the mare hissed, “see how fun that gets.”

Orange winced a little at that. “Sorry. It’s just… the pony who contacted me said they heard about you two, and figured you were the best for the job. Better than any PI.”

“You trying to butter us up?” the pegasus asked.

“Nah, Lightning. If I was trying to butter you up, you’d know. I’m not a butter sort’a pony.”

“Except when you really want something,” the unicorn muttered.

“So… missing pony, mysterious employer,” Lightning Dust mused. “So… why should we do this?”

“Kindness of your own hearts?” Orange shrugged, earning another snort from Lightning Dust. “It’d be a big help?” As she spoke, she fished in her saddlebags, “but, uh, just so’s you know, this is the price they were offering to pay.”

She removed a small piece of paper from the folds of her cloak, and pushed it across the table. Lightning Dust stared at it blankly. After a few seconds more her partner gently slid the paper away from her. Once she did, Sunset's jaw clenched.

“That’s a lot of money…” Lightning Dust muttered.

“That’s a lot a lot of money…” her partner whispered, nodding dumbly.

The two ponies looked at one another. Neither had lived as long as they had without being reasonably cautious, and knew not to trust the amount they were being offered. In their experience, nopony ever handed anything out for free, especially to ponies like them.

Lightning turned back to Orange. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” Orange said, “‘least not that I heard. But they did kinda want this pony found before summer.”

There was a long silence as the earth pony absently traced a hoof across the table.

“... and?” Sunset asked.

“And, ah… they ain’t been seen in a coupl’a years…”

Sunset facehoofed. “There’s a catch…” she groaned.

Lightning Dust murmured. “I dunno, Bitty. This sounds like… like it’s beyond us. I mean, Shimmy and I are good.” She glanced sideways at her partner, “brilliant even, but this just sounds… how do I put this? ‘Completely impossible’. You want a pony found, with no idea where she is or where’s she’s been for the last several years. Have you got anything for us?”

“Only thing we’ve got is her picture.” Orange said, sliding a picture across the table. Lightning looked at it, then to the orange earth pony.

“Oh, that’ll help.” She said dryly, “at least we know what she looks like. That makes it so much easier.”

Her partner was still staring at the note, biting her lip in her concentration. “Lighting?”

“Yeah?”
Sunset leaned in and whispered something. Lightning’s entire posture changed at that. She smiled an insincere smile at Orange, one that in no way hid her irritation and reluctance. “I’m suddenly very interested in your proposal.”

Trixie muttered furiously under her breath. Purple and green spots danced in front of her vision, blocking out everything else.

“Sorry,” she heard Thesis squeak in alarm.

“No, no,” Trixie quickly said, “it’s… well, it’s nopony’s fault.”

Technically speaking, the annoying part of her mind spoke up, she was to blame. After some breakfast, she’d declared she would teach Thesis some real magic, not just pointless messing around with fruit. But first she’d asked the foal to light up her horn, much as she had with Dinky and Snails before her, so that she could see how far along she was with her magic.

And it had lit up, alright. She hadn’t been expecting much, if the most she could do was telekinesis. So when there’s been a flash like a firework going off, she was pretty surprised.

Once again, the treacherous part of her mind resurfaced, helpfully pointing out that there had been a carefully written note from a certain somepony saying Thesis had problems with magic. A note, it further pointed out, that Trixie had ignored and tossed in the nearest trash can.

A note which Trixie had taken to mean she occasionally cast the wrong spell, or broke stuff she held, like (just off the top of her head) Dinky occasionally did. Not light up like the sun.

She felt a small stab of relief she hadn’t been using her magic sight at the time. The last time she’d used that near an alicorn using magic, she’d been blind for days afterward.

“I think,” she said carefully, “we can assume your magic is developing healthily. So that allows us to move on to the actual teaching. So I suppose I should ask first what magic you do know?”

“Just telekinesis,” Thesis murmured. “It’s all my sister teaches me. Lifting apples, moving apples, catching apples when she throws them…”

Trixie rubbed a hoof against her chin. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you’re bored of apples.”

“I’m sick of apples,” Thesis declared, with all the force she could muster. “But I don’t wanna learn stuff like splitting myself in two. That was creepy. I don’t have to learn that, do I?”

Trixie blinked at that. It took a moment for her to figure out Thesis was probably talking about Princess Luna’s ability to become her own crowd, something that did take some getting used to.

“Uh, no,” she ventured, “I think maybe we’ll start off with something nice and safe and harmless, but still fun!” she felt the need to add. She glanced about the sitting room, remembering what had happened the last time she’d been teaching foals in her residency. Which had involved a near-miss with her fireworks, and her entire house.

She could see what she had to do coming, much as though she wished she didn’t.

“Outside,” she added a moment later, fighting down the urge to add “far away from any windows.”

“Okay,” Trixie admitted once they were outside and safely away from anything remotely breakable (or, hopefully, flammable), “I feel, before we start, I should admit most of my specialty lies in illusions. Just letting you know. There are a few not related to illusions I know, here and there, but… most of them aren’t especially useful for somepony your age.”

“Oh,” Thesis said, calmly. She didn’t sound disappointed, at least.

Trixie sighed. “Look, honestly? It’s not a big deal. You shouldn’t be so focused on magic right now. You should just be spending time with other foals your age, having fun. Or trying to, at any rate.”

The filly stared blankly at her.

“Your sister didn’t say anything about this, did she?”

Thesis just shook her head. Trixie sighed again, and muttered under her breath.

“Well, for now, I suppose I could show you a few tricks I’ve got up my sleeves. We’re out here, we might as well do something, unless you want to sit inside all day again?”

“No!” Thesis blurted, before quickly looking down at her hooves, “I mean, no. I’d rather stay out here.”

Well, that settled that, Trixie thought. She would have rather stayed indoors, near the fire while under a nice, snuggly warm blanket. It wasn’t that she hated winter, and the horrible freezing cold that came with it, she just… didn’t like it as much as certain other seasons. The Twelvetide and Hearth’s Warming and the Longest Night, she liked, but the weather was another matter. It was hard to focus on good cheer when it was approaching below zero (or felt like it, at any rate).

Not, admittedly, that the foal in front of her seemed to notice much. Perhaps it was just a part of her alicorn nature, but there was something altogether not right about a foal standing up to her hocks in snow without even so much as saying she was cold.
But she had said they would practice outside, and she wasn’t about to go back on that now that they were actually out there.

“Alright then,” Trixie smiled, and almost by reflex found herself saying “now, watch in awe!”

Far from Ponyville, and Trixie, and her various issues, in the mountains on the borders of Equestria, two weary travellers made their way through the threshold of Queen Celestia’s makeshift castle. One was a zebra, her black and white fur showing the occasional signs of having been burnt. The other, a pegasus, showed slightly less signs of physical damage, but his entire appearance was that of someone who’d been pushed over their limits.

Despite this, as Kindle marched toward his queen’s throne, he forced himself to look resolute and determined, willing his aching body to keep him standing just a little longer.

If Celestia gave any indication of noticing his arrival, she gave no signal. But he knew she would be thankful for his and Zecora’s service.

“My queen,” he said, trying not to let the weariness in his voice show, “I am glad to report that our mission was a success.”
At that, Celestia blinked, as good as shouting from her. “You found Spellhold?” she declared.

“Indeed,” Kindle smiled, “exactly where the… informant said it would be.”

“Given the length of your absence,” Celestia said, “I would assume there was some… dramatics involved?”

Kindle hesitated at the gaze of his queen. He somewhat hoped Zecora would speak up, say something in that odd way of hers, but the zebra remained eerily quiet.

“Not at all, my queen. Well,” he began, as his gaze accidentally met with Her Highness, “nothing to be truly concerned about. Zecora and I felt the need to explore the rest of the great library, to make sure there were no… surprises left in store.”

“And were there?” she asked.

“None,” Kindle responded, “save for one thing…”

He fished into his satchel, removing a small, rolled up scroll. Almost as he did, it was wrapped in Celestia’s magic, the true queen of Equestria examining it but momentarily. Celestia scowled at it, before her gaze lightened, turning back to Kindle.

“And what of the library itself?”

“It, and all the texts contained within appear to be intact, though I am admittedly no expert.”

“So, it is secure?” Celestia asked. Kindle nodded.

“Good,” was her response, and despite his weariness, Kindle felt his spirits lift. “Well done, Kindle.”

At this, he blinked. She wasn’t thanking Zecora, who had been working for Celestia’s glory even before she had escaped Luna’s treason. He glanced toward Zecora, and only then did he realise why. It was difficult thanking someone who had fallen asleep on their hooves. Kindle frowned slightly at that, in concern for his fellow servant. As he did, the familiar golden glow of Corona’s magic wrapped around her, and she vanished. He looked back up toward Celestia’s throne.

“Should I be concerned as to Zecora’s state?” she asked.

“I apologise, highness,” Kindle bowed as much as he could, “Zecora has…”

The words died in his throat, especially once he looked at Celestia’s face again. “It’s not for me to say.”

Celestia did not appear taken with this explanation.

“Kindle,” she said, a frosty edge to her voice, “if I must demand an explanation…”

Kindle, not one for self-consciousness, found himself coughing. “Zecora exerted herself strenuously on our outing, perhaps more than was necessary.”

“Just Zecora?” Celestia asked, and later Kindle would swear to himself she couldn’t have just smirked. There was no possibility one such as her could descend to such a level.

“I aim only to serve to the best of my abilities,” Kindle said, carefully.

“But that’s not what puts you so ill at ease, is it now?” His queen replied.

“It is not my place to say… as I said, I but serve.”

“And you serve ably, Kindle,” Celestia said. It was all Kindle could do not to grin like an absolute maniac at that. “Now tell me, what troubles you?”

Long seconds passed, as Kindle tried to get the words out. “This… situation, Highness. A deal with a mysterious stranger who is undeniably trying to manipulate you for their own ends.” Celestia tensed, “not that they will succeed, of course. But the fact they would try at all...”

There was silence, or as near as could be managed in Celestia’s castle. “I understand your concerns, Kindle. Rest assured, though, I am fully prepared for any trap our supposed benefactor may attempt to set. And should by some miracle they manage to catch me…” she allowed herself a small smile, “they would soon regret it.”

After the brief demonstration of some of her less flashy spells, which had received polite (if restrained) applause from Thesis, she had decided to move onto a more important subject.

It had been percolating in the back of her mind as she had been… well, showing off, and once she was done she realised she felt strongly on the fact.

Thesis did not know what fun was. And as such Trixie felt it was her duty, neigh her responsibility as a professional hero of Equestria if nothing else, to show her some of the basics.

“Are you watching carefully?” she asked, trying to fight her grin down, as she took some of the snow still remaining. As Thesis stared intently, she began rolling it together, forming a ball. Then she formed another, and another.

“This is a snowball,” she declared. Thesis just stared warily at it.

“And what does it do?” the foal asked.

It took Trixie a moment to recover from that question, and she liked to think it was a very smooth recovery.

“I’m so glad you asked…” Trixie said, as her magic wrapped around one. “Pay close attention now…”

With a deft flick, she aimed the ball for Thesis’s mid-section. It sailed through the air, impacting almost silently against the filly’s fur, but the surprise still made her yelp in alarm.

“What was that for?” she squeaked, and for a moment Trixie felt like an utter monster.

“That’s what you do with snowballs. You throw them.”

Thesis blinked. “You… make them, then… throw them?”

“Yes. For fun.”

Thesis stared at the snow around her for long moments. “Okay,” she remarked, in a way that suggested she hadn’t really got the idea. Slowly, with great effort she began trying to gather together some snow herself.

Soon enough, she’d managed to make two or three, glancing carefully at Trixie as she went (and Trixie could’ve sworn she saw distrust in the foal’s eyes. She really hoped that was just her imagination acting up again).

With great care, she moved one aside, and closed her eyes. Her horn lit up, and the small snowball hovered into the air. Then, with a sudden burst it shot toward Trixie, hitting her on the cheek.

“Sorry, sorry!” Thesis squeaked instantly.
“It’s alright,” Trixie quickly said, “it’s just snow. You’re catching on quick.”

The filly smiled nervously at that. “So… what do we do now?”

“Well…” Trixie tried to look as innocent as she could manage as she lifted several more about her head, “I throw these at you, you try and throw yours at me. Shall we?”

“I think that went pretty well,” Trixie grinned, as the two marched back to her residency. “Don’t you?”

Thesis grinned at her, as she trotted behind Trixie. She’d came around to the whole idea of a snowball fight pretty quickly. But eventually Trixie had decided it was too cold, even with her cape keeping her warm, for them to stay out there much longer.

Luckily, then, that her residency was so nice and warm. Or at the very least, it would be once she got a fire going.
So naturally, she wasn’t even halfway toward setting the logs in the fireplace, having already gotten Thesis under a blanket, before there was somepony at the door.

“Couldn’t have waited just two minutes…” Trixie sighed.

As it turned out, the pony at the door was Ditzy, out and about on her rounds.

“Mail for you, representative.” She declared, with her usual good cheer. “How’s everything going?”

“So far?” Trixie said, as she took her letters, “good, fine.”

“You worried it’s all going to go hideously wrong?” Ditzy asked. Trixie looked back, to make sure there was nopony listening in, and leaned in toward her friend.

“Maybe, a little.” Ditzy’s expression didn’t change.

“Okay, entirely.” Trixie admitted.

“Don’t be.” Ditzy said. “You spend all your time worrying about whether things will go wrong, something almost certainly will.”

“I hope that’s not the voice of experience talking.”

Ditzy’s smile turned forcibly awkward, and Trixie recalled that barely even a few months ago, Ditzy’s worry about Dinky’s future had led to an unfortunate incident, which had nearly ended with a very angry Cheerilee having a stern talk with her.

“Maybe, a little.” Ditzy said, quietly. “But it’s still true. You just do the best you can for them, and hope it’s enough. Speaking of worrying…”

She glanced around. “You are going to enrol her in school, right? Before Cheerilee finds out?”

Trixie hemmed and hawed. “I guess I should, it’s just…”

Ditzy’s expression turned sharp. “Just what, Trixie?”

“You don’t suppose Cheerilee would at least let me wait until Hearth’s Warming is over, do you?”

Ditzy looked uncertain. “I… don’t think so, Trixie.”

“No,” Trixie sighed, “no, I suppose she wouldn’t.”

After a moment’s pause, Ditzy hugged her. “You looked like you could use a hug,” she smiled, before turning to leave. Before Trixie could shut the door, she stopped.

“Oh, by the way, should I tell Dinky that her Wednesday afternoons with you are on hold?”

“What?” Trixie asked, “wh-… oh, because of Thesis?”

She had noted, during the Incident of Many Foals some months back, that her number one assistant did get a little (okay, more than a little) jealous of anypony else hogging her attention, and now with a foal hanging around…

Trixie could see it. Dinky, sitting there, ears pressed flat, eyes trembling and lip quivering, barely able to ask if she’d somehow done something wrong, and Trixie would feel like a monster among monsters, and then somehow, all Tartarus would inevitably break loose…

“Dinky does seem to not want to share you.” Ditzy said, carefully. “And if that’s a problem…”

“It’s no problem.” Trixie declared, “there is enough of me to share. And besides, I’m pretty sure I know what went wrong last time.”

Ditzy eyed her sceptically. “Pretty sure?” she repeated.

“Pretty sure.” Trixie affirmed.

“Okay!” Trixie declared, as she entered the room, carrying two bowls of something Thesis couldn’t identify, “lunch is up, finally.”
Thesis looked down at the bowl, then up at Trixie, who was smiling eagerly.

“Eat up,” she said.

Thesis looked at the bowl and sniffed it. Then she sniffed it again. She looked back up at Trixie.

“Um…” Thesis said, “couldn’t I have something else? Like what you made last night.”

“Well…” Trixie glanced back toward the kitchen, “not really. This did take a while to make, you know. Just…” she said carefully, “give it a try.”

Thesis stared at Trixie. “But I don’t want it.”

“It’s all there is.”

“But I don’t want it.” Thesis repeated.

Trixie’s smile was now all but gone. “You could just have a bite, see how it tastes. You might like it.”

“I DON’T WANT IT!” Thesis’ horn glowed, and the bowl was wrapped in a dark blue aura.

The next thing Trixie knew, the bowl and table had gone flying. There was a mighty crash of wood and crockery, and Trixie found herself staring at Thesis, looking at the remains of both table and lunch in alarm.

“I’m sorry!” the filly barely managed to squeak out. She then rushed out of the room before Trixie could even say anything.

Fortunately, at least, she did not flee far, and Trixie found her huddled under her desk.

As she heard the occasional terrified sniff from underneath the desk, Trixie tried to steel herself.

‘Difficulties with control of magic’, Midnight’s note had said. She didn’t regard destroying tables by accident as a simple difficulty. Or nearly blinding her, for that matter. Maybe, she thought, if a certain lying back and front-stabbing weasel had explained things more concisely, these situations might have been avoided.

Another, far more annoyingly reasonable part of her brought up that she probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. Trixie ignored it.

“I didn’t mean it.” She heard Thesis exclaim, the filly evidently having noticed her expression darkening. “It just happens when I try to use magic sometimes, it doesn’t work properly. M- my sister was supposed to be helping me, and then…”

Trixie resisted the urge to say, or even think, several very angry things, which was already proving difficult just by looking at the terrified expression on the filly’s face. But she was making a list of her own, with the key topic being what she was going to do to that pony when she met her again.

“It’s alright,” Trixie said, “it was just a table, and a bowl. Believe me, my house has been smashed up worse than that in the last year.”
There was a pause, punctuated only by another soggy sniff. “R-really?”

“This town is an insurance salespony’s dream.” Trixie chortled. “And a homeowner’s nightmare. But we should probably talk about that yelling you did.”

“I’m sorry…” Thesis said, and Trixie felt like a monster again. “I just… I don’t know, I got so angry all of a sudden.”

“It’s…” she stopped, “well, I was going to say “it’s okay”, but… for the record, even if you don’t like the food, losing your temper about it is a no-no.”

“It’s a what?”

Trixie shook her head, hoping desperately the foal couldn’t see her. “Try not to do it.”
There was a momentary, all-consuming silence.

“Alright, we’re going to do two things. First off, is getting some lunch elsewhere. Okay, no” she corrected herself, “first off is cleaning everything up, then lunch, then we go have a talk with somepony who might be able to help with these magic problems you’re having.”
“Will apples be involved?” Thesis asked.

Thesis stared at the object she was holding, with utmost care, in the grasp of her magic.

“It’s a peanut-butter cracker,” Miss Trixie had said, as they’d left the store with a small packet of the things. “The food of champions.”
She wasn’t entirely sure about that, but a few cautionary nibbles at least convinced her it was good.

The two of them continued walking through the light snow, until she saw a large tree, looming in the distance, a sign proclaiming it was the Ponyville library. Which meant Miss Twilight.

The door chimed as she and Trixie entered, and Thesis looked about, hoping to get a better look at the library in daytime, see how it measured up to Canterlot’s library.

There was a cough, from the purple pony sitting on the stairs leading to the upper room, her back turned.

“Whatever you’re eating, put it away now.” Twilight Sparkle said, in a tone suggesting all manner of horrible things would happen if they didn’t. Thesis looked at Trixie, who rolled her eyes and stashed the food away within her cape.

“Afternoon to you too, Sparkle.” The mare turned around, and gave Trixie a mildly withering stare, only to stop and look at Thesis again when she saw her. In a flash of light, she vanished, and reappeared a few steps from the filly.

“Hello, Trixie,” she said, looking between the two ponies. “How did…”

“Long story,” Trixie replied, “complicated. Not really important right now.”

Twilight gave Trixie an odd look that Thesis didn’t get, and Trixie gave one back.

“I see.” Twilight murmured, for which Thesis was grateful, because she certainly didn’t.

“What brings you here?” the purple mare asked.

“Research.” Trixie said, slowly, as if she didn’t want to say the words. Twilight looked at her funny.

“Research?” she repeated.

“Yes. There was an incident at lunch time, and…” Thesis found her ears falling flat, and suddenly couldn’t bear looking at Miss Twilight. “I might need… some assistance.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Okay…” she said, though to Thesis’ ear she sounded like she wanted to say more.

“There isn’t any history of magical instability in your family, is there?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not as such. My magical control’s always been…” she suddenly coughed, “well, pretty good. Same with my brother.”

The mare looked toward a small pile of books on the far side of the room, as Trixie eyed her suspiciously.

“You coughed. Something you’re not sharing?”

“No…” Twilight said, tapping her forehooves together. “Okay, maybe when I got my Cutie Mark I may have… given off a massive burst of energy which might have been beyond my control.”

Then she muttered something under her breath, and hurriedly trotted over to the other side of the room.

“What was that?” Trixie asked.

“I may have turned my parents into potted plants.” Twilight just barely squeaked out, her cheeks beginning to turn bright pink. “If it hadn’t been for Princess Luna…”

She coughed again, far more forcefully this time. “Anyway. I don’t have much personal experience with this kind of uncontrolled magic. But I could read up on it, if it’d be any help.”

“Couldn’t hurt.” Trixie said, with the tone of somepony who was perfectly happy not to be reading a book if she didn’t have to.
“It’d help if I knew what the problem was, though.”

“It happens when I get angry,” Thesis said. “Things just start breaking. My sister said it was something to do with me being an alicorn and-”

“Wait.” Twilight held up a hoof, “sister?”
She glanced suspiciously at Trixie. “Care to elaborate on that one?”

“Remember what I said about it being complicated?” Trixie said.

“I think you need to start explain things.” Twilight mused.

Thesis looked at the two ponies. Trixie was staring at her oddly.

“Alright,” Trixie finally said, “but… in private.”

Thesis looked at her, and Trixie winced. “Sorry, but some of this is for grown up ponies only.”

She watched as the two walked off into a side room, and sat. For a moment, she heard the sound of voices, but they stopped. In irritation at being left out, she kicked absently at the floor, then looked around at the bookshelves.

“Hold on…” Twilight declared, “so… Princess Luna’s major domo decides, after years of working for her, to legally seize Thesis, move to Ponyville, then just… disappear?”

Her mouth opened. Her mouth closed again. This repeated several times.
“Why?”

Trixie could only stare at the ceiling. “I’ve no idea. Well, I’ve no idea why she took off, but I’ve a good explanation for the rest of it. I’ve got an explanation,” she amended, almost immediately. “And it’s probably the best I’m going to get.”

“Which is…?” Twilight ventured.

“Not repeatable near foals.” Trixie declared.

“Oh.”

“Oh?” Trixie repeated.

Twilight shrugged. “I thought you were going to suggest she was being manipulated or controlled, or… I don’t know, something like that.”

“My luck isn’t that good.” Trixie muttered. “Besides, I’ve seen what happens when somepony tries blackmailing her, and…”

“You’re taking this pretty hard.” Twilight remarked. Trixie shot the purple pony a glower. Her ears twitched.

“I didn’t mean it like… that came out wrong.”

“How was that supposed to come out right?” Trixie asked.

“It’s just... you are. And I get that, because she was your friend, wasn’t she?”

Trixie paused. “I… I don’t actually know if she was my friend. More like she followed me around a lot and never went away. But I figured I at least knew where she stood. And now, she’s walking around Ponyville with Thesis, and…” Trixie groaned in frustration.

“Well, if she wasn’t your friend, would it upset you as much?”

“Maybe. Perhaps.” Trixie shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Can we please talk about something else? Anything else. Please?”

“Well…” Twilight mused, “have you any particular plans for Hearths’ Warming?”

“Stay indoors.” Trixie grinned, “stay near drink, especially if it’s warm. Keep the Elements of Harmony nearby, just in case.”

Twilight frowned at that, and opened her mouth to say something. If Trixie had to guess, she had been about to ask whether that was necessary. She herself wasn’t absolutely sure if it was, if only because even Ponyville’s luck (or absence thereof) couldn’t have been that bad, but after the previous year’s Longest Night had ended with a crazed alicorn escaping from the sun, nopony in town really wanted to take their chances.

“Good idea.” Twilight finally said.

“What about you?” Trixie asked.

“Same as I do every Hearths’ Warming. Stay near a fire and catch up on my reading. I’d have tried writing my brother, or my parents, to see if they want to visit, but Shiny’s busy with everything that’s happened, and I don’t think my dad would be too welcome here.”

“Yeah,” Trixie said, fighting down the urge to say anything about that. Twilight too, from the looks of it, given the nervous expression on her face.

“Now, my mom, on the other hoof…” Twilight said carefully, “is another story. But if she was here I’d probably have to explain Thesis at some point and…”

The mare tapped her forehooves together.

“Bad idea?” Trixie asked, carefully. She had little knowledge of Twilight’s mother, especially compared to her father and brother. In fact, she could barely recall having even seen the mare at all, even during the Grand Galloping Gala.

“No. No. Just… she really wants grandfoals.” Twilight barely managed to get out. “And then if she learned about those ponies abducting us, she’d…”

“Ah.” Trixie said, knowingly. “You don’t want her to worry.”

“I already put her and my dad out of their minds with worry when I… you know. If I told them about what happened…”

Trixie nodded, solemnly. “I get you.”

Twilight sighed heavily. “So as much as I would love to see them at Hearths’ Warming again, I can’t.” After a few seconds, a smile began to creep back onto her muzzle.

“But I do have all that “homework” to work on, if I get bored. Agent Haymaker said I didn’t have to work on it during the holidays, but with the weather not many ponies are coming to the library anyway.”

Trixie began grinning again. She knew about Twilight’s “extra-curricular assignment”, helping the Shadowbolts with testing some teleportation spells, having been told about it at the same time as Twilight. After all, the mare was the biggest expert on teleportation magic in Equestria (and beyond, in fact). She’d practically leapt at the offer.

“Plus, you enjoy working on it.”

“Well…” Twilight grinned an almost infectiously nervous smile, “Yes. It is pretty fascinating application of teleportation magic.”

“I get it,” Trixie said, eager to head off a potential rant and / or lecture on teleportation magic before it could begin. For a moment, a look of confusion (or irritation, or both) flashed across Twilight’s face, then vanished.

“Alright then.” She declared, before looking past Trixie to the door. “I suppose we should go back and check on Thesis. Wasn’t that what you came here to talk about?”

On re-entering the main room, Trixie felt a small stab of fear on not seeing Thesis exactly where she’d been left. Mercifully, before her brain could go into a panicked overdrive, she noticed the foal sitting by one of the bookshelves, engrossed in a book.

“Hey,” Trixie said, “sorry about that. Just needed to fill Sparkle in on a few things. We got a little distracted.”

“’kay.” Thesis nodded.

“So, anyway!” Trixie grinned, ignoring the look Twilight was giving her for that previous remark, “about that help we promised to give you…”

“My head hurts…” Thesis declared, as she and Trixie trudged through the snow, away from the library, the sun beginning to droop toward the horizon again.

“Yeah,” Trixie nodded. “That’s what happens when you’re near Twilight Sparkle for too long.”

“I don’t even get all of what she was saying.” The filly added.

Trixie nodded again. She had tried telling Twilight to dumb it down a little, but Twilight Sparkle’s concept of dumbing it down and everypony else’s ideas of dumbing it down… differed. Dramatically.

And then she had tried chiming in with what Princess Luna had told her about learning magic, and things had gotten maliciously polite between the two of them.

Twilight had suggested Thesis take some books home with her, until Trixie had seen the titles and suggested maybe, maybe, it was a better idea to try something that didn’t require five degrees to follow, and eventually they’d decided it was best to call time there before things got worse.
Then her thoughts turned to what Thesis had been reading.

“So, what were you looking up? Anything interesting?”

“Nothing.” Thesis murmured. “Just a dictionary I was looking through.”

The two continued walking, the only sound being the crunch of snow and the sloshing of slush, and occasionally the mix of the two.

“You look a little down.” Trixie said.

“I keep thinking about my sister…” Thesis murmured. Trixie felt her stomach sink again. “Why’d she leave me? Did I do something wrong?”

Trixie wrenched her jaw shut. “No. I’m… sure she had her reasons, whatever they were,” she said, summoning all the diplomatic phrasing she could muster (and even then, the words left an awful taste behind). But the foal didn’t seem convinced.
There was silence, the only sound the crunching of snow. Trixie looked up at the sky, and the clouds being pushed about by Ponyville’s weather team. And then a thought came to her.

“You know,” she began, still looking up at the sky, “my aunt once told me something, an old tale. She said at night, if a pony looks up at the stars at the same time as somepony else, they can hear each other, no matter where they are, no matter the distance between them.”

She looked down at the foal, who was staring at her like she was growing a second tail.

“Is that real?” she asked, a note of almost-Twilight like suspicion edging into her voice.

“It’s a real story, alright,” Trixie grinned. She looked down to see Thesis giving her as filthy a look as she could manage. “The only way to know is to try.”

The sky was a light purple, with an odd light to it from the snow still scattered about Ponyville, which was being reinforced by a fresh layer left overnight by the weather service. Of course, this meant actually looking at the stars was proving difficult for Thesis, since there weren’t any she could see. Just snow and clouds.

She wasn’t entirely sure Trixie was telling the truth, especially after what her sister had said before she’d left, but so far she’d been nothing but nice, so what was wrong with trying?

Only, she realised as she looked up at the clouds, watching snow dancing on the breeze and silently spattering against the window, she wasn’t even sure what to think, or what star to even look at. How was her sister supposed to know? Would she know? Certainly, she’d seemed to know a lot of things anyway. Would she have been able to know Thesis was looking for her?
Scrunching her face in concentration, Thesis looked upwards anyway.

There was the horrible smell of smoke and burnt fur in the air, made all the worse by the confines of the area, which in this case was a large, neigh cavernous underground space, evidently carved out by somepony (or something) a long time ago, left behind by its original designers in something of a hurry, and found many centuries later.

Exactly why the original owners had left so quickly was perhaps not dwelt upon. Certainly, at present, the current occupants were in no condition to raise theories.

Several of them were unconscious, some were rocking back and forth, muttering to themselves. One or two unfortunates were completely grey from head to hoof to tail.

Their attackers, a grand total of three ponies, walked over and around the handful of ponies left. The one in front, their eyes glowing an unpleasant orange, did so with a practiced ease. The other two, a young colt with a short mane, and an angry looking mare, were merely trailing behind. Both of them were taking great effort not to look at anything in particular. Not the ponies on the floor, not each other, or the eerie writing on the surfaces they could see (the parts that didn’t have holes from where stray magic had hit them, or hadn’t just worn down from age), which called to mind the words “spidery”, or the unpleasant way the shadows danced over everything, giving hints of things they didn’t want to see. Artwork or frescos of strange and disturbing geometry dotted the walls here and there, with far too much red and black to be reassuring to anyone.
And then there was that vague buzzing in the back of their minds, like a voice faintly whispering unpleasant nothings.

The lead pony marched through the room, her gaze falling upon everything with a casually bored air, until she reached the center of the room.

The mare grinned, and motioned to the third pony, who walked over without a word, and at the mare’s motioning, smashed a hoof down upon the center.

Frolic Flame just stood back, watching, as the stone floor buckled, and cracked under the third pony’s blows. He would swear, later, that the buzzing had changed pitch and intensity, becoming much shriller. Almost like whatever was causing it was afraid.

After a few seconds, the mare nodded, and her horn lit up. Several large stones were wrapped in a golden aura and moved out of the way, revealing a small, dark pit. Nearby, one of the prone ponies groaned in alarm, apparently recognising what was happening.

“No!” They moaned, waving a hoof at the two.

Without a word, the third pony moved over toward them, and delivered a swift kick to the head.

Back in the center of the room, the lead pony was lifting something out of the pit with their magic. And “something” was the best Frolic would have called it, as he saw the item lifted out of the hole.

At first glance, it looked not unlike a strange, misshapen hourglass. But there was no sand inside. Instead there was… well, again, something. It looked like a ball of light, only the light it gave off was a hideous mix of dark purple and green, which made him feel queasy, and want to look away, at the walls, at the shadows, anywhere but at it, as it roiled inside the container, and though he swore it couldn’t have, Frolic could’ve sworn he heard something like a heart-beat.

The mare was smiling at it, with an almost hungry gaze. Frolic looked to the third pony, who was trying not to look at anything, but occasionally would glance at the object, whatever it was, only to hurriedly look away. It would’ve helped if there was anything else to look at, other than the ones who’d been guarding it, or the writing on the walls.

“Yes…” the mare said, the golden glow of her eyes shining off the container’s surface. “This will do nicely.”

While Trixie was not overly fond of winter, at least the parts that did not involve parties and wassailing and being near nice, cosy fires, she had to admit there were, on occasion, fringe benefits. Such as her not having to do as much work, now that it was December.
Of course, this left more time for thinking about other things. Like Thesis. She was keeping an eye on the filly, who was minding her own business, reading Don Rociante (after Trixie had caught her browsing through another dictionary). Thesis, and what was going to happen very soon, for it was a Wednesday, the day Dinky stopped by for tutoring in the arts of magic.

So far, Thesis had been pleasant and agreeable (baring the Lunch Incident), but Trixie had no idea how she’d respond to Dinky, or how Dinky would respond to her, and the amount of time since Ditzy had asked her about what might’ve happened had only caused her brain to start imagining hypothetical scenarios, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.

All of which, she repeated to herself, were unlikely. Especially the ones where Dinky and Thesis meeting turned into a massive brawl that destroyed all of Ponyville, ending with Ditzy glaring furiously at Trixie and saying she would never be allowed near her daughter again.

Besides, she was pretty sure she knew what had gone wrong during the Incident some months prior, with Ditzy and her schoolmate Tootsie Flute.

Not that this stopped her brain from trying to imagine disastrous scenarios without her permission, as the clock slowly ticked past midday, then one o’clock, then two o’clock…

Finally, at half past three, there was a knocking on her door. Steadying herself, and trying to look as calm as possible, Trixie made her way over.

She found Ditzy standing there, covered up in a scarf and hat (just because she was a pegasus didn’t mean she didn’t feel the cold), and next to her was Dinky, practically buried under her own cloak and hat and scarf.

“Hi, Miss Trixie!” The walking clothes rack that was Dinky declared, in a muffled voice.

“Hey, kiddo,” Trixie grinned back, “c’mon in and warm yourself up. I just need to have a quick word with your mom about stuff.”

Dinky hurried inside, a few small piles of snow following her. Trixie looked back to Ditzy, who was looking calm.

“Has she…” Trixie began, sidling in toward her friend, and whispering, just in case.

“I told her about You Know Who,” Ditzy replied, “and I have her promise she’ll behave.”

Trixie nodded solemnly. While she had doubts about her own ability to prevent disaster, the threat of a disappointed Ditzy was a far greater deterrent than she anything else she could think of, up to and including an angry Luna.

“Thanks.” She said.

“Everything’s still going alright?” Ditzy asked. Trixie shuffled about.

“Yes…”

Ditzy’s gaze intensified. “Really?”

Trixie found herself unable to meet Ditzy’s gaze. “Yes.”

“You don’t sound very sure.”

“Well… there was an incident the other day.” Ditzy frowned at her.

“Nothing dangerous happened.” Trixie quickly stated. “Thesis is fine, we’re all fine. Everything’s fine. Nothing important got broken.”
Ditzy stared at Trixie for several seconds. “Good.” She eventually declared. Trixie wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but the mare didn’t sound too convinced.

“Alright then,” she added, with great care, as her expression softened. “Try to have fun.”

Trixie smiled nervously, as she closed the door, and then turned around, to find Dinky.

Thesis had been minding her own business, reading the book Trixie had insisted she read, the one about someone named Don Rociante. She’d said something about somepony visiting at some point, and how she didn’t need to get involved if she didn’t want to.
So she had been sitting, reading the book, which was proving interesting in its own way, minding her own business, when she’d heard the knocking at the door, followed a few seconds later by the odd squeaking noise.

Then, a pony had entered the room, one with a greyish coat, light yellow hair and matching light yellow eyes, and a cheerful smile that had flickered the moment she entered the study and laid eyes on Thesis.

“Hi!” the unicorn declared, walking over toward her, and extending a hoof. “I’m Dinky.”

Thesis stared at the hoof, and the unicorn behind it, with her bright, eager smile, which seemed larger than it had any right to be.

Carefully, she raised a hoof of her own. “Hi,” she said, “I’m Thesis.”

With no apparent act of movement, Dinky’s other forehoof shot out, both locking around hers, as Dinky shook.

“Nice to meet you.” The filly continued to grin, which made Thesis want to take some steps back. There was just too much of it for her liking. But at the same time, there was something about her that just seemed so… different.

Well, different aside from being another foal, though she was starting to wonder if the pony in front of her was typical of other foals. Her words carried back to what her sister had said. About somepony of constant “exuberance”, which did seem to match this Dinky she was staring at (especially after she’d checked the dictionary to see what the word actually meant).

“Yeah,” she murmured, “nice to meet you too.”

There was a moment as Dinky continued grinning at her. “So…” the filly began again, “I’ve not seen you at school. Are you just visiting Ponyville, or…”

“No, I moved here with my sister, a few weeks ago.” Thesis said, “but she… went away so I’m staying with Miss Trixie right now.”

She coughed, “why are you here?”

Dinky’s grin somehow managed to become even more scary. “I’m studying magic under Miss Trixie, as her assistant. She says I’m full of potential.”

“And what does that mean?”

Dinky’s smile flickered slightly. “It means… that I’m really, really good at magic.”

Thesis nodded. This statement might have sounded somewhat more impressive to her if not for the unfortunate quibble that she had been around ponies such as Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna the day she was born, and more importantly if she knew just whether that was meant to be impressive or not (it certainly sounded impressive, but she wasn’t sure whether she was any judge when she had barely mastered lifting apples. For all she knew, non-alicorn foals managed lifting apples on the first day of magic training. Indeed, for all she knew, every unicorn was really good at magic).
But since this Dinky seemed nice, if a little scary in her smiling, she decided that was probably a good idea not be rude. Even if she wasn’t sure what being Trixie’s assistant meant either (wasn’t that Mr. Pierce’s job, anyway, she thought to herself. Maybe they switched places sometimes, though that didn’t make a lot of sense to her).

She realised she was nodding and smiling a lot. So was Dinky. The other foal scuffed a hoof against the floor.

“I like your wings.” Dinky added. Thesis felt them ruffle a little, without her wanting to.

She tried saying “thanks”, but somewhere between the thought and actually getting out of her, something went hideously wrong and her mouth refused to move, meaning it came out as a barely audible “thks”.

Trixie braced herself, as she stepped into her study. That there was no sound of anything breaking, or yelling, or raised voices, was already a good start.

But she was still at the ready, just in case.

What she saw was Dinky and Thesis talking between themselves. Talking was good. And while Thesis did look a little nervous around the other filly, she did at least look like she was calming down quickly.

Trixie put that down to Dinky’s almost supernatural skill at making friends. As her mother had remarked, if Dinky’s special talent didn’t turn out to be something related to friendship, then it would be a great surprise, to say the least.

“Alright then…” she declared, as she entered the room, “before we begin, Dinky, do you mind if I explain a few things to Thesis here?”

“Nope.” Dinky smiled. That was definitely reassuring. Trixie leaned in toward Thesis.

“Okay, here’s the thing: Dinky is my magician’s assistant. That means she assists in my magic act, which means I teach her magic so she can help, and also because of some other reasons. Now, I know you’re wondering what that means given what I said re: learning magic the other day. Don’t worry, some of this is a different kind of magic. And not all of it requires magic, if you get what I mean.”

“Not really…” Thesis said. “No.”

“Well, you’ll see.” Trixie grinned. “But, and this is part is important,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “some of this magic is super-secret stuff. There are things even Princess Luna doesn’t know. Stuff that can only be passed down to very important ponies. So you must promise to keep what you learn a secret, okay?”

Thesis’ face scrunched up, as she took the words in. “Alright…”

“… good enough.” Trixie said. “Don’t worry if you don’t understand something, just ask me or Dinky.”

“And if I want to do something else?” Thesis asked.

“Then by all means, go and do it. You don’t have to sit here and watch if you don’t want to.”

Trixie watched as Dinky bundled herself up in her scarf, and hat and cloak, and set off out into the night with her mother, and smiled at the sight. Things had gone smoothly. Very smoothly, in fact. Thesis had just sat and watched quietly the whole time, without so much as even the slightest peep.

“So, what did you think?” Trixie asked, turning to the foal, who had made her way back to the fire. She stared thoughtfully.

“Are all other foals like that?” was the eventual question.

“Err.” Trixie began. “Well.” She continued, “not… exactly, no.”

Thesis made a small noise. Trixie knelt down next to her.

“But I meant, what did you think of what you saw?”

“I don’t know…” Thesis murmured. “It was different from what my sister taught me…”

“Aside from the lack of apples?” Trixie tried.

“Yeah.” Thesis smiled, which Trixie decided was a definite sign of progress.

“But how can it be magic if it’s not magic?”

“Oh,” Trixie said, donning her best knowing smile, “there are ways. There are ways.”

She looked at the clock, “tell you what, it’s getting late, I’ll make us some dinner, and we’ll talk about it some more, okay?”

Mercifully, dinner proved to go down a lot easier with Thesis than the other day’s lunch had, though Thesis had prodded it uncertainly several times, and been more than a little distracted asking about stagecraft, which seemed to be of particular confusion to her. Trixie assured her she’d teach her some more over the coming weeks if she wanted, though Thesis had seemed... well, to Trixie she seemed more concerned about the thought of Dinky coming back.

Eventually, the hours passed, and it reached the time for foals of all ages to be in bed, asleep, as the fire began to die down, and the temperature began to drop.

Trixie guided Thesis up the stairs, and to her bed, where the filly curled up under the covers, and seemed to fall asleep within barely minutes of her head hitting the pillows. For her own part, Trixie felt the oncoming urge to lie down and get some serious, no-nonsense sleeping of her own going on.

Which naturally meant the minute she actually got into her own bed, no such thing happened. Long minutes stretched past, as eyes that had previously been drooping dangerously low suddenly felt less heavy.

It was after some time, at least a good half an hour, by Trixie’s reckoning, that she heard an odd noise. After several seconds of nothing happening, Trixie dismissed it, as the normal sort of odd noise heard at Far Too Late At Night, when a pony was trying to sleep, and went back to trying to think of something, anything to help with the matter.

Sadly, not even trying to recall Sparkle recounting some magical theorem was working. And then Trixie heard another, similar noise.
Just as she was about to dismiss this, the room started shaking.

There was no roaring, no screaming, no loud crunch of woodwork splintering, just… shaking.

Instantly, Trixie threw off the covers, ignoring the blast of freezing cold this earned her, and hurried out onto the landing, and over to the spare bedroom. In total defiance of dramatic convention, the door opened on the first try, and Trixie entered.

She was greeted by two things: The first was the sight of Thesis, still slumbering, but her horn was glowing, if only faintly. The other was the way she was tossing and turning, murmuring faintly but frantically to herself.

To say that Trixie hesitated would’ve been incorrect. She wanted to rush the remaining steps across the room and try to help the foal. But another part of her, which seemed to have seized control of the leg muscles, was wary of what happened if she woke up Thesis mid-nightmare, and what would follow if she, instinctively or not, tried using magic to defend herself.

That part of Trixie got its question answered when, with a terrified yelp, Thesis’s eyes shot open, and her horn light up brightly. Something that looked astonishingly like a bedside table hit Trixie square in the side, and there was another terrified noise, Thesis apologising at a million miles an hour.

“I’m sorry!” she said, leaping off the bed toward Trixie.

“It’s okay,” Trixie groaned, waving a free hoof at her. “I’ve had worse.”

This didn’t seem to reassure the filly much, her wings clenching tightly to her side.

“Don’t worry about me. Are you okay?” Trixie said, “Something had you spooked.”

The wings twitched slightly. She could see there were tears beginning to form in the filly’s eyes.

“Must’ve been a very bad nightmare.”

There was a noise that could’ve been an affirmative, as her tail swished.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Trixie said.

Thesis blinked, rubbing at her eyes as the tears started forming. “I was… I was in a forest, it was dark, and I was all alone…”

Ignoring the shriek of her freshly bruised side, Trixie reached out to the foal and hugged her. “It’s okay,” she said, as gently as she could managed, “you’re not alone here, are you?”

“N-no…”

“Because I’ll look after you. And so will my friends.”

There was a small sniff from the filly. “And my sister?”

Trixie’s smile became slightly more forced. “Yeah, her too.”

Thesis sniffled again.

“Let me tell you a secret,” Trixie said, gently, “everypony, everything gets nightmares.”

“They do?”

Trixie nodded. “Everypony. Even the Great and Powerful Trixie, on occasion.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. But Princess Luna does what she can to protect everypony’s dreams while they sleep.”

The watery eyes blinked in alarmed. “She… does?”

“When she can. She does have to run a country, after all.” Trixie admitted. “And do you know something a very wise pony once told me?”

“No.” Thesis replied.

“He said that even monsters have nightmares, sometimes.”

“Even monsters?” Thesis repeated.

“Especially monsters.” Trixie said. The foal considered this, in-between wiping the last tears from her eyes.

“But why do they have nightmares?”

Trixie resisted the urge to shrug, not least because her side felt like it was on fire. “I don’t know. But if something’s bad enough to scare a monster, it must be pretty scary.”

“That’s not…” Thesis began, “that’s not what I meant.”

“The important thing to remember is that it’s just like a dream – it’s not real. No matter how scary it may seem.” Trixie suddenly yawned. Looking about the dark of the room, she saw the clock that had been on Thesis’ bedside table lying on the floor, and even in the dark she could see well enough that it was saying time was far too late for any sane pony to still be awake.

“I know this was scary,” she said, gently, “but you’re alright. You’re safe, and I’m nearby if anything should happen. Not that anything will. Just try and put it out of your mind, and get back to sleep.”

Thesis looked back towards her bed, shuffling quietly. “Try and think of something nice. Something that makes you feel happy.”

“Couldn’t you stay?” Thesis asked, quietly. “Please?”

Any objection Trixie might’ve had (not that she was actually thinking of it) died then and there.

“Alright,” she said. And then an idea came to mind, “tell you what, I’ll tell you a story. An epic story, based on true events that definitely happened, featuring the Great and Powerful Trixie herself, battling a terrible evil!”

As Thesis clambered into bed and gathered the covers back up again, Trixie quickly went over what stories she knew she could tell. Somehow, she had the feeling that telling Thesis about Corona snatching foals away was probably not the best idea. Tambelon was too dark. The mess with Antithesis, with its two Trixies and two Sparkles, was probably a little too confusing (and also, maybe, just a little embarrassing in some areas). In fact, as she went through the list of the previous year’s events, it seemed an awful lot of them were not particularly suited for any foal, much less one too afraid to fall asleep.
And then a particular name hit her. It was genius, it was simplicity itself… provided she embellished a few details (and really, what harm was there in that? A good story needed an embellishment or two sometimes).

“Alright,” she grinned, “prepare yourself, to hear the story of the hero of Oaton… it began two years ago, when Trixie was not as Great or Powerful as she is now…”

Rubble and glass littered what had once been a proud room. A throne of obsidian sat the top, shattered and broken. Light was streaming through where once had been great stained windows.
One pony stood before six others. All of them looked tired, and exhausted. Of the six, some were bruised or cut. One, a pale blue mare, stood forward, trying to talk to the mare opposite them, fear and apprehension in her eyes.
She looked less injured, but was definitely exhausted, and pained. Something golden was wrapped under one forelimb, pressed against the deep blue fur of her coat.
There were no words, as the dark blue mare said something, but there was clear tension between the seven ponies.
“Your majesty?”

Celestia jolted into awakening. Under the sounds of the volcano, there was an alarmed noise, as a grey pony leapt backward, something wrapped in the grip of her magic.

It took Celestia a moment to gather herself. The pony sitting there as Smoke, the one who’d followed Kindle into her service, albeit with much less enthusiasm than he. Even to Celestia, who was naturally above such things, could tell that Smoke, adequate and faithful servant that she was, had not come for her, but more because of Kindle.
She frowned, as she examined the object held in the small pony’s magic.

“Smoke.”

“Yes, your majesty?”

“Is there some reason you were sneaking around my throne with what looks like a slice of cake?”

“Um,” began the mare, which did not bode well for the tenor of the rest of the conversation, “well, I was thinking maybe you would have wanted a slice, since… somepony has to eat the cake, I mean, even with those charms a pantry isn’t going to keep it forever, and I just thought, but then I got here and you were…”

She trailed off at that. “Resting.” Celestia said. She couldn't recall having fallen asleep. Last she knew, she had been sitting on her throne, thinking. The thought idly crossed her mind that she must have been more tired than she thought.

“Yes, that.” Smoke added quickly, “so I figured maybe I’d leave it here until you woke up.”

“That was…” Celestia began. Her eyes were drawn to the cake. Her irritation at her privacy being interrupted by something so meaningless was evaporating. Regardless of the odd train of logic her servant had been thinking, it hadn’t been an expression of malice. And it did look like a very enticing cake. It seemed a shame to dismiss her for such an innocuous deed.

“Very considerate.” She finished, and it didn’t take the skills of an alicorn to see the way Smoke relaxed at that, as if she’d been expecting wroth and fire. “Thank you.” Celestia added, to see if it would put the mare more at ease.

“It was nothing.” Smoke murmured.

“Did you not take any for yourself?” Celestia asked, as she took a cursory bite (and found, much to her satisfaction, that it was good).

“No, your majesty.” The grey mare said emphatically, only to stop at Celestia’s bemused glance. “Not while I’m working.”

There was silence, in which it was possible to hear the lava bubbling away to itself.

“Working?” Celestia asked. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Not long, I don’t think.” Smoke said, hurriedly, “but Kindle had some ideas he wanted to think on, so he hasn’t gone to sleep yet. It’s not even two in the morning yet.”

Celestia’s face remained impassive. “I see.”

She was beginning to think that at some point she would really need to have a sit down with Kindle, and have a very, very serious talk. Possibly more than one, in fact. Devotion was well and good and to be appreciated, but he was no good to her if he was too tired to perform his duties, and even more so if others were losing out as well.
She idly wondered if perhaps setting a curfew was an idea, but she had a strange feeling Kindle would like either forget or ignore it.

“Then on thy Queen’s command, Smoke of Manehatten, you are released, and under orders not to work further this night.”

Smoke bowed respectfully. “Yes, my Queen.”

There was yet another silence, as she remained there. “Uh, your majesty…”

“Yes?” Celestia began.

“I was just wondering… is everything alright?”

Celestia considered this. True, in a greater sense, everything was most definitely not alright. And frankly, in the immediate sense, it was also anything but alright (aside from the cake, which was proving delicious). But she didn’t want to worry her servants further.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, it’s just… and I know it isn’t my place, but you seemed troubled by something.”

Celestia carefully set the plate down. “I suppose I was, yes. I was dreaming.”

“Oh.” Smoke declared.

Celestia hummed, in thought. “Do you know, I can scarce recall the last time I dreamed. I am sure I must have, even if I cannot remember when.”

“What were you dreaming of?” Smoke asked, innocently, and judging by the look on her face, inadvertently. Celestia decided she would forgive the impertinence.

“The future.”

Now the mare seemed confused. “I thought that was Zecora’s thing, your majesty.”

“Aye,” Celestia said, “Zecora does have the gift of prophecy. But my sister and I have sometimes had brief glimpses. Not rhyming warnings, but flashes, moments of foresight.” She rubbed a hoof against her chin, “and as I said, it has been some time since I can actually remember it occurring.”

“And what did you see?”

Celestia frowned. “A troubling sight, if there’s any truth in it. And given what I did see, I doubt that very much. Prophecies are tricky even at the best of times.”

She shook her head. It couldn’t have been true, that much was obvious. In all the world, there were but three alicorns left. Herself, Luna, and Cadenza of Cavallia. If there had been another alicorn, especially one approaching adulthood, she would’ve heard about them, even if Luna had tried to hide it from her.

“-and it was at that point I…” Trixie stopped. It had been several minutes since Thesis had said anything, but that had hardly been suspicious since she had said very little to begin with, instead just listening intently, but now it was hard not to notice the inescapable fact that she was quite obviously fast asleep.

The fact her eyes were closed was a dead giveaway.

“Ah.” She said, quietly. “To be continued, I guess.”

She stood up, ignoring the scream of pain from her side. As she got to the door, she stopped. “Sweet dreams.”
Trixie made her way back to her room, and her bed, and within ten minutes had managed to fall asleep.

Somewhere, which she was going to label “out there” (which meant anywhere beyond the confines of her bed), there was a knocking. Trixie groaned, waving a hoof idly.

“Just a minute…” she murmured, as she tried levering herself out of her bed, ignoring the still fresh aches and pains on her side. The knocking continued, even as she blinked in the morning light, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Couldn’t wait five minutes, could you?” she muttered. She dragged herself out onto the landing, and down the stairs, and towards the front door. Halfway to the door she picked up her cape, the magic enchantments on it quickly helping her go from “freezing” to merely “very cold”, before she opened the door, the rush of fresh, if even colder, air waking her up more than any coffee would’ve done.

“Raindrops?” Trixie blinked, on seeing the jasmine-coated Pegasus standing on her doorstep. “What’s the matter?”

Raindrops looked momentarily uncomfortable. “I was just passing by on the way to work,” she said, which Trixie knew was an outright lie, given her house and Ponyville’s weather patrol station weren’t anywhere near one another, “wanted to see if you were alright.”

Trixie blinked. “Am I…? Yes, yes, I’m fine. Why?”

“Just concerned.” Raindrops said, quickly. “Everything’s fine, then.”

Trixie contemplated this. “Pretty much, yes.”

At this, Raindrops’ expression changed. “Pretty much?”

“There was an incident during the night. Thesis had a nightmare, but it’s alright,” she said hurriedly, “everything’s fine. She was just spooked, but it’s all fine.”

Raindrops stared at Trixie for a long while, before nodding. “Good to know. But… Cheerilee was saying some things the other night. Might want to deal with that before she comes calling.”

“Yes,” Trixie said, “I should, shouldn’t I? I mean, I will, I’m going to. Definitely going to. At some point, in the very near future.”

“Glad to hear it,” Raindrops said. “Because I’m not absolutely sure I could take an angry Cheerilee. Just for the record.”

Trixie stared blankly, waiting to see if Raindrop’s expression would change, or if she would declare she was joking. Raindrops did neither.

“I get it,” Trixie sighed, “get Thesis into school before anything happens. It’s just…” she found herself thinking of the night’s events, what Thesis had said. “Explaining it to her is going to be tricky.”

“You’ll manage.” Raindrops said. “Not that you’ve got much choice.”

Trixie made a non-committal noise in response. Raindrops sighed.

“Anyway, I gotta get to work. See you later?”

“Yeah,” Trixie nodded, “I’ll try and drop by the Punch Bowl at some point. And we’re still on for Hearth’s Warming, right?”

Raindrops smiled, if only for a moment. “Assuming something doesn’t happen.”

“At least we’ll be prepared if it does, this time.” Trixie said. Raindrops nodded.

“Right.” She said, “let’s hope so. And I really have to get to work now. Bye, Trixie.”

And with that, she began trotting off in the direction of the weather station. Trixie shut the door, and shook her head.
Time to get to work. She thought to herself. Then she removed her cloak, and shivered. Okay, she amended, first get a fire going, then get to work.

High above Manehatten, weather ponies were moving some of the larger rainclouds away, allowing the city’s inhabitants to be merely cold, as opposed to cold and wet, even as light began poking through the holes they were making.

Not that this mattered to Lightning Dust and Sunset, as the two were indoors, in a small hotel room in one of the shadier parts of town, the former staring at the sight outside.

“You’re sure about this?” the pony they were presently sharing the room with asked, glancing cautiously. He was a big one, by pony standards, and clearly a pony who did a lot of travelling around, and from the looks of the armor he wore, probably did at least some fighting while he was at it. Sunset and Lightning’s (at least, whenever the latter stopped staring at the window) gaze kept going back to the sword sitting nearby. The very big, very sharp looking sword, which had definitely seen use before. At that moment, his name escaped Lightning. Dream something, if she remembered right. (In her defense, she hadn’t been listening. Remembering names was Sunset’s job).

“Yup.” Lightning said, confidently. “It’s her they were looking for. Gave us a picture and everything.”

The big pony looked over toward the corner of the room, where another pony was sitting, pouring through several books and notes.

“Paid us a lot of money to find her.” Lightning said, when the silence got to be too much for her.

“How much money?” the pony in the corner asked. Despite the fact she didn’t sound offended, in fact if anything she sounded almost amused, Lightning suddenly found herself coming down with a case of laryngitis.

“A lot.” Sunset stated, glancing back to Lightning. “Not that we were going to actually do it.”

There was a slam, as the pony in the corner closed the book she was reading. “Glad to hear that.”

She looked over toward the big pony. A silent exchange of concerned looks followed.

“If they’re looking for you…” the big pony said, “they’re getting desperate.”

There was a nod, as the mare looked at Sunset and Lightning Dust. The two of them had an increasingly sick feeling in their stomach.

“They were already looking for me.” The mare frowned. “Now, they’re getting spooked. They probably think I’m up to something.”

“Falling…” the big pony said, only to stop when the mare held up a hoof.

“I think I’ve found what we were looking for, but you’re not going to like it.”

The big pony’s expression sunk. “Define “not going to like it”. Is this the sort of “not going to like” which involves wandering around tombs, or just getting into a fight…?”

“Uh…” Star began, running a pale blue hoof along the back of her neck. “No, this is much worse.”

“Oh, great.”

Star turned to look at Sunset and Lightning. “Actually, I don’t suppose you two would be willing to help us with something, would you?”

Lightning looked to Sunset. “Depends,” the yellow unicorn said, “on what you’re asking us to do.”

Star bit on her lip. “Well… there’s something I’m looking for, something really important.”

“And it has to do with these “they” and “them” you keep mentioning, right?” Lightning asked. “Because that wasn’t ominous at all.”

“Sort of…” Star said, “the problem is, I can’t be seen doing it.”

“And you want us to get it for you.” Sunset finished.

“It would be very helpful of you.” Star smiled. “And you two do say you’re good at what you do.”

“Uh-oh.” Lightning muttered.

“Don’t try and manipulate us like that.” Sunset snorted, “it might work on Lightning-“

“It kinda has worked on me.”

“But,” Sunset said, firmly ignoring the pegasus, “you’ll have to try harder than that to get me.”

“Would it help if we said it’s for a good cause?” Dream asked.

At this, Lightling looked nervously at Sunset. It was not they were averse to doing good things as such, it was just that such activities tended to involve an annoying inverse ratio of danger to satisfying payout, and much to Lightning’s irritation, her other half had a bad habit of getting them involved in such things without consulting her about what she wanted to do first (which, for the record, was not get involved in things that could get her in jail). Already, she could see the wheels beginning to turn in Sunset’s eyes, wheels belonging to some elaborate, ludicrous mechanism that would end with them in more trouble than before.

“What is it that you want us to do?” Lightning asked. Falling Star looked to her associate, then back to Sunset and Lightning. Suddenly, the light smile the mare had moments before had vanished. Now, there was a focused look on her face that made Lightning want to run away very quickly.

“There’s an item, under lock and key in the Manhatten Museum of Natural History.” She said. “We’re going to steal it.”

Interlude: Of Falling Star

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“-no sound at all, we hardly make a word…”

“Sunset, you’re singing again.”

The yellow unicorn shrugged, as much as she was able to.

“Sorry, Lightning. Don’t know what came over me.”

“Yeah, sure.” The pegasus muttered.

“Besides, it helps me focus.”

“I get that…” Lightning said, “but it kinda defeats the point of, y’know, sneaking into somewhere when you’re singing.”

Sunset Shimmer sighed. “Sorry, Dust, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to break into a museum. If I don’t disable these wards properly, do you know what’ll happen to us?”

There was a pregnant pause as Lightning Dust considered her partner’s words, which Sunset took as an opportunity to get back to what she’d been doing.

“How’s it going, you two?”

Sunset rolled her eyes, as Lightning placed a hoof to her ear, and more specifically the enchanted earing she was wearing. “Oh, it’s going fine out here. It’s dark and cold and if we screw this up it’ll be your fault, but apart from that? Going fine. How’s everything in your hotel room? Still warm and cosy?”

“So, no progress?” It was hard not to notice the concern in Falling Star’s voice, even with the distortion of the device.

“Not yet.” Sunset Shimmer chimed in. “That’s the thing with a major metropolitan museum. They can afford good security. We’ll keep you posted.”

In the quiet of her dingy hotel apartment, Falling Star sighed heavily, and looked out of the window in the general direction of the Manehatten Museum of Natural History.

Dream Catcher was sitting next to it, looking out onto the street, lit up by the streetlights below. He noticed the mare looking at him, and smiled a tiny smile.

“Not going well?”

She tried not to smile back. She knew, and he knew, the plan (if it could even be called that, and she wasn’t sure it could) had been a longshot. What little she knew of breaking into places, and that wasn’t very much at all, told her that such endeavours took months of planning, working out every possible contingency, with a crew of experts, and even then there was no guarantee that it had any chance of succeeding. Something could always go wrong.

And they were relying on what Dream had seen of the museum, some blueprints, and two ponies who were, frankly, a pair of demented screw ups. And she liked Sunset.

There was a greater likelihood of the Statue of Harmony coming to life and marching down Broadneigh than everything going well.

“They’ll manage.” Star said, “they’ll manage. Sunset Shimmer knows what she’s doing.”

The larger pony’s smile flickered. Falling Star found herself staring at the carpet.

“They’ll manage.” She repeated.

Seconds ticked past, then minutes, at a hideous crawl, the two ponies not saying anything further.

Falling tried not to fidget, but as the clock in the room (which wasn’t even set to the correct time) clicked past, she found her mind wandering back.

Four years, six months ago

There was a lot that could’ve been said about A.K. Yearling, Professor at Princess Luna’s Academy of Advanced Magic and Higher Learning (Archaeology department) - The depth of her knowledge, her popularity with her students, the range of her lectures, of subjects both surprising and alarming.

What tended to be said most was “where the flying feather is she?”

For all she was incredibly popular with students, Yearling also had a habit of being gone for surprisingly long periods, sometimes even weeks at a time, with no explanation or note. Students being as they were, this had led to a variety of theories as to just what she was up to (she was a secret agent, she was a were-wolf, she was a time-traveller with no ability to keep time, she was Princess Luna, or Princess Cadenza, she was Cadenza’s secret daughter…).

None of this changed the fact that she wasn’t around to mark essays (which led to another theory that she was just hiding to get away from spending the rest of her life doing her backlog of work), and as a result some of the other teachers had a tendency to go a little funny whenever the subject of Yearling and tenure came up.

Some students, however, were more stubborn about getting their work marked than others. Students such as Falling Star.

She was a pale blue colour, with a dark blue mane, yellow eyes, and a disposition she would’ve generally described as “easy going”. And on an otherwise normal Wednesday afternoon, she was practicing something new – lockpicking her way into Professor Yearling’s office (Yearling had a secretary, but the mare had obviously decided it wasn’t worth sitting around all afternoon when Yearling was Luna-Knew-Where, and bunked off).

It was slow work, not helped by Falling Star being utterly inexperienced with them, and the fact she kept turning around in case anypony stumbled upon her in the act.

She was reasonably confident that the dean would show lenience, given it was Yearling’s office she was breaking into, and for totally justified reasons.

Maybe. Probably.

Her mom and dad would definitely kill her, though.

There was a triumphant sounding click, and she tentatively nudged the door open.

Star waited for a few seconds, to see if anything happened.

Once nothing proceeded to happen, she crept inside.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from an office belonging to somepony like the professor, but she imagined it would’ve looked like a fancier version of her mother’s study back home.

And this seemed to be rewarded by the sights around her. Pictures, maps of places she didn’t recognise, the odd painting, a well-stocked bookcase on one wall, a desk with a bulging in-tray, which even from the door was clearly covered in little notes (which on closer examination had statements such as “please, please, please examine as soon as possible!!!”)

But there was no sign of Yearling. Not that she’d been expecting the pony to be there, really. Sighing, Star shook her head, removed her essay from the saddlebag around her waist, and gently placed it on top of the pile, taking great care not to disrupt it or the small layer of dust lying on it.

Then she heard the noise. It was a hard one to identify, because it didn’t sound of anything in particular.
In fact, it sounded an awful lot like something trying very hard not to make a noise.
In defiance of all logic, she found herself calling out.

“Hello?” the words sounded louder after several minutes of silence.

Then she heard the next noise. It was a disappointed noise.

“I see I’m not the only one looking for Yearling.”

Star managed to keep herself from shrieking in surprising, but it didn’t stop the rest of her from trying to make a valiant escape from her skin. She whirled around, until she saw the source of the voice.

It was a dark blue unicorn, with a dark blue mane and orange eyes, standing near the back of the room, staring at her with a vague curiosity.

“Who the heck are you?” Star asked, once she started breathing again, “no, wait. Scratch that, first question, how did you get in here? The door was locked.”

“Perhaps I climbed the wall outside, and gained entrance via the windows.” The mare said. Star stared sceptically. This was an unlikely process, given the building’s design, and height. “Or perhaps I simply teleported.”

Star shook her head. “And what, you hid when you heard me enter?”

The mare nodded. There was something off about her, something that tickled the back of Star’s brain. She ignored it, given she’d just broken into a professor’s office just for the sake of getting her paper marked. She was in no condition to be judging anypony on anything.

“So, why were you after Yearling?”

“There was…” at this the mare seemed to think, “a matter I wished to discuss with her. On seeing her absence, I thought maybe examining her office might give a clue as to her location. Regrettably, no such luck."

“Well,” Star said, “it’s been… slightly terrifying meeting you, mystery pony, but I’ve had enough excitement for one day, so I’m going to go, before I get caught.”

“That seems wise.” The dark blue mare remarked.

Star trotted out of the room, noticing the dark blue mare following behind her. Once they were safely out of Yearling’s office, she turned to look at her, and held out a hoof.

“I’m Falling Star, by the way,” she smiled. The dark blue mare looked down at it, then back to her.

“Midnight,” she said, tentatively, taking the hoof carefully. It was some seconds before she released it.

“Something the matter?” Star asked.

“I…” the unicorn began, “you remind me of somepony, but I cannot recall who.”

Star smiled awkwardly. “Can’t help you there. I’m not famous. But…” the thought occurred to her, “you might be thinking of my dad, maybe? Colonel Morning Star?”

The mare paused in consideration. Star decided to help her.

“Trust me, you’d know if you’d met him. He’s…” she stopped to think of the right words, as a dozen embarrassing memories from her youth reared their heads, “very memorable.”

“I do know of a Morning Star.” Midnight said. “Is he not-”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t let me finish.”

Star shook her head. “Knowing my dad, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to.”

She looked about the corridor, which was amazingly void of students for that time of day. “Y’know, I’m going to go find something to eat, maybe something to drink. You wanna tag along?”

The dark mare stared thoughtfully (or at least, she assumed that was thoughtfully. It was rapidly coming to Star’s attention that the pony she was dealing with was not one for expression).

“I am otherwise unengaged.” The mare remarked, “at least in no matter of great urgency.”

After a short while of aimless wandering, the two managed to find a small pizzeria to sit down in.

“So,” Star asked, as the two looked over the menu, “Midnight… tell me something about yourself.”

The mare’s mouth quirked ever so slightly. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, we’ve just met. Seems kinda odd to sit down for a meal with somepony without knowing anything about her. Especially when that pony was just, y’know, breaking and entering.”

“What do you want to know?” Midnight asked.

“I don’t know.” Star shrugged. “Anything. Do you have a job? What do you like doing? Have you got any friends? Did you give your parents trouble for calling you “Midnight”?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” The mare returned, as she glanced toward the menu.

“Just trying to get a conversation going.” Star smiled. “Also, I’m still a little terrified somepony’s going to tell me they knew what I just did and I’m expelled…”

“So you want something to take your mind off your irrational fear?” The mare asked. Star nodded, as a waiter came along looking expectantly.

“I could start us off, if you like.” She said. “I’m Falling Star. My dad’s in the military and my mom’s a teacher. I’m currently studying, or trying to study, history at the Academy of Advanced Magic and Higher Learning.”

“Why?” Midnight asked.

“My parents suggested I give it a try. Well,” she said, “I say “suggested”. So, anyway, what about you?”

“I work for Her Majesty, Princess Luna, as part of the Equestrian government.”

Star made a small murmur of appreciation. “Have you ever met Princess Luna?”

“Infrequently.” The mare admitted, apparently not noticing the wince Star made at her question's obviousness.

“That must be something.” Star said, in awe. She could hardly imagine it, actually seeing the Princess in the flesh, the dark and shadowy ruler of the Night and the Day, of Equestria and its exarchies. “What’s she like?”

“I am not at liberty to say.” Midnight stated. “Because I would likely say the truth. We disagree on several subjects. Sometimes vehemently.”

“Oh.” Star murmured.

“And then there is my association with Lulamoon.”

Star blinked at this. “Who she?”

At this, Midnight gave her a look (or she assumed it was a look, what with the whole lack-of-expression thing she had going on). “Trixie Lulamoon,” she stated, as if the name alone somehow explained absolutely everything about the pony. Star continued to stare blankly.
“Of course,” the mare murmured. “She’s Princess Luna’s student. Her current student, at any rate. She is…” at this, Midnight stopped, and seemed to pause in contemplation.

“She is young,” seemed to be the choice of words eventually settled on.

“Young?” Star repeated.
“Indeed. Much of the Night Court are convinced her getting into politics would spell disaster for them all, while the castle’s staff are merely convinced she will go the way of Red Magician.”

“Ouch.” Star declared. Red Magician was a name she knew, a byword for hubris. Some centuries prior, he had been a hero, of sorts, until he tried playing the infamous “Symphony for the Moon and Sun”, and promptly destroyed his reputation. Invoking his name was a good way to get a chortle out of a musician, and that was if they were feeling benevolent. Then she noted the way Midnight had phrased her statement.

“I take it you don’t agree?”

Midnight shook her head. “Lulamoon is… at present, she’s developing a healthy sense of self. In a few years she will have a well-developed set of personality flaws that will make her unbearable to near all and sundry, but… she is no Red Magician.”

“So, are you friends?”

The dark blue mare paused again.

“I suppose Lulamoon is one of the closest things I have to a friend.” Midnight stated, though Star could've sworn she didn't sound a hundred percent on that. “Even if she is very difficult to tolerate, even at the best of times.”

“Y’know,” Star said, trying not to smirk, “all this talk about her, I kind of want to meet this Trixie now, see what she’s like, if she really is like you describe her.”

“You would either get along famously with her, or the opposite.” Midnight said.

Star could only shake her head. “Kind of binary arrangement there, isn’t it?” she grinned.

"This is the way, with Lulamoon."

Minutes passed, as waiters came, took their orders, left. All the while, Star found herself looking intently at the dark blue pony she was sat with. As she did, she noticed one or two things. The first was that, all things considered, Midnight was not an unattractive pony, at least by her reckoning. Were it not for her expression of nigh-existential disappointment, she might even have gone as far as saying the mare was good looking, in the right light. But then came the second point, as she sat there, alternating between the complimentary bread and olives. There was something about the pony, who was doing nothing more offensive at that moment than eat, which made the back of Star’s brain itch. A sensation of something off about her, something beyond the speech patterns that suggested she had not only eaten a dictionary, but had decided to sample the entire library while she was at it.

Star decided this was almost certainly unfair, and more to the point likely irrational, if she had met Princess Luna, surely her highness (or majesty, or whichever one it was) would’ve made sure she wasn’t some sort of salivating monster.

At best, judging by the scant few minutes of interaction with her, Star was working on the theory that she was simply just one of nature’s jerks.

She had evidently been staring, as Midnight looked up at her. “Is something amiss?” she asked.

“Oh,” Star jolted, “no. I was just…”

“Yes?”

“Trying to figure you out.”

“I see.” Midnight said, the same way some ponies said “it’s raining”, or “you’re standing upright”. Not offended, or even curious. She took that as a good sign.

“Have you discovered anything?”

All cards on the table, Star thought. “Well…” she began, “you sound like a Canterlot native, I think, though you speak kind of strange. I’m guessing the accent you’ve got is an affectation.”

No reaction from the mare. “Anything else?”

Star paused, carefully. “You didn’t react when I made the crack about your parents. My first thought might’ve been to go with orphaned, but I’m not absolutely certain on that. Estranged, perhaps? Distant?”

For an instant, the look on Midnight’s face changed. The corners of her mouth tilted downward just ever so slightly. “Something like that.” She said.

Star winced. “Sorry, I-”

“No,” the mare replied instantly, “it’s nothing. I did have family, but… not now. Not for some time.”

Star wanted to say something, wanted to say anything, but she had no idea on what she was supposed to say. “I’m… sorry?” she finally ventured.

“As I said,” Midnight waved a hoof dismissively, “it’s nothing.”

“Well…” Star said, “that’s spoiled the mood, hasn’t it?”

“Only slightly.” Midnight replied.

An awkward silence asserted itself, until the waiters came with their meals. Star watched as the pony opposite her examined her pizza, before carefully, slowly, and very deliberately depositing a tremendous amount of pepper on it.

As she watched the pony opposite her eating an unhealthy amount of peppered cheese, a question that had been percolating in the back of Star’s mind rose to the surface.

“What was it you wanted to talk to Professor Yearling about, anyway?”

“There was a matter I was trying to investigate, but I had not the time or resources to do so. I was hoping to talk to the professor, and ask her if she would be willing to assist.”

Star chewed on a stray slice of pizza, staring thoughtfully at Midnight.

“I could do it.” She ventured.

Midnight remained silent.

“Hear me out,” Star continued, “you’ve no idea where Yearling is, or when she’ll be back. Let me give it a shot.”

Midnight took another bite from her meal, now staring straight at Falling. The disappointed look in her eyes had changed. Now, there was something else.

“If it works, great. If not… well, I only lose some of my own time.”

Midnight set down her pizza. She looked vaguely intrigued.

“What do I have to lose?”

Midnight sat very still, staring at the table for several seconds. Occasionally, her gaze moved back to Star for a few seconds, then back.

Eventually, she spoke. “Alright.”

After several seconds more, she spoke again. “Thank you.”

Falling found herself beginning to smile. “It’s no problem. Just out of curiosity, what is it I’m getting myself into?”

Midnight’s mouth curved, ever so slightly. “Have you ever heard of Tirek?”

Four years, four months ago

Falling Star frowned, as she looked over at the clock on her desk and saw just how late it was.

Which probably explained why she was so tired, come to think of it. Though that might also have had something to do with the fact she not only had been doing her own homework, but somepony else’s.

It had been two months since she’d agreed to look in to Tirek for Midnight, after knowing her for less than an hour. Two long months, and what had she found, in the brief time she’d been able to get away from assignments and essays and revision? Well, she’d found plenty, none of it cheerful: the story of Tirek, and the legates and the Cabal, how Luna and her sister had overthrown him and sealed him away. The words “darkness” came up far too much for comfort, as did several stories of what Tirek did, to say nothing of the long list of unfriendly sounding titles that he seemed to have collected. The only thing approaching a bright spot was during the bit about the two Princesses ending his tyranny, when she noticed the name of the Lord of All Sorrow’s bastion, which just happened to match that of her new friend. Somehow, she doubted Midnight would’ve seen any funny side to that.

She looked back to the clock. The time had barely changed since she’d last looked at it. Her mind was turning to clay. That, she figured, meant it was probably time to get some shut eye.

Yawning, she dragged herself over toward her bed, making a note to try and present what she had learned to Midnight at the first chance she got.

To Star’s great surprise, Midnight stared when she saw the large mass of notes removed from the mare’s saddlebags. Not with surprise, but more of the same.

“I was not expecting so much.” She eventually managed to declare, her voice sounding irritatingly level.

Star just shrugged helplessly. “Sorry. You were pretty vague, so I figured…”

“Do not apologise.” Midnight stated, as she picked up one of the notebooks and began looking through it. “This looks thorough. The product of dedication.”

“Dedication and maybe not enough sleep.” Star murmured. “I just wrote down what I could find out.”

Midnight looked through another notebook. “Yes… perhaps my wording was unclear. This is… laudable.”

“Thanks,” Star smirked, “that makes losing all that sleep worth it.”

“If the ponies I worked with showed such dedication…” Midnight declared, before looking around the small café. “Regardless…”
She set the notebook down, and looked straight at Star. “This is a tremendous first step, but I should be honest, it was… not what I wished for.”

She held up a hoof before Star could object, “do no misunderstand me, this is appreciated, it truly is, but at this stage I cannot say any of the information contained within might be useful. That would take a deeper reading.”

“So,” Star scowled at the mare, “what was it all for?”

“A demonstration of your skills. Which you have shown to possess in abundance.”

Falling’s expression didn’t change one iota. She understood the logic, she wasn’t foolish enough to think she was going to be on the level of a professor (even if that professor had awful timekeeping), but it annoyed her all the same.

And something else was occurring to her. This was not the words of a casual hobbyist wanting to bother a professor about something. This was… something else entirely. She’d heard stories, as had everypony else in Equestria, of Canterlot and how every shadow seemed to hide some conspiracy, some dark plot to accomplish Luna knew what, with the Princess herself watching over them all, moving to some grand plan only she understood.

Up until that moment, she’d believed such stories were just nonsense. Either made up or exaggerated beyond belief. And in fact, she still did. If this was some conspiracy, surely then the two of them would not be talking about it in a little café in the middle of the capitol, where anyone and everyone could overhear them.

“And now that I have, do we get to the actual point of all this?”

Midnight held her forehooves together in front of her chin. “The matter I wished to discuss with Professor Yearling. It is a known fact among students of Equestrian history that there are many instances of strange, unusual or disturbing magical artefacts that have been found under unusual circumstances. The intent was to ask Professor Yearling if she was willing to examine stories of these items and, if at all possible, recover any she might find. Since she is out of reach, this obviously cannot occur.”

“Hope you’re not about to ask me if I want to go adventuring.” Star said, smiling half-heartedly. “I’ve got courses that need finished.”

Midnight’s expression didn’t change. “Obviously not. Regardless of any other aspect of her life, Professor Yearling is accredited as an expert explorer. And, unless you have been extremely busy, you are not.”

“Nope.” Star said. “I’ve never even been out of Equestria. Though I always wanted to visit Cavallia.”

“Then the proposed arrangement is this: You research the items, determining whether there is any grain of truth to be found. If there is, you would be repaid.”

Star had to restrain the urge to comment on how that sounded more sinister than had probably been intended.

“You do mean paid with money, right?”

“If that is your wish.” Midnight replied. Star tried not to roll her eyes. It was probably just a side-effect of the conversation, getting all caught up in the conspiracy flavour.

“Though, if it was your desire, it could be used for extra credit.”

Falling raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Isn’t that kind of… y’know?

“I could talk with Dean Nexus about the matter.”

Falling blinked. “You know the dean?”

“We’ve met.” Midnight stated.

“And what do you get out of all this?” Falling asked.

“Personally? Very little.” Midnight stated, “other than the potential assurance that comes of knowing which dangerous magical items exist and which do not.”

Star tapped a hoof against the table, as she considered the options available. As she did, Midnight began examining another notebook.
The mare was obviously speaking for someone else - that much was obvious, even to her. Who that was, she couldn’t guess. Some government body or group that wanted things kept quiet seemed a good guess. Or a group of maniacs looking for a chance at power and glory.

“Okay,” she said, quietly. “Suppose, just for the sake of argument, I say no?”

“That is entirely within your rights.” Midnight said, levelly. Seconds passed in silence, as she did not add any sort of vague hinting onto that statement about what might happen otherwise.

“And if I take this offer, can I back out of it whenever I like?”

“If you so desire.”

Star tapped her hoof again, frowning furiously at the table. Part of her was definitely intrigued. The investigation on Tirek had been disturbing in several places, yes, but at the same time… at the same time there had been something about it that had also been fascinating, in a way her actual studies hadn’t been. Maybe because it focused on ponies like Star-Swirl the Bearded, or the Princesses, and epic tales of heroes versus villains rather than politics and gambits and trade agreements and wars, the sort of larger than life things that parents and teachers insisted just didn’t happen anymore.

She was concerned. She was uncertain, she wanted to take the offer and she didn’t.

“Alright.” She declared. “I’m in.”

Now

“And we’re in.” Sunset Shimmer declared, into the enchanted earing. “Careful,” she said to Lightning Dust, earning the back of her head a glower.

“Easy for you to say.” Lightning muttered fiercely, “you’re not the one doing the heavy lifting.”

“Heavy?” Sunset hissed.

“You heard me.” Lightning stated. Sunset felt the urge to hit the pegasus upside the head. Only the fact that she was a good distance above the floor of the museum was stopping her, so instead she just scowled, making a vow to get back at Lightning at some later point.

The two hovered in the dark, Lightning’s wings beating silently, thanks to a few sound suppression spells Sunset had managed to cast.

“Now what?” the cyan mare asked.

Sunset held a hoof up to her mouth, as down below a guard walked past, a lamp hanging from one hoof as he walked through the gallery. Once he was far enough from them, Sunset gestured for Lightning to lower her down to the ground. On landing, she looked about, uncertainly. Lightning gave her a look.

“You do know where it is, right?” she didn’t say.

“Yes, I know where it is,” Sunset didn’t say in response, before not saying, “but it’s dark, and I need a moment to get my bearings.”

She waved her hoof dismissively. “Get back up in the air. No sense both of us getting caught if this goes wrong.”

“"If"?” Lightning asked. “And when it does go wrong, I’m leaving you here, for the record.”

“I kinda figured that.” Sunset said, grinning as she did, though even Lightning could see the nervous edge to it.

Sunset looked about, and quickly cast the invisibility spell.

It wasn’t much of an invisibility spell, all things considered, but she figured she had enough magic for it to last long enough to find what she was looking for, grab it, and get out. The greater problem was that it didn’t exactly render her entirely invisible, just blurring her appearance instead. Her hope was that the dark would at least make sure the guards not notice her.

She looked up toward the ceiling, where Lightning was still hovering over where she’d been, then carefully, and very quietly, began trotting along the corridor.

Four years, two months ago

“-which was when I discovered that… hey, are you even listening?” Falling scowled across the table at Midnight, who was holding a hoof to one side of her head.

“Yes, I’m listening.” The mare replied.

“It doesn’t look like you’re listening.”

“Sorry,” Midnight said, “I just have a headache which at the moment could best be described as “pounding”.”

Falling tsked at her. “Too many late mornings doing all that paperwork. Try taking some laudanum, see if that helps.”

Midnight shook her head. “I’m allergic to laudanum.”

“Oh, well.” Falling sighed, “You’ll just have to suffer, then.”

In the two months since she’d taken on the assignment, the dark blue mare had… changed, for want of a better term. Oh, she was still a dour, serious sort who so far had never cracked even the barest hint of a smile, no matter how awful Falling’s jokes had been, but she had definitely loosened up.

Well, she’d started talking slightly more like an actual pony, rather than a thesaurus come to life, which Falling regarded as progress.

“By the way,” she asked, “how’d things go with those notes of mine?”

“The notes are useful,” Midnight said, “though much of what they led too proved disappointing.”

Falling murmured. “Sorry to hear it.”

“No need to apologise.” Midnight replied. “Looking for items like these was always a gamble of long odds, even without the possibility something happened to them over the ages.”

“Or someone.” Star pointed out.

“Indeed.”

Falling took another sip from her apple juice. “You know, if you’re bothered by headaches, you could try taking some time off, see if relaxing helps. When’s the last time you went on vacation?”

Midnight stared into the middle distance. After several seconds of staring, Falling started to get a sinking feeling.

“It’s… been some time.”

Falling stared at her, hoping Midnight recognised the look on her face as that of astonishment. “Okay,” she finally managed to say, “Saturday night, you’re taking a night off, and if I have to go to Princess Luna herself to make sure that happens, I will.”

Midnight’s mouth very gradually curled upward, if only for the tiniest of seconds. “That’s not necessary.” She said.

“So you’ll do it?”

Midnight sighed, resuming rubbing a hoof against the side of her head. “I have this feeling you won’t accept no for an answer.”

Falling was pacing. She hadn’t really tried it before, and she wasn’t sure she was doing it right. Not that there was much room to pace in her room. She looked at the clock again. Only a few minutes before Midnight said she’d show up, just before six o’clock in the evening.

She had no idea why she was feeling so energetic. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone out on the town before.

“Back home…” she murmured to herself, hanging her head. And even then, home hadn’t exactly been the same as the very capitol of Equestria itself, where the city continued bustling in one form or another way into the night and straight through ‘till morning.
Maybe she was just expecting something to go wrong. Yes, that was probably it. She found herself thinking of something her dad had mentioned, once or twice, an old piece of military parlance – “no plan survives contact with the enemy”.

She tried not to grin at that. This was hardly armed conflict, just two ponies, seeing the sights of Canterlot on the weekend, daring strange foods and cramped conditions as everypony else did the exact same thing.

It was probably just excitement. Yes. That had to be it. Nothing more.

There was a knocking at her dormitory door. Once Falling confirmed her skin was still there, she trotted over to the door and opened it.
Seeing Midnight’s expression once she opened it was hardly a surprise, more so given it was her usual detached look. The faintly pink mare standing behind her, on the other hoof, was a surprise. Especially since that mare - and at this Falling had to do a momentary burst of adjustment, because she was gorgeous. Beautiful, even. Tall, elegant, and practically oozing class - This mare was smiling.
It should have been a nice smile. Certainly, the warmth and enthusiasm behind it seemed genuine, but there was just something about it that looked a little bit too much like it had been practiced for far too long, and gave the unsettling suggestion its owner was about to go for her throat.

“Uh,” Falling looked to Midnight for some explanation, “hi?”

“Falling Star,” Midnight said, with what sounded almost like the undertones of a pony hoping the ground would open up and swallow her, “Fleur De Lis.”

“Hi!” The taller mare said quickly, grabbing Falling’s hoof and shaking it enthusiastically. “Nice to meet you.”

Falling looked at the slightly too-eager grin on Fleur’s face, then to Midnight’s almost reassuringly stoic expression.

“Friend of yours?”

“Oh,” Fleur said, “I’ve known Nighty here for years. I just had to see the pony who managed to convince her to take a night off.”

“This is true.” Midnight said. Fleur leaned in toward Falling.

“I’ll be honest,” she said, in what she apparently thought was a whisper, “I didn’t think you were actually real.”

“I’m guessing you’re joining us for the evening?” Falling asked, despite having a very good guess as to what the answer would be.

Fleur giggled. “Of course. A night out on the town? So much more interesting that what I had in mind.” For an instant, a look that could’ve been deviousness flashed across her face, “maybe I’ll even get some late shopping in.”

And with that, the inexplicably cheerful mare turned and began trotting off down the corridor, leaving Falling to stare at Midnight once more, hoping the mare would give some manner of explanation.

“I apologise.” The dark blue mare stated, “she will likely make the next few hours a living nightmare.”

“Oh, come on.” Falling said, “I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

As a matter of fact, and in defiance of all the laws of irony, the evening itself proved to not be that bad, after all. Aside from a major millstone, and that millstone happened to be Midnight herself.

Falling had been expecting an uphill struggle, but the unicorn seemed outright determined to not only stop any fun before it could happen, but then bury it in a shallow grave. She refused to drink, she refused to dance. The look she gave when Fleur suggested looking at some interesting clothes by all rights should’ve taken out half the city (Falling had been a little too distracted by the fact that the dresses looking impressive, and more importantly cost more money than she’d ever seen in one place).
This didn’t exactly leave many options open, even with their third wheel flitting about them, only occasionally disappearing for a few minutes at a time.

“Can’t leave you two alone,” she'd giggled, “who knows what might happen?”

That said, she was at least having a good time, which was more than could be said for Midnight. She’d spent most of their time at the bar they’d eventually wound up at just staring at her soda (no booze, since apparently she didn’t do it, and no caffeine. It was almost impressive how she managed to conveniently choose each option to further diminish any possible fun that could be had).
Fleur had disappeared somewhere again, flitting away between the crowds of ponies around, leaving the two sitting on their own at the table.

Falling felt she had fallen a little short of her intended goal of getting Midnight to relax, what with her intense staring.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy” returned to her thoughts, as she tried smiling at Midnight. The mare’s expression turned mildly curious.

“Interesting evening,” she tried, hoping it would get some sort of reaction.

“Definitely different.” Midnight responded. Falling drummed her forehooves against the table.

“Hey, you talked! We’re getting somewhere.” Midnight’s mouth twitched slightly, and she took her first drink from her soda.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to dance?” she ventured. Midnight looked about the bar.

“There’s nowhere in here to dance,” she replied, and Falling could’ve sworn there was a subtle strain of relief in her voice. She grinned.

“You can dance, can’t you? Or is it controlled flailing?”

Midnight’s expression turned funny. “I can dance.” She stressed, “I just… don’t.”

Falling could only shake her head. “You don’t drink. You don’t dance. You don’t laugh, you don’t cry, and I’m guessing you don’t make love. What do you do?”

Midnight shoot her cool stare. “I work.”

Despite the fact they were in a full bar, bustling with ponies generally having a great time of their own, there managed to be a small yet powerful silence all around the table, as Falling stared at Midnight in mute alarm. This was only broken when Fleur reappeared, over-eager grin still on her face, which faltered momentarily at the sight of the two.

“Excuse me.” Midnight said, before Fleur could say anything. “I’ll be back.” She said, to the tall mare, before she headed off in the general direction of the washroom.

Falling bit at her lip, as she watched the mare disappear into the crowd. She turned back to look at Fleur.

“Has she… always been like that?”

There was a long pause as Fleur looked contemplatively at her own drink.

“Well…” she finally said, “She’s always been pretty serious, ever since I first met her, which was…” her face strained with concentration, “that would be… four years ago? Five years? But lately, she’s been… kind of different since she met you.”

“Different?”

“I think…” Fleur said, carefully, before she stopped, taking another sip of her drink. And then a much larger sip. “It’s not like her. I’m probably the closest thing she has to a friend, with the exception of Trixie, and I’ve never managed to get her to go out for drinks.”

The smile changed, no longer desperately cheerful. Somehow it looked more genuine, but at the same time there was something about it that didn’t sit right with Falling.

“She must like you.” Fleur said, before finishing what was left of her drink.

Midnight soon returned, not saying a word as Fleur shuffled down the couch to let her in.

“So, want to try dancing?” Falling asked. Midnight gave her a look.

“Let’s just keep at relaxing, for the moment.” The dark blue mare said, “baby steps.”

“Not sure I’ve ever seen you dance.” Fleur noted. She began grinning slyly. “Not even at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Falling had been raising her own drink to her mouth, only to stop as she heard what Fleur had said. To avoid any calamity, she set it down on the table. “You went to the Gala?”

There was a very long time before Midnight responded. “Yes.”

“Is that all I’m going to get? “Yes”?”

Yet another long pause followed. “Yes.”

Falling smiled a thin smile. “Getting the feeling you almost enjoy being vague.”

“Not at all.” Midnight replied. “It just isn’t of much interest.”

The mind boggled. One of the biggest events in Equestria, attended by everypony who was everypony, and everypony who wanted to be somepony, held by the Princess herself no less, wasn’t “of much interest”. She wondered what something had to do to actually be interesting to the mare.

“First time, she went with that Shining Armor.”

“I was…” Midnight actually faltered, her expression darkening tremendously, but if Fleur noticed it (and what Falling could’ve sworn was a drop in temperature), she wasn’t letting it show in the slightest. “I was not with him. I was merely guarding his body.”

Fleur nodded and grinned even more audaciously.

“Shining Armor?” Falling asked.

“He’s a pony in the Royal Guard.” Fleur said, “Extremely good-looking. So I’ve heard.”

“And incapable of talking to a mare without embarrassing himself.” Midnight supplied, with something in her voice suggesting she knew this from past experience. “Not a good attribute to have when at an event attended by many young mares with an interest in an attractive, intelligent-”

“Rich.” Fleur supplied.

“That too,” Midnight said without missing a beat, “-pony.”

“So,” Falling said, “you were protecting him for all these terrible ponies trying to hit on him.” She hummed and took another drink.

“As well as protecting him from a potentially fatal case of embarrassment.” Midnight replied. “In as much as is possible.” She added.

“A Hurricanean task.” Fleur murmured into her now-empty drink glass.

“So, not much time spent enjoying the party itself?” Falling asked.

“No. Especially since Armor spent as much of it on duty as he could. Princess Luna had to order him to relax in the end.”

“I can sympathise.” Falling grinned. Across from her, Fleur grinned back, while Midnight’s expression was one of complete stoicism.

“Anypony want more drinks?” Fleur asked, before Falling could inquire further.

“I’ll go get them,” Falling said. “Same for everyone, right?”

It was only a short walk over to the bar, but between getting through the throng of ponies, getting the barpony’s attention, and the drinks showing up, it still took a few minutes.

As she waited, she saw Midnight and Fleur were having some kind of conversation. Instead of her usual, innocently happy look, Fleur was looking concerned by something.

As she returned with her drinks, Falling could just barely make out some of what they were saying over the crowd.

“-why don’t you talk to the Professor about it?” Fleur asked. “I thought the spell was supposed to fix it.”

“Evidently not.” Midnight replied, “but it’s stopped for the moment.”

“Problem?” Falling asked, as she sat down.

The two mares sitting opposite remained silent for a moment.

“Just talking about Nighty’s headache problem.” Fleur smiled.

“Oh, that.” Falling said, as she passed over their drinks.

“There’s a specialist spell she has cast on her, that usually deals with the problem. Or at least keeps it under control.” Fleur shrugged, “Or something like that. I don’t really get it. They start talking about dweomers and arses and I just start falling asleep.”

“How long have you had these headaches?” Falling asked, frowning.

“As long as I can recall.” Midnight replied. “They come and go, ebb and flow.”

“I don’t think headaches ebb.” Fleur said. “Or flow for that matter. They’re more “throb” or “pound”.”

She smiled genially, as if she were supplying some monumental piece of advice.

“That’s not normal.” Falling said, hoping to get the conversation back on track before it derailed any further, and took anyone with it.

“I think it’s because somepony works too much.” Fleur grinned.

“Is there any way this conversation can stop?” Midnight asked. “I do not have a headache at the moment, and while I am feeling cautious about that, I would at least like to go five minutes without getting another.”

“It might be dehydration…” Falling mused. “That’s what my mom always said when I had a headache.”

“So, more drinks?” Fleur suggested, with a malicious level of hopefulness in her voice.

“Might be worth a try.” Falling grinned.

Eventually, there had turned out to be a limit on how many drinks either of them could drink. Midnight had remained adamant on having no fun at all, which had led to the other two unicorns feeling the need to have more fun to make up for lost time.
It was getting to be late night in Canterlot, when all the ponies who were still awake or just working went looking for somewhere that sold more coffee, and plenty of it, of which there was no short supply.

Fleur was walking along ahead of Falling Star and Midnight, a slight sway to her walk the only betrayal that she’d been drinking.

Falling was going over her opinion of the mare, which was that she definitely was obfuscating, though whether it was because of laziness, for fun, or some other reason she couldn’t tell. But she seemed harmless enough, at any rate.

Midnight was walking behind her, and there was an odd look on the mare’s eyes. If Falling considered herself any sort of expert on her odd friend’s behaviour, she would have wagered the mare was thinking about something. She still wasn’t smiling, though. But there was something most definitely different about her, something Falling hadn’t noticed previously. On careful consideration, Falling decided this was probably a good thing.

“Oh!” she heard Fleur call out. Falling turned to look. The taller mare had noticed something, and was staring at it.

“Look!” Fleur exclaimed, pointing through the crowd. Falling followed her gaze to a shop with mannequins in the window, and the lights still on.

“They’re still open!” Fleur declared, and began grinning. Falling had stopped in her tracks, allowing Midnight to catch up to her.

“C’mon!” Fleur said, hurrying over toward the door. Falling looked askance at her companion.

“Get the feeling if we say no, she’ll find a way to get us in there, right?”

“Assuming she does not physically dr-” Midnight had started to say, only for Fleur to reappear, a maniacal grin on her face, and shove the two toward the door without ever appearing to notice their reluctance.

As it turned out, at least from what Falling could garner, the store had been just on the verge of closing until Fleur had appeared, and with but a few whispered words the ponies working there had been very eager to stay open for a little while longer.
None of Falling’s protestations, such as not having any wardrobe big enough to keep any of the outfits Fleur wanted to buy (or indeed, a wardrobe of any kind), money to purchase anything the shop had for sale, or any social life to merit wearing the outfits in the first place, had succeeded, each met with an easy counterargument, usually along the lines of Fleur having more than enough closet space at home to keep them in reserve for her.

Eventually, after at least a dozen outfits, Falling had given in and pointed to one of the earliest ones Fleur had forced her into, a relatively modest thing of blue and black that looked like it wouldn’t take an hour to get in or out of. The pink mare’s mouth had split into a grin at that, and she and the cashier had hurried off to the nearest register.

“Well handled.” Midnight had said. Fleur murmured. She found herself feeling guilty about somepony else spending their money on a dress for her, especially since the chances were she’d never actually use it for anything.

“De Lis has been trying to get me to wear something for as long as I have known her.” The dark blue unicorn said.
“Has she succeeded yet?”

“As of yet, no.” Midnight paused, “due to a variety of reasons.”

“Such as?”

“Utter lack of a social life, compounded by a busy work schedule, and…”

“You’ve always got some excuse.” Fleur cut in, causing Falling to jump a few inches. The taller mare momentarily had a scowl on her face, “Headaches. Work. Even claustrophobia one time!”

Midnight opened her mouth, but Fleur’s outrage refused to stop, as she jabbed the dark blue mare with a hoof, “but one day! One day, I swear I’ll find a dress. And you will wear it!”

“And going by your luck,” Midnight stated, “there will likely be some disaster that will utterly destroy it, like a highly localised flood.”

“That’d be pretty impressive,” Falling grinned, “given Canterlot’s on a mountain.”

“Oh,” Fleur glowered, “I’m sure Nighty would find a way.”

And then the glower vanished back to wherever it had come from, and Fleur’s beatific smile returned. “Anyway, it’s getting late… or early, depending on whom you ask. I should probably get home.”

“Good idea,” Falling admitted.

The walk back towards the academy dorms was relatively quiet, save the distant noise of the city, but all the more quieter without Fleur’s presence, the mare having gone off on her own, with several bags of shopping, singing an odd little ditty to herself.

Occasionally, Falling looked to Midnight, as she went over the success of the night’s activities. And drew a large blank for her troubles. Not that she’d been expecting rousing success, but there didn’t seem to be any difference in the mare’s attitude, besides some slight change to her manner of speaking.

“Did you…” she began, “did you enjoy tonight?”

There was a long silence as Midnight stared up at the sky, and Falling felt her stomach sink.

“It was unusual.” The mare finally said.

“Unusual.” Falling repeated, her voice leaden. Sounded like code for “I didn’t like it, but I don’t want to say as much”.

“I suppose that’s the best I’m going to get.” She said.

“Falling…” Midnight began, “what do you want?”

She sighed. “I had kinda been hoping to get you to lighten up a little. Get you out of your shell.”

“That’s not what I meant. What do you want out of life?”

Falling looked about. They were getting close to the academy, its main building beginning to loom in the dark.

“Really?” she asked. “Honestly? I… well, first I’d like to finish my course, just so that I have it finished, but then… I don’t know. I thought I might walk around Equestria. See the sights, maybe visit Cavallia. Isn’t that what students are supposed to do?”

“I am entirely the wrong one to ask about that.” Midnight said, and Falling couldn’t help but grin.

“But, like I said… I don’t know. I’ve got my Cutie Mark, I know what I’m good at, but I still don’t know what it is I want to do.” She sighed irritably.

“From what I’ve seen, this is perfectly normal for a great deal of ponies.”

Falling snorted irritably. “And what do you want to do, Miss Midnight?”

The dark blue mare stopped in her tracks. “Honestly?” she said, an odd waver to her voice that stood out all the more in the quiet of the night, “I’ve often wanted to fly. To have wings of my own. Failing that…”

Falling turned to look, and saw there was something odd in those orange eyes of Midnight’s. Then, she swished her tail.
“It’s irrelevant. What I want doesn’t matter.”

Falling began to grin. “Has anyone told you that you’re-”

“Almost certainly.” Midnight said.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

“I didn’t have to.” Midnight said. She looked like she was about to say something more, then shook her head again.

After that the conversation stopped, as they walked up to the side-gate leading to the dorm rooms.

“Well,” Falling said, looking at the building nearby, a few lights still on even in the night, “it’s nice to get out and do something different at least, right?”

Midnight’s expression didn’t change.

Desperate not to let the evening end on an even damper ending without some kind of a fight, Falling smiled gently.

“Be seeing you.”

Midnight nodded. “Be seeing you, Falling Star.”

“I’ll try and look in to those artefacts, when I’ve got some free time, see what I can find.”

Midnight nodded again, and turned to leave. Falling opened the gate, and walked through.

“Oh, and Falling?” She turned to look at the dark blue mare. She wasn’t smiling, but there was something about her expression that suggested she should have been. Or possibly even that she was actually trying, and just had no idea how to.

“About tonight… I… appreciate the gesture.”

Falling’s smile changed, ever so slightly.

“Good night.” She said, quietly.

Now

It had been long, slow, gruelling work, making it the short distance through the museum’s corridors. Every step, every foot, every vague noise and shadow double-checked, just in case something went wrong.

Of course, Sunset was good at sneaking, and very good at not being seen when she wanted, a valuable skill when your entire body was designed to be antithetical to stealth in any form.

But finally, Sunset had reached her target, the one Star and her annoyingly good-looking whatever-he-was had insisted on getting.
It was a small, round and golden looking thing (which was not strange in itself. Gold in general was not something Equestria as a whole was wild on, thanks to long-standing association with Corona, but museums operated under different rules). Utterly unremarkable, in the vast collection of curios, artefacts and oddities that the museum boasted. Suspiciously unremarkable, in fact. Not even the museum’s workers seemed to know what it was.

Neither, for that matter, did Sunset. But Star had been insistent they get it, whatever it was. Hopefully, she would explain what it was afterward.

Assuming there was an afterward to be had.

Sunset approached the cabinet the thing was being kept in. Slowly, looking back and forth to make absolutely sure there was nopony coming from either end of the corridor she was in.

She reached out with her magic, making sure there were no hidden surprises, no wards or spells she wouldn’t be able to get past, within the time allotted.

There weren’t any specifically for the item. Whoever had put it there obviously didn’t rank it worth protecting any further than anything else.

Maybe, Sunset thought darkly, they were hopeful somepony would steal it, and figure out what it was for.

Not that there was much chance of that happening, in a country like Equestria, where anything even remotely suspected of associating with Corona, and was therefore automatically bad.

Several more dark thoughts welled up in Sunset’s mind, and she shoved them back into the dark they’d crawled out of.

Focus, she told herself. Just grab the damn thing and focus on getting out of here.
She wrapped her magic around the item, lifting gently… carefully. Making sure not to touch against the wards. The item bobbed in the air.

Sunset tried ignoring the loud thumping noise in her ears, as her heart beat out of control. Time slowed to a standstill, as the thing moved toward her. Closer, and closer, so close she could reach out and touch it.

Then, it was right next to her. She looked about. She’d done it. She’d actually managed t-

“HEY!”

Sunset looked about. Down at one end of the corridor, she could just vaguely make out a pony, whose horn was not illuminated, looking in her direction.

Inwardly, Sunset cursed to herself, as the guard blew into a whistle.

The guard ran toward her, as Sunset drew magic to her horn.

“ALL GLORY TO THE SUN!” She bellowed, letting out a massive flash of light, just as the guard got close. Then, she began running.

In the corridor she’d been left behind in, Lightning Dust heard the whistle. And then the other, and the other. She winced, as the glow-gems began winking on as brightly as possible.
“Perfect.” She muttered, as the halls echoed with footsteps.

Four years, two months ago

Falling blinked, in the light of early morning, and yawned. Somewhere nearby, someone was knocking on a door. It took a moment to realise what was going on. There was an incoherent but definitely angry noise from her roommate, to which Falling waved a hoof absently (to no avail, since neither of them were in any condition to look at anything).

“’s door.” She mumbled, “’ll take care of it.”

There was a noise from her roommate that could’ve been a response, followed by pointed, angry shuffling of bedsheets. Falling got up, and staggered across to the door.

Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to see Midnight standing there. She was a little annoyed that despite the early hour, not a single hair on the mare’s head was out of place, nor did she even look remotely tired.

“What is it?” Falling asked.

“I…” Midnight began, “I require a moment of your time.”

Falling blinked heavily. It was the most she was able to do at that moment. “I’m kinda busy today. Can’t this wait?”

“No.” Midnight said, her voice like cast iron (and, thought it could have been Falling’s imagination, far louder than it needed to be). Then her expression softened.

“Falling… I wouldn’t ask if this was not important.”

“Alright, alright…” Falling mumbled. “Gimme… a couple of minutes.”

Actually rousing herself to full consciousness took Falling several minutes, but mercifully Midnight did not reappear to press herself, thus sparing both of them the wrath of a roused roommate.

“So,” Falling asked, once she felt more like a pony again, “what’s so big it can’t wait?”

“It’s to do with that project.” Midnight stated.

“Wow.” Falling replied. “Something good, then?”

“Potentially.” Midnight said, “I wanted to show you something.”

“Couldn’t you just tell me?” Falling asked. Midnight shook her head. Falling sighed.

“Thought not.” Without a word, she gathered up her saddlebags, and a few bits she’d left lying around.

“This won’t take long.” Midnight said. Falling, who wasn’t feeling particularly good natured without breakfast, just gave her a momentary stare.

“I hope not. I do have some things I really need to do today. Like revision.”

She made a motion with a forehoof. “Lead on.”

Midnight nodded, and turned, striding off along the dorm corridor. Falling trotted after her.

Midnight’s route took them out of the dorm, and to the main building of the academy. Then, she led Falling toward a flight of stairs, going down.

Falling considered if there was something wrong, and decided it was probably just due to the cryptic nature of the whole project. Obviously they’d meet in a basement. They wouldn’t meet somewhere that at the very least would let her grab a slice of toast. It was probably against the rules or something. Midnight said nothing as the two made their way down at least two flights, heading along rows of starkly-lit corridors.

Falling tried grinning. The whole situation seemed very ridiculous at that point. Secret summons so early in the morning, vague statements. Midnight reached one particular door, and opened it, gesturing for Falling to step in.

She did.

Inside was a surprisingly large room, especially for somewhere underground, in Canterlot no less. It was also amazingly stark, save for one thing at the far end of the room, a small purple ball of some kind, sitting on a pedestal, giving off a faint glow.
Even through the haze of not having had enough sleep, Falling could tell something was up. No, more than that, something was definitely wrong. Alarm bells were ringing out in her head.

She was sure Midnight would probably understand if she decided it was a better idea for her to go get some breakfast, or possibly join her. Somewhere brightly lit, with lots of ponies about.

She tried to turn around to look at her, and found her hooves wouldn’t move. She looked down. On the floor, something was glowing an eerie purple colour, which she couldn’t make out due to her legs being in the way.

There was a noise. She looked up again, and gasped in surprise.

Standing there, just a few feet away from her, was Professor Spell Nexus. She knew him, or rather she knew of him, in a sort of vague sense, in the same way she knew the Night Court existed. She hadn’t seen him teaching before, but then most of her classes were with fill-in teachers, but what she had heard was that he was a genial, if slightly distant, sort.

He didn’t look genial. He was looking straight at her, and if her hooves weren’t stuck to the floor, Falling would’ve run at the look alone, even before the fact his eyes looked like those of a dragon.

He was looking at her, looking through her, like she was something to be scraped off a shoe.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, looking behind Falling at someone. She didn’t hear anypony say anything, but she had a very good guess as to who he was talking to.

Then she heard several more noises. Several more ponies appeared, some in black hoods, under which she could see ponies with black coats. One particularly tall one was looking at her. Thanks to the pony’s height, and the long horn poking out from under her hood, Falling could see who it was.

Her coat was black, and her eyes were orange, and she had dragon-eyes too, and she wasn’t smiling at all, but there was no chance of her mistaking Fleur De Lis.

And there was no mistaking what she was surrounded by: A cult. And whatever it was they wanted, she was part of it.

“Let’s begin.” Professor Nexus said.

“Begin?” Falling asked the room. “Begin what? Would somepony like to tell me what the hay is going on?”

A shadow fell across her. Falling found herself looking straight into Midnight’s eyes. Only instead of their usual orange, they were glowing, slit vertically, and focused entirely on her.

There was something horrific in the way those eyes were looking at her.

“M-midnight?” Falling found herself asking.

The pony she had considered a friend said nothing. Her horn glowed, and then everything slipped sideways.

Sounds and sights and sensations roared past her head, but Falling was certain she could hear screaming somewhere, coming from someone.
She was a little girl, listening to her mom singing as she tried cooking Saturday lunch.
She was in a park, with her dad. She was on a beach, building a miniature fort with him out of pebbles.
She was eight, she’d just got her Cutie Mark and her mom and dad were beaming, even beginning to cry.
She was a teenager, and her best friend had just blurted out how her dad was hot, and Falling had to bop her over the head with a hoof.
She was preparing to leave home, and they were beaming with pride, and love. Her mother had tears beginning to form in her eyes, even as they hugged.
Then she felt it, the horrible cold. Like something was there with her, watching everything, searching everything. Rummaging through her mind, her thoughts, her very being.
Suddenly, she had a pretty good idea what was causing the screaming.
There was a sensation she couldn’t describe, or didn’t want to describe, like something was forcing its way into her mind. She tried pushing it out, or pictured pushing it out, but whatever it was refused to stop.
She pushed again. Her mind exploded with images she didn’t recognise. A rush of sights and sounds and faces she didn’t know, too fast to make sense of, but she knew with certainty whatever she was seeing, it wasn’t anything from her mind.
And there was one word that seemed to stand out through everything else. A name: Tirek.
Then she heard it. The voice. Barely a voice, even. More a word, at the very edge of hearing.
“No!”
And there was a sound like glass shattering.

The world shot back into focus, and Falling realised her eyes had been open the whole time. Dark blobs danced in front of her eyes. There was an oddness to the air, a stillness.

She blinked. Midnight was still in front of her, but her eyes were closed and she was holding a hoof against her head.

Then her eyes shot open. They looked normal again, the orange they’d been before, only…

There was something new in them. Fear. Terror. And then they locked onto Falling, and there was something else.

“Run.” Somepony said, and it took Falling a moment to realise Midnight was saying it, to her. Her voice sounded entirely different, and not because of the emotion in it.

“Stop her!” She heard Nexus, and it must have been Nexus, call out, “quick!”

“RUN!” Midnight repeated, grabbing Falling, who would’ve tried telling her about whatever it was keeping her to the floor, if there had been the time. Strangely, she found herself coming away freely, but instead of heading to the door, she was directed to the glowing object at the back of the room.

She turned to look at her friend, only to see Midnight grimace in pain.

Falling wanted to ask what was going on. The world had stopped making any kind of sense at all, but she had a feeling whatever was happening wasn’t according to her hosts’ plans, and there wasn’t time to play twenty questions.

Midnight pressed a hoof against the sphere, and her horn glowed. She opened her mouth to say something at Falling, but then something black slammed into her. The mare grit her teeth, and her horn glowed brilliantly.

That was the last Falling saw, before the entire world vanished in a brilliant explosion of light.

She felt like she was being thrown, and that she was falling, and being pulled this way and that, all at once. Brilliant lights danced around her every way she went, and she would’ve sworn she was going to black out.

There was a sound she didn’t recognise, and she felt herself hitting something very hard indeed.

For several seconds, the world around her spun. She felt content to lay still for a moment, hoping it would all turn out to be some horrible dream.

As the seconds ticked past, it became plainly evident that she was not about to wake up in her dorm room. Dreams didn’t hurt as much as her head did at that moment.

Slowly, Falling unfurled herself from the crumpled heap she’d been in, and took stock of where she was.

She was in a cave. Not a very deep one, since she could see a dim light in one direction. What she couldn’t see any mysterious item nearby like the one Midnight had thrown her on to.

“Midnight…” she whispered.

She still couldn’t figure out what had just happened. Why had a cult wanted her? Why had Midnight been a part of it? Had she been a part of it since they’d first met? What about Fleur? Had that been why the pink mare had been present that night… last night, she reminded herself.

Her head was swimming. She wanted to be sick. She wanted to scream. Nothing was making any sense.

A cult, which apparently had a senior faculty member of the Academy, and someone with access to Canterlot Castle, and goodness knew who else, had tried seizing her for something, and her friend had… what, saved her? Sacrificed herself? But had she been the one to choose Falling for whatever it was? And how many more of them were there? That room hadn’t been big enough to fit very many. Were they just the head honchos? The inner circle? How many more were out there?

And then there was Falling herself. Were they coming after her? And if they were, how was she supposed to fight them all off? She was a student. The most she knew about fighting was a few self-defence moves her dad had taught her when she was slightly younger. She wasn’t some arch-mage hero type. She wasn’t even very athletic, beyond the amount needed to walk around Canterlot on a daily basis.

Her brain felt like it was on fire. What was she supposed to do?

It took several minutes before she stood up. Sitting around in a cave wasn’t going to do anything, that much she did know.
One hoof in front of the other, she headed toward the mouth of the cave. Outside she saw light, bright and warm and welcoming.
Stepping outside, she frowned at the sight.

Around her were huge, towering buttes, if that was the word she was thinking of. It had been a long time since she’d done much relating to geography, but she still knew enough to know there weren’t many buttes near Canterlot, but there were out in the western reaches.

If she was very lucky, and she had a strong sense she wasn’t, she was on the Equestrian side of the border of Caballeria. If she wasn’t…
Suddenly, realising just how far she had to be from home, Falling felt unbelievably small.

Now

Sunset and Lightning had been of one mind on the subject of what they would do if something went wrong: No heroics. Lightning was to leave Sunset behind and save herself.

“No sense both of us getting caught if this goes wrong.” Sunset’s words echoed in Lightning’s mind.

Which didn’t explain to Lightning why she hadn’t already left, even as the guard’s whistles were going off, as they closed in on Sunset, who was likely using every trick up her sleeves to stay ahead of them.

Lightning couldn’t figure it out. Okay, she’d known Sunset for a while, and she knew all kinds of egghead stuff, but she was just… just Sunset. She wasn’t worth Lighting’s rump getting in jail.

Even if some of her ideas had, maybe, on occasion, wound up being pretty fun, in the end. Sometimes. Even if it was usually Sunset who paid the bills. And, if anypony asked, Lightning would’ve admitted that she was okay to look at.

And funny, when she wasn’t being a raging she-demon, or getting on Lightning’s case for stupid stuff… and, okay, she had a pretty good singing voice…

And there was that smile she had when things were going well. Lightning wasn't a poet, but she thought a smile like that was like the sun rising.

Lightning looked at the window. She only had to fly away. Sunset wouldn’t mind. She’d… she’d…

Lightning tallied the options of a life without Sunset against a life with more Sunset, or tried as much as she could with all the noise going on.

There was nothing for it. Sighing irritably, Lightning turned away from the window.

Had anypony else been around to listen, they would’ve heard someone muttering “stupid sexy Sunset”.

Sunset winced. She’d gone over the layout of the museum, several times, never mind that she’d already made her way around more than once in her free time (occasionally trying to get some culture into Lightning’s brain, sometimes just because). But having several guards coming after a pony had a way of making them forget things.

If she ever had to justify herself to Falling Star, she was going to point out it was dark. It was hard to make your way in the dark.
Then, she’d probably sock her in the jaw. Let the kid steal her own magical doodads next time.

She could hear hoofsteps coming up behind her. She turned, trying to get her best confident smirk on. Perhaps if she did, she’d feel better about her chances.

There was only one guard approaching. Good, one. She could deal with one guard.

“Got you now,” the pony said, as he approached.

Sunset tried not to sigh, wondering if he was going to say something about there being nowhere to run, or whatever it was guards said.

The guard removed a set of manacles.

This, Sunset thought to herself, was definitely the last time she was going to help anypony.

Still, she added, it was working out better than things with the Academy had…

The guard was glowering furiously at her, probably focused on finding something to say afterward, so much so that he wasn’t paying attention to anything else, like the shadow moving above his head.

“Nothing to say, huh?” The guard grinned. Sunset tensed herself.

Then something Pegasus-shaped fell onto him like an avalanche.

“Look out below.” Lightning Dust smiled at the prone form, before turning her grin on Sunset. “Yeah, I know. I came to save your butt. No need to thank me.”

“You…” Sunset began, “complete idiot!”

Lightning’s smile evaporated. “What?”

Four years, two months ago

The sun was beating down against vast pillars of orange-brown rock, with nary a cloud in the sky. Not that there would have been any, not so far from a town. Why manage weather when there was nopony to manage it for?

She would’ve killed for a town. Or a village. Or a settlement.

Or failing that, a drink. Of all the things she’d packed into her saddlebag that morning (which, for reasons that she was sure had made sense at the time, included a towel), she hadn’t had forethought enough to include a drink of any kind.

Somewhere, a bird she couldn’t see cawed loudly.

She couldn’t have been walking, or climbing, more than twenty minutes. But one impossibly large rock looked like another impossibly large rock, so she had no way of knowing how far she’d walked.

As she rounded one corner, she looked off into the distance. And just close enough to see, she could make out what looked tantalisingly like a settlement.

Suddenly feeling a new burst of energy, she began trotting off toward it.

As it turned out, the settlement was a lot further off than it had looked, though that may have had something to do with the sheer distance. More than once, Falling wondered if it was going to disappear when she got close to it.

But the settlement remained where it was, which Falling was immensely grateful for, especially since by the time she got there she’d sworn the temperature had somehow managed to increase, and she was unbelievably thirsty.

Fortunately, finding a saloon wasn’t difficult in the slightest. The large sign proclaiming “saloon” was a giveaway. Falling dragged herself through the swing doors, across the floor (which, though she was sure she was seeing things, from the looks of things, had painted on dirt, rather than actual dirt) and toward the bar, where a dull brown coated pony was obsessively polishing a beer glass, until he saw the bright blue pony pull herself up to the counter.

“Can I…” Falling croaked. In an instant, the barpony placed a glass of water (well, it looked like water) in front of her.

“Thanks.” She said, before taking it and finishing the drink in one go. “I needed that.”

“I gathered.” The barpony said.

“This is going to sound weird, but… just go with me,” Falling said.

“Where are ya?” The barpony smiled a smile that suggested he’d heard this question more times than was probably necessary. Falling nodded.
“Yer in Rump.”

Falling blinked, and tried dislodging some non-existent sand from her ears. “Sorry?”

“We’re tryin’ to get the name changed.” He muttered.

Falling nodded, and then looked at the glass. The barpony took it away, and soon came back.

“Please tell me we’re in Equestria.”

The barpony nodded. “Sure are. Not far from the Caballeria border. But if you’re wondering where the next biggest city is, I got some bad news for ya…”

Falling finished her water before she allowed her expression to sink.

“The stagecoach only comes through once a week, and it’s not fer a coupl’a days.”

Falling stared at the empty glass. Finding a town on the train routes on the first go was probably too much to hope for, in hindsight. Not that she was actually sure she had enough bits to afford a train to anywhere. All she had was enough in her saddlebags for sandwiches.

Still, it wasn’t the time to give in to all-consuming despair of ever seeing home again.

“Okay…” she began, “so… do you have a post office around here?”

The barpony looked awkwardly down at the counter. “No.”

Damn, Falling thought. “A library?” she hazarded.

“Nope.”

“Somewhere a pony can stay for a few nights?”

“Now that, we do have.”

She smiled for a moment, “and incidentally, there wouldn’t be anypony in town who be like a police officer or something?”

The barpony’s amused look flickered. “Not police, no. Far too small to have them. We got a sheriff around. Can’t miss him.”
He returned to rubbing the dishrag against the counter, “or failing that, there’s him over in the corner.”

Falling looked to where the pony was gesturing. In the nearest corner was a pony sitting in a small booth by himself. Under normal circumstances, he probably would’ve been covered in shadows, probably covering most of his face while he glowered in a brooding fashion at everyone else. Unfortunately it was the middle of the day, and the bar was actually pretty well lit, so he was completely unobscured, as was the large sword he was sitting next to.

Also, he wasn’t glowering or brooding in any fashion. In fact, he just looked sort of vaguely annoyed, at most.

“He’s from out of town, been here the last coupl’a days. Think he’s a knight or something. Quiet fella.”

“Thanks.” Falling said, producing some silver bits from her bag and pushing them across the counter. She trotted over toward the table the strange pony was at. His eyes turned toward her. His green eyes. His very deep green eyes.

“Something I can help you with?” he asked, as Falling sat on the chair across from him.

She stared at his eyes for a moment longer, before she caught herself. “Are you a knight?”

He nodded. “Sure am. Dream Catcher, Knight Errant.”

“Shouldn’t there be a “sir” in there?” she asked. He shifted in his seat, and stared dryly at her.

“Do you know what a knight usually does these days?” Falling shook her head. “Mostly, we get invited to parties by old ladies. Not much point calling me “sir”. Plus, it makes me feel like I should be twenty years older.”

If it hadn’t been for the events of that morning, Falling might have asked him about that train of thought. As it was, she just nodded.

“So, what are you doing here?” she asked. Dream Catcher leaned back.

“Someone sent me a letter asking to meet me here. By name.” At this, he looked confused, “then I get here, and whoever it was sent that letter isn’t here, and there’s no problem going on, so nopony knows why I’m here. Of course, by the time I learn this, the stagecoach has already left again, and I’m stuck here.”

“That’s… actually kind of lucky.” Falling said. He looked sharply at her, causing her to flinch. “I…”

She trailed off. The very idea of what had happened to her seemed almost too ridiculous to say out loud, but at the same time… he was in the very first town she’d stumbled on to. Had Professor Nexus or whoever was pulling Midnight’s strings sent him? And suppose he wasn’t, but just didn’t believe her?

“Yeah?” Dream Catcher’s voice shook her out of her thoughts.

She sighed. Either way, she wasn’t risking very much. So, carefully, she told him about the events that had led to her winding up in a town named Rump at eleven o’clock in the morning with nothing but the saddlebags on her back. He remained quiet as she explained, nodding occasionally, murmuring occasionally, and frowning increasingly further as she got to the day’s events.

“That’s… quite the tale.” He finally said, chin resting on one hoof.

“I know how it sounds.” Falling said, “it sounds insane, but…”

Catcher held up a hoof. “Don’t worry, I believe you.” He said, before going quiet again.

“You do?” Falling asked. He nodded.
“… why?”

He paused carefully. “Your story sounds way too detailed to be made up, and you don’t exactly look crazy. At the least, I believe you’re somepony who’s gotten into serious trouble.”

“Please,” Falling said, quietly, “I just need somepony to… to…”

Something in her chest was hurting. And perhaps it was because of having to actually go over what had happened that she found herself starting to cry.

After a few seconds, she felt a hoof touch on her shoulder. Almost instantly, she leapt back in unthinking terror.

“Hey,” Catcher said, calmly, “it’s okay. I’m not… y’know.”

“I know.” She tried desperately to stop herself shedding tears, and to get the thumping in her chest to stop. “So, I need you to kind of… be my bodyguard. Please.”

He sat there, staring down at the table for a long time, one forehoof tapping absently against it. “I think,” he eventually said, “this is beyond me. I’m a knight. But I usually only deal with bandits, or angry creatures. Not even particularly dangerous ones, if I’m honest. This sounds like something for a Princess.”

“Can’t go to them.” Falling murmured. “They’ve got ponies working for Princess Luna. They’d have to expect me to try and get to her.”

Catcher frowned. “I don’t know. Surely Princess Luna would have noticed if her castle had some dark cultist scurrying around it. I mean, she’s the Princess!”

Falling found herself frowning as well. All she knew of the Princess of the Night were the same stories everyone heard from childhood, of the mysterious alicorn keeping watch over all ponykind from the shadows, overseeing all, along with the occasional vague remark Midnight had made over the last few months. But she’d never believed Luna was omniscient. There were far too many examples from the history books of the last century alone to discount that. Luna may have been an alicorn, but she was still capable of making mistakes. In fact, it seemed more likely that due to her greater age and experience, her mistakes were larger than those of an ordinary pony.

“If I were trying to hide right under the nose of someone like Princess Luna, the first thing I’d do is make damn sure the disguise fooled her.”

She found herself thinking about that. The amount of power, or knowledge, or skill, not to mention the sheer amount of pure luck that would’ve been needed just to pull off such a deception, for however long it had been running.

She thought of Professor Nexus. And what she’d seen while looking through the history books on Tirek. If anyone could pull that off, she supposed it would be somepony like that.

“So, what is your plan, then?” Catcher asked.

Falling looked at the table again. And then, somewhere, like a glowgem coming on, an idea formed in her mind.

“Find a way to stop them. Whatever they’re doing.”

Catcher looked at her with bemusement. “That’s… okay, that’s a plan, I guess. You don’t mean with your hooves, right?”

Falling looked down, then back up again. “No. I haven’t tried kicking anyone in years.”

Catcher raised an eyebrow. “You do know how to kick somepony, right?”

“More or less.” Falling said, before she could stop herself. “Look, my point is…” she fished a book out of her saddlebag. Unfortunately for the moment, it was her history book on the Crystal Empire, and not the one on magical artefacts, which ruined the effect she’d been intended to make. She fished around in her bags, and brought the correct one out.

“History is filled with examples of strange magical items, right? All I need to do is find one, and use that.”

“Why not just go all the way to Canterlot and steal the Elements of Harmony?” Catcher asked, “I’m sure Princess Luna would let us have them if we explained quickly enough.”

Falling gave him a cool, level stare. “I’m going to assume you’re being facetious.”

He shrugged. “Probably. Because this sounds… if I’m honest, it sounds dumb. Why not just go find some help? Even if the Princess isn’t an option-”

“And do what?” she asked. “I’ve no idea how many of them there are, or where they are, or what they can do, but I do know there’s several of them, at the very least. Anyone I could go to might be one of them. And I’ve got no way of fighting them all on my own.”

She shook her head. “First, we get out of this town-”

“When the stagecoach comes back in a few days.”

“Then I’ll find a library, and look through what I can, try and find something that can maybe help stop these ponies.”

And, she added to herself, if it was at all possible, save Midnight. It was the least she could do.

Catcher was silent for a moment. “Just you?”

“What?” Falling asked.

“Or did you assume I wouldn’t help?”

She said nothing, pawing absently at her history book. “Maybe…”

Catcher didn’t look offended, or even hurt. “I don’t know a lot of evil overlords or weird cults, but I do know some things about magic. I can help.” He smiled, ever so slightly. “Or I can try, at any rate. I’m a knight. Protecting Equestria is kind of my job.”

“I…” Falling smiled haltingly. “Thank you.”

“Though before we get started, can I ask whether you have any money?” Falling felt a cold chill run down her spine, as Catcher awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just… being a knight doesn’t exactly pay that great.”

It took several seconds for Falling to realise her jaw was hanging open. “You’re kidding, right?”

Now

“I had a plan!” Sunset hissed, although in the interest of fairness, what she was saying was barely accurate. But at that moment, she didn’t really care, “I was waiting for him to get close, and then I’d say something about Corona and teleport away! Without harming anypony! And you went and screwed that up!”

“I thought I was helping you!” Lightning Dust scowled back.

“Well, now we look like criminals!” Sunset yelled.

“How was I supposed to k-”

“Incompetent criminals!”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Lightning yelled back. “Sorry for trying to save your ungrateful fla-”

“FREEZE!”

So busy had the two ponies been with their argument that they hadn’t noticed the second security guard come along. They hadn’t seen him notice his associate lying prone on the floor, or as he’d approached them cautiously.

The two ponies turned to look at him, their own argument temporarily forgotten in favour of a new target.

“SHUT UP!” was the last thing he heard before being knocked unconscious.

“Now what?” Lightning Dust asked, once that matter was taken care of.

“I don’t know!” Sunset snapped. “I thought you were going to leave me here.”

“Yeah.” Lightning snorted, “I wish I had now.”

Sunset stopped to look at her. “Why did you stay?”

Lightning shrugged irritably. “I already told you, I was trying to help you.”

“I had this handled.” Sunset shot back. “Great job of helping. I’d ask what were you thinking, but I know you only think about the Wonderbolts, and showing off.”

“I was trying to help,” Lightning repeated, this time through grit teeth, “Because… I guess… I kinda like you.”

Sunset stared at her, the slightly more pressing problem of the guards forgotten at that moment. “You kinda like me?” she repeated, “well, it’s good to know that, after several years of putting up with you.”

“Who volunteered us for this crap?” Lightning glowered. Sunset growled at that, and looked about.

“Let’s just focus on getting out of here. Then, we’re going to have a long talk.”

“I got an idea.” Lightning said, as she looked up at the ceiling. Sunset began to ask what she had in mind. Before Sunset could finish, Lightning had wrapped her forelimbs around Sunset’s midsection, and with a burst of energy taken off toward the roof.

Realising, at least slightly, what her plan was, Sunset’s horn lit up a bright red. The two disappeared just before hitting the ceiling. They reappeared outside, in the cold air of a Manehatten night in the middle of winter.

Before either of them could take a breath, they noticed several dozen ponies, both on the roof and hovering about it, all holding torches pointed at them, at which point Lightning Dust muttered something unrepeatable.

Without a second’s hesitation, she barrelled between them, heading in no fixed direction. Almost immediately, there were shouts from behind them.

The wind whipped at Sunset, as Lightning hurtled through the sky. Her eyes stung from the speeds, and Lightning really wished she’d had time to put on goggles of some kind.

“They’re following us.” She yelled, possibly more loudly than was needed.

“I know.” Lightning bellowed back.

“If they catch us-”

“They won’t.” Despite the wind, and the noise from behind them, Sunset heard Lightning’s voice clearly, and calmly. It was a voice like iron. Lightning Dust was in her element.

In Sunset’s saddlebag, the object Falling Star had sent them to get briefly glowed a very pale red.

Things had gone wrong. Sunset was mad at her, even though she’d helped. Guards were chasing them through the sky. Things were not looking great.

And Lightning Dust wasn’t worried. Flying was what she did best.

Even if she was carrying Sunset Shimmer and a set of saddlebags, which was slowing down her top speed considerably.

They weren’t going to catch her. Lightning knew this. She was the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. If there was anypony else faster, she hadn’t met them and beat ‘em yet.

Sunset was slowing her down, yes, but she wasn’t going to drop her. Not even if it was just on a rooftop while she led the cops away.

Something new had woken up inside Lightning Dust. She didn’t care about speed records, or the Wonderbolts, or any of that.

… well, okay, she did also care about those things, just… not as much as she had ten minutes ago. It was probably a passing thing. She really hoped it was a passing thing. Or that it wouldn’t get worse. What loomed most in her mind at that moment was keeping Sunset safe.

But the ponies behind her were getting close enough.

She focused everything on going faster.

When Lightning Dust had been young, there had been a story that had gone around the flight camps. How in Cloudsdale there had been some sort of rainboom. A dozen and one different versions had gone around, none of which had shared any real details beyond the rainboom itself. Some nuts had even claimed an alicorn had caused it. And Lightning Dust hadn’t really cared about anything but the rainboom itself.

Somepony, she knew, had caused it. There had definitely been a rainboom. She knew deep down in her bones it was possible.
In all her years flying, even after she’d gotten her cutie mark, she’d never managed to perform one herself. She’d never met anypony who’d even seen one (not that she’d actually been looking. Being the best flyer in Equestria ate up a lot of time. Being stuck with Sunset Shimmer ate up even more).

And technically speaking she wasn’t about to see one any time soon.

Everything was pushing against her. Lighting was pushing herself to her limits. In fact, a part of her brain absently filed, in that way the mind did, that if she wasn’t carrying Sunset Shimmer she’d probably have beaten her previous speed records.

The wind was stinging at her. Manehatten was soaring past, and she was reasonably certain that if she was going any faster, she would soon be on the other side of Neigh Jersery (presumably. She couldn’t see where she was going beyond not toward any high rises).

She pushed further. And further. Her forelimbs were clenched tightly around Sunset Shimmer, holding on with a death grip that would’ve made a vice envious.

Everything was starting to blur.

Just one more inch…

Not many ponies in Manehatten saw what happened, but a good amount of them definitely heard the noise, as Lightning Dust, carrying an increasingly terrified unicorn, pushed through the sound barrier.

There was a colossal explosion, and a massive electrical pulse, and a lot of ponies in one part of Manehatten found themselves with unmanageable manes for several hours.

And, had anyone been listening, the sound of one pegasus screaming with triumphant joy, and a unicorn with utter terror.

Four years, two months (and an odd number of days) ago

Falling Star was quite glad to leave the unfortunately named town of Rump behind, with her new “bodyguard”, once the stagecoach arrived, after several days.

The first night, she had hired a room out of the town hotel, with some help from “Sir” Catcher. That had not been a good night. She’d been completely unable to sleep until only Luna-knew-when. Lying there, on her cheap bed in that grey room, with the window open because even in the night it was astoundingly hot, she’d found herself thinking about home, and the academy, and her mom and dad. How long it would be before anyone realized she was missing, if they even learned at all, or whether Professor Nexus or somepony else just claimed she was off doing something for them, or she just became another random missing pony. And then she thought of what would happen with her mom and dad, how they’d react, and whether they were being watched by Nexus, to see if she’d show up, and a horrible cold had gripped her at the thought of that, and she’d started sobbing, but quietly to not wake up Catcher, or anypony else. She’d kept on sobbing until she fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next several days had been spent in a sort of haze. There was precious little to actually do in Rump, and she found she had no desire to join in with what little there was. She’d just read through her borrowed books. Or tried to, at any rate. Her eyes had just slid off the pages half the time, and the other she found her attention wandering to some new horrible thought, which was then joined by a dozen others, all vying for her attention.

After nearly a week of that, she was feeling tired and more miserable than she’d thought it possible to feel.

The stagecoach ponies had been friendly enough, and raised relatively few concerns about the sword, which had seemed odd, but she assumed they probably found it reassuring. Any bandits jumping out to attack the stagecoach would probably see it, and start murmuring about how they’d gotten a case of mistaken identity).

From there, it was some hours to the nearest town with a train station, which had proven to have no library of any kind. Star had spent some time, while waiting for the next train inward to Equestria, trying not to rant angrily at Dream Catcher about that.

He, meanwhile, had asked whether she wanted to head to Equestria, which had an evil cult in it that was almost certainly looking for her, or out to Caballeria, which probably did not.

“As I recall, relationships between Equestria and Caballeria are… not so great right now.”

Dream had paused thoughtfully at this. “They’re better than they were before that war,” he’d said, “but… there’s rumblings. I think the Caballerians, or some of them, are suspicious about Equestria’s involvement.”

Falling had considered this, and decided the best choice, or the better choice at any rate, was to go back into Equestria, and hope very hard that Nexus did not really have ponies everywhere.

To this effort, they got off at the first town their train came to, and checked for a library. Much to Falling’s relief, it had one.
Not, admittedly, a large library, such as the one in Canterlot, or the Manehatten Public Library, but all things considered she didn’t need a large library, just somewhere she could search, and quietly.

So far, all she’d gotten was a large pile of books next to her, and the occasional disapproving stare from the local librarian, who’d gone a peculiar colour when Dream Catcher had tried entering the library with his sword (not that Falling could really blame her for that).
With what very little bits she’d managed to find hiding in the bottom of her saddlebags, she’d managed to buy a notebook, and had started copying down any scrap of information that looked remotely useful. Which, frankly, had not been in great supply.
Equestria, and indeed the continent as a whole, had no shortage of magical artefacts. It was just that many were either destroyed, locked up in a vault somewhere, depowered, or utterly useless for what she wanted to do. Or any combination thereof.

Not that she had been expecting it to be easy, but… crazy ponies always seemed to be stumbling across some ancient sorceror’s enchanted doodad which allowed them to gain access to arcane knowledge and etcetera etcetera, with an ease that seemed trivial. So why was she having difficulty finding something to try and do good?

A snide part of Falling informed her that it was usually because ponies going around making items of unlimited power were not, as a rule, civic minded sorts, and were in fact crazed nutjobs looking for more power.

Rare was the story of a powerful pony making a magic artefact to make things better for everypony else.

She sighed wearily, earning a harsh shushing from the librarian, and began returning the latest disappointing book back to the shelves. Then she looked back at the precarious stack of books. There was one she could’ve sworn she hadn’t seen before, sitting right on top.

It stood out tremendously, looking far less like a book than… well, a notebook. For a moment, she wondered if it was her own, only it was the wrong colour. Her notebook was bright red, this one was sky blue. Hers still looked like it was new, without even so much as a bent corner anywhere. The one she was looking at looked… not old, as such, but definitely much used.

She scanned around the library, seeing if there was anypony nearby who might have put it there absently. Aside from the librarian, who was busy reading a book of her own, there wasn’t anypony else present. She looked down at the book, and after a moment’s consideration, flipped it open.

Some of what she saw was garbled, and incomprehensible even after a good stare at the words. And even the comprehensible parts didn’t make a lot of sense. Occasionally, there were pictures of items, including at one point a particularly sinister looking necklace, which the artist had helpfully drawn in colour, with black and red a major point. It was called the Alicorn Amulet, according to a caption. Star’s interest in it was piqued by the mention of it boosting the wielder’s power exponentially, right up until she saw the part about madness and evil. It vanished completely when she saw the label “destroyed”, complete with no less than three underlines.

Despite everything, there was something about that which made her smile slightly. Someone was apparently very upset.

As an idle thought, she flipped through the rest of the notebook, stopping halfway through, on account of there being no more writing. She flipped back, and found that it stopped mid-paragraph. There was no sign of damage, or the writing trailing off into a terrified scrawl. It just stopped, in a sentence about the book’s owner being hopeful about… something. She flipped back further, and found an odd sight. A drawing of five spheres, circling a sixth.

A memory stirred. There were six Elements of Harmony, she recalled. Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness and the Sixth.
She’d never taken the time to visit the ones on display in Canterlot, but she’d still heard about them all the same, the same as any other pony.

Intrigued, she flipped through several more pages, seeing several more items, until the book came to notes on other kinds of magic. The three tribes, then the Crystal Ponies, and mention of others, like the Shouma, and the Elks. And then mentions of things like Seaponies and Merponies and Plesioponies, and Changelings. Creatures of legends and fairy tales, all noted and written down.

Suddenly, she slammed the book shut, and set it down, eyeing it carefully, just in case it did something peculiar. Or indeed, anything.

“What are you?” she asked. If the book had anything to say on that, it didn’t answer.

Part of her was greatly tempted to put the book away, never look at it again. Or possibly to just run from it, very quickly. Something about it greatly unnerved her. There was knowledge in the book that probably didn’t belong anywhere outside of hooves like the Princesses.

Knowledge that could help. Help her. Help Midnight.

Carefully, making sure the librarian wasn’t looking (and she wasn’t), Star slipped the notebook into her bag.
And then, with the sort of calmness that usually drew attention, she went back to reading the other books.

“Hey.” Falling jolted, glowering up at Dream as he stood nearby (his sword noticeably absent, which was probably how he'd got past the librarian).

“Don’t sneak up on me.” She said, ignoring the hammering in her chest.

“I didn’t.” The knight replied. “I thought you’d noticed me.”

He leaned over to look at the book she was reading. “You’ve been in here for hours. Found anything yet?”

Falling looked at the book she was reading, and at her notebook.

“I think…” she began to grin, “I think I’ve found something.”

Now

Falling had heard the noise, followed by several neighbourhoods of dogs barking madly at the sound, and somehow, instinctively, she’d known it was the work of Sunset and Lightning.

Which meant all there was to do was wait for them to return.

Minutes ticked past. She looked over to Dream, who was still standing by the window, looking outward.

An hour passed before there was a knocking at the door. Dream walked over to it, and opened it, as Star ducked out of sight.

Which meant she missed seeing the look on Dream Catcher’s face when he saw Sunset Shimmer standing in the doorway, her mane fluffed up to ludicrous extremes.

“Don’t you say a word.” She growled, in a way suggesting that all the monsters of Tartarus would be as nothing to what she could unleash if pushed one inch further.

“Hey.” Lightning Dust said from behind her. “We got your stupid thing, by the way.”

Star poked her head out into the main room as the two walked in. “I’m guessing things got… complicated?”

Sunset looked at Lightning Dust, who seemed to be unable to look at her partner (though given what she knew of Lightning Dust, Star had to assume that was probably because she didn’t want to laugh at the state of Sunset’s mane).

“Yeah. But we managed.” Lightning said. “Because we’re awesome.”

Sunset removed her saddlebags, and fished into them. She quickly stopped.

“Huh.” She declared, causing Lightning, Falling and Dream to become very still. “It wasn’t doing that earlier.”

From the saddlebag, Sunset removed a small golden sphere, almost completely smooth, save for a rune, which was glowing red.
In the last four and a bit years, Star had learned there was one definite fact with magic items: Anything that glowed was deeply suspicious.

“Sunset.” She stated, “put it down, carefully.”

Sunset Shimmer looked to her, then to the sphere. “Yeah.” She replied, “good idea.”

“What’s everypony worried about?” Lightning spoke up. “If it was going to do something, wouldn’t it have done it by now?”

“Not necessarily.” Star said, staring intently at the sphere. “And besides, this is new.”

There was a horrific pause before anyone else spoke. “New.” Sunset repeated, in leaden tones.

“You’ve seen one of these before?” Lightning asked.

“Two, actually.” Dream Catcher said. “They didn’t glow.”

“So, ah…” Lightning was now staring warily at the sphere as well, “just out of curiosity, this isn’t going to explode or turn somepony, like Sunset, into some kind of raging she-demon, is it?”

There was another pause. “No.” Star eventually managed. Lightning sighed in relief.

“Good to know, because, really, I don’t think we’d notice before it was t- Ow!” she exclaimed, as Sunset withdrew the hoof she’d just kicked with.

“She’s got a point, though.” Dream Catcher said. “If it was going to do something, it probably would’ve by now.” He looked at Sunset’s mane, “just out of curiosity-”

“Don’t ask.” Sunset cut in. Lightning Dust, meanwhile, was grinning madly.

“That was me.”

Dream Catcher looked to Falling, who just shook her head. “I didn’t need that image in my brain.”

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Not like that. It was this whole thing.”

Star gingerly approached the sphere, and after several hesitant seconds, touched a hoof against it.

Nothing happened.

After several tense seconds, nothing continued to happen.

Everypony in the room let out relieved sighs, as Star lifted it up in her magic and looked to Dream.

“How many is that, now?”

“Four down, two to go.” He frowned, “but one of the next ones is going to be really difficult to get.”

“More difficult than that one?” Lightning Dust asked incredulously. “The hay is it? Up a dragon’s cloaca?”

Sunset glanced at her partner for a moment at that.

“Worse.” Falling Star said, solemnly. “Surrounded by lawyers. Expensive ones. One of these is in the estate of a Vicereine, and no-one’s getting past her lawyers until they’re done fighting her family’s lawyers.”

Sunset and Lightning Dust looked at one another, and said not a word before they turned to look back at Falling Star.

“You’re on your own for that one.” Lightning declared.

“Figured as much.”

Sunset, meanwhile, was still looking cautiously at the sphere. “So what are these things anyway? And why are you after them?”
Falling looked to Dream, then back to Sunset. “Well, you two did risk your life getting these, so you deserve to know…”

She took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of Tirek?”

Making Friends

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The weeks leading up to Hearth’s Warming passed. Slowly, in some areas, but they passed all the same. But for Trixie, those days were spent largely in concern about the eventual appearance of a certain school teacher.

And it was a few days before Hearths Warming proper that, one night, there came a knocking at Trixie’s door, from Cheerilee herself.
Trixie had been expecting rage, she had been expecting anger, she had been expecting Cheerilee to come upon her snorting fire from her nostrils (at least in some of Trixie’s more vivid daydreams). Instead, Cheerilee had just smiled warmly, as Trixie took her friend’s thick woollen cloak and hung it up. It even looked like a genuine smile.

And therefore, Trixie found herself more worried than she would’ve been otherwise.

“Can we talk?” Cheerilee had said, nicely. Trixie nodded, and led her through to her study, where the small fire was still burning gently.

“Is this about-” Trixie began, only to stop when Cheerilee nodded.

“Yes.” The mulberry coloured mare had her forehooves pressed together. “It is.”

“Ah.” Trixie announced. One of Cheerilee’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“Trixie.” She began, “you didn’t think I was going to come here, ready to do something unspeakable to you over this, did you?”

The only sound was the ticking of the nearby clock, and the crackling of logs burning, as Trixie found herself unable to look Cheerilee in the eyes.

“Oh, Trixie…” Cheerille frowned, for a moment. “Although,” she began again, “admittedly, if it weren’t leading up to Hearth’s Warming, then yeah. I would be angrier with you. Thesis should be in school.”

Part of Trixie wanted to speak up in her own defence, to point out however technically she wasn’t actually the foal’s legal guardian. She clamped her jaw down until she was certain the urge had passed, and made sure her hooves stayed where they were, lest she fall victim to the urge to hit herself for even thinking that.

“But…” Cheerilee sighed. “Since it is leading up to Hearth’s Warming…” Cheerilee gave an airy wave of her hooves.
Trixie slumped into her chair. “Sorry, Cheerilee.”

“It’s okay.” Cheerilee said, “I can get why you wouldn’t. I don’t necessarily like it one bit, but I do get it.”

Then the look shifted, and suddenly a terrifyingly dark look passed across Cheerilee’s face. “Now, this Midnight on the other hoof… if and when she comes back, she and I are going to have words.”

There was a way Cheerilee phrased that last part that suggested even the most inventive punishment Luna herself could’ve devised would be as nothing to five minutes with the mulberry mare and the products of her imagination. For a fleeting, almost instantaneous moment, Trixie briefly felt a tinge of what could’ve possibly been sympathy for Midnight. But only for a moment.

The clock continued ticking. “How is she, by the way?”

Trixie looked about, not entirely confident the filly wasn’t listening in (it was what she would’ve done). “Quiet, a lot of the time. Mostly just reads. But…”

She frowned in thought. “I think she needs friends. She does need friends. Especially friends who are her age.”

“Sensing another “but” coming in.” Cheerilee said.

“I’m just not sure how she’ll react to other foals, and I keep getting worked up about it. Things with Dinky have gone fine so far, but she’s Dinky, you know? What if her first encounter is somepony like… I don’t know, Diamond Tiara.”

Trixie had rarely encountered the foal herself, but what she’d heard of the little pink pony from Raindrops did not paint the most flattering painting there was. Not the worst pony, but there were occasions, and these were only occasions, when the foal could be a colossally spoiled brat. Trixie wasn’t absolutely sure if a spoiled alicorn was more terrifying than an insane one, and she definitely didn’t want to know.

Cheerilee just smiled carefully. “Don’t. I’m sure she’ll manage to make at least one friend. I mean, if you can make friends with somepony, how hard can it be?”

Trixie glowered, but without any real malice, at Cheerilee.

“And they won’t be bothered by her looking like an alicorn.” Cheerilee noted. “Actually, the minute they find out she’s been living with you, she’s probably going to have more friends than she could ever hope for.”

Trixie hummed at that, visions of groups of foals turning up at her doorstep, looking to hang out with Ponyville’s new unofficial Princess.
That didn’t fill her with any great confidence.

Eventually, once things were properly settled, and Cheerilee had given Trixie the date after the New Year Thesis was to show up for, the schoolteacher left, leaving Trixie glancing back into the hallway, where she saw a dark purple figure ducking out of sight.
She fought down an urge to sigh, and began thinking of the best way to break the news to Thesis.
She made a note to do it later.

“Later”, it turned out, was a difficult one to pin down. At first, dinner was “later”. And then by the time dinner had been made, it was the next day, and then the next, and the next. And with very little effort on Trixie’s behalf, the thought disappeared into the back of her mind, forgotten entirely.

In all fairness, the Twelvetide and the jubilant spirit of the season, and the utter freezing cold, had a way of making ponies forget things.

The Longest Night came, and to everyone’s great relief passed without so much as a single hint of any mad alicorns returning for round two. It had been an eerie sight as midnight had approached, and everyone in Ponyville had been gathered in the center of town, waiting patiently and growing increasingly quiet, as the hour counted down.

Several hundred ponies, including six particularly tense Element Bearers, had let out a sigh when the hour passed and nothing happened. Not even the tiniest lick of alicorn-created fire. It had been like a switch being flicked when, almost immediately thereafter a certain pink someone had declared it “party time”, and as if on cue everyone burst into laughter, song and drinking (not necessarily in that precise order, and in some cases not for very long).

The six Element Bearers, meanwhile, had just basked warmly in the thought of getting to spend the Longest Night not fighting anything evil. They hadn’t said anything, because what was there to be said that hadn’t been already. And soon after that Lyra had disappeared with BonBon, and Cheerilee had gone off to engage in some very spirited carousing (twas the season, after all), leaving Trixie, Ditzy, Raindrops and Carrot Top to bask on their own.

And of course, after the Longest Night was Hearth’s Warming itself, the night that pushed back the cold, which had more partying and celebrating (though perhaps not quite as much as there could’ve been, in the case of some of Ponyville’s ponies, who were instead content to sing quietly, and drink only a few drops of whatever was on offer, and maybe not eat quite as much as they might have, still recovering as they were from the Longest Night).

And the day before Hearth’s Warming Eve, when the snow was particularly thick and cold, Trixie invited everyone around to meet Thesis, which she thought particularly well, all things considered.

In fairness to Thesis, she had only asked that all the filly do was show up once to say hello, with no expectation or demand that she stick around if she didn’t want to.

Ditzy had brought Dinky, who’d brought a small present for the filly. Trixie had done some quick mental arithmetic (as much as she could while doing some recovering of her own) and noted that Dinky must have scrimped off a little of her own funds for Hearth’s Warming gifts for a filly she’d barely known a full month.

Twilight Sparkle had come, and mingled. And then Trixie saw she’d brought her own gift.

It was a grey donkey doll, which for some reason had been designed with blue shorts, and had two mismatched eyes, but there was a look about it that suggested it had been much loved in its life.

“She’s called Smarty Pants.” Twilight had said, while grinning a grin that Trixie would’ve described as “painfully earnest”.

“She used to be my best friend when I was your age.” The unicorn added, “and look!”

A tiny notebook and quill floated alongside the doll, “she’s even got a miniature quill and notebook, so you can pretend that she’s doing her homework.”

In her mind, Trixie scratched out the painful, and replaced it with “heartbreaking”, at the sight of Twilight’s increasingly cheerful smile.
Pretend. To do homework. Trixie made a note to double check the lock her drinks cabinet, to prevent herself getting to the special gift from herself of a very strong bourbon she’d been saving as a gift to herself, because otherwise that smile was going to make her try and down the whole thing, Lulamoon be damned. Oh, she’d locked it the minute Thesis had set hoof in her house, but she was reasonably certain if she’d wanted into it, there wouldn’t have been a thing she could’ve done to stop herself.

“Um.” Thesis began, looking at the old grey doll uncertainly. On instinct, if only the instinct to act before disaster struck, Trixie stepped in.

“That’s very…” she trailed off as she realised she wasn’t actually sure where that sentence had been going. She decided to wing it, “that’s very sweet of you, Twilight.”

She could practically feel the look Raindrops was almost certainly giving her. Twilight, meanwhile, just kept grinning that grin.

“I’m sure Thesis will appreciate it.” She said, leaning in toward the filly, who gave her a blank look. Trixie nodded, subtly, hoping Thesis would catch on.

Twilight didn’t, and just kept grinning. “Oh, and I ordered something else. Just a moment…” she disappeared out of the room and back into the front passage. After a few seconds Trixie heard an irritated noise, followed seconds later by the distinctive sound of Twilight teleporting. Before she could get out to see where Twilight had gone, there was another flash, as she returned with a small parcel held in her magic. It looked to Trixie’s trained eyes suspiciously like a book. A book disguised in wrapping paper, but a book nonetheless.

“Can you believe I left this back at the library?” she said. “I also got you this.”
Thesis stared at the wrapping paper hesitantly, and then looked to Trixie, who quickly realised she was afraid to cast anything on it for fearing of damaging the almost-certainly-a-book. Trixie tore apart the wrapping herself, and was not surprised to find a book hidden beneath.

Say what you would about Twilight Sparkle, but you knew what you were getting with her. And what you usually got was books. Trixie was relieved to see it was at least a book of fiction, and not some brain-destroying dense tome about magic, or history. Or magical history.

Thesis made a small noise that could’ve been one of interest, and this time smiled properly. “Thanks.” She murmured. Sparkle’s grin grew dangerously wide, and she made an odd squeaking noise that made Trixie want to take a few steps back.
A purple hoof placed itself on Twilight’s shoulder. “You alright?” Cheerilee asked, gently, causing the unicorn to look about.

“Oh.” She coughed, “yes, I’m fine. Why?”

“I think you might be scaring Thesis a little.” Cheerilee grinned.

Everyone looked at the filly, whose wings flapped self-consciously. “I wasn’t scared.” She declared, though she didn’t sound convincing.

“Good to know.” Cheerilee said, warmly. “And now that the presents are out of the way, I believe there was some mention of a party, wasn’t there?”

“Hey.” Trixie looked up from her drink, which she’d managed to fix up. Ditzy was smiling gently at her from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Hey.” Trixie replied, before taking a swig from her chocolate soy-milk (it may have been a party, but she didn’t feel brave enough to risk the horror that was Lulamoon on Thesis without advance forewarning. Possibly somewhere in the realm of several years, if she could help it).

“How’re things going?” Ditzy asked.

“You mean…” Trixie motioned back to the door. Ditzy nodded, and Trixie frowned.

“It’s… it’s good, yeah.” She shuffled her hooves, and looked to the door, to make absolutely sure Thesis wasn’t standing there, or anywhere nearby.

“You’re still worried you’re going to do something wrong, aren’t you?” Ditzy said. “Don’t lie to me.”

Trixie made a noise that could’ve been one of pained irritation. “I don’t want to talk about this.” She eventually managed, “mainly because…” she looked back to the door, and then moved closer to Ditzy, “I just don’t want her to overhear me saying anything. Just in case.”
She breathed in and out for a moment, “but… yeah.”

Ditzy frowned. “Any particularly bad nightmares?”

Trixie didn’t reply. There had been more than one night already where she’d been woken up by the thought of screams and an empty bed, and more than that where she hadn’t even had to be asleep to be tormented by those visions. Sometimes, there weren’t even screams. From the look Ditzy was giving her, Trixie had a feeling she could already tell what the answer was.

“You don’t have any advice you could give me?” Trixie asked. Ditzy just smiled sadly at her.

“I don’t think I’m the best pony to be asking for advice on motherhood.” She said quietly. Despite herself, Trixie snorted.

“That’s stupid. You’re the best mother I’ve ever seen.”

“Even after the Sharpwinny t-“

“Yes.” Trixie interjected firmly. “And before you even think about saying it, that also applies to everything else.”

“Well…” Ditzy said, “I already told you to do the best you can. There’s not much else that isn’t just basic common sense for anypony. But…” Ditzy’s smile vanished entirely. There was still a sort of warmth to her face, but also a seriousness that reminded Trixie in her own way of Luna, one that shouldn’t by any rights have been on the face of someone like Ditzy.

“It has to be about her. You know that, right? Nothing else matters as much as keeping her safe, making sure she grows up right.”

“I do know.” Trixie said.

“There’s a difference between knowing and knowing. You know?” Trixie stared at Ditzy, who after a few seconds cracked a grin.

“Anything else?” Trixie asked.

Ditzy made an odd half-smile. “No, not really. But there is something I wanted to talk to you about…”

“What?”

Ditzy bit on her lip, and her wings flapped gently. “Dinky’s been asking about a sleepover here.”

Trixie had been preparing to dunk a marshmallow in her drink as Ditzy said those words. There was a gloop as it sunk into the chocolate-y abyss.

“Uh…” Trixie managed to say. “Are you okay with this?”

“Are you okay with this?” Ditzy retorted, “it’s your house.”

“My residency.” Trixie made a show of sniffing imperiously. “I’ve got a sign saying so and everything. Technically, it’s actually Princess Luna’s property, not mine.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“Darn,” Trixie sighed, “and here I was hoping to escape while I confounded you with pedantry. Give me a minute to think about it.”
She took another, suspiciously marshmallow-y sip of her chocolate milk. “And you didn’t answer mine.”

“I trust Dinky to behave herself in a sleepover.” Ditzy said. “I’m not absolutely certain I trust you to behave, though.”

Trixie opened her mouth to object, and stopped at the look Ditzy gave her. “Fair enough.”

Ditzy shook her head. “I’m kidding, Trixie.”

Trixie took another sip, which this time consisted almost entirely of liquid marshmallow. “I think… I think this residency is a little too small to have a proper party in. Especially if Dinky brought any of her friends.”

A thought wandered into her mind, and she made a note to ask Sparkle about it at a later point. “Maybe, in a few months… just not today.”

A noise drew Trixie’s attention, which turned out to be Raindrops entering the room, and trying to look inconspicuous as she did, which would have been wasted even without the size of Trixie’s kitchen being what it was.

“Hey.” She said, getting a nod back from Trixie and Ditzy, who took the opportunity to head towards the door, leaving Trixie alone with Raindrops.

The jasmine mare’s wings shuffled ever-so-slightly, as she looked toward the variety of cupboards. “I was wondering,” she said slowly, and Trixie would’ve said hesitantly, “if I could get a snack is all.”

“Help yourself.” Trixie replied. “You didn’t need to ask.”

“Yeah,” Raindrops’ eyes fluttered away from Trixie, “well, you and Ditzy were talking, I didn’t want to interrupt. And I wasn’t sure if you were okay with it.”

“You’re a guest in my h- my residency. Why would I mind?”

With that, and now that it was clear she had confirmation, Raindrops went over to the cabinets and started fishing out supplies.

“How’re you finding the party?” Trixie asked.

“It’s... quieter than the ones I’m used to.” Raindrops replied, a vague hint of a smile on her face. “But usually the only parties I go to are the Weather Patrol’s office parties. Any party that doesn’t have them in it is going to be quieter, by definition. Not that I’m not enjoying it.” She added hurriedly, “I don’t mind quiet, after the year we’ve had.”

“And Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker arguing.” Trixie supplied. Raindrops gave her an odd look for a moment, before nodding.

“Yeah. Can’t imagine what’s gotten in to her. Up until recently, she’s usually just agreed with Rainbow on pretty much everything.” Raindrops turned to look at the sandwich she’d made, and took a thoughtful munch of it.

“Maybe she took some confidence-building seminar.” Trixie suggested.

“Must’ve been some seminar.” Raindrops said.

Elsewhere, in the dark, nine figures in black gathered in their circle. The pony at the center of the circle frowned darkly to themselves.

“Hey, Prof,” Indigo Zap declared, making a show of playing with her flying goggles, “what’s the word?”

“I have unfortunate news about Wedge.” Spell Nexus intoned. There was a variety of frowns.

“Is he doing okay?” Bitter Orange inquired. The response was a deepening frown.

“Unfortunately, no. Wedge will not be rejoining us for the foreseeable future. Or indeed, ever again.”

There was a gasp from Merry. Several of the others exchanged looks at one another.

“Is he…?” she began. “I mean, did… isn’t there anything we can do?”

“No.” Nexus said, coldly. “But if you want to pay some respects to him, you may do so in your own time.”

Nexus sighed irritably. “Now, in the spirit of the season, unless there are any developments anyone wishes to bring up, that’s it for the next two weeks. We’ll meet up again in the new year.” With that, Spell Nexus’s image folded up into itself and disappeared into darkness.

“Poor Wedge…” Merry said, in the resulting quiet, staring at the ground. After a few seconds, Orange placed a hoof on her shoulder, or at least the image of Orange placed the image of a hoof on an image of Merry’s shoulder.

“Can’t be helped.” she said, not unkindly, but she still didn’t sound convinced of her own words. “We all knew somethin’ like this would happen sooner or later, ‘specially if we were going after this Trixie pony. I just figured it would be me.”

“We could at least throw a wake or something for him… or get drunk in his honour.” Kicker spoke up. “Did he have anypony, like a girlfriend?”

There was a long pause as everyone looked at one another. “I don’t know,” Merry finally said, “he never spoke much about… anything.”

“He talked about hurricanes.” Indigo Zap said, adjusting her goggles. “And weather patterns. ‘least, with me, anyway.”

“I don’t think he had anypony.” Said Fleur. “Not even any family. Just… us.”

“Oh.” Merry said.

For a long time, there was a silence, as nopony in the circle dared to look at one another.

“See you around, then.” Fleur de Lis eventually remarked, as her image started to disappear as well. “I’ve got a suspicious husband to see to.”

“Office parties.” Merry Melody grinned wearily. “But they’re more cheerful than last year’s, at least. Even if only because my boss is gone and Luna’s still here…”

“Same here, but with less offices.” Kicker said.

“What she said.” Orange muttered. “Only my usual drinking buddies are off on a wild goose chase.”

Nearby, Sard smirked. “A politician’s job is never done.” The crystal pony said, dryly. “Even our parties count as work. Especially in the current climate.”

“Have you considered a different job, then?” An earth pony in the circle asked. Sard’s smirk changed.

“All the time, Cake. All the time.”

One by one, the images of everypony started to wink out, until there were none.

For Trixie, the rest of the evening passed without incident. And soon after, Hearth’s Warming Day itself came and went with (almost) no major problems, or at least none that were truly worth calling problems.
She had been expecting, in some way, to be woken up early on the day, to have Thesis burst into the room, overjoyed at the day arriving. Instead, the little filly didn’t even wake up until Trixie was wide awake. She had considered waking her, but such thoughts hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds.
And the almost eerie level of peace continued through into the new year. Then, finally, the day came when Trixie had to face up to the problem before her.

Thesis blinked in uncertainty, and confusion. “But… why?” she asked.

Trixie grit her jaw. She could do this. She looked down, Thesis’ giant eyes staring at her. There were no tears (yet), but they were quivering dangerously.

She took a deep breath, and squared herself.

“Because you have to.”

“But…” Thesis repeated, “why?”

“For one thing, because it’s the law.” Trixie said, carefully, taking care not to add that Cheerilee would be extremely upset if she went back on her word. “And because it’s important you get a good education and spend time with foals your own age.”

Or at least foals who were the age she looked like she was. Trixie doubted there was any parent in Ponyville who’d actually leave her with any foal not even two months old. Hay, even she didn’t think that was a sensible idea.

Thesis didn’t look remotely taken with this explanation. She was pouting, or possibly trying to glower, Trixie couldn’t tell.

“But why can’t you teach me?” she asked, “or miss Twilight? Why do I have to go to this place?”

“Look,” Trixie said, gently as she could manage, kneeling down next to the filly, “the truth is…” deep breath, “I’m… not much good as a teacher. I can teach you magic, a few things about politics, and…” her gaze drifted away from Thesis for a moment, “some other stuff you might need one day, but that’s not the same as what you learn at school. I know it might seem scary, but Cheerilee will be there. You remember her?”

Thesis nodded.

“And you liked her, didn’t you?” Another nod, slightly slower than the last one. “She’ll look after you. And there’ll be Dinky. Dinky’s nice, isn’t she?”

Thesis made a non-committal sounding noise. Trixie tried smiling reassuringly.

“See? There’s two ponies you know and like already there. And you never know, it might be fun.”

Thesis looked extremely uncertain about that, and it was taking all of Trixie’s not inconsiderable efforts to hide her own doubt.
Not that she meant any slight against one of her best friends, but school was… well, school.

The sun wasn’t even very high in the sky, as Trixie and Thesis walked along the path toward the schoolhouse, but it was maddeningly, horrifically bright, and made Trixie wish she’d brought some sunglasses. Even the brim of her hat was doing nothing to keep the rays at bay, no matter how far over her eyes she pushed it.

As they walked along, Thesis keeping at an even trot next to Trixie, she noticed several of Ponyville’s own parents (or in some cases, siblings) walking their kids to school. And a not-inconsiderable amount were staring at the two of them. For Trixie, it wasn’t anything, but Thesis seemed to be doing everything she could to avoid gazes, just in case.

With the two feet of snow the weather patrol had inflicted on Ponyville during the Twelvetide now down to the barest scraps of slush and frost, at least on the streets, getting to the school house itself was no problem. Once they were near, Trixie motioned at Thesis, and knelt down in front of her again.

“Okay,” she began, trying to sound reassuring, “now, school will end at three o’clock in the afternoon. I will be here to pick you up. All you have to do is be here. If I am not there – not that I won’t be, just in case mind -” she added immediately, “you are to wait here until I do show up, ‘kay?”

Thesis nodded.

“If something happens during schooltime, like you start feel really unwell, just talk to Cheerilee. And should something really bad happen, even though it certainly won’t, listen to what she says like you would with me.”

There was an odd look on Thesis’ face as she said that, but the filly nodded regardless. After a few seconds hesitation Trixie brought the filly in for a hug.

Thesis stared at the sight in front of her. A dozen sets of eyes were all focused entirely on her. Some of them looked confused, some looked excited. One or two were leaning together and whispering, and there were the occasional glances at her wings. Her gaze met Dinky’s, and the unicorn grinned and waved eagerly at her.

“Okay, everypony,” Miss Cheerilee said, from behind her desk, “we’ve got a newcomer to the class. I’d like everyone to say hello to Thesis.”

A dozen foals echoed Cheerilee’s words, some more sincerely than others.

“So, tell us something about yourself.” Cheerilee continued.

Thesis looked at the other foals, and found her wings refusing to stay still.

“My name is Thesis.” She said. And then, once she’d started, she found herself unable to stop. “I moved to Ponyville several weeks ago with my sister, but I’ve been staying with Miss Trixie because my sister’s away and now I’m here because Miss Trixie said I had to be here.”

A lot of the foals blinked. Thesis looked at Cheerilee, who had an odd look on her face. From somewhere behind her, she heard somepony say, in what they thought was a whisper “did you get any of that, Silver?”

“Okay.” Cheerilee said, gently, smiling reassuringly. “It’s alright, Thesis. You don’t need to speak if you don’t want to.”

Thesis jolted. She didn’t? Why hadn’t Miss Cheerilee just said that in the first place?

“For now, why don’t you take a seat. I think there’s a free desk over by Apple Bloom.”

Thesis turned to look. Dinky was pointing a hoof at a yellow earth pony filly with a bow on her head, who was giving Dinky a funny look. Thesis trotted through the row of desks, trying not to look at everypony as they looked at her, and clambered on to the small seat, looking about as she did, while her wings kept absently fluttering, no matter how hard she tried to make them stop.
Nearly everypony was still staring at her. There was a cough from Cheerilee.

“Okay, everypony, I’m sure that you all have a lot of questions you want to ask your newest classmate, but they’ll have to wait until later.”

Most of the heads turned away from her. There was another, slightly less annoyed cough from the teacher, and the few remaining faces turned as well.

“Alright.” Cheerilee said, “now then…”

Thesis sat, watching as the teacher picked up a piece of chalk and began writing on the large board in front of her.
Maybe Trixie was right, she told herself. Perhaps school would be fun.

On second thoughts, maybe it wouldn’t.

Not that she wasn’t trying to pay attention, it was just she kept thinking about other things she could’ve been doing, like still reading the book Miss Twilight had given her. She hadn’t yet got to the point where trying to lift apples sounded like fun again, but if she sat there any longer, trying and not quite managing to pay attention to what Cheerilee was saying, it probably would.

She looked about. She wasn’t the only pony in the room who wasn’t uninterested. There was a pink pony with a crown thingy on top of her mane passing notes to a silver filly next to her, and there was an orange pegasus filly making silly faces at the white and purple unicorn next to her.

She sat there, trying to take in what Cheerilee was saying, something about… well, she wasn’t sure. She vaguely recalled what she’d been saying several minutes ago, but couldn’t figure out how she’d gone from that to what she was talking about now.

She waited for several minutes, to see if she’d get interested.

She tried staring at the board, to see if that helped.

She even tried listening to what the teacher was saying, but it all blurred together.

Finally, she decided there was nothing for it, and raised a hoof.

“Miss Cheerilee?”

The school teacher smiled warmly. “Yes, Thesis? Is something the matter?”

“I’m bored.” She said, “can I go outside?”

For some reason, Cheerilee just stopped smiling and stared for a moment, and though she couldn’t understand why, several of the other foals started laughing. The teacher gave them a look, and the laughter quickly stopped.

“No, Thesis.” Cheerilee said, patiently, though there was something odd about how she said it. Perhaps she hadn’t understood what she meant.

“But I’m bored.” There were a few giggles from around the room.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that.” Cheerilee said, “but the answer is still no.”

Thesis frowned, as the teacher gave her one last look, and went back to the chalkboard.

After around an hour of Cheerilee talking about some history thing Thesis didn’t understand, she heard an odd bell going off. The teacher stopped what she was doing, as everypony else in the class practically leapt out of their desks.

“It’s recess.” Apple Bloom helpfully informed Thesis, grinning as she went. “C’mon.”

The filly was sliding off her seat as Cheerilee spoke up. “Thesis, could I speak with you?”

The earth pony filly stopped and looked between the two. “Don’t worry, Apple Bloom,” Cheerilee said, “I’m just going to have a quick word with Thesis here. You go outside and enjoy recess.”

Thesis watched as the filly hurried out of the door, only stopping to glance nervously at her before disappearing, then turned to look at Cheerilee, who was frowning at her.

“Now, Thesis,” she began, “you’re not in trouble. But…” her mouth twitched slightly as she paused, “you can’t really say things like that in class.”

“But I was bored.” Thesis repeated. Cheerilee just shook her head.

“I’m guessing Trixie and… your sister didn’t bother explaining how you’re supposed to behave in school.”

“She said I was supposed to listen to you.” Thesis murmured, “and I did. Then I got bored.”

“That’s as may be.” Cheerilee replied, sitting down as she did, “but you can’t walk out whenever you get bored, because otherwise I’m pretty sure every foal in this school would’ve walked out ages ago.”

Suddenly, there was an odd and more-than-a-little terrifying look on the teacher’s face, “and I would’ve had to hunt them down and drag them back to their desks, one by one if need be.”

The look vanished almost as quickly as it had come, and Cheerilee sighed. “It’s your first day in school, ever. I’m not going to rake you over the coals for this. Just… for now, try not to get bored in future, ‘kay?”

Thesis stared at the purple mare for a moment, not certain what coals were or why being raked over them was bad, but very certain that it didn’t sound remotely fun. “Okay.” She ventured.

“It’s a start.” Cheerilee smiled, before glancing to the door, “now, you go outside and try to enjoy recess. Though I think your classmates will probably have some questions for you.”

Her smile changed to a concerned frown. “If you have any problems, just come back inside and talk to me, okay?”
Thesis nodded.

Immediately on stepping out into the winter air, Thesis found herself face-to-face with nearly everypony in her class, staring wide-eyed and expectantly at her.

Her first instinct was to try and run, but she wasn’t really sure where there was to run to, aside from back to Trixie’s house, and she was pretty sure Miss Cheerilee would have caught up to her long before she could reach it.
“Uh... Hi?”

This turned out to be a mistake. Suddenly, everypony began talking to her. Or, more accurately, at her.

“Are you related to Trixie?”
“What’s it like, staying at her house?”
“Are you a princess? What are you a princess of?”
“Has Trixie shown you any cool stuff?”
“Can you do any cool magic?”
“Does Dame Trixie cook dinner? What’s it like when she cooks?”
“Have you met Princess Luna?”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”

“KNOCK IT OFF!” One voice bellowed over everyone else’s. Almost instantly the noise stopped, and the crowd of foals parted, as everyone glowered at the voice’s source, which was Dinky. She was trying to glower back, but due to a variety of factors, such as her being Dinky, the end result was less intimidating that she hoped for.

“We were just asking her some questions.” One chubby blue unicorn, with a scissor cutie mark, muttered, kicking absently at the snowy dirt.

“You were scaring her.” Dinky retorted. “How’d you like it if the first thing you got was everypony asking you a bajillion questions?”

“I wasn’t scared.” Thesis declared, quickly, though she was more focused on her horn, which had been tingling to itself. “It was just a lot of questions.”

There was an outpouring of murmured apologies, followed by a quiet silence, until the orange filly raised a hoof.

“So, um,” the filly began, faltering when everypony turned to look at her, “can we ask you about… stuff?”

“Yes?”

“Are you related to Trixie?” asked a lanky yellow unicorn, next to the chubby blue one, in a voice that sounded particularly silly to Thesis’ ears.

“Um…” Thesis began. “Yes. I think she’s kind of my mom…”

Cheerilee had been taking a moment to herself, with the foals outside having recess. So far, things had been far less hectic than she’d been expecting.

But there was also a nagging feeling, from the fact that she couldn’t hear much from outside in the playground.

Right up until she heard several foals yelling “what” all at once.

Somehow, and Cheerilee wasn’t entirely sure how herself, she found herself falling over onto the floor from surprise.

“But you need to have a dad!” One filly, a lavender unicorn said, “otherwise how could you be born?”

“BonBon’s girlthriend Lya hath two dadth.” An earth pony filly with glasses replied. “I don’t think the hath a mom.”

The lavender unicorn’s mouth opened, then it closed.

“What about the storks?” Chubby blue asked. “Whenever I ask my parents, they said a stork brought me.”

“I was born in that forest over there.” Thesis said, pointing over at the mass of trees in the distance. Suddenly some of the foals there looked afraid.

“In- in the Everfree?” Apple Bloom declared, “seriously? Nopony goes in there. Even mah sister barely goes there.”

“Ms. Fluttershy does, sometimes.” Dinky supplied.

“Almost nopony goes in there, apart from Ms. Fluttershy.” Apple Bloom said quickly

“And Trixie.” Tall yellow added, “and Raindrops. And the other Element Bearers.”

“But that was only once!” Apple Bloom insisted. “Foals come from the hospital. Everypony knows that.”

At this, nearly everyone began nodding, though not all of them looked especially convinced.

“So what was Trixie doing in the Everfree Forest?” Angry lavender asked. Everypony looked expectantly at Thesis.

“I don’t know, but there was something about a cult, and some kind of ritual, and I was born in the middle of the forest.”

“What about the stork?” Chubby blue asked, squinting dangerously at her.

“What is a stork?” Thesis asked in response. Chubby blue’s eyes snapped open.

“I knew it!” he declared, “I knew my parents were lying! There’s no stork!”

A white and purple unicorn filly who’d been quiet for the last few questions raised a hoof. “Why was there a cult?” she asked, in a squeaky voice. Thesis just shrugged.

“I ‘unno.”

“Maybe,” Tall yellow said, looking about as he did, “they were an evil cult, working for Corona, wanting to do evil things to Ponyville, and Trixie found out about them, and went in there to stop them.”

There was a pause, before angry lavender titled her head and asked “on her own?”

“She could have!” Tall yellow stomped a hoof, but angry lavender didn’t look sure.

“I don’t think she fought them…” Thesis said, carefully. “I think they abducted her, and Twilight Sparkle.”

There was a momentary silence. “That doesn’t make any sense,” orange said. “Twilight Sparkle didn’t even come to Ponyville until last year.”

“This was last year.” Thesis said.

There was another silence, greater than its precursor, as they stared intently at her. There was the sound of a dozen foals blinking in unison.

“Come again?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It was in November,” Thesis said. “I was born in November last year.”

Angry lavender’s expression grew angry. “What? No. No! That’s not-… it doesn’t work like that!”

There were several nods, though not everyone looked completely sure. “If you were born last year, why aren’t you still a baby?” Chubby blue asked.

“I was born like this!” Thesis declared, “I never was a baby.”

“Wait,” squeaky white squeaked, “there were some of Princess Luna’s guard near the library in November. I remember seeing them…” her cheeks began turning pink, and she started rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, “and maybe hearing Rarity talking about trying to talk to them more than I ever wanted.”

“Yeah,” tall yellow nodded along, “Raindrops said she’d seen some guards at Trixie’s house one morning, and she had trouble getting past them.”

“But-” angry lavender declared, “babies don’t work like that.”

“How would you know?” Chubby blue retorted.

“She’s an alicorn!” Orange rolled her eyes, “it works differently for them. Maybe they just grow up super-duper fast.”

“We could ask Alula.” Squeaky white said. “She’ll know.”

At this, everyone looked content, and before Thesis could ask who Alula was, they’d marched (and she’d sort of followed) across the playground to a sandbox, where a sandy coloured filly with wings and a horn was playing with the snow lying in it. She didn’t look like she’d been playing very hard with it, instead more like she’d been trying not to look like she was paying attention to what the small crowd around Thesis had been saying. As they approached, she got an odd look in her eyes, which had focused entirely on Thesis.

“We need your help.” Lanky yellow said, and her expression dropped.

“Oh.” She said.

“Do you remember being a baby?” Chubby blue asked. Alula looked between the faces staring at her.

“No?” she replied.

“But you were a baby, right?” Angry lavender asked.

“I think so,” Alula replied, nudging at her pile of snow. “What’s this about?”

“We were asking Thesis where she came from,” Dinky spoke up, “and she said she was born last year, so now we’re wondering if you grew up super-quick.”

For several seconds, Alula blinked in confusion. “You know I didn’t. Most of us went to the same kindergarten.”

“Oh, yeah…” Chubby blue said, rubbing a hoof against his chin, as he stared at Thesis.

“So what’s going on?” Orange asked, leaning in toward Thesis. “You hiding something?”

“No.” Thesis replied.

“They can’t both be right.” Apple Bloom said, looking between Alula and Thesis. “Can they?”

“No.” Angry lavender declared, scowling furiously.

“But I’m not an alicorn.” Alula said, in a way that seemed to Thesis like she wasn’t expecting anypony to actually listen.

Then what she’d actually said sunk in.

“You’re not?” Thesis asked. Alula’s wings shuffled awkwardly. “But you look like-”

“Well, I’m not. And I’m not a Princess either!”

“She totally is.” Chubby blue whispered into Thesis’ ear. “She’s just hiding it.”

Apparently Alula’s hearing was pretty good, as she snorted in response to that. “I don’t know how alicorns grow up, okay? Why don’t you just ask Miss Cheerilee?”

“Because she’s a grown-up!” Lanky yellow said, like this explained absolutely everything, and got a few knowing nods from everypony else. “And you’re the wisest foal in Ponyville.”

“I don’t know either.” Thesis said, “the first thing I remember is being born in that forest, in the dark, with nopony else around, then getting found by two guards and dragged to Trixie’s house. But I don’t know how alicorns are born, or how they grow up, because the only other one I’ve met is Princess Luna, and she… she scares me.”

There was a moment of silence. Angry lavender’s expression changed, and everypony seemed to be looking anywhere but at each other.

“So, uh… how much recess have we got left?” Orange asked.

“Several minutes.” Alula informed her.

“Hey,” Lanky yellow asked Thesis, “if you’re staying with Trixie, has she shown you any cool magic?”

Thesis shook her head. “Mostly just how to cast magic without breaking stuff.”

“Oh, like Dinky does.” Chubby blue grinned, in the general direction of Dinky, who momentarily glowered back at him.

“Uh, sort of…” Thesis said, “I can’t cast a lot of spells, mainly because I break stuff.”

The two colts present stared at Thesis in an odd way, sort of like how Trixie did when talking to Twilight Sparkle.

“What do you mean “break stuff”?” Chubby blue asked.

“Probably means whatever she’s casting spells on.” Orange said. Thesis nodded.

“I kinda broke Trixie’s table a few weeks ago when I got angry.” She found herself rubbing a hoof against her leg. “Miss Trixie and my sister had to teach me how to not smash things.”

Everypony else was staring at her again.

“What?” Thesis asked.

“Yer... sister?” Apple Bloom repeated.

“Yeah…” They continued to stare blankly (except angry lavender, who she could’ve sworn was growling).

“My head hurts…” Orange groaned.

“Wait…” Lanky yellow said, “if you’ve got a sister, why isn’t she here?”

“Because she’s not a kid?” Thesis replied.
There was a noise from angry lavender like a kettle boiling, and Thesis could’ve sworn she smelled something burning.

“I’m done with this conversation.” Angry lavender declared, and stomped off, the burning smell going with her.

Cheerilee heard the bell ring, and soon the kids began filing back into the class. She couldn’t help but notice the looks on Snips and Snails’ faces. That was the look of a pair of foals who were planning something. But there was also the irritated look on Tootsie Flute’s face, and several bewildered looks on everypony else’s. All of it gave her an increasingly bad feeling.

“Okay, everypony,” she began, “now, let’s-”

“Miss Cheerilee?” she heard Tootsie Flute ask. “Where do foals come from?”

Cheerilee felt her blood freeze. She had faced Corona, she had faced salamanders, necromancer liches and a friend driven mad by dark magic trying to kill her, but this was the sort of thing that had her waking up in a cold sweat at night. It was the kind of question school teachers (and parents) dreaded.

Fortunately, long before she’d ever been a teacher, Cheerilee had gathered an extensive variety of skills, and one she valued most was her ability to lie.

So, she put on her best knowing smile, and started doing just that.

“She was so lying.” Tootsie Flute insisted, once everyone was outside for the lunch break, and once she was absolutely certain she was out of Cheerilee’s earshot.

“Probably ‘cuz our parents would be mad at her if she told us.” Scootaloo replied, through a mouthful of sandwich.

“I don’t think she’s lying.” Sweetie Belle spoke up. “She didn’t sound like she was lying. And Thesis does kinda sound a little like Twilight Sparkle…”

Tootise threw her hooves up in the air. “But nothing she said makes any sense!”

“So?” Apple Bloom supplied, trying to look thoughtful as she munched on an apple. “How’s that any diff’rent from anything else in Ponyville?”

“She probably doesn’t even have a sister.” Tootsie murmured. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Over there,” Alula said, pointing a hoof over to the set of swings, where Thesis was sitting. Not on the swings themselves, but beside it.

“Uh-oh…” Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle looked at her, and Scootaloo pointed.

Snips and Snails were walking toward her, with a look everypony else recognised immediately.

They were up to something.

“Uh, hey.” Thesis looked up from her Trixie-prepared cucumber and chocolate spread sandwich to see Snips and Snails (at least, she thought that was their names. It was entirely possible they were Snails and Snips) smiling at her. There was something strange about their smiles, sort of like Trixie’s.

“Hi?” she said back. She wasn’t sure what she felt about those two. They seemed weird, but they weren’t angry like that Tootsie.

“So,” Snips said, still smiling, “we were wondering if you could show us what kind of magic you could do.”

Thesis chewed carefully. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She said, “I don’t really control what happens when my magic goes wrong.”

Snips’ smile shrank. “Oh, okay.” He said, “sorry to bother you.” He nudged Snails with a hoof, “c’mon, buddy.”

Snails was still staring at her, with a half-asleep expression on his face.

“So, you really can’t do any magic?” he asked, not unkindly. Thesis shook her head.

“I try to lift anything bigger than an apple, I usually break stuff.”

Snails looked at her ears. “What about bananas?”

Behind him, Snips had turned around and was looking puzzled at his friend.

“I think I’d still break stuff.”

“What about a stick?” he asked. Thesis shrugged.

“I dunno.”

Snails rubbed a hoof against the side of his head, staring at Thesis’ ear with what she was beginning to suspect was great effort. “Y’know, I was having trouble with magic a while back. ‘cuz my parents are pegasuses, so they didn’t know how to teach me. Then Miss Trixie said I wasn’t channelling it properly, and I needed to use telekinesis more so that I’d get better at it.”

“I did that.” Thesis said. “Had to practice on apples before I could lift stuff. But anything bigger is harder, and if I get angry then…” she looked down at her sandwich again.

“Sorry.” Snails said.

“’s okay.” Thesis lied. It wasn’t okay, she thought. She wanted to cast magic. Real magic, proper magic. She didn’t have any idea what real magic actually was, but she knew it was more impressive than just moving apples around. She was supposed to be an alicorn. She was supposed to be great at magic. She was supposed to know things, and she didn’t, and nopony wanted to teach her how. And now everypony was asking if she could cast magic and all she could say was she couldn’t, and it just wasn’t fair.

“Hey,” she called out. Snails stopped and turned to look at her. “Know what? I think I will cast some magic.”

Cheerilee took a sip of her tea, and leaned back, enjoying the relative calm of lunchtime recess. She was probably going to get some concerned looks from some of Ponyville’s parents either way, but she liked to think she’d handled the situation relatively well.
Then she heard the noise. Like a great tearing sound, followed by several startled yelps from outside.
In an instant, Cheerilee’s mind couldn’t help but leap to a dozen bad scenarios, all the sort of things that had kept her awake in the small hours of the morning whenever she couldn’t sleep (usually because, admittedly, she was thinking about worst cast scenarios). Fortunately, after an instant, she heard whooping and cheering, which she immediately recognised as Snips and Snails.
Sighing, and gritting her teeth, Cherilee got up. The words “long week” were not so much coming to mind as planting themselves on the sofa and refusing to leave.

Trixie trotted up the school, noting the odd parent waiting around for their foals, as the hour approached three o’clock. Some of them stared at her again, with a wary eye, in case her presence was the indication of a Ponyville problem, the kind that involved running, screaming and hiding in the basement. She occasionally smiled, and waved, which just made the wary looks increase.

She got near the small fence leading up to the building, and tried to look nonchalant, as the staring continued.

She’d planned, she’d even made sure to come up with an utterly airtight explanation that would satisfy everyone should they have asked what she was doing there, she’d double-checked it with Pokey (and definitely hadn’t docked his pay for sassing her about it). It would work, she told herself. It would definitely work.

The bell rang out, causing her to jolt, and soon a dozen foals began filing out.

At least, until they saw her.

There was a horrible moment of tension in the air, as they looked at her.

“Hi.” Trixie noticed one of her hooves was waving at them. She quickly returned the treacherous appendage to the ground, and tried to reassert her nonchalance.

“Miss Trixie?” One of them asked. It was Sweetie Belle. Trixie liked Sweetie Belle, even if she was Rarity’s sister, which was nothing to hold against her. She was sweet, and as it turned out had a surprising sense of humour not that dissimilar to Trixie’s.

“Are you Thesis’ mommy?”

Suddenly, all fell away. Trixie could’ve sworn she heard glass shattering somewhere. Everything, her future, her goals, her dreams of vanquishing Corona and becoming Vicerein Trixie all vanished, replaced by the yawning void that was the next few minutes of conversation, threatening to swallow her whole. Several foals were eyeing her cautiously. They weren’t supposed to be eyeing her cautiously. They were foals, for pony’s sake, but cautious eyeing was what they were doing.

At that moment, Trixie wished for something, anything to happen. She was even willing to consider Corona appearing and grabbing her, anything to avoid those eyes.

“Oh, Trixie.” It was the most wonderful sound Trixie had heard. It was Cheerilee’s voice. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Yes.” Trixie said, with too much enthusiasm, hurrying past the crowd of foals towards the school’s door.

“Thanks.” She said, once she was sure she was out of hearing range. Cheerilee smiled a hesitant smile at her.

“So, how was her first day?” Trixie asked.

“It went well, mostly.”
“Mostly.”

Cheerilee nodded. “She was very quiet for most of the day, very well behaved, got on fine with the other foals. That said…” Cheerilee’s smile vanished. “She did try to walk out the minute she got bored.”

“Ah.” Trixie said.

“And then there was what happened at lunchtime.”

“What happened?”

Cheerilee motioned for her to follow, as she walked outside, into the playground. Trixie noticed very quickly the small crater Cheerilee was pointing at. There was what looked like a pail next to it. A considerably battered pail, as well, she noted.

“She made friends with Snips and Snails.” Cheerilee said, and Trixie noticed a slight curl to the mare’s mouth that suggested her friend was trying very hard not to be amused. “I’m not absolutely sure that’s a good thing.”

“As long as it wasn’t Scootaloo.” Trixie ventured. Cheerilee’s expression changed ever so slightly. Some months prior, she’d had what was generally known as a Bad Day, all on account of Scootaloo and a series of inexplicable and painful incidents (which had briefly left Trixie terrified of all the foals in Ponyville, until the matter had been cleared up), and while Cheerilee could never hold a grudge against any of her students for any reason (not even Diamond Tiara) it was definitely still fresh in her memory.

“Yes…” Cheerilee said, as she gritted her teeth.

“But apart from that, everything was fine?” Trixie ventured.

“Yes, apart from that, all great. But then, it’s only her first day. Maybe ask me how everything went in four days’ time.”

Thesis sat by the fence, looking at the door to the school, as Dinky and her mother stood next to her, Dinky having insisted on waiting with her until Trixie and Miss Cheerilee were done talking, something her mother had agreed on. It wasn’t long before Trixie reappeared, stopping briefly when she saw Ditzy and Dinky, before she looked at Thesis.

She smiled, and nodded. “C’mon then.”

Thesis followed after her.

“So,” Trixie soon said, once Dinky and her mother went off on their own way, “how’d you find school?”

“Some of it was boring…” Thesis said. Before she could go any further, Trixie stopped and looked at her. And then she laughed.

“Sorry, sorry,” she eventually said, once she was done. “Not laughing at you, Thesis. I’m guessing Cheerilee already explained about walking out when you’re bored?”

Thesis nodded. She’d been expecting more lecturing, but instead Trixie just kept chortling.

“Oh,” she sighed, “Cheerilee’ll be mad if she learns I laughed.”

It was several seconds before Trixie stopped grinning, and tried looking seriously at her. “It’s okay to be bored, Thesis. No-one’s going to get mad at you for it, alright?”

She smiled at Thesis. Thesis smiled back.

“Now, the important question is: Did you make any friends?”

“Well, there were these two colts, Snips and Snails, they were very nice… but Miss Cheerilee seemed annoyed about it when I showed them my magic. And there was another foal who was an alicorn but wasn’t an alicorn even though everypony else said she was...” Thesis stopped. She looked about at the buildings they were walking past. They didn’t match the buildings she and Trixie had walked past on the way to school. She hadn’t felt entirely sure at first, but now she was certain they weren’t going home.

“Where are we going?” Trixie’s smile changed.

“Well…” she grinned, “I thought that as a reward for making it through your first day of school, and doing so well, we’d get some ice cream. How’s that sound?”

There was something about Trixie’s grin that was infectious. Thesis wasn’t entirely sure how a smile could be infectious, but Trixie’s definitely was.

Plus, there was ice cream, and that was always good.

The next morning, Thesis got up, got prepared, had breakfast and walked with Miss Trixie to school, and went to the same desk as the day before, and this time very few of the ponies stared at her as she sat down.

She tried listening as Miss Cheerilee talked about math, and found that a lot of what she was saying sounded familiar, even if she couldn’t understand why. That was a fun part of the day. First recess, less so.

“What kind of name is Thesis anyway?” Tootsie Flute asked. “What does it mean?”

There was an expectant silence, as everyone waited for Sweetie Belle to chime in with the meaning. After several seconds without her saying a word, they looked at her. Sweetie Belle looked back defensively at them.

“What, I have to know what everything means?” she squeaked.

“Uh…” Alula said, “yeah. Kinda. You usually do.”

“Well I don’t know what “thesis” means.” Sweetie Belle scowled, which would’ve probably been more effective had she not been Sweetie Belle. “Why don’t you ask her?”

Thesis had been sitting by one of the set of swings when she heard the shuffling of hoofsteps behind her.

“Hi?” Dinky said awkwardly. From the looks of it, she’d been nudged to the front of the small crowd of ponies looking at her now.

“Hi?” Thesis said back. Since the day before, she’d been going over what she thought about the other foals. They seemed alright to her, save Tootsie Flute. Thesis was pretty sure she didn’t like Tootsie Flute. Dinky seemed to like her, but from what she’d seen Dinky seemed to like pretty much everyone, whereas Tootsie Flute just seemed irritated all the time. Or was she just irritated with her?

“What?”

“We were just wondering…” Dinky began.

“Tootsie Flute was wondering.” Someone who sounded a lot like Scootaloo said.

“We were just wondering if you knew what Thesis means.”

“"A statement supported by argument, or a written essay, especially one submitted for a university degree." … that’s what the dictionary said.” They looked at her funny. For some reason, she felt the urge to cough. “I wanted to know what my name meant.”

She thought about some of the stuff Trixie and Twilight and Midnight had said, and she wasn’t entirely sure the other foals would believe the story about Antithesis.

They were still staring at her, which made her trace her hoof against the floor. “I don’t like it very much.”

She stopped. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like her name. It was the only name she’d had, but… she didn’t like it. And it felt strange to say it, but at the same time it felt like something she’d always known.

“Um…” Ditzy said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes?” She ventured, her wings flapping gently. “No? I dunno…”

“Hey,” Scootaloo piped up, “do you wanna play with us? Gotta beat sitting around on your own, right?”

Thesis thought about this for several seconds. “Okay.”

Cheerilee sat, waiting. Recess was supposed to be when she relaxed, if only for fifteen to thirty minutes. But she was feeling tense. She chalked it down to apprehension after the day before. So far there’d been no screams, no shouts, no explosions or property damage. Just the utterly normal sound of foals at play. As it was meant to be.

After several seconds of contemplation, Cheerilee decided to ignore the implications of what she’d just thought.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Lessons followed, some on subjects Thesis found interesting, others which she didn’t. Math proved mildly interesting, but on more than one occasion Thesis found herself staring at what Miss Cheerilee was saying, only to find it somehow was familiar, but when she raised her hoof to try and explain this, or tried to think about it too hard, the knowledge vanished, leaving her feeling foolish.

Geography, arts and crafts, language all barely held her attention. History sounded slightly interesting, until she found out it wasn’t apparently about fights and battles, of which Equestria didn’t seem to have much, but instead deals and politics and apparently lots of ponies standing around talking about stuff at each other and signing things. And she was very disappointed when it turned out Miss Cheerilee did not teach magic. In fact, none of her lessons mentioned anything about magic of any kind.

Of the other foals, she found she liked some, such as Snips and Snails (even if the later seemed a little too interested in Trixie sometimes. She wasn’t entirely sure what he meant when he said Trixie was “hot”, but it definitely sounded weird to her), and Scootaloo, who occasionally swapped sandwiches with her (especially when Trixie put in too much cheese in her sandwiches), even if hers were sometimes surprisingly hot. She was increasingly sure she didn’t like Tootsie Flute much, and the feeling seemed to be returned in kind.

Then there were other foals, like Pipsqueak (who was tiny, and had a really weird accent, and seemed to giggle a lot whenever he was around Dinky. And she seemed to giggle a lot around him), and Rumble, and Diamond Tiara, who seemed to spend most of her time bothering Scootaloo, just generally being a jerk, but who largely ignored her. On the plus side, when she did notice Thesis, she didn’t seem particularly bothered by her being an alicorn. In fact, she didn’t even seem to notice at all.

Despite the slowness of the lessons, the days passed. Tuesday gradually became Wednesday, which eventually became Thursday, which after an eternity became Friday.

Even she could notice there was an energy in the air, as it approached three o’clock on Friday. Some of the other foals were fidgeting as Cheerilee maintained her usual cheerfulness, Scootaloo in particular seemed to be a one-pony state of fidget, and it was maddening to sit through just by proxy, the way her wings occasionally flittered as the clock hand slowly crawled upward. Not flapped, but flittered. She was creating a small breeze behind her, her wings were flapping so much. Which wasn’t really what anypony wanted when it was so cold anyway.

Thesis was excited too. Her first weekend. Well, not her first ever weekend, she supposed, but it was different now. It had been Thursday evening over dinner, a small affair of mash and what Trixie had referred to as “stuff” that she’d been told Friday was the last day of school.

And then after several minutes of explanation, Trixie had more adequately explained that Friday was the last day of the week. She’d still have to go back to school on the following Monday (and then Trixie had muttered something in prench).

But that was still two whole days without school. Two whole days. It sounded unbelievable. Two days. Everypony had spent recess talking about what they were going to do, and some of them had even asked her if she wanted to join them.

So there she was, sitting at her desk watching as the hand ticked upward, and Cheerilee explained something about plants (or was it farming? Farming plants? She was wondering if even Miss Cheerilee knew what she was talking about at that point, but the thought of asking that felt wrong somehow. Ponies would probably laugh at her again).

Finally, there was a loud click at the minute hand reached the top. The bell was almost drowned out by the cheering, as her classmates rushed toward the doorway, jostling and bustling as they retrieved their cloaks.

Thesis waited for the crowd to thin out, since she had no cloak (and didn’t need one. Where nearly everypony else talked about the cold, she just thought it wasn’t that bad. Maybe that was something about being an alicorn, but it didn’t explain why Alula needed a cloak. She’d tried asking, but Alula had just made that face everypony made when somepony called her a Princess.)

As she stepped outside, she noticed Dinky waiting for her again, waving a hoof madly in case Thesis somehow didn’t notice her. She walked over to her, and then saw her friend frowning at something.

“What?” she asked.

“Who’s that?” Dinky asked. Thesis turned to look at the subject of Dinky’s inquiries.

Standing there, a short distance from her, was Midnight.

In an instant, Thesis came trotting over to her, smiling.

“Sis!” she said, before wrapping her forelimbs around one of the mare’s front legs. So busy was Thesis doing this she didn’t notice the long pause before Midnight responded to the act.

“Little one.”

“You were gone forever!” Thesis exclaimed.

“Not forever,” the mare replied, “just longer than expected.”

“It felt like forever. You missed the Twelvetide. And Hearth’s Warming. And New Year’s.” She blinked, as a thought occurred to her. “Did you get me anything?”

Midnight paused. “I apologise, little one, but there was not a great deal of opportunity where I was to purchase gifts.”

“Oh.” Thesis murmured.

“And it would’ve been hard to purchase a gift for you without knowing what you might have wanted.”

“I guess…”

For a long time, she held on to the mare’s legs, just in case she tried slipping away. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

“I am your sister.” Midnight stated. “I will always know where you are. But three in the afternoon, on a weekday, the deduction was obvious.”

“So why where you gone for so long?” Thesis asked. Midnight stared away from her.

“Complications arose. And ensued, and were overcome.” She said, before looking back down at Thesis. “How have you been finding education?”

“It’s okay…” Thesis said quickly. “I think I made some friends.”

“I noticed.” Midnight said, as she glanced over toward where Dinky was standing, looking at the two thoughtfully.

“That’s Dinky.” Thesis explained, “she’s nice. Trixie teaches her magic sometimes, though it doesn’t look like magic to me. And there’s also-” she stopped, as she saw Midnight staring at something. She looked, to see Trixie standing there, an odd expression on her face.

“You.” She said to Midnight. “When did you get back?”

“Earlier.” Came the reply.

“Hi, Trixie.” Thesis said, waving in case she hadn’t noticed her. Trixie smiled at her, but there was something definitely off about it, even before it vanished the minute she stopped looking at her. Thesis looked between the two ponies, who were staring at one another.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. She wondered if Trixie was angry about her sister being gone for so long. Then she wondered why she wasn’t asking about it, if that was the case.

Apparently Trixie didn’t hear her. “I suppose you’ll be wanting your sister back.” She said.

“That’s her choice.” Midnight responded. Trixie looked to Thesis.

“So, what do you want to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Thesis replied, “but I’m kinda hungry.”

Trixie made another face. “That’s…” she began, “that’s not what I meant. Would you rather stay with me, or go back with her?”

“I don’t know.” Thesis repeated.

“Well,” Midnight spoke up, “why don’t we go back to Lulamoon’s house, and see if you’ve reached a decision by then?”

“Okay.” Thesis murmured.

It wasn’t long into the walk back through Ponyville before Thesis began excitedly telling Trixie and Midnight about her day, managing to talk enough to make up for both of them being silent, her earlier hesitation suddenly forgotten, buried under the thought that maybe she could get them to be more cheerful. Once they reached Trixie’s residency, she hurriedly scurried up the stairs, leaving the two alone.

“So,” Trixie began, “are you staying long? I was going to make dinner, but it was just going to be for me and Thesis. Since, you know, you didn’t exactly mail ahead to say you were coming back.”

Midnight just gave her a look, or what Trixie decided was a look. She marched closer to the mare.

“You are staying, right? Not just running away and leaving her again?”

Before Midnight could say anything, there was the clump of trotting hooves, as Thesis came down the stairs again, carefully holding several things in her magic. Namely, the things she’d been given for Hearth’s Warming.

“Look,” she declared, “Miss Twilight got me a book, and this.”

Trixie knew she had seen some strange sights in her time, but the sight in front of her was definitely a new one. Midnight was staring at the bedraggled doll that was Smartypants, as it hovered in front of her in Thesis’ grip.

“She’s called-”

“Smartypants.” The mare said, her voice eerily low. “I know.”

“Yeah.” Thesis stopped at that, and looked up at her. “Are you okay?”

For an instant, Trixie could’ve sworn the mare looked lost and confused, as she stared at the donkey doll. But only for an instant, as her eyes closed, and when they reopened the look was gone.

“I’m fine.” she stated, her voice calm and level again.

Trixie coughed, then smiled warmly at Thesis. “Thesis, would you mind giving us a moment alone? I need to talk with your… sister about some things.”

Thesis looked hesitantly between them, then nodded. Trixie walked off into her study, Midnight following behind. In her study, Pokey was shuffling a few papers.

“Pokey?” Trixie said, before she’d even got through the door. “You’ve got an early Friday.”

For a moment, he looked back and forth between the two of them, and then set the papers down, and without a word walked out of the room, as fast as equinely possibly. Once he was gone, Trixie began casting a few noise suppressing spells on the door, just to be absolutely certain, before she turned to face Midnight again.

“What was that all about?” she found herself asking. Midnight just breathed in for a moment.

“I must be more exhausted from my journey than I knew.” The dark blue mare replied.

“Right.” Seconds loudly ticked past, before Trixie resigned herself to the fact she wasn’t getting any answers on that front. Not that she’d really been expecting any to begin with. “So, what are we going to do?”

“The first course of action should be getting Thesis some dinner. Beyond that…”

“Beyond that, I think we should really talk this out.” Trixie stated, firmly. “Somewhere little ears won’t accidentally overhear.”

Midnight nodded. “How has she been?”

Trixie glowered at the mare. She wanted to ask how she could even consider asking, but she bit it down. There would be time to be angry later.

“Fine, fine,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Quiet, mostly. Reads a lot. Relatively well behaved for her first week at school, and she’s not broken anything that can’t be replaced. Only one or two incidents of night-time freak outs.”

Her gaze turned harsher. “And I might just be seeing things, but she seems to have a budding abandonment complex. Can’t imagine how that happened.”

Midnight continued to remain silent.

“You say I can’t look after her. Then you move to Ponyville. Then you up and leave for no reason.” She realised she was gritting her teeth. “Right now, I don’t care what your reasons for doing any of this are. I don’t care if you’re doing it of your own free will or being blackmailed or controlled. I do not care. If you really do want to look after her, really do, then prove it, or so help me… so help me I swear I will do everything and anything I can that is within my power to get her away from you forever. Are we clear?”

Her expression remained unchanged, but Midnight nodded. “I’ll take her back to my house,” she said, finally. “Give her dinner, and then we will talk on this, properly.”

She turned to look at Trixie. “On Thesis, and other matters.”

[]iAt least have the courtesy to be smug, Trixie fumed to herself. Be snide, be obnoxious. Gloat. Hay, be angry. Don’t be whatever it is this is.

“Fine.” She sighed. “But I’m choosing the location, alright?”

“Agreed.”

“It’s Berry Punch’s bar. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Midnight had been quiet on the walk back to their house, through the light scattering of snow, even when Thesis had tried asking her questions. The few responses she’d gotten were short, and soon enough Thesis decided there was no point asking more questions.
Even she could tell there was something up with her sister.
Once they got to Midnight’s house, she hurried up to the spare bedroom, and put Smartypants on her bed. She considered going downstairs to see what her sister was doing, but decided against it, and instead picked up her book and began reading.

“What is this?” Thesis asked, looking at the arrangement of trays in front of her. Up front was a strange thing which looked like a very tiny pizza-thing, with what looked an awful lot like melted cheese coming forth from the middle, still bubbling and gooping as she looked at it. Nearby was a large pile of mashed potatoes, covered in butter, and a large array of salad next to it.

“Dinner.” Midnight stated. “I may have gone overboard in the preparation.”

Thesis looked at the thing in front of her, and sniffed it. It bubbled again, and she recoiled. Something about it just didn’t look right to her, and made her want to bat it away.

“Is something the matter?” her sister asked. Thesis looked up at her.

“I don’t think I can eat this…” she murmured. “What is it, anyway?”

“It’s a quesadilla.” Midnight informed her. “Or an attempt at one.”

There was the sound of a cheese bubble popping, causing Thesis to jolt.

“Alright,” Midnight’s horn lit up, “I will dispose of it, and you can instead take the mashed potatoes. How does that sound?”

“Better…” Thesis admitted, as plates moved about in Midnight’s hold. “Sorry. It just… something about it…”

“From an incident Shining Armor recounted, Twilight Sparkle has her own peculiarities about melted cheese.” Midnight said, before taking a large bite out of the tortilla. “It seems you have inherited them. Which is hardly anything to apologise about. Now, do try and eat up, little one.”

Thesis lay on the one sofa in the living room of her sister’s house, and tried not to move much. After the amount of mash she had eaten, she was now feeling incredibly tired, even though it was barely half past six in the evening. Occasionally, she felt a weird feeling in her stomach.

“That was enough mashed potato for three ponies.” Midnight had observed, as she had begun washing the dishes. Thesis hadn’t dared to suggest they must’ve been three ponies who didn’t like potatoes very much. Once she was done with the cleaning up, Midnight went over to the small fireplace that took up one wall, and began a fire. Once it had begun burning properly, she put a small barrier in-between the fireplace and the floor. Even though she hadn’t been feeling the cold much, Thesis did like the sudden increase in temperature it brought.

“Alright, little one,” Midnight declared, “I’m going to go meet with Lulamoon. I should be back in an hour, at most.”

Ignoring the feeling in her stomach and back as she moved, Thesis got up. “Wait,” she called out, “you just got back, and you’re already leaving again?”

“No.” Midnight replied, “I just explained to you that I will be back soon.”

“Like you were back soon wherever you went?” Thesis asked. “You’re just leaving me on my own again.”

Slowly, the mare knelt down next to her. “It will only be for an hour, while Lulamoon and I try to talk through some matters. Two, at the very most. Then I will promptly return. I promise you.”

Thesis just grunted in response. “I am sorry about leaving you for so long, little one. If I had realised it would cause such problems… but I had no idea it would have such an impact on you.”

Finding it difficult to look at her, Thesis turned away. “Hurting you was never the intention, Thesis. And from now on, I will not be disappearing unexpectedly. I will be here, for you.”

She turned to look at her again. “You mean it?” The mare nodded.

Slowly, Thesis began to smile. “Apart from going to talk with Trixie.”

“But only for an hour.” Midnight repeated. “And that is assuming talks do not break down before then.”

“Couldn’t I just stay with Miss Twilight?” Thesis asked, “or maybe with Dinky and her mom?”

Midnight shook her head. “I do not know them. And I highly doubt Dame Doo would be kindly disposed to do me any manner of favour, even if I were not a stranger to her.”

“I could ask her.” Thesis tried.

“Little one…” Midnight said, “that would be very manipulative. Which would be unfair on Dame Doo, and wrong.

“Sorry.”

“I know you are afraid of being alone, but this is Ponyville. The chances of something dangerous happening are incredibly slim. All you have to do is be brave for an hour. Can you be brave, little one?”

Thesis only murmured.

“That’s a start, at least.” Midnight said.

It had been half an hour of pacing about her residency before Trixie decided she wasn’t going to wait, and headed out toward Berry’s Punch Bowl. Determined and more than a little angry, she marched into the cold night air.

Hopefully she wasn’t there yet, and Trixie could try to enjoy a drink before she arrived.

She didn’t want to be angry. She wanted to be thinking about other, nicer things, starting with the fact it was the weekend. She wanted to do weekend things, like sleep in, and meet her friends, just hang out and relax for once, and not deal with annoying two-faced backstabbers.
But that was the situation she was faced with.

Berry’s bar was warm and inviting, especially after several minutes trudging through the slush and snow, which was getting thicker by the minute. The worst parts of winter were apparently passed, but the weather patrol apparently still insisted on a thick layer of snow anyway, refreshed just in time for the weekend. Several ponies were already present, either gently toasting near the fireplace, or just having a convivial drink. Trixie even noted Cloud Kicker sitting at the bar, enjoying a drink of something, a rare sight. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen the nervous executive of Ponyville’s weather patrol in the bar. Or, indeed, if she’d ever seen Cloud Kicker in there before (or, now that she thought on it, that they’d ever talked very much). But there she was, having a drink, if not looking like she was having the greatest time ever, it had to be said.

Not that Trixie was doing much better. The nervous mare apparently noticed her, and smiled at her.

“Hi, representative.” She said, brightly (or tried to. There was something about her smile that was just a little too forced to be true, even if someone overlooked her frazzled mane and tail). “Nice seeing you.”

“Nice seeing you too.” Trixie smiled back. “How are things?”

Cloud Kicker’s wings fluttered, and her smile followed suit. “Oh, they’re… th-they’re fine, yeah. Great.”

“Really?” Trixie’s eyes narrowed, “because I’ve heard there’s been some arguments between you and Rainbow Dash.”

For a moment, only a brief flickering moment at that, something flashed across the pegasus mare’s face which looked an awful lot like terror. “There’s no arguments.” She said, “everything’s great with me and Rainbow Dash. Is this Dropsy? S-she’s just fussing.”

Trixie managed to get her face to stay neutral at the sound of what she was going to assume was a nickname for Raindrops, one that she almost certainly didn’t like. “Alright, then. I mean, I could understand if you were having a problem with Rainbow Dash, you know.”

“N-no.” Cloud Kicker blurted. “I’m just having a drink to relax is all. O-or trying to, at any rate.” She nudged at the drink, which Trixie noted seemed barely touched, with a hoof.
“Not doing so great.”

Trixie looked across the bar, and her eyes met those of Berry Punch, who was frowning at the despondent weather worker. She looked back to the mare.

“Well,” she said carefully, “it was… nice talking with you.”

“Yeah.” Cloud Kicker nodded, which Trixie took as leave to flee, and moved over toward Berry, who was still glancing at Cloud Kicker.

“That’s one of the weakest drinks I have.” The earth pony bartender frowned, “it barely counts as a pick me up, more of a light prod in the ribs. And she’s still barely touched it.”

Berry shook her head. “Wondering if I should start charging rent on that glass, see if she’ll ever actually drink it.” After a second she looked back to Trixie. “So, what can I get you, representative? Bourbon?”

Trixie cocked an eyebrow. “Representative? Aren’t we friends, Berry?”

“Only when your tab’s paid up.”

“I’d like the fact I saved Equestria to be taken into account.” Trixie retorted.

“First off, that was a year ago. Can’t keep riding that one forever. Second of all, wasn’t a team effort? I seem to remember there was something about four or five other ponies being involved. Might’ve heard of one of them. She’s called Cheerilee.” Berry produced a glass and a drink all the same.

“Maybe when you and yours actually defeat Queen Nutjob for good, we’ll see about heroic discounts.”

Trixie took a starting sip from her drink. “Sounds fair.” She said. “Salut.”

“Not that Kicker’s the only one hoarding her drink.” Berry sighed, “there’s her over there.”

Trixie turned to follow where the mulberry mare nodded, and whatever good buzz her bourbon might have provided evaporated at the sight of Midnight sitting at a table, a small drink of something sitting in front of her.

Sighing, and then drinking as much of her drink as she could in one gulp, Trixie walked over to the table and sat down. There was no avoiding it now. The hall was filled and the band ready to play. Now it was time to dance to the music of diplomacy.

“Lulamoon.”

Trixie grit her teeth. As far as omens for how the next several minutes were going to go, that wasn’t the best. And she really wasn’t sure why she’d been expecting differently.

“How long have you been sitting here?” she asked.

“Ten minutes, maybe twenty.” Midnight said, but she didn’t sound absolutely certain. Trixie eyed the mare’s drink, wondering just what she’d ordered.

Then she remembered why they were there, and like a lamp being lit, the anger came back.

“Let’s just get down to why we’re here, alright?” Midnight gave no response, so Trixie decided to press on. “Thesis is not some cloak you can just hang up on a peg whenever you can’t be bothered to deal with her. You finagled her away, and then you just dump her to run off and do whatever it was? That’s not happening. You wanted to keep her in your clutches so badly, you are damn well gonna look after her.”

“I know.” Midnight said.

Trixie’s train of thought stopped, if only for a moment. Despite everything, she found herself feeling a small pang of curiosity. “What in Equestria was it that was so bad you had to go away for so long in the first place, anyway?”

Midnight nudged the glass slightly. “A pony I know… knew had been injured.”

Trixie stared at the mare for a moment. “That’s it?”

“Badly injured.” Midnight continued, “a stray blast of elemental magic, from what I understand. There was a great deal of uncertainty as to whether he would even recover.”

She took a sip from the drink. “He did not. So there were arrangements to see to.”

“Oh.” Trixie said, numbly. There was a horrible silence. “What was his name?”

“Wedge. Wedge Hurricane.”

Trixie could only stare at that. Hurricanes were relatively rare in Equestria, unless somepony in a weather patrol really messed up, but in places where there were no weather services, especially over oceans, they could occur with some frequency. She had certainly been through more than one in her childhood in Neigh Orleans, but the idea that somepony would be interested enough to have one as their special talent…

“That’s a pretty cool name.” She eventually managed.

“He was not quite as impressive as such a name would suggest.” Midnight said, “he was a very quiet pony, who just liked studying weather patterns.”

There was another long pause. “A quiet pony, and a nice pony. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

Trixie stared at the mare for a time. She had come to Berry’s expecting a tense argument, shouting, possibly even at least some fighting, though she’d have been damned if she was going to be the one to start it. And she was still angry at the pony sitting in front of her, unbelievably angry in fact. But after someone said something like that, it was hard to only be angry. Which was all the more irritating.

“How long have we known one another?” Midnight asked.

Trixie thought on this. “About… eight years. Give or take? I think it’ll be nine by summer. Why?”

“Eight years.” Midnight simply said. “Eight years, I worked at Canterlot, in one way or another, not counting the six months working for Vicereine Puissance.”

Trixie frowned. There were only three viceroys and reins at any one time (well, by technicality. There were only three seats, one for each of the three tribes, but if they married then their partners shared the title, as was the case with Twilight Sparkle’s parents). But the name didn’t sound familiar to her. And after the last year, she’d made a point of knowing as much about the Night Court and its members as she could (barring interruptions, of which there were admittedly a lot).

“Puissance…” she mused, rubbing a hoof against the side of her head. “Which one’s she?”

“The head of the house Optiebeurs-Golo. The late head of house Optiebeurs-Golo.”

Trixie continued rubbing, until a few vague memories from many years before surfaced from the depths of her memories. “Oh, right. Puissance. From that big corruption scandal several years back.”

That really did bring back memories, of one of the few times she’d seen Princess Luna truly angry. She hadn’t really been paying much attention to all that had been going on at the time (in her defence, she had been much younger at the time), and Luna hadn’t exactly been chatty about it, but the memories stood out all the same. And she had read up on it more recently. Seemed the late Vicerein had been up to all manner of things, some technically not quite legal, and some flat out fully illegal, up to and including falsifying evidence against her own daughter, all of which had come pouring out of the woodwork after her passing. So many things that apparently Luna had been, and probably still was, considering stripping the entire house of the viceroyalty.

She looked at the dark blue mare sitting across from her. “You worked for that mare?”

“Not by choice. It is difficult to refuse a vicereine, after all. And only for six months.”

“I must’ve blinked and missed that.” Trixie mused. “Or maybe I was enjoying myself too much to notice.”

“It was shortly after the departure of Abacus Cinch.” Midnight supplied. At the mention of the name, Trixie felt a chill down her spine which had nothing to do with the outside temperature, and shuddered.

“I remember her…” Abacus Cinch. That was a name she hadn’t hoped to hear again. In her mind, she could see the mare, a major functionary in the castle staff, of pale blue hue and dark purple hair, staring imperiously at Trixie over her glasses, like she was something an animal had dragged in, something particularly foul and disgusting. “She hated me.”

“In fairness,” Midnight stated, “she hated everyone and everything that couldn’t help her reputation.”

Trixie nodded. “What happened to her, in the end? I can’t remember.”

“A blackmail scandal. Details of workplace bullying. Nothing particularly dramatic, by Canterlot standards. At least not those of the last year, but Princess Luna found out and she was asked to resign.”

Trixie nodded. If she recalled correctly, that would’ve been six or seven years ago. “And then you got found by Puissance?”

“I suspect Cinch had been working for her already, in some capacity, even if only an unofficial one.”

Trixie furrowed her brow in thought. “Hold on. Luna put up with you for eight years, but a Vicerein only managed six months? What happened? Were you your usual charming self, or even worse?”

“You know,” Midnight said, frowning, “I’m still not absolutely sure. Puissance never expressed any dissatisfaction with my behaviour or my work, and I didn’t interact with anypony whom she might have found to be unsavoury company. And before I could inquire as to the reason behind this act, there was the fire.”

Trixie hummed. That one, she did know about. A vast fire had destroyed the house of a vicereine, claiming her life in the process, something that had made the news across Equestria. Even as a much more self-absorbed youth, she’d read up on that one, splashed as it was across the front pages of the Equestria Nightly (and, as it happened, a lot of the inside pages as well). Apparently a great deal of important art and artifacts and goodness knew what else had been destroyed in the blaze, the sum total of which had been incalculable.

“You were there?” she asked. “You didn’t cause it, did you?”

Midnight gazed levelly at her. “I was on the estate grounds when it happened, in the servant’s wing. The fire began, as far as anypony could determine, in the Vicereine’s study. I woke up to everypony screaming as the Optiebeurs-Golo mansion burned to the ground.”
The mare stared for a long moment. “It is something to be said for that mare that her staff were so well organised, there were very few fatalities. Outside the vicereine, some of her security, and her bodyguard.”
Midnight’s expression turned ponderous. “A very unique pony, that one. You would understand, if you had seen her.”

Trixie shook her head. “Was there a point to this story?” she asked, sharply.

“Eight years.” Midnight repeated, “eight years of work. Of breaking off all contact with others. Eschewing friends and relationships of almost every kind, for work. For the sake of my job.” Trixie decided it wasn’t worth pointing out that in those eight years she’d found the time to follow her around everywhere. Logical counterpoints were to a pony in a funk as the words “calm down” were to Pinkie Pie.
“And at the time, each step, each decision made sense.” The mare paused. “Yet when I look back, I find myself lost. Do you know how that feels, Lulamoon?”

Trixie murmured something. She found herself thinking of Tambelon, and what had gone on there. The desperate alliance with Corona, the Tyrant Sun herself, and how they – she – had been the one to break it, expecting the fallen alicorn to turn on them the first chance she got. Only she had been outraged at them, even hurt. And afterwards, when the demon ram Grogar had been fighting Corona and Luna, they’d sworn to one another they’d made the right choice.
“Do you believe that?” Ditzy’s words from that day echoed in her memory.

“I…” Trixie reluctantly sighed. “A little, yeah.”

“Eight years. Destroyed in a day for a foal I had known less than a week. A good-natured foal, and a sweet foal. One who needed protection, from more threats than just the obvious… but I am still lost.”

Trixie frowned. The anger was rising up again. She wanted to point out Midnight had brought that all on herself. Oh, how she wanted to do it. Diplomacy be damned. Consequences be damned.

But then she saw the look on the mare’s face, which was astonishing in and of itself, since there was one beyond disappointment or vague irritation. And in her mind’s eye she saw Ditzy looking at her, with a curious expression.

“Dammit,” she thought to herself. She was Trixie Lulamoon, Knight of Equestria. Representative of the Night Court of Princess Luna to Ponyville. She had to be the better pony, much as at that point she really didn’t want to. But she’d spent the last year having to deal with what happened when she let herself give in to the pettiness.

And more to the point, there were still other, more important things she wanted to spend her time thinking about than whether someone else was going to come after her in revenge, regardless of their reason.

“Alright,” she said, “here’s the deal. A truce, between you and me, for Thesis’ sake, and only for hers. Break it, or abandon her again, and me and my friends fall on you like an avalanche.”

Midnight stared at her for a long while, slowly breathing in and out. “There is little I can do to make amends for what I did.” She said. Trixie began to speak, but the mare held up her hoof. “But that does not absolve me of any responsibility to try all the same.”

“Does that include undoing the bureaucratic snarl you made?”

Midnight tapped a hoof against the table. “That would take time. Several months, in fact. It was a very comprehensive tangle. I think I was very determined that no-one, myself included, be able to undo it in a hurry.”

Trixie shook her head, and took another swig of her bourbon, hoping the buzz would put down the rising anger. “What is it with you? What is your deal?”

Midnight stared at her. “My “deal”? If you must know…” she took a deep breath, then her gaze met Trixie’s again. “I am actually a shard of Tirek forcibly implanted in a pony, having travelled back in time to assure my success in conquering Equestria.”

There was a sudden, all-consuming silence, Trixie staring in slack-jawed horror, as Midnight's expression remained coldly focused. Even the sound of the rest of the bar seemed to vanish from existence.

“I…” Trixie said, numbly, “I don’t believe it… that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!”

Midnight looked down at her drink. “This is why I do not joke often. I never know when it’s right.”

Trixie said nothing until she finished her glass. A joke, at a time like this. Luna give her strength...

“Well, the Tirek bit I could’ve believed. I’ve seen stuff like that, so it wouldn’t be a stretch…” though privately she had to think that if someone was going to be something like that, they could probably do better than just spending their days being an annoying bureaucrat. “But… come on. Time travel. Where’d that come from?”

“I panicked.”

Maybe it was the bourbon already working its magic. Maybe it was because it had been a long day and a longer week. Maybe it was the sheer insanity of the situation, and everything that had led up to that point, but Trixie found herself suddenly breaking out in laughter.

“Though now, I am curious.” Midnight frowned, “if that was implausible, what is not? Would you have believed me if I said I was a changeling, perhaps? One of Discord’s spawn? A refugee from another world, brought here by magical mishap? What story is too outrageous to not be true?”

“I believe…” Trixie sighed, as she wiped a tear out of her eye, “I believe you’re an ass. You’re most definitely an ass. And stop changing the subject. Do we have a truce?”

Part of her wanted Midnight to say no, to refuse. Another, the annoyingly reasonable part that seemed to be still in there despite Monseuir Bourbon’s best efforts, chimed in that she probably wouldn’t.
“I…” Midnight began.

Whatever her answer was, Trixie didn’t hear her finish, as at that moment there was a horrific noise from the front of the bar, as at that moment, the front door to Berry’s exploded inward.

Things that go Bump in the Night

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There was a loud ringing noise, coming from every direction. After a minute or two, Trixie realized it was her ears making the noise, as it began to die down, replaced by different, more normal noises.

In as much as groans and cries of alarm could be considered normal, that is.

“What the…” she began, blinking in confusion. Then recollection came to her as she looked up.

Berry’s bar now had significantly less of a front door than it had a moment ago. There were large chunks of wood and glass spread all over the bar itself, some of which looked scorched.

Right, Trixie thought to herself, an explosion. Why had there been an explosion? Even for Ponyville, Weirdness Capitol of Equestria (if not the world), that was out of the ordinary.

She looked about. “Is everypony alright?” she called out, looking to the bar, where there was no sign of the establishment’s owner.

“I’m okay!” An orange hoof shot up from behind the bar, followed by the leg, and then the entire body, of Fizzy Orange, one of the bartenders, who was indeed unharmed, beyond what appeared to be a piece of wood stuck in his mane, which he deftly removed.

“Where’s Berry?” Trixie asked, as she slid out of the remains of the booth she’d been sitting in, looking up and down. There didn’t appear to be anypony hurt, luckily. Seemed most of the bar’s clientele had been staying away from the door, what with it being the only thing separating them from the cold winter air.

Then her attention drew back to the door, which had clearly been blasted off its hinges, at the very least… and then something else, judging by a split second look, had smashed their way out through the remains.

“I think I heard her yelling something…” Fizzy murmured, helpfully, if uncertainly. “Then she leapt over the bar…”

And, if Trixie had to guess, went outside to find whoever or whatever was responsible for the sudden, unwanted redecoration and give them a piece of her mind. Possibly several, in fact. She felt a small stab of pity for them. If Berry was anything like her sister, one Cheerilee, they were going to be very sorry in short order, assuming they weren’t smart enough to just run. Which, frankly, she hoped they didn’t, since she wanted to know just who it was that was stupid enough to walk into Ponyville and start attacking bars.

She walked over to the door, and looked out into the night, the few streetlights Ponyville had barely lighting up the skies.
Then she saw the glowing ball of energy that was getting increasingly larger, hurtling forth from the darkness, towards her.

Trixie froze, and closed her eyes. There was a horrible several seconds as nothing happened, save the sound of something hitting something, but without the attendant feeling of it hitting her. She opened her eyes to see something glowing orange fade from view. She turned and looked to see Midnight, her horn dimming.

Looking back to the darkness, Trixie moved away from the doorframe, and back to the dark blue mare.

“Didn’t know you could cast forcefields.” She commented, quietly, in case whoever was out there was listening.

“I’m no Captain Armor.” Midnight replied. “They’re only good for two or three solid hits, at most.”

“Front door’s not an option.” Trixie noted, frowning. She was now feeling worried for Berry. Hopefully, the mare was okay. “But I need to get out there, see who these ponies are, and what they’re doing.”

“Oh.” Midnight said. Before Trixie could ask what she meant, the mare’s horn glowed again. In an instant, Trixie realised what the mare was about to do, but before she could say or do anything, there was a flash of light, and a pop, and the two mares vanished from the bar.

Some months prior, Trixie had tried her hoof at teleporting. She would have been the first to admit she was no good at it, but she’d felt the need to try. The end result had been first getting stuck in the middle of a storm, followed by getting struck by lightning, then stuck in a weird alternate universe while over-channelled, which even for Trixie had been an astounding string of bad luck.

This, and an incident related to that bad luck that nearly resulted in her being spread across the Everfree Forest, had left Trixie with an understandable disinclination to ever teleport ever again unless she absolutely positively had to, and with the understanding that the only other option available in such a situation was death (or severe embarrassment. Either one.)

She yelped in alarm, partly from the shock and anger of being teleported, but also because she’d gone from the relative warmth of Berry’s bar (even if it did have a large hole where its door should’ve been), to outside in the cold (even if her cape had enchantments to protect her from said cold). Then she kicked Midnight. There was an unsatisfying lack of any response from the mare.

“Are you insane?” she hissed, in case whoever or whatever it was that was attacking Ponyville was nearby. “Teleporting after you’ve been drinking.”

“Drinking?” Midnight repeated. “I am not inebriated.”

Trixie blinked. “You were at Berry’s. You had a drink. And you were…” she paused as she tried to think of the right words.

Midnight stared at her, and there was something in that gaze that made Trixie want to look away, only she didn’t want to give the mare the satisfaction (or whatever it was she felt). “I do not drink… alcohol.”

Trixie frowned. “So you were drinking…”

“Soda. And, all things considered, would you want to risk seeing me in an uninhibited state?”
Trixie found herself thinking on that. As she could see it, there seemed to be only two outcomes, which was either extremely hilarious or the exact opposite.

“Don’t think I do.” She admitted. She looked about, trying to get her bearings, and saw they were a short distance away from the Punch Bowl, still in the middle of Ponyville. She couldn’t hear screaming or shouting, which was definitely a good thing, but also something of a nuisance, since it meant she couldn’t follow it to the source of the trouble.

Still, she could at least guess, and hope whatever had caused it was still near Berry’s bar, rather than walking around Ponyville randomly. Knowing her luck, she’d find them quickly enough.

“Alright,” she said, turning back to look at Midnight, “first things first…” and then she momentarily stopped again, as she looked at the mare.

It was the middle of winter, it was dark, and it was cold for Trixie, even with the enchantments on her hat and cape meant to keep her warm (enchantments only did so much when you were nearly up to your hock in snow). But Midnight didn’t even seem to notice, beyond her breath being visible in the starlight.

“Aren’t you cold?” Trixie found herself asking. Unicorns, generally speaking, tended to be the least resilient of the three tribes when it came to matters such as the temperature.

“Fine like this.” Came the reply. Trixie shook her head. The mare could’ve at least pretended to be cold, she thought. Then she remembered what she had been meaning to say.

“I’m gonna go find whoever did this, see what I’m up against. Then I’m going to get my friends, and stop them.” She waved a hoof at the mare dismissively. “You should go home.”

Midnight stared thoughtfully. “Actually… I would rather stay near you.”

Trixie was glad for her cape, because she felt the need to shudder. “You would.” She repeated, her voice leaden. “What about Thesis?”

“She’s safe.” Midnight said. “I know that for a fact.”

“You do.” Trixie said, “how, exactly?”

“For one…” Midnight scuffed at some of the snow with a hoof, “observation. If whatever was responsible for these events was after her, why would they attack a bar? Second, my house does have a very expensive warding system. I felt it was prudent, given Ponyville’s reputation.” Trixie made a dismissive noise at that, trying to make it sound like she wasn’t acknowledging the point.

“Let us determine what we’re dealing with here, then I shall find Thesis. It would be difficult to protect her if I do not know what the threat is.”

The mare paused. “Also, in all likelihood, it is safer to be near you than not.”

Trixie’s mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to process that one, and come up with a suitable response.

“How do you figure that works?” she asked, incredulously.

“The number of incidents you’ve managed to get through unscathed speak for themselves.” Midnight noted.

Trixie felt it was probably not worth trying to point out how many of those same incidents had seen her attacked, injured or threatened with total ruination.

“Alright,” she said through clenched teeth, “alright. Fine. I’m going to go see what we’re dealing with. You, just… try not to get in the way.”

Trixie looked about, and tried walking in a direction she felt would lead her to some answers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it, there was no throng of ponies running away from anything, which meant she couldn’t follow the chaos to whatever entity was responsible. In fact, there wasn’t any large amount of noise, beyond the slight crunch of snow beneath her hooves.
Either what had happened hadn’t sunk in yet with the town, or they just hadn’t noticed at all. Or worse, they had noticed, and just weren’t very concerned. Ponyville was that sort of town. Weird things did have a tendency to happen to it (or, given some of the ponies who lived in it, Ponyville had a tendency to happen to things).

Then, over the crunching, she thought she heard something. Voices, raised ones at that. She cast a spell over herself, muffling the sound of her hooves, and another to turn herself broadly invisible. It wasn’t full invisibility, but it was dark, so she figured it wouldn’t matter that much.

As she rounded a corner, she saw the sight of Berry’s Punch Bowl, from the outside. Despite the dramatic events of but a few moments prior, the bar didn’t look that badly damaged, all things considered. Nothing was on fire, and the building itself was relatively intact, beyond a destroyed front door. Then her gaze moved to the source of the voices, a group of ponies standing there, in the snow, arguing with one another. Trixie frowned. In the darkness, lit up by the light from Berry’s, and some lamps the town had, she could see a slumped pony-sized shape not far from them. She had a feeling that the shape was Berry Punch herself, and felt her stomach knot. She activated her magic sight to try and get a look at what she was dealing with. The almost-certainly-Berry pony lying in the snow had the familiar greens of an earth pony, but then she looked to the newcomers.

Different tribes of pony had different colours to their magic. But even at a distance, even at a glance, Trixie could instantly see there was something horrifically, tremendously wrong with the ponies she was looking at.

There were the unicorn pinks, pegasus blues and earth pony greens in there, but… there was also something else. Patches of purple, or dark green, and even red, shifting all over them, save for around their heads, where only tiny fragments of each pony’s natural magic seemed to be poking out. Like they were covered, or… infected.

Trixie found herself thinking of what had happened some months back. Oaton, the tiny town that didn’t exist, right on the edge of the Everfree. The town that had been sitting on top of a shrine to Tirek, utterly forgotten to the world and even the ponies who lived there, until a friend of Cheerilee’s had stumbled onto it, and woken it up. Trixie didn’t remember absolutely everything clearly about the events of those two days, possibly on account of having not gotten the right amount of sleep on the first day there, but she did vaguely recall, when she saw Tarnished Copper Coin at the entrance to that shrine, that there had been something off with her magic, the shrine beginning to take hold on her, changing the very colour of her magic’s aura.

Was that what she was looking at, she wondered, a group of ponies who, like the young noble with a love of animals, had just had the bad luck to be in the wrong place too long, and been corrupted into maniacs? Or was this something worse? Had they let this happen to them?

She saw something moving just next to her, and jolted, at the sight of Midnight standing stock still. Quickly, she clamped down on her mouth, before she made a noise that would give her away to the group of ponies.

“Don’t do that.” She hissed. Midnight was looking beyond to the group of ponies.

“What is the situation?” she asked. Trixie shook her head.

“Eight or nine ponies, I think. Mixed tribes, at least two unicorns, and there’s something seriously wrong with them.”

“Dark magic.” The dark blue mare said. Trixie raised an eyebrow at her.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“A guess.” Midnight replied. “You had your magic sight activated, you were looking at them. There are very few medical maladies that can be identified after but a few seconds with magic sight. And they have randomly attacked Ponyville. Dark magic corruption seemed like a reasonable assumption.”

Trixie snorted, and looked back to the group. “I don’t think they’re exactly one big happy family, whoever they are.”

“You do not recognise them?” Midnight asked.

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Well, from all the way over here, they sure don’t look like any of the beings who’ve picked a fight with me over the last year, and given they’ve already taken a pot-shot at me, I’m not in a hurry to go and ask. Though,” she added, “since they’re not setting stuff on fire and yelling about Corona, I’m going to assume they’re not working for her.”

Her gaze went back to Berry’s form, then to Midnight. “Can you still teleport?” she asked, carefully.

“Yes.” Midnight responded, her own gaze moving out toward the arguing ponies, “I take it you wish me to teleport into the midst of that throng.”

“Grab Berry, get her out, yeah.”

“I have enough magic left for that.” Midnight said, “however… the chances of being able to teleport back before any of those ponies sets upon me are slim.”

Trixie frowned. That would have left two ponies among the group, and while they didn’t seem to be paying Berry any attention at the moment, she still didn’t want to leave the mare stuck there. And, she supposed, leaving Midnight in their clutches was also bad, from a moral viewpoint.

Then the thought came to her. It slouched its way into her train of thought, and tried to look inconspicuous, but she saw what it was doing and where it was going nonetheless.

“What if somepony distracted them?” she asked. Midnight stared at the group, then back to Trixie.

“That could work, if they were sufficiently distracted.”

Trixie allowed herself a grin. “Oh, I can distract them alright. All you have to do is get past a group of possibly insane ponies, rescue Berry and get out without getting stuck yourself.”

It sounded so simple as she said it. But, she noted to herself, how many plans had she made over the last year that had ever gone right?

It was cold, it was dark. There was snow everywhere. They were in unfamiliar territory, surrounded on all sides by the enemy. It was entirely the absolute worst time to be arguing over plans, but that was what they were doing.

It might’ve helped if they’d had an actual plan before going in. But it might not.

The group did not have a leader, as such. This was not the sort of group that had a leader, merely the loudest voice.

At that moment, the loudest voice was a unicorn called Lamp Wick.

At least, he thought he was called Lamp Wick.

There was a time, Lamp Wick was certain, when he had been somepony else. Occasionally, when he wasn’t thinking, or was tired, he had flashes of memories he couldn’t place, names, voices, sensations. They belonged to somepony else, and he didn’t like them. It made him angry. Occasionally, he had this horrible feeling that he was lost, or missing something terribly, but whenever he tried to think of it, the memories slipped away immediately. And then the feeling of certainty reasserted itself. He knew who he was now, and what he was doing.

And when he felt doubt creeping in, there was the other voice. Sometimes as distant as a whisper, and others as loud as a storm. It had been the one to tell him to go to Ponyville, and that had been that.

But now that they were there, after they’d worked out where Ponyville was, he was bickering with one of the other unicorns of the impromptu group, whose name, it had to be said, eluded him at the moment. He was certain he did know it, or should have. Certainly, it seemed important to him that he knew the name of the pony he was yelling at, but there was another, more salient matter to deal with. For one thing, the voice was being abnormally quiet at the moment.

He could feel it. Somewhere in this odd town, the one sitting right on the edge of a cursed forest, was it, whatever the voice had insisted they come for. He could sense it on the wind. It was so close he could practically feel it.

Whatever it was. But the voice had assured him he would know it when he saw it. Somehow, this hadn’t actually been very reassuring.

“We can’t go blasting every building we see!” he was declaring, “or every pony we run into!”

There were concerned looks from everypony else. Some of them glanced at the unconscious earth pony lying nearby in the snow, the one who’d run out of the bar, screaming madly at them (at least until she’d taken a disorientation spell to the face). Some of those looks suggested they didn’t mind committing the later in this particular instance.

“Who cares if they see us?” the unicorn he was arguing with snapped, “They’re farmers and shopkeepers. What can they possibly do against us?”

“There’s more of them than there are of us!” Lamp Wick said. “We could have done this quietly, found it and left. Now they all know we’re h-“

“Hey!” a voice called out, drawing everypony’s attention. A short distance away, there was a unicorn mare in a hat and cloak, marching toward them, “who do you think you are, coming to the town of the Great and Powerful Trixie, looking for trouble?”

Lamp Wick paused. For a moment, if only a moment, he felt sheer confusion at this strange pony approaching them, apparently unconcerned as to who they were or what they wanted. And from the looks of it, this was shared by the rest of them.

The unicorn he’d been arguing with (for some reason the name “Torch” came to mind, even though the pony’s Cutie Mark wasn’t a torch) snarled.

“Can I at least attack this one?” he asked, his horn already glowing.

“Try and keep her conscious.” Lamp Wick said, looking toward the earth pony again. “Maybe she might know where it is.”

“Ha!” The strangely-garbed unicorn crowed, “you are no match for my magical might!”

In response, Torch fired a spell at the mare. It raced through the air, heading straight for the (alarmingly unconcerned, it had to be said) unicorn’s face.
And then passed straight through it.

“You should really just surrender now, and save yourself some pain and embarrassment!” the mare continued, as if absolutely nothing had just happened.

Before any of them could ponder the development, there was a strange sound, and a flash of light at the periphery of Lamp Wick’s vision. He turned just in time to see another flash of light in the shape of a pony, vanishing with the earth pony mare. He looked back to where this “Trixie” had been, only to see a rapidly vanishing puff of smoke.

There was a tense second as everypony looked to Lamp Wick, some smug, some angry, some confused. He grit his teeth.
“Ignore them,” he snarled. “Everypony split up. Search this town, tear it apart, do whatever you have to, but find it. Now!”

Trixie frowned as Midnight reappeared with Berry, who looked hardly the worse for wear, besides groaning slightly as the dark blue mare set her down.

She tentatively approached the mare, whose eyes slowly opened, making sure she wasn’t within leg’s reach. Berry was an earth pony, and a very strong earth pony at that, and more than that, Trixie knew she could be bad tempered on occasion.

“Berry?” she asked gently. “Berry, if you can hear me, say something.”

Berry blinked, and then her eyes focused on Trixie.

Later, Trixie would thank her reflexes for getting her out of the way of Berry’s wild swipe with a foreleg. Once it had passed where Trixie’s jaw had been, Berry blinked again.

“Trixie?” she asked, shaking her head, “sorry. Thought you were… something else.”

“You alright?” Trixie asked, before she could stop herself.

“Those jerks…” Berry grumbled, “I was going to give them a piece of my mind, or four, and they zapped me with some kinda spell. Was like I’d been hitting one of my own drinks a little too hard, couldn’t stand. Couldn’t see straight.”

Trixie looked to Midnight. “A disorientation spell.” She took in a breath. “I’ve been tinkering with those.”

“How are you feeling?” Midnight asked. Berry gave her an odd look, as she rubbed the side of her head.

“I’ve had worse hangovers.” She grinned weakly (or possibly grimaced, Trixie wasn’t entirely sure which).

“Powerful initial effect, limited duration.” Midnight stated. "Good to know."

“I’ve got a question, if you don’t mind.” Berry said, “how’s my bar? Those jerks didn’t smash it up more, did they?”

“Your bar’s fine.” Trixie said, carefully. “Though the doors have had better days.”

“Everypony else alright?” Berry asked. Trixie nodded, which seemed to relax Berry.

“Good.” She sighed. “That’s something at least. Just after I got everything fixed up after last time…”

Trixie decided it was probably safest for all concerned not to point out it had been some months since Berry’s bar had been damaged, along with the rest of Ponyville, thanks to a curse on the town’s drink supplies.

“And now I really feel like I need a drink.” She groaned. Then she looked at Trixie. “Who are these guys anyhow?”

“No idea.” Trixie admitted. Berry snorted. Trixie herself was looking around. There was still an absence of ponies coming out to see what was going on, which was getting confusing. Ponyville was attacked a lot, but not that much. Part of her wondered if it was something to do with the cold weather.

“Hey, Berry,” she began, carefully, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to go find Cheerilee, see what she’s up to-”

“Tell her to get off her flank and stop ponies smashing in my doors?” Berry finished. “Might as well. Can’t imagine she hasn’t noticed what’s going on though. Don’t you have some sort of system for summoning her, for things like this?”

Trixie sighed irritably. There had been a wide variety of plans and contingencies gone over during Cheerilee’s gruelling training sessions. Somehow none of them had concerned the situation Trixie found herself in at the moment.

“I’ll bring it up at the next meeting.” She said. There were a few spells she did know that would’ve caught the others attention, assuming they were near a window or outside (except in the case of Carrot Top, who lived right on the edge of town), but they also came with the little problem that everypony else would be able to see them as well (with the assumption they could see over Ponyville’s rooftops and trees).

“I’ll go find her.” Berry said, “don’t worry.”

“Would it be an imposition to ask if you could try and get to the others as well?” Trixie asked, “just in case I don’t.”

Berry stared thoughtfully. “If my sis isn’t in, yeah. I’ll see what I can do. But this hero stuff is your thing. I’m just a bartender.”

“Be careful.” Trixie said, as the mare got up to go. “I still owe you money.”

Berry grinned slightly. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.”

And with that, Berry trotted off into the night.

“So, what now?” Midnight asked, once Berry was out of sight and sound.

“Now,” Trixie said, “I think you should go home, make sure Thesis is alright. Let the actual heroes handle the crazy dark magic ponies. Don’t worry, somepony’ll come and tell you when everything’s over.”

Midnight was about to say something to that, when there was the crunching of snow behind them. Trixie turned to look, and saw two ponies standing there.

The first thing Trixie noticed, and wished she really hadn’t, was their eyes. They were a vivid mix of green and red that, as far as she had heretofore presumed, wasn’t found in nature. But worse than that was what she saw in them, a particular kind of rage. The kind belonging to the sort of pony who could kick through a stone wall without noticing a thing. The rage of a pony whose mind had passed beyond madness, and out the other side.

“You!” one exclaimed.

“Us?” Trixie asked. The strange pony bared her teeth.

“Where is it?!”

“What?” Trixie found herself asking, which if anything seemed to make the strange ponies’ moods worse. The second, a unicorn, lit up their horn. Before Trixie could say anything, she heard the sound of Midnight’s own horn glowing. There was a flash, a pop, and a rush of air, and Trixie found herself no longer facing two extremely demented and vague ponies, but instead… well, actually, she wasn’t entirely sure, besides “somewhere in Ponyville” and “by a fence”, which didn’t exactly narrow it down for her.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“They’re looking for something.” Midnight noted.

“I heard!” Trixie snapped. The two looked at one another. A horrible thought slowly began to crawl into Trixie’s mind. It was ridiculous, impossible even. There was no way they could’ve known, not when they were as clearly insane as they were.

“You don’t think…” she ventured.

“Possibly.” Midnight said, her expression as carefully neutral as ever. “But they said “it”. Not “her”.”

“How much are you prepared to risk that?” Trixie asked.

“Not enough.” Came the response. “I said I wanted to see what the nature of the threat was. Now I know.”

“That makes one of us.” Trixie muttered.

“You have never seen anything like this?” Midnight asked.

“Crazy ponies with glowing green eyes? No. I’d have remembered that.”

“And you’ve never heard of anything like this?”

Trixie found herself thinking of Oaton, of Tarnished Copper Coin, and the odd look to the mare.

“It…” she began, “maybe. I don’t know. I’m not exactly an expert on dark magic. Most of what Luna taught me was politics, art, history. You want weird and disturbing obscure knowledge, ask Cheerilee, or Lyra, or Twilight Sparkle. Or hay, try writing to Princess Luna.”

“I have some knowledge.” Midnight said, as casually as she pleased. “Not much, obviously, beyond what little the archives of Canterlot supply, much of which is merely theoretical guesswork, scattered across centuries.”

“And why do you have this knowledge?” Trixie asked. “Seems a little beyond the job description of a secretary.”
Midnight paused. “In the wake of all that has happened over the last year, both Captain Armor and Archduke Fisher argued to Princess Luna that important personnel in Canterlot be briefed on all matter of potential threats (though the Archduke’s grasp of what constitutes a “threat” dramatically differs from nearly anyone and everyone else’s) in case the Princess’ sister and any allies she might have attempted to use them to gain access to Canterlot.”

Trixie grunted, thought she doubted highly Midnight had been ranked high enough to count as important personnel. A more likely scenario in her mind was that she had just shown up to the briefings and nopony had bothered to get rid of her.

“And I may have studied the phenomenon in my own time. During public holidays and the like. Everypony has to have a hobby.” The mare stared for a moment, before adding, “and once to settle a disagreement with Captain Armor.”

“A disagreement?” Trixie repeated, “you? No. What in Equestria could it have been caused by?”

Midnight’s eyes darted toward the ground. “Whether dark magic had an impact on will saves.” She stated quietly. As Trixie tried to figure out what she had just heard, the mare turned around, frowning.

“Something the matter?” Trixie asked.

“Well, I must admit to being confused as to our location. That is a problem with a blind teleport, but that is not what’s troubling me.”

“Then what is?” Trixie felt her last nerves beginning to go. It was Friday night. She was supposed to be relaxing, and here she was, standing around in the cold with one crazy pony while several more were running around town. Midnight, for her part, was investigating a nearby bush.

“If I were to ask why, exactly, this bush appears to be filled with balls, would I regret the answer?”

Trixie frowned, as her curiosity got the better of her, and moved over to the bush, lighting her horn up to get a better look than the nearby lamplight could provide. And indeed, there in the bush was a sample of small balls.

One ball, she told herself, could’ve been simply misplaced. Two was odd. Three would’ve been careless. But in Ponyville, anything could happen, and somepony could’ve deliberately put them there. It took only a second for her to think of who would have been mad enough, even by Ponyville’s admittedly low standards, to do exactly that. The answer came to mind, and it was pink and grinning madly.

“Probably, yes.” Trixie said.

Midnight gave no response to that, simply moving away from the bush, looking about. Trixie looked about with her. Having had a few moments, she was now beginning to think, judging by some of the buildings she could see, that they weren’t far from Lyra and Bon-Bon’s house. That was something, at least.

“I know roughly where we are.” She said. “Does that help?”

“Provided the answer is not “we are in Ponyville”.” Midnight replied. “Hardly the time to be attempting humour.”

Trixie shook her head. Then she heard the crunch of snow. Somepony was running. Somepony nearby. She felt a surge of hope. Maybe the word was getting out that what was going on wasn’t just an ordinary night in Ponyville.

That hope sputtered out on the sight of two ponies with eyes that, even in the darkness, were glowing a particularly malevolent shade of green.

There was no shout this time, no utterance of “you!” or “get them!” One of the ponies just lunged. Trixie, acting entirely on instinct, moved out of the way and kicked. There was a satisfying grunt of pain. The other, a unicorn, began to light up his horn, only to stop when a brightly coloured ball slammed into his head with considerable force.

Trixie turned, and rushed past Midnight, heading toward the general direction of Lyra’s house. There was an angry growl from behind her. Trixie decided not to look. Nothing was going to be gained from looking, especially when she already knew what they looked like. She rushed around a corner, and stopped, preparing to turn herself invisible. Not her fanciest spells, just enough to make seeing her difficult, so she could get to Lyra’s (where, hopefully, she added, Lyra and BonBon were not otherwise engaged).

Then Midnight appeared next to her, breath just visible in the cold night air. Trixie frowned at her, hoping the mare recognised how unwelcome her presence was.

Then she heard the noise on the edge of hearing. Voices, and angry ones from the sound of it. If she had to guess, the crazy ponies didn’t much like one another. She looked over to Midnight and tried, as quietly as possible, to gesticulate for her to follow. In doing so, she was just barely aware of the voices getting increasingly raised, and then the sound of someone casting magic. Then there was the sound of smashing glass and masonry, followed by a scream.

Trixie looked at Midnight. She felt a sinking feeling that she was going to look around the corner to see what had happened. If the dark blue mare was feeling any such urge, she wasn’t showing it.

Slowly, cautiously, Trixie leaned around the corner to see what had happened.

What had happened, as it transpired, was that one of the crazy ponies had blasted a hole in the side of the nearest house. And, as Trixie saw, they were now arguing with their partner, apparently about said hole-blasting. Then they saw her, and Trixie remembered she was still visible.

She ducked out of sight, but not before she caught a glimpse of the mad pony’s horn lighting up. She grabbed Midnight and ducked out of the way. Seconds later a blast of magic punched its way through the fence, right at the height Trixie’s head had been at. And then another, and another. Trixie looked at the holes, which didn’t look large enough to necessarily cause serious harm, if she was any guess, but definitely would’ve hurt tremendously anyway.

“These ponies are attacking us.” Midnight felt the need to say.

It had been a long day. It had been a long week. And now, Trixie could feel her last nerve fraying and burning away into nothingness in the face of Midnight’s unimaginably unhelpful comment.

“I know!” she hissed, as she got to her hooves. For her part, the dark blue mare at least looked like she was aware of what she’d just said.

“Well, it’s a rare experience for me.” She murmured. Trixie shook her head, and turned back toward the fence. The nutjobs had stopped blasting holes in innocent fences, and from the sound of it had taken to arguing with one another again. For a microscopically small moment, she felt a surge of what might have been sympathy with the saner one of the two.

“Happens to me all the time.” Trixie grumbled.

This was not, technically speaking, true. Many of the threats she had encountered over the last year had not been attacking her (at least, not her specifically). Most had been content to restrain themselves and not fire off blasts of magic every which way. But the line just felt right to her.

Trixie prepared an invisibility spell. She was no longer feeling nice. She was feeling vengeful. These maniacs had come into her town, smashed up her favourite bar and taken pot shots at her. She was tired, cold, angry and beyond fed up.

This did, however, mean she was so distracted she managed to not hear what Midnight said as she turned invisible.

“You lucky cow.”

Luck is an odd thing. There are in fact many documented cases of ponies with Cutie Marks denoting that their special talent had something to do with luck, but the mechanics of how that worked were hardly ever explored by serious scientists.
There were reasons for this. Reasons such as rational, serious minded ponies not wanting to find out exactly how much bad luck could be scientifically generated at any one time, or whether good luck could potentially be finite, in case it ran out on them in the middle of an experiment, and ended with humiliation and / or death / loss of tenure (or all three at once).
That, and the high likelihood that anyone who suggested trying to scientifically measure luck would be accused of just being silly, and trying to waste time, and more importantly money.

Exactly where Trixie fell re: her own luck tended to depend on how she was feeling at any one time, but it hardly ever felt very high. Given at present she was marching toward two mad ponies in the snow on a Friday night when she should have been having if not a good time then at least a relaxing one… it was safe to say she thought her luck was reaching all-time lows.

She aimed at the two ponies, who were busy arguing with one another, evidently about Mr. Trigger Happy’s fondness for blasting everything in sight.

Over the last several months, it had been impressed on Trixie, and indeed all of the Element Bearers, that they could’ve stood to practice a lot more for if and when bad situations occurred. Mainly by an extremely emphatic Cheerilee. And while there had been some (well, more than some) initial issues with her methodology, the idea itself had been sound. Which was why Trixie had, admittedly with some reluctance, taken up studying new spells. Foremost of these was a spell designed for disorientating ponies, a more gentle way of subduing them (if far less satisfying than a good kick to the head).

So far, Trixie had not yet found anypony actually willing to let themselves be exposed to the spell, in the name of science. She had considered asking Lyra, if only as a joke, but after barely a few seconds had realized if anything had gone wrong, BonBon’s response would have been volcanic. In all likelihood, the authorities would never find her body.

She fired off her first spell. It hit the mare square between the eyes. She let out an oddly strangled shriek, and fell to the ground, her eyes clenched shut. Her associate whirled around, his face the image of mad fury as his horn lit up to blast his attacker (Trixie had to give him credit, he was at least consistent). She leapt out of the way, a dark green flash of magic narrowly shooting past her hat. She scrabbled back to her hooves, as the trigger happy maniac prepared another spell, staring intently at where Trixie had landed. For a moment, Trixie wondered if he could see her, or if the dark magic in him meant he was off in some strange fantasy world of his own, inhabited by goodness knew what.

He grinned maliciously. Then there was the sound of wood striking flesh and fur, and his smile turned slightly puzzled. Then he fell over.

Midnight glanced at the prone maniac, and set down the broken bit of fencing she was carrying.

“I had him.” Trixie said, as she turned herself visible again. She spared a glance at the maniacs, neither of whom seemed to be in any condition to blow anything else up again. The less violent one was curled up in a heap, groaning incoherently to herself.

“But thanks.” She murmured, looking at the prone mare, trying to work out whether her reaction was from the spell, or something else. She was reasonably certain it wasn’t her, since the spell was designed to incapacitate painlessly.

“I won’t tell a soul.” Midnight said.

“Trixie?” a voice called out. Trixie looked up, and then around, and finally saw the source of the voice – the broken window of the house that had been shot at, where an irritated face was just visible, that of Amethyst Star, Ponyville’s resident jeweller, and a pony Trixie had not that long ago called a friend. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, you know,” Trixie called back, “regular crazy day in Ponyville. It’s alright, I’m dealing with it.”

If Amethyst believed that or not, she didn’t give any indication, as her head disappeared from sight. Trixie looked to Midnight, who was still looking at the prone crazies.

“This is regular for Ponyville?” she inquired. Trixie shrugged helplessly.

“Not this exactly, but… this kind of thing, yeah.” She took in a deep breath. “Though it usually happens during the daytime.”

Luck is a very strange thing indeed. For example, the spell the mad pony had fired at Trixie. By all probability, it should’ve fizzled out, or struck something and disappeared in a puff of magic, its effects harmlessly dissipated. But it did not. Against all probability, it had careened off of one window, onto another, and then another, bouncing wildly around a small square of Ponyville property before, surprisingly, heading back in the direction it had come. The odds of such a thing happening, and happening in such a way as they did, were astoundingly high.
This wouldn’t have been any comfort to Trixie. Nor would knowing that the precise odds required for the spell to hit her square in the back of the head, rather than the dark blue mare she was talking with, were truly, amazingly high indeed.

Trixie yelled in pain and surprise as she felt the spell hit her. And then stopped, as the world started spinning uncontrollably, just as she tried to turn around to get her bearings on her attacker, trying to blink away the purple and green and yellow spots dancing in front of her eyes as she did.

“Where did that come from?” she asked, to nopony in particular. There were no crazy ponies rushing toward her, no distant shouts, save the calls of some of the townsponies emerging from their house to examine what was going on, finally, and noticing the two ponies lying unconscious on the ground.

The spots were still dancing in front of her eyes, and what light there was seemed too bright. It was becoming impossible to see. She clenched her eyes shut, but it didn’t stop the feeling of everything spinning.

There was the crunching of dirt and slush, and she looked to see Midnight staring at her.

Somehow she didn’t recall the mare being as tall or as thin as she looked a moment ago. And her fur hadn’t been that dark either.
“Lulamoon?” the mare inquired. “What is it?”

Trixie groaned, pressing a hoof against her head. “’m fine,” she muttered, “just a spell to the head, messing with my vision…”

She stared at Midnight intently for a moment, no easy task with all the spots getting in the way, and the way the world seemed to be rotating sideways. “Was your mane on fire before?” She blinked again. There really were a lot of spots now, and even trying to look away just made the dizzy feeling worse.

“Sorry,” she murmured, “I just… just need a minute.”

And then she fell over, and everything went dark.

Somewhere, just at the absolute edge of hearing, she heard a voice mutter what sounded like it could’ve been “perfect.”

Lyra Heartstrings, bearer of the Element of Loyalty, lived with her marefriend BonBon, in the earth pony mare’s apartment, which was located above BonBon’s place of business. It was a good several minutes’ walk from Berry’s Punch Bowl, and as a result Lyra had not heard the small commotion of the evening, as she had been idly composing on her lyre, by the small fireplace in the upper apartment, while BonBon had been spending her Friday evening going over the week’s earnings.

It hadn’t exactly been what Lyra had wanted to do that evening, and it hadn’t exactly been what BonBon had wanted to do that evening, but the accounts did have to be done at some point. And besides, the evening was young.

The relative tranquil ended when there was the sound of somepony knocking on the front door. Lyra set down her lyre, and made her way down the stairs to the door. She frowned as she went, not recognising the specific knocking. As she approached, she saw BonBon giving her a cautious look. Lyra returned the look, managing to wordlessly convey her belief that if it was trouble of some kind, they probably were not going to knock on someone’s front door. Probably.

She carefully opened the door anyway. A dark blue unicorn entered. After a second, Lyra noticed the sky blue pony she was carrying on her back, helped by the purple cape she was wearing.

“What the-?” Lyra began, then stopped.

“I apologize for the unannounced arrival.” The dark blue mare said, “your house was closest, and I didn’t wish to leave Lulamoon unattended.”

Lyra looked to BonBon, who was frowning deeply. “We’ve got a couch upstairs.” She finally said.

“So, what’s going on exactly?” Lyra asked, once Trixie had been rested on the couch, “and what happened to Trixie?”

“And just who the hay are you, for that matter?” BonBon asked from the little kitchenette the apartment boasted, where she was already putting together a drink of hot chocolate (for who exactly was unclear, but she was making a drink of hot chocolate).

“My name is Midnight, formerly employed in Her Majesty’s government.”

“Oh.” BonBon said. “Nice to meet you?” she ventured, looking to Lyra, who slowly shook her head. BonBon gave Lyra an expression asking whether it was a long story. Lyra’s look suggested it was, and that she didn’t know or care about all the details, but it probably did have something to do with why there was an unconscious Trixie on their couch.

“A group of ponies under the influence of dark magic have arrived in Ponyville, looking for an item or being that they seem unwilling or unable to identify. Lulamoon confronted some of them, and was struck by a disorientation spell while doing so.”

“Is she going to be okay?” BonBon asked.

“Judging by her reaction, the spell was particularly strong.” Midnight said, “though she is merely unconscious. The worst effects should hopefully wear off by the time she reawakens.”

There was a moment filled only with the crackling of the fire, and BonBon’s kettle starting to come to the boil. “A sufficiently powerful disorientation spell can have adverse effects on certain minds. Fortunately, Lulamoon is psychologically sound.”

“Trixie is psychologically sound?” BonBon asked incredulously. Lyra shot her a look.

“Be nice, honey.”

“I thought I was being nice.” BonBon muttered, though with little malice.

“Certain personality flaws, an occasionally overactive imagination, and burgeoning paranoia aside, Lulamoon is sufficiently sane. Relatively speaking.”

“Just wondering,” BonBon said, “but for those of us who aren’t into creepy tales of ancient monsters, what is the big deal with dark magic?”

“Well,” Midnight began, “you are aware of the psychological concept of the ego.”

BonBon tried not to look at the sleeping Trixie. “I’ve heard of it.”

“There also exist the theories of the super-ego-”

“That does sound like Trixie.” BonBon remarked, earning her another look from Lyra.

“Which mediates between the ego and id.”

“Oh. And the id is…?”

“Instinctual drives. And a pony in the thrall of dark magic typically becomes a creature of pure id. Impulse without restraint or rationality. Not a good combination when dark magic is fuelled by negative emotions.”

“So…” BonBon mused, “sort of like being a really angry drunk?”

Midnight stared at her. There was something in that gaze that made BonBon’s tail twitch, but she couldn’t put a hoof on why. “Essentially, yes. A rough analogy, but broadly accurate.”

Lyra was staring deeply at the dark blue unicorn. “How’d Trixie even get hit anyhow?”

For a moment, Midnight’s eyes seemed to dart, and she became very quiet. “That… may be my fault.”

“Oh?” Lyra asked, carefully, one of her eyebrows slowly raising. “And why’s that?”

Midnight looked to her hindquarters, and the blue moon plainly visible on her flank. “My Cutie Mark is to do with improbable events. It is a fact that strange occurrences have a tendency to happen around me, such as unfortunate circumstances happening to others. What might be called “critical failures”.”

Lyra’s eyebrow, having already risen, found itself having to tilt slightly. After a second, Midnight seemed to realize what she had just said and for an instant, just an instant, there was a shift in her expression.

“Damn you, Shining Armor.” She muttered, before her expression shifted again, as she recovered.

“The worst that should happen to her is a severe headache, and possibly some difficulty casting spells for a short time afterward.”

And then Trixie spoke. In a sense. Her voice was hoarse and distant, and her eyes remained shut.

“But Princess,” she groaned, “I don’t know how to play the trombone!”

“… though it is possible I might be wrong.”

“So, ah,” BonBon said, as Trixie shuffled in her sleep, “these crazy ponies have been dealt with, right? They’re not still running around blasting everything in sight?”

“I do not know, Mrs. Heartstrings.” Midnight admitted. BonBon coughed awkwardly at that.

“Oh, no,” she said hurriedly, noticing Lyra’s suddenly panicked expression, and the way her cheeks were beginning to turn pink, “we’re-”

“We’re not married.” Lyra said, with some speed.

“Not yet.” BonBon added, to which Lyra nodded vigorously, smiling the unnervingly thin smile of somepony who knew they were already in trouble, and there was going to be no talking their way out of it later on.

“Oh.” Midnight said, looking between them, “I am sorry, I must have…”

She trailed off. All three ponies were finding it difficult to look at anything. Mercifully, the kettle stopped boiling, giving BonBon something to do. “Regardless, Lulamoon and I merely encountered two. As to the others, I cannot say.”

“Great.”

“Though given their distinct lack of subtlety, I would not be surprised if the citizens of Ponyville have not contained most of them by now.”

BonBon made a non-committal sounding grunt, as she took a swig from her hot chocolate. She looked to Lyra, who had an expression on her face BonBon didn’t like.

“I do apologise for the inconvenience, and for leaving this matter with you, but I should be going. There are things I must see to.”

“Such as?” Lyra inquired.

“My sister.”
BonBon saw Lyra’s expression darken further, and moved closer towards her.

“Alright.” Lyra finally said, her voice taking on a maliciously cheerful tone, “shan’t keep you, then. You run along and let the heroes take care of the bad ponies.”

The mare looked like she was going to say something, but then nodded and walked out. BonBon followed after, and made sure the door was locked once she was gone. She looked to Lyra.

“So much for a quiet Friday evening.” She sighed. Lyra didn’t respond.

“Lyra?” BonBon nudged her with a hoof. The mint green unicorn jolted.

“Sorry, Bonnie, just… thinking.”

“About how creepy she was?” BonBon asked. Lyra’s expression changed.

“No…” she said, “I mean, yeah, creepy, but there was something…” Lyra frowned, in a way BonBon had never seen before. Then, almost as suddenly, it was gone.

“Eh. Probably nothing. And there’re creeps out there. I should probably get on that.”

BonBon felt a twinge in her gut. “Yeah…” she said, hesitantly. Lyra smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. And I’ll be back soon.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” BonBon said.

Lyra grinned. “C’mon, Bonnie. These guys were stupid enough to pick a fight in Ponyville. How tough can they be?”

By Equestrian standards, Ponyville was not an especially large town, even without the unique geographical feature that was the Everfree Forest sitting right on its doorstep preventing the town from expanding in every possible direction.
Of the attacking ponies, there had barely been more than a dozen, counting the two Trixie had already encountered and dealt with. And while Ponyville’s citizens had, perhaps, been somewhat slow to realise what exactly was going on, once they had come to an awareness, their reaction had been swift indeed. Especially among those who had learned what had happened to Berry’s Punch Bowl.
Berry Punch had been true to her word, and quickly made her way to her sister’s house, and explained the situation in some detail (possibly with too much focus on certain damages inflicted on bars).

Two of the attackers found themselves waylaid by the town’s head postal worker, armed with a bat that, for reasons the two never learned, had been inscribed with the words “love” and “tolerance”.

One, having snuck off on his own, may have gotten somewhat distracted by the smells coming from one building, that of fresh baking, and had tried entering. He managed to force entry to the building, only to stop when a light dramatically came on, and found himself staring at a small, wall-eyed alligator. His confusion over this lasted only seconds, as he found himself bludgeoned over the head with a mallet by the alligator’s owner.

Two more found themselves nearer the town center, and were taken entirely by surprise when they were rushed by a silver-maned mare in an ascot. That said mare was also wearing a camouflage helmet might’ve had something to do with their baffled response, though her uppercutting the first she got close to doubtless did not help.

A pair of pegasi in the group had been circling the town, until they ran afoul of two of Ponyville’s weather patrol, who’d been working the night shift, normally a long and quiet job consisting of little more than nudging clouds every half an hour (if only to prevent someone waking up to find a raincloud that had drifted in from the Everfree parked over their begonias), when they’d heard the attack on Berry’s Punch Bowl. The weather workers had the advantage of knowing the town’s layout, and more importantly where the cloud silos were, and had quickly been able to grab a few, and rig them into a brief fog bank, long enough to get the drop on the two ponies while they were distracted, before returning the clouds back to the silo (and hoping, possibly a little too optimistically, that nopony would notice anything up with the clouds in the morning).

One particularly unfortunate earth pony, who’d been abandoned by his would-be partner following the scent of fresh pastry, wound up on the receiving end of a flying kick from a local tailor, who’d been informed by Cheerilee and Berry Punch of the situation.
Which left only two. The one who might’ve been called Lamp Wick, and another, who’d managed to get quite lost in the dark, even though Ponyville’s layout was not what could’ve been called labyrinthine by any standards.

BonBon sighed. Lyra was still out doing her hero thing, and all BonBon could do was sit by the fire.

She knew Lyra was safe. But it wasn’t any comfort to her imagination, which seemed determined to think up increasingly strange and inventive thoughts of what could happen to her. Nor was the idea that a group of crazy ponies could, apparently, just walk into Ponyville in the middle of the night and start blasting up the place. It was one thing thinking of Lyra and her friends going out to fight threats, but it was another when the threats showed up on their doorstep.

BonBon’s thoughts were interrupted by a groan from Trixie, as she stirred.

“BonBon?” she asked blearily, murmuring something in prench BonBon couldn’t catch, though judging by the way she was holding a hoof against her head, BonBon could’ve guessed.

“I have something I need to tell you.” Trixie said, her voice eerily firm.

“What?” BonBon found herself asking. Trixie took in a deep breath.

“Once upon a time, there were three sisters… and they all lived in a cherry tree. Their names were Mira, Marsh and Tiana. Are you listening, Lyra?”
BonBon could only stare. After several seconds, Trixie blinked and shook her head.

“My head hurts…” she groaned. “Feel disoriented.”

“Yeah…” BonBon said, “your friend mentioned you’d got zapped with a disorienting spell.”

“Friend?” Trixie blinked.

“Tall, dark blue, really creepy vibe?”

“Oh.” Trixie said, with all the warmth of a funeral. “Her.”

She looked about the room. “Where’s Lyra?”

“Went to deal with the nutjobs.”

“How long was I-?” Trixie asked.

BonBon looked to the nearest clock. “Since your friend brought you in? Ten minutes, ish.”

She felt a little surprise at that. It had felt a lot longer than ten minutes.

Trixie groaned again. “Guess that explains why I’m still seeing spots everywhere…”

“Apparently you’re lucky.” BonBon said, “a crazy pony would’ve had a far worse reaction.”

“Oh, I feel very lucky.” Trixie winced, “like someone’s taken an axe to my brains. Really not how I wanted my Friday night to go.”

“I know the feeling.”

Trixie slid off the couch, getting unsteadily to her hooves. BonBon bit on her lip.

“Should you be running around right now?”

“Probably not.” Trixie admitted, “but I can’t exactly sit around doing nothing, can I? “What is sickness to a knight? What matter wounds?””

With that, she walked away (though in a slightly unsteady fashion), leaving a confused BonBon staring after her.

“What does that mean?”

Thesis had been getting worried. She knew her sister had said she would only be a short while, but after a while she’d started wondering. Every few minutes she stopped reading and looked at the nearest clock. And sometimes she’d look out of the front room’s windows, to see if Midnight had shown up yet.

It was beginning to get late, and she looked up from the page she’d been trying to read over a dozen times already to see that it was, in fact, five minutes since she’d last checked.

Then she heard the noise of the key rattling in the lock. Grinning, she closed the book and slid off the sofa.

Midnight entered, an odd look on her face that Thesis didn’t like at all. It didn’t go away even when she hugged her, hoping the bigger mare would return it.

“You’re still here.” She said. Thesis looked up at her (which she kind of had to anyway).

“Of course I am.” It was occurring to Thesis that something was definitely not right, even more so than she’d thought earlier. “Did everything go alright with Trixie?”

Midnight wasn’t looking straight at her. “Complications ensued.”

“Is that good or bad?”

Midnight’s expression was really starting to worry her. “Is something wrong?”

The dark blue mare’s eyes flitted towards the window, then back to Thesis. Seconds ticked past before she responded. “Little one… Thesis, I need you to do something for me.”

“It’s not homework, is it?” Thesis asked.

“I… no. This is a serious matter. I need you to go upstairs, to your room.”

“I have to go to bed?” Thesis asked incredulously. “But it’s not even that late. Trixie lets me-”

“Thesis.” Midnight said, a note in her voice Thesis had never heard before. She stopped. “I’m not telling you to go to bed. Just to your room, for the moment. And I need your word that you will stay there, that if you hear something from downstairs, you will keep absolutely quiet.”

“Like if I’m playing hide and seek?” Thesis asked. Midnight was looking out of the window through the curtain again.

“Exactly. Like hide and seek.”

“Until you come and find me, right?”

“Yes.” Midnight said. “Hopefully, this will not take long.”

“But why-?” she began.

“Because I- …” Midnight paused again, “because there is something going on, little one, and I don’t wish you to get hurt because of it.”
Thesis was finding it difficult to look at Midnight’s expression. “You said nothing dangerous would happen.” She said quietly.

Midnight slowly knelt down next to her. “I know. And it will not. Not to you. Of that, I am certain.”

“You mean it?” Thesis asked.

“I do.”

Fortunately for Trixie, and her pounding headache, finding Lyra didn’t take long once she left BonBon’s house.
“So,” Trixie asked, as she got close to the mare, “what’ve we got?”

Lyra smirked at her. “Nice to see you up and about. But, to answer your question… pretty sure most of these crazy ponies have been taken care of.”

“Most of them?” Trixie asked. Lyra shrugged.

The two of them were nearing the town hall. Somewhere in the distance, Trixie could hear a raised voice, sounding angry about something. She knew the feeling. As the two rounded a corner, they saw a small group of ponies hiding behind a makeshift barricade that looked like it had, only a short time before, been someone’s cart. One of the huddled ponies was the town’s mayor.

“Representative.” She said, as if huddling behind carts was a perfectly normal action for a mayor. Trixie felt it was probably best not to comment on that, or the camouflage helmet she was wearing.

“Mayor Scroll. What’s the situation?”

“Almost under control.” Scroll said, “as near as we can determine, most of these maniacs have been subdued, it’s just…”

There was a flash of light, and a small explosion of dirt and cobblestones. “One last holdout by the gazebo. We can’t get close enough without him firing off magic in every direction.”

“Also,” came the voice of Berry Punch, “he keeps yelling about something. In my professional opinion as a bartender, this guy sounds like he should go home and sleep off whatever it is he’s on. After he pays for my bucking doors, that is.”

“Evening, Trixie.” Cheerilee said from next to her. “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine.” Trixie lied, “where’s everypony else?”

“Well, pretty sure Carrot Top’s at her farm,” Cheerilee said, “Ditzy’s probably hunkered down.” The schoolteacher glanced upwards, “Raindrops should be about, I think she said she was doing the weather night shift, but apart from that…”

Trixie sighed. “Just great.”

Lyra was peaking around the makeshift barrier, as Scroll muttered to herself about “planning”. Fortunately, the holdout didn’t seem to notice her at that moment.

“You know,” Lyra observed, “it’s a shame we don’t have a teleporter around, otherwise we could just zap over there, knock him out and be done with all this.”

“Please,” Trixie groaned, as she felt her stomach suddenly churn. “Don’t mention teleporters right now. ‘s making me queasy.”

“Sorry.” Lyra said, as she shuffled away from Trixie.

Trixie rubbed a hoof against her forehead, hoping the world would stop feeling like it was jolting from side to side, and that her headache would go away soon. There was another flash and bang.
And like a light turning on, an idea came to her.

How, Lamp Wick thought to himself, how could things have gone so wrong? How could everypony else have fallen to simple, ordinary ponies?

Then there was the voice, in the back of his mind, cold and hateful. It said it was because he was weak, and foolish, and pathetic. He tried to ignore it.

Your chance for glory was here, it continued, and you failed to seize it. You should’ve burned this whole village to the ground, it hissed.

He clenched his eyes shut. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to burn anything to the ground. He wasn’t even sure he wanted glory, however it was being offered. What did he want? He tried remembering, and it was like ice was going down his spine. The voice hissed angrily.
He was nothing, it said, and he was going to fail, fall to these ponies.

He looked up. Some of the townsponies were charging towards him again. He still had some magic left. He aimed at the familiar looking one wearing the pointy hat. There was a green glow as a blast of raw magic soared towards the pony.

It hit, and she vanished in a puff of blue smoke. The others continued charging. He fired at them. Some dodged, others were hit and they too vanished in puffs of smoke. And then he saw several turn into puffs of smoke without ever having been hit.
Illusions, he thought. But hiding what?

He closed his eyes. He didn’t need to see them to know. There were other ways, he knew. He could smell the magic.

“Fools!” Lamp Wick declared. Or someone using his voice did. “You will not stop me fr-”

“Oh, shut up. I’ve already got a headache.” Said a voice from right beside him. There was a sudden, strong impact in Lamp Wick’s stomach, and he collapsed onto the ground.

A tentative few minutes passed after Trixie knocked the last pony out, and soon various other ponies began showing up, some dragging other unconscious ponies with them, the other crazies.

“Hey,” she heard Berry Punch comment, “is that a curtain?”

“Part of one,” the distinctive voice of Rarity replied, “I had a need to tie this maniac up with something, for his own sake if nopony else’s, and a room full of odds and ends just lying around, so... I improvised.”

“I’m not even gonna ask.” Lyra said, as she saw the one Pinkie Pie had deposited, though her gaze was drawn to the large hammer Pinkie Pie had in her mouth. She looked over towards Mayor Scroll, who was talking with two pegasi.

“Um, hey, Ivory.”

“Is it about the sledgehammer Pinkie Pie is carrying?” The mayor replied, without looking at her.

“It is.”

“She has a license for it.” Scroll stated, her voice betraying absolutely no sign of concern or alarm about this. Lyra looked to Scroll, then to Pinkie, then to the almost certainly concussed nutjob at Pinkie’s hooves. After several seconds of consideration, she shook her head and went to sit next to Trixie.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

“Getting there.” Trixie replied. “Not how I thought tonight was going to go at all.”

She looked toward the small pile of unconscious crazies. “Except for having to kick somepony.”

Lyra frowned at the ponies. “What are we going to do with them, anyhow?”

“I sent a letter off to Luna. She’s going to send some ponies to take care of it.”

“Good. Good… It’s just…” Lyra stared at them, “have you seen their Cutie Marks?”

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Lyra. “No,” she said carefully, “I’ve been kind of busy. Why?”

Lyra motioned for her to follow, and walked over to one of the prone ponies. Trixie looked, and when she did, she frowned as well.
The hindquarters of one of the ponies, a light yellow earth pony, had on it what looked like a pie.

Trixie had to admit, that when it came to the Cutie Marks of ravening maniacs, it was generally expected they had suitable Cutie Marks. Daggers, or skulls, or something unpleasant looking with lots of black and dark red in it. Pies did not factor into the iconography of evil.

“Check this one.” Lyra said. Trixie looked. Lyra was pointing to a pegasus, whose mark was that of a pair of binoculars.

“Sensing a sort of pattern emerging here.” Trixie said. Lyra shook her head. Cheerilee walked over to them.

“And the pattern is there is no pattern.” She pointed to another, “that guy over there has a mark of fabric swatches. The guy you knocked out? He’s got a wick.”

Trixie looked along the ponies. Unconscious, and without their glowing eyes or the threat of imminent pain to draw the attention away, even in the vague glow of the gazebo lights, they didn’t look like a horde of ravening maniacs. They just looked ordinary. She looked into Cheerilee’s eyes.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked, hoping fervently the answer was no.

“That these were just ordinary ponies who were in the absolute wrong place in the wrong time?” Cheerilee asked. There was an unspoken mention of a certain young Countess Cheerilee knew, lingering in the air between them. “Definitely thinking in that direction. Would explain why they were so easy to stop, I suppose. Not that I’m complaining.”

“You know…” Lyra said, “I’ve been reading up on stuff. There are stories. Ponies walking in the wilds, or getting lost in the wrong woods. Going too far off the beaten track. Disappearing, then reappearing as complete maniacs.”
She looked at Trixie. “I really don’t think these ponies asked for this.”

“Who would?” Cheerilee murmured. “‘Excuse me, I would like to be completely insane, thank you very much. How much do I have to pay and where do I sign?’”

“There are stories about them, as well.” Lyra said. “You don’t wanna know how they end.”

“I’ve read some of them. I can guess.” Cheerilee replied.

Berry came walking past, a concerned look on her face. “Hey, Trixie,” she began, “just a quick question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Are you sure this is all of them?” she asked. Trixie felt a chill down her spine.

“Why?” she asked, even though she suspected she knew the answer.

“Just… I didn’t get a good look at these guys earlier, but I’d swear there were more than these.”

“Scroll sent Rainbow Dash off to check around town, see if anything had happened, catch any strays.” Lyra said.

There was a sudden sound of laughing. The ringleader of the ponies had stirred. Trixie looked to Cheerilee, who looked to Lyra.

“Something you wanna share with the class?” Cheerilee asked. He turned to look at her, and Trixie really wished he hadn’t. It was the eyes. Not the glowing green or the deep red of their irises, or the way there seemed to be (and she really hoped it was just a trick of the light, or trick of the dark, she supposed) little wisps of shadow at the corners, but the fact she could see them, look into them. With Corona, her eyes glowed, making it difficult to look back. But there was something about these eyes that was somehow worse. Maybe it was because Corona was an alicorn, because even looking at her, half-insane and drained of power, one got the sense of power and age. Maybe it was because she expected Corona to be insane. Whereas here it was looking at someone who, at some point, had been an ordinary pony until something had happened to his mind.

“You have no idea.” He grinned, “none of you. We will find it, and bring it back to our lord.”

“And what lord would this be?” Cheerilee asked. He smiled a particularly unpleasant smile.

“Tirek.”

It was probably just Trixie’s imagination that there was a sudden burst of wind, one that managed to chill her through her cape’s enchantments.

Then she heard Cheerilee snort, before just laughing completely. “Wow. Your information’s way out of date, buddy. Tirek’s stuck in Tartarus. And he really doesn’t want to leave.”

The pony blinked in alarm. “What? Really?” he said, his bombastic tone vanishing, eyes widening in shock. Suddenly it seemed like he had turned into a completely different pony.

“Yup.” Trixie nodded. “He’d seen better days. He looked like a wreck.”

“I-” the pony faltered, and then suddenly grimaced, as if somepony had struck him. “No. You’re lying! Tirek i-” he suddenly stopped. This might have had something to do with the fact that in a blur of pink, he found a surprisingly large sock being shoved into his mouth. There was several seconds of confused mumblings as he realized what’d happened (and judging from the mumblings, tried asking what had just happened).

“See what I did?” Pinkie Pie beamed.

“Yup,” Cheerilee said, carefully, “I can see. Maybe you could’ve waited a second or two, let him finish his crazy ranting.”

“I don’t think we’re going to get anything coherent from him anyway.” Trixie sighed. “Let Luna deal with these nuts.”

Several minutes away from the center of Ponyville, and the mildly dramatic events of the evening, one pony slunk through the shadows, green eyes darting this way and that as he crept slowly along. Several of the houses had lights on. The townsponies were aware of his presence, and for all he knew he was the last of them still around. Still looking for it.

Whatever “it” even was, he bitterly noted.

You will know, said a voice in his mind that could only have been his own, even if it sounded so distant.

What he did know was that he had a spell that was detecting something. Something powerful, if he had to guess. Something that had justified their going to this village.

A thought occurred to him that he should’ve known the names of the ponies he’d been with. It seemed important, and yet he didn’t. Not a one.

Soon he came to a house, which looked almost exactly like all the others. But there was… something about it that seemed different. The spell pinged in his mind. Whatever it was he was tracking, whatever it was that had brought them to this mad town, it was in there.
He looked at the door. The first instinct was to kick, to smash it to pieces. But he recalled he had a spell, one that could open locks. He decided to try it.

There was a tiny click, and the door handle gave no resistance. He walked inside.

There was a staircase leading upwards, and a side room with a smattering of chairs, and a couch, and a dim fire burning low in a fireplace, but not so low that even in the winter cold, it wasn’t warm.

It reminded him of something… something on the edge of his memory. And then there was a sensation like ice. The voice returned.
Irrelevant. It hissed.

He shook his head, and moved into the room. There was a little kitchen in the back. He decided to investigate that. The spell told him whatever he was following was close now.

He wondered where the ponies who lived in the house were. He looked about, and saw a bookcase, sitting against the staircase. There didn’t seem to be much on it, beyond one or two books, an odd dark grey rock thing which was green and jagged at one end, and a small, clear crystal ball. He frowned, feeling it should’ve at least had something in it, like a tiny building or something.

The icy sensation came back, and he moved through to the kitchen. There was a fridge, and a tiny sink, with dishes sitting in it. He was getting an eerie feeling that something wasn’t right.

The spell pinged again. It had found something new. And it was in the room. And was moving. Toward him.

And then it moved right past him. He looked about, frantically, but still couldn’t see anything.

There was a gentle click as the front door of the house shut. He whirled around, horn lighting up just in case to see nopony there. There was not.

“Good evening.” Said a voice from nowhere. A mare’s voice. It sounded calm. In fact, she almost sounded amused. “And who are you, to come visiting my house unannounced and uninvited?”

He looked everywhere, but there was still no sign of whoever was there. “I…” he hesitated, “I’m no-one.”

“Indeed? And what brings you to Ponyville?”

He tried to say something. He wasn’t sure what.

“What’s your name, stranger?” the voice inquired, an odd tone to it he didn’t like.

“I…” the icy feeling was getting worse. The voice was now worse, and it was like something was pressing against his head.

“You do have a name, yes?”

“Of course I do!” he shouted over the voice in his head.

“You do remember it, don’t you?”

“I…” he struggled to get out. There was something he was forgetting. Voices, faces. This strange house was reminding him of something, just out of reach. Things he should’ve known. Things he had to know.

There was a name. Torch Light. Was it his? It sounded like it could’ve been his. It felt familiar.
Fool, weakling. The voice roared. It wasn’t his voice, it never had been. But he’d been listening to it. She is distracting you. It said.

“What happened to you?” the mare asked, almost gently.

“I can’t!” he gasped, “I can’t remember.”

He’d been somepony else once. And not that long ago. There were memories of other ponies, and the more he found himself thinking of them, the more his head hurt.

And the memory came to him, this had happened before. The pain whenever he tried to remember. Why? What’d happened? What had happened to him?

He’d been travelling somewhere… no, he’d been looking for something, for someone… and there had been a noise, which he’d followed, and ponies, all with eyes glowing green, and then…

Worthless, the voice snarled.

He was curled up on the floor now. There was a silence punctuated only by the low crackle of the fire.

And then the mare’s voice murmured in the gloom. “Damn you, Tirek.”

At this, the voice inside Torch Light hissed, and he snapped up. “How do you know that name?”

The mare gave no response. He looked around wildly, to see where they were. There was a noise behind him.

It was only a fork sliding out of place in the sink, but Torch Light was already half-mad with panic and uncertainty, and it was enough to make him fire off a spell in the noise’s direction.

Luck works in strange ways sometimes.
For example, a spell managing to hit somepony it was aimed at after having missed them.
Or a spell managing to avoid its intended target, bounce off a hanging pan, and hitting a pony in the middle of the face before they had a chance to react, thereby actually hitting what its caster had been planning to attack in the first place.
Just because it’s lucky didn’t necessarily mean it was good luck.

Up in her room, Thesis had been keeping quiet, just as her sister had told her. She wasn’t sure why she had to be quiet, but she was.
So she’d heard the sound of somepony speaking from downstairs, and tried to listen in, without leaving her room, because obviously then her sister would’ve been upset with her.
And then she heard the scream.

Torch Light stared at the sight in front of him, trying to determine what it meant. All the things he’d been thinking about had evaporated like dew in sunlight at the sound of the scream, as his wild spell had ricocheted and managed to hit a pony he hadn’t even seen, but who was the one who’d been talking to him.

She had black fur, and a black mane, and eyes that glowed orange. At least, he thought they’d glowed, but she’d slammed them shut before he could get a proper look in. She looked tall, at least by pony standards, but he could tell because she was curled up, head wrapped up in her forelegs.

And the noise she was making. It was almost like a whimper, except not. If he had to put a hoof on it, he might’ve said it was like she was trying to scream, only screaming was too painful.

Every instinct he had was telling to flee, while he had the chance. Meanwhile, the voice in the back of his head was entirely gone, like it had never been.

It felt strange. He couldn’t remember a time without that voice there… which would’ve probably meant more if he could remember much of anything at all.

Fleeing sounded like a good idea to him. But… wasn’t he supposed to be searching for something as well?

Thesis wasn’t sure whose scream she’d just heard. She didn’t want to think it was Midnight, and she wasn’t sure, even if it sounded like it might have been. Taking Smartypants, she scurried under her bed. It just seemed like a good idea.
Only seconds after she got under the bed did she realize this was not, for it was incredibly dusty under there, and it tickled her nose.
She sneezed, loudly (and with enough force to bump her head against the underside of the bed).

Torch Light had examined the kitchen, where the only thing he’d found (besides a sink full of dishes) was a small door apparently leading down to a basement. He’d been about to investigate it when he heard the muffled sound of somepony sneezing, and what sounded an awful lot like someone shouting in surprise and pain.

There was somepony else in the house.

He stood still for several seconds, and tried his dowsing spell again. There was the signature, the strange one he’d followed to the house. It was above him. And… next to him?

He was about to turn and head towards the staircase when he noticed two rather important details.

The first was that he couldn’t move. His body was wrapped in a soft orange glow.

The second was the mare on the floor had stopped whimpering. Now she was making a very different noise.

Specifically, she was growling. A deep, guttural thing that no pony could ever have made.

The next thing he knew, something tremendously large and angry had slammed into him, and from there he slammed into the small sink. And there was the curious scent of something burning.

Thesis heard the roaring sound, and the crashing sound, followed by some smashing noises. In the dark under her bed, she covered her hooves over her eyes and shut her eyes.

This did mean she didn’t hear the other sounds, such as the sound of breaking glass. But after several seconds, she became aware the noises had stopped.

There was a long, horrible silence. She wasn’t sure what to do. And Smartypants didn’t offer any solutions.

Seconds passed. Then minutes. There were odd noises from downstairs. Part of her wanted to see what was going on, but another didn’t, and just wanted Midnight or Trixie or Twilight or somepony to show up and say everything was alright now.

She jolted when there was a knocking at her bedroom door, her horn sparking just a little bit in her surprise and her wings flaring.

“Thesis?” came what sounded like Midnight’s voice, though it sounded off somehow. Deeper, slightly, though that could’ve been because of the door between them, she thought. “Thesis, can you hear me?”

She tried saying yes, but all that came out was a small squeak. She tried again. “Yes.”

There was another terrible pause. “Don’t come downstairs.” Midnight said, “there’s… it’s a little messy down there.”

“Is everything alright?” she asked.

“Yes.” Midnight eventually replied. “Everything is fine now. How are you?”

Thesis looked about her room. “I’m okay.” She said, though she didn’t feel okay. “Are you okay?”

“I… I will be fine.” Midnight said, eventually. “I’ll clean up downstairs, and then how about I make you some hot chocolate. How does that sound?”

Thesis looked at the door. “Okay,” she said hesitantly.

She waited until she was certain her sister had moved away from the door before she came out from under the bed.

“So,” Lyra asked, “did Princess Luna happen to say how long the ponies she’d be sending would take to get here?”

“I figure about an hour and a half, or thereabouts.” Trixie said, “assuming she manages to send them right away.”

“Really hoping she does.” Lyra said, “The sooner these guys are gone, the sooner I can relax.”

Trixie murmured in agreement, if only to avoid any potential discussion on how Lyra was going to relax. Mayor Scroll and a small gathering of Ponyville’s citizens were keeping an eye on the beaten maniacs, who oddly seemed content to stay where they were, even the ones that’d previously been happy to blast everything in sight. Well, maybe content wasn’t the right word.

She, meanwhile, just wanted to go home, possibly grab a book and curl up under her bedsheets. Even though it was barely somewhere past eight (at least as far as she could tell), it felt like much later to her. But a thought had been eating at the back of her mind while the stray crazies had been rounded up, that of Thesis’ well-being.

As she made motion to go, she saw something, on the far side of the square. A pony, running toward them. A pony with glowing green eyes. She wasn’t the only one who noticed him, though. Several others in the square tensed, and before he could get close, a multi-coloured blur knocked him to the ground.

“Nice work, Rainbow Dash.” Mayor Scroll said to Ponyville’s weather manager, as she struggled with the pony.

“Must’ve – hey, quit it!” Rainbow Dash yelled, as the pony struggled madly under her. Curiously, he didn’t seem to actually be noticing her so much, given the way he was kicking. “Must’ve missed this guy.”

“The eyes!” The madpony yelled, to no-one in particular, as his hooves dug into the ground trying to find purchase to escape. “The eyes!”

“I don’t suppose there’s anypony who has a calming spell available.” The mayor asked.

“If I did, trust me, I’d be using it on myself.” Trixie replied.

“Maybe he looked in a mirror.” Rainbow Dash grunted, “Seriously, buddy, stay still already!”

But wherever it was the pony’s mind was, it wasn’t anywhere where he could hear what Rainbow Dash was saying, and he continued fighting for several seconds more, until whatever energy he had finally ran out, and he suddenly slackened.

“This had better be the last of these guys.” Rainbow Dash muttered darkly.

“Best put him with the others.” Mayor Scroll frowned. The multi-coloured weather manager nodded, and lifted him up.
Trixie watched as they carried him over to where the others were, and then began walking away. If somepony needed her, they could find her quickly enough. And if it was a serious situation, she’d probably notice the screaming anyway.

The walk from the center of Ponyville to Midnight’s house wasn’t far, by Ponyville standards, but in the dark and quiet it was enough for doubts to start getting into Trixie’s mind, even as she tried dismissing them as just ridiculous fears. This didn’t stop her from accelerating her pace from trot to canter.

As she approached the house, she noticed something that made her momentarily stop dead. The house had one large front window, for the single room in the front, and even in the dark Trixie could see it was smashed open. The sudden cold Trixie felt had nothing to do with the weather. She rushed over toward the house. There was still a light inside. She looked at the front door, which seemed remarkably unbroken.

She made her way inside, noting distantly the door was unlocked. And then stopped dead again at the sight she saw on entering.
Thesis was sitting on one of the chairs in the sitting room, a small mug of something held in her magic, a column of steam wafting off it. She looked totally unharmed in any way.

“Trixie!” she grinned, setting down her drink and bounding over towards her. As she returned the surprisingly strong hug the filly gave her, Trixie noticed the kitchen in the back, and specifically the sink, which looked like something had smashed it, or possibly smashed into it. And sitting nearby was Midnight.

She didn’t look like her usual self. For one, her mane looked dishevelled. And that prompted curiosity in Trixie’s mind, since she couldn’t recall ever having seen the mare’s mane with so much as a hair out of place before, regardless of the circumstances. First thing in the morning, late at night, after running through the streets of Canterlot, her mane always had looked like it just been brushed. Somehow, now, she looked off in a way Trixie couldn’t put her hoof on, but which made her want to keep her distance.

“Lulamoon.” She said, on seeing Trixie. And now that she heard it, there was an odd edge to her voice as well.

“Hey.” Trixie said in reply.

“Little one, if you wouldn’t mind, run along now. Lulamoon and I need to have a talk in private.”

Thesis looked between the two of them, her smile faltering. Trixie decided not to comment that it was too early for going to bed in her book.

“Okay…” Thesis said.

“Don’t forget your drink.” Midnight informed her. The foal looked surprised, and turned back to retrieve her mug, glancing cautiously between the two mares before she scurried towards the stairs.

“Would you like some hot chocolate?” Midnight asked, after she was gone and both had heard the sound of a door shutting upstairs. “I don’t have any strawberry milk, but I have this recipe involving cream. Fresh, before you ask.”

Trixie wasn’t going to admit it, but it had been one of the first thoughts to cross her mind. “No. Thanks,” she managed to say.

“How is she?” she asked.

“Thesis?” Midnight replied. “Startled, if unharmed, by the goings-on of tonight. That is what the hot chocolate was in aid of. But otherwise, she seems her normal self.”

Trixie found her gaze moving to the front window, and the curtains ruffling in the breeze created by its absence. Her gaze turned back to Midnight, who was moving a mug of her own through the air. Quite suddenly, her horn stopped glowing, and the cup fell to the floor.

“Scheiss.” She muttered. Trixie raised an eyebrow. Her understanding of griffon was not utterly great, but she still knew just enough to know what had just been said.

“You speak griffon?” she asked.

“Enough.” Midnight said, as she walked over to a small cupboard. “I had always assumed my career would eventually require me to speak it on a daily basis, one way or another.”

She removed a rag from the cupboard, and began mopping up the spilled drink. “I suppose Luna thought it was a better idea to have me somewhere she could keep an eye on me.”

“What happened?” Trixie asked, “I mean, here.”

“One of those ponies made their way here.” Midnight said, “Whether by chance or design, I don’t know. I confronted him. I was hit with the same type of spell you were struck with. In the confusion, he escaped.”

“Through the window.” Trixie noted.
“I think I startled him.” Midnight said, and Trixie could’ve sworn she saw a slight curve to the edge of the mare’s mouth.

Trixie thought back to the sight she’d seen in the town square, of the manic pony struggling to escape Rainbow Dash. “Just a tiny bit.”
Midnight stared at the broken sink. “Ten years.” She said, eventually. “Ten years of trying to keep my emotions in check. I’ve tried everything. Ten years of breathing exercises, of meditation, of mantras, even aromatherapy on one occasion. And one spell was all it took to undo that.”

She brushed a hoof against the sink. She smiled. Or at the very least, the corners of her mouth pulled back to show some of her teeth. Trixie just wasn’t certain the resulting expression could count as a smile without calling in professionals for analysis. “And you know what? It actually felt… good.”

Slowly, the teeth faded away. “Aside from when he kicked me in the face and escaped.” She looked at Trixie. “The rest of them have been subdued?”

Trixie nodded, still trying to parse what she’d just heard. “Yeah. They’ve been rounded up. Luna’s sending some ponies to deal with them. Like I said, this sort of thing happens in Ponyville all the time.”

Midnight nodded, as she disposed of the soiled rag. “That would explain why the realtor was so eager to sell. And why this house was so affordable.”

Trixie thought about that. The only realtor in Ponyville she knew of was a pony by the name of Lotso Lots (and she could only assume his parents must’ve been slightly evil to inflict a name like that on their son), and from what she’d seen of him, though they’d never done business beyond him giving her his card, it sounded like him.

But then another thought came back to her, of certain aspects of the evening. “You know,” she said, her voice dropping low for a moment, “with all the excitement we never finished our discussion at Berry’s.”

“This ‘truce’ that you mentioned.” Midnight stated.

“That’s the one.” Trixie sighed, wearily.

“Truce would imply conflict.” The dark blue mare said. “Do you see us as being in conflict?”

Trixie had to fight down the urge to say they were in conflict the same way a performer was in conflict with a heckler. She was feeling tremendously tired and irritable. She wanted to go home, she wanted to get some sleep. Her headache was still clinging to life. She really wanted a drink of bourbon. And what she really, really wanted was to not be in a room with a pony she hated who’d just admitted she had enjoyed temporarily losing her mind.

She took a deep breath. Be the better pony, she told herself. Of course, she already was the better pony, but that wasn’t exactly the point.

She looked at the broken sink. “Which of you did that? You or the crazy pony?”

“By technicality, a combination of the two of us. He was the one who damaged it, after I tackled him into it.”

Trixie nodded. She walked over towards the mare, who was now using her magic to (with notable delicacy) pick up the coffee mug, and set it on the nearest counter.

“You know,” she began, “my aunt has a saying. If you aren’t willing to shed blood for the sake of your children, you aren’t willing to call yourself a parent.”

Midnight looked genuinely baffled. “Your aunt said that often enough when you were a foal that you remember this?”

“Yeah.” Trixie shook her head, “look, the point I was going to make is this: I don’t trust you. I don’t like you. I am still massively pissed with you and that’s not about to change. But…” the words she had been thinking of faltered, and she had to try hard to get them out. “I think… maybe, probably, on the balance of probability, you are genuine about wanting to look after Thesis.”

“I am not doing a good job in that regard.” Midnight said.

“No.” Trixie said immediately. “You’re pretty terrible at it.”
“And as I said earlier, I may not be able to make amends for my misdeeds, but that does not absolve me of the need to try. So, in regards to your “truce”… yes. My answer is yes.”

Trixie let out a sigh of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in. “Good. Thanks.”

She felt a gust of cold air go through the room, and her gaze turned to the window again. “You know,” she began, “I know-”

She stopped herself. The last thing she wanted Midnight to know was that one specific window in her residence had been smashed so many times over the last year she was now on a first name basis with Windowpane the repair pony (well, it wasn’t the last thing, but it was definitely something she didn’t want to get out).

“I know of a pony who could fix your window.” She removed her hat and rummaged around in the top section for the business cards. You never knew when you needed a business card for one purpose or another, after all, and as Ponyville’s local representative, she had more than a few lying around (even more so, it seemed, since she’d been made a knight). “Here.” She thrust the card toward Midnight. “Take it; I’ve got dozens of the things.”

“Very thoughtful of you, Lulamoon.”

“Well,” Trixie shuffled her hooves, “you did get me somewhere safe after I got knocked out. This makes us square.”

She looked at the business card, and felt if she was going to inflict Midnight on Windowpane, she might at least say something on his behalf. “I’ve not met him,” she lied, “but I’ve heard from around town he does good work. Mind you,” she added, “I’m pretty sure he’s the only window repair pony in town.”

“Thank you.” Midnight said. Trixie stared in mock amazement, which she hoped hid the actual amazement.

“Wow. That spell must have been strong.” Her grin was broken by a sudden yawn. “Anyway, I should get going. See you around, Midnight.”

“Be seeing you, Lulamoon.”

She turned to leave, her hoof hitting something. She looked down to see an odd glass ball, not unlike a snowglobe, lying on the floor. She picked it up, and noticed it was entirely empty. There wasn’t even a tiny inscription on the inside of the globe, or the underside.
It figured, she thought, that any decoration Midnight had would’ve been as weird as her. She placed it on the nearby bookshelf.
“Right, going. Let’s try not to do this again, shall we?”

Trixie stepped out into the night, trying not to think about the events of the evening. As she walked along through the snow, parts of her mind which had been sitting inactive started to tick over, now that she was no longer focusing on getting out of a room with a crazy pony in it. She had agreed to a truce. She’d agreed to be the better pony.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t, in her own way, help Midnight get accustomed to Ponyville. After all, where was the harm in that?
And, feeling warmer already, Trixie began to smile.

Thesis heard the sound of the front door closing, and silence for a moment, before she heard the sound of hooves on the stairs. Soon her sister appeared at her door.

“Hey,” she said, waving a hoof.

“How are you feeling, little one?” Midnight asked. Thesis’ wings flapped a little.

“I’m okay, I guess.” She murmured. She looked at the empty mug sitting on her bedside table. “I liked the hot chocolate, though it tasted a little funny.”

“There was cream in it. A little extra treat, after such an experience.”

Thesis smiled uncertainly at her sister. “So, what did that pony want? The other guy, not Trixie.”

“He was looking for something.” Midnight said. “He and others. But I wouldn’t worry, little one, they won’t be back.”

Thesis tried not to think about the scream she’d heard earlier. “You promise?”

“Lulamoon and her friends have made sure of that.”

“Okay.” Thesis said, if slightly uncertain. But if Trixie and her sister were agreeing on something that probably meant it was true. Maybe.

“Now then,” Midnight said, “it’s almost nine o’clock. Bed time is no later than ten.”

“But I-” Thesis was cut off from declaring herself not tired by a sudden yawn. “Alright,” she grumbled.

“I would not advise missing the weekend, little one.”

“Hey,” Thesis said, “can you…”

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Well, it’s just…” she trailed off into incoherent mumbling.

“Can I what, little one?”

“Story. A story. Can you tell me a story?” She managed to get out.

“I am not much of a storyteller.” Midnight said.

“You must know a story.” Thesis said. “Didn’t your mom ever tell you stories?”

For a moment, she could’ve sworn there was an odd expression on Midnight’s face, if only for a moment.

“Trixie told me stories about stuff she and the Element Bearers did.” Thesis ventured.

Midnight gave her a long, careful look. “What kind of stories?”

“Well, there was one about this town called Oaton where Trixie was a hero a- what?” she asked, on seeing Midnight’s expression change.

“What exactly did Lulamoon tell you about Oaton?” her sister asked. There was something in her tone that reminded Thesis of the way Miss Cheerilee got when catching somepony in class doing something wrong.

“Something about somepony coming to her house, and singing a song, and then there were these ponies who were lumber. I don’t remember all of it. It was a really long story, and it was all twisty. And I kinda… fell asleep the first time she told me it.”

“It is a long story.” Midnight said, “and certain aspects of it are… not appropriate for foals.”

“I thought the part where she fought a basilisk was cool.” Thesis said, feeling she needed to defend Trixie. Midnight gave her another funny look.

“Yes.” She finally remarked. “Unfortunately, little one, I know no stories involving anything so dramatic as Lulamoon’s exploits, especially when she is the one telling them. As I said, I am no storyteller.”

“Okay.” Thesis murmured. “It’s alright. I can just read that book Miss Twilight got me for Hearth’s Warming. I’ve already read it, but I like it…”

Midnight looked to the book, sitting on the bedside table. “If you wanted, I could read it for you.” She offered.

“You don’t have to.” Thesis said, “I’m sure you’d much rather do something else.”

“I feel I should. No, I want to. I’ve been remiss in my duties as your sibling.”

“You taught me how to use magic.” Thesis smiled. “Well, you taught me how to lift apples without breaking them. And you made dinner. And some hot chocolate.”

“Well argued, little one.” Midnight said, and Thesis could’ve sworn she saw what might’ve been a smile for a second. “But you asked for a story, and I shall try to provide. Just allow me a few moments to attend to some household matters.”

“Okay.” Thesis smiled weakly, not wanting to seem ungrateful. But there was something about the way her sister was looking that made her feel maybe she was the one who needed to go to bed. All the same, she quickly curled up under her bedsheets and drew Smartypants in close.

It was a few minutes later when Midnight returned to Thesis’ bedroom, stopping in the doorway as she took in the sight before her of the foal very definitely asleep, curled up with Smartypants held between her hooves.
There was the tiniest of murmurs from the dark blue mare, who closed the door as quietly as possible, and made her way back downstairs to the living room.
After a few seconds, her horn lit up, slowly and calmly, as she began casting silencing spells.

“Alright, she’s asleep.” She said once she was done. “I think you can stop now.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Spell Nexus declared, as he reappeared, his horn glowing brightly as the cloaking spell around him dissipated. He gingerly touched a hoof against his horn, and quickly retracted it.

“Thank you for the assistance, Professor.” Midnight said, looking at her own fur, which was now black.

“Well, I was hardly going to ignore such a frantic call.” He smiled, glancing toward the broken window. He walked over toward Midnight, and his horn lit up again. “Now, let’s see what we can see…”

His horn lit up gently again. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m f-…” Midnight began, only to stop. “I’m… I’m recovering.” She eventually managed. Nexus raised an eyebrow at her.
“Are you sure?” he asked.

Midnight sighed. “Feeling disoriented. Tired. Angry. Like somepony broke into my house and kicked me in the face. And broke my window.”

Nexus nodded. “Any headaches?”

“Actually, no.”

Nexus hummed to himself. “What about dizziness, nausea, hallucinations? Urge to laugh insanely or conquer Equestria?”

“No, Professor Nexus. I’m just feeling incredibly irritable at the moment.” Midnight said, witheringly. The stallion murmured, as his horn dimmed again.

“Alright. I’m no physician, but from what I can tell all the normal wards and spells are still in place, despite taking that disorientation spell to the face. Your spell casting should be back to normal, if not now then by morning. Otherwise I recommend sleep, plenty of fluids, and an avoidance of spells to the face from now on.”

“Thank you for the advice.” Midnight replied. The other pony looked at the window.

“Where did they even come from?”

“No idea.” Nexus glanced askew at her.

“You don’t know?” he began to smile slightly, “You didn’t see them coming?”

Midnight shook her head. “No. The first I knew of them was when they blew up the door to the Punch Bowl.”

“Really? First Thesis, and now this…”

Midnight stared levelly at him. “I told you, just like I told Luna, the more things go on, the more something like this was bound to happen.”

“And it wasn’t that you weren’t paying enough attention?”

There was a sudden low hum in the room, as various items began shaking. Nexus looked around the room, and then straight at Midnight, whose expression was carefully neutral.

“No, Professor.” She looked around the room, and sighed. The hum began to fade. “I suppose that’s what I get for saying nothing would go wrong in Ponyville.” The mare scoffed. “And here I thought the worst that would happen was Trixie would hit me in the face.”

“So, what are they?” Nexus asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. Definitely Tirek’s work. They reek of dark magic. I just can’t figure out what brought them here…”

There was a long silence, the only sound the curtains fluttering in the night breeze, and a few stray crackles from the last embers in the fire.

“They weren’t tracking the phylactery?”

Midnight shook her head. “No. We scrubbed it completely. I made sure there were no tracking spells of any kind on it.”

She drummed a hoof against the floor. “It’s possible there were a few ponies we might’ve missed, but unless they have some method of tracking we don’t know about… I think they might’ve been brought here by Thesis.”

Spell Nexus hummed. “Are you sure?”

“Not entirely, but… she’s a miniature alicorn. All she’d need to do is show off her magic just enough. And she was surrounded by other foals. She’s the most likely reason.” She tapped a hoof against the floor. “The alternative is someone or something sent them here on purpose.”

The older pony began to frown.

“You really think Falling Star did this?”

“I…” Midnight began, “No. It’s ridiculous. She doesn’t know I’m here. If she’s like anypony in Canterlot, she wouldn’t even have reason to know Ponyville exists.”

“But you still think she’s out there.”

Midnight nodded. “She’s still alive. She has to be.”

“I’ll take your word for that.” Nexus said, dryly. “But I think we can rule out her involvement in all this, don’t you?”

Midnight paused, then sighed. “I suppose. But all we’ve got at the moment is speculation, unless there’s something to be gleamed from those ponies.”

“Didn’t you examine the one who got in here?” Nexus asked.

“No.” Midnight sighed again. “I considered it, but… the dark magic in him was very strong. I was… hesitant to try anything on him.”

“I see.”

“And he kicked me in the face, I point out.” She added, rubbing a hoof against her jaw. “Hell of a kick, too.”

“I gathered.” Nexus was idly examining the bookshelf. “And how did he manage to get into your house in the first place?”

“He had a lock-picking spell. And…” Midnight looked about the room, “I was curious.”

“Curious.” Nexus repeated.

“I wanted to ask him some questions.”

Something that could almost have been an amused smile spread across Nexus’ face. “I hope you got your answers.”

He looked away, the smile slowly fading. “What about the rest of them?”

“I didn’t get a good look, not as good as Trixie did, but… they were practically pickled in dark magic.”

Nexus raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh?”

“I don’t think there’d be any coherent information to get out of them, one way or another. Judging by that one, if there is anything of the original ponies anywhere in there, it’s not going to be much. Probably just a small fragment of their original selves, beating against the inside of their head.”

Nexus sighed. “That’s unfortunate to hear.”

There was another pause. “There’s something else. The one that got away saw me.”

Nexus jolted, and turned to look at Midnight. “Saw you?”

Midnight waved a hoof at herself. “This. If I know Luna, she’ll try and do something for them. I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done for them, but… if that one pony remembers enough, in just enough detail…”

Nexus frowned again. “I see.” He intoned, his voice leaden.

Seconds ticked past. “I’m going back to Canterlot.” Nexus finally said, “if there’s still a problem in the morning, then call, and I’ll see what I or Fleur can do.”

He raised a hoof toward the small crystal ball sitting on Midnight’s shelf, then stopped and looked back to her. “And I did mean it about sleeping. Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”

And with that, he touched a hoof to the teleportation beacon, and with a flash of light, he vanished.

Sometimes it is the smallest things that can make a difference. For example, when Torch Light had kicked his attacker in the face, and sprinted toward her window in a frenzied attempt to escape, he had been so distracted and confused that he had inadvertently collided with the mare’s bookcase, dislodging the teleportation beacon that had been sitting there, sending it falling to the floor. This hadn’t been enough to cause any serious, noticeable and immediate damage, not any that would’ve been noticed unless someone had thought to seriously check. And the initial crack was so small that really, only the most scrupulous of examinations would’ve turned up anything at all.
So it went unnoticed.

Several of Princess Luna’s Night Guard turned up almost an hour and a half after the initial letter had been sent, in a special armored train for transporting the prisoners.
Questions were asked of those who’d been present or involved (or most of them, at any rate), and the group of ponies were, with some care, taken to the train station and placed in the specially prepared cell.
Curiously, the ponies themselves didn’t seem to offer any resistance. One was ranting madly to himself, and another seemed to gibber, but the rest seemed… well, defeated, for lack of a better word. Though the impression that came across seemed also, to more than one pony, that they were like puppets which’d had their strings cut.
And that, as far as most of Ponyville’s citizens were concerned, was the end of it.
Only the mayor, Cheerilee, and the night shift of Ponyville’s weather patrol paid any attention to the train as it pulled out of the station.

In the dark of the night, the train chuntered along its route, from Ponyville to Canterlot. Normally, this was a journey that took between an hour and a half, assuming there were no delays or incidents. And the journey to Ponyville had been utterly quiet and uneventful, so what were the chances something could’ve happened in the time it had taken them to fetch the crazies and gather statements that would’ve caused any delays on the way back?

A good distance from the train line, on one of the many little hills that dotted the countryside, eyes were watching the train’s progress carefully.

“Okay,” murmured a black-furred pony as he adjusted the binoculars he was holding, from the cover of a tarpaulin (dark green rather than black, but in the middle of the night, most would’ve been unable to tell the difference). “I see them.”

“Yeah,” came the response next to him, in an unmistakable Manehatten accent. Between the two ponies sat what looked like a crossbow. Only a few things distinguished it, but foremost was the arrow. Or rather, the arrowhead, which was a large chunk of crystal, which even in the dark glowed with a faint purple light.

“Can you make the shot?”
Bitter Orange Squash turned to look at Frolic Flame (presently thinking of trying out “Fireball” to see if it worked). “I can make the shot.” She muttered darkly, “’less you wanna take it.”

Frolic shook his head. “Just wait for the moment.”

Orange grunted, as she gently took the crossbow up, a difficult prospect when only working with hooves, even when the crossbow had clearly been designed with that eventuality in mind. But to an outside view, it looked an awful lot like Orange was handling something she thought might explode at the slightest provocation.

In the distance, the train slowly moved across the landscape.

It was dark. It was quiet. The night sky was calm and clear. Besides the two of them, there was no-one and nothing else around.

“Okay…” Frolic eventually said. “Ready… now!”
There was the sound of a bolt being let loose, and the two watched as the purple glow quickly vanished from sight, as it headed towards the train.

The guards were cautious, but even so they were beginning to relax, now that it was clear their captives weren’t going to be much of a problem. They didn’t notice the small purple crystal hurtling towards the train, and with the sounds of a steam train going at full speed, none of them would’ve been able to notice the almost imperceptible sound of crystal going “tink” against metal as it hit the prison car.

They did notice the portion of train suddenly vanishing in a bright purple flash, though. But by then, it was a little too late.

There is a rule to teleporting. Actually, as Twilight Sparkle would’ve more accurately explained, there are many rules to teleporting. But for the train car that had just been teleported, the most important of those rules was the conservation of momentum. An object being teleported retains whatever speed it was going at.
Or, to put it another way, “speedy thing goes in, speedy thing goes out”.

The train had been going at some speed before one of its carriages found itself teleported by a considerable distance. This meant on its reappearance, it did not stop suddenly, or gracefully.

Inside the carriage, the two guards standing (well, sitting) watch over the captives found themselves being rolled over as the carriage made its unhappy landing.

There was several seconds of crashing, shaking, the occasional terrified yelp from ponies, clanking, and finally juddering as the carriage came to a stop, slamming into the ground.

(And because even in situations such as these, there are things that must happen, the silence was immediately broken by the sound of one of the remaining wheels falling off its axle.)

“What the hay was that?” muttered one of the guards, a pony by the name of Steel Sheath, as he clambered to his hooves, checking to make sure nothing was broken or injured.

“Search me.” Came the response of his comrade-in-arms, who was looking at the jumbled pile that was the prisoners, who’d been smushed up into one corner by their sudden change in transit. There were a few groans, and swears, as they tried untangling themselves from one another.

“It’s him!” Lamp Wick beamed eerily, once he’d disentangled himself. “Our lord Tirek has saw fit to rescue us!”

“Please shut up.” Groaned Steel, looking to one of the small windows in the car, trying to see if anypony or anything was out there. His co-worker was doing the same.

“See anything?”

Sheath looked out. It was dark, but what he couldn’t see was any lights in the distance. His knowledge of central Equestria was maybe not as absolutely up-to-date as it could’ve been, and he might have been a little dizzy from the carriage’s acrobatics, but he would’ve sworn there were plenty of towns around Canterlot itself (relatively speaking), which should’ve been visible in the distance. Silently hoping his working guess was wrong, he tried to look out the other side of the coach.

There was a sinking feeling as the view was taken up by the night sky, the moon and constellations hanging against a purple backdrop, and no Canterhorn. Indeed, no mountains of any kind.

So, his best guess was they had been teleported some distance away. He didn’t regard himself as an expert on teleportation, but he was pretty sure only somepony like a princess had the power to teleport large objects great distances. Otherwise, he’d have heard about it at some point, right?

Like a princess. The words stuck in his thoughts and refused to leave. Like Corona. She could teleport, couldn’t she? Everypony in Canterlot had seen her teleport away on the Longest Night, and there were rumours (though he didn’t believe them) that she’d managed to teleport into the middle of the Night Court a while back.

Of course, that did leave the question of why Corona would bother teleporting train coaches around, but she was insane.

Steel Sheath looked to his partner, who was looking at the crazies. They were being very quiet. Before, it had been a sort of defeated quiet, like there was nothing they had to say. Now, it was a different quiet. A nervous quiet. No, not nervous… tense, even terrified. They were all staring in one direction, their creepy green eyes fixed on the wall of the coach.

“One of us has to go out there.” Sheath said. “See where we are.”

The other guard nodded, and drew his sword. He picked a lantern from the wall and lit it, before stepping outside.

“He is here…” Lamp Wick murmured.

There was a noise from outside. Then there was a very long and horrible silence.

Steel stared at the ponies sitting in the cell, and then to the spare lantern hanging from the wall. He gritted his teeth. There was nothing for it, but for him to go outside.

He walked out into the cool night air and looked about. Just in front of him was the massive groove in the earth the train carriage had dug on arrival, and nothing else, besides darkness.

He turned, and found the ladder to reach the top of the coach was still there, undamaged by its journey. With the lantern held in his mouth, he carefully made his way up, to see if he could find any sign of his co-worker, or even where he was (if it was possible to tell in the dark).
Soon, he reached the top, and looked about. There was no sign of his fellow guard.
Then, from behind him, there was a sound. He turned, and the last thing he saw was a flash of gold. Then everything went dark.

Inside the coach, the huddled ponies heard a noise from outside, followed by the sound of something rolling across the side of the roof, follow a second later by something glasslike shattering on the ground.

“It is him.” Lamp Wick insisted. “Tirek has seen our loyalty and come to free us.”

“No,” Torch Light murmured, and there was something in the way he said it that drew the attention of the others.

The far wall of the coach began to creak and groan. There was a great tearing sound, as the wall was torn and tossed away, with no apparent effort.

For a moment, the gathering of ponies stared at the sight before them, as the remains of the wall were thrown aside. But it was Torch Light who screamed, when he saw the glowing golden eyes staring at them.

“Tirek?” Lamp Wick asked.

The black furred and black maned pony standing before them growled. “Not exactly.”

The History Lesson

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Thesis found herself waking to a strange smell, evidently coming from downstairs. It took a moment before she remembered that it was a weekend. Her first weekend. Okay, yes, she’d been through several weekends before, but this was the first real weekend. She was no longer at school, which made it feel entirely different.

As she made her way across the landing to the bathroom, she could’ve sworn she heard noise from the kitchen, which she couldn’t make out, but which sounded like Midnight.

Carefully, she made her way slowly down the stairs, trying not to be heard. As she did, she made out what it was her sister was doing.
She was making breakfast, and as she was, she was humming something to herself. No, more than humming. She was singing. Quietly, and whatever it was she couldn’t make out, but she was definitely singing.
"Shake your tail,
Shake your tail..."

Then she turned around and noticed Thesis. In the several seconds that followed, her expression changed.

“Thesis.” She exclaimed, apparently caught off-guard, forgetting what she was meant to be doing. There was a clattering of dishes and cutlery.

“Er.” Midnight declared, “ah… damn.”

After a moment, she seemed to collect herself, the surprised expression disappearing beneath her more familiar lack of expression. “Good morning.” She said, as if nothing had just happened.

“Hi.” Thesis said, carefully.

“Would you care for some breakfast?” Midnight looked back to what was left of the sink.
Breakfast, as it turned out, was nothing more fancy than toast, but Thesis wasn’t about to complain. Though she was getting bothered by the cold coming in through the still broken main window. The curtain had been drawn to try and keep it out, but there was a breeze coming in.

As she was halfway through her third slice of toast, she saw Midnight’s ears twitching, and the mare began to frown. Before she could ask what was wrong, she heard the voice, coming through the front window (or what was left of it).

“You sure this is the house?” she heard somepony outside say.

“I think so.” That sounded like Snails.

“Maybe we could knock?” That was definitely Sweetie Belle. Nopony else’s voice was as squeaky as that.

“You knock!” And that was Rumble, if she had to guess.

As Thesis watched, Midnight got up and walked towards the door.

Somehow, and he wasn’t really sure how himself, Snails had been volunteered to knock on the door. But before he could, the door opened.
There was a terrified squeak from Sweetie Belle, and he felt himself take a step back at the sight of the mare looking at him. There was something about her which, though he couldn’t put a hoof on it, just felt wrong. Looking into her eyes, he had a strange feeling, like he knew exactly what it felt like for any insect that had ever been at the bottom of a bell jar as a scientist stared at them.

“Yes?” the mare intoned. “I take it you’re here to talk to Thesis.”

Snails tried to say something, but his throat suddenly felt incredibly dry. “Y’s.” he barely managed to get out.

The scary mare disappeared into the house, and soon enough Thesis appeared.

“Hey,” Snails said. He noticed his voice still sounded a little off, and so he coughed to try and it get back under control. “We were going to hang out today. Want to come with?”

Thesis frowned, and looked back toward her sister.

“Go on,” Snails heard her say, “go spend time with your friends.”

“What are you going to do?” Thesis asked.

“I have to wait for the window repair pony.” Midnight responded. “Nothing particularly exciting, little one. Now, go. Enjoy your weekend.”

In the Whitetail Woods, there stood a curious anomaly of geography. It was simultaneously an island in the southern oceans, a vast mountain fortress, a secret volcano lair, a seedy trading port where the worst rogues and ne’er-do-wells gathered, and Canterlot Castle itself.
Alternatively, it was just a very big tree favoured by the foals of Ponyville, which had grown in such a way as to make it easy to climb and turned it into a natural fort, which had earned it the name of the Castle Tree.

Presently, it was surrounded by a gathering of foals, almost all of whom were decked out in cloaks, hats or scarves to keep out the stronger-than-usual winter chill. The only concession Thesis had to the cold was a small scarf, one of the gifts she’d received for Hearth’s Warming, but she had to admit she hadn’t been feeling the cold that much to begin with.

She looked about at the gathering of ponies present, and frowned. Something seemed amiss. For one, there were a lot less ponies than usual.

“Where is everypony?” she asked.

“Tootsie’s parents wouldn’t let her come out for some reason.” Snails frowned.
“Maybe because of last night?” Scootaloo suggested. Snails’ frown deepened.

“Huh. Didn’t think of that.” He admitted. Thesis tried not to say anything, but she did feel a little relief. Tootsie could sometimes be a little too smart sometimes, and it was already getting annoying. Not that Dinky couldn’t be the same sometimes, but with Tootsie, there was just… something about the way she did it that annoyed her. With Dinky, when she helped you it felt like she was genuinely trying to help (even if maybe you hadn't actually asked for help), while Tootsie, friendly though she was, was surprised and irritated you didn’t get it to begin with.

“What happened?” a blue unicorn Thesis didn’t recognise, who’d been staying close to Snails the whole time, asked.

“Some ponies showed up and started smashing stuff.” Scootaloo said with a shrug.

“Trixie stopped them.” Snails added, in a way that suggested to his mind, there wasn’t much reason to doubt this.

“Is that why your window got smashed up?” Scootaloo asked Thesis. She nodded.

“Maybe Tootsie’s parents just wouldn’t let her out because it’s so cold?” Truffle Shuffle suggested, but he didn’t sound convinced about that for some reason.

“It’s not that cold.” Scootaloo scoffed.

“For you, maybe.” The bundle of wool that was, in fact, a cunningly disguised Sweetie Belle responded. “You’re a pegasus.”

“I have an idea.” Pipsqueak spoke up. “Why don’t we do something to warm ourselves up?”

Scootaloo stared dangerous at Pipsqueak. “You’re not going to suggest something with pirates, are ya?”
Pipsqueak suddenly made a face, and found it difficult to look at Scootaloo. “… no?” he eventually managed. Scootaloo scoffed.

“Yeah, you were!” She said, “you’re always wanting to play pirate.”

“I like pirates.” Pipsqueak muttered.
“And I like my scooter, doesn’t mean I take it everywhere.”

“Only because your dad doesn’t let you.” Sweetie Belle helpfully supplied.

“Don’t see what’s wrong with pirates.” Pipsqueak continued, mostly to himself.

“Hey, how long’s it been since I crashed it?” Scootaloo’s wings flared defensively.

“We could have a snowball fight?” Snips suggested.
Everypony looked around. Despite the amount of snow that had been around during the week, there was almost none around now, save a few slops dropping off the branches of the trees around them, as if the very act of being looked at by a foal had been the last straw for them.

“Yeah…” Snails rubbed a hoof against the back of his head. “I think my sis said they were gonna resurface the snow at some point…” he looked up at the sky, which was presently almost entirely cloudless.

“-Didn’t hear anypony complaining about the treasure hunt.”

Scootaloo snorted. “This’d be easier if Dinky were here. She’s usually got an idea.”

Snails looked at Snips. Snips looked at Scootaloo, who looked at Rumble, who looked at Thesis, who had no idea why Rumble was looking at her, what Pipsqueak was going on about, or why nopony else seemed to be able to say anything.

Finally, Rumble spoke up. “Maybe…” he began, with the tone of a pony who knew what was coming, but there was no other option available, “we could play pirates.”
Suddenly, Pipsqueak’s muttering stopped, and he looked up, smiling.

“Really?” he asked.

There was a moment of silence, before Sweetie Belle nudged Scootaloo with a hoof.

“It’s been a while.” The orange pegasus declared, her voice almost completely flat.

“Alright.” Pipsqueak said, “if you really want to.”

Thesis was impressed, and more than a little confused, by Pipsqueak’s sudden recovery, but it all seemed to be good, as the tiny colt grinned. She began to wonder if he really had been as upset as he’d looked after all.

“So who’s doing what?” Rumble asked.

“I’ve got an idea.” Pipsqueak said, “there was this time I read about involving Princess Cadenza and these pirates…”

“Princess Cadenza?” Scootaloo repeated. “Really?”

“It’s better than it sounds…” Pipsqueak said. “And there might be sword fights.”

“I’m in.” Scootaloo said instantly.

“So, who’s going to play Cadenza?” Sweetie Belle asked. Suddenly everypony (well, almost everypony. Mystery Blue took a moment to catch on) was staring at Thesis.

“Me?” she asked.

“You, uh,” Snips began, his cheeks turning red as he rubbed his hoof against the back of his head. “You are an alicorn.”

This was something Thesis couldn’t exactly deny. “But I don’t know what Cadenza is like. I’ve only met Princess Luna.”

“You don’t have to be like Princess Luna.” Sweetie Belle said. “Just act… y’know…”

“Like a Princess?” Rumble volunteered.

“Yeah. Like a Princess.”

Thesis frowned. Like a princess, she thought to herself. Act scary, she thought.

“I can do that.” She tried. “I think. But what does a Princess do?”

“Princess stuff.” Scootaloo supplied, “duh.”

“Don’t worry,” Sweetie Belle said, smiling gently. “Pipsqueak will tell you when you’re doing something wrong.”
“Hey!”

“So,” Rumble coughed, “who’s playing who now?”
Pipsqueak turned toward the Pegasus colt, and puffed up his chest. “It’s the Cavallian navy versus Black Flag, one of the most successful pirates that ever was.”

He continued on, but Thesis wasn’t entirely listening, still trying to think how she was supposed to be like a Princess. Trixie probably knew, she told herself.

“Where is everypony?” Carrot Top asked.
Trixie shook her head. The two were sitting at a table in one of Ponyville’s few restaurants, indoors due to the weather, which was a shame since the cold aside it actually looked like a nice day. There wasn’t even a crazy pony in sight.

“Well, Raindrops was supposed to be here, but she’s sleeping in, and I don’t want to bother her.” Also, she was slightly concerned that if she stopped by to visit, Raindrops’ parents, or more specifically her mother, wouldn’t let her leave without a fight. “Ditzy is having a day off with Dinky, Lyra’s probably still asleep, and Cheerilee… I think she’s helping fix up the Punch Bowl after last night.”

“Sorry about that.” Carrot Top murmured sheepishly, for the dozenth time. “If I had known… I should’ve been there to help. I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

“It’s not a problem.” Trixie said quickly. “We took those crazies down before anything got too badly damaged.”

She’d already tried pointing out she wasn’t holding any grievance against Carrot for not knowing. After all, Ditzy had abstained as well, and she wasn’t hounding her for it. But that wasn’t stopping Carrot.

“Except your head.” Carrot Top smiled. Trixie rubbed a hoof against the side of her head, even though it’d been hours since she’d actually felt any headaches (though she wasn’t going to deny her dreams during the night had been plain weird, even for her).

“Except my head.” She groaned. “And the Punch Bowl. And a couple of walls and windows and a fence. But we got them.”

Carrot Top looked surprised. “You mean they didn’t get away?”

Trixie grinned triumphantly. “Nope. Got ‘em all, locked them up, and they got taken away on a train. They’re Luna’s problem now.”

Carrot Top began to smile a nervous smile. “That feels weird, bad guys actually getting caught for once.”

Trixie’s grin faltered just a little. “Maybe we’re just getting better at this hero stuff.”

“If you say so.”

The yellow carrot farmer drummed a hoof against the table. “Wait, are you only having lunch with me because none of the others were available?”

“What?” Trixie gasped, “come on, Carrot, you know that’s not true.”

After a moment, Carrot Top began to grin back at her. “Gotcha.”

Trixie tried frowning at Carrot Top, but she wasn’t able to maintain it for very long, though this might have had something to do with their starters arriving.

“By the way,” Carrot said, before she began eating, “was that a Shadowbolt I saw going toward the library?”

“Huh?”

The Shadowbolts had a reputation as shadowy enforcers of Princess Luna’s will, committing all manner of unspeakable things in her name. This was in many ways a disservice to ponies who were, by and large, just ordinary government workers, though admittedly the form-fitting purple uniforms and golden goggles their field agents all wore did tend to make them look more sinister than was possibly necessary.

The pony who had arrived at the library, who had informed Twilight her name was Indigo Zap, didn’t quite match what Twilight had heretofore presumed the typical image of a Shadowbolt agent, between the large pompadour of hair, and the surprisingly casual attitude (which was reminding her of somepony, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall who), though most of the Shadowbolt agents she’d met had been trying to arrest her at the time, and the only one she’d been in regular contact with at any point was Agent Haymaker (and she had a suspicion he was a serious pony anyway. Or he just really hadn’t liked Trixie’s attempts to break the ice between them.)

She might also have been slightly more focused on what Agent Zap had brought to her, which was a thinking problem.

“Speaking modestly,” she began, “I’m one of the foremost experts on teleportation magic in Equestria. But this...”
She frowned. “A whole train carriage. The energy requirements for that would be phenomenal. Even I couldn’t teleport something that size very far. About the only ponies who could do something like that would be the Princesses.”

There was a careful pause, as Twilight could’ve sworn Agent Zap was giving her a look. (Well, she was looking at her, but the mare’s expression was pretty neutral at the moment.) Inwardly, she was both alarmed and more than a little intrigued by the problem. “Though I don’t know if that applies to Princess Cadenza.”

After another pause, she felt the need to add “and I was here in the library all last night.”

“Well, Miss Sparkle-” Agent Zap began.

“Oh, please, call me Twilight.” Twilight smiled. Just because things with Agent Haymaker hadn’t gone very well was no excuse not to at least try to be friendly with Agent Zap. It seemed to be a success, given the pegasus mare didn’t frown. Twilight decided to give that a tentative check in her mind’s checklist.

“Twilight,” the mare said carefully, “my boss isn’t worried so much about who right now. But she was wondering if you could work out how far they could’ve taken it. And you’re apparently the expert on teleportation magic. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
Twilight stared for a moment, and looked about the main room of the library. Already gears were beginning to tick away inside her brain.

“Just give me a moment.” She said. Her horn flared up, and she teleported down into the library’s basement, recovered the chalkboard she had stored down there, and returned with it to the main room.

“Okay,” she murmured to herself, Agent Zap largely forgotten, the chalk beginning to fly across the board as she began calculating.

“Well, assuming a pony with the same level of magic power as me, hypothetically speaking of course,” she quickly interjected, “combined with the size of the train carriage mixed with…” she hummed. “I think I have a reasonable outline for your search parameters.”

She took a look at Agent Zap, who was staring at the board, and a thought occurred to her. “Er,” she said, “if you like, I could try and simplify my works a little, if your superior needs it.”

“Nah,” Zap said, “I get it. Well, most of it. I’m not an expert on teleportation magic. But I got the gist.”

“Really?” Twilight asked, before catching herself. “Sorry, I suppose I’ve just gotten used to ponies not knowing what I’m talking about.”
Mercifully, the Shadowbolt didn’t seem offended by that.

“I know some fast speakers.” She grinned. “And the Shadowbolts don’t usually hire idiots. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard somepony explain teleportation magic. That helps.”

“Oh.” Twilight said. That made sense to her, at least. After a moment looking for some parchment and a quill, she began taking down her notes, trying to make them as legible and coherent to the laypony as she could manage. After a moment’s thought, she decided to simplify a little further, just in case.

“By the way,” she said, as she wrote, “how is Agent Haymaker? I haven’t seen him in some time.”

“No idea.” Zap said, from where she was idly investigating the shelves. “Sorry. I don’t know the guy.”

Twilight hummed, as she rolled up the prepared parchments. “Well,” she said cheerfully, “I hope this helps, at any rate.”

“That’s the idea.” Agent Zap said, as she took them from Twilight. “Thanks for the assistance, Miss Twilight.”

“If there’s anything else I can do,” Twilight began, “I’m always willing to help. I mean, I’m not exactly going anywhere because I’m under house arrest, but-” she stopped herself there, but Agent Zap seemed more bemused than anything.
“Guessing you didn’t get out much even before then, huh?”

Twilight grinned sheepishly. Technically, in her travels across Equestria, she had spent a lot of time outside, either just because she was travelling or when she was practicing her spells, but none of that had involved much interaction with other ponies, which she guessed was what the agent meant. And true, there had been several ponies already who’d come to visit her, but it was clearly obvious she still had much to learn. And practice made perfect.

“Not as such, no…”

Thesis trotted along the streets of Ponyville, taking a glimpse up at the sky, where the town’s weather patrol were moving dark looking clouds across the sky, visible thanks to the bright orange jackets they were wearing as they worked.

She was surprised at how late it was, but despite everypony’s misgivings, playing pirate versus princess had been a lot of fun. So much fun that they hadn’t noticed the time, until somepony had pointed out it was starting to get dark. Then it had taken some time to argue with Pipsqueak about wrapping everything up (and some time more to convince him this did not, in fact, count as mutiny. Thesis wasn’t entirely sure what being “keel hauled” meant, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out).

She was pretty sure she’d had fun, despite as it turned out Princess Cadenza didn’t have much to do. Every time she tried to do something, Black Flag had thought of some countermeasure, despite being an earth pony pirate, or there was some reason she couldn’t do anything, like just zap Pipsqueak with alicorn magic then and there (though she did have to admit just ending it instantly wouldn’t have been much fun. That she didn’t know any alicorn magic was just a minor problem).

She soon got close to the house, and noticed the front window had been replaced. When she got to the door, Midnight opened it before she had a chance to knock.

“And how was today?” her sister asked, as Thesis sat near the fire. She wasn’t cold as such, but it was a nice warm fire.

“Good.” Thesis said, and began telling her about the epic battle between Black Flag’s fleet and Princess Cadenza’s, once she’d realized the pirate pony would never change his ways (or more accurately, once Pipsqueak had told her she was supposed to try and get him to surrender first, rather than just sink his ships then and there).

“Black Flag?” Midnight asked, on hearing the name.

“You’ve heard of him?”

“I’ve heard of her, yes.” Her sister said, and she stared off into the distance. “‘For I hav’ dipped these hooves in muddied waters, and withdrawing them find ‘tis better to be a criminal than a common pony.’”
“Yeah.” Thesis nodded, “Pipsqueak gave a speech like that.”

It had been an impressive speech, despite Pipsqueak’s voice slightly ruining the effect (especially when his voice actually had squeaked). He’d gotten very into it, though, which nopony else had seemed at all surprised by.

“There’s a book, 'The Most Notorious History of Pirates'. It covers her extensively.” Midnight stated. “And her unusual relationship with Princess Cadenza.”

“I had to play Cadenza.” Thesis informed her. Midnight looked at her for a moment.

“Did you now?” she remarked, and Thesis could’ve sworn there was some strange edge to her voice.

“Yeah. It was interesting. Especially when I had to fight the kraken.” Midnight turned to look at her, and arched an eyebrow.

“The kraken?” she asked. “I don’t recall any kraken.”

“Apparently Black Flag had one.” Thesis explained, “specially trained for fighting Princesses.”

“I see.” Midnight said. Thesis wasn’t really sure how, since she didn’t know how that made sense, and she’d been there when Pipsqueak had explained it to her. It had been a very good explanation at the time, she knew that much, but now she couldn’t even remember what it was.

Of course, there hadn’t been a real kraken, or even an illusion of a kraken, especially since Ponyville was very far in-land, just some ropes that Pipsqueak had insisted (several times) were actually the great and terrible tentacles of the sea-beast. She decided not to mention the fact Pipsqueak had paused for a very long time when describing how things went down between Black Flag and the Princess, and the odd way some of the others had chuckled, like there was some joke she hadn’t been in on. Even weirder was the fact Pipsqueak had started blushing and looking about nervously at one point, as if expecting something to jump out of the trees and eat him. She wondered whether it was worth asking Midnight about that.

“Do you know what happened to Black Flag, in the end?” she asked. The game had wrapped up with Cadenza about to fight the pirate lord (or queen, she guessed), vowing to take him (or her, or whatever) to stand trial, as opposed to Thesis’s idea of just getting rid of him then and there.

“As I recall, she and what little was left of her crew were arrested by Cadenza, and she spent the remainder of her life in a Cavallian prison.” Midnight said, in-between sips of her drink.

“Oh.” Thesis murmured. That didn’t sound tremendously fun to her.

“‘A merry life and a short one be my motto’.” Midnight said, her voice momentarily taking on a strange lilt. “Well, she succeeded in the later part, certainly. Curiously, Princess Cadenza has never spoken publicly on the matter of Black Flag, even though it’s on record that she frequently visited the mare in prison.”
“Why?”

“No-one knows, save Cadenza herself.” Midnight said, “though there have been those who have speculated, and in some cases profited greatly from that speculation. Especially novelists.”

Thesis thought about that for a moment. Maybe that explained the funny way the others, and Pipsqueak in particular, had been acting.
Then her stomach rumbled.

“What’s for dinner?” she asked, all thoughts of pirates and princesses forgotten.

Dinner, as it turned out, involved something odd and green looking. Thesis sniffed at it apprehensively, and found it didn’t smell bad. After several seconds, she took an equally apprehensive bite of it.

“Well?” Midnight asked.

“It’s…” Thesis chewed carefully on the strange, leafy matter. “It’s… it’s slimy.”

“And what is our opinion of slime?”

Thesis took several more chews. “Can I have some more?”
“Very well. More spinach it is.”

As her sister fetched more of the strange, slimy vegetables, Thesis wondered whether to ask her about a question that had been bothering her.

She decided she’d wait a while.

The sun almost entirely down, and the blue and red foal known to the foals of Ponyville as Sprite was making her way home. For Sprite, or as she was actually known, Ocellus, home was a small cave she’d made for herself on the edge of the Everfree.

It had been an odd day, meeting that alicorn foal. She’d been able to scrounge a few good scraps of love when nopony had been looking, mostly from Pipsqueak. The only thing that was bothering her was that Thesis, and the way Snails had been about her.
She knew, thanks to her changeling senses, that there was nothing to be afraid of. Snails didn’t care about her in any way beyond friendship, and the same applied in reverse with Thesis. But there was still something about the way he looked at her that made Ocellus angry anyway, much like when that other foal, Alula was around.

So busy was Ocellus with thinking about this it took her a moment to realize she suddenly couldn’t move. It felt like her hooves were stuck to something. She looked down to see something glowing softly orange in the dark. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel like mud, or any sort of secretion she could think of. It didn’t feel sticky, or slimy or warm or cold. It didn’t feel of anything at all.

Ocellus was no stranger to the Everfree Forest, and was very much aware of the creatures that dwelled in it. Technically, she was one of them. This meant she very much didn’t want to be standing in what had all the earmarks of a trap. A well-made, magical trap, which no creature could’ve made, and certainly none she’d so far encountered. She was also becoming aware of just how quiet it was, which in the Everfree was never a good sign.

Eventually, she heard a sound behind her, and a humming noise. Someone was behind her. After a few minutes more there was a strange popping sound.

“Well.” She heard someone else say, “I see what you mean.”

“Um,” Ocellus called out, “can you help me? I’m stuck in s-”

“Stuck in a trap.” The second voice said. It didn’t sound friendly.

“Please, I’m just a foal.”

“If you were just a foal, this spell wouldn’t have activated. If you were just a pony, it wouldn’t have activated. I know what you are. You’re a changeling.”

Ocellus could’ve sworn she felt the temperature shift. “You… know what changelings are?”

“Oh, yes.” The voice said. There was a definite undercurrent of anger to it there. She recalled her experience meeting the foals of Ponyville, when she’d tried to feed on them, and how they’d reacted. They’d been angry, and they’d very nearly killed her. This voice sounded like it belonged to an adult. Had somepony in Ponyville worked out what she was? What she had been doing? Was this their revenge? No, that couldn’t be.

“What are we gonna do to her, boss?” the first voice asked. That was definitely a mare’s voice, but not one she recognised, so there was no chance of playing to their belief she was just an innocent foal who’d gone astray.

“We’re not going to kill her.” The second voice said. Ocellus tried not to sigh.

“I didn’t say-”
“I know what you didn’t say.” The second snapped, and Ocellus could feel a burst of anger coming from behind her (and a curious vague smell of something burning). “You were very empathically not saying it.”

There was a horrible, all-consuming silence.

“This trap wasn’t meant for you.” The second voice said to Ocellus. It didn’t sound hostile, but it didn’t sound friendly either. She blinked in confusion. If it wasn’t meant for her, how had it known to trap Changelings? Was her mystery host out for other Changelings? Were there other Changelings in Ponyville she somehow hadn’t noticed?

“It’s just dumb luck you walked into it tonight.”

“Good thing she didn’t do it when there were other foals around.” The mare said.

“So…” Ocellus asked, “are you going to let me go?”

There was another silence. It wasn’t very encouraging.

“I’ve seen her hanging around with Rainy’s little brother.” The mare said.

“Snails would notice if his friend went missing, wouldn’t he?” The other one said. “And knowing the foals of Ponyville, he’d go looking for her.”

“Y-yeah.” Ocellus said. “Snails knows all about me.”

“Makes sense. Kid loves bugs.”

“I’m not a bug!” Ocellus yelled.

“He’d go looking. Probably get into trouble. And goodness knows how Rainy would take that, but…”
There was a murmur from the other voice.

“Well, fortunately I can reconfigure this trap so this embarrassing little detail won’t happen again, now that I have your thaumatological signature. However, that does leave one important little wrinkle… your silence.”

“I won’t tell anypony about this.” She said, looking around desperately, as much as was possible.

“Oh, undeniably, it would be difficult for you to tell anyone about this encounter without them asking a few questions. Like why this trap works on you, and not the other foals of Ponyville. But Snails knows of you, and all it would take is for you to mention it to him…” the voice was silent for a moment. There was the sound of hoofsteps, and Ocellus smelled anger in the air. Raw, vicious anger, and hatred. She couldn’t see the source, but they were right in front of her. But what was most curious is that the anger wasn’t directed at her. The scent was all wrong.

Then she saw the bright orange glow of a horn lighting up, so brightly it was impossible to s-

Ocellus stumbled. She looked around to see what it was that had caused that, but there was nothing, not a rock or protruding branch or even a stray hole in the ground.
She shook her head. She suddenly couldn’t remember what she’d been thinking about. Something to do with Snips, she thought.
Whatever it was, she decided, it couldn’t have been that important if she’d forgotten so quickly, so she resumed her pace back to her den.
She was probably just tired, she told herself. It would’ve explained why her head was suddenly hurting.

Dinner and then desert came and went, and Thesis hadn’t worked up the energy to ask Midnight the question she’d wanted to ask. Every time she thought she had worked up the courage, another nagging thought came to her and she suddenly didn’t want to. So, instead, she felt it safer to try a different, slightly less important question.

“What did those ponies from last night even want?”

Midnight set down the book she’d been reading and frowned. “I can only speculate,” she said, “but if I had to guess, they were trying to recreate Tirek.”

“And that’s bad, right?” Thesis asked. She’d read through the book on Equestrian legends a few times. None of the things about Tirek had sounded nice. Midnight gave her an odd look.

“You recall those stories you read about golems, little one?” Thesis nodded, uncertainly.

“What is a common thread of those stories?”

“Golems smash things a lot?”

Midnight paused before she responded. “Yes,” she said carefully, “but more than that. Why do the golems do that?”

Thesis thought about the question. Evidently, she took too long, as Midnight felt the need to explain.

“You have heard the expression be careful what you wish for, yes?”

Thesis nodded.

“Those who made those golems never considered what they were creating. They get what they wish for, without thinking about the specifics, or what happens after. Suppose you were a pony looking to revive Tirek. Or summon him, recreate him, free him, what have you. And you succeed in calling upon the the Liar, the Thief, Tyrant in the Pit, the Shadow in the Soul and Lord of All Sorrows. What do you think is likely to happen? Do you think someone with those epithets is likely to be grateful?”

For some reason, she found herself thinking of what had happened a few days ago in school, when Silver Spoon had said something to Diamond Tiara during class, and in response the pink filly had snapped at her, which had struck Thesis as incredibly odd, given Diamond and Silver Spoon were supposed to be friends, even more so given Diamond had been generally nice to her when they talked. And then Miss Cheerilee had been upset with Diamond as well.

“No?” Thesis hazarded.

“Indeed.”

“So why would they do it?” she asked.

“Madness. Greed. Desperation.” Midnight paused. “Sheer stupidity, sometimes. And any combination thereof.”

She paused again. “As another example, you yourself.”

“Me?” Thesis blinked in confusion.

“The ponies who abducted Lulamoon and Sparkle that night were likely trying to create an alicorn, before their ritual was interrupted.”

Thesis was able to see where that led. “And they got me.”

Midnight gave her another odd look. “Yes.” She could’ve sworn she saw the mare start to smile, just the tiniest fraction. “Not exactly what they were hoping for, I would say.”

Now she actually did look amused, but for some reason it just didn’t look right to Thesis. And she didn’t see what exactly was so funny anyway. “But, that’s a constant.”

Thesis frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Unintended consequences. Misdeeds almost always seem to have some ultimately beneficial effect. Celestia’s freedom allowed Lulamoon and the Element Bearers to restore the Elements of Harmony. Duke Greengrass’s attempt to ruin Octavia Philharmonica resulted in the creation of one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever made. Even Celestia’s fall helped created Princess Cadenza, in its way.”

Thesis gave this some thought. “So… those crazy ponies running around town and smashing things was… good?”

Midnight’s smile faded. There was a long time before she said anything. “Maybe, though I highly doubt most of the ponies of Ponyville would agree at the moment. It’ll probably make sense in the end.”

Thesis didn’t feel entirely reassured by that. Certainly it didn’t seem good to her, much less a pony who’d taken a nasty spell to the face, and she remained uneasy for the remainder of the night, even when she went to bed.

The next day came and went with little to do. It seemed the weather was too cold for the other foals of Ponyville to want to go out and play, so that left sitting inside for most of the day (the suggestion of attending to some small homework left lying about did not go down well).

Thesis couldn’t help but feel some unfairness in her first weekend passing so quickly, but her sister was less than supportive on that score. The question she’d been thinking of asking remained in the back of her head that day, and as she got up on Monday morning, and all the way through school.

It was at dinner, as Midnight silently prepared something, and Thesis (with no small reluctance) worked on that night’s homework that finally the question boiled over.

“Hey,” she called out, “can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Midnight said, not looking up from the vegetables she was chopping. “What is it?”

“Well…” Thesis frowned. For some reason the idea of actually saying what she wanted to say seemed silly. “It’s just…”

She found herself biting her lip. Now Midnight seemed to notice, and turned around to look at her, but this just made the prospect seem scarier.

“What is it?”

“Is it okay if I…” she squirmed, and when she spoke again it was still a struggle just to get the words out at all. “If I could change my name?”

Her sister stared at her for a very long time, or at least what felt like a long time. She tried meeting it, but every time she did it felt impossible, even though she didn’t look particularly angry or offended, just… well, her usual calm.

“I see.” Midnight finally said.

“I just…” Thesis found her wings fluttering. “I don’t like my name.”

Midnight continued staring at her. After a few seconds, the silence got to be too much for her. “Are you okay?”

“Certainly.” Midnight said. “I’m simply the pony who named you. And only because I shot down every alternative everypony else in the room offered.”
“So… you’re not mad?”

“Not at all.” She said. “I can understand the reasoning. And it’s not uncommon for ponies to change their names.” She paused. “Though admittedly, the renaming usually comes with the acquisition of one’s Cutie Mark.”

Thesis grinned. She wasn’t mad. She’d been worried about nothing at all. She hurried over to the small set of saddlebags she’d left by the front door, and got out a small piece of parchment she’d left in there, bringing it back to the kitchen table.

“Would I be correct in assuming this is a list of potential names?”

“Maybe.” Thesis murmured. There was another odd look on her sister’s face.

“What?” she asked.

“Making a list, definitely Sparkle’s influence.”

“It’s only one or two names.” She managed to get out, nudging the rolled up paper across the table. She had been planning on going to the library to look for a book on names.

“I cannot help but notice most of these are the names put forward on that night.” Midnight noticed. Thesis shrugged at that. It had seemed like a good place to start. Midnight’s eyes scrolled downward.

“‘Midnight?’” she gave Thesis an odd look.

“Well, you are my sister. Shouldn’t we share a name?”

“Apart from anything else, that would get tremendously confusing very quickly.” Her sister said. Her eyes went back to the paper again. Inwardly, Thesis felt a small stab of relief. Midnight Thesis just sounded stupid. But she didn't know if it was confusing. There were two ponies in town called Green Grape and Green Grapes, and nopony ever seemed to have trouble telling them apart.

“Starlight?” Midnight asked.

“Not good?”

“I…” Midnight frowned. “I know of a Starlight. And while confusing you and her would be quite the stretch, best not to risk it.”

“What about the others?” Thesis ventured.

“Stardust…” Midnight said, her frown increasing. “I knew a pony called Stardust once, a long time ago.”
She was staring, but not at Thesis. She looked like she was thinking about something.

“What happened?”
It took a moment before Midnight responded. “We… had a falling out.”

“Like what happened with Trixie?”
Midnight’s mouth twitched. “Worse. Far worse.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Thesis looked toward the list again. It was starting to feel like the visit to the library was going to be necessary.

Then she saw the look on Midnight’s face change. “Aurora?”

Thesis felt her wings flap apologetically. “I dunno. It just came to me. Liked the sound of it.”
“From the ancient pegasus word for dawn.” Midnight said, apparently more to herself than to Thesis. But Thesis noted she wasn’t rejecting it, which seemed like a good sign. “Twinkle?”

“Twilight thought it was a good name.” Thesis said, feeling at this point her list of names needed defending.

Midnight’s lips pursed at that. “Her grandmother’s name. And an unfortunate one.”

“Why?”

Midnight tapped a hoof against the table. “It might be better if you were to ask Twilight Sparkle that. She would likely explain it better.”

“Maybe I will.” Thesis said.

She could’ve sworn she saw Midnight smile for a moment. “Really, though, it shouldn’t matter what somepony else says. The choice, ultimately, lies with you, and what sounds best to you, what fits you best.”

“Oh.” Thesis murmured.

“Meanwhile, what is not a choice is that you have homework to finish.”

“Do I have to?” she asked plaintively.

“So long as Dame Punch is your teacher, yes. There are many things I will do for you, little one. Explaining to that mare why you haven’t done homework is not one of them. Now get to it.”

Twilight Sparkle frowned. She was thinking about multiple things, such as the problem that Shadowbolt agent had posed to her only a few days before, which was still bothering her, alongside slightly less pressing issues such as the layout of the library, and the fact Shining hadn’t been responding to her letters of late. But mainly at the moment, she was thinking about Thesis.

She’d been surprised to see the foal enter the library alongside Dinky. Not that this was a surprise, Dinky always showed up on Tuesday, sometimes accompanied by some of the other foals of Ponyville, though today there was only Dinky and Sweetie Belle (which was confusing to Twilight, since she had a sign up both inside the library and outside for all to see, and she knew they knew about the magic lessons, but none of the three seemed to have any explanation to offer as to why nopony else had showed up, all the more odd since Tootsie Flute usually appeared more often than not, but none of them had any explanation for her absence). It was more seeing the little alicorn at all that surprised her. But for whatever reason, the foal didn’t seem very interested in learning. That reminded her just a little of Trixie, and the mare’s stubborn dismissal of reading books. Though the difference here was that while Thesis didn’t seem interested in learning magic, her gaze was drawn to the library’s books.

Twilight wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, both from the foal and from herself. But whatever it was, whether she’d been expecting her to act like Twilight or Trixie or that odd mare who’d “adopted” her, Thesis wasn’t it.
Something about that upset her, and she wasn’t entirely sure why.

Technically speaking, from a certain point of view, the foal could have counted as her daughter, and she wasn’t sure how to think about that, beyond not wanting to think about the circumstances that led to her “birth”. She never really thought much about the idea of having foals anyway, what with her perennial lack of skill with them to begin with. And she supposed if she ever had a foal she’d have presumed they’d have turned out like her.

Regardless, Thesis went along with the lessons. Twilight wasn’t surprised to see she had some potential, if she thought so herself, though she kept a wary eye on the foal anyway. Ponyville’s foals had a knack for hidden surprises, not counting the very worrying Firelock, or Dinky’s oft-mentioned tendency to break things she was holding (which Twilight was relieved to note hadn’t happened so far under her watch), and she was watching for anything. In as much as a pony could watch for anything, that was.
Before coming to Ponyville, Twilight had felt the phrase “expect the unexpected” was both glib and amazingly unhelpful, but it was pretty appropriate for Ponyville all the same.

While the foals were going through their spells, Twilight walked between them, trying to offer the occasional suggestion for their techniques (far better than telling them, if it helped them to their own realisation). Thesis was doing quite well, all the more so given her extreme youth, but she seemed distracted by the books, a predicament Twilight could understand.

“Is something the matter?” Twilight asked. The foal squirmed, her wings flapping several times.

“Sorry,” she said, “I was just… looking at the books. And thinking about stuff.”

Twilight grinned good-naturedly, and she hoped reassuringly. “Well, they’re technically not what you’re here for, but I can understand wanting to read them. You do know you can take books out from the library, if you want. Was there any book in particular you were looking for?”

Thesis’s face scrunched up as she thought. “A book of names. Or an encyclopaedia.”

Twilight found herself raising an eyebrow. That definitely counted as a hidden surprise in her book, as it were. Still, the foal was asking, and how could she as a librarian deny her a chance to study something?

“Alright,” she said, “is there anything else you might like? You can take two books out with a temporary library card.” She added, to be helpful.

“Nope.” Thesis said instantly. Twilight found herself thinking back to many years ago, when a certain filly had whiled away her hours in the libraries of Latigo, and how her mother, father and brother had all had to explain to the librarians there that no, she had wanted to take out non-fiction books, particularly the big, dense tomes on magic meant for slightly older unicorns. Now she had an inkling as to how they had probably felt back then.

“I’ll just get you a form.” She said cheerfully, “in the meantime, just keep practicing your spellwork.”

It didn’t take long for Twilight to fetch the form, and present both it, an inkwell and a quill to Thesis, who quietly took it and began working.

“Um,” Thesis began as she wrote. Twilight wondered if she was going to ask about the section for her Cutie Mark. More than once, Twilight had asked a Ponyville foal looking for a card whether they’d needed help drawing their own, when the foal in question didn’t have theirs yet.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Twilight smiled.

“What can you tell me about Twilight Twinkle?”

Twilight looked down at the young face staring at her. In the silence, she was aware that Dinky and Sweetie Belle had stopped what they were doing.
“She was my grandmother.” Twilight said, carefully. “Well, one of them.”

Thesis cocked her head to side. “How many grandmothers do you have?” she asked.

“Three. There was my father’s mother, and then my mother’s mothers, Twilight Twinkle and Sparkling Sky, the Vicereines of Latigo.”

“Oh.” Thesis said. Twilight really hoped she didn’t ask how that worked, but fortunately for Twilight she did not. “My sister said there was a story about the name, but she wouldn’t explain why.”

Twilight was now aware all the foals present had in fact stopped practicing their magic and were looking at her. She bit her lip, considering her options.

“There is a story, of sorts.” She finally said.

“Can we hear it?” Dinky asked, with the cheerful innocence of foalhood.

“It’s not a bad story, is it?” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“No… I mean, not exactly, but…”

“Is it a Night Court story?” There was a suspicious edge to Dinky’s voice, one Twilight suspected wouldn’t have been there if she was asking about outright criminals.

“Yes, at points.” There was a definite look of disapproval on Dinky’s face. However, there was still a look of curiosity in there, and Twilight doubted they were going to be satisfied with any attempt at waving them off now.

“Now, some backstory might be in order. My family, House Starlight is one of the oldest noble houses in Equestria, dating back to shortly after the fall of Corona. The title of viceroyalty has passed down through my mother’s family, and traditionally the inheritor of the title works and lives in Latigo, which sits on the borders of the Griffon Kingdoms. The current owner of the title is my mother, Twilight Velvet.”

Twilight paused, pondering whether it was worth mentioning her mother did little actual activity in the Night Court, generally leaving most of the work to her father Night Light while she occupied her time with other business in Latigo itself. She decided it was not.

“Several decades ago, there was an uprising in one of the Griffon Kingdoms. The brother of King Garovich tried to overthrow him, and he fled. My grandmother, Sparkling Sky, offered him protection and aid, even letting him stay in the family house. Unfortunately, she hadn’t actually asked her wife, Twilight Twinkle, the actual head of the house, about this before doing so.”

There were several intakes of breath at that. She was mildly surprised none of them had gasped. “Apparently what followed was some of the most vicious arguing they ever had, but eventually they agreed to help the king get his throne back, even trying to speak in his favour in the Night Court.” She sighed. “And when members of my family do something, they…” she was aware her cheeks were beginning to turn red, as she thought of her own actions when she’d first visited Ponyville, “we don’t go in for half measures.”

“You mean like when you first met Trixie?” Dinky asked.

“No. Worse.” She paused to cough. “Grandma Twinkle and Grandma Spark argued in the Night Court to support the king, but Princess Luna wouldn’t intervene.”

Dinky was scowling now, and Sweetie Belle looked alarmed.

“Why?” Thesis asked.

“I… don’t know.” Twilight lied. The reason the Princess hadn’t acted was while she was not unsympathetic to the king’s plight, she felt the usurper’s rule better suited Equestria’s own interests. “Unfortunately, Grandma Twinkle had something of a temper, and she… ah…”

“What?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“She may have criticised the Princess for it. To her face.”

“Uh-oh.” Dinky commented.

“That sums it up.” Twilight shook her head. “A vicereine commands a lot of power in the Night Court, second only to the Princess herself, but even the Princess’s indulgence has limits. My grandparents’ actions cost them a lot of their political reputation. And may have made things pretty tense between Grandma Twinkle and Grandma Spark for a long time.”

“Oh.” was all Thesis said.

“Guessing the Princess wasn’t happy, either.” Dinky added.

“No.” Twilight admitted. It had taken her grandparents and parents a long time and a great deal of work to recover a lot of the family’s political reputation, something she knew for a fact her parents had had very intense discussions about on more than one occasion, when they hadn’t realised she was listening.

Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin. “You know, a thought occurs, your… sister may have been talking about Clover the Clever’s daughter.”

She saw three fillies giving her a look of complete incomprehension. “Who?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Twilight sighed. “Never mind.”

“What did she do?” Thesis spoke up.

“Er.” Twilight began. “Not a lot, actually.”

Thesis pulled an irritated face at that.

“So what happened to the griffon king?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“He declared that even without Equestrian support he’d take his country back, but he never regained his throne. But his son did.”

“He’s not very fond of ponies, then.” Dinky observed.

“No. Not really.” Twilight admitted. She knew for a fact his kingdom was also where the famed Equestrian embassy had been placed, and that almost certainly didn’t help.

“And what about your grandmomma?” Dinky ventured.

“She continued to work in the Night Court, as did grandma, until she retired. She passed away when I was little.”

“Sorry.” Dinky said instantly.
Twilight smiled carefully. Knowing her grandmother, she’d have been more furious than either of her parents about the debacle with the Ursa Minor. And, knowing her, also probably would have complimented her at the same time, if only for not getting eaten. But at the same time, knowing her grandmother, she probably would’ve gotten on tremendously with Trixie regardless. The words “house on fire” came to mind. Particularly the parts involving fire, screaming and ponies running for safety.

“I see.” Thesis said, though she looked confused.

“Anyway,” Twilight declared, clapping her hooves together, “let’s get back to studying magic. Where were we?”

Trixie looked up from what she was doing, fixing Pokey with a hard stare.

“Pokey, you clearly want to ask me something. So just ask already.”

Pokey Pierce just stared back. “You’ve been smirking about something all day, and all of yesterday. I just figured you’d tell me sooner or later.”

Trixie decided not to notice the unspoken addition of “whether I ask or not” he was clearly fighting to say. But he was probably right.

“I just had this amusing idea.” She said.

Pokey sighed theatrically. “Uh-oh.”

“You know this pony I mentioned who’s been annoying me?”

Pokey made a show of looking forgetful. “You might’ve mentioned her.”

“Well, I had this idea of how to get back at her. Actually, I had two.”

Pokey pointedly did not make any sort of smart remark at that.

“The first was simply to tell Rarity there was a new pony in town from Canterlot.”

Pokey hissed. “That’s pretty fiendish, boss, setting Rarity on a pony.”

“Eh.” Trixie shrugged. Certainly, things had been more amicable between them of late, and especially since the Gala, thanks in no part to Rarity getting a chance to demonstrate her wares at the event (Trixie wasn’t sure she’d actually gotten more business, but then she’d also gotten good at tuning out most of what Rarity said). “I don’t think she’d ever actually succeed at doing anything. She’d just be persistently annoying.”

“And the second idea?” Pokey asked, with an undercurrent of dread. Trixie began grinning at the thought of what she’d done.

“I was thinking about the weather, and I remembered last year’s Winter Wrap Up.”

“The one you stormed out of?”

“Shut up. I was thinking about how Mayor Scrolls mentioned Ponyville’s never been on time with it-”

“I... don’t think that’s technically true.”

“Still shut up. So I thought what about suggesting to her that she get in contact with a pony who’s got experience organising vast amounts of ponies, see if she could help.”

Pokey paused. “So… you hope to get her forced into doing something that will end in failure and frustration, just to get back at her.”
“More or less, yeah.”

Pokey nodded at this. “That’s slightly petty. And a little evil.”

Trixie allowed her grin to grow. “I know, right?”

“Better than what I would’ve done, though.” Pokey said nonchalantly. Trixie nodded, and went back to what little work there was left to do (or more accurately, before it hit six o’clock and officially became tomorrow’s business).

Then there seemed to be a long moment where the only sounds Trixie could hear was the shuffle of paperwork, the tick of her clock, the occasional crackle from the fireplace, and Pokey very determinedly not saying anything at all.

“Pokey.” Trixie finally declared, “if I were to ask what you would have done, would it be with the understanding that you had not actually done this already?”

Pokey stared carefully at her, though Trixie saw his eyes dart toward the clock as well. “Maybe.”

Trixie sighed. “What did you do?”

Pokey mumbled something. Trixie smiled a thin smile.

“I didn’t quite catch that.” She said.

“I got one of our top ponies to look at her.”

Trixie felt something twitch. She wasn’t sure what entirely. She just hoped it wasn't a nerve frazzling. “We don’t have “top ponies”.” She said, before she shook her head. “Because we don’t have ponies of any kind. And there is no "we". What are you even talking about, Pokey?”
“I figured you might want somepony to keep an eye on her, so I… kind of, maybe, sort of asked Pinkie Pie to follow her.”

There was a very long time as Trixie absorbed this. “Okay…” she finally managed to say.

She had to at least admit it was a mildly cunning move. There was no way in Tartaros anypony would ever believe she’d hired Pinkie, much less to spy on anyone. Heck, even she wouldn’t believe it.

Twilight heard the chime of the library’s doorbell ringing, as a pony entered. Was it already finishing time? Things had flown past today. And she didn’t need to even look to see who it was, judging by the bright grin on Dinky’s face.

“Momma!” the filly exclaimed, her magical practice immediately forgotten in favour of rushing over to give her mother a hug. Twilight looked to Sweetie Belle and Thesis.

“Well, I suppose we can finish up slightly earlier than usual,” she quipped, looking to the nearby clock, which reliably informed her it was finishing time anyways.
“Hopefully, I’ll see you all here next week.” She said, trying not to sound too hopeful. Sweetie Belle flashed her an uncertain looking smile, and trotted over towards Ditzy. True, there hadn’t been as many foals showed up looking to learn as she would have liked, aside from Dinky, who always turned up, but she was willing to assume they might have been busy, or had maybe just forgotten. She made a note to herself to make another poster to try and solve that problem. Maybe a different font would do the trick, but that just raised the question of which font would work better. Sometimes she wished she had an assistant to help her, but there was only one pony in Ponyville she knew of who’d likely volunteer to be an assistant and… no, that wasn’t an option yet, she told herself. Her thoughts turned to that other universe’s Twilight Sparkle. She’d had her world’s Spike to help her, but according to Trixie nopony had seen or heard from Spike in months. In fact, as near as anyone could tell, she was the last pony to have had any contact with the little dragon.
Her attention returned to Thesis, who was examining the shelves carefully. She noticed Twilight was looking at her, and smiled uncertainly.

“Bye, Miss Twilight.” Dinky declared, waving as she did. Twilight waved back. As Ditzy turned to the door, it opened, and a newcomer entered the library.

Twilight was momentarily taken aback by the dark blue mare who entered. She frowned. She knew it would have happened sooner or later, but she was still surprised by the mystery mare. She just hoped their encounter went better than their first meeting.
Still, she told herself, that wasn’t her fault… for once.

“Oh,” she heard Ditzy exclaim, “excuse me.”

To the mare’s credit, she didn’t seem to notice Ditzy’s strabismus. But Ditzy was definitely staring at her in puzzlement.

“Sorry,” she said, “for a moment there…”

“Yes?” Midnight asked.

“I could’ve sworn you looked like… no matter.”

The mare’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Like whom?”

“Like… well, like Viceroy Night Light.”

Twilight frowned. So did Midnight. As she looked at the dark blue mare, she had to admit that at a surface glance, there was some vague similarity.

But then she dismissed it. Vague similarity didn’t mean anything. And besides, she knew what her dad looked like, and apart from being a blue unicorn, the mare didn’t look anything like him at all.

“Well done, Dame Doo.” Midnight said, dryly.

“For what?” the mailmare asked.

“Normally, most ponies require at least a minute, usually two, before they find a way to insult me.”

“She wasn’t trying to insult you!” Dinky piped up, scowling as furiously as she could manage (which, admittedly, wasn’t much, given her age and inherent Dinky-ness. It was like being scowled at by a kitten. Though from what Twilight had heard, if and when Dinky did get angry, it could take some time for her to calm down).

“Dinky…” Ditzy said, carefully, nudging her foal back before turning back to the mare. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

There was a momentary pause, before the mare shook her head. “No, I gathered. My apologies, Dame Doo. I am just… not enamoured of the Night Court, or any of its constituent members.”

Twilight tried and failed not to let out a snort of irritation at that, even if she could understand where the attitude came from. Ditzy seemed to be of the same mind.

“No harm done, then.” She said cheerfully, before turning to look at Twilight. “Goodnight, Twilight.”

Twilight waved at her, as the mailmare led a still-scowling Dinky and Sweetie Belle out, leaving her alone with the grumpy pony.

“Hello again.” Twilight said, carefully.

“Hello.” Midnight responded, her voice utterly level.

“And how are you?” Twilight ventured.

“Aside from unemployed?” The mare returned. Twilight tried not to scowl herself. It looked like her initial encounter was going to be par for the course.
Then she decided no, she wasn’t going to let it stand. She was going to try.

“Look, I know we didn’t get off on the best first footing-”

“You attempted to talk to me while I was working. I rebuffed you.” Midnight said. There wasn’t any malice in her words, just cold recitation of the facts. Then her expression changed slightly.

“But I am not working now. And judging by my sister’s behaviour,” Twilight turned to see Thesis investigating the history section of the shelves, which she’d been giving a serious working over (if one more pony stared blankly at her when she mentioned Star-Swirl the Bearded, she wasn’t certain what she’d do. Probably give them a no-holds barred lecture), “we are likely to encounter one another more often. So for some sense of harmony, I do apologize.”

Twilight murmured at that (and the use of the word sister). It didn’t sound much like an apology to her.

“Why in Equestria was Shining friends with you?” she found herself asking.

At that, the mare actually looked taken aback, and glanced away from her. “Captain Armor… tends to see the best in everypony. Or tries to, at any rate.” Her gaze returned to Twilight, “though I suspect in me he also saw something else.”

Twilight felt a knot in her stomach, if the mare was suggesting what she thought she was suggesting.

“He spoke of you a lot.” Midnight continued. “Even before you graduated. Usually in the context of how proud he was of your accomplishments. It could be… aggravating, sometimes.”

“Sounds kind of sweet to me.” Both mares turned to look at Thesis, who was looking through a particularly large book she’d found. After a moment, she looked up and stared right back at them. “What?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Time to go home, little one.” Midnight said. Thesis stood up, and trotted over towards the mare.

“Don’t forget your book.” Twilight said. At that, the filly stopped and looked back to the book sheepishly, scurrying over to it and back.

“And you’re absolutely sure I can’t persuade you to take another book?” Twilight offered. “I would suggest something like the Ace of Clover books, but… those might be a little advanced for your age. How about Daring Do?”

Thesis’s face scrunched up in thought. “Maybe?” she ventured. Twilight grinned in triumph, and trotted over to where the Daring Do books were kept.

“You don’t really have to read these in any particular order,” she said, picking out one book (which she was amazed to note was in fact the first book, right next to the second, which itself was next to the third. Evidently nopony had been near that shelf since the last time she'd reordered it), “but I’d still suggest starting with the first anyway.”
For a moment, the reader in her had to fight down the urge to not recommend the second book. She was meant to be working as a librarian, not a literary critic.

“Just remember to bring it back before the expiry date. Sorry,” she said, on seeing Thesis’s expression, “library rules.”

“You’re being very quiet.” Midnight said, as the two ponies walked home.

“Just thinking.” Thesis replied. Some of it had been thinking about the books she’d taken out. She’d been wanting to read one then and there, but it was too dark to do that. And there was a likelihood she’d walk into something if she tried anyway.

“What did you make of Sparkle’s magic lessons?”

Thesis frowned as she thought about it. “It was okay.” She said. “But a lot of it was just stuff I already knew. I know how to levitate things.”

“I suspect Sparkle’s tutoring is rudimentary for a reason, not least because she is dealing with foals in a confined space which does not belong to her. Recall the devastation your early spellcasting caused.”

“I guess.” Thesis murmured.

“And there weren’t very many of you there. She likely felt it would be unfair to those that didn’t attend.”

“Yeah.” That did make sense to Thesis.

“Did you know all that stuff about her grandmothers?” she asked.

“I assume you mean the matter of the Griffon king and the coup?” Midnight replied, “yes. Much of it is a matter of historical record.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I did say I wasn’t much of a storyteller. And, as I’m sure you heard me remark to Dame Doo, I am not enamoured of the Night Court. And it did give you an opportunity to talk with Sparkle.” She added after a moment.

“I didn’t really talk with her. She talked at me.” Thesis murmured, then she saw her sister staring at something behind them. “What is it?” she asked.

“I thought I saw something…” Midnight frowned, “no matter.”

Thesis looked behind them, and aside from the street lights, and in the distance one of the town weather patrol nudging a cloud along, she saw nothing.

“I don’t think you look like Twilight’s dad.” She said, after a moment. Midnight gave her a look.

“But you’ve never met him.”

“Well…” Thesis frowned. Why had she said that? She’d never met him, and now that she thought about it, she didn’t know what he looked like, beyond apparently not looking like Twilight Sparkle. “No,” she admitted.

“But I still think you look like Twilight Sparkle.”

Midnight suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Then she made a very odd face, shook her head and her pace quickened. Thesis began trotting faster to keep up with her. Strangely enough, she could’ve sworn she smelled something burning.

Ponyville was a town of unusual sights, and after a while, a pony living there learned to live with such things. They became almost routine.
For example, if somepony saw an abnormally large bale of hay moving about, only occasionally stopping and murmuring to itself, such a sight would be utterly normal to a Ponyvillian, and they wouldn’t look twice at it (not even to wonder where a bale of hay had come from in the middle of winter, much less how it had gained the power of speech). In fact, most of them probably wouldn’t even look at it once.
After all, there would be only one explanation, and that was that it was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, and therefore nothing to worry about.
… well, probably. Pinkie Pie’s antics could be worrying sometimes. But so far nopony had been seriously hurt.
In the darkness, the bale of hay moved after the pair of ponies leaving the town library, sticking to the shadows and alleyways as much as a bale of hay could (that is to say, not much).
Occasionally, there would be muffled scratchings, as if somepony was writing something down, and even more occasionally, a pair of binoculars would pop out from one side.
“Observation of subject Equus Midnighticus continues…”

It was getting late, and cold, and so Thesis decided to wrap herself up under her bedsheets, and looked at the book Twilight Sparkle had recommended she take out. She’d been uncertain about reading it, but also she’d been busy with dinner and homework and reading the book on names, so she hadn’t really gotten around to it yet. All she’d done so far was take a look at the cover. She was just about to start when Midnight appeared at her door.

“It’s nearly bedtime, little one.” The mare said, before stopping. “Though I see this might be redundant.”

Thesis just shrugged. “I was just gonna try reading this book.” She explained.

“Daring Do.” Midnight said, looking at the cover. “Written by Professor Yearling.”

There was another odd look on her sister’s face. “Do you know her?”

“No.” Midnight said, “I’ve never met her. I did try, once, but…”
She seemed to be staring at something. Thesis waited for her to finish whatever she was saying, but she just continued staring.

“Are you okay?” Thesis asked. Midnight shook her head.

“Sorry, little one, I was just thinking about…” suddenly her expression turned harsh, “it doesn’t matter.” She looked at the book. “If you like, I could read it to you.”

“Really?” Thesis asked.

“I would like to. But it’s up to you, if you would prefer I left you alone.”

“No.” She said quickly, “but you said you weren’t much of a storyteller.”
“As I am certain Sparkle no doubt said, practice makes perfect.”

Thesis hummed. Twilight Sparkle had in fact said that earlier today. So she adjusted herself as Midnight opened the book.

“Daring Do, by A.K. Yearling.” Midnight began. “Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth. If you, as a reader, are interested in truth, then there are many books on philosophy available at your nearest library or bookstore which I could recommend. Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library, either research or reading. Very rarely does it involve fights or dramatic adventures or chases.”

After a moment’s pause, Midnight continued. “To my fellow archaeologists – I am very sorry.”

“What does that mean?” Thesis found herself asking.

“Professor Yearling has something of a reputation among the professional archaeological circles.” Midnight stated. “She does not get invited to many parties. Anyway…” she coughed, “Chapter one…”

“Daring Do?” Diamond Tiara asked, her voice rising slightly in that odd way she did sometimes.

Thesis nodded, and went back to her peanut butter and tomato sandwich. The pink earth pony made yet another disapproving face, but not nearly as much as the one Silver Spoon was making behind her.

Apparently Diamond Tiara had decided she was speaking to Thesis again today, and had taken advantage of the fact she was eating by herself to approach her. Conversation had turned to last night’s reading, which Diamond had actually seemed confused by to begin with (and she’d gotten really weird, even by her standards, when Thesis had asked if her mother or father ever read to her).

“I don’t like those books.” Silver Spoon declared. There was a momentary flicker of something on Diamond Tiara’s face, but it was gone.

“My mother disapproves of them.” The pink filly sniffed. “She says they’re unrealistic and they encourage bad habits.”

There was something in the way Diamond said this that suggested she didn’t agree with this entirely.

“I liked it.” Thesis murmured, in-between a mouthful of tomato slices. Though some of it had sounded pretty alarming, such as what happened to Do’s guide after he turned on her, or the giant ball nearly crushing her, and the jerk Dr Cabelleron getting away. That had irritated her a lot, especially when her sister had explained carefully that nobody got him, at any point in the book, and that he got away. This hadn’t felt right to Thesis, and she had complained, until her sister had suggested that maybe if that was the case they should’ve stopped for the night.

“Well…” Diamond Tiara said, the words hanging there, and she made a face again. “I suppose there are worse things to like.”

Before Thesis could ask what exactly those things were, Silver Spoon made another face. “It’s just so dumb, all the running around and fighting and getting attacked by cats. Who enjoys that?”

“Scootaloo?” Thesis suggested. Diamond suddenly looked like she’d sat on something she shouldn’t have.

“Yes, well…” she coughed, “she would.”

“Does Scootaloo even read books?” Silver Spoon inquired.

“My dad reads ‘em to me.” Diamond Tiara yelped, and jumped around at the sound of Scootaloo’s voice from behind her.

“Don’t sneak up on us like that!”

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you.” The orange and purple filly scowled. “We’re in the middle of the playground. You just weren’t paying attention.”

Thesis had to agree with that. It was hard to imagine Scootaloo sneaking up on anyone ever, even if she wasn’t bright orange.

“What did you want?” Diamond snapped.

“I was gonna talk to Thesis. That okay with you, or do I need a permission slip or something?”

“You can do whatever you like.” Diamond Tiara sniffed again (she’d been doing that a lot today, now that Thesis thought about it), her eyes darting away. “I don’t care.”

Scootaloo stared at her, and shook her head. “Whatever.” She looked at Thesis. “Y’ wanna hang out with us?” She nodded towards a small group of the other foals.

“We were talking.” Diamond Tiara declared.

Thesis said nothing. She’d run out of sandwich, so she couldn’t pretend to be interested in it, and she’d left her books in her saddlebag inside the classroom, so that just left looking between the two fillies (well, three, she supposed, but Silver Spoon did seem excluded from the argument at the moment). Scootaloo’s wings were spread out, like she was prepared for a fight. Thesis wasn’t even sure if Diamond could fight, but from what she gathered, it would’ve been a short one.

“Sure you were.” Scootaloo snorted.

“You could just come hang out with us.” Thesis offered, before Diamond could say something in response. Diamond and Silver Spoon exchanged a look, and then Diamond Tiara snorted.

“No, thank you. C’mon, Silver Spoon.” The two marched off from the bench, not even stopping to look back once. Thesis just felt more confused, especially given she’d assumed Diamond had wanted to talk with her. Diamond Tiara seemed to have that effect on her.

“Daring Do, huh?” Scootaloo asked, once they were gone. “They’re pretty cool. Did you get to the bit with the heads yet?”

“Heads?” Thesis asked. Scootaloo had an unnerving grin on her face, which made her want to take a step back, or possibly several.

“Yeah, there’s this real cool bit where these guys heads…” Scootaloo stopped, and frowned quizzically at her. “You, uh, hadn’t got to that part, had you?”

Thesis shook her head. “Why? What happens?”

Scootaloo’s wings twitched, and she suddenly looked ahead. “Oh, hey, Dinky!” With that, she trotted away.

“What happens to their heads?” Thesis asked, but the filly just increased her pace. “Scootaloo!”

Out on the edges of Ponyville, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, a shape made its way through the undergrowth of the wild, untamed forest, moving carefully so as not to be seen. This was somewhat redundant, as there wasn’t anypony about to see them, the ponies of Ponyville usually staying as far away from the forest as they could, but nonetheless, they made the effort, just in case.

The last time Zecora had come near the town, her attempts to serve Queen Celestia had been inadvertently interrupted by Trixie, and it wasn’t an experience she hoped to repeat, for more than one reason. Also, Celestia had been quite adamant on her servants staying away from Ponyville for the time being, a position Zecora agreed with.

But… there were other matters that had drawn her attention to the town, ones she knew her queen would understand once Zecora explained them to her. It was just an irritant that between the exploration of Spellhold and several other matters, she’d been unable to attend to it sooner.

And it troubled her. Her gaze wasn’t always entirely reliable, especially not in the last year or so. Something was coming, she knew that much, and Celestia was required to face it, but there was something else… something now centered on Ponyville, and she had to know what. And if that meant getting closer to the town, so be it.

Her careful bustling stopped, when an incredibly important fact became apparent to her: She couldn’t move her legs.

After a moment, she realized it was worse. She couldn’t move her entire body, save her eyes. She’d actually walked into a trap.

Zecora wasn’t given to undue panic. She knew there was little to be concerned about, she knew, knew down in her heart that her path had a destination she had not yet been led to, helping Celestia regain her throne, and it would not be easily deterred.

But that didn’t change she was in a trap, right in front of a town of ponies who would have every reason to want her either dead or imprisoned, and she had no means of escaping.

Meaning she was reliant on whoever it was that had set the trap coming for her, and that they would be merciful.
It couldn’t have been any of the Element Bearers, they weren’t the type, and the traps lying around the fringes of Ponyville were usually those designed for timberwolves, set by the town’s farmers, as she’d learned in the days before she’d helped free Celestia, navigating the forest before finding the abandoned castle. Had she stepped in one of those traps, she would’ve known about it (not that she actually would’ve stepped in one, since they were easy to spot, if you weren’t a timberwolf).

It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of grass being trampled.

“What’s this?” a voice called out, that of a young stallion, and one that was likely smiling smugly, if she was any guess, “a zebra, very far from home. How interesting.”

There was a trotting of hooves, but the pony didn’t come into view. “Nice to meet you, Zecora. What brings you back to Ponyville?”

“I sensed a burst of power, born of flame at witching hour. But no alicorn do I see, only that which was not meant to be.”

Suddenly, things seemed to get a lot quieter, all the more unnerving since it had not been terribly loud around them to begin with.
“Why do I get the feeling you are not talking about Thesis with that last part?” the voice intoned, an undercurrent of barely restrained anger very audible in there.

Zecora said nothing. Then she heard the tsking sound.

“What am I to do with you, Zecora? I’m in a bind here. I have my own arrangement with Celestia, and your absence would cast an awkward and unpleasant pall on our meetings. I can’t get rid of you. Especially when it would mean leaving Celestia with that maniac Kindle.” There was a hum. “I supposed I could erase your memories, but… no, that would leave its own problems, and sooner or later either you’d notice or Celestia certainly would. Assuming, of course, you haven’t some preventive measures to stop anyone rummaging around in there.” Zecora felt a hoof press against the side of her head. She wanted to kick at the offending limb, but that was impossible.

“But I don’t feel remotely safe with you getting back to your boss with news of what you’ve found.”

Zecora felt a jab of alarm at the words.

“Tricky, tricky…”

In the skies overheard, Zecora could see two pegasi lazily flying around, moving some of Ponyville’s clouds into a more favourable position, while keeping an eye on the Everfree's own clouds, though they didn’t seem to notice her at that moment. She wasn’t sure how long that would last, though.

“You show respect by using the queen’s true name, but I suspect our goals are not the same.”

“Well…” he said, “not exactly, no. But I do have a vested interest in Celestia regaining her throne and making up with Luna. Preferably with a minimum of chaos and violence.”

There was a long silence, the only sound being furious trampling, evidently the pony pacing back and forth, and the occasional irritated snort.

“Alright,” he eventually said, “I have a proposal, Zecora.”

Zecora tried not to scoff. She was reliant on the mercy of a being who knew more of her than she of him. Her only hope at the moment was that they were going to keep their word, and they actually were pretending to give her a choice. It wasn’t anything to go on.

“I am willing to let you go free. No tricks, no terms, no conditions but this: Don’t tell Celestia about Thesis, and don’t let me catch you again. If you get a better offer than that, by all means, take it. But, and I want to make this abundantly clear, this is with the understanding that if someone comes looking to take the alicorn foal, if there’s even the slightest whiff of Kindle in this town, then the Element Bearers get led right to Celestia’s lair.”

Zecora looked skyward. The two pegasi appeared to be chatting with one another.

She had seen the future. She knew what was. But what was could change, if one wasn’t careful. Celestia was needed, she was needed, and Celestia needed her. There was no other choice, then.

She nodded.

“Excellent.” He said. There was a strange humming sound, and Zecora stumbled as her legs were freed from the trap. She immediately whirled around, preparing for an attack of some kind.
There was no-one there.

For several seconds, nothing at all continued to happen.

After a moment’s careful consideration, and a look back toward where the two pegasi were, Zecora began carefully, yet speedily, making her way away from Ponyville as fast as her legs could take her.

Thesis was a little suspicious at the end of the day, when Cheerilee motioned for her as everypony else was filing out. Especially since she had a very good guess as to what the teacher wanted to speak to her about.

“I can’t help but notice you didn’t hand in your homework.” The mulberry coloured mare said. Thesis felt her stomach drop. There was no point denying it, though.

“I didn’t do it.” Thesis said. Suddenly, Cheerilee made a particularly strange face at her.

“May I ask why?”

It suddenly occurred to her that Cheerilee was standing incredibly still, but her tail was flicking back and forth tremendously.
It also occurred to her that saying anything was probably dangerous, but the words came out anyway.

“I... didn’t feel like it?”

Cheerilee’s tail flicked back and forth even more, but her expression remained exactly the same.
“I see.” She said.

Thesis looked towards the door, and wondered whether she would be able to make it before Cheerilee could stop her.

“I wouldn’t.” Cheerilee’s voice cut in. None of her usual cheer was present. This was something else, something cold and harsh. Which, all things considered, didn’t make the prospect of running any less appealing. Thesis could feel a build-up of magic in her horn, like part of her wanted to cast some magic. Then Cheerilee sighed. “Look, Thesis, you’re not in trouble now. I can understand not wanting to do your homework, but you do understand why that’s wrong, don’t you?”

Thesis murmured something.

“I’m going to assume that was a yes.” Cheerilee frowned, “and that we won’t need to follow up on this conversation with your sister.”

Thesis looked into Cheerilee’s eyes. After only a second, she had to move her gaze to Cheerilee’s ear. She thought back to what her sister had said the other day, about not wanting to go up against Cheerilee. Suddenly, she thought she had an understanding of why Midnight had said that.

“Y’s.” She managed to squeak out. Cheerilee smiled at that.

“Good. That’s all I need to hear.”

Thesis turned and hurried out of the door, before the teacher could say anything else. Outside, most of the other foals had already gone. Her sister was waiting there, but as she approached, she noticed immediately something was different about the mare.

“You did something to your mane.” She observed.

For one thing, she looked significantly less like Twilight Sparkle, with much of her hair, which had been allowed to fall around her neck, now kept in a bun.

“Yes.” Midnight said, running a hoof through her fringe, about the only part of her mane that had remained unchanged. “Too many ponies have said I resemble Twilight Sparkle. Some change was in order.”

“I don’t like it.” Thesis said instantly.

Midnight just scowled at her for a moment. “And how was your day?”

Thesis’s gaze flitted back towards the schoolhouse. “Fine.” Scootaloo hadn’t actually told her what happened with the heads in the Daring Do book, and it was still bothering her.

“You were later than the other foals in leaving. Was something wrong?”

“Just had a talk with Miss Cheerilee. About stuff.” Thesis said. “That’s all.”

“Not talking with you about forgetting to do your homework?”

Thesis froze mid-step. “You knew?” she squeaked.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you do something?”

“I am your sister. It’s my job to look after you. But you chose not to do that homework, yes?”

Thesis looked down at the ground. “Maybe.”

“And now you have an understanding of the consequences?”

“Maybe.”

“So, are you going to do your homework tonight?”

She was about to say “maybe” again, when she looked up at her sister’s face, and saw the expression on it. “Yes.”

“Alright, then.” Midnight said. “Lesson learned.”

The two walked along in silence, Thesis occasionally trying to glower at her sister. She couldn’t help but feel that the lesson could’ve been taught in a less terrifying way.

“In Canterlot, when Lulamoon was younger, Luna had an unofficial edict. You see, Lulamoon would often use her talents with illusion to impersonate ponies, not least the Princess herself. Her Majesty’s response was to instruct any pony who saw through these illusions to inform her as to what it was she had gotten wrong.”

Thesis thought about this for a moment. “So… she wanted ponies to be a bad influence on Trixie?”

“She preferred the term “creative influence”.”

“And did you tell her?” Thesis asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, if a pony doesn’t recognise the difference between a Canterlot accent and a Lunesianan accent even after several years of living there, there’s no helping them.”

There was a momentary pause. “Also, the frustrated expression on Lulamoon’s face when she realised she’d been discovered was mildly amusing.”

It was occurring to Thesis that there was something different about Midnight, and had been over the last few days. She hadn’t been entirely certain, but now she was, and it was worrying her.

“Are you feeling alright?” she asked. Her sister gave her another odd look.

“I…” she began. “I’ve spent the last eight years having to be… somepony else. Having to deal with Canterlot politics, compose myself in certain ways. Act in certain ways. And now I am free of those constraints, I’m trying to figure out just who I am. Trying to work out just who Midnight really is. If that makes sense.”

Thesis thought about this for a moment.
“Nope.”

“No,” Midnight said, “I suppose it wouldn’t.”

It was late, and technically Thesis was supposed to be in bed and asleep. She was definitely in bed, but as for asleep…
She’d waited until Midnight had finished up Daring Do for the night (and right when things had been getting exciting, as well), listened for the sound of her going into her own bedroom, and then turned the light back on, and gotten the book back out again.

It had been several chapters, but so far, she hadn’t seen anything happening to anyone’s head (except for the part where a cat tried to jump on Daring’s head, but Thesis was pretty sure that wasn’t what Scootaloo had meant).

As Daring got into a fight on top of a train, as the bad guys were getting away with the treasure she’d been after, Thesis found herself yawning. She looked over at the clock on her bedside table. It was after eleven now. Which, she supposed, explained why she felt so tired. She looked back at the book, to see how far along she was. There wasn’t that much of the book left, since she was more than halfway through. She frowned, part of her wanting to keep going, but it was hard to argue with the parts of her that really, really wanted to get to sleep, which were putting up a convincing argument.
Trying to take note of the page she was on, she set it down, and curled up under her sheets.

When she dreamed, she dreamed of chasing Dr. Caballeron through dark alleyways, until he turned into a pirate and threw a cat at her.
And after that, it got weird.

Author's Notes:

A light and fluffy chapter of worldbuilding, character moments and foreshadowing (both clumsy and regular, but mostly the former).
Mainly because I wanted one chapter where Thesis / New Name Here doesn't have something upsetting happen to her.

Waaay back in chapter 3, in the Before Times, it was established Twilight's grandma was named Twilight Twinkle.
Meanwhile, over in "Voice of the Sun", her grandmother was named Sparkling Sky.
The solution? Twilight Has (or had) >2 Grandmothers.
Also, tying "Sun"'s mention that said grandma made a diplomatic snafu with the griffons with "Elements of Insanity" mentioning that Twilight's great-grandmother was respected by that shady old bat Puissance while Twilight Velvet ain't.
... no, I don't think this is overthinking this. Whatever makes you say that?

The pony pirate Black Flag is based on Black Bart Roberts, with what might be a tiny bit of Anne Bonny thrown in.
Except the stuff about fighting a pony princess. And the kraken. The kraken's all Pipsqueak.

Interlude: Raindrops and Cloud Kicker

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Somewhere, there was a distant buzzing noise. After a moment, Raindrops realised it was her alarm going off. With an irritated grunt, she lifted a hoof out from her bedsheets and fumbled around until she managed to find the offending source of the unwelcome noise. There was a satisfying click, but by then Raindrops realised it was far too late. She was wide awake, and that meant it was time to get up.
She got out of bed, checking her footsteps just to make absolutely sure none of Snail’s insect friends were underhoof. It wasn’t something that had happened yet, aside from that one time they’d broken containment and wound up in her bed, but better safe than sorry. Apart from anything else, the last thing she wanted to wake up to was something going crunch.
She made her way into the small kitchen-slash-dining room to find her parents already there, though using the word awake to describe her father was probably stretching the term a little, given he always seemed half asleep anyways. Her mother was bustling about, as she always did.
“Good morning, sweetie.” Shutterbug grinned an infectiously cheerful smile, “did you sleep alright?”
Raindrops hadn’t quite reached full awoken status yet, so she simply responded with an affirmative grunt. But Shutterbug grinned regardless.
“That’s nice. Oh, by the way,” she said, “I packed you some lunch.” She gestured towards the kitchen, where Raindrops could see sitting on the surface of the counter a brown paper bag, and which had helpfully been labelled with her name.
“Thanks.” Raindrops managed to get out.
“You’re welcome.” Her mother smiled, before bustling off, presumably to nudge Snails into getting up.
“What’ve you got on today?” Dewdrops asked, as Raindrops fixed herself some breakfast.
“Work, same as usual.” Raindrops replied, hopeful. It had been a relatively quiet few days for Ponyville, the little incident with the crazies aside, and Raindrops wanted to keep up that streak for as long as possible. Dewdrops just chuckled at that.
“Have fun.” He said, before going back to his paper.

It wasn’t that far from the house to Ponyville’s weather station, a mere few minutes flight for Raindrops, long enough to get the cobwebs out of her head. By the time she got there, she noticed some of her coworkers showing up as well, at least those who hadn’t been working the night shift, those ponies with the unglamorous job of making sure the Everfree’s particularly unpredictable weather didn’t ruin somepony’s morning. There was Airheart, wearing her scarf and flying helmet, as well as Blue Skies, who was happily singing some tune to himself. Inside, in the main room of the weather station, Flitter and Cloud Chaser were already there, busying themselves with something, likely looking over the work assignments for the day. That meant Cloud Kicker was already around somewhere, probably going over the schedule a dozen times. And naturally, Rainbow Dash wasn’t there.
Raindrops felt a small bite of irritation at that one, though she and everyone on the patrol would have admitted Rainbow Dash had been getting better the last few months, and would say as much to anyone who criticised her… though this wasn’t the most glowing endorsement ever.
“Morning, Rainy.” Flitter called out. Raindrops nodded back. She made her way to the break room, so she could stash her mom-made sandwiches, before returning to the main office, where some of the night shift were beginning to clock off.
“Quiet night?” she asked. Thunderlane looked over at her, and shrugged.
“Pretty quiet.” He said, “though we did see Pinkie Pie following somepony out jogging at about seven-ish this morning.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Thought I was just hallucinating when I saw a bale of hay moving about, till Squall told me he saw it as well.”
Raindrops raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why Pinkie Pie was following somepony, especially that early in the morning. There probably was a reason, though whether it made sense to anyone else was likely a toss-up, and it was too early to play that particular game.
“Also, apparently Cloudsdale got back about Harsh Gale.” Squall chimed in.
“What did they say?” Blue Skies asked. Not that anyone needed to guess the answer.
Harsh Gale was one of the biggest problems Ponyville’s weather patrol faced, right after the Everfree, Rainbow Dash, monster attacks, and the Everfree again. A pegasus colt from Hoofington with a knack for causing havoc and infuriating scads of paperwork for all involved, the only thing that kept Harsh Gale out of the most fiendish and well-designed prison Equestria had was the somewhat significant hurdle of not existing at all.
Not that this seemed to slow him down very much. But he was tremendously useful if somepony, say, misplaced a storm cloud, or if something got smashed or broken, or someone (and no-one was naming names) accidentally wrote down the wrong thing because they’d not fully woken up from their nap and nopony had noticed before it was too late and suddenly the town had a hailstorm instead of a lovely afternoon’s sunshine. There had been many a confused and irritated letter from the higher-ups in Cloudsdale asking why nopony had been able to catch the colt, whose ability to elude even the tightest of nets was becoming the stuff of legend, and eventually he’d been shipped off to elsewhere by his family. That the ponies in Cloudsdale had started asking some serious questions might’ve prompted this drastic measure, but who was to say?
But a few days prior, some ponies had ‘borrowed’ a few clouds to deal with some crazies running around the town, and Harsh Gale had briefly returned, apparently having snuck out of the flight camp for criminally wayward youths he’d been sent to.
Not that Raindrops would admit to knowing anything about that.
Before the conversation could go further, there was a sudden whistle.
“Alright, ponies,” Cloud Kicker called out, motioning for them to pay attention to her, “everypony here who’s meant to be here?”
“Everyone but you know who.” Airheart called out. The look on Cloud Kicker’s face was impossible to miss.
“A-alright,” she declared, gamely solving the problem of Rainbow Dash’s absence by apparently ignoring it altogether, “assignments are written up on the board.” She nodded towards the large board taking up one of the walls, next to the maps of Ponyville and the Everfree and the schedule for the week’s weather. “Nothing exciting today, keep the weather as-is. Clouds and light showers of snow, but we’re not resurfacing anything today. A-any problems, you come talk to me. Now get to it.”

As might be expected from her name, Raindrops liked rain. She loved rain. She adored rain. The others in the weather patrol liked to joke that if she had her way, it would probably rain every day, until Ponyville was underwater or she was forbidden from going near a cloud again. Which was, Raindrops felt, just a little unfair. She liked rain, yes, but she wasn’t weird about it.
Usually.
In Raindrops’s eyes, snow was almost as good as rain, and maybe, maybe in some small aspects, better. So she had no problem moving about some snow clouds if need be. It was generally slow work, but it beat kicking stray clouds from the Everfree. Cloud Kicker was one of the few ponies in Ponyville who actually enjoyed doing that.
As she and Airheart and Blue Skies worked, the later sung, as he always did while working. And it was the way Blue Skies sung that, sooner or later, everypony else who was nearby would likely start joining in. Or at the very least get whatever he was singing stuck in their head for the rest of the day.
It was after about an hour before Airheart noticed something, and motioned to Skies, who got Raindrops’ attention. She looked around to see Cloud Kicker flying toward them.
“Morning, Kicker.” Blue Skies called out. Evidently Cloud was wrapped up in her own thoughts, as she jolted at the words.
“Hey.” She called back.
“You decided to join us today?” Airheart asked.
“M-maybe, a little.” Cloud said, trying to smile. Raindrops took that to mean Rainbow Dash probably hadn’t shown up yet, otherwise Cloud would’ve been busy trying to fill her in on the day’s schedule, and any of the forms she needed to sign off on.
The deputy weather manager got to work with the others, carefully helping move the clouds and keep the snow mixture steady. It was long and slow work that would probably take up most of the morning at least.
“So,” Raindrops heard Airheart call out, “Kicker, how’d the other night go?”
Cloud Kicker’s cheeks turned red, and she mumbled something to herself, suddenly looking more interested in the cloud than anything else. And while looking at the clouds was technically their job, no-one could look that interested in clouds. Airheart winced.
“That bad, huh?”
It was one of the worst kept secrets among the weather patrol that Cloud Kicker had something of a crush on Blossomforth, a pegasus mare who had a small shop in Ponyville where she sold perfume. It was probably known to most of Ponyville as well. Possibly even beyond, especially if Pinkie Pie knew. About the only pony who probably didn’t know was Blossomforth herself, because Cloud Kicker seemed incapable of talking to her (which more than once had made Raindrops wonder how the crush had arisen in the first place, but she’d never pried).
“I was going to.” Kicker murmured, as she nudged at the cloud with her hoof, though carefully, “but it just…”
Airheart nodded, not unsympathetically, as Kicker trailed off, while Raindrops tried not to wince herself. That might have been because there was more than one part of her that wanted to see Cloud Kicker finally work up the nerve to talk to Blossomforth. Partly because Kicker was her friend, and she wanted her to be happy, but also for other, much less noble reasons. Such as thinking they’d be very cute together.
“C’mon,” Kicker said, “back to work. Unless you wanna talk about Raindrops’ love life instead.”
“I don’t have a love live.” Raindrops said quickly.
“Well, that was fast.” Cloud Kicker smirked, but only for a moment. “Sorry, that was mean.”
Raindrops just snorted. Anypony else, she might’ve responded by getting angry, but with Cloud Kicker it was like kicking a dog.
Okay, she was a little angry, but she wasn’t going to do anything about it, besides maybe direct it at a few clouds.
“Know what you’d go for.” Blue Skies said, grinning. “I’ve seen those books you’ve brought to the lunch room.”
“We’ve all seen ‘em.” Airheart said.
“Anyone see if these clouds have any lightning in them?” Raindrops asked, knowing full well what the answer was. It had only been the one time she’d brought one of those books into the lunch room, and it hadn’t even been one of the more salacious ones. She’d figured it wouldn’t have been worth commenting upon, let alone for months and months afterwards, but apparently not.
“C-C’mon now,” Cloud spoke up, “leave Rainy alone, less you want to be cleaning out graupel tonight.”
That quietened up Airheart and Blue, and the two got back to work. Raindrops looked to Cloud Kicker, who tried looking nonchalant as she resumed working herself, which didn’t quite work, especially since Raindrops could see she was fighting down a small smile.
A short time later, as they were working, Raindrops saw Thunderlane show up and say something to Cloud Kicker, but from the way her face fell, it was easy to guess what that was, as she turned and headed back toward the weather station.

Eventually, the group managed to get their assigned work done, and began flitting back to Ponyville’s weather station for lunch break.
Raindrops made her way to her usual table with her bags, and saw Flitter grinning as she sat down.
“Momiches?” The mare asked. “That is so sweet.”
Raindrops snorted, as she removed the sandwich from its specially folded paper bag and prepared to eat.
“Don’t knock it.” Airheart said to her co-worker, “I wish my mom made me sandwiches.”
Raindrops short a glare in her direction, but the mare raised her hooves. “No, no, I mean it. It’s kind of adorable.”
Flitter frowned. “Your mom doesn’t even live in Ponyville.”
“Yeah,” Airheart conceded, “that is a problem.”
“Do you mind?” Raindrops asked.
“Sorry,” the two grinned, though not maliciously, and Raindrops went back to her sandwich, for a moment. Then she heard it, the sound of raised voices.
“The hay is that?” Flitter murmured, her ears twitching. Airheart, normally one of the more cheerful ponies in the weather patrol, sighed. She knew, Flitter knew, and Raindrops knew.
Without a word, Raindrops got up and marched out of the lunch room to the main room, where the unmistakable sound of arguing was coming from.
In the center of the room, Rainbow Dash was squared off against Cloud Kicker. It was supposed to be lunch time, so where there would normally have been at least a dozen or so pegasuses flitting about, instead there were slightly less, all with tickets to the show, though a lot of them looked torn between intervening or looking away. It was a Pegasus thing to flock together when there was a problem, even without the endless talks about team spirit they received from Rainbow and Cloud, but it was different when the problem was the bosses looking like they were one wrong sentence from tearing each other apart. Raindrops frowned and moved closer to the nearest pony.
“What caused it this time?” she asked. Sunlight looked at her, and just shrugged hopelessly.
“Hay if I know.” The mare admitted, “just one minute they’re talking, and then…” she gestured at the sight in front of them.
Actually, Raindrops wasn’t sure if it was a sight anymore. This was something else entirely. Rainbow and Cloud had argued several times before over the last few months, but this time it seemed angrier.
“- with the way you’re doing things!” Cloud Kicker was yelling.
“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash snorted.
“You’re never here, and when you are here, I have to clean up your messes!”
“That’s not true!”
Raindrops marched across the room, putting herself between the two of them.
“C’mon, you two. Knock it off. Let's just take a deep breath and calm down, shall we?” She said, looking between the two mares. As she looked closer, Raindrops saw that Cloud was trembling all over, and she wasn’t sure if it was anger or terror or both. But whatever was fuelling her motivated her to keep going.
“You’re a j-joke of a weather manager! You’ve only got the job via sucking up to the higher-ups in Cloudsdale, and you can’t even do it right!”
Rainbow Dash stopped. When she spoke again, it was with an alarming calm. “You know what? Maybe you shouldn’t come in tomorrow. Or the day after.”
Cloud Kicker’s jaw dropped, and her wings fluttered, her stunned expression mirrored on several of the ponies watching.
“You…” she said in a tiny voice, “I… you…” Then she scowled furiously, a sight so alien to Kicker’s features it just looked wrong. “You know what? Fine! I’m out of here! I QUIT!”
With that, Cloud Kicker turned and marched out of the weather station, slamming the door so furiously it was amazing it didn’t fall off its hinges. There was a long terrible silence, as Rainbow Dash stood there. After a moment, she came back to herself, and glowered at the room.
“What are you bums looking at? Get back to work!”
With that, she herself turned and stormed off towards the small room that theoretically served as her office.
“I can’t believe she did that.” Sunlight said, at just above a whisper.
Raindrops couldn’t believe it either. A part of her wanted to go after Cloud Kicker, but then she found herself moving towards Rainbow Dash’s office, not even bothering to knock as she entered.
She had been winding up to yell at Rainbow Dash, but the sight she saw on entry made her stop. Rainbow was, for once, actually behind her desk, stacked with any number of forms and notices, though not as much as most tended to expect. Mainly because of Cloud Kicker, in fact. It was a joke among the weather patrol, when they were certain Rainbow Dash wasn’t in earshot, that without Kicker, Rainbow’s paperwork would’ve probably taken up the entire room, or even come to life and try to attack her.
Presently she was frowning, but she was also slumped down. She looked… actually, if Raindrops had to pick a word, she’d have said exhausted, and that wasn’t something that could be easily said of Rainbow Dash.
“You here to yell at me?” she asked, with none of her usual bombast.
“That was the plan, yeah.” Raindrops admitted. Rainbow Dash nodded glumly.
“G’head.”
Raindrops had to take a moment, as her train of thought found itself hitting the brakes hard.
“What were you thinking, firing Cloud Kicker?” Raindrops demanded, though she was surprised there was less anger behind it than she’d have thought. Then she saw the look Rainbow Dash was giving her, and she got a horrible sinking feeling.
“Fire her?” Rainbow asked incredulously, “I wasn’t going to fire her.”
“You just had a screaming match in the middle of the office.”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash’s wings flared, “that wasn’t me. Kicks just started in on me for no reason.”
“No, she didn’t.” Raindrops said, before she could even think of stopping herself. Rainbow’s wings flared again, dislodging some pieces of paper as they did.
“Alright,” she snapped, “so I was late, again, but I had a good reason. I just asked her a few questions, next thing I know she’s screaming at me.”
“What were you doing?” Raindrops asked.
Suddenly, Rainbow’s face scrunched up, her indignation now starting to fade. “I wuz…” she trailed off into mumbling.
“Sorry?” Raindrops found herself asking.
“I stopped by Fluttershy’s house to help her with some stuff, and it took longer’n I was expecting. Okay? You happy? Wasn’t just that I overslept this time.”
“So what about telling Cloud not to come in tomorrow?”
“I just thought she’d been under a lot of stress lately, so I…” A look of realization dawned on Rainbow Dash’s face that made Raindrops want to wince. “Oh. Oh. Ohh.”
She tapped her forehooves together. “Ponyfeathers.”
Raindrops took a deep breath, and then several more for good measure, visions of smacking Rainbow Dash upside the head swimming tantalisingly through her head, but given the situation it probably wouldn’t be helpful, and probably not as satisfying.
“I really screwed up there, didn’t I?”
Raindrops could only nod. “Yeah. You did.”
Rainbow shot her a look, but said nothing.
“What were you thinking of?”
“Putting her on stress leave.” Rainbow said. “I wasn’t gonna fire her.” She scoffed. “Not sure I even know how to fire her. Cloud’s the one who knows where all the forms are. And even if I did, I don’t wanna fire her.”
Rainbow started rubbing a hoof against her head. “Hoo, boy.”
Seconds ticked by, then Rainbow Dash looked up. “Hey, Drops, can I, uh, ask a favour of you?”
Raindrops raised an eyebrow. “You want me to go after Cloud and explain things to her for you?”
Rainbow grimaced. “Would you? I don’t think she’d want to listen to me now. And you’re the big time hero, isn’t this sort of thing in your job description?”
“Don’t think it is.”
“What if I made it an order?”
Raindrops chewed her lip. “Don’t think that’s in your job description either.”
Rainbow Dash sighed in irritation. “Could y’ just…” her ears twitched, and she frowned at the door. She looked at Raindrops. Raindrops looked at her.
“Well,” Rainbow suddenly bellowed, “if you think it’s so important, you go talk to her!”
There was the sudden sound of scurrying hooves and flapping wings, and at least one pained yelp of someone falling over, as everypony who’d been listening in at the door fled, and Rainbow Dash shook her head. Then she looked at Raindrops expectantly. After a moment, Raindrops realised what she was doing, and shook her head. “Maybe I will!” She leaned in towards Rainbow Dash, “but you have to apologise to her at some point. Today.”
The mare nodded. “Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll do it, I swear.”
“I mean it.” Raindrops said sternly. Rainbow raised her hoofs.
“Chill, chill. I’ll do it, ‘kay?”
“I don’t have to make you Pinkie Promise, do I?”
There was a look of alarm on Rainbow Dash’s face, as if she expected Ponyville’s premier party pony to suddenly pop up out of nowhere at the mere mention of her name. But she didn’t.
“No, I’ll talk to her, I swear. Just…” Rainbow Dash sighed, “give her time to cool down first. Now, g’on. Go find her, make sure… make sure she’s alright.”

Raindrops hadn’t been expecting much luck in tracking Cloud Kicker down, but it didn’t actually take very long at all. The mare hadn’t gotten very far, and was curled up on a stone bench, not too far from the office. Somehow, her normally dishevelled mane and tail looked even more bedraggled than usual. And she was sobbing a lot (which, as a matter of fact, was how Raindrops found her).
This was a situation that would require finesse, and tact. Neither of which were exactly things Raindrops prided herself on, a lot of the time.
But she knew Cloud Kicker, or she thought she did. The mare had been in Ponyville longer than she had – possibly she’d been born in it, Raindrops wasn’t actually sure. She’d been in the weather patrol the day Raindrops had started, which wasn’t all that long ago really. She hadn’t been the deputy manager then, and she’d been slightly less nervous. And everyone liked Cloud. She was always there, maybe not always helpful, especially if she was having a panic attack, but she meant well and once she got going was one of their best workers, hence her being the deputy weather manager, even if that was because she was one of the few ponies who knew where all the paperwork was meant to go. Outside of Rainbow Dash, she got on well with just about everypony… It was hard to imagine the weather patrol without her there.
For an instant, Raindrops wondered if being an Element Bearer had something to do with her current crisis, if Cloud’s increased frazzled nature was from having to cover her suddenly charging off because there was one disaster or another that needed their help. Then she shoved it down. That was stupid thinking, and it wasn’t helpful.
“Hey.” Raindrops began carefully. Cloud Kicker stopped, and unfurled to look at her.
“I’m an idiot!” she wailed. Raindrops sat carefully on the bench next to her.
“No, you’re not.” She said, but this didn’t seem to work on Cloud.
“Yes I am. I got myself fired just because I was in a bad mood.”
“You’re not fired.” Raindrops said. Cloud Kicker blinked at her, and sniffled a few times.
“I’m… not?”
“You’re not.” Raindrops confirmed.
“Oh.” Cloud Kicker said, very quietly. Her cheeks started to turn red. “Now I really feel like an idiot.”
“You’re not…” Raindrops sighed. But Cloud Kicker wasn’t exactly listening, just sitting there sniffing.
Raindrops shook her head. Why couldn’t Carrot Top be around? Or Cheerilee, or Lyra, or Ditzy. Even Trixie. They were all better at this kind of thing than she was. They made it look easy. Cheerilee sidled in, and in twenty minutes (less if drink was involved) you’d swear she’d been your best friend for twenty years. Ditzy and Lyra and Carrot Top just exuded niceness, each in their own way, and as for Trixie… well, she could be charming, far more often than not, especially when she stopped trying to be charming. So where did that leave her? She wasn’t the pony for this kind of job. She was exactly the wrong pony.
But they weren’t there. It was just her. All she could do was try.
“C’mon.” Raindrops said, “let’s go sit down somewhere and talk.”
“Where?” Cloud Kicker blinked.

There was a rule in Berry’s Punch Bowl regarding the serving of drinks, specifically those of an alcoholic nature. Well, actually there were several, but the one that was important to the situation at present was thus: Anypony who’d had to deal with Rainbow Dash was served whatever they asked for ahead of schedule, no questions asked.
There had been similar rules for anypony who’d dealt with Trixie, which had given the Bowl a surprising boost in revenue during the early days of Trixie’s stay in Ponyville, but after a drop off in usage, Berry had rescinded that rule.
(Also, Berry had come to the realisation she rather liked Trixie most of the time, and didn’t want to risk losing her as a customer. Never mind that hers was the only bar in town. It was the principle of the thing, she maintained.
Strangely, Raindrops couldn’t recall ever hearing anything about Rainbow’s reaction to the same. Certainly, if she was aware of it, she’d never said anything.)
So it was that Raindrops and Cloud Kicker sat down at one of the small booths of Berry’s, largely empty due to it only being lunchtime on a weekday, Raindrops with a soda, since she was still on the clock, while Cloud had something that looked an awful lot like a beer.
Raindrops remained silent as Cloud drank her drink, waiting for the other mare to speak instead. She watched as Cloud Kicker emptied her mug without stopping for a breath.
“Think I needed that.” Kicker finally declared, before motioning toward the bar for a refill.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Raindrops asked. Cloud looked at her for a long while.
“No.” She said, “but I pr-probably should, huh?”
She shrugged. “I dunno what it was about. Just… one minute I’m my normal self, the next I’m just… angry.”
Cloud didn’t bother asking Raindrops if she understood that.
“Maybe it’s because of dealing with Rainbow all the time, or the way the last year’s gone or because… hay, I don’t know, because of Blossomforth. Or maybe I’m just an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot.” Raindrops said instantly, but Cloud just scowled down at the table.
“Y’know, I took a job with the weather patrol because I thought it’d be nice and quiet and dull.”
Raindrops gave her a quizzical stare. “So, the fact Ponyville’s right next to the Everfree…”
“I thought that’d just be stuff…” Cloud Kicker sighed. “Stuff I could handle. Extra paperwork, but there’d be other ponies to deal with the actual weather and help sometimes. And then Rainbow turned up.”
Cloud groaned, and buried her head under her hooves. Raindrops decided it probably wouldn’t help pointing out Rainbow Dash had been in Ponyville for several years, maybe not as long as she had or as Kicker had, and Kicker was still there. It especially wouldn’t have helped to point out Kicker had only become deputy weather manager after Rainbow herself had become the weather manager.
“If it was just the Everfree and Ponyville, I could maybe deal with it, but the Everfree, Ponyville and Rainbow and having to deal with them all at once is just…” she groaned again, and muttered something Raindrops couldn’t make out.
And on that, Raindrops had to agree. All three of those were a bad combination.
“Rainbow has gotten better the last year.” She ventured, figuring she had to start on reconciling the mare before she showed up (if she showed up, part of her thought). Cloud didn’t look up.
“That’s not saying much.” She grumbled.
“But you admit she has gotten better.” Raindrops ventured. Cloud grunted, which Raindrops, no stranger to the monosyllabic grunt form of communication, took as tacit acknowledgement of her being right.
“And when it comes down to it, she does actually show up.”
Cloud’s expression darkened.
“Only showing up at the last moment is not a good quality, no matter how good she is once she’s there.” She said. “Maybe she should try showing up before the disaster’s had a chance to start.” Then the dark looked passed.
“Maybe it’s me. Maybe I should just quit.” Cloud murmured.
“You know,” Raindrops said, “I remember what happened last year. Just after the Longest Night, when Sunlight wanted to quit? Who was it who talked her into staying?”
Cloud Kicker tried looking away, but there was an odd twitch in the corner of her mouth, like she was fighting a small smile. Raindrops decided to press the advantage.
“Who was it?”
Cloud Kicker sighed. “Me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short.”
“She was being s-silly.” Cloud murmured, waving a hoof dismissively, “thinking Cloudsdale were going to fire her just because of her Cutie Mark.”
Raindrops said nothing. She had a suspicion it wasn’t so much fear of Cloudsdale’s higher ups that had nearly pushed the normally indomitably cheerful Sunlight to quit, but more the insane, angry alicorn touching down in Ponyville itself, and the thought that suddenly everypony in Ponyville would be looking at her and her sun-related Cutie Mark with suspicion. Which had been total nonsense, something everypony had been quick to tell her, even Rainbow Dash, in her own, Rainbow Dashian way.
'Don’t be an idiot.' As she had put it.
“She’s a good pony.” Kicker stated, “I didn’t want to see her ruin a good thing because of… because of fear.”
“You know half the weather patrol would probably go if you went.” Raindrops noted. Cloud grunted in response, and rolled her eyes.
“No, they wouldn’t.”
“Yes, they would.” Raindrops said firmly.
“Would you?” Cloud asked.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I have to stay in Ponyville because of the Elements, and I don’t really have the training or… or temperament for any other kind of job, so no. Sorry.”
“Plus, your little brother.” Raindrops grimaced a little.
“Yeah, I suppose there is Snails as well.”
“And your friends.” Cloud added. For a moment, the thought of Trixie flashed through Raindrops’ mind, grinning that particular grin Trixie tended to have when she thought she’d won an argument.
“Yeah.” Raindrops sighed, as she tried not to dwell on why only Trixie had come to mind, “my friends too.”
“I remember somepony saying, a year back, that she’d quit and take half the weather patrol with her if she did.” Kicker said. Raindrops raised an eyebrow. She had said that, on the day she’d first met Trixie. In fact, that had been how she’d met Trixie. The Everfree and Rainbow Dash had been acting up at the worst possible time yet again, but she hadn’t really meant it. She was surprised Kicker remembered that, since she’d been busy trying to deal with everything, since as it had turned out Rainbow Dash hadn’t even been there.
“Think they like you more than they like me.” Kicker murmured.
“They like you. Everypony likes you. More than they like me.”
“That’s not true.” Cloud said immediately, and Raindrops noted the surprising confidence in her voice as she said that.
“I like you, for one.” She added. “Are you going to tell me I’m wrong?”
The two of them stared across the table at one another, though judging by the way her eyes seemed to be sliding away, Raindrops had to guess Kicker’s heart wasn’t entirely in it.
“I’ve got a suggestion.” Cloud finally stated, “we both agree we’re liked by our coworkers and leave it at that.”
Cloud raised her glass to this. “Deal.”
Of course, with that topic moved out of the way, this left a long silence hanging over the table.
“This thing with Blossomforth.” Raindrops began, before she even realised she was saying it, “how long’s it been going on?”
Kicker shrugged. “I dunno. I think I first realized I had a crush on her about a year ago. Just before Hearth’s Warming.”
“So… why haven’t you asked her out?” Raindrops asked. Kicker winced.
“I want to. B-believe me, I want to. But it’s… every time I work up the nerve… I mean… I’ve tried talking to her, but this is Ponyville. There’s not a lot of reasons somepony like me would need to go into her shop, so… I was going to do it a couple of months ago, almost did, but then the Incident happened.”
“Oh, right.” Raindrops found herself looking down at her lemonade. The Incident had not been a high point of the year for anyone in Ponyville. A mix-up involving Zecora the zebra and a magical curse had turned every liquid in town alcoholic, and worse, made everypony in town want to spread the madness, until some of the foals undid everything. The town had been smashed up in the process, which led to the drama of that year’s Grand Galloping Gala, among other things. Afterward, there had been the tacit agreement that no-one was to ever speak of that day again, an idea which quickly proved somewhat problematic given the complicated clean-up required, and having to deal with government officials signing off the disaster relief money. So the agreement was reached to, if it was required, speak of it only as the Incident.
“You weren’t there that week, were you?” Raindrops asked, remembering back to the aftermath. Kicker grimaced.
“I was on that training course.” Raindrops nodded. She was pretty sure Rainbow Dash had been meant to go on that training course as well, but she couldn’t recall if she’d gone or not. Given the Incident had occurred just after the yearly Ponyville fair, though, it was a pretty good guess that Rainbow had probably found a reason not to go. In fairness, that had been a blur of a week, even without the Incident.
“And the Gala would’ve been perfect to try and talk to her. Big fancy shindig, all the reason I’d need to go to her store and ask her, but…”
“You didn’t go, did you?” Kicker shook her head.
“I was too tired to go to Canterlot.” She said. “Just crashed out after work and spent a day and a half in bed.”
“You did a lot of hard work.” Raindrops said, stopping herself before noting Rainbow Dash had as well. They all had. The Weather Patrol had worked themselves half to death fixing up the town, at least the bits related to the weather, after what had happened, and both Rainbow and Cloud had been at the center of it all. Not bickering, not goofing off or panicking. They’d been a terrifyingly well-oiled machine. Nopony had dared comment on it just in case it jinxed them.
“Bet everypony thought I was just going to freak out.” Kicker muttered. Raindrops squirmed at that.
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
Cloud sighed. “I do get worked up. But with Ponyville the way it was… it was beyond my worst nightmares. And when things are worse than you expected it to be, there wasn’t really anything left to panic about.”
After a moment, she made a half-smile. “And I wasn’t late for an exam I knew nothin’ about.”
“Well, you didn’t miss much at the Gala.” Raindrops noted. Kicker gave her a surprisingly sour look.
“If f-freaking Pinkie Pie could come away from the Gala dating some noble, I’d like to think I might’ve had a chance at talking to Blossomforth for more than five seconds. Let me have that, Rainy.”
“I just point out, there was a rampaging draqonequus part way through.” Also, thanks to the actions and plans of certain ponies, there had been a mass outbreak of truth-telling, which hadn’t helped anything. As far as unromantic ways to learn somepony had a crush on you went, it was right up there.
Cloud stared levelly at her.
“Rainy, can I just ask: Have you ever actually dated anypony? Because I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard you talk about anypony ever.”
Raindrops squirmed slightly under Cloud’s gaze, and suddenly found herself looking at the Punch Bowl’s ceiling. Sadly, there wasn’t much to see, as Berry had not had the forethought to adorn the ceiling with interesting frescoes. She instead settled for making a non-committal noise.
“Not even one date?” Kicker asked, a rising note of concern in her voice that Raindrops didn’t appreciate. “You must’ve had a crush on someone, at least, right?”
Raindrops shrugged. “Not really.” She admitted. “Always been busy, I guess. And I wouldn’t really have much to talk about anyhow. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not one for small talk. Unless it’s about the weather.”
Cloud blinked at her for several seconds. “Huh.” She finally declared. “So, you’re not really the pony to be givin’ me romantic advice, are you? It’s not like in those books of yours, you know.”
Raindrops scowled for a moment, but if Cloud saw it she ignored it.
“It’s not like you just meet a pony and then just… fall in love. Ponies don’t work like that. Be nice if it did, but they don’t. You don’t randomly meet some great-looking guy or gal who’s completely smooth and- and charming and the skies turn pink and you start singing some duet.”
“None of the books I read are like that!” Raindrops said, defensively. And this, at least was true. None of the works of B. Ripper featured any singing whatsoever (at least, not printed. Once or twice there was mention of it, but never any lyrics, and so far none of Ripper’s works had been adapted to the stage. Or at least, not any Raindrops knew of).
“Oh, right.” Kicker scoffed, which made Raindrops wonder just whether it had been a good idea to let her drink as much as she had. “They’re not some obnoxious jackass you wanna strangle, but that one pony they meet breaks through to the nice pony beneath. Real ponies aren’t like that. Real life ain’t like that.”
Raindrops thought about this, and suddenly found herself thinking of Trixie, yet again. Probably because what Kicker was saying wasn’t too far removed from what Trixie might’ve said. She resisted the urge to shake her head. She was thinking entirely too much about Trixie today.
“Be nice if it was.” Kicker murmured.
“Yeah.” Raindrops admitted. “Wouldn’t it?”
There was the sound of the bar’s door opening. Raindrops looked up, to see Rainbow Dash approaching. Amazingly, she actually looked hesitant, especially when she got up to the table.
“Hey.” She said. “Is it okay for me to be here?”
Raindrops looked to Cloud Kicker, who looked at Rainbow for a long while. “I guess.”
Rainbow slid into the seat next to Raindrops, smiling awkwardly as she did.
“So…” she began, “ah… look, I just wanted to say… I’m sorry.”
“About what exactly?” Cloud Kicker asked, a surprisingly venomous edge to her voice. Rainbow bristled.
“Hey, you’re the one who got on my case! Like you’ve been doing for months!”
“You were late. Like you always are.”
Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at Raindrops. “I was busy!”
“Taking a nap? Or pranking someone? ‘cuz you sure weren’t doing your j-”
“Hey!” Raindrops slammed her hoof down on the table, jolting the two mares (and, she couldn’t help but notice, getting Fizzy’s attention at the bar). “For pony’s sake, the two of you have been arguing for months now. This is getting out of hoof, and it’s getting downright stupid. Now knock it off! Neither of you is leaving this table until you talk. This. Out.”
The two mares looked uncertainly at one another, and evidently felt it wasn’t worth noting that Raindrops was sitting between them. There was technically nothing stopping them from getting up and leaving. Or at least, nothing stopping them from trying. At that moment, Raindrops was sorely tempted by the idea of locking them in a room somewhere until they settled things, potential disciplinary action be darned.
“Now, Kicker, Rainbow did have a valid reason for not showing up on time today.”
“Thank you.” Rainbow said, stopping when Raindrops stared at her. Raindrops then turned her gaze to Kicker.
“And you know she isn’t going to fire you. So let her say her piece, okay?”
Cloud sat there for a moment. “’kay.”
“But, Rainbow, you’re not helping anyone by getting angry as well.”
Rainbow looked like she was about to say something in response, then stopped herself again. From the look on her face, that was something of a struggle itself.
“Doesn’t sound like you’re sorry.” Cloud shot at her. Rainbow snorted, her wings flaring, and then stopped.
“Look,” she said, her voice as icily calm as she could manage, “I don’t know what it was I did that’s upset you so much, but… I’m sorry. I am.”
Cloud looked from Rainbow to Raindrops. “Does she mean it?” she asked. Rainbow looked offended, but remained quiet as Raindrops stared at her.
“She does.”
For a moment, Cloud stared at Rainbow, her jaw shifting slightly. “Okay.” She eventually said, quietly, suddenly looking a lot smaller than she was. “Banging.”
Rainbow tried to subtly give Raindrops a look indicating her total incomprehension at what had just happened. It didn’t work, but fortunately for the ease of communication, Raindrops was just as baffled.
“Where’d that come from?” Raindrops asked.
“Just somethin’ I thought I’d try out.” Cloud murmured, as her cheeks started turning pink.
“Maybe put it back where you found it.” Rainbow Dash suggested, though not unkindly.
There was a moment as everypony seemed uncertain as to what to say next. They were in uncharted territory with Rainbow Dash apologizing to begin with, far off any metaphorical map. Here there were tigers, and goodness knew what else.
“Look,” Rainbow said, taking a deep breath, “I know I’m not… exactly the best pony to work with.”
Cloud Kicker snorted, though for a moment there was a look to her face that suggested, Raindrops thought, that it wasn’t so much what she’d said as her choice of words that Kicker had snorted at.
Rainbow Dash looked up for a moment, then looked around the bar. “This doesn’t leave this table, but… y’know those connections I’ve got up in Cloudsdale? It’s the Posey family.”
If Rainbow Dash had been expecting some sort of dramatic gasp from either mare, she didn’t get it. Cloud Kicker just frowned deeply.
“They got me this job so… so I could look after Fluttershy.”
Now Cloud’s frown deepened. “So you only got the job as, what, a bribe?”
“No,” Rainbow Dash said, “not a bribe!” She scowled darkly. “If it’s a bribe, it’s a pretty sucky bribe. It was just so I had a reason to be in Ponyville, and somewhere to work if anypony asked.”
Cloud Kicker raised a hoof. “Wait, hold on… they wanted you to look after her, and then gave you a job that is supposed to require your full-time attention?”
“Well,” Rainbow shrugged helplessly, “there was the old weather manager, but then she got that transfer, and they figured with my flying speed…" she began tracing her hoof back and forth across the table, as her voice got quieter, "and they knew my name…”
There was a horrible silence, as Kicker looked at her empty drink glass. “I don’t think I should drink any more.” She muttered, “otherwise I don’t think I’d stop any time soon.”
She looked quizzically at Rainbow. “Does Fluttershy know about this?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I don’t think so. She probably just thinks I tagged along to Ponyville because I don’t think she could look after herself.”
“She lives right by the Everfree.” Kicker noted. “On her own.”
“She’s scared around ponies.”
“But the Everfree’s fine?” The mare asked incredulously.
“She likes animals.” Was all Rainbow could say. “And they like her.” She took a deep breath.
“Anyhow, that’s why I’m the weather manager. Not ‘cuz of my skills, just…”
“Because you agreed to look after a friend.” Raindrops said, firmly. Rainbow stared at her for a long moment, then nodded.
“Yeah. And I know I don’t… deserve this job. There should be somepony else in charge, anypony else. But there isn’t. And I can’t just quit.”
“And you can’t be fired.” Kicker said, “because then there’d be no-one to look after Fluttershy.”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah. That’s the gist.”
“So that’s why you’ve been so… so… you, all this time?” Kicker asked. Rainbow grunted in response.
“But I’m trying, y’know,” Rainbow Dash continued. “After everything that’s happened, over the last year I mean.” She added just a little too quickly. “I want to be a better weather manager. Want to be…” she took in a deep breath, “less of a jerk.”
She tapped a hoof against the table. As she spoke again, she squirmed, as if every word was a struggle to get out. “And I guess, if I’m gonna be that, I might need you two to help.”
“Help?” Raindrops asked. Rainbow scowled a little.
“You know… maybe tell me when I’m being too much of a…”
“Jerk?” Cloud Kicker repeated, just the tiniest hint of amusement in her voice.
“Yeah. That.”
“You want some advice?” Raindrops spoke up, “there’s something a…” she paused as she gave her next words utmost consideration, “something a pretty smart pony said to me a while back. Keep trying. That’s all you can do. All anypony can do. Maybe you succeed, maybe you don’t. But the point is you try. You keep trying, and maybe you will eventually succeed.”
Rainbow Dash considered this for a moment. “Okay. Point made.”
Raindrops looked between the two of them for a moment. “Now, are there going to be any more problems between you two?”
“No.” Both mares said, almost simultaneously.
“You’re gonna behave?”
“Yes.”
“We’re not going to have any more arguments in the middle of the station?”
“No.”
“Because I don’t want to be doing this again in a month’s time.” Raindrops said. “Do you?”
“No.”
“Alright. Now shake hooves.” Raindrops said. They stared at her for a moment, and then reached across the table.

After the impromptu lunch, the trio made their way back to the weather station, so that everyone could see everything seemed to have worked out peacefully (though Raindrops couldn’t help but notice the looks Rainbow was getting when her back was turned). After that, however, Cloud Kicker just said she was feeling tired, and was going to go back to her house to rest. Raindrops insisted on flying with her.
Kicker’s home was out on the edges of Ponyville, a small two-floored affair that looked cosy enough (though she wasn’t sure she was the best judge on that. Any house with Snails in it tended to feel a lot more occupied than it should’ve, even without his ever-shifting collection of friends around).
“You sure you’re going to be okay?” Raindrops asked. Kicker just gave her a bemused smile.
“As sure as I was the last three times you asked. Really,” she said, “I’m… I’m fine. Or I will be. I’ve still got a job, at any rate. And you managed to spook Rainbow Dash into coming after me.” Her smile faded. “Shame it’ll probably wear off in a week or two.”
“Actually,” Raindrops said, carefully, “I don’t think it will. I think what happened today really startled her.”
Kicker stared for a long time, her cheeks beginning to turn red again. “Oh.”
She looked at Raindrops. “Well… Thanks. For coming after me. And sorting things out between me and Dash. And the stuff you said.”
“I meant it.” Raindrops stated.
“I know.” For a moment, she could’ve sworn there was something sad in Kicker’s smile, but it was gone.
“Look,” Raindrops said, carefully, “maybe you should try talking to Blossomforth while you’re on leave. Or just do something different. Go to the spa, maybe?”
“I might. Go to the spa, I mean. Just try and relax.”
“Promise me you’ll try and talk to Blossomforth. Just try?”
“N-no promises.” Kicker said. She stopped halfway through the door, and turned to look at Raindrops. “But Rainy, can I ask you something?”
“I guess.”
“If,” Kicker smiled slightly, “if I do manage to talk to Blossomforth, and something does happen, can I ask you something, as a friend?”
“Sure?” Raindrops said.
“Don’t try to help me. Please. I know you’ll want to do something romantic, but really, don’t.”
Raindrops began to say she’d never do something like that, then had to stop because there was no way she could think of that’d make it sound believable. Not that she had been seriously entertaining the idea, but she did know of several secluded spots around Ponyville which, with just a little bit of work and the right moment of sunlight could look tremendously romantic.
A pony could get strange thoughts watching clouds all day.
“Please?” Kicker asked. “Just let me do this on my own.”
“Alright.” Raindrops eventually managed to wrench the words out.

Cloud Kicker shut the door behind her, listening carefully for the sound of Raindrops taking off, and waited. Once she was sure the mare was gone, she made her way slowly up to the second floor of her house, and her bedroom.
In all her years knowing Cloud Kicker, Raindrops had never seen beyond the ground floor of her house, and certainly not Cloud Kicker’s bedroom. It was the bedroom of a mare who honestly never expected anypony but herself to see it, and probably didn’t care whether they did anyway, and it showed, in as much as that was possible. Mainly this just meant her bed wasn’t made.
Kicker allowed herself to collapse onto the bed. After a moment she let out a tremendous sigh, and closed her eyes.
“That was nice of Raindrops.” The voice of Spell Nexus intoned from behind her.
Cloud Kicker remained entirely immobile, but she still heard the weary sigh.
“Look at me, Cloud Kicker.”
Cloud didn’t move.
“Look at me.”
Again, she didn’t move.
“Look at me!” This time, she did move, startled by the force and tone of the command. Nexus sighed again as she turned around, sitting herself on the edge of her bed. Were it not for the black fur and the glowing eyes, the expression on his face could almost have been fatherly, possibly even concerned.
Some things looked better in the light of day. A pony with entirely black fur and glowing eyes was not one of them. To Kicker’s mind, it had always looked a little surreal. And it didn’t help that she knew what the mind behind those eyes was capable of.
“I’m sorry. I know you don’t like it when I yell, but we do need to talk.”
“Could’a just teeped at me.” Cloud Kicker grumbled. Nexus hummed.
“I felt this needed more of a face-to-face approach.”
Cloud Kicker snorted at that. “Wanna yell at me for nearly getting my flank f-fired?”
“I’m not going to do that.” Nexus said, in that oh-so-calm way. “Especially since everything seems to have worked out. But I would like to know what happened.”
“You were listening in, weren’t you?”
“There’s a difference between listening and listening.” He replied. “Though I did notice the massive flash of panic you were sending out.”
Now Cloud’s cheeks were turning red. “You all heard that, huh?”
“Felt it, is more like.”
Cloud groaned, and rolled back onto her bed. “Just kill me now.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Cloud waited for a moment. “You are going to have to tell me eventually. If I have honesty, it’s easy to forgive a simple mistake. Was this a mistake?”
She looked up. Nexus was still just standing there, staring at her.
“Was this about Blossomforth?”
“No.” Cloud said immediately. Nexus’s gaze remained fixed. “Maybe.”
She sighed irritably, which then turned into another groan, as she rolled onto her side again. At that moment, more than anything, she just wanted to go to sleep, and if at all possible not wake up for days. “I don’t know.”
“You still haven’t spoken to her?”
Cloud scoffed. “What am I supposed to say to her? Hey, I like you and I was wondering if you’d like to go out sometime. Oh, by the way, did I mention I’m a criminal?”
“Is that what this is about?”
Cloud Kicker shot Nexus a withering stare, or tried to at any rate. While she possessed several skills, withering stares were not among them. “It’d kind of kill any mood, don’cha think?”
“So you say.” He said, “though from what I’ve seen of Ponyville, I’m less certain.”
There Cloud Kicker had to admit there was an element of truth. A year ago, it might’ve sounded insane, but after everything since, there was a small part of her that occasionally suggested if she did manage to tell somepony the whole truth, assuming anypony believed her to begin with (and there was a big if), it’d just be another odd Ponyville story.
Nexus sighed again, and when he spoke his tone was not unkind. “How long have we known one another, Kicker?”
“Eight years.” Cloud said.
“And how long has this crush been going on?”
Cloud’s response was an inarticulate mutter.
“And in that time, have you actually managed to talk to her?” Nexus was giving her a look now. Or he would have been if she could meet his gaze. Instead he was giving her ear a look, which was slightly less impressive. “Do you think you’d be able to approach her even if it were not for this little thing of ours? Be honest.”
Cloud murmured to herself.
“I’ve… talked to her. Sometimes.” She said, deliberately not noticing the way one of Nexus’ eyebrows raised at that. “I mean, I don’t think she knows my name or nothin’, but… it’s not like I’ve never said anything to her at all. That’d be super-creepy.”
“Indeed.” Nexus said, carefully.
Cloud Kicker scowled again.
“No offense, boss pony, but if I don’t want advice on this from my actual friends, what makes you think I want any from you? Why is everypony so obsessed with my love life?”
“Because we care. And because some of us have some knowledge in this arena. Orange and Cake have managed the occasional dalliance. And Fleur is married.”
“Fleur,” Cloud Kicker practically spat, “hasn’t told her hubby anything about our little thing either. So she gets to keep being happily married to tall, dim and handsome.”
She muttered something foul under her breath about Fleur. Almost immediately she could feel the disapproving glare on her.
“What have we said about the name calling?”
“Don’t do it.” Kicker recited.
There was a moment’s quiet, as Nexus examined a book that had been sitting on Kicker’s bedside table. It was a surprisingly large tome, the contents of which would’ve shocked Raindrops had she known what her co-worker read.
“I don’t think it is Blossomforth.” Kicker stated, when the silence became too much. “It’s just… everything. It got to me, okay?”
Nexus frowned. “Eight years, Kicker. All I asked is that you keep an eye on Ponyville, and Raindrops. Not an unreasonable demand, all things considered. I’ve only ever asked of you what we both know you are capable of, and you have done so very well, up until this last year.”
Now Cloud scowled at Nexus.
“Yeah, and in return you deal with Rainbow Dash. I’m still waiting on that.”
Nexus sighed a long-suffering sigh, and rubbed a hoof against the side of his head. “We’ve been over this.”
“I know, I know.” Kicker said. “The time was never right, we needed to wait for the appropriate opportunity. All that stuff.”
“As I recall, you had conditions. What were those conditions?”
Cloud looked away from Nexus. “Don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt anypony.”
“I believe your exact words were ‘please’.” Nexus said. “And have I not kept that end of our bargain?”
Kicker remained very quiet. It was true. That bargain had been kept, and had probably saved Rainbow Dash’s behind from an unexpected visit from angry parties in the middle of the night more times than she’d dare to count, especially in the last year. And not just Rainbow, probably quite a few of Rainbow’s superiors back in Cloudsdale as well.
“Well?”
She gritted her teeth. “Yes. Yes, you have. But Rainbow’s still here.”
“As you might recall, Wedge was meant to handle that particular problem.”
“Until he got a face full of magic, yeah, I know.” Kicker said, wearily. “So why can’t we get somepony else to fill in? Indigo or, or Nutjob?”
Nexus’s eyes narrowed dangerously at that. “I’ve asked you not to call her that, several times.”
“Well, she is.” Kicker muttered. “Puissance ringing any bells?”
There was an incredibly careful pause, as Nexus’s tail swished back and forth. When he spoke again, it was with an eerie calm. “Puissance was a mistake.”
Nexus shook his head and continued. “Regardless, our temperamental friend doesn’t possess the skills required to assist with the Posey matter. At least, not in the way we’re talking about. And I think you’d agree, she’d draw unwarranted attention, especially now. And Indigo already has a job.”
Kicker made a noncommittal noise, but didn’t argue the point. “Doesn’t leave me a lot of options then, does it? And y’ can’t just get somepony else in.”
“No,” Nexus sighed, “not at this moment. Recruiting someone new would take too much time, time we don’t have.”
There was a pause before he added. “I would also point out, just for posterity, the little detail that if Rainbow Dash were to suddenly depart, you would become the head of Ponyville’s weather patrol in her absence. More work, more responsibility, more pressure.”
There was another long, sullen silence, as Kicker swore silently to herself. “I’ll try and find a solution to Rainbow Dash before summer. All I ask from you is a few months more. Can you do that?”
Cloud looked at Nexus, into those glowing golden eyes, knowing what their owner had done to those who hadn’t kept faith. And more importantly, knowing there was no real option to refuse. One way or another, she was going to agree.
“Fine.” She finally said.
Nexus nodded, and turned to go.
“Um.” Cloud Kicker said, as he went. It was quiet, but there was something about the specific harmonics of it that seemed to suddenly shove out all other noise, creating an all-consuming silence. “About Rainbow Dash, though…”
One of Nexus’s eyebrows slowly began to rise. Kicker could feel the blush starting on her cheeks, but something, and if she had to guess it would have been terror, spurred her to try and keep going.
“What if… I mean, just hypothetically, what if the Rainbow Dash thing kind of solved itself?”
“Solved itself.” Nexus repeated, his tone leaden. Cloud nodded.
“Are you saying you want to change the arrangement?”
“Well, uh…” Kicker faltered. What little courage she had managed to scrounge together just to ask the question, aided by the remnants of Berry’s finest beers in her system, was now sizzling away into nothingness under the prolonged staring she was receiving. “Maybe?”
Nexus just stood there, staring.
“I don’t know.”
“That would be a complication.” Nexus said.
“Yeah, I know.” Kicker said quickly, “but…”
“And what exactly do you want it be changed to?”
“Um…”
“Not, I hope, for something like assistance with Blossomforth.”
“No!” she cried instantly, “I didn’t mean that!”
“Good.” Nexus stated.
“But if Rainbow Dash didn’t need to be… removed,” Kicker murmured, “then…”
“We have a deal.” Nexus intoned. “Payment for services rendered.”
“I know.”
“It would be quite unfair to ask so much of you without offering something in repayment.”
“I know.” Cloud repeated.
“Can you be sure the Rainbow Dash situation has resolved itself?”
Kicker looked down at her hooves.
“M-maybe.” She murmured. “She did seem different, this time.” She tried meeting Nexus’ level stare. She wasn’t able to. She hung her head. “R-Raindrops thinks it’s different.”
Now Nexus murmured, rubbing his chin. “We’ll see.” He mused. “We’ll see. Though from what I’ve heard of Rainbow Dash, learning from her mistakes is not one of her defining attributes."
Nexus stood still for a moment, staring thoughtfully. "Tell you what, we’ll wait and see, and if you still want to discuss this, then we shall. We wouldn’t want to rush into things, now would we?”
He began to smile. And that was one of the worst parts of it, that it was a genuine smile, not smug or taunting, but actually warm. “And you are on stress relief right now, so at least you don’t have to deal with her for the next two weeks.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Cloud murmured. “If it’s okay with you, I’ve had a long day, several beers and no lunch. I’d just like to be alone right now.” As if on cue, she let out a yawn. “Maybe take a long nap.”
Nexus nodded. “Of course. But should you need anything, you only have to ask.”
With that, Nexus turned toward the small teleport beacon sitting on a small bookcase occupying one corner of Kicker’s bedroom. Before he put his hoof to it, Kicker spoke up.
“A-actually…” she said, “there was…”
Nexus raised an eyebrow at her. “Yes?”
“… do you have any advice, about Blossomforth?”
Nexus slowly lowered his hoof. “Did I give you the speech about confidence?”
“Yep.”
He nodded. “Then it’s a roll of the dice, Kicker. Like so many things. But, as it happens, I agree with Raindrops. Try and talk to Blossomforth. You don’t have to go straight to asking her out, just have a conversation with her about something. Anything, even. So long as you try.”
Kicker nodded. She didn’t bother saying she’d tried trying already, and it hadn’t worked. Several times, in fact.
“Banging.” Cloud muttered, causing the other pony to stop and stare even more quizzically at her.
“Kicker, stop trying to make banging a thing. It’s simply not going to happen.”
Kicker angrily waved a hoof in Nexus’s direction, before there was a flash of light and he vanished.
Left alone, Kicker curled up on her bed again. Between the dying embers of her anger, tiredness both physical and emotional and the beers, she was out like a light within a few minutes. It might’ve been some comfort to her that it was the quickest she’d gotten to sleep in some considerable amount of time.

Nightmares Yet to Come

by Detectivefish

All Alone in the Night

The Old Familiar

By Any Other Name

One Little Mistake

Secrets and Lies

Training Days

The Crown and the Message

Trixie and Thesis

Interlude: Of Falling Star

Making Friends

Things that go Bump in the Night

The History Lesson

Interlude: Raindrops and Cloud Kicker