Chapter One

Chapter One

It had been some time since Director Luna and her small group of ponies had returned to Equestria, with Directors Honey Spice and Raven Inkwell both accompanying her; she had informed them that her other Directors were temporarily indisposed, but would see them again soon.

Fancy Pants and Claret Holder had resumed small talk with the pair after their arrival, and since been joined by Princess Cadance after she returned from her own work, informing them that her aunts were resting for now, but both were doing well. That had been a few hours ago, and much as he understood their needs after a very stressful day, Fancy couldn't help but wonder when they would return.

Finally, just as they were about to call a halt for the time being so the two Directors could retire to their rooms for a bit and Fancy Pants could go visit Fleur (she'd emerged from the earlier battle unscathed, much to his relief), the door opened and the two elder alicorns walked in, looking much happier and more relaxed than he'd seen them since this whole situation began.

"Good afternoon, Princess, Director," he said. "How are you doing?"

"Much better, thank you," Princess Celestia said with a smile. "My sister and I have finally had a long-overdue talk and settled some things."

Director Luna smiled as well. "And now that we have done so, these talks should go much more smoothly," she said. "We have already agreed to share our medical information and techniques with Equestria and Equuis."

"As well as promising to help the Lunar Republic rebuild their Orion project, among other resources they need," Princess Celestia said, a wing around her sister's side. "We will need a team of our best teleportation mages brought here immediately; we will be doing a lot of teleportation to and from the Republic until the shuttle project is complete."

"The what?" Claret Holder asked.

"An artificial vehicle that will allow for flight between Equuis and the moon," Director Luna said. "It is one of our projects that our Departments of Transportation and Science have had in development for a long time."

"Ah," Fancy said, doing his best to understand all that she was saying.

"Pardon me," Claret said. "But are these 'shuttle' and Orion projects related?"

Director Luna nodded. "In a sense," she said. "The Orion is a much larger craft, meant for travel across farther distances of space to worlds like Equuis; when it arrives at its destination, it will remain in orbit while the shuttles will be used to transport ponies from it down to the surface."

Both Equestrian unicorns' eyes widened in shock.

"I say," Fancy finally managed. "That is quite the lofty goal."

Director Luna nodded. "It has long been our dream to travel to the stars," she said. "Though unfortunately, it has been stalled somewhat - the terrorist attack that occurred earlier today dealt significant damage to the superstructure. The one responsible has been caught, but it will take us some time to rebuild."

Fancy nodded, still unsure of exactly how to respond.

Princess Celestia smiled. "It is a dream I am glad to support," she said. "Now that Luna and I have been able to talk through things, I am..." She sighed. "Well, I must admit I haven't been on my best behavior lately. But I am trying to do better."

Director Luna gave her a smirk, while the smile on Princess Cadance's face was bright and genuine as Princess Celestia continued. "Very soon, once arrangements can be made, I am going to officially and publicly acknowledge the Lunar Republic as its own nation, one fully independent of Equestria but still our equal allies and friends - hoof in hoof, together but not conjoined." She looked at Director Luna, who smiled happily back at her. "It is the least I can do for my sister and her ponies."

Fancy Pants broke into a smile. "Well said, Princess," he said. "Well said, indeed."

"And what of those who would not agree with this?" Claret Holder asked, a tone of genuine concern in his voice.

"There are many things I could say in response to them," Princess Celestia said, her tone suddenly rather dry. "But I will not say them aloud. None of them are, shall we say, fit for foal's ears, and I certainly don't wish to inflict them on anypony here either."

Director Luna snickered. "Well put, sister," she said with a grin.

"The point is, my mind is made up, and I'm not going to change it," Princess Celestia said. "Despite what some would wish, my sister's ponies are their own nation, with their own way of life, and I am not going to treat them as Equestrians who strayed away or force them to adopt our ways. If they decide they want to incorporate some aspects of Equestrian life back into theirs, it will be by their choice."

Director Inkwell nodded in firm approval. "A wise course of action," she said. Then she shot a look at Director Luna that said, if Fancy was reading it right, Just what in the world did you say to her to make her change her mind?

If Director Luna caught that same meaning, she did not comment. Instead, she said, "And if Equestria wants to adapt some of our practices, such as providing work for those who need to be taught a lesson, they're welcome to do so too." She smirked. "I think it would be very fitting to have all these so-called avengers put to work in sanitation until they've learned the error of their ways."

Princess Celestia nodded. "We'll see," she said. "First they need to be formally tried."

"Even the one who dared chain you?" Director Luna's expression had suddenly turned angry as she half-growled this comment.

Princess Celestia shook her head. "She can't be tried by us," she said. "But the highest Judge will handle her."

Fancy Pants wasn't entirely certain what that meant, but Director Luna clearly did, as the anger faded from her face and she winced. "Ah," she said.

"Translation, please?" Director Spice asked, trading looks with Director Inkwell.

"She means that the pony who led the attack on Canterlot Castle is dead," Princess Cadance said quietly. "At the hooves of the Captain of our Royal Guard."

Both Directors looked taken aback by that, but Princess Celestia nodded. "He and your own sergeant did a very good job of leading the Guard and your own troops against the ponies that attacked us," she said. "They both saved many lives today. And I especially owe her my thanks; more than one pony lost their life to a sniper in the crowd while trying to get that... that chain off of me, until your sergeant shot the crossbow they were using."

"Ah," Director Luna said. Then she tilted her head. "Where is Sergeant Nightingale, anyway?"

"She is out with Captain Flash, currently doing their part in restoring order to the city," Princess Celestia said. "They worked so well together, when she asked if she could go with him, I saw no reason not to accept."

Director Luna nodded. "I see," she said.

Fancy Pants cleared his throat. "If you do not mind my asking," he said. "Speaking of your guards, where is Director Plate?"

Director Luna bowed her head. "His husband was one of those caught in the attack on the Orion," she said. "Thankfully, Red Rocket sustained only minimal injuries, but it was still enough to send him to the hospital; Director Plate is staying with him for now."

All four Equestrians present bowed at that, and Fancy Pants closed his eyes. "Then he has my best wishes for a full recovery," he said.

"A sentiment I believe we all share," Princess Celestia said, a tone of clear concern in her voice.

Director Luna nodded. "I will personally be visiting all those injured when I return," she said. "I will pass on your kind words when I do so."

Then she looked at each of them in turn, before settling on Princess Cadance. "I don't suppose you know how to reach Rainbow Dash's family, dear niece," she said. "I need to tell them about what happened."

Princess Cadance shook her head. "I don't know personally, but I can reach out to my agents in Cloudsdale and see about it," she said.

"What happened to her?" Fancy Pants asked.

"During the attack on the Orion," Director Luna said, "Rainbow Dash saw the explosions from where she was and went to help with the rescue efforts. She was badly injured when she threw herself between a late blast and a group of ponies." She sighed. "She will live, and fully recover from what I have been told, but hers was easily one of the worst injuries that anypony sustained during the attack."

"What are the extent of her injuries, if I may ask?" Claret Holder said, looking at Director Luna.

Director Luna bowed her head. "She has lost one wing," she said. "Thankfully, we can replace it; she has been offered one of our most advanced prosthetics and accepted, and it will be just as fully functioning as the original wing once she has adapted to it." She had a slight look of pride on her face. "My student, Twilight Sparkle, personally built it for her, and our Director of Health is the one attaching it. Rest assured, she is receiving the best of care."

Both stallions looked startled. "That is... quite advanced," Claret Holder finally managed.

Princess Celestia nodded. "That was about my reaction when I first heard about it," she said. "It is one of the technologies my sister has agreed that she and her ponies will be sharing with Equestria."

"And not just wings," Director Luna added. "We have the ability to replace or repair most any limb or organ that has been rendered nonfunctional by accident or illness, or that a pony was born without, and Director Well Wishes is more than willing to oversee examinations of any pony who needs them."

At Claret Holder's disturbed look, she held up a hoof. "You undoubtedly have questions about that," she said. "And I can guess what your concern is; you are not the first to have brought it up to me."

"What concern is that?" Princess Celestia asked. There was a genuine curiosity in her voice, and Fancy Pants found himself equally curious as to the answer.

Director Luna looked at her sister though. "During my first visit down here," she said, "After one of my citizens revealed her own addition, I was made aware that some ponies had made... certain claims, or at least speculation, that my ponies had all been augmented against their will in order to survive on the moon's surface. Twilight explained to them then, as I will now, that while some of our ponies do have artificial limbs or organs, they were only given such augmentations when the pony in question was in true need of such things, and was willing and able to accept them, as Rainbow Dash was."

Princess Celestia looked a little disturbed. "I hadn't heard those rumors," she said. "But given their nature, I expect that those who originated them were probably among the ponies who attacked the castle today, or at least allied with them."

"Most likely," Director Luna said in agreement. "Regrettably, rumor-mongering, no matter how malicious, is not a crime - not in the Republic, at least, and from all I've heard, not down here either. But I do know that our niece has been working to counter the influence of such things, and was glad to hear of it." She gave Princess Cadance a smile, which the younger Princess returned.

"I do have a briefing planned to talk about the updates we have gained about the avengers," she said. "Though I will wait until Director Luna returns with the unicorn teleporting team; I suppose we will want to have the means to go and from the Republic established before anything else?" she said, reminding them that no one had done what Princess Celestia had asked of them.

"I will go gather them, Princess Celestia," Claret said, already turning to head off to the mages' section of the castle where they normally stayed, if they were not out in the streets helping to restore order to it.

Princess Celestia nodded. "Thank you," she said.

"And," Director Luna said, directing her comment at Fancy and Claret. "We will be making arrangements to formally bring more Equestrian ponies to our moon and show them parts of the Republic at some point soon, in order to bolster cooperation and trust between our two nations. It will take some time, given the recent occurrences both here and in our Republic, but it will happen. You both are invited, of course, as are my sister and niece."

She looked over at Princess Celestia with a slight smirk. "Also, it will allow me to personally introduce you and our niece to Shining Armor's parents. I know his mother especially is very much looking forward to meeting Cadance, after hearing about how close they became during her son's time down here."

Princess Celestia chuckled. "Of course. And I look forward to meeting her as well."

Fancy Pants couldn't help but smile at that. "Indeed," he said.

Then he tilted his head. "Speaking of guests for visiting your Republic," he said. "Would you object if my wife wished to accompany us?"

Director Luna traded glances with her sister. "I see no reason why not," she said.

Princess Celestia nodded. "Fleur dis Lee is a good pony," she said. "She is involved in more than a few charitable organizations, and she helped in defending the castle during the recent incursion."

Director Luna smiled. "Then she is very much welcome to join you when it happens, Speaker Pants," she said.

Fancy Pants smiled back.

By the time Claret Holder returned to the room with the ponies necessary, the group had all settled into seats and begun making plans for transporting back and forth, along with what would be needed for the ponies who'd been injured in the attack on Canterlot Castle. Director Luna had a communications link established with Director Well Wishes' office so they could speak with his Deputy Director (since Well Wishes himself was still busy working), which had vastly impressed everypony when they'd seen the Lunar Republic's technology could allow for visual calls as well as letters.

"We will need to create a separate building to house where we will be bringing your mages, sister," Director Luna said as she began to show what they called a three dimensional image of the Republic, with one section highlighted. "Normally, I would suggest the Sextus dome as it is our science and transportation area but as things currently stand..."

Princess Celestia nodded. "Of course," she said.

"And here is where we originally transported to and from," Director Luna said, pointing out another spot, the center of the Republic. "Normally, this is my go to point, however it is the seat of power of the Republic and it would not be feasible to turn the Lux Aeternam into a transportation hub." She blinked. "And it just occurred to me that we don't have any hotel equivalents either, for overnight stays."

Princess Celestia frowned. "Then where are Sunset and the others staying?" she asked.

"In Twilight's apartment, I expect," Director Luna said. "After she moved out of her parents' home, I saw to it that she had sufficient space to herself, and it does include spare bedrooms. Though Octavia is probably staying with Vinyl, and based on the reports I got, Applejack might have opted to stay with her cousin - we had some members of the Apple family among our original founders," she explained at Princess Celestia's inquiring look.

"There are a number of things we will need to bring into consideration as we open up the Republic to the outside world," Director Inkwell said as she wrote down notes. "Among them the housing accommodations for our guests, which I believe will fall under Director Velvet's purview; the locations for teleporting back and forth; the medical checks upon arrival and prior to departure; the itinerary for where they are to be shown..."

Princess Cadance blushed. "Finding somepony to gecko-sit down here..." she said.

Director Inkwell gave her a questioning look.

"I'm petsitting for Sunset's leopard gecko while she's away," Princess Cadance explained. "If I'm going to be on the moon at the same time as her, I'll have to find another pony who can watch over him."

Director Inkwell nodded. "Understandable," she said, before making a note. "Making sure all guests have their personal matters in Equestria set in order before they're transported to the moon..."

At Director Luna's direction, she began a second list, this one for the first group of ponies who would be part of the next transport to the moon.

Talk continued for the next good while, until finally, Director Luna called for a recess so they could go handle individual issues, with both Princesses agreeing.

"I think we'll all gather again in half an hour, if that's agreeable," Princess Celestia said.

There were no objections, so the meeting adjourned.

It was some time later when Luna watched the mages gather together and prepare their spell, and she had to admit she was impressed by their skill. The magic they were performing was highly advanced for any normal unicorn, and the methods they were using to link each other's magic together to bolster the spell was something she had not seen before.

For all the technological developments they'd made in her Republic, she could admit that in terms of magical study and development, they had fallen far behind. Not that she begrudged her sister's nation for advancing so in magic; it was impressive work. And they would need magic and technology alike if both nations were to continue to advance in the future. There'd been a few worlds she'd seen that had such combinations, neither overpowering the other but working together, and they'd generally all turned out very well, as she recalled.

But that was still in the future; they still needed to deal with the here and now. Looking too far had landed them in this spot and it was not a mistake they would be willing to make again.

Glancing to her side, she saw her sister watching as well and smiled. It was good to have her back.

Then she saw Celestia looking back at her, and smiling too, though she had a familiar look that indicated she'd thought of something she wanted to ask, once they weren't focused on watching this.

Refocusing her attention for the moment as she prepared her part of the spell, Luna felt the unicorns around her attempting to link their magic to hers. Opening her magic to them, she waited until she felt all of them connected to her before she teleported them to the Lux Aeternam.

They rematerialized on the moon, and Luna waited for them to look around, regaining their bearings if they needed it, before leading them to the same hospital wing that their earlier visitors had been to, where the medical staff was waiting to scan each of them.

Luckily, none of these unicorns seemed to be the stuffy type, understanding the reason for them being checked over, and none of them complained about the process while a few of them were even grateful. One of them in particular, a stallion by the name of Dazzleflash, had shaken the hoof of the doctor doing the examination when he was told that he had a blood clot building in his heart and that her ponies would be able to take care of it later on for him. At the doctor's questioning look, he'd explained that heart issues ran in his family, but treating them hadn't been easy, and now knowing that a treatment for it existed up here was making him very happy.

After the examinations, and making arrangements for Dazzleflash to visit the hospital for his treatment after the next round of transports, Luna led them to the temporary room they would be using for the teleports with the medical team bound to Equestria waiting patiently, with all their equipment neatly stored with a few of her security forces standing by. It was something she didn't truly want to do, but she understood the rest of the Directors were on edge and this would make them feel more at ease.

Luna watched the team of ponies close their eyes and lower their horns, feeling the magic build up as the team teleported away and marveling at the power they had to be able to move everything in one trip. Focusing on their magic trail, she was relieved to feel them returning to Equestria safely.

It was just a short while before they reappeared, flashing smiles at the examination team that was standing by. Seeing as they were able to handle things, Luna bid them a friendly goodbye before she went to take care of matters she had been putting off for far too long: seeing how the patients from the attack on the Orion, including her precious student, were faring and if she could tease Twilight about her crush on Sunset yet.

It wasn't long before she'd reached the hospital and headed up to Twilight's room, the ponies at the front desk immediately giving her the information upon confirming her identity. When she got there and again confirmed her identity to the guards, she found it quite crowded as she entered the room, their guests from Ponyville (except Rainbow Dash, who was evidently still in one of the other rooms for now) and six of her own people all sitting around.

Her eyes immediately went to Twilight, who was still in bed and looking a little fidgety when she glanced up at the sound of hoofsteps and saw Luna. Her expression immediately turned to one of delight. "Director Luna!"

Luna smiled happily. "Hello, Twilight," she said, coming over and giving her a hug. "I'm glad to see you're doing better."

Then she looked around at each of the other ponies in the room, gauging the expressions on their faces, from Sunset's smile to Moondancer's "It's about time" face, prompting a mental snicker. She should have expected the younger mare to be at Twilight's side. Though she'd have to have a private talk with her soon.

On the other hoof, she was not surprised that Velvet looked relieved to finally see her, as did her husband.

"How are things going?" her Director of Housing asked.

Luna smiled. "Well, the good news is that my sister and I have settled our personal issues and made arrangements that will greatly ease relations between our two nations," she said.

Sunset looked very relieved at that. "How's Princess Celestia?" she asked.

"Looking forward to seeing you again," Luna said. "Oh, and Princess Cadance asked me to pass on a message."

Sunset looked at her expectantly, as Luna leaned in close. "She says Ray says thank you for your note, and sends you his love too," she said with a smile.

Sunset smiled back. "Thank you," she said.

None of the ponies (or Spike) present so much as batted an eyelid at this, so Luna guessed they must have already known about the little gecko and continued. "There have also been some other developments in Canterlot," she said. "Shortly after we got word of the attack up here and returned to investigate, Canterlot Castle came under attack."

That got some startled reactions, including horrified looks from Sunset and Fluttershy, and Luna quickly continued. "Fortunately, the attackers were all subdued well before I went back down there," she said. "Apparently they were... most opposed to the idea of any form of reconciliation between our two nations in one form or another." At the looks she was getting, she lowered her head. "I will not lie," she said quietly. "Unlike the attack on the Orion, the attack in Canterlot... it was worse. There were casualties on both sides. But!" She raised a hoof. "It is over, and those who were behind it have been taken into Equestrian custody and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Sunset looked disgusted. "Was he behind it?" she asked. "Blueblood, I mean."

"My sister strongly believes so," Luna said. "Unfortunately, he has an alibi for the time the attack took place - he was already in prison for having nosed around in your room when you were off in Ponyville, Sunset. No damage was done in there," she quickly added at the younger mare's startled and worried look. "But Celestia was most furious with him for this trespass, and between that and other evidence of past wrongdoing on his part that had been gathered by then, he was arrested for it."

"Though it is doubtful that she will be able to convict him for the attack?" Velvet asked.

"There is already physical evidence linking him to it, but more will be needed to confirm that he willingly supplied the item in question to the attackers," Luna replied. "I have faith that my sister will be able to see that justice is done."

"Well, it should be easy enough." Sunset said, causing Luna to turn back to her. "He was among the few ponies that were aware of the Republic even before your return, and I think he was one of the few unaccounted for. If he is truly part of the avengers, then he could have passed messages to others to get them to gather around Canterlot to launch their attack in such a short time."

Luna smiled proudly. "My sister has taught you well," she said. "I will make sure she gets your reasoning regarding him."

Then she looked around. "But let us change the topic. Apart from Neighsay's betrayal and the effects thereof, have you all been enjoying your visit?"

There was a round of nods.

"Oh yeah," Rainbow Dash suddenly said, prompting Luna to look around in startled surprise before she realized the other mare's bed had just been brought back into the room when she wasn't looking, one of the doctors still standing by it. "I think we've all had a good time."

"Rainbow Dash!" came a chorus of happy cheers, and then Twilight pushed her covers aside and went to see her.

"How's the wing doing?" she asked gently.

Rainbow Dash flapped it a bit. "Feels just as good and as natural as the old one did," she said with a grin. "Can't hardly tell it isn't the original, actually. You did good work, Twilight."

Twilight beamed at the words, which made Luna smile as well.

Fluttershy, who'd hurried over to join her too, smiled as well. "I'm glad you're okay," she said.

Rainbow Dash's expression twitched for a moment, before she let Fluttershy take her hoof. "Hey," she said. "It's me. I've survived a regular busted wing before. You really think I was going to let losing one keep me down for long?"

"You still need to be careful with it," Twilight said. "You aren't going to be getting off the ground right away until a doctor certifies you, you know."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "I know," she said, flicking her wings a bit.

"How did you take to waking up with it?" Luna asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well... Doc was a little worried, I did burn through the anesthetic faster than he'd expected. But other than that..."

In the medical room...

Rainbow Dash's eyes flickered as she came back to consciousness. For a moment, she was a little confused, then she remembered Well Wishes placing a mask over her face that he said would put her to sleep for the duration of her surgery, and drifting off pretty quickly. The mask had long since been removed, she guessed, since she couldn't see it anymore.

"Easy there," a stallion's voice came, and then she looked up to see Well Wishes standing over her. "Didn't expect to see you back awake this early."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Probably should have told ya, I burn through painkillers and stuff like that really fast," she said with a shrug of her wings. "Quick metabolism, ya know."

The stallion nodded his head and began to ease her up into a sitting position. "Now how do you feel?"

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. "I feel..." Then she flicked her wings.

Her wings.

And she blinked as she realized she had two again.

"Wow," she muttered as she pulled her new wing in front of her, the gesture feeling completely normal. "I know Twilight said this would work just as naturally as my old one, but... wow, it's like it was never gone." She turned the wing, her wing, over while staring at the metallic feathers and limb. She could feel them, and they didn't feel odd or weird or different. It felt normal.

Well Wishes looked pleased. "That is good to hear, and it seems that the neural connections are working fine," he said as he instructed her to fold out her wing and began to put some pressure on it. "Do you feel anything?"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said. "If I didn't know better... they're so real."

He gave her another smile, letting go of her wing with her limb folding back to her side. "That's good to hear too," he said. "That you can feel the pressure and you approve." He gave her a light chuckle, examining her other injuries. "The last thing we want is for you not to feel anything in your new prosthetic."

Rainbow Dash blinked at him before her eyes went wide. "Ah, in case I got hit or something on it so I'd know that I did get banged up, right?"

"Exactly," Well Wishes said. "It was a concern for ponies that are like you now; that they wouldn't notice a serious injury or issue with their new limb because they couldn't feel it. I could not begin to mention the number of times that a certain of my patients accidentally set themselves on fire and didn't notice it until they suffered significant third degree burns."

Rainbow Dash winced. "Ouch." She flicked out her wing again, staring and marveling at how natural it felt.

Then she looked up again. "I remember that Twilight said something about some ponies not bein' able to use these as well as others," she said. "Really glad I don't have that problem; I crashed and got laid up with a busted wing once for a week and it about drove me crazy, not being able to fly until it was back to normal."

"I can only imagine not being able to fly," Well Wishes said as he shook his head, flicking his own wings. "Some pegasi have adapted to it, but for most of us, it would be... as if we were trapped within our own bodies."

Rainbow Dash nodded her head. "Yeah, that's about how I felt," she said. "Even when my legs and my other wing still worked." She sighed. "It was probably worse for me because... well, speeding through the sky, breaking the sound barrier... that's how I got my Cutie Mark."

Well Wishes nodded his head again. "Becoming physically unable to carry out what your Cutie Mark represents would have a more severe effect on your mind," he said. "So I can certainly understand why you were starting to panic when you first found out."

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Then, suddenly, her eyes widened in panic.

"What's wrong?" Well Wishes asked.

Slowly, Rainbow Dash turned and looked at him. "I just realized," she said. "How are my parents going to react when they see this‽"

Well Wishes frowned. "If they have a problem with it, they can take it up with me," he said.

"No no no," Rainbow Dash corrected him. "That's not the issue. The issue is, they're too supportive, they make a big deal out of everything I do and it's embarrassing. How do I stop them from throwing a city-wide party to celebrate my latest accomplishment‽"

At the look on her face, Well Wishes couldn't help but chuckle. "Parents will be parents," he said. "And you've got to admit, you saved lives out there today. So they've got a good reason to be real proud this time."

Rainbow Dash calmed down a little at that, and smiled. "I... yeah, you're right," she said. "Thanks, Doc. But I still don't want 'em to make a big shebang out of it though."

"Then I suggest talking to them; explain that you don't want them to make a big deal out of it," Well Wishes said. "Possibly with a trained therapist on hoof to help you all talk about why you feel this way and why they feel the need to celebrate all your accomplishments."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah," she said. "You're right." She sighed. "I probably should have done that ages ago. But I didn't think I could really get it through to them without yelling and possibly upsetting them, so... I've been putting it off."

"We do have a few specialists that might be able to help but before we go on, there are a number of things we will need to go over with maintaining your new limb."

Rainbow Dash nodded, and if she'd had thumbs (she knew griffons, of course she knew what fingers and thumbs were), she'd have given him one up. "Gotcha, Doc. So what do I need to know?"

Well Wishes smiled, and began to explain.

"So that's how it went," Rainbow Dash concluded. "Still got a lot of work to do and I need to learn a lot of stuff, but Doc said it was good to bring me back here." Then she noticed the look on Luna's face, and looked at her curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Well, given the extent of your injuries, I asked Cadance to see about contacting your parents, to let them know about what had happened to you," Luna said. "It felt like the right thing to do."

Rainbow Dash sat back. "Okay then," she said, then sighed. "Knew I was going to have to talk to them about this sooner or later."

Luna nodded. "It's one of the things she'll be doing over the next few days," she said. "Celestia, Cadance and I, and their Speakers and my Directors, are making plans to bring a second group up here to show them around the Republic. Your parents will likely be among them, if we can find them in time."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Gotcha," she said. "Wait - got something I can write with? I can give you their address."

Luna smiled gratefully.

"If you're planning to bring her parents to visit, you may also want to include the filly I included in the report I sent you earlier," Well Wishes said as he opened his PCA and began showing Rainbow Dash how to type into a word processor on its screen. "And her parents or guardians -" He looked at Rainbow Dash questioningly.

"Her folks travel the world, doing animal studies," Rainbow Dash said. "But her aunts Holiday and Lofty live a couple of stops away from Ponyville, and they come by and watch over her regularly. They're good for any legal forms and stuff that you'd need to give Scoots any kind of examination." She began typing some more, probably the addresses of the two homes.

"They don't actually live with her most of the time?" Luna asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded. "There's some other legal stuff going on. I don't fully get it, but it means that they can't just move out of their place and come live in Ponyville with Scoots full time like they want to just yet," she said. "And she really doesn't want to leave her folks' place, at least not on a permanent basis anyway - she still loves 'em, even if they're away so much of the time, plus she's got friends in Ponyville. She's also got a regular group of ponies who watch over her when her aunts can't be in town."

"I see," Well Wishes said.

Luna nodded too. "I'll contact Cadance and see about including them as well," she said.

Then she smiled at both Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "It's good to see that you're both doing better," she said. "I just wish I'd realized what Neighsay was up to before he'd pulled off what he did, so that nopony had been hurt."

"There wasn't any way that you could have known what he was going to do or what he was truly like," Rarity said.

Luna did her best to hide her wince at her words. "I still feel responsible," she said with all honesty.

Velvet walked over and laid a hoof against hers. "I probably should have tried to contact you too," she said. "I actually called a meeting while you were away, to inform the others of something I was told about - the Stellar Accords." Luna winced again at the reminder of their existence, but waved Velvet to continue.

"Neighsay seemed a little too eager to hear news that our guests had ties to the ponies up here when the topic turned to such things, and I was a little suspicious," Velvet said. "His proposal to accelerate their meetings with their kin was a good one, and one I support, but... his supportiveness of such an idea seemed out of character for him."

Twilight nodded. "Can I make a confession?" she asked.

"What's that?" Night Light asked, looking directly at his daughter.

"Well... every time I passed Neighsay, he made my fur crawl!" Twilight shuddered. "I know I'm not the most observant when it comes to some things, but he just gave me the creeps the few times he showed up to audit our classes in school. I always figured it was just because he was such a grouch."

"It's true that he was a rather stiff and sour individual; he was never pleasant to work with but he did his actual duties well enough," Luna said with Velvet nodding her head in agreement. "Though I suppose we will need to examine his work closely now, to see if he had leaked any of his views through into our educational system or his colleagues." She mouthed a quick later to Velvet, the mare nodding her head again, before Luna turned back to the group. "In any case. I am glad to see you are all doing well." She leaned in and gave Twilight another hug. "Much as I'd like to stay and chat more, I have other responsibilities to tend to, so I'll see you all again later."

Twilight smiled. "We'll see you then," she said.

Luna gave her one more fond smile, before heading out of the room. She'd been telling the truth; she'd have loved to spend more time with Twilight especially. But she had a lot of other ponies to see too.

Checking her PCA, copying the names and addresses Well Wishes had just sent her into a new message and tapping out a quick note with them that would be forwarded to Cadance so she could see about contacting this Scootaloo filly and her family as part of the next trip up to the moon, Luna went on her way, heading straight for the room of the next patient who'd been injured by Neighsay's actions.

There was going to be a lot more work to do in the days ahead, and she needed to get started.

Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

As Celestia's sun peeked over the horizon, Cadance awoke with a yawn, and began her usual morning routine, plus a little extra as she fed Ray.

Once she was done, she went to join her aunt in the dining room for breakfast, and found that Celestia was not yet in, but Directors Inkwell and Spice were already present and enjoying a plate of eggs, toast, fruit and hay bacon.

"Good morning, Princess," Director Inkwell greeted her. "How was your night?"

"Peaceful," Cadance said. "And yours, Directors?"

The pair smiled at her. "The same," Director Inkwell said.

"Good." Cadance smiled as she sat down and accepted her plate of food from the servers hanging around the periphery of the room.

"Though I did get a message from Director Luna, which she asked me to pass on to you," Director Inkwell said. She pulled a scroll out of her saddlebags. "Rainbow Dash gave her the contact information for her parents and for that little filly and her family, so that you could reach out to them, and I copied it out for you."

"Oh, good," Cadance said, as she accepted the scroll and began to study it. Then she frowned slightly as she looked at two of the names. "Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood... those names sound familiar, where have I heard them before?"

"They work for us," Celestia said as she walked into the room, radiant as always. "Good morning, everypony." She peered at Cadance. "What brought those two up?"

"Their daughter is the filly Aunt Luna mentioned, the one Rainbow Dash is wanting to have brought up to the moon," Cadance explained as her aunt took her seat and accepted the plate that was put before her.

Celestia nodded understandingly. "Of course," she said, absently eating her breakfast. "I'll have to go through my files, see where they're supposed to be working for now, so we can contact them."

"And in the meantime, I can see about talking to her aunts and Rainbow Dash's parents," Cadance said.

Director Inkwell cleared her throat. "Speaking of this filly's parents, what do they do for you?" she asked.

"They study plants and animals from around the world," Celestia answered. "Their research has helped with our own medical studies a great deal, primarily in crafting new medicines - I believe you would be interested in some of the plants they've discovered, Director Spice.".

Director Spice nodded with a smile. "And so would Well Wishes," she said. "He does disdain certain more primitive aspects of our past development as a species, but if these plants would help make better medicines, I am certain he'd appreciate it."

"Indeed. I look forward to meeting him," Celestia said with a tip of her head. "Along with the rest of your fellow active Directors." She looked in Cadance's direction with a smirk. "And I suspect my niece will have an interesting time meeting one of them in particular."

Cadance blushed at her aunt's words, but she was speaking the truth.

"Oh yes," Director Spice said, smiling in her direction. "And I expect Velvet will be most interested in meeting you, Princess."

"Speaking of Director Velvet, what's she like as a person?" Celestia asked, tilting her head slightly.

Both Directors turned and looked at her contemplatively.

"She's a good pony," Director Inkwell finally said. "A loving wife and mother, not afraid to take a firm hoof when it comes to settling disagreements. And stars forbid anypony should ever try to harm a member of her family, or they'll wish they weren't alive to regret it. I highly doubt that even Director Luna would try to go against her when she is in that state of mind."

Director Spice nodded in agreement. "Velvet is a friend of both of us, and to our fellows, but she can be downright scary when she wants to be," she said. "Most of the time though, she's one of the nicest ponies you could ever meet." She turned and smiled at Cadance. "You shouldn't have anything to worry about, Princess."

"Either of you," Director Inkwell added. "Director Luna trusts both of you, and I trust her." There was a meaningful look on her face as she looked at Celestia, who didn't try to hide the look of shame on her face.

"For what it's worth," she said, "I'm sorry if I've offended either of you or your fellows during the time you've been here. I was... not in the best of mindsets, until Luna and I finally talked things out and realized how badly we'd both messed up so long ago. Myself far more than my sister." She sighed. "I lashed out, then and now, because I'd felt that she'd abandoned me by running off like she did, after I'd been happy for her finding new friends who appreciated her night for the spectacle that it was. I gave her space to be with them, to grow and develop by herself, but she didn't see it like that... and I didn't realize, until she told me, that she'd felt I was neglecting her by my actions."

Both Directors looked at her in surprise as she continued. "Despite our differences though, no matter how distant we became, I never stopped loving my sister."

The two Directors traded meaningful looks, before Director Inkwell nodded. "And she never stopped loving you, Princess," she said. "Director Luna may not have worn her heart on her sleeve as much as some ponies, but for the most part, she always spoke fondly of you, even when she was grumbling about something."

Cadance could almost feel her aunt's heart swell at that, but further conversation was delayed by the arrival of the castle staff with a second course for their breakfast. Once each of the four had taken some time to enjoy the food, their talk picked up again.

"Do you think you could arrange for me to meet with some of the farming clans down here?" Director Spice asked. "I'd like to see their farms and techniques for myself."

Celestia nodded. "I'd be happy to," she said. "The closest are down in Ponyville; the Apple family were the first to settle there, not far from the borders of the Everfree Forest, and the land was well suited for other farms as well."

"Ah." Director Spice seemed pleased at that. "I'd be honored to meet with them then. There is much we can learn from one another."

"As well as gain access to a wider range of crops," Director Inkwell said, tipping her head towards the other mare who gave a small snort at that before frowning.

"Yes, and I doubt that most of them would agree to our style of barter," she let out a small sigh. "How much currency do we have allotted to this again?" She then looked at Princess Celestia. "Please do not take any offence but I am not too inclined to accept a loan from your own hooves, Princess. It is not our way to do things; take half of a deal and come back to finish it at a later point."

"Completely understandable; though I could offer you and the rest of your team a tab to operate under while you establish your currency system so you would not need to dip too heavily into your reserves of old bits," Celestia said without any hesitation. "Speaking of your team, I have just come off of the medical wing to see how everypony was after the attack and how well both medical teams were cooperating."

"Considering the lack of any shouting, ponies running towards you or our guests and that you are not complaining, I'd guess very well?" Cadance said with a small smirk.

"Better than I could have hoped; the Lunarians clearly have the greater knowledge and tools and our own doctors are only too willing to learn their methods while sharing our own magical techniques," Celestia said, taking a small fork of her food into her mouth. "A lot of our injured guards should be up and ready to go help pacify and patrol the rest of the city soon enough."

"And the attackers?" Cadance asked, looking at her aunt carefully, as did the rest of the Directors.

At that, Celestia's entire body language shifted. "They were brought to stable condition; that is all we are willing to give them currently. Any disfigurement or loss of limb is being left as it is until further notice."

"And your medical professionals are fine with this?" Director Inkwell asked stiffly, clearly probing for answers.

"They are aware that these individuals tried to stage a coup and therefore qualify as enemy combatants; they are treating them to stabilize them so they can appear before a court and nothing more," Celestia said, giving her a stern look. "Your own medical team agreed to this, though with some small complaints lodged initially."

"But nothing enough that they saw fit to inform us about," Director Spice said with a tilt of her head. "Not that I am criticising your decision; they turned against you and giving them any of our technology to replace lost limbs or tend to really disfiguring injuries could imply we sympathize with them."

"As well as give them a potentially dangerous advantage," Cadance said. "If they brought it in to somepony that had enough technology know how, they could try to reverse engineer it, right?"

"Exactly," Celestia said. "That's the last thing we want." She sighed. "Though depending on the results of the trials, some of them may receive further treatment. And I do intend to personally interview at least some of the culprits at some point."

"May I ask why?" Director Inkwell asked.

"As my niece well knows," Celestia responded, "Those who were taken into custody can be divided into three groups. The third is the most worrying to me, and they are also the ones I want to speak with. Based on what we have found so far, they honestly thought they were doing good by their actions yesterday." She sighed. "The thing is, I expect they're the ones my sister would be most offended by."

"Why?" Director Spice asked. "What did they claim was their reasoning for taking part in this insurrection?"

Celestia looked at her. "They genuinely believed that Luna was manipulating me somehow, be it with magic or just words, and thought that I needed 'saving'," she said. "Which is why I want to talk to them, and get it through to them that she wouldn't need to manipulate me. Nor has she," she quickly added. "Luna is my sister, and as I have said, I never stopped loving her, nor stopped hoping she and I could meet peacefully again some day." Her ear twitched. "Even if I did let my crankier side get the better of me at times during said meeting."

Both of the Directors nodded their heads at that, though they kept quiet on the entire matter.

"At any rate," Celestia continued. "Regardless of what happens when I speak to them, they are clearly guilty of criminal trespass and violence against our ponies. I have little doubt that they will be charged and tried on those grounds. At the very least, given their motivation for doing so, I intend to propose that they be sentenced to mandatory counseling sessions." Her lip curled. "Whereas the lead group, those 'avengers' who outright sought to overthrow our government, will likely all be recommended to receive far harsher punishment."

Both Directors nodded again, before Director Inkwell spoke. "I presume that group would be one of the three you mentioned. Who are the last group?"

"The ones who joined in because they saw the opportunity to cause trouble for the 'fun' of it," Celestia said, sounding disgusted at the notion. "They were all just in it to be troublemakers and will be punished accordingly."

Both Directors nodded approvingly.

"Foalish mischief is one thing," Director Spice said. "But - I presume these were all adults?" At Celestia's nod, she continued. "But a group like that has no excuse for such behavior, given the extremes of what they joined in."

"We are doing our best to interrogate them all and get to the ringleaders," Cadance said. "We are not ready to offer them any deals yet, considering that we may have one of the leaders in custody, but this investigation is still in its early days."

Director Inkwell nodded. "Of course," she said. "One can't expect such a thing to be all done in less than a day, given the sheer scale of the attack. There is only so much that can be done at once."

All of them nodded in agreement, before Director Spice voiced another question.

"Shifting to a happier topic," she said. "Among my department's goals, there has been some discussion about bringing up new insects and other beneficial species to help with pollination and related things. And I must confess, I'd like to see some of the other wildlife down here at some point; I've never seen any non-sapient species in the flesh, beyond those insects we have."

Cadance smiled. "I'll introduce you to Ray as soon as I can, if that's what you're asking," she said. "Both of you, if Director Inkwell is interested too."

Director Spice smiled back. "I'd appreciate that very much, Princess," she said.

"As would I," Director Inkwell said, a slight smile on her own face too.

With that, talk turned in other directions until their breakfast was done.

Luna let out a positively massive yawn as she rolled over in bed, preparing to start her day.

It had been a very late night for her as she visited as many of the injured patients in the hospital as possible, including Red Rocket. And that was before she set about carrying out her usual night duties in the dream plane. While her physical body could rest for the most part as she did so, it was still mentally tiring, especially with the number of ponies who'd had nightmares after seeing the blasts in their dome or seen the attack on Canterlot Castle.

And today was going to be just as busy.

No sense in putting it off any longer, she thought groggily to herself, throwing back the covers and crawling out of bed before heading to the kitchen in her suite. Thankfully, she'd set the timer on her coffeemaker the night before; those mornings when she'd forgotten to do so were not fun.

And I will forever be thankful for the ponies who remembered to bring enough coffee beans with them to start an entire grove of trees when we first came here, she thought to herself after she'd downed her first mug a little bit later.

Breakfast was a hurried affair, before she headed out to the Lux Aeternam. She had quite a few meetings to deal with today, not to mention checking up on Twilight and her new friends again.

And seeing about making sure her extra rooms were suitable for pony habitation. She knew that Velvet would be in charge of arranging official accommodations for their future Equestrian visitors when it was time for them to come up, but she intended to invite her sister and niece to stay with her, and she wanted to make sure her living space was ready for them.

Speaking of... She saw Velvet waiting patiently in the central chambers.

"Good morning," she said as she walked up. "How are you doing today?"

"Well enough," Velvet said. "The doctors gave Twilight a clean bill of health and allowed her to return to her apartment this morning, and most of her friends went home with her. Fluttershy chose to stay with Rainbow Dash though."

Luna mentally sighed in relief at Velvet's first bit of news. "And how is Rainbow Dash doing?" she asked.

"So far, she seems to be recovering well, though she has yet to properly test her flight capabilities, according to Director Wishes," Velvet replied. "She is quite eager to do so, from what she has said, and given her personal history, I can certainly understand why."

Luna nodded. "Quite," she said.

She would have said more, except she heard hoofsteps, and turned to greet the rest of her fellow Directors as they arrived, including Director Onyx, somewhat to her surprise.

It must have been evident on her face, given his response. "Red Rocket insisted on my coming to this morning's meeting," he said. "He appreciated my company, but said he would be fine on his own for a few hours." Then he sighed, sounding as tired as he looked. "I'm just glad the doctors have said he'll make a full recovery."

Luna nodded sympathetically. "As am I," she said. "As are we all, I'm sure."

Onyx nodded back. "And I appreciate you coming to visit us last night," he said.

"It was the least I could do for a friend," Luna said.

Onyx smiled appreciatively, then went to his seat, Luna following his example once everypony was in.

Calling the meeting to order, she looked around at each of her eight Directors present. "These past few days have been... challenging, to say the least," she said. "And I have no doubt that the days ahead will be as well. But we will forge on in all of our goals. We will rebuild the Orion, we will continue negotiations with the leadership of Equestria, and when it is time, we will meet and begin negotiations with all the rest of Equuis's nations who are open to it as well."

That got her a mixture of nods, as she continued. "Some of you know this, some I have not had the opportunity to speak with about it directly. But let it be said now that I and my sister have recently had a long and informative talk, and we have both apologized to one another for the many mistakes in judgement we made so long ago, when my sister and I each began to draw apart despite our promises never to do so." She gazed out at them. "While I will never regret the friendships I made, or the many accomplishments we have achieved through our hard work here, I have..." she sighed. "I have missed my sister's company. And now that we have worked through our personal issues, we have made some important decisions."

There were some surprised looks, but no interruptions, so she kept going. "First and foremost, while some ponies down below would claim that we are a colony in rebellion-"

She had to stop in response to some of the angry mutters that got, but waited until they had all quieted down, then continued. "My sister, and the Speakers of Equestria's two Houses of Parliament, have accepted that we are our own people, and Celestia intends to make a public announcement on the matter soon, in which she will officially recognize the Lunar Republic as an independent nation, and as an ally and friend of Equestria."

That got several startled but approving looks.

"The next order of business," Luna said. "We will need to appoint a new Director of Education. I would rather we have a full Board before we go further on; it would reassure our people that our system endures and the mechanics still work. For now, I nominate Deputy Director Chelsea Porcelain as temporary Director of Education until a proper vote can be done within the department."

There were some frowns, to her dismay, before Well Wishes signalled that he had something to say.

"I cannot approve of that choice," he said sharply. "Deputy Director Porcelain worked with him for a long time; she was his right hoof for many years. I do not trust her or anyone currently with that department. I propose that a full purge of all of Neighsay's flunkies be initiated first before we start seeing to the new Director's placement."

There was a mutter of agreements from the rest of her directors; Onyx included. That was a bad sign to Luna. Silently, she wished she could tell them how she'd already conducted her own private examination of the mare in question in her dreams and seen her horrified reaction to Neighsay's crimes, but that was out of the question. It would be opening a can of worms far more disharmonious than she was prepared for if she mentioned her own Duties to them now.

Maybe, though...

"I acknowledge your lack of trust in her, and find it reasonable, given recent events," Luna said. "But for reasons relating to my... extra abilities, I do trust her. I offer a counter proposal to yours, that we begin investigations into all those whom Neighsay and the ponies he managed to convince to plant the bombs interacted with. We will interview and examine all the members of the Department of Education and see how much they knew about his plans, if at all. With Deputy Director Porcelain as the first."

"I vote in favor of Director Luna's proposal," Velvet said suddenly, drawing the attention of her fellows. "I agree that an investigation of all members of the Department of Education needs to be carried out. But Deputy Director Porcelain has been a part of that department since before Neighsay joined it - for that matter, she was there before most if not all of the rest of us were elected to our current positions, excepting Director Luna of course." Luna's ear twitched at that, but she allowed Velvet to continue.

"Furthermore," Velvet said, "Deputy Director Porcelain has never once said anything against the Equestrians that I am aware of, either during her time as a regular teacher or since she attained her current rank. I cannot see her being in support of Neighsay's actions."

Well Wishes frowned, but suddenly, there was movement from Onyx's direction, and all turned to see him close his eyes.

"I agree," he said. "I vote in favor of Director Luna's proposal, with the amendment that we call Deputy Director Porcelain before us now and question her directly to confirm what Directors Luna and Velvet have said of her."

"I accept your amendment," Luna said. "All in favor?"

It wasn't a consensus vote; it was split almost evenly, but in the end, five out of eight (with Luna abstaining, of course) had supported the measure. It was telling how divided the Board was, and she had fears that Porcelain would always have the taint of Neighsay's legacy over her and poison any vote or proposal she made to the Board.

Still, it had passed, so she sent the message that would summon the other mare into the conference room.

When Deputy Director Porcelain arrived, Luna took a moment to look her over. She was an elderly Earth pony mare, with a pale purple coat, bluish gray mane and tail, purple eyes, and a cutie mark of a tea set. But importantly, she carried herself with confidence and determination, not fear or cowardliness.

"Deputy Director," she said. "You know why you have been called."

The mare nodded. "I do," she said, looking at the eyes of the other Directors. Some were overtly hostile while others kept their opinion to themselves. There were only a few that were actually pleased to see her, Velvet among them.

"Then tell us," Luna said. "Were you aware of what your former Director was up to?"

Porcelain shook her head. "Stars' sakes, no," she said. "If I'd known what that stallion was up to, I'd have reported him in an instant. I've got no reason to see anypony hurt, and I've never had anything against the Equestrians like he did." She looked disgusted. "Above all else, I'm a teacher, not a terrorist."

"And yet you worked with him for so many years," Well Wishes said, clearly doing his best to hold back a glare.

Porcelain nodded. "I did," she said. "Never approved of his rhetoric though. I blocked more than a few of the things he tried to push through over the years, lessons proclaiming all about our superiority over the Equestrians. We're supposed to teach facts, not opinions." She sighed. "I tolerated him because he did a decent job running the administrative side of things, because I was happier overseeing the actual teaching processes than I would have been in his place, and because I and more than a few others could work together and block any of his bigoted vitriol from getting through to the next generation if it came up. I never realized he'd ever take it this far though."

Luna looked at her. "If you were offered the position of Interim Director for your department, would you accept it?" she asked calmly.

"If I had to, I would," Porcelain said. "But just until somepony else can get elected as Director and take it on full-time."

"You won't run yourself?" Water Wheel asked curiously, with Porcelain shaking her head.

"No, I'm better suited to my current rank," she said. "Besides, I'm not blind to the fact that I'm not wholly welcomed here. If this were any other Director temporary replacement, I'd have been brought here immediately and not have my potential position debated on by others."

Luna winced; she was right. This wasn't their way and it was clear that disharmony from Neighsay's actions were still having their impact felt. "I see," she said sadly. "You are correct and I do regret that we had to come to this but Neighsay's actions are too much for some to overcome."

"Mm." Porcelain nodded. "Besides, at my age I'd be retiring in a few years anyway, or at least taking a lower-ranking position. Should have done it a few years ago, but I couldn't make any real recommendations yet for a proper replacement - we needed somepony who could do the regular work while still keepin' Neighsay's bigotry out of our schools as well as I did."

Luna could see several of her Directors looking... well, there were several expressions racing across their faces, before they all nodded in what looked like agreement, as their prospective new member's words made sense. She gestured to Porcelain to keep talking, and the elderly mare nodded.

"Now that he's out," she said, "It seems to me that what you really need in a new Director for my department is somepony who can clean house and catch anything of his that I missed, on top of the usual Director's work. I'd be glad to help out as long as I can."

"Anything else you would do?" Well Wishes pressed, staring hard at her.

"No; restoring the dignity and trust of the education Department as well as conducting our fair share of our contributions to the Republic are paramount," she said, meeting his eyes.

"Well said, Acting Director of Education," Luna said with the rest of the Board nodding their heads with more warmth, including Wishes. "If this is all settled, we can move onto the next item of our agenda." She waited for any of her Directors to voice their complaints but they said nothing. She smiled to herself as Porcelain took her seat before she braced herself for this next topic. "Please send in Deputy Stony Moore," she said to the intercom with all of her Directors stiffening up as they prepared to deal with this issue. "As we are now preparing to interact with Equuis on an official and lasting diplomatic basis, we must have a means of securing goods and services the likes of which they are accustomed to. Equestria will not push for payment from us anytime soon, but I would like us to be prepared for when they do. Director Inkwell has had her team prepare a detailed and extensive proposed payment system for everyone in the Republic, as well as several different possible currency options." She looked around, seeing everypony open up their dockets on the information the Resources Department had sent them. "On that note, during our initial investigation, the members of the teams I sent down confirmed that Equestria's own monetary system is still exactly the same as it was a thousand years ago; the old funds that I had saved and sent with the teams were accepted by local shops with no issue whatsoever."

"Barring the fact they will have the old design with you and Princess Celestia on it and thus be more valuable to collectors," Deputy Moore said as he stepped in. "That's if they are aware of the true nature of the old coins; otherwise they might consider the coinage fraudulent and thus worthless. Though Director Inkwell has already made plans to exchange the coins if need be with a reliable contact, i.e., your niece."

Luna nodded as she consulted her notes, grateful that one of her ponies had caught this oversight she'd missed. "Good point. I'll have to ask Deputy Armor for more detail; he's made a very thorough report on his time down below and noted that the shopkeepers accepted his coinage without any issue, but he didn't say if they reacted differently on seeing it."

"But onto the actual topic at hoof," Deputy Moore said. "My team and I have been in contact with Director Inkwell, who has been doing interviews with Equestrians as well as gathering as much data as possible. What we have here is what we believe to be a fair wage proposal for the entire Republic's workforce. We are fully aware that this is still a best guess estimate and we can adjust the payscale to better reflect the situation here as we move forwards."

"I would certainly hope so," Director Clear Flow said with a frown across his face. "I see that my Department has the lowest salary on average compared to the other Departments." He tilted his head angrily towards Moore. "We provide an essential service to the Republic to keep everything clean and flowing properly and we also have to deal with the prisoners sent to our Department as a punishment."

"I also have an issue with your proposal for my doctors," Director Well Wishes said, eyes glancing off the tablet and at Moore. "I have not had the time to fully read the data as Director Flow here has, but from what I have heard, doctors of our caliber would receive far more. This appears to be what an average medical professional would receive."

Luna watched Moore withstand the criticism that the Directors began to level against the Resources Department for a while before lifting a wing to call for order.

"As Deputy Moore stated," she said. "This is just the first version of the wage proposal. It is open to revisions, and you are all more than welcome to submit such to the Resources Department for consideration and review, with the final version to be implemented once everypony is satisfied with them."

"Thank you Director Luna," Deputy Moore said, unperturbed by how the Directors acted towards him, showing a remarkable strength of character. "In addition, we are ready to integrate our barter system into the national currency when the time comes that it is enacted, with a several years wait before we begin to collect taxes so our citizens can get used to the concept and have the funds to pay them. We also have multiple different mockups and possible designs for our currency. Excluding the ones that were proposed in past centuries and which Director Luna specifically vetoed at the time, of course."

Luna nodded her head as they continued to go over the finer details of the proposal while sighing internally; having to reintroduce money into her country was not something she was eager to do. It would create divides between her citizens; create classes of those who were on the top and could afford more and those who were on the bottom and could afford less. It would create disharmony in her people, especially if they had to re-enforce that they had to use money for everything now.

At least she'd been able to ensure that their new currency wouldn't have her image on it. That had long since been established as one of her hard points, her ponies reluctantly accepting her stance on the matter.

Though even with that part settled, with everything else they still had to discuss, it looked like this was going to be another long meeting.

It was several hours before she was able to call for a recess and late lunch break, with all involved returning afterward, and Luna was grateful that everypony present had agreed with her on that matter.

With each of them bidding their farewells for now, she saw some of her Directors leaving in groups, including Well Wishes and Onyx Plate both heading for the hospital together, while Velvet stood by Luna's own side.

"Do you think Twilight would mind if we dropped in on her?" Velvet asked.

Luna shrugged. "I wouldn't mind at least saying hello," she said. "But I hesitate to interrupt her spending time with her new friends."

"We could always call ahead and ask," Velvet said.

"True." Luna brought up the communications program on her PCA and tapped in Twilight's number. When Twilight's face popped up on the screen after just a few rings, the younger mare looked very excited.

"Director Luna! I've been hoping you'd call!" she said happily. "Do you have some free time?"

Luna blinked. "I was actually about to ask if you were available," she said. "Your mother and I were hoping to drop in; we're on a recess and lunch break from our current meeting..."

"Oh, come on over!" Twilight said. "We'd love to have you join us." She glanced away for a moment, then back to Luna. "Spike's fixing something for us all, and he's spectacular in the kitchen."

Luna smiled. "We'd be happy to accept your invitation," she said. "We'll be in as soon as we can."

With a cheerful "See you then!", Twilight disconnected, and Luna looked down at Velvet. "Well, you heard her," she said.

Velvet smiled back at Luna. "Of course."

The two began trotting out of the building, and once they'd stepped outside, they headed in the direction of Twilight's apartment.

Luna walked with a smile and an extra spring in her step as they went; not just because she was on her way to see her beloved student (though that was certainly a part of it), but also because she could feel her magic pools finally beginning to recover from so many years of maintaining the spell that had kept anyone else from teleporting to her moon. Now that she'd dismissed that spell, she had a lot more magic available to her, which she was very glad of. It would be some time before she had full access again but she did not think she would need it anytime soon. At least, she hoped she didn't need to have it soon.

The two mares soon arrived at Twilight's apartment, Luna taking a look around to see how it had been redecorated for the first time once they'd been let in. "Impressive work," she said.

"Why thank you," Rarity said as she closed the door behind them. "I did my best, adding my own special touches while still working with Twilight's desired aesthetics."

"Well I am happy that somepony was able to convince her to redecorate at long last," Velvet said. "It always seemed so... empty."

"Mo-om..." Twilight groaned as she came to greet them. "I had practical reasons for it." She gave both older mares a hug before continuing. "But I do appreciate Rarity offering to fix it up like she did, and I do like the new look she came up with." She flashed a friendly smile at the other unicorn, who was still standing by.

"It looks good to me too, sweetheart," Velvet said. "You did a very good job, miss Belle. Very... welcoming now, I'd say."

"Thank you," Rarity said with a bit of a blush.

Twilight guided them all over to the area she'd set aside for dining, and then once everyone was served, they dug in. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were absent, as were Applejack and Octavia (who were undoubtedly still visiting with Braeburn and his family, and Vinyl and hers, respectively), but the rest of their Equestrian visitors - Rarity, Pinkie, Sunset and Spike - and Moondancer were all present.

"I'm glad I finally got the chance to taste your cooking," Luna commented to Spike after taking a few bites. "Twilight's been most complementary of it, and I quite agree with her."

"Thank you ma'am," Spike said with a smile on his face. "I didn't have as many ingredients as I normally do as miss Twilight doesn't have a lot in her fridge but I am still proud with how I did."

Twilight blushed. "Yeah, I... don't go grocery shopping as often as I should," she said. "Unless I'm reminded."

Luna glanced in Moondancer's direction, giving her a knowing smile and receiving one in turn before Twilight continued. "And I actually was reminded when I was getting up a few days ago, but then I found out I was going to be in another country for a few days soon afterward, so I didn't think it would be a good idea to do it then, and... and I've been so distracted since I got back that I forgot until Spike pointed it out. And I'm babbling again, sorry about that..."

Moondancer reached over and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Deep breaths, Twilight. That's it... just breathe slowly, count to ten a few times, and calm down..."

Twilight did as she was told, and slowly but surely eased up. When she'd finally settled down, she gave everyone present an embarrassed look. "This kind of thing happens to me from time to time, as at least some of you know," she said. "Usually when I get nervous or embarrassed as I'm trying to explain something about myself."

Sunset, who was sitting on Twilight's other side, reached and put one foreleg around her. "It's okay," she said. "We understand."

Twilight smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Sunset," she said, smiling fondly at the mare. Luna wondered if Cadance could sense the growing affection between the two from this far away.

"Besides, darling, at least your little speeches are... shall we say..." Rarity coughed. "Intelligible. Certain younger ponies of my acquaintance been known to speak so fast when they get excited that I can barely understand more than one word out of every dozen."

"And me!" Pinkie added cheerfully, before she sobered a little. "I know how I get sometimes. I have those days when I'm wilder than others, and I know it bugs some ponies..."

Luna felt for the mare. "We all have our good and bad days," she said. "What matters is that you recognize that, and that when you do mean well in your words or actions but end up causing offense, it's an accident on your part."

For a moment, Pinkie was silent, and then she was right by Luna, hugging her tightly. "You do understand," she said happily. "I just knew you would! Pinkie Sense never fails!"

Then she released her and was back in her seat in an instant, leaving Luna to blink for a moment. She seems to be more in tune with her destined Power than I expected, she thought to herself. If she was able to pick up the traces of Laughter left on me after all these years...

It very much impressed and pleased her. "Yes, quite," she said with a smile. "And I'm glad I could make you happy, Pinkie."

Then she looked around. "That said, how have you all been this morning?"

"I know I'm doing better, now that I've been pronounced fully recovered," Twilight said. "But I'd like to be there when Rainbow Dash does her full flight tests, see how she really does with the wing I made for her."

"She still hasn't flown yet?" Luna asked curiously, wondering if the dreams of the mare she saw last night really were an indicator of something more serious.

"They're building up to that," Twilight said. "I talked with Rainbow Dash and her doctors this morning about it, since I am the one who built her wing, and they've done all the tests to confirm that it's been fully connected and integrated into her magical and nervous systems. She passed those tests with with flying colors."

Pinkie giggled, and Luna couldn't help but be amused by the pun herself. "Go on," she said.

Twilight nodded. "Director Well Wishes wanted to hold off on having her actually try to get off the ground again until he could be there for it though. And since he had a Director's meeting this morning, that delayed it a bit. Rainbow Dash says it's okay though; she's eager to get up and fly for real again, and normally she can't stand not being able to get off the ground, but... well, since her new wing's integrated with the rest of her so well, she says it feels like she was born with it, and she just knows it'll work just fine. So she doesn't mind waiting a little longer to try to fly with it." She smiled. "And having Fluttershy there with her helps."

"That is good to hear," Luna said before tilting her head, having a greater feeling of what was going on in Rainbow Dash's mind. "And before I forget; Note, make an appointment with T later," she said into her computer with those around her giving her an odd look. "Sorry; it's a last-minute thing that you reminded me of, Twilight."

"Who is this T person?" Velvet asked with Luna tsking and shaking her head.

"An old colleague of mine," she said. "As well as a friend I suppose; though he is not the social type. He doesn't do well with others, to be honest, considering that his position and duties grant him access to a less pleasant world view."

"Sounds like he needs a party to cheer him up," Pinkie said, her mane poofing up a bit as she began to look excited.

Luna shook her head. "A kind idea, but not a good one, unfortunately," she said. "Knowing T as I do. His work tends to be very time-consuming; he is a dedicated stallion who does what needs to be done." She gave the group a smile. "I wouldn't be able to do my extra duties as well as I do if not for him."

"Extra duties?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Well, Director Luna is an alicorn, Twilight," Moondancer said, covering for Luna as she had slipped a bit too much information. "I am sure there are a whole lot of extra things she does for us without us even noticing. Like keeping the moon in a steady orbit around Equuis."

Twilight nodded understandingly at that and didn't ask any more questions.

Moondancer then turned to Pinkie. "As for your idea of giving him a party," she said. "I know you have good intentions here, but really, and I speak from experience, not all ponies do well with crowds, for one reason or another." She looked back at Luna. "I'm guessing the stallion you speak of is the same?"

Luna nodded, seeing what her fellow Lady was getting at and silently thanking her. "He is a very private person who only rarely allows anypony to have any sort of contact with him, even me, Pinkie, and we tend to work on the same matter from time to time," she said, remembering some of the worse incidents in the dream realm they'd had to solve together. "It's just the way he is."

Pinkie nodded thoughtfully. "Like Fluttershy, but more so," she said. "Okie-dokie-lokie."

Luna nodded. "Exactly," she said. "Except he's less shy and more... weary and withdrawn from the world, as a result of his experiences. He made it clear to me a long time ago that he mainly wants to be left in peace and solitude to focus on his work, unless some important matter comes up that requires his special talents, and even then he prefers that I contact him ahead of time to request a meeting. So I have respected his wishes." She looked at Pinkie. "I am sorry, but any attempt to involve him in any sort of celebration would only result in his being annoyed and reacting poorly."

Pinkie nodded. "I gotcha," she said. "But when you meet him, can you at least tell him I said hi and wished him lots and lots of happiness?"

Luna chuckled. "Of course," she said, already imagining his reaction to it and doing her best not to snicker.

Talk turned to other things, and Luna couldn't help but beam with pride as she saw Twilight getting along so well with her new friends.

And they all seemed so interested in getting to know Luna herself as a person too, not just as the highest-ranking pony in the Republic, something she vastly appreciated.

Regrettably, it had to end at some point, and Luna and Velvet bid them both farewell before leaving for the Lux Aeternam once more.

As they walked down the streets, Velvet looked up at Luna. "That was relaxing, wasn't it?"

Luna nodded, smiling. "I've found it is very easy to relax around Twilight," she said. "In all my years of teaching her, she's become one of the few ponies I know who sees me as more than my title, and I've always been grateful to her for it. As I am grateful that her friends are all following in her example." She looked at Velvet. "You and Night have raised her well and have every right to be proud of her and what she's accomplished, Velvet."

Velvet blushed. "I am," she said. "And I'm glad you care for her too."

The rest of their walk was occupied with small talk, and finally they settled back down into the central meeting room, ready to resume the day's work.

Chapter Three

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Chapter Three

Scootaloo's ears perked up as she entered the house for lunch, hearing voices inside. "I'm home!" she called out before her eyes widened in surprise at the sight before her. "Mom, dad! You're here!"

Laughing, the other two ponies came over to greet her. "How's it going?" Snap Shutter asked, reaching out to ruffle her mane.

"Ah, you know..." Scootaloo blushed as she leaned into her dad. "About the usual." Her ears drooped. "I miss having Rainbow Dash around though." She hadn't seen her big sister figure in a little over a week, since the day of the Summer Sun Celebration when she'd gone to the moon with her friends, and she knew Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were both missing their sisters too.

"We know, sweetie," her aunt Holiday said as she came over, the Earth pony mare giving her a friendly smile. "But that's part of why my little brother and your mom are back."

Scootaloo's ears perked up again. "Really?"

"Really," her mother, Mane Allgood said. The pegasus mare smiled and reached down to pull her into a hug of her own before she continued. "About a week ago, your father and I got a message from the Princesses asking us to come back home, and they said it had something to do with both you and Rainbow."

"Really?" Scootaloo asked again, eyes wide.

Her dad nodded his head. "It seems that the Lunar Republic is offering to try and help find out why you are having so much trouble flying, free of charge," he said.

Scootaloo's eyes widened before she hopped out of her mom's arms and began jumping around in joy. "Yes! Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!"

"And of course, all four of us have been invited to come up with you," her aunt Lofty said once she'd calmed down. "Which is really exciting."

"And which is why you should go put away your things and get ready; Princess Celestia's mages are waiting to take us to Canterlot and then the Republic," her mom said before sharing an excited look with her dad. "Oh, I can't wait to see what it's like up there!"

Scootaloo nodded her head as she raced to her room, tossing her bags into the free corner that wasn't taken up by all the plants. She knew that her friends would find it weird she kept so many of them and not just racing stuff but her parents had sent them as gifts so she did her best to keep them close and alive.

She wasn't sure how long they were going to be on the moon and what she should bring though, so she went back out to ask, and after packing a small bag, went to join them and listen to her mom and dad tell her all about the latest stuff they had seen. It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door and a magical-looking unicorn, whom she was told was named Black Marble, stepped into the room.

"Ah, I see that she is actually here early," the stallion chuckled. "That's good."

Scootaloo titled her head at his remark before her aunts gave her a sheepish look. "You are normally out with your friends for much longer so we told mister Marble here that you might be a while," Holiday said.

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah, I gotcha," she said. It made sense to her, so she wasn't sure why her aunts looked embarrassed. "But we all decided to come home for lunch and meet up again later." She gestured to the clock. "It is noon."

Black Marble nodded. "Well, you'll have to hold off on that," he said. "I'm sure we can arrange for something once we get to the moon. And in the meantime, I'll have one of our other ponies here let your friends know that you're going out of town for a bit."

Then he beckoned them all to come closer. "If you're all ready?"

They nodded, and his horn lit up.

A moment later, the six were gone.

Scootaloo blinked as her ears and stomach felt weird from the teleportation.

"There there," her mom said in a weird muffled tone, leaning down to rub her back. "Teleporting always feels weird the first time."

"And your ears should pop soon, little one," a regal voice said, with everypony bowing as Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance and other ponies walked over to them. "Just breathe deeply, and relax."

Scootaloo nodded and did as she was told, and indeed, her ears felt better in just a short while.

Once the doctors who'd come in with the Princesses had examined each of them, making sure they were fit for another teleport, they were led into another room where another set of ponies were waiting.

"So you're the little filly we've heard so much about," one of them said. She was a pegasus mare with a graying blue coat and a red and orange mane. "It's so nice to meet you at last."

The stallion next to her, his coat a darker blue and his mane a match for Rainbow Dash's, nodded. "We've been wanting to meet you since we heard," he said.

Scootaloo looked at them curiously. "Are you..."

The mare smiled. "Windy Whistles," she said. "This is my husband, Bow Hot Hoof. And of course, you know our daughter Rainbow Dash?"

Scootaloo was barely able to keep from squeeing in excitement, but it must have shown on her face, because Windy Whistles smiled. "Go ahead," she said. "Let it all out, dear."

Scootaloo nodded, and saw Celestia's horn light up before she let out her squeal of joy.

Once she'd calmed down (and the doctors had made sure nopony's eardrums had been ruptured - they hadn't; Celestia's spell had come just in time), the tallest of the two princesses present cleared her throat. "It's time, everypony," she said. "If you'll all gather around..."

Scooaloo moved near her parents, eager to keep going. Her aunts, Rainbow Dash's parents, and a few other ponies also came over, and then a small circle of ponies, including the two Princesses, formed around them. Horns lit up, and then all of them vanished.

They rematerialized in an unfamiliar room where more ponies were waiting for them, which it seemed had been expected. They were led into another room nearby, where more doctors were waiting to examine each of them in turn, running strange devices over each of them and then spraying their coats with an unfamiliar liquid and toweling them off after a minute. When it was her turn to get sprayed, Scootaloo shivered; it was cold!

The doctor chuckled as she did so, then, once she'd been dried off with the liquid draining away in the floor, the doctor held up the same strange object as before and ran it across her again before nodding. "All done, kiddo," she said.

Scootaloo thanked her before being escorted into the next room with the rest of the group, where she found herself looking around in awe. "This place is amazing..." she said.

"I'm glad you think so," another voice said, and Scootaloo looked up to see the dark-furred alicorn mare she'd seen at the Summer Sun Celebration. "Welcome to the Lunar Republic, everypony."

"Princess Luna," Scootaloo said with the alicorn chuckling and shaking her head.

"It's Director Luna, little one," Princess - Director Luna said, flashing her a smile. "I haven't gone by my royal title since my ponies and I first moved up here. But switching topics, while I am eager to show you all around, there are a few procedures we need to go over first before we can do so."

"Such as?" Princess Cadance asked, tilting her head.

"First off, you've already all had your decontamination spray and medical checkup," Director Luna said. "Everypony gets it upon arriving from the planet's surface, myself included, to remove any foreign particles from your body; we don't want to accidentally bring any germs or bacteria or such up here that you might not have known you were carrying."

There were several nods, before she continued. "Second, I need to remind those of you with unicorn or alicorn magic that we do have our alert system up; it's designed to detect instances of strong magic, especially unfamiliar spells or surges from ponies whose magical signatures aren't registered as regular users of such magics. It's for our own safety; we don't want to risk a surge damaging the outside of the domes."

"Like a foal who can't control their magic yet?" Holiday asked.

Luna nodded. "Exactly," she said. "That's one of the reasons we first set them up, along with security reasons. Any such surges or spells will alert our Department of Security of a possible issue that they'll need to come investigate." She looked at the two Princesses apologetically. "I believe you both remember what happened the last time somepony triggered them?"

Scootaloo wasn't sure what she was talking about, but it seemed the Princesses did, and they winced.

"The next thing," Director Luna said. "Is that for those of you with wings, we'll have to ask you to... er... watch where you're flying, if it comes up. We do have anti-gravity transports around, and we don't want anypony to accidentally fly into their paths and get hurt."

"We understand," Scootaloo's mom said, rubbing her back. "Though not what those anti-gravity things are."

"They're a lot like carts, but with built-in technology that reproduces the effects of a unicorn's levitation spell on them," one of the mages who was present said. "In short, they're carts that can fly."

"Amazing work, Director Luna," Princess Celestia said, tipping her head. "I would like to hear how you managed to overcome the power requirements for such a thing later on, if you don't mind."

Director Luna nodded. "Of course," she said. "Though I might have to have somepony else there to help translate for you. Our specialists in the matter can get rather... technical in their language, and even I don't always understand all their jargon." She then tilted her head. "But before we continue, please follow me this way." There was a slight smile on her face as she said it.

The group all nodded, and followed after her into a large room, before she knocked on the door on its far side. "Come in," she said.

A moment later, the door opened, and Scootaloo felt her heart soar.

"Rainbow Dash!" she said excitedly, hurrying over to greet her surrogate big sister.

Rainbow Dash laughed and pulled her into an embrace with her wings, ruffling her mane. "Hey, squirt," she said. "Good to see you again."

Then she looked up at her parents, and smiled at them too. "Hey, Mom. Dad."

Both of them hurried over to join the hug, and once they'd separated, they turned back to Director Luna.

"Rainbow Dash insisted on being here to greet all of you," she said. "I saw no reason not to let her. And Director Well Wishes felt it would do her good to be out and about for this too."

Scootaloo grinned. "Thank you," she said. Then she looked at Rainbow Dash, and for the first time noticed something different about her right side. "What happened to your wing?"

Rainbow Dash flinched before she gave her a confident grin, holding out her metallic wing. "Well, there was kind of an accident up here." She chuckled, looking at Director Luna. "One thing led to another and I have this now."

Rainbow Dash's dad's eyes widened and shrunk a couple of times before he tilted his head at Luna and said in an angry tone, "What exactly kind of accident happened here, ma'am, that caused you to replace my daughter's wing with... that‽"

"Dad!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "It's okay, it was worth it!"

"I'd like to know too," Windy Whistles said, looking at her with concern before flashing an angry mom look at Luna. Before the other mare could speak up though, Rainbow Dash had raised a wing.

"Short version, there was a jerk who decided to set off a bunch of explosions," she said. "I flew between one of those explosions and some ponies who probably would have gotten killed if they'd been hit with it, and... and I took the brunt of the blast. Lost my wing, but better that than them losing their lives." She shrugged. "After I woke up and found out what'd happened, the doc offered me a new wing, and I said yes. This one's just as good as the old one."

"You can still do your sonic rainbooms?" Rainbow's dad asked with Rainbow Dash wincing again.

"I haven't tried it yet," she said. "Not enough room up here to build up the speed for it, so I'm going to wait until I'm back in Equuis before I try flying again." She blinked before shaking her head. "I mean, try flying like that again." she chuckled a bit loudly, confusing Scootaloo to wonder what was so funny.

Then Rainbow Dash looked at her parents. "I've been checked out though," she said. "This new wing's just as capable of channeling my magic as the rest of me. So I'm sure it'll be fine when I go out and do the speed tests."

Both pegasi still looked upset, so Scootaloo decided to speak up. "You caught the guy who did this?" she asked Director Luna, who nodded.

"He and his accomplices have all been identified and locked up until their sentence is due to be carried out," she said, before turning to the pegasus couple. "I am sorry for what happened to your daughter," she said. "But she has my eternal gratitude, and that of our people, for her actions in having saved as many lives as she did."

"It's what anypony would have done," Rainbow Dash said, smiling. "Besides, you know how much I wanted to join the Wonderbolts. They'd have been doing this kind of thing too, saving lives and all, not just performing for the crowds." She flicked both wings. "Only difference is, they couldn't have replaced my wing if it couldn't be saved."

For a moment, Windy Whistles and Bow Hot Hoof were silent. Then, their faces began to tremble, and finally, they wrapped their legs around her.

"That's our Dashie," Windy Whistles said, sniffling as tears came down her face. "Always thinking of others."

"Yeah," Bow added, hugging her tightly. "Our little hero!"

Scootaloo felt a little squished between them, but she didn't mind so much. Finally though, Rainbow Dash herself had had enough, and flicked her wings out, reaching around them and signaling with her feathers, both organic and metallic, that she wanted her space.

"Thanks, Mom, Dad," she said as they withdrew. "I appreciate it." She then tilted her head towards Scootaloo. "Come along squirt; I told Well Wishes about you and he said he's eager to figure out why you can't fly so he can help you."

"He's quite intrigued by your case, little one," Luna said, smiling at her. "As a pegasus himself, Director Wishes is looking forwards to granting you access to the freedom of flight we fliers so greatly cherish."

"He's a pegasus too?" Scootaloo's mother asked.

Luna nodded. "Our current board of Directors has five Earth ponies, three unicorns, one pegasus, two thestrals and one alicorn - myself." She blushed a bit. "It was four Earth ponies and four unicorns until recently, but one of the unicorns was discharged for crimes against our people, and his Deputy Director appointed to his position until a proper election can be held."

"That is a very well balanced representation of the tribes, Director Luna," Princess Cadance said with Luna tutting and shaking her head.

"It is only fortuitous luck that has it as such," she said as they began to walk out of the room. "We value competency above all else; only those within the department themselves can be nominated to become the Director and the voting happens within the department with the rest of us Directors doing vetting as it proceeds to the final candidates. If all the possible candidates for a new Board of Directors were Earth Ponies, then we would have an entire Board of them and no pony would see fault with it."

"Would that certain parts of Equestria were as open-minded as your citizens when it comes to the tribes being equal," Princess Celestia said with a sigh. "But you know my thoughts on that matter."

"Quite," Luna replied. Then she smiled. "I've been looking forward to showing you around up here," she said, stopping in front of some doors. "How about we go take a walk, Princess Celestia while Rainbow Dash takes her little friend here and their families to meet Director Well Wishes?" She then tilted her head towards Cadance and smiled, though she spoke softly next. "And Twilight Velvet is waiting for you outside, dear niece, so be prepared."

Cadance had a strained smile on her face. "Of course," she said.

Scootaloo blinked in confusion. "What's the problem?" she asked.

Cadance turned and looked at her. "Twilight Velvet is one of the Directors here," she said. "But she's also a mom, and I've been kind of seeing her son."

"Ohhh..." Scootaloo nodded. "I gotcha."

Her parents traded looks, and beamed. "She's growing up so fast," Mane Allgood said, patting Scootaloo on the head. "And good luck, Princess."

"She may well need it," Director Luna said with a chuckle. "Still, Velvet's a good friend of mine, and she knows how I've come to care for you, so she shouldn't be too bad."

Princess Cadance nodded, and then they bid farewell to the two elder alicorns before heading on their way.

As they walked down the halls, Scootaloo couldn't help but smile as her parents and aunts let out sounds indicating how impressed they were by the decor, and finally reached the exit to the building, where a unicorn mare was waiting.

"Rainbow Dash," she acknowledged with a smile. "How'd it go?"

Rainbow Dash gave her a gesture with one wing, extending one of the lower feathers upward, and the mare smiled. "Good to hear it," she said, before looking at all of them. "I'm Twilight Velvet, Director of Housing," she said, before looking at the pegasus couple. "You must be Rainbow Dash's family," she said to them, with the pair nodding in confirmation. Then she looked at Scootaloo. "And you must be little Scootaloo."

Scootaloo blushed. "Ah..."

Velvet smiled. "Rainbow Dash has been so eager to see you," she said. Then she looked at them again, and her face turned more formal. "Princess Cadance."

The pink alicorn stepped forward. "Director Velvet."

For a moment, Velvet was silent, then she smiled again. "Shiny and Sunset have both told me so much about you," she said. "It's an honor to finally meet you face to face."

Cadance's expression turned to one of relief. "It's an honor to meet you too," she said. "Um, where is Shining Armor?"

"He's doing work for his department right now," Velvet said. "We'll be meeting him later, and Twilight too. But for now, let me show you all the way to the hospital."

As they walked towards a strange looking hexagonal platform, Velvet beckoned them all onto it. "As Rainbow Dash knows, this will help carry us where we're going a lot faster," she said. "You should stay back from the edges."

All of them nodded, and once they were into position, there were a lot of startled looks as the platform rose up and began moving.

"Where is Twilight now, anyway?" Cadance asked as she looked around in awe. "And Sunset?"

"They're at Twilight's apartment, with the rest of their friends," Velvet said as she directed the platform. "Including Fluttershy."

"Technically, I've been staying there too between doctor's appointments," Rainbow Dash pointed out as she looked at her parents. "They let me move out of the hospital after a few days, since Twilight is fully qualified to keep an eye on my wing in case something needs it."

"Is she a doctor?" Windy Whistles asked.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "She's the one who built this thing," she said, waving the metal wing. "It's not like it's the first of its kind, but according to the doc who attached it, she really improved the design."

"Do all health issues up here get fixed by replacing parts of your bodies?" Lofty asked, looking a little wary, and sending a concerned look in Scootaloo's direction.

Velvet was about to answer, when Rainbow Dash shook her head again first. "They'd only do that if a pony was born with something missing, or if the original body part'd been so damaged that there wasn't any other way, like my wing was," she said. "They can't grow limbs back, and there's some inside parts that can't be replaced except with machinery. But that isn't the only way for them to fix a problem - a long time back, they came up with a nifty way of growing and transplanting new organs if it's needed. Like if somepony came down with the renmors virus, instead of needing a donor like we would, they could grow a new set of kidneys and transplant those after they took out the originals and cleaned out the virus."

That got some amazed looks, but Scootaloo just tilted her head and looked at her funny, and Rainbow Dash chuckled.

"I've been spending most of my days at the hospital and I got bored when Fluttershy couldn't be there, so they offered me some reading material on what they do to help ponies," she said. "It's actually pretty interesting, and the doc was willing to answer any questions I had."

Windy Whistles looked at her curiously. "Are you thinking of a change in careers?" she asked.

"Nah," Rainbow Dash said. "Not my thing, Mom. I'm a little too blunt and fidgety to have the right kind of bedside manner, and I really don't have the patience to go back to school and learn all the stuff I'd need for it. But I liked reading about it." She looked down at Scootaloo, and smiled. "Don't worry about it, Scoots. Doc's already promised me that they'll just start with some full-body scans. It won't hurt or anything, and I'll be right there if you need me."

Scootaloo smiled. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash," she said, leaning into her side.

Behind them, Windy and Bow smiled. "That's our girl," they said simultaneously.

"Yes," Velvet said, looking at the pair. "She certainly is." She gave a smile of her own. "She was very brave that day."

The two smiled at her, before Windy gave her a questioning look. "So, are we going to meet this Twilight who made our Dashie's new wing? I want to thank her."

"Of course," Velvet said. "After we get done in the hospital. She and her other friends are back at her apartment right now, but we, Princess Celestia and Director Luna will be meeting them all, along with my husband and our son, for dinner this evening." She winked in Cadance's direction.

"She must be a very important mare," Bow remarked.

"Of course she is," Velvet said. She smiled. "She's my daughter."

"Ohhh..." all six of the visiting Equestrians who hadn't met Twilight before said.

With that, Velvet turned her attention back to steering the platform, as they continued on their way.

"I missed this view," Celestia said to her sister, staring at the view of Equuis. "It is so beautiful; I am envious that you had it for so long."

"It wasn't the same without you," Luna said, resting her head against her sister's. "I missed us having these moon walks together."

"As did I," Celestia said in the vacuum of space. "I almost forgot what the music of the moon was like."

"If only we could record this for others to hear," Luna said, shaking her head. It was one of the few perks they had along with Milky Way; the ability to exist in the vacuum of space and hear the music of the celestial spheres.

"Wasn't there a world we saw where someone had figured out how to create music based off the movements of all the stars and planets?" Celestia asked.

"One of the more technology-based ones, yes," Luna said. "But it wouldn't be quite the same."

For a minute, Celestia was silent. Then, she gazed at her sister. "I'd miss this, you know," she said. "If your plan happened."

"No, you wouldn't," Luna said. "Dreams and Nightmares also have access to the music of the cosmos."

"Not in the same way," Celestia said. "And it wouldn't be the same without you."

Luna nuzzled her. "Oh, trust me, we can still very much hear it the same way without Night and Day," she said. "Trojan and I haven't done any of these walks together, but he does them by himself every hundred years or so. We compared notes once, when I found out and asked him how it sounded to him."

Celestia smiled, her heart resting easier. "That's good then," she said, nuzzling her sister back with Luna returning the gesture.

"Come on Tia," she then said, tilting her head back to the domes in the distance. "I think you'd like to see more of my home and less of this cold wasteland."

"It would be nice," Celestia admitted. Then she smiled again. "As long as it's with you."

Luna nodded with her horn glowing, before the two teleported back to the inside.

Celestia waited for the momentary shift in her equilibrium from being teleported to pass before she opened her eyes and took in the wondrous sights once more. Ponies were walking and talking with each other, enjoying each other's company as they moved about their lives and didn't seem all that troubled by her or her sister's sudden appearance.

She took in a deep breath of the air and looked at Luna, a smile on her face. "Lilacs?" she asked with Luna giving her a light blush.

"It is a little thing," she said, shrugging her shoulders as the two of them walked through the many statues of this nation's founders. Celestia could see both the master craftsmanship that had went into each of them as well as the preservation magic her sister had embedded into each statue. Some would have called it a waste of power but Celestia knew different. "It is a pleasant scent and I feel it keeps the mood calm in the primus dome."

"As well as it is my favourite flower," Celestia said softly so as not to embarrass her sister.

Luna nodded silently. "It reminded me so much of you," she said.

For a little while, the two alicorns were quiet as they walked around, Celestia looking about in fascination. Luna had already shown her around the Lux Aeternam, or at least the main room thereof, so they bypassed that for now. But eventually, the pair reached one of the other towering buildings, where Luna stopped.

"Our Directors each have their own living space, some distance from where they work," she said. "A precaution, in case something like... well, what he did was to happen. My own quarters are in this building."

"I would like to see them, if that were okay," Celestia asked, not even bothering to think of Neighsay. She did not want to bring the mood down by bringing him into the equation.

"That's exactly what I had in mind," Luna said with a smile. "Follow me."

She led Celestia into the building, through the lobby and into the elevators. Upon reaching the top floor, she hesitated outside the first of the two doors.

"I must admit to some hypocrisy," she said. "I made negative comments about you being stuck in the past, when I myself designed this apartment after the base design of the one I stayed in before we were able to spread out."

Then she opened the door and led her sister in.

It was a large space, and unlike Twilight's (as she would later see), it was rather full of things around the edges of the main room.

"My apologies for the condition," Luna said. "I keep meaning to straighten up out here."

Celestia smiled. "It's perfectly all right," she said. "It feels lived-in. More welcoming than some places I could name."

Luna looked relieved, before she continued showing Celestia around, including into the rooms she'd cleaned out. "This is where you'll be staying," she said. "Cadance will have the next room over, and the one over there mine."

"Ah, I see that these rooms are properly sized," Celestia said approvingly as she looked around.

Luna nodded with a smile. "Technically, they're sized for me, but it works out well for the both of you too," she said. "Actually, when we were first setting up, the other founders insisted that every residential building's ceilings had to be tall enough to comfortably accommodate me at a moment's notice." She looked a little embarrassed. "I said it wasn't important, but I got overruled."

"I don't see why you'd object," Celestia said. "At least your ponies were genuinely thinking of your comfort when they made that decision and not just to show off, like certain individuals in Canterlot would have been."

She went in and peered out the windows. "And the view is wonderful too."

Luna smiled at that. "It is, isn't it?" she asked as she walked up beside her sister. Then she gestured towards another building. "That's where Twilight lives, by the way."

"Ah," Celestia nodded her head. "And where our students are no doubt getting to know each other."

Luna nodded again with a bit of a smirk. "Quite frankly, ever since I saw them standing together the first time, I'd be surprised if Cadance couldn't sense their feelings all the way from Canterlot." She looked at Celestia more seriously. "Speaking of, have you kept an eye out for either of the individuals most likely to be involved in her full awakening?"

Celestia nodded. "One's still in the frozen north, and the other far to the south," she said. "I'd love to do something more permanent about both of them sooner, but..." she sighed. "I can't take the opportunity they present away from Cadance, though I do have contingencies in the works to minimize the damage they could do before she defeats one or the other. At any rate, I'm certain neither will try to make a move until after Discord's return." She paused for a moment, feeling conflicted. "And I am trying to take a step back from overplanning considering how it went the last time."

Luna nodded understandingly. "At least I can make one issue easier on you," she said. "A certain other pony whom we saw nearly destroying Equestria in many, many worlds, until their Magic stopped her, won't be a problem."

Celestia looked at her curiously. "Which one, and what did you do about them?" she asked.

"I didn't actually have to do anything," Luna said with a chuckle. "She was born here naturally, just like Twilight was. That alone solved her main problem - with the Republic being so much smaller than Equestria, she didn't have her friend move away, which meant she didn't develop the psychosis that so many of her Others did as a result. She works in the State Department."

Celestia let out a sigh of relief as she realized whom Luna meant. "Well, that's a load off my shoulders," she said. "I got worried when Sunburst first showed up at my School for Gifted Unicorns and there was no sign of Starlight back in their home village. It didn't occur to me that she was up here."

Luna nodded. "We all make mistakes," she said. "Though speaking of ponies who threatened Equestria, have you seen any signs of Cozy Glow or Tempest Shadow? Neither of them are up here."

"Cozy, no but Shadow, yes," Celestia said, tipping her head. "It was happenstance that one of Cadance's agents was in the location during her accident and was able to recover, reattach and rebuild her horn in time, so she's grown up and lived a happy, normal life since then." She tilted her head. "As it happens, she still wound up becoming a soldier, but it was by her choice and for our Guard instead of one of our enemies. She's one of Cadance's agents now."

Luna smiled. "That's good to know," she said. "And the Storm King?"

"Still undetected," Celestia said. "Either he doesn't exist or he's just better at hiding." She looked at Luna. "Have you seen any signs of his army's movements?"

"None; we don't have the means to go for close observations of Equuis," Luna said.

Celestia nodded. "I see... I must confess that with the usual size of his air fleet, I thought you might have been able to see them moving en masse from up here even without aid."

Luna nodded her head. "As did I, though a thought that occurred to me is that he might have heard rumours of the Republic and took precautions to hide from me, just in case we did exist."

Celestia bit her lip. "A fair point; there are numerous stories about what could be on the moon with a nation up here being prominent," she said. "And if that is truly the case, then he will be a more dangerous foe than what we have seen elsewhere."

Luna nodded in agreement. "Something to keep in mind," she said. "But in happier news, I feel you should know about another individual up here."

"Who?" Celestia asked.

Luna smiled. "We have the Lady of Self-Centeredness," she said. "She gave me permission to inform you of her identity. And she is most definitely on our side, rather than Discord's."

Celestia looked relieved. "Anypony I'd recognize?" she asked. "That Role's Bearer did tend to vary a lot more than some of the ones we saw."

"It's Moondancer, and she has done a fair deal to help Twilight overcome several internal issues," Luna smiled. "You'll be meeting her when we go to Twilight's apartment tonight. Though of all of us there, only you and myself will know it. Milky Way, Extra Seconds and Trojan are also aware of her identity, but you know how they are about showing themselves."

"So that's two of Discord's sub-Powers," Celestia smiled, recalling what Luna had admitted to her about Twilight once she was certain Cadance wasn't listening in again. "If we could locate the others, then the issue of not having the girls awaken their Power would be mitigated."

"One so far; Twilight has yet to awaken her Power," Luna corrected her. "But yes, I hope that we can rely on them in minimizing Discord's impact. I don't know if he has the rest of his sub-Powers but I think he would at least keep some as for extra weight."

Celestia nodded in agreement. "Which is worrisome," she said. "Having five against us would be very disastrous, even with your two as a counter. He could easily outvote us by finding allies."

Luna nodded her head as she sighed, going to her wine cooler and pulling out a bottle. "I save this for truly stressful days," she said, summoning two cups as she poured out the millennium-old wine. "I think that this counts."

Celestia accepted her cup and both of them drank, before Luna continued. "We each know of forty-three of our kind, though not all their Bearers in this world," she said. "You and I, of course, represent Day, Night and Dreams. Trojan and Moondancer hold Nightmares and Self-Centeredness, and Milky Way and Extra Seconds hold Time and Space. That makes seven definitely on our side. Love has yet to fully awaken, the same with Twilight's Power, so it's seven to five - Disharmony and at least four of its sub-Powers - with two more not able to involve themselves, in that regard."

Celestia nodded. "The Judge, of course, is a True Neutral and would not be involved," she said. "One would hope that the Apocalypses and Creations would stay out of this entirely - you know full well how Life and Death get about being disturbed for any reason short of a full-scale interdimensional invasion, and Peace has never approved of Disharmony, so they wouldn't help him. The others, I don't know what they'd think of the situation."

Luna nodded. "The Seasons and the Forces of Nature also tend to be neutral, so I'd hope they'd not assist him but they could also choose not to aid us either, given how Equestria is about manually moving the seasons and such."

Celestia nodded in agreement. "Something I'd been really hoping to change at some point," she said. "But after the great freeze, nopony was willing to let nature take its course and risk having a disaster on that scale happen again, even if they knew the windigos were the ones really responsible for it."

"Quite," Luna said, before she considered. "If Harmony and their sub-Powers can Awaken in time, they'd be with us for sure, so it would be fourteen to five, with at least three dormant and abstaining, one definitely abstaining, and sixteen who could go either way," she said. "That's thirty-nine."

"Leaving four who, if they're all even active now, are likely to be a mixed bag," Celestia said. "Empathy is unlikely to side with Discord. Detachment is usually neutral. Despair... is likely the same, though they might join him anyway, if he's still carrying Sorrow. And the last would most likely be on our side, if they're willing to show themselves. They generally prefer to influence beings from the background though, so they'll probably stay hidden."

The two alicorns traded looks, then sighed.

"This is yet another reason I'd like us both to step back and take an adjunct rank," Luna said, shaking her head. "It'd be one less set of headaches!"

Celestia couldn't help but agree. Although... "The question is, would handing over my Mantle also cost me my Champion status?" she asked. "Order personally entrusted me with those Duties, and... and I hesitate to step back from something so important, especially since I can't imagine Discord stepping down from being our Champion of Chaos."

"I don't know," Luna said. "I can understand why you'd be worried about it though. Perhaps it would warrant talking to Life or..."

"Order Themselves," Celestia finished uneasily, staring out the window. "Neither of which I am particularly eager to do."

Luna nodded, laying a wing over her comfortingly. "I know, sister," she said. "I know."

Celestia looked back at her and smiled, grateful for her sister's presence. "We'll figure it out eventually," she said. "For now though... what do you think our students are up to?"

Luna gave her a smile of her own. "If I know Twilight?" she said. "Trying to revolutionize some form or another of science."

Celestia chuckled. "Of course. And knowing my student, I'm sure Sunset's encouraging her." She considered. "Though depending on what they're working on, she's probably making some contributions of her own while she's at it."

Luna smiled and nodded. "I'm sure she is."

The two looked out at the window of Twilight's apartment, where their two students were undoubtedly hard at work on something, and smiled with pride.

"So," Vinyl was saying. "There we were, surrounded by cops, including Shiner himself - it was his first day on the job, and LP and I knew we didn't want to get him in trouble if he couldn't bring himself to try and take us in. So big bro and I traded looks, then threw them all our best salutes and yelled, 'We throw ourselves on the mercy of the courts!'"

Everyone present burst out laughing, including Twilight and Sunset, who were tinkering with some piece of machinery together as they sat together on the couch.

"Honestly, Vinyl," Octavia said from her own seat, a mixture of disapproval and amusement in her voice. "One wonders how you two managed to get into such trouble."

Vinyl chuckled. "Eh, it turned out okay," she said. "It was only trespassing on public property after hours, after all. Nopony'd gotten hurt, we didn't cause any damage... so we got a light sentence, did our time at community service, and that was the end of that."

"Sounds lahk a good way of handlin' things," Applejack said. She'd been going back and forth between spending her time with her new kinfolk and her friends for the past week, and this was one of her days with Twilight and the others.

"It works for us," Twilight said, smiling. She was so glad to have... well, almost all her friends here today. Vinyl, Moondancer and, with one exception, everypony who'd come back with her from Equestria were all just sitting around relaxing and chatting together. Shiny was at work, of course, and Rainbow Dash would be meeting the new arrivals they were expecting today, if she hadn't already, but those were understandable absences.

"Though I guess you don't have much experience with it, right Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"Um..." Twilight blushed. "Actually, when I was a lot younger, my class had had a field trip to one of the Science Department's buildings, and I snuck back in after hours. I just couldn't help myself - I wanted to go back and work there, and I couldn't wait!"

That got her a lot of grins, and she continued. "They saw the light from my horn, came in and arrested me as I was tinkering with some of the equipment. The only reason I got off as light as I did is because they checked out what I was doing and realized that I'd actually improved the efficiency of what I was working on." She blushed even deeper. "That's when Director Luna decided to take me as her personal student. I didn't get off completely free though; some of the first assignments she gave me also counted as punishment for my trespassing."

Sunset snorted and shook her head. "I can kinda relate to that," she said. "I ran away from Princess Celestia because I was so caught up in my own ego that I didn't think I was being treated fairly, and ended up somewhere where I caused a lot of trouble for the locals. She chased after me, lectured me, and made me her student again. And she didn't call it that, but I still say my first assignment, to try and set things right with the people I'd made so much trouble for, was also a punishment I'd more than earned."

There was silence for a few minutes, before Pinkie shook her head. "That took a depressing turn, didn't it?" she said.

"Yeah." Sunset nodded, before looking around. "I can never take back what I did back then," she said. "It's something I'll always have to live with. But it's also something that helped me. That moment when I realized what I'd become." She shook her head. "There'd been a time when what mattered most to me was being close to my teacher, because she was the closest I had to family. But somewhere along the line, I lost that. I started only caring about myself. Until that day when Princess Celestia got through to me, when it finally hit me that I didn't recognize the person I'd become anymore. And I didn't like what I'd become."

She looked up. "That was when I realized what Princess Celestia had been trying to teach me all along. About empathy, about responsibility, about staying true to ourselves, and how we need others to remind us about that when we lose ourselves. How it's wrong to just seek power for the sake of power, or because of the prestige it would give us. It hit me, all at once, and when Princess Celestia saw that I had seen how badly I'd messed up, really learned my lesson, she forgave me."

She looked at Twilight. "And you know the rest."

Twilight smiled. Setting her machinery down, she leaned over and wrapped an arm around Sunset, pulling her closer. "I'm glad you got the help you needed," she said.

"And so are we," Rarity said, smiling at them with a twinkle in her eye. "Really, I've rather enjoyed getting to know you, Sunset."

"We all have, sugarcube," Applejack said with Pinkie and Fluttershy nodding in agreement.

"And we know Twilight's certainly enjoyed getting to know you," Vinyl added teasingly, causing Octavia to give her a look. "Seriously though, you must have changed a lot from back then - if you hadn't told us about it, I'd have a really hard time picturing you as a jerk."

"That's because you haven't seen someone trying to get her out of bed without giving her her morning caffeine first," Spike said from where he was sitting next to Rarity. "Then she can slip into her old attitude for a little while. It's the only time she acts like that anymore, but it still happens."

Sunset blushed in embarrassment. "You know I don't mean it when I do that," she said. "I'm just really not a morning person."

"Yeah, I know," Spike said, smiling at her. "I don't blame you for it, Sunset."

Sunset smiled gratefully.

"So what are you two working on anyways?" Vinyl suddenly asked, tilting her glasses downward to peer at them, causing them to perk up.

"Well as you know, teleportation is one of most difficult spells to master, especially the farther you aim and the less you know the area," Twilight said, putting the gizmo down on the table. "The magnitude of possible dangers from a bad teleport is why it's only taught to those who have considerable magic reserves and have passed all the preliminary tests."

"And from what Twilight has told me, beyond your shuttles which are not ready for round trips between the Republic and Equuis, the only way to get back and forth is by teleporting," Sunset added, leaning closer to Twilight. "I know that Princess Celestia and Director Luna can do so easily due to the whole alicorn thing and our mages are good enough to make the trip for most ponies, but we thought that there has to be another way."

"And while things like space elevators could work, they are still far away as we don't have the resources to build or maintain such a thing and that the other nations might not like to rely on it to reach the Republic," Twilight continued. "So we're trying to combine our knowledge to work on another possible means of traveling to and from the moon."

"Specifically, we're working to see if we could make a possible teleportation device," Sunset finished. "A combination of magic and science. We're nowhere near ready, but if we could figure out how to do it, it'd be a major boon to both our worlds."

"Sounds like it will be a very long, complicated project with many late nights," Rarity said with a smile on her face. "Though with you two working on it together, I am sure that you'll be able to accomplish it."

Sunset nodded. "We've got more than a few ideas on what we want to accomplish," she said. "The catch is figuring out how to make it work, and how to make it work safely."

Twilight nodded, not wanting to blurt out where she'd gotten the idea from. The transporters Sunset had told her about, from the series she'd watched back in that other world, were so fascinating... but the other unicorn had asked her not to say anything about it just yet until she could talk to Princess Celestia and get permission to reveal the full truth about that world and what she'd seen there to anypony beyond Twilight herself. If only she could see the show itself to get a better understanding of how it worked there.

Maybe she could ask Princess Celestia about the mirror portal too at some point, and what she'd seen on the other side.

Vinyl grinned. "Sweet."

"I agree with Rarity," Moondancer put in with a smile. "If anypony could make this work, it'd be you two." She flashed Twilight a look. "Just don't be staying up too late though."

"I know, I know," Twilight said. "We're being careful." She then turned her head towards the wall and winced a bit. "I still need to get this place ready; Director Luna mentioned she was going to be coming by with some of our new guests today."

"Well, then what are we waitin' for?" Applejack asked. "Just say the word, an' we'll help out with whatever ya need."

Twilight smiled gratefully. "All right," she said. "Let me take my equipment over into my lab, and then we'll get started."

The others all nodded, and once Twilight had put her and Sunset's project away, they'd set to work, each handling their assigned tasks, Fluttershy handling the dusting and other tasks at the top-most levels of the room while the others set to work on other things.

We make a really good team, Twilight thought happily as they worked. All of us.

"So you are the young filly I have heard so much about," Director Wishes said, ruffling Scootaloo's mane with one of his hooves as they entered the doctor's room. "Your friend Rainbow here spoke a great deal about you," he said with a chuckle, causing Rainbow Dash to blush, though Scootaloo could see her still smile. "And you must be her family."

Two of the seven grown ponies present (Director Velvet and Princess Cadance had excused themselves for a little while soon after they'd arrived) nodded, each holding out a hoof for him to shake.

"I'm Snap Shutter, and this is my wife, Mane Allgood," Scootaloo's dad said as they did so, before gesturing. "And these are my big sister Holiday and her wife Lofty."

"A pleasure to meet you all," Director Wishes said, before he looked past them. "And you two must be Rainbow Dash's parents; I can see the family resemblance."

The pegasus couple chuckled as they came up to shake his hoof too. "Rainbow manes do run in my side of the family," Bow said. "My dad had one, and his dad and his dad... now my brother and I've got 'em, and my awesome little filly's got one."

Rainbow Dash blushed. "Da-ad..."

"And you are the wonderful doctor that treated our precious filly after she saved those other ponies," Windy said. "We can't thank you enough."

"Helping ponies is what I do," Director Wishes said. "And speaking of doing, I'd like to see what young Scootaloo is really capable of flight-wise." He gestured her to step into the middle of the room, and she did.

"Go ahead now," he said.

Scootaloo nodded, and began to buzz her wings.

And then she gasped in shock, her wings almost freezing up as she realized she was slowly rising off the ground and actually hovering for the first time in her life.

Slowing her pace, she let herself drift back down to the ground, then craned her neck as she tried to get a better look at her wings. "How did I do that?" she asked, still astounded.

Well Wishes "hmm"ed as he studied her. "Well, that's surprising," he said. "Rainbow Dash assured me you've never been able to do that before."

"I couldn't," Scootaloo said, still staring at her wings. "That's the first time I've ever been able to get off the ground on my own!" She looked over at her aunts and parents, who were staring at her in just as much surprise, though there was also a look of pride on their faces.

"That's our little Scoots," Holiday said, beaming. "Congratulations, sweetie."

Scootaloo blushed. "Thanks, Aunt Holiday."

"Hmm." Director Wishes pulled an item off one of the counters, and then began to run it along her body.

"Medical scanner," he explained, before tapping a button on the gadget on his wrist, popping a screen up with her image appearing over it.

He tapped a few more buttons, and the image began changing, lines and shapes appearing in various places, with assorted numbers also appearing alongside them.

"Your magical flow is working just fine for a young filly your age," he said. "And all your bones, muscles and organs are reading as normal. As near as I can tell, there's nothing keeping you from flying right now."

Scootaloo felt even more shocked than before. "But... how? Why can I fly now, when I couldn't before?"

"I'm not sure," Director Wishes said. "Have you done anything differently recently?"

"Well... I got teleported from my home to Canterlot, and then up here," Scootaloo said. "The doctors who checked me when I first arrived from that didn't find anything wrong."

"Hmm." Director Wishes looked at her. "I'll have to check with them, see if they picked up anything in their own scans." He then looked over at Rainbow Dash. "Do you think you could try hovering for us?"

Rainbow Dash looked uncomfortable. "I... er... not right now," she said, rubbing the back of her neck with her new wing. "This is Scoots' day, not mine."

"Well, all right," he said in a doctor voice that clearly meant 'I know you're holding something back'. "Perhaps tomorrow then."

Rainbow smiled at him, before rubbing Scootaloo's head. "Seriously though, it's great you're able to get off the ground now, kiddo."

"And we're looking forwards to teaching you everything we know about flying," her mom said. "Well. Lofty and I, at least." She smiled at her sister-in-law's wife.

"And from what you wrote about Rainbow Dash, I'm sure she'd be willing to help as well," Snap Shutter said with Rainbow Dash looking nervous for a second.

"Y-eah," she said. "I'll do what I can for the little squirt."

Scootaloo looked at her curiously, but at Rainbow Dash's own look, decided it could wait.

"At any rate, I think we're done for now," Director Wishes said. "I'll want to see you again later, after I analyse some of these readings, but until then, you're good to go. And Dash, there is a meeting tonight; I do think it will do you good to attend."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "I'll try to make it," she said. "But I might have other commitments already. Dinner gathering and all."

Well Wishes nodded. "I see," he said.

"Meeting?" Windy asked curiously.

"Just some stuff I don't want to get into right now, Mom," Rainbow Dash said quickly. "I'll explain when I'm ready, okay?"

"If you're sure, sweetie," Windy said, looking at the doctor for any information, but he stayed quiet.

Rainbow Dash flicked her wings, then looked at Well Wishes. "Thanks for everything, doc," she said. "We'll see you later, okay?"

"Of course," he said with a smile. "I'll let you know when I need you all again."

Rainbow Dash nodded, and then led them all back out of the room. But there was still an uncertain look on her face, and Scootaloo couldn't help but wonder what she was holding back.

Chapter Four

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Chapter Four

"You have a lovely home, Velvet," Cadance said as she examined the pictures of the colt and filly she recognized as a much younger Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle, smiling at how adorable they were.

"Thank you," Velvet said with a smile of her own. The two of them had been talking for a while, getting to know each other, and the youngest alicorn had proven to be quite kind and friendly. And Velvet could tell it was genuine on Cadance's part; the mare was too easily flustered at times for her to hide anything she wanted to know.

She'd also been interested to hear what Cadance had to say about Sunset Shimmer. Velvet had liked the girl from the start, but she rather appreciated having the chance to get another perspective on Sunset from somepony who'd known her since she was younger, especially as there was a growing bond between her and Twilight.

"We've actually been thinking of downsizing," Velvet said as she fixed some tea for Cadance. "The foals have moved out and Light and I don't need all of this space anymore."

Cadance nodded. "Yes, I've heard Twilight and Shining Armor had their own apartments now," she said, before peering up at the pictures again. "I must admit that I miss the simpler lifestyle; when I was a filly, I lived with my parents in a quaint little village house but ever since I became an alicorn and moved to Canterlot, it seems that so many ponies around me are more concerned with social climbing and showing off their status. I felt so uncomfortable with all the space I was given that I turned a good portion of it into a workspace for my team - the ponies I work with to try and counter the efforts of those who would encourage prejudice and hatred against those they don't approve of."

"We have heard of your work, and you have done a good job," Velvet said, smiling at the mare before she pried a bit deeper. "Though was it hard at the beginning?"

Cadance paled a bit before tipping her head slowly. "It was hard, starting from nothing and with so little influence," she admitted. "I was the princess who had no real hard or soft power and I was approaching a system untouched for a millennium. I wanted to work with Canterlot first but there were a lot of roadblocks and ponies interfering with me so I decided to work from the outside in. I managed to find a number of like-minded ponies from the villages I grew up around and I began to build my own powerblock."

At Velvet's nod, she continued. "I also managed to get very lucky by knowing Captain Hackpole, the previous captain of the royal guards. He was a completely serious pony in regards to the rules, but that also made him rather open minded to others. As long as others didn't break any laws, he couldn't care less about their private lives or what tribe they came from. With his help and approval, I managed to get a number of guards with the right mindset to help to promote a better view point across Equestria while also flushing out guards that didn't properly represent the royal guards as well as getting several thestrals into the guards."

She paused to take a drink from her tea cup, flashing a smile at Velvet. "He was as hard on them as I was, instilling the idea that they had to know they would be representing their tribe to the general population and bigotry or slacking on their part wouldn't be accepted." She let out a sigh, shaking her head. "There are a number of stories I can tell you of thestrals cursing me out for having them dismissed, calling me all sorts of names and saying I was a hypocrite for kicking them out but I knew that we had to have a good wave of thestral guards for everypony to see."

"So the public would know that they were just as good as any other pony, and that there wasn't anything to really fear," Velvet concluded. "I'm guessing that most were posted out of Canterlot and in sub-laying villages and cities with other guards to get the notion that they were nothing to be afraid of and that maybe their own previous notions should be questioned."

Cadence nodded her head. "Canterlotians were far too set in their ways for the most part, and it was in the distant villages and cities where the most trouble was happening anyways. That's changed since then, but at the time it was the best option. As time went on, I was able to hire more ponies to help me combat the ideals the avengers had been spouting for so long and several investigators to uncover the true scope of the avengers organization."

She sighed. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to weed them all out in time before Aunt Luna decided to pay a visit to Equestria, and I'm sure you've heard what happened with them after she left to deal with the attack up here."

Velvet nodded. "I have, and we were horrified to hear what had happened," she said.

"So was I," Cadance said, rotating one wing with a faint wince on her face. "What's worse is that I have reason to believe it was done to throw a massive amount of their lesser followers forward in an attempt to trick us into thinking that we got them all. In all reality, I believe that the true leaders of their group are going to change tactics and go for much more subtle attacks from now on."

Velvet winced too. "That is a worrisome thought," she said.

Cadance nodded. "But I don't plan to stop working against them," she said. "Back when I was still a little filly, and I first saw that kind of hatred, it just felt... wrong to me. That's why I've always done what I can to act against it, even before I ascended and Aunt Celestia found me."

"And all the while keeping time for yourself; balancing your own personal life with your career," Velvet nodded with a smile on her face as the mare across from her blushed.

"Helping ponies is what I do," she said with a shrug. "It's what makes me happy."

"And I can see my son does enjoy spending time with you," Velvet said.

Cadance blushed. "Yes, we did enjoy the time we spent together," she said. "And I'm hoping to spend more time with him. It was nice to meet somepony who was interested in me for me, not my title, both before and after he realized who I was."

Velvet looked at her curiously. "How exactly did that happen, anyway?" she asked. "I've asked him a few times, but he always just blushed and wouldn't say."

Cadance nodded. "Well, we'd stopped in the same hobby store," she said. "I was in disguise, looking for miniatures for use in my work - we use them to represent the ponies we're looking into," she explained. "He was just browsing, and we reached for the same item at the same time. We got to talking from there and spent some time out together until I had to go back to the castle and ended up dropping my disguise when we arrived. After he saw I was a princess and I realized he was from the moon, I wound up telling him everything about the kind of work I did, and he was more than willing to help out with some of it until he had to go meet up with Vinyl for the night."

"And I guess he was more focused in the painting than getting to know you better, right?" Velvet said with a chuckle as Cadance nodded her head. "He's a great security officer but once he gets into his little world of miniature painting, it's hard to pull him out."

"He's certainly good at it," Cadance said, smiling. "We did talk some more though, both after he was done painting and again the next day, and got to know one another better then. He also made a wonderful impression on the rest of the guards and they're looking forward to seeing him again once things calm down."

"I suppose he'd like to bring Long and the rest of their friends down too," Velvet chuckled to herself, remembering all the times that Shining had gone off to the recreational center to paint his figures with his friends and play their games.

"They're certainly welcome to come and visit if they want," Cadance said with a smile. "And I think Captain Sentry would like it if a certain mare would remain in Equestria a bit longer."

Velvet leaned forwards, eager to hear the gossip. "Tell me more," she said with a grin.

"As my guard told you ma'am, you will be able to visit your friends once we've lifted the martial law," Flash said, doing his best to keep his voice level and calm. "There have been some sightings in your neighbourhood and we want to keep everypony safe." The mare opened her mouth, glaring hard at him and Flash knew what was coming next. "And if you wish to speak to my superior, I am afraid that Princess Celestia is busy at the moment." That seemed to clue the unicorn into who he was and she wisely closed her mouth, stepping back into her house. She still slammed the door into his face, though.

"You know Flash," the mare with the amazing accent teased from behind him. "The city is still under your direct control. One could argue that she was acting suspicious."

Flash snorted as they walked away from the large house; the front foyer had been large enough to fit the old apartment he lived in with room to spare. "Very tempting, but not worth the hassle," he said as softly as she had; no need to give the residents anything to sue the guards over. "Besides, just being cranky and rude isn't a reason to get investigated. If it was, we'd be spending a lot of time investigating elites."

Nightingale gave him a smirk. "True," she said before shaking her head. "Their city was just attacked and they're more upset that they can't go to a party than over the fact that there was an attempted coup."

Flash nodded. "Skewed priorities, much?" he asked. "Really makes you more appreciative of the ponies who have their heads on straight. Like Speaker Fancy Pants."

"And you," she said, flashing him a smile. "You are a good solider, Flash. You should take more pride in yourself."

Flash chuckled nervously. "To be fair, I was thinking more about native Canterlotians and nobles, and I'm not either of those. I was born into a normal middle-class Cloudsdale family and lived there until I joined the guard and worked my way up to where I am now."

She snorted, shaking her head as they approached the guards waiting for them on the street. Among them were unicorns of a strong magic class; it wasn't an order he liked but he did have a protection detail around him in case of anyone trying to attack him with magic or anything else. It was a seldom-invoked right, but due to the crisis, he had ordered guards to protect the Speakers of the Houses, along with the other members of congress. He also had several more senior and well-talented guards coming in to help ease the tension in the city, something that was also going to cause problems as his appointment to his position had undoubtedly been seen as a temporary thing. Now that Princess Celestia had basically confirmed he wasn't going anywhere, a lot of them were going to feel jilted and robbed of a promotion they thought they were getting.

"Still too hard on yourself, Captain," she said, switching tones and names as they reached the other guards, giving them a proper nod of her head, which they gave back to her. The Lunarians had made a good impression on the rest of his guards during the fight in front of the castle so they trusted them to be close to him. The rest of the Lunarians were posted near the castle and the medical area that their vertical neighbours had set up inside the castle as Flash didn't believe it was wise to have them out in the city just yet.

"Perhaps," Flash said, stealing a glance at her before turning back to his guards. "Managed to calm miss Sandy Petunia down enough," he told them. "Though I'd like the patrol to try and keep an eye on her and miss Pearl Cake's place, just in case they don't listen. Just give them a hefty fine; not worth the trouble of bringing them in."

The guards that had been part of the patrol and brought him nodded their heads, with Rapid Sprint tipping her head in apology. "Sorry for dragging you to do this sir, but she was demanding to speak with a higher ranked officer and she wouldn't take no for an answer."

Flash nodded. "In the grand scheme of things, it's fine," he said. "I've seen worse. Carry on Rapid Sprint."

"Will do, sir," Rapid Sprint replied; her and her partner Full Arrow going off to continue their patrol. Once they were past eyesight, one of his bodyguards gave a snort and looked at Flash.

"You are being rather lenient in your orders, sir," the older of the two unicorns said, narrowing his eyes at him. "This is martial law; we need to establish order and we cannot do so if the citizens believe they can act as they wish."

"You are correct in one way," Flash said, glaring back. "We are here to restore order; but I have been here longer and I know these ponies better than you. If we clamp down too hard, then they will begin to resist us and cause massive problems that we can't deal with via imprisoning and detaining. They will dig up every law they can find to hamper us, wasting our time in the courts when we need to focus on forcing out the terrorists that have already begun to hunker down in their hiding spots. Last thing any of us need is to have a large number of our guards benched because a noble found some law that made them unsuitable for service. Imagine if we weren't able to call in Wrecking Ball for the retaking of Radiance Street; how many more of our own would have been hurt if he had to remain in the guardhouse because miss Sandy Petunia got mad that we threw her in jail instead of just fining her?"

Ivory Blaze stared at him before a smile crept across his face and he nodded his head. "Well said, sir," he said with his partner also smiling. "I won't deny there is a lot of doubt from the more senior and elite officers about you but I can see the reasoning why the previous captain had you as his successor."

Flash blinked at this before nodding his head. "Thank you, Ivory Blaze," he said, still blinking owlishly. "But I am sure that he had other candidates in mind beside me."

"No, he wanted you to take over," Dew Drop said, the smile still on her face. "I can begin to see why. Hopefully the rest of the guards will understand in time."

Flash nodded his head again. "I hope I can continue to demonstrate his wisdom then." He then turned back to the street so he could continue his patrol as he listened to Zephyr, who flew in with the latest report of how the guards were dealing with Defiant Avenue. It wasn't as bad as Fifth Street had been, but the terrorists there had clearly seen the battle at the castle as a doomed venture and had fortified the area during the entire conflict.

As he was going over the details of the report and how they were managing to chip away at their control, a trio of police officers turned the corner and walked towards them.

Instantly, all of his guards tensed up, his bodyguards lighting their horns with Nightingale pulling out her gun and Zephyr his spear. Nightingale and the rest of her squad had switched to less powerful and dangerous weapons; they still packed a serious punch and would stun a foe for a much longer time, but it would take a lot more shots to land a lethal blow. Which was exactly what Flash wanted; the time for wanton killings had passed, and now it was time to establish the law was firmly back in force, which meant taking every single last one of them alive if possible.

Flash, instead, left his spear at his side and looked at the trio. They were in uniform; something he had allowed, if only to not let them try and hide from the guards. As of the treachery that Captain Meadow and most of the senior officers had committed, Flash was of the mind that Princess Celestia was right to suspend all of their duties and order them to remain inside of their homes or offices until such a time that their true loyalties could be determined. Currently, these three were in violation of the specific orders given out by the Princess and himself, but he wanted to hear their justification for their decisions to violate these orders.

"That is far enough," he said, looking at the one in the center. It was a standard EUP squad and formation; unicorn in the middle with the earth pony and pegasus flanking them. None of them, however, were showing any signs of being armed or arming themselves towards him, with the pegasus' wings pressed against her side, the unicorn's horn unlit and the earth pony's hoofs staying still. "Explain why you are out here. You were ordered to remain in your homes or places of work until the guards could come and evaluate you."

"With all due respect, sir," the unicorn replied, "We don't have time for that. There's work to be done, and we intend to do it."

"That was the gist of what your former captain said when she led the attack against Princess Celestia and myself," Flash said. "Why should I believe that you are not part of her final orders to infiltrate the castle and try to attack her again."

"We have no way of proving that, sir," the unicorn said bitterly, the hurt look in his face reflected in the two by his side. "What she and the other officers did is a stain on all of us officers. We can never live down what they did but all we ask is the opportunity to try and prove that not all of us were like them."

"Where were you at the time of the assault?" Flash asked Emerald Glider, reading the name off his tag. He knew that Zephyr had a list of where the police offices were stationed and he did recognize the slight alterations their precinct had for their uniforms that told him where they should have been but he highly doubted that they knew he knew any of that.

"We were on patrol for the summer sun celebration in western Canterlot," Almond Skies, the pegasus mare said with Water Lily, the earth pony, nodding her head. "We were about to return to the precinct when we started to hear the ruckus and we tried to intervene."

"We did what we could but there was a sudden surge of ponies rushing through the streets, overwhelming us and the orders we got said to let them go by, no matter what, and that they had officers directing them to where they were meant to go," Water Lily said, blinking unhappily. "Of course, now we know they were reinforcements for the team that was attacking Canterlot Castle, but at the time we didn't realize that. If we had, we'd have done everything we could to stop them."

Flash nodded. "They were traitors," he said. "Not your team, not after what they did. I wish you had known better at the time."

"Don't we all sir," Emerald Glider said. "We will do our part to distance ourselves from... them." He was clearly struggling with finding the right words, though what he said gave Flash an opening.

"Speaking of that, we could use your help in one aspect," Flash said with the trio staring at him. "It is becoming clear that as delirious as Meadow was, she had her agents preparing for the worst and when it became clear that her mad gambit had failed, said agents were prepared to destroy all records of who was with the police. As we lack a national registry for them, which won't happen again, we could use your help in tracking down those who have tried to hide their previous allegiances."

"We will do what we can to help, sir," Emerald Glider said, with the others nodding. Flash tipped his head towards them before whistling the code for the pegasi teams hiding in the clouds to head down to him. The trio jumped a bit but they kept themselves composed at the sudden presence of guards. Flash then gave the order to have the three of them escorted to the castle so they could begin identifying the former officers they had in the dungeons as well as putting a list together to nab those who had taken off their badges and name tags and tried to hide.

His bodyguards said nothing until they were gone before the stallion smiled and nodded his head approvingly. "Perfectly handled, sir, well done."

"Agreed," the mare said. "You managed to defuse that situation perfectly; those officers are now motivated more than ever to prove they are not cut from the same cloth as their former companions. All the while keeping them from feeling the divide between the police and guard and them not being bitter at having us take their duties away."

Flash simply smiled at them, doing his best not to blush at their praises. "I just did what I thought was right; we don't need division or chaos right now, we need unity and harmony and we can't do that if we won't extend a hoof to those who are trying to make things better."

"Regardless, that is exactly what we need right now and I will do my part to inform my fellow officers of this when we return to the castle, sir," Ivory Blaze said.

"After we finish doing a sweep of Dazzling Boulevard," Flash said. "It's one of the poorer areas of Canterlot; while it doesn't often make problems, I don't want to leave it unchecked."

His bodyguards simply nodded their heads while Nightingale stepped in line beside him.

"A wise decision," she said.

Flash nodded back, and then the two, their guards trailing behind them, headed onward to their next destination, hoping those back in the castle were doing all right.

She was gone.

Blueblood couldn’t believe she had actually been so foolish as to actually leave Equestria and take Cadance with her, but Celestia had actually done so. All the claimants to the throne were absent at the moment and if it were not for the fact that Celestia had thoroughly disinherited him from all of his rightful stations and belongings, he would be sitting on that golden throne right now instead of this admittedly well furbished cell.

It seemed that before she had left for the colony, Celestia had had that highly unqualified pegasus tell his subordinates that he was not to be listened to at all, and had forced through the legal paperwork that prevented him from releasing himself from this cell to act as the only proper leader at the moment. His trusted lawyers, whom he was pleased to see had remained loyal to him even with the lack of bits for the foreseeable future, had told him that there was nothing they could do yet and they were going through every ancient law and treaty to see if there was some way to overturn Celestia’s decision.

His ear flicked as he reconsidered one potentially viable path to victory. Fact Finder had brought up the fact that since Celestia had been acting abnormally and rashly, she had not been in a proper state of mind at the time and thus, any decision should be dismissed. It could work, though it was far too risky, especially if he could not arrange to have one of the senior members of the order as his judge. There were a few that he knew would rule in his favour, but he dared not reach out to them lest he expose them. They were excellent deep cover crusaders and the cause would be worse off without them. They did their job to protect the lesser members of their organization well enough that Cadance’s agents had not even begun to suspect them and if he did get one of them, they would be careful enough to orchestrate the case to see him winning in a way such that no one would begin to suspect any support was being given.

But on the other hoof, if he did not try to reach out, he could end up with a judge that was not loyal to the cause and would undoubtedly favour Celestia over him; if that happened, nopony would accept that their biases towards Celestia had played a massive part in their decision. And then that avenue would forever be closed to him.

In addition, he thought with a frown starting to form on his face but smothering it before anypony could possibly see it, he had his own case to worry about. Meadow had been a great asset in the past in so much that she was able to get many of the lesser members of the order into the higher ranks of the police force, but she still had been a rather dangerously stupid and risky agent to work so close with. It had been a provable chess match to work with her while not making their ties too obvious to anyone snooping around or to Meadow herself. If she had ever suspected he had been using her, Meadow would have undoubtedly turned on him out of spite. It was exactly the same thing he would have done himself, though taking measures to make himself look good.

Once again, he was thankful that upstart Flash had killed her; dead ponies told no tales and with her officers undoubtedly seeking to make deals to save their own skin, they would throw all the blame onto her if not him. As his lawyers had proven so far, he had been an obedient servant of Equestria by reporting to the jail as per Celestia’s orders and remained there. And as he'd avoided all contact with Meadow and any of her lackeys, there would be reasonable doubt that he'd given her his family’s inhibitor chain. All he needed to do was to lie when he was asked if he gave it to her and that would be it.

His ear flicked as his thoughts went onto how he could arrange to have another member of the order installed in the police now that they would be put under even tighter scrutiny and he still needed to get a person inside the higher echelons of the guards so they could take over for Flash. Captain Hackpole had been rather tough to kill in a way that looked like an accident but he had been getting far too close to discovering Blueblood's role in the order of this noble crusade. Blueblood frowned at the thought; he knew he could not fail the Grand Master by being discovered and putting the order at risk. He was not the Archivist for nothing, though and he had already made moves to get in touch with the Quartermaster who might be able to help him. The earth pony was one of miraculous skills, resources and contacts, even with being ostracized by their family.

Regardless, sooner or later he knew he would find his way out of trouble. And once he did, he would once again be able to work towards his ultimate goal, of claiming Equestria's throne for himself - a true member of the old unicorn royal bloodline, rather than some mixed-tribe usurper.

Just like it should have been all along. All he needed to do was wait and plan.

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five

It was later in the day cycle, with the lights of all the domes being dimmed to simulate a night-time atmosphere, when the two sisters made their way to the apartment complex where Twilight dwelled.

They had met up briefly with Fancy Pants and his wife on their way, the two heading back to the Lux Aeternam to be teleported back to Equuis. While all parties knew the couple wished to stay longer, the risk of having only one legislative head in the country while the other was away at the same time - and especially while the executive leader was also gone - was too great, especially considering what had just recently occurred.

As Luna and Celestia rode in the elevator to the top floor, they both went over the upcoming hurdles that lay before them.

There was so much Luna had to do to prepare her people to interact with the world below, so many years of customs and practices that she had to help either overcome or adjust. That wasn't even taking into consideration of the meeting of nations that would soon come to order after Tia introduced the Republic to the world. She had yet to broach the topic directly with her sister; she needed to learn more about how the council operated now before she could directly ask her. Luna was of mixed emotions and thoughts of the news that her sister was not Equestria's leading diplomat for them. It made sense that she could not be expected to do so with all her duties, and privately, Luna was glad she would not be present when Luna went to address them. It would give her and the Republic more legitimacy without her there as well as avoid any awkward implications of one sister ruler introducing her younger sister to them. Still, Luna knew her sister and her tells. Having some she could easily read would help as well as having a familiar face in a place that could easily deny her citizens a place in the world. Even putting the avengers to the side, the latest indications and information she had gathered told her that the world was not welcoming to Equestrians and it would only stand to be worse for her Republic. They had to make a good showcase of who they were, their values and beliefs, what they could offer to the denizens of Equuis. They needed to be open and kind but at the same time show that they were not a naive country that could be taken advantage of. It would be an incredibly difficult balance to achieve, and Luna could not afford to fail.

Celestia also had heavy matters that she was doing mental gymnastics over and over about. Her nation's capital had been attacked with some parts still being held by the enemy that had managed to convince a large number of well-meaning individuals to their cause. It spoke of great issues within Equestria that an act could happen so quickly and on such a large scale. It also told her the power these avengers had needed to be destroyed at the source, with their leaders imprisoned and their funds cut off permanently. Cadance's agents were starting to comb Blueblood's finances but she doubted they would find any clear connection with him and the avengers. Even if he wasn't a direct member, it would mean him giving away his own wealth to others and she knew he would never be that little altruistic to others that were a part of their organization. And even with the whole looming mess of finally squashing the avengers aside, there was the nightmare of issues that would come when she announced her abdication. She had already started to train Fancy and Claret and prepare them for the task of leading Equestria one day but she knew there would be issues and crisis that they would struggle to overcome in a country going through a regime change.

That was also ignoring the whole headache that her sister would soon face in the League of Nations. She understood why Luna had yet to ask for her help; along with this being meant as a time of healing and mending for them, her sister would want some time to gather information on her own before she came to her. She would do her best to prepare her sister for king Ganus as he was likely be her biggest obstacle to overcome but there was so little she truly offer to best some that just did not hold all the cards but rule book as well. That blasted accord had hamstrung Equestria to the point where they were treated little more than a semi-independent duchy instead of one of the largest and richest nations of Equuis. She longed to see what those accords fully entailed but of course, her and any Equestrian getting their hooves on a copy would be seen as a direct violation of said accords and allow the League to summon the entirety of its forces to invade. That point had been made clear countless times before when she and her fellow representatives had been ordered out of the chamber room when matters of the accords came up. It was embarrassing and humiliating to be treated in such a way but she could swallow her pride if the alternative was putting her ponies in grave danger, especially those who were outside Equestria. One of the few details that she had been allowed to know that if Equestria ever broke the accords, any Equestrian in foreign territory would automatically be considered an agent of hers and would legally be allowed to be detained as prisoners of war, with very few if any rights given to them.

Both sisters let out weary sighs; both had mountains left to climb with many a treacherous foothold waiting for them before the summit could even be seen. But for the moment, they had respite in the form of dear friends and students waiting for them.

Twilight smiled and embraced her teacher, happy to see her in general and to see her looking so calm and happy, especially after all the supposed fighting Director Luna and Princess Celestia had been doing. Even with the few snippets she had heard from here and there, she just couldn't see the two of them doing so, not with how calm and relaxed they seemed to be in each other's presence.

She waited for Sunset to break off her own embrace of Princess Celestia before she turned to greet the other mare. Dipping her head in a short bow as she said her name, Twilight saw she had made the right decision in how she greeted the ruler of Equestria, with her own experience with Director Luna and Sunset's own advice.

"And a hello to you as well, Twilight Sparkle," the mare said with a genuine smile on her face as she stepped inside. "What a lovely decorated home you have here."

Before she could respond, her mother chimed in. "The mare you should be thanking is Miss Belle here," she said from the dining table with everyone trying not to laugh, some more than others. Her mom gave Vinyl a mom look as she stepped away from Cadance and Shiny, with Octavia shaking her head at the nose wincing unicorn. Placing a hoof on Twilight's side so she couldn't wiggle away, her mom continued on to say. "So many years I've tried to get my little Twi to spruce up the place."

Twilight groaned at that comment, her face heating up in a blush as there were more light hearted giggles at her reaction with Luna tutting as she walked over to the table to take the open chair that had been set aside for and her sister. "Would that you be staying here longer so you could ensure that my beloved student does not backslide too much but I suspect that you all will be wishing to return to your families and homes soon."

Twilight's heart skipped a beat at this and even more so with her friends nodding their heads. "Ah'm having a blast gettin' to know mah kin and all but Ah am missing the farm," Applejack said.

"And I am getting a bit farther behind in my orders than I am normally comfortable with," Rarity said as she lifted a fork of the salad Spike had made for all of them, the rest of her Equestrian friends echoing similar sentiments.

"And now that we have a moment of peace, coming and going should become a far easier task," Princess Celestia said as she happily took a second serving, surprising Twilight as she hadn't even her touched her food. "Though travel from Canterlot and Ponyville will still take some time."

"About that Princess," Sunset said next to Twilight, pausing in her meal. "I have been thinking. I know that Ponyville is looking for a replacement librarian and I am considering applying for the position so I can be closer to my friends in Equestria." She gave a look to Twilight that she couldn't understand, which for some reason caused both of them to blush. "I can continue my studies and it has enough room for guests to stay for a while."

"I think it is a lovely idea Sunset," Princess Celestia said with a wide smile. "One should always strive to carve out their own path in life and I do think that this will do wonders for you."

"And we can continue to work on our project Twilight," Sunset said quickly before blinking and with a sheepish and embarrassed look on her face, she amended the offer. "I mean, if you want to be with me." Sunset squeaked as her face was tinged with a blush that seemed to be similar to Twilight's own face. "I mean work with me, work with me." she stammered while Twilight couldn't seem to get her thoughts in order; idly noticing most of her guests were snickering for some reason.

"I think that would be a lovely idea," Director Luna said, a sly grin on her face. "With all the work needed to be done in the Sextus dome, it will be some time before your normal services will be required." She lifted a fork to her lips, pausing to continue. "Though if this is what you want to do, my dear student." She then grinned hawkishly at her sister. "And if my sister can convince your mom that everything will be okay."

There were some light laughter at her mom's protective tendencies with Princess Celestia stating that she should be okay if she chose to travel to Equestria for a short while.

"That's good to hear," her mom said, staring at the oldest alicorn in the room. "Though, to be honest, Princess, if anything does happen, I will be coming to have a few choice words with you."

Her mom ignored her squeak of embarrassment as the two sisters chuckled to each other. "I offer great caution, sister, if you dare tussle with Velvet."

Princess Celestia's grin turned into a playful smirk. "Are you saying I have lost my edge?"

"Nothing of sort," Luna replied. "Hence the urge of caution that comes from daring to cross paths with Velvet when you have incurred her wrath being very important. And if you should cross horns with her, it would fall onto me to avenge you by going after her." Luna gave a mock shudder as well as shaking her head. "No thank you."

"Your compassion and concern is truly endless, dear sister," Celestia said dryly, though her eyes said how amused she truly was. The Princess then turned to face her. "In all seriousness the final decision is yours Twilight."

"I would very much like to be down in Equestria with Sunset and the girls," Twilight answered. "We can continue our project in the library as well as do so much other research with all those books there."

Twilight's ear flicked as she heard Shiny snicker but before she could glare at him, Luna craned her head around the table.

"It occurs to me that we are short one guest," she said, looking at the pegasus couple near the end of the table where Scootaloo and her family were clustered.

"Our Dashie told us there was a group that she wanted to try and attend," Windy Whistles said, sharing a look with her husband. Even with the little exposure she had with Rainbow Dash's parents, Twilight could tell how nervous and unsure they were about this topic, especially with the young filly present.

"Good," Luna said a bit too deeply, instantly looking sheepish at the glares she was receiving from that side of the table. Scootaloo had not been told what kind of meeting her surrogate sister was attending yet, and they were all respecting Dash's request that she explain the matter to her. The last thing the pegasus wanted was for the filly to worry about her. "I hope that she finds it most helpful."

"As do we all aunt Luna," Cadance said. "I have already been in touch with similar groups in Equestria that she might find useful."

Both of the other alicorns beamed at that and soon the topic changed to other stuff, Sunset and Twilight explaining their goal to their teachers while everyone hoped that Dash was doing okay.

Rainbow Dash grumbled as she walked along the pathway. The meeting had been a complete bust. She wished they had acted like they were mad or disappointed or something like that but no, they were so understanding.

They told her that it was okay that she didn't feel like talking or being there yet; it'd only work when she was ready for it.

All that did was make her feel even worse about everything; she wanted to scream or shout or buck a cloud or something! She did want to get over this stupid stuff but how was she supposed to do that if they wouldn't push her as 'cause she couldn't bring herself to do it? It was so freaking annoy-

"Whoa, you okay there?" a voice caused Dash to snap her head around to see a griffon looking at her, giving her a sideways look.

"Er yeah, I guess," Dash said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head with her metal wing. She had almost walked into her because she had been all caught up in her head junk. "Sorry about that. Got a lot on my mind."

"I can see that," the griffon grinned at her before holding out a talon. "The name's Gilda."

“Dash,” Rainbow Dash answered, shaking the talon. "Nice to meet ya. "She was about to ask her what brought her here but the griffon asked first.

She blinked at that, unsure in how she could answer that, though her mouth seemed to be doing fine without her input.

"Came here because my doc thought it'd do me some good," she replied with the griffon going ah.

"I get yah," she said, nodding her head a bit. "Everyone's been advised to see help over what happened but 'cause it ain't being forced, a lot are just ducking out."

Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes in suspicion, studying the mare across her. Or whatever female griffons were called. "How do you know this? You work for the docs?"

Gilda just squawked in laughter at that, shaking her head. "I'm a baker, not a psychologist," she grinned to herself, clearly amused by it. "As much as my folks had hoped otherwise, my passion is baking. Didn't have the luck to have a cooking Cutie Mark to prove them otherwise, just how good my scones tasted." She snorted, sounding a bit annoyed before she focused back onto Dash. "And it's basic sense, really. You can go to all the meetings and sessions and group therapy in the Republic but unless you're ready for it, it's just a waste of time."

"You know a lot for someone that ain't a doc," Dash pointed out.

"Kinda happens when both your parents are doctors, along with the rest of your entire family," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh, that makes sense," she said before the other bit dropped and she got why Gilda was annoyed. "Oh."

"Yup; lots of fun discussions," -the sarcasm was so heavy that Dash had to bite back a snort of laughter- "over what I wanted to do with my life." She paused to give her another grin. "Never have two shrinks as parents, trust me, it's not fun."

"Well if my Dad or Mom retire from the weather and cloud factory, I'll steer them away from a medical job," she joked back, feeling lighter than she had for a while.

"Good job, though if my folks ever ask, I never said that," Gilda pleded with Dash snorting and nodding her head. "Or any of my siblings. They'll never say a word about who they help but they have no issue on squealing to Mom or Dad about me."

Dash snorted again, trying her best not to laugh too loudly, but she wasn't doing a good job at it. "I guess I'm lucky that I don't have any siblings to snitch on me," she stopped herself as she recalled Scootaloo. "Well surrogate sister, but Scoots isn't in a position to rat on me. I think."

"She might find a way, even by accident," Gilda mused. "Older or younger?"

"Younger; she's still just a little squirt."

"Oh she'll definitely sell you out by accident," Gilda snorted. "Been on that end when Long Rest or Careful Inquiry asked some stupid question that my folks saw through and got me in trouble so many times." She groaned at that but Dash could hear the affection she had for her siblings and she found herself smiling again, the knot in her stomach really loose now. The griffon tilted her head, a smile on her beak. "I've got some good grub at my store if you want to keep chatting."

Dash smiled at that; she was kinda hungry. Nodding her head, she followed the griffon as the two continued to talk about anything and nothing long into the night.

Chapter Six

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Chapter Six

If Straight Arrow wasn't on duty at the moment, he would have loved to see more of this village. Even without all the pageantry that came from hosting the Summer Sun festivals a few weeks ago, it still felt so lively and inviting with everyone they met giving them a warm smile and welcome.

Though neither he or his partner Bright Bolt could afford to let their guard down. After the failed coup attempt, Canterlot was still dealing with the traitors that dug themselves deeply into several streets, with the fighting as ugly as the battle at the castle, if not worse at some parts. The traitors were being driven into a corner and they were fighting not to win but to cause as much pain as possible. Guards had been summoned from all over to help break their backs and restore full and proper order to the capital.

And yet, here they were, away from the fights. He nearly balked at his orders but Straight understood what Captain Sentry was going for and felt a surge of pride he had been chosen to do this, among the many other guards sent out to grab all known avengers left out in the wild.

He didn't glance up at the pegasi team hiding in the clouds. In case the family tried to stall them while their avenger relative made their escape by the back door, they were there to bring down the thunder on them all.

His ear flicked at that; normally there was a long line of escalation that needed to occur before they were allowed to use that amount of force, but after the failed coup, none of them felt like these avengers deserved that amount of restraint. But the Captain had been extremely clear that all of them would use the normal levels of escalation or they would need to find new jobs. Captain Sentry had proven that it wasn't an idle threat when senior Guards had loudly objected and had them removed after their refusal to listen to the Captain's more than mericful attempts to let them save face and back down. They were currently suspended from service due to their insubordination and admitting in planning to break the law and facing investigations to pry deeply into all of their years of duty as a further act of deterrence to the rest of them.

Still, Straight had heard rumors that some Guards had been turning a blind eye to reporting such violations of the law to their superiors to avoid the same fate and it had put a lot of them in an awkward spot of complicity. To know that some of their follow Guards were breaking the law and a direct order was a serious offense but he personally didn't have any solid proof on anypony, so it would be one's Guards word against another's and then it would paint a massive target on his back for those actually breaking the law. After all, what was one more crime in the name of justice or revenge or whatever they used to justify themselves and he didn't need or want that.

Thankfully Straight and Bolt and their pegasus team hadn't been put into that spot with those they had spoken with to cross that bridge.

Yet.

And more worrisome was that while Straight knew it should be a no brainer, he still wasn't sure how he would act if they did get a runner.

Doing his best to put the worry out of his mind, Straight walked with Bolt, the two of them continuing down the dirt road to the suspected dwelling of the avenger.

They had been surprised to see who was their suspect; the earth pony clan was known far and wide for being really decent ponies but he supposed that every family had some rotten apples in them and it would undoubtedly bring a lot of shame to the family once they arrested Ross Apple. But what one family would go through was a fair price to bring in one of these terrorists.

Walking up to the farmhouse, Straight gave one more glance to the cloud where their aerial team were waiting and watching in case things went wrong.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Dewdrop, the pegasus mare, said softly through the communication spell built into their helmets.

It was a relatively new upgrade in their standard equipment, though the spell itself had been known for a long time. The short range of the spell limited its overall effectiveness in most situations but the senior mages had been making progress in increasing the range. Apparently, it had taken one mage to see of the Lunarian's equipment devices once before she had managed to make a breakthrough, with the kinks being worked out in Canterlot. The Lunarians had been impressed at how fast they had discovered the spell and how quickly they were adapting it to their needs.

Still, even with it being a new tool in the arsenal which traditionalists disliked out of principle, the spell had proven its worth as it was easy to use, easy to operate and most importantly, didn't require an unicorn's magic to activate. It was going to be revolutionary when it was finally ready for mass use, and help bridge the gaps in their tech in so many fields outside the military.

He flicked an ear at that as he went to reply; their cousins from the moon had really shown how patchwork their own advances had been in comparison, but that had been explained as the Lunarians' need for survival against their more gradual discoveries with the occasional Cutie Mark specialist making a grand leap forwards in one niche field. Though their mages and thinkers had taken the gap as a challenge, with their new communication spell, the radio spell, being among the first products produced. Already, they were running around like excited foals, ordering equipment from the griffon lands for their experiments and ideas.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Straight replied, raising a hoof to knock on the door. He gave it a proper rap and within seconds he could hear the sound of an elderly set of hooves approaching.

"Just a second, just a second. Ah ain't no spring chicken no more," a mare said from behind the door, with a wizened green earth pony looking up at them. She saw their armour and let out a sigh. "Ah'll bite, what did Bloom do this time."

"We aren't here for them ma'am," Straight answered, though he kept the name in the back of his head for a potential lead to examine if she thought the Guard would come for them.

"Well shucks then, what did ya come for?" She flashed them a friendly smile, pushing the door more. To Straight, it meant that this avenger wasn't here if this old mare was being so open and forthcoming. "Ah know my grandfilly can get herself and her friends in a whole heap of trouble if ya don't watch them."

"We're here for a Ross Apple, ma'am," Bolt said, watching her reaction.

In a flash, the mare's expression and demeanor changed completely. Narrowing her eyes with a hoof pushing the door closed, she said in a far more hostile tone, "Ah ain't know no pony by that name." She would have slammed the door in their faces if Straight hadn't grabbed it with his magic. He took a step forwards, still staying outside, aware he couldn't just enter the house without a warrant or due cause, though with how she was acting they would have the latter shortly. "Let go of mah door and get yerself off mah land now, ya hear?" She barked at them, glaring angrily as she continued to try and shut the door.

"Ma'am, please understand that this is a serious matter and if you are lying to us to protect Rose Apple-" that was as far as he got before the mare started to screech again she didn't know anypony by that name. A bold face lie as she was the matriarch of this clan's family branch and thus knew all the Apples that were born Equestria. "Ma'am, I am giving you one more chan-" The mare might have been old but she was still an Earth pony and could pack a serious punch of physical force, causing him to stumble backwards. He still kept his magic on the door, though, and was now no longer holding back. Using his magic, he opened the door all the way ans glared hard at the all but confirmed avenger suporter. "Ma'am," he said in his most leveled voice, crossing the threshold of the door and into the house. "Listen to me very carefully; this will be your last chance to be honest with us. You can either tell us here or in a prison cell. Your choice."

She glared hateful eyes at him, with a mixture of shock as well. Whatever she was going to say was cut off by the thundering of hooves and the approach of a towering stallion with a murderous look in his face, moving I'm front of old mare.

"Don't you threaten my granny," he snorted in Straight's face.

"Sir, stand down now or you will be arrested alongside her," Bright glowered, horn lit as well. It was clear as the Princess's sun he wasn't going to stand by and just let his grandmother be arrested and taken away but Bright was following procedures and Straight was thankful for that.

"Eeeenope," the stallion snorted as he lowered himself, clearly preparing to charge. He wouldn't get that far; even if the stallion was the greatest Earth pony mage which he strongly doubted, all Straight needed to do was get him off the ground long enough for any magic he had to dissipate. That was the great weakness of Earth ponies; remove them from any contact with the earth and they would eventually become weaker than a newborn foal.

Then again, it did usually take a few hours for them to be powerless and this stallion was brimming with Earth pony magic and likely could break out of a restraint bubble. It might take several unicorns to contain him over at least a day and there was the old mare to consider as well. But that was part of the reason the pegasi team was there.

He was about to put them both under arrest for suspicion to harbour the avenger when Dewdrop's voice reached his ears.

"Incoming civilian earth pony, on your six, non hostile," she said in a tense tone but thankfully, she and her fellow pegasi were not jumping the crossbow and remaining hidden.

Horn still glowing as he absentmindedly created a small cage around the pair -not to hold them but give him some warning if they tried to move-, Straight turned to see the newest actor on the scene.

She was a young off orange mare with a stetson atop her blond mane, rushing towards them with speed that spoke of either great athletic training, strong Earth pony magic or a combination of both. Not even waiting to reach halfway, she shouted out, "What in tarnation is going on here?"

"Applejack, tell these-" the grandmother began to speak only for Bolt to raise a wall to block the sound from within the house and not give this mare any pointers so she could hide the truth from them.

"We were about to place these two under arrest but perhaps you can settle matters," Straight said, staring at her to look for any tells. "Do you know a pony by the name of Ross Apple?"

Straight then saw that this Applejack was either the world's worst lier or the world's best actress.

Eyes still bulged and cheeks sucked in, she nervously looked at her fuming grandmother before paying the ground with a heavy sigh, her features falling as the effort of trying to lie was clearly too much for. "Yeah, he's our kin."

"Applejack!" The grandmother shouted her name the way only a parental figure could do, with Straight flinching from ingrained instincts from his foalhood.

"Have you seen him recently at all?"

That caused her to blink and pull back, shaking her head. "Ah ain't ever saw him. Ah don't think he's ever been here before." She was clearly telling the truth, Straight was sure of that. "What this all about mister?"

"We are here on official orders to arrest all known members of the terrorist group known as the avengers," Bolt said with the entire family giving a jolt of understanding.

"'Nd since he's" Applejack started before squeaking under the glare of her grandmother. "was kin, y'all thought to come here ta find out if we know where Ross is, didn't ya?"

That wasn't the exact situation but it was close enough. Nodding his head, he adopted a kinder expression. "And we had a bit of miscommunication with your grandmother, leading us to think she was harbouring him here." Straight said while the mare in question looked horrified at the possibility. "I can see now that's not the case."

"Ah'm mighty sorry about that mess there, young fella," the older mare said. "When that no good snake joined them-" she frowned, looking at her grandfoals and debating if she should say the actual curse she was thinking of. "Avengers, we'll swore that none of us would ever think of him as kin again. He ain't family and never will be."

"Eeyup." The stallion said while Applejack was looking incredibly shifty. Her grandmother didn't even need to hear her speak before she squawked out her name in shock and outrage.

"Look granny, Ah know he's a no good varmint for joining up with them avengers, but maybe he'll have a change of hearts or something?" She let out a sigh. "Ah just don't want to write off kin like this, even if they really done lost their way."

Whatever the matriarch was going to say was halted when Straight stepped in. "It is not too far fetched. There are ex-avengers that had left their organization and truly regretted what they have said and done." Smiling at younger mare, he reached into his pack and pulled out a jar full of magic. "Here; this contains dragonfire. If you learn or hear anything about Ross, write it down and stick it in the flames. It will come to me and we can help your kin out."

Nodding her head as she took the jar, Straight flashed the family another smile as he and Bright walked back down the path, the cloud team hovering over the farm a bit longer just in case.

Bright waited until they were out of earshot before turning to face him and asked, "I didn't know there were ex avengers."

"Well, I'm sure there are bound to be some out there,” Straight said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Come, we’ve got more people to talk to.”

Bright nodded his head, falling in step to his side as the two continued through this quaint town.

A Moon and World Together

by Evilhumour

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six