These are stories I have written from the prompts over at Thirty Minute Ponies. Although some of these will be for the earlier prompts, all stories were written within thirty minutes.
Lyra turned from her position on the bench beside her friend Bonbon.
“Who?”
“Them. You know, Twilight, Rarity, that group of mares.”
Lyra followed Bonbon’s outstretched hoof to see Equestria’s newest Princess, Twilight Sparkle taking a casual stroll with Rarity. The two mares were casually chatting as they walked through the park. “Probably completely normal, average, pony things.”
Bonbon didn’t seem happy with that answer. “But those six have been at the centre of everything that’s happened to this town for the last two years. They’re even national heroes, twice over. You want to know what I think?”
Lyra sighed in resignation. As much as she loved her friend, Bonbon’s imagination could be a bit wild sometimes. “What do you think, Bonbon?”
The other mare needed no further prompting than that. “I think they talk about really interesting stuff, like obscure magic, potential threats they could be facing off against, tactics. Maybe new developments in pastry warfare. Or maybe even...”
“So why don’t you go and ask them?” put in Lyra, cutting Bonbon’s incoming list off before it could really get started on the truly weird.
“But that would take away the mystery,” moaned the earth pony. Lyra slipped off the bench, and stood directly in front of her oldest friend to make sure she got her point through.
“Bonbon. They are normal, everyday ponies like you or me. They aren’t magical warriors from outerspace, Neighponese ninja or anything else you can dream up. They’re just ponies who happen to be in the right place at the right time. That’s it. They’ll talk about normal, everyday pony things. Not potential enemies, not tactics, and not Advanced Pastry Warfare. They. Are. NORMAL. PONIES!” Lyra’s voice had risen slightly throughout her speech, and when she finished, she was heaving for breath.
“Alright, I get it, I get it.” Bonbon sulked, and Lyra sat back down, pleased that she had temporarily quelled her friend’s overactive imagination, and the two settled back into conversation about Bonbon’s strategy for the upcoming Equestria Candy Maker Faire.
“Rarity, what do you think they talk about?”
The white unicorn turned to face her alicorn companion. “What who talks about, dear?”
“You know...normal ponies.” Twilight gestured around the park the two were walking through.
“Probably the usual things. Why?”
“But what are the ‘usual things’? I never really had a chance to see that when I was younger, being as concerned with books as I was back then.”
Rarity giggled lightly. “You mean as you still are, my dear,” Twilight blushed in embarrassment. “The ‘usual things’ in casual conversation are things like mane care routines, business ideas...much of the same things we talk about when not saving the world, or attending Princess coronations.”
Twilight took on a look of understanding. “Thanks for clearing that up, Rarity.”
“It’s not a problem my dear. I sometimes forget how unlike a normal pony your younger life was. Now, I do believe that Fluttershy is waiting on us at the spa, so let’s pick up the pace a bit, hmm?”
“Oh! Sorry.” And then the two ponies continued on to a perfectly ordinary day.
It all started so innocently, you really couldn’t fathom how it had escalated this far, this quickly. You had begun your day just as usual, a quick brush of your mane and tail to get rid of bedmane, and when you had gone to brush your teeth, you found that the toothpaste had been replaced with cupcake frosting. More specifically, PINK cupcake frosting. Smart as you were, this did not take a genius to figure out who was responsible. You shook your head with a small smile. You hadn’t even heard Pinkie Pie come in during the night. Swilling some water around your mouth to get rid of morning breath before you went out, you levitated the day’s checklist and a quill over to you, and added toothpaste to the list of things you needed to buy today. Then, as you walked down the stairs, you found that replacing the toothpaste had not been the only thing that Pinkie had obviously done last night. A parcel full of sneezing powder had been left on the kitchen counter. The ink had been exchanged with vanishing ink. An apple pie had been shelved next to the Daring Do series. Wait, what? Turning to look again, your face scrunched up in confusion.
‘Why, in Celestia’s name was there an apple pie on the shelf next to the Daring Do series?’ you thought. Levitating the pie over and inspecting it had revealed it was a perfectly normal pie, probably baked by Applejack because you knew that Pinkie couldn’t bake a pie to save her life. Still, it was a perfectly good pie, no sense in letting it go to waste, and you set it aside for lunch. But then, as you had exited the door of your library home, a bucket of gold dust had fallen on you, covering you completely from horn to hoof. After freezing and twitching in place for a bit, trying desperately to prevent the onset of neurotic behaviour you knew was probably coming, you lifted one hoof up off the ground, took a deep breath, and exhaled, swiping the hoof to the side.
‘Better. Now, I suppose I’d better see Pinkie, and see what all this is about.’ This calm, logical thought calmed you, and you set off for Sugarcube Corner. However, the pranks didn’t stop outside your home. One of the apples you had bought from Applejack was a fake wooden one, painted to look real. An obviously fake turtle had sprayed water in her face. Once you finally reached the bakery where the pink party pony worked, you called out her name.
“Just a minute Twilight! I’m just tending to these last few cupcakes!” Soon enough, your friend was standing in front of you, trying her best not to laugh while her eyes watered up from the effort.
“Pinkie, why all these pranks now? It’s not even April Foals’ day!” you exclaimed, wanting to know what drove the pony to do all of this now, of all days.
“I’ve never pranked a Princess before, silly! Well, that and I wanted to show you that you were still one of our friends, even if you are a princess now. We all worked together on those pranks.”
Your face softened. You hadn’t known that they had been worried about the possible consequences of your new position. “Don’t worry, Pinkie,” you explained, “I’m not going anywhere if I can help it. I would never want to leave Ponyville or the girls behind.”
~~~time~~~~
“But Pinkie,” you asked, as the pony in question hugged you, “What was with the apple pie next to Daring Do?”
“Oh, That pie was made with liquid rainbow. Who ever eats it is going to get a spicy surprise!”
It was no secret in Ponyville that one of the local mailmares, one Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo, was a bit odd. Most visitors found her almost perpetually wall-eyed look, and almost perfectly eidietic memory a bit unnerving, but the locals knew that despite this disability that Ditzy was a rather pleasant mare who held down a steady job, and had nothing but kind words for everypony in town. So when one morning, just like any other, the townsfolk witnessed the kind, forgiving mailmare shaking the living daylights out of the librarian at Golden Oak Library, they were stunned.
“What do you mean, you don’t know who Twilight Sparkle is? She lives here!” Ditzy growled. “Every morning for the last two years, I’ve been here at exactly eight forty six in the morning, she opens the door on the second set of three knocks, and after I’ve passed over the mail for the day, she wishes me luck for the day, and we part ways.”
“I’m sorry, Ditzy, but I have no idea who you are talking about. I’ve always been the librarian for Ponyville. I was going to retire two years ago, but decided against it, remember?” The librarian managed to squeeze out through Ditzy’s shaking.
Upon hearing this, Ditzy seemed to give up on the town librarian, and flew off.
“Alright Ditzy Doo, who were Twilight’s friends?” She muttered to herself as she flew along, abandoning her mail route temporarily. This was more important. One of her friends was missing. “Applejack, 4 Sweet Apple Acres Lane. Rarity, 29 Celestia Way. Pinkie Pie, 67 Main Street. Rainbow Dash, 32 Trotson Street and Fluttershy, 12 Everfree Lane.” Confidant that she had Twilight’s friends addresses correct, she flew towards Applejack’s.
“Ah’m terribly sorry, Ditzy. But Ah’ve never even heard of anypony called Twilight Sparkle.”
“But you two used to be friends! She helped you during cider season when Flim and Flam showed up with their weird machine, and when you tried to harvest an entire crop by yourself!”
“Ah have no idea what you’re babblin’ on about, Ditzy. Sounds like a mighty funny story though.”
It was much later when Ditzy arrived home that day, head hung low. Every one of Twilight’s old friends had given her the same answer when she had asked about the unicorn.
“Why does nopony but me remember her? What happened to her?” the mail mare wondered out loud.
Courage can be a funny thing, sometimes. Put Scootaloo on her favourite scooter, or give her a really cool idea for a cutie mark, and she’d leap into it wholeheartedly, risking injury without a second thought. This, though? This would take actual courage to do, and there wasn’t any possible risk of injury. Just talking to her two best friends in the whole world. The news itself had been sudden, and Scootaloo herself was still reeling from the possible implications of what this would mean for her friends. So here she waited in the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse until her friends arrived. As was expected, Apple Bloom was the first one to arrive, followed a few minutes later by Sweetie Belle.
“So, girls, what are we going to do to get our cutie marks today?” began Apple Bloom.
“Before we begin,” began Scootaloo, lifting her head to look at her friends, “I’ve kinda got something to tell you girls. And it’s kinda important.” The young pegasus scuffed a hoof on the floor of the clubhouse nervously.
“Well, go ahead, Scoot,” encouraged Apple Bloom, ever the practical one.
“Yeah! Come on Scootaloo, what do you have to tell us?” added Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo continued to swing her hoof nervously, and her eyes looked everywhere except at her two friends. “Well, I don’t know if I’m really supposed to tell anypony about this, but you two are cool in my book, so I think you should know.”
“Take your time, Scootaloo. We can wait.” Apple Bloom was being really helpful, but Scootaloo knew that once she spilled the news, nothing would be the same ever again.
“Well, you see, the thing is,” Scootaloo trailed off, as both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at her expectantly. She eventually decided to just get it over with.
“I’ll never be able to fly,” she spat out, ignoring the slightly shocked faces of her friends, “The doc says there’s something wrong with my wings. They’ll grow to normal size, but they’ll never be able to carry my weight.” Scootaloo shut her eyes, and waited for the incoming supportive comments that she knew they didn’t really mean.
“Scootaloo...” whispered a voice, “Scootaloo...”
“Scootaloo!” the voice finally yelled, and Scootaloo’s eyes snapped open and she fell out of bed.
“Phew, just a nightmare,” she muttered to herself.
“Hurry up, Scootaloo!” called the voice. “We have your check up today!”
Twilight Sparkle patiently waited as Rarity fixed the hem of her newest dress. Unlike the ones that the unicorn had made before, this one was for greeting the ambassadors of a new country that Equestria was entering into an alliance with. However, when Princess Celestia had told Twilight that she wanted Equestria’s newest Princess to handle the meet and greet portion of the ambassador’s visit, she had also mentioned that this was a culture where it was not acceptable to simply go around naked all the time. And so, Twilight had recruited Rarity into making a special dress for the occasion, and asked her to help her out.
“Almost done, Twilight,” explained Rarity, as she made a few final adjustments on the dress, “I do so want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to study another cultures’ designs. Who knows what ideas I may come away with!” Rarity was practically quivering with excitement, and Twilight turned to face her.
“Just remember, Rarity. No...”
“No gawking, no gushing over the designs, no matter how good or bad they are, let you do all the talking and whatever I do, do not mention this to Pinkie Pie,” recited Rarity, having learnt the list of things that Twilight didn’t want her to do after the third time the young alicorn had gone through it while being fitted for her dress. “I remember, darling. It’s just that...well, a culture that constantly wears clothes, who built their society around them...Any designer would love to meet them.”
Twilight smiled at her friend. “I know you’re excited, but just restrain yourself until after I’ve escorted the ambassadors over to Princess Celestia. Now come on, we should head over to the castle gates. They’ll be here soon.”
Twilight and Rarity were by the gate of Canterlot Castle when the carriage bearing the ambassadors pulled up. As the door opened, and the ambassadors exited, Rarity, despite all her promises not to, gawked. Twilight was also caught by surprise, but recovered much quicker than her unicorn friend.
“Ambassadors, Welcome to Canterlot Castle. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia has asked me to escort you to her as soon as you arrived, so if you will please follow me, we can get the meetings underway.”
Twilight’s little speech seemed to get Rarity out of her temporary stupor, and she closed her mouth, and fell in behind the group as they traversed the short distance from the gates to the meeting rooms. Once they had passed the ambassadors over to Princess Celestia, Twilight turned to Rarity.
“You promised you wouldn’t gawk.”
“I am terribly sorry, Twilight. I guess I just wasn’t expecting...that,” explained Rarity, motioning with a hoof back towards the meeting room, “Those Kos Pley ambassadors’ outfits were certainly interesting, to say the least.”
Ditzy Doo was a bit of a strange pony, and the other ponies in Ponyville were completely comfortable with this. Her natural eidietic memory leant itself very well to her job as a mailmare, and she was quite possibly the only pony in the town who could give you the address of any pony in Ponyville without looking at a book. And then there was the matter of her eyes, which were almost always pointed in two completely different directions. And while yes, she could occasionally be clumsy and uncoordinated thanks to her eye condition, for the most part she avoided major accidents.
“Oops!” cried Ditzy, as the bad strap on her mailbag finally gave way after years of abuse, and the mostly full bag began to tumble towards the earth below, and the pegasus dived after it, hoping to catch it before it could hit the ground and spill its contents everywhere. Unfortunately, the moment she began her dive, she knew she wasn’t going to be fast enough. Fortunately, she wasn’t the only pegasus around. A polychromatic blur intercepted the falling mailbag, loop-de-looped around, and then came to a dead stop in front of the mailmare.
“You drop this, Derpy?” Rainbow Dash grinned as she hovered, holding the mailbag and it’s broken strap in her forehooves.
“Oh, Thanks, Rainbow Dash!” enthused Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo as she took the mailbag in her own hooves. The nickname had begun in Cloudsdale Flight Camp, and had followed the mailmare down to the hamlet of Ponyville. She didn’t mind it too much.
“Not a problem. Catch you later!” called back Rainbow, already speeding off to somewhere. Ditzy turned her attentions to her broken mailbag, thinking on how she could fix it so she could complete her rounds for today, or at least until she could ask for a new one.
~~~
Ditzy Doo stared at the short and simple letter that she had delivered to herself earlier in the day. The letter itself only consisted of perhaps five words. Why her second, and more secretive, employer insisted on using this form of communication, she had no idea, but she now had her mission, and there was no time to waste. Loading up her brand new bag with the appropriate supplies, she hurried over to the targets’ location. It was a trivial matter for her to enter unseen, and just as easy for her to then unlock the door so her employer could enter later. She began to set about the work she was assigned, setting up the area for maximum enjoyment.
She was Ditzy Doo, mailmare, and one of Pinkie Pie’s part-time Surprise Party Officers.
I guess it’s been a while since you heard from me, huh? Ten years today, and it’s only today you get this letter. Been doing some thinking lately. I don’t think you were wrong to do what you did. Don’t think you were right, either, but you weren’t wrong. I suppose we’ll never know, right? Can’t go back and undo it all. Wouldn’t want to, anyway. For better or for worse, I’m here.
Let’s see...I suppose I should catch you up on ten years’ worth of news. I live in Fillydelphia now. During winter, I’m a heavy weather consultant. Saved the city a few times. The rest of the year i work in a music shop as an instrument specialist, and that’s a pretty cool gig. I mean, the manager, Tight Ship (I call her Shippy whenever I can get away with it, because I know she hates it) she knows her music, ‘specially the classical stuff, like Mom used to listen to before...you know. Our other employee is this earth pony called Cuddles, real name Broken Record, and he’s really fun to annoy. Gets this wonderful twitch under his right eye that you could use in place of a metronome, it’s that regular.
Sometimes, I just wish I could come home, and curl up next to the fire, like we used to when I was young.
I still hate you guys. Why did you have to be so stupid?
I’m not good at this kinda stuff. Maybe one day I’ll make it back out there. Maybe not, though.
Love, Regards, Thunder Tempest.
Tight Ship didn’t like going through her employee’s personal things, but when her pegasus instrument specialist Thunder Tempest had left the letter crumbled up and half shredded in the shop’s break room, she couldn’t really help herself. She wasn’t normally this curious either, but Thunder was oddly tight lipped about anything from before he came to Fillydelphia. This was a clue into his past. Tight Ship didn’t like mysteries, and Thunder’s past was a big one. Still, even reading something this private left the unicorn feeling uneasy, so she scrunched the letter back up, placed it back in the wastebin, and then emptied it out into the larger bin out the back, and didn’t look back.
“Tight Ship,” growled Thunder Tempest, “Shut up.” And then, grabbing the unicorn by her shoulders, the pegasus pulled her in for a smouldering kiss, bringing a deep blush to her cheeks.
Twilight closed the book with a sharp snap, and sighed.
“Really, Rarity? This is just a cheap romance novel. Why would anypony ever read this?”
“Well, naturally such things are not talked about out in the open, dear. Some ponies like to fantasize, shall we say. But the point is not actually the novel here. It’s the author I wanted you to look at.” Rarity grabbed the book and turned it over in her hooves, and opened the back cover. There, plain as Celestia’s sun in the sky, was a picture of Pinkie Pie with a straight mane and a pair of glasses, though the name underneath was ‘Hidden Desire’.
“So Pinkie Pie wrote a romance novel and got it published. Well, it’s not the strangest thing she’s done,” mused Twilight.
“Not just one, Twilight. I have-I mean I’ve seen nearly a dozen books by this ‘Hidden Desire’. I’m just wondering why she kept this a secret from all of us.” Rarity picked the book back up and replaced it in her saddlebag.
“I’m sure she has her reasons. Maybe it’s just a private little hobby, like your obsession with Caverns and Castles,” explained Twilight, turning back to the stack of books she was reshelving. “We all have them, you know.”
“Twilight Sparkle, you leave my Caverns game out of this! You swore you’d never bring that up again!” exclaimed Rarity, but then she calmed down and thought about it more rationally, “Perhaps you are right. Maybe it’s something simply too embarrassing for her to talk about. I’m sure she has a good reason for not telling us about this.”
Twilight just rolled her eyes at Rarity’s histrionics, and tactfully ignored the unicorns’ defence of her unexpected hobby. “I’m sure if you casually asked her about it in a privately, she might offer some explanation. But sometimes, and especially with Pinkie, you just have to accept these things as they are. Besides,” she continued, finishing off the shelf she had been reorganising, “Does it really matter?”
Rarity looked thoughtful for a minute or two, and then gave a wide smile. “Of course it doesn’t, my dear. So what if Pinkie Pie writes bitstore romance novels? She’s still our friend, after all,” proclaimed Rarity, and with a flourish, she turned around and began trotting out of the library, “I’ll see you later, Twilight.”
Twilight waved to Rarity, gave a sigh, and continued her work.
“Twilight’s out again!” “Get the orderlies! And some tranquilizers!” “How did she get out again?” “Don’t know, don’t care! Just get her back in!”
~~~
Twilight Sparkle giggled as she looked around Ponyville. She had found a spell recently that would apparently ‘Allow the caster to see through the hidden’ At first, she had assumed that this meant she’d be able to see if a pony was keeping a secret, or lying to her. Unfortunately, the spell was far more than she expected. It had peeled back the very fabric of the universe before her eyes. At first it seemed like nothing had changed, but then she saw a pony brought into being from nothing. Well, that wasn’t quite accurate. It had began as what looked like a drawing, a simple sketch, but then lines had solidified, the pony filled up with color and life, and just like that, there was a new pony in Equestria. Another one had been created with just words tumbling down from the sky. And then, Twilight made the mistake of looking at herself in the mirror.
~~~
“Where did she go?” “She’s around here somewhere. We can only hope that she isn’t causing too much trouble. One of you, go check the security cameras for her. Come on, kid. Let’s check the grounds.” “Yes, doctor!”
~~~
There, in the mirror, were hundreds of different Twilights, in hundreds of different Equestrias, more being brought into existence every second she kept staring at the mirror. She saw countless different relationships, innumerable friendship lessons, and an infinite number of ways to die. She couldn’t take anymore, and ran outside. Entire buildings formed and vanished in the blink of an eye, words fell from the sky, into ponies’ heads and then came out of their mouths as they spoke. Even great swathes of the very background came in and out of reality at a moment’s notice. Twilight’s mind, unable to take in the idea that the world was so transient, so impermanent, shattered into a thousand pieces.
~~~
“Doctor, I found her! She’s on the western side of the grounds, near the forest!” “Nice work, kid. You two, with me. I’ll see if I can talk her back inside. If she decides to struggle, you’ll need to act quickly though. Tranquilizers first, then put the jacket on her.” “Yes, Doctor.”
~~~
“Nothing matters,” giggled Twilight, “we’re all just constructs of ink and paper, in a town of dust and cardboard. Nothing we ever do is our own idea.” A few meters away, the other Elements of Harmony watched their friend continue to laugh and talk to herself. They too were coming to a realisation. “She needs help, dears,” said Rarity, as they watched Twilight lift a rock, break it in half and put it back together with a look of absolute wonder on her face, “We should take her to the hospital, make sure she’s looked after, and then inform the princesses.” The four others agreed with the white unicorn, and they began the process of coaxing Twilight over to the hospital.
~~~
“Twilight? You need to come inside now.” “NO! I’m trying to tell my friends that I’m not insane! They’re the ones who are insane! I’m the only sane mare in this whole world!” “Come on Twilight, they’re serving dinner now. You want to eat, right?” “I have to make my friends understand! We’re being controlled by these invisible puppetmasters, so I’ll just have to break their strings for them!” “Tranquilizers, NOW!” “Rarity, don’t you bother protesting, we both know that...I’m, ooh, pretty lights...” “Get her back inside, orderlies. I swear, that girl is by far the most troublesome patient here.”
That was the sole thought running through Thunder Tempest’s head as he flew to work that morning. And somehow, that seemed wrong. Today was the ten year anniversary, after all. But there was not a cloud in the sky, and a gentle breeze whispered across the city of Fillydelphia as the sun rose slowly into the sky. None of these things mattered to the normally happy pegasus, because in his head, he was partially reliving one of the worst days in his life, and simultaneously, with hindsight, one of the best.
As Filly Records, the music store where he worked as an instrument expert approached, he angled his wings for a gentle glide down to the street, and alighted lightly just in front of the door. Taking a minute to compose himself, he entered the store, the bell overhead tinkling as the door knocked it. He offered a quiet greeting to the two other ponies in the store, his manager and co-worker, and then set about his work for the day.
The day seemed to pass in a melancholy haze for Thunder Tempest, the only point of interest for him when he attempted to write a letter back home, was dissatisfied with it as usual, and tossed it into the waste basket. The entire day he was distracted by his own memories, lost in the events of the past. After work had finished, he began walking over to the centre of the town, and found the highest building he could. He walked up to the very top of the several story tower, stood on his hind legs at the very edge, and let himself fall backwards off the tower.
Pinkie Pie dashed down the street at a breakneck pace, heading directly for the Golden Oak library. This was an emergency!
“Hi Rose! Bye Rose!” However, even in an emergency like this, Pinkie couldn’t simply not say hi to everypony he passed. Eventually, the party pony reached the library, and began to pound on the door as fast as he could manage.
“Twilight, open up, quick! I need your help!”
All of a sudden, the door pulled back from under his hoof, and Twilight stood there frowning. Her expression shifted from disapproval to confusion once she’d taken in the scene before her. This was a pony with the right physical aspects of Pinkie Pie, but with one important difference: This pony was male.
“And who are you?” Twilight asked. Pinkie Pie opened his mouth, then closed it, looked down at himself, and gave a sheepish grin.
“I’m Pinkie Pie. If you let me in, Twilight, I’ll explain how this happened, but please just let me in! It’s an emergency!”
Twilight sighed, and fully opened the door to let the pink stallion inside.
“Can I use your shower?” asked Pinkie, as he dashed inside.
“What?”
“I need your shower. Or a bath. Or even just some hot water. We’re all out over at Sugarcube Corner.”
Twilight rubbed a hoof over her nose. “Shower’s through there, Pinkie,” motioned Twilight. A second later, the alicorn was bowled over by the pink stallion rushing past. After a few moments, she heard the sound of running water, and then a few short moments after that, it stopped, and Pinkie Pie emerged from the doorway.
“Oh, that feels much better. Thanks, Twilight!” exclaimed Pinkie, now back to her usual appearance.
“Huh? Wha-?”
“Oh, right,” said Pinkie, looking at the very confused alicorn, “I promised I’d explain this, didn’t I? Okie dokie lokie!”
“But...You...That’s not scientifically possible! You can’t be a stallion one minute, and a mare the next! Which one are you?”
Pinkie sighed. “Twilight, just let me explain. When I left the rock farm after I got my cutie mark, I found these neat set of springs of water. There were lots of warning signs and stuff, and I fell into one of the pools. Now, whenever I get cold water on me, I turn into a stallion, and hot water turns me back into a mare. But I think Mr. Cake took a really long shower this morning, and used up all the hot water, so when I took my turn, I changed.”
“Jibbawha-?”
“The reason that it’s an emergency is that I’m meeting my sisters at the train station later, and they don’t know about this little problem of mine. So I have to be a mare.”
~~~time~~~
“But...Mare...Stallion...Pinkie,” stammered Twilight, still having trouble getting her horn around the concept that one of her closest friends could become a stallion almost at will, “You know what? Fine. You fell into a magical pool of water that affected you for the rest of your life, and caused you to become a stallion whenever cold water touches you, and only hot water changes you back.”
Pinkie giggled, “Oh, The pools weren’t magical-they were cursed. Later, Twilight! Thanks for letting me use your shower!” Pinkie Pie bounced out the door, off to meet her sisters.
No one had ever said that love was easy, and no one knew that better than Rarity. She couldn’t honestly say what had attracted her to the pegasus...maybe it was the attitude. Yes, it was probably the attitude. Nothing sounded better than a mare who was confidant. Despite knowing next to nothing about the Wonderbolts, or flight, or the mechanics behind the many tricks that Rainbow Dash constantly talked about, Rarity could honestly say that she could listen to that voice forever. The day that she could count the weathermare among her friends was one of the best days of her life. And the Sonic Rainboom was perhaps the most beautiful thing that Rarity had seen in years, far more wondrous than any dress she could create. But yet, she knew it was never to be, as she doubted that Rainbow would ever be ready for a full relationship, let alone with somepony that couldn’t fly. But she could wait. Yes, she could wait until Rainbow Dash finally slowed down.
Love is kinda stupid. To Rainbow Dash, this was a pure and simple fact of life. Hearts and Hooves day was pure proof of that for her. Why should she spend the day being all smoochie and sickening, when she could spend it being awesome? Still, the mare was not completely without feelings, and that if she was completely honest with herself, there was a mare she thought of as possibly being more than friends with one day. There was a mare whose awesomeness would stand up to being with the Dash, but even Rainbow knew that it probably wasn’t going to happen. It had taken Rainbow a long while to admit that yeah, Twilight Sparkle was kind of awesome. After all, how many non-alicorn ponies could teleport? Not many, that was for sure. And she’d introduced Rainbow to the second best thing in the world: Daring Do. But Twilight was speeding away from Rainbow, with her coronation and preceding ascension into an alicorn, and who knew where the mare would go next. So Rainbow resolved to not be left behind, and promised that she’d only get faster.
Socially awkward she may have been, but even Twilight Sparkle knew about love. She’d never had to do anything about it before this, though. Everytime she looked at her, her heart felt like it was in her throat, her thoughts turned to mush and her vision seemed to go rose-tinted. Pinkie Pie was just a marvel, in Twilight’s eyes, and not just because of all her little impossibilities. The pink party pony always had a smile on her face, and always had time for everypony, no matter how busy she was. It was an attitude that Twilight had tried her best to emulate. She was so giving that it was impossible for anypony to dislike Pinkie, and an inevitable conclusion that Twilight, so unused to any kind of affection, would fall for her. But yet, Twilight knew that because she was a princess now, that a lot of things would change. She probably wouldn’t get a chance to act on these feelings, but honestly, just being around the party pony was enough for Twilight. So she put on a smile, and promised that she’d try and make time for Pinkie when she could. And maybe things could go from there.
Scootaloo made a face that was best described by ‘blegh’.
“Really? Why is everypony’s cutie mark story so sappy? Why can’t they all be like Rainbow Dash’s, and be awesome?” moaned the orange filly, as the latest pony the Cutie Mark Crusaders had interrogated about their cutie mark story walked away.
“Hey, I thought it was a nice story!” protested Sweetie Belle. As another argument began brewing between the young unicorn and pegasus, Apple Bloom gave a sigh, and a half-hearted look at her flank. Still bare.
“Still haven’t got your cutie mark?” came a voice from behind the youngest member of the Apple family.
“Eeyup,” said Apple Bloom, as she turned to face the voice, and found it was Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s sister, “So, y’all must be here to get Sweetie Belle?”
Rarity gave a smile, “Not at this time, Apple Bloom. Actually, I wanted to speak with you. Would you happen to know where Applejack is? I need to check to see if she can take Sweetie for the night. I have a large order to fill, and can’t have her running about, distracting me.”
“Well, I think she’s over at town Hall,” answered Apple Bloom, “somethin’ about zonin’ regulations or somethin’ like that.”
“Thank you, dear. Now, is there anything else I can help you with?” inquired Rarity, seeing the downcast look on the young filly’s face.
“It-It’s just-I know we asked you your cutie mark story already, and just ‘bout every second pony in town as well, but we ain’t gettin’ any closer to ours, it feels like.”
Rarity smiled at the young filly, and leaned in close to whisper, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Apple Bloom. You can’t just do something and hope you’ll get a cutie mark in it. Do what comes most naturally to you, without worrying about it, and it will appear soon enough. Now,” Rarity straightened up, “I’d better go find your sister, and you should probably stop your friends arguing in the middle of the road.” As Rarity wandered off, and Apple Bloom pried Sweetie Belle off Scootaloo, the young earth pony thought about what Rarity said.
“Do what comes most naturally to you...,” Apple Bloom mused out loud later that day, back out at Sweet Apple Acres, in the old barn by the house. Closing her eyes, Apple Bloom reached out, and grasped the first tool she came to.
~~~Time~~~
Time passed without the filly ever being aware of it, as she hammered and sawed with complete concentration. Making things had always been a hobby of hers, especially after she’d fixed up the clubhouse, and Applejack and Big Mac had given her this small workspace in the barn where she could mess around without interference, though only after a long session on tool safety. It was nearly dinner time when Applejack, with Sweetie Belle in tow, came into the barn to see where her younger sister had gotten to.
A soft smile grew on Applejack’s face as she watched her sister nearly dance around her project, hammering, joining and cutting with a skill that belied her years. As the project neared completion, Applejack began to see a glow on her sister’s flank, faint at first, but getting stronger all the time.
“Come on, Sweetie Belle, let’s get you inside, and y’all can help us set the table fer dinner,” said Applejack, leading the young unicorn away from the barn.
“But what about Apple Bloom?”
“She’ll come when she hears the bell. Ah think, anyway. Best to leave her to her work right now, though. Ah’m sure, once she’s finished, she’ll have plenty to talk about with you.”
“Oh, woe is me!” moaned Rarity through the door of Carousel Boutique, “My career is ruined! My reputation is truly unsalvageable now! Leave me alone!”
Five ponies stood outside the door to the fashion house, all smiling nervously at each other.
“Come on, Rarity, it can’t be that bad, can it?” called Twilight Sparkle.
“Like I said last time, she’s gonna become a crazy cat lady, and they’ll call her Rarity, the Crazy Cat Lady of Ponyville,” said Pinkie Pie, “And this time, we don’t even have a Gala dress to fix for her to get her outside.”
“Can’t be that bad?” cried Rarity “Of course it’s that bad! Clotheshorse called them atrocities, and I had the foolish notion of attaching my name to them. My career is finished! Over! Done for! Just leave me alone!”
Twilight Sparkle turned to the other four ponies outside Rarity’s home, “Any ideas, girls?” Silence reigned, and crickets chirped.
“Well...I might have one,” began Pinkie Pie, “But I’m not sure if it will work,” and then Pinkie turned to face the door, took a deep breath in, and Twilight and the others covered their ears.
“Rarity! There’s a giant crab attacking Ponyville!” Pinkie Pie bellowed. An instant later, the door slammed open and shook the house as Rarity flew out of her house as if her tail was on fire.
“WHERE?!” gasped the unicorn.
“There’s no giant crab, Rarity. Pinkie just said that to get you out of the house,” explained Rainbow Dash, “It’s kinda hard to talk to somepony through a door, you know?”
“Rarity, I know you weren’t happy with being forced to stick with certain designs and colours for the Coronation, but those are official outfits- the kind I’ll only ever wear once in public,” said Twilight.
“Even once was too much, dear,” replied the unicorn, “And while I know you and the princesses are grateful for my help, it still doesn’t change the fact that now everypony thinks I’m a horrible designer.”
“Have you considered writing to Clotheshorse and explaining the situation?” asked Fluttershy, “You know, only if you want to, though.”
As Rarity put her hoof up to rebuke Fluttershy’s suggestion, she paused.
“No, no I didn’t. Oh my, I’ve been such a fool. Of course, the editor did say at Shining Armor’s wedding reception that I could write to him whenever I wanted to. All I have to say is that the dresses were not designed by me in any way, and that should fix things,” mused Rarity, “I was being overdramatic again, wasn’t I?”
“Eeyup,” grinned Applejack, “But ya wouldn’t be the same if’n ya weren’t.”
“Will the accused please take the stand?” As the aforementioned pony trotted up to the seat beside the judges’ bench, Thunder Tempest wrung his hooves nervously, and even the normally calm and collected Tight Ship was sweating from the nerves. The two had shown up to support their friend who was on trial, but now it was time for the most nerve-wracking part of the trial process. They had to wait for the judge to deliver the verdict. Their friend sat down and fixed her eyes on them. They could only hope now that their final gambit would pay off.
“Does the defence have any further evidence to present before the judgement is rendered?” called the judge.
“Yes, Your Honour,” stated the lawyer that Tight Ship had hired to defend their friend. “We would like to move that our client be magically tested by Her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, to fully ascertain that the client has not been magically tampering with anypony.”
The judge frowned and then began the next step. “Does the prosecution have any objections to this?”
“None, your honour.”
“Call in the Princess, then.” A few moments later, the purple alicorn walked into the courtroom.
“Your Highness, could you please explain the spell you are about to cast-briefly.”
“Yes, your honour. It’s a spell designed to detect if any magical mind manipulation spells have been cast by the target within the last year. I will project the results for the court. Magical manipulation will show up as green, and all other spells will show up as blue.” Her explanation finished, Twilight turned to the pony on the stand, and pointed her horn at her.
“Casting the spell, Your Honour.”
“Proceed, Your Highness.”
A purple beam shot from Twilight’s horn, and scanned the pony in question, while at the same time, a floating projection appeared above the Princess, displaying a full body diagram of a pony. Not a single ounce of green was on the projection. The defence lawyer rose.
“As you can see, Your Honour, my client has not cast a single mental manipulation spell within the last year, lending credence to my client’s claims that she has not been tricking ponies through the use of it,” the lawyer turned to Twilight Sparkle as the Princess made her way back to her seat, “Thank you, Your Highness, for coming on such short notice.”
“Does the prosection have any final evidence to declare?”
“None, your honour.” stated the other lawyer. The judge nodded.
“I will now render my judgement.” The tension inside the courtroom was palpable.
“I, High Judge Fair Call, of the Canterlot Board of Judges, hereby find the defendant...” In the silence that proceeded the judge’s final statement, a pony could have heard a pin drop.
“Not Guilty. Court Dismissed.” The judge magically levitated his gavel, and banged it twice, signalling the end of the case.
“YES!” Thunder Tempest propelled himself into the air and gave a cry, garnering a chuckle from the judge, who turned to the pony on the stand.
“You have some good friends there, you know,” smiled the judge, as he watched the pegasus practically dance around in the air, and then his unicorn friend magically pulling the pegasus back down to earth.
Cudenshoti of the Twenty Third Generation, known to her friends as Cuddles, smiled, “Oh, I know, your honour.” And with that, the changeling was escorted from the stand by the bailiff, and back to sort his release out.
Twilight had honestly never realised exactly how large Canterlot Castle was. She supposed that more or less growing up in it with Princess Celestia as her private student had warped her sense of scale of the place. But now she was older, and an alicorn princess herself, and thus had taken it upon herself to more fully explore the castle. Most of the places she had visited thus far had been empty rooms, though one or two had been repurposed as guest rooms for visiting dignitaries. With a slight smile on her face, Twilight magicked open the next door, and entered.
The room was dark. That was the first thing that came to Twilight’s notice. Still, that was a problem that was easily solved, and a glowing orb of light leapt from Twilight’s horn and hung in the air like a miniature sun for the room. This room only contained two items, but they were amazing. Two alicorn-shaped ponyquins, matched to Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s dimensions rested in the room, and each was covered in a suit of armour. One was golden, and the other was blue-silver. Twilight moved over to have a closer look. The armour was not pristine, as she thought it had been, but rather covered in small pockmarks and cuts. As Twilight reached out to brush a hoof along a particularly long gash on the side of the golden armour, she was interrupted by a voice.
“Impressive, are they not?”
Twilight whirled around, and then relaxed when she saw it was Princess Luna.
“Princess, you frightened me!” exclaimed Twilight, and then turned back to the sets of armour, “And yes, they are very impressive.”
“These were our armour, back in the days when such things were necessary,” began Luna, moving over to the silvery set of armour and giving it a loving stroke, “Over time, as Equestria became more and more peaceful, we began taking them off, piece by piece, and storing the full sets away. It also helped our little ponies to become accustomed to seeing our faces.”
“But why did you even have the armour in the first place, Luna?”
The alicorn of the Night made a thoughtful noise.
“Back when it was needed, Equestria was a much more dangerous place. Pegasi were still very much warriors, and even unicorns and earth ponies were familiar enough with battle. And then there was Discord.”
“But I thought Discord only played tricks. Cruel tricks, but still just tricks.”
Luna shook her head, “No Twilight. The Discord you faced was not the one we faced. When you turned him back into stone after his accidental release, he’d been just warming up. Chocolate rain, ignoring gravity and mutating creatures was just the beginning. Discord was a fickle creature, and easily bored. He kept making the world more and more chaotic, and dangerous. The armour here was very much needed against him. Do you see this gash here?” Luna motioned to the large cut that Twilight had found earlier, “That was from a creature of his own design that had started off as a manticore. It nearly mortally wounded Celestia.”
Twilight frowned, “I hadn’t realised that Equestria used to be so dangerous.”
“Fear not, Twilight Sparkle. My sister and I worked hard to pacify the land. The only truly dangerous place left in Equestria these days is the Everfree Forest.”
~~~time~~~
Luna ran another hoof over the silvery-blue armour. “We keep these suits of war not for future emergencies, but to remind ourselves of what we had to go through to get to today. Still, it is good to see them again. For years, they were our protection against the world, while our rule was still in its infancy. But come, Twilight! We doth desire thy company as we prepare our sister’s birthday cake!” Luna threw a hoof forward dramatically, and marched from the room. Twilight took one last look back, and followed the Night Princess to the kitchens, extinguishing her light and shutting the door behind her. That was enough exploration for today, at least.
“What have we here?” murmured Princess Celestia, as she strode into the Starswirl the Bearded Wing of the Canterlot Archives, past the scorch marks that refused to budge from Twilight’s mishap with time travel, and down one of the many partitions to finally stop at a door that had not been there the day before. The door itself was rather plain, a simple wooden affair, with a brass handle and an etching of Starswirl’s cutie mark on it, and an inscription above the door in Old Equuish that translated as ‘Do Not Open’. Celestia thought back as far as she could, and still couldn’t remember a room being built off the wing. But perhaps the records would prove more reliable than her memory. A quick summoning spell, and the most recent floor plan of the Wing in question appeared in the air before her, and revealed much the same as her memory. There was no room here, no door. She poofed the records back to their storage room, and focused on the door again. A detection spell revealed no hidden magic behind, around, or in the door. When trying to open the door magically though, the Solar Alicorn found that her magic could not get a grip on the handle, instead sliding right off as if it were covered with oil.
“Curious. Very curious,” said the Princess under her breath. Gingerly, she lifted a hoof and rested it on the equine handle. Experience had taught her that opening unknown doors quickly was not a good idea. Slowly, and very carefully, she began to push down on the handle, hearing the mechanism inside turning and retracting the bolt. Finally, after a surprisingly anxious minute for the Princess, the bolt released, and she pulled the door towards her, equally slowly, keeping the bulk of her body behind the relative safety of the door. Another lesson from experience, as this would let her push with her full weight if an eldritch demon was behind the door, and cut it off from entering the world. Once the door was fully open, though, what she found silenced her.
Nothing. The door was just that. A door. It lead to nowhere, and when opened like now, simply revealed the wall behind it. A hoof probed the wall, just to make sure it wasn’t a thin sheet. It wasn’t. However, on the inside of the door was posted a message.
“Got you! –Princess Luna.”
~~~time~~~
Celestia giggled. Then it devolved into a chuckle, and finally she was rolling on the floor, howling with laughter. This lasted several minutes before the solar princess managed to compose herself, and get up again. Once she did, she closed the door, and summoned a peice of parchment and a quill, and began to write. “My Dearest Twilight, ...”
Twilight hopped out of her balloon, and landed softly on the cloud they had pulled up next to. A dark thunderhead was brewing nearby, so they wouldn’t be here long. Pinkie Pie followed shortly after, and Rainbow Dash hovered over both of them as Twilight rummaged in her bag. Finding what she was after, she pulled a wide piece of parchment out and rolled it out, holding it magically in front of her. She stared at it for a few minutes, before rolling it back up and turned to the others.
“Right. We’re lost,” She stated, “I have absolutely no idea where in Equestria we are, and we’re certainly not near those Old Featherwing Ruins.”
Rainbow Dash turned to face Pinkie, her mouth set in a hard line, “I told you we were going in the wrong direction when you said to turn south by ten degrees.”
“But my Pinkie Sense was tingling, and it was getting stronger in this direction!” defended the pink party pony.
“Your Pinkie Sense is not a reliable source of navigational information!” shot back Rainbow. As the two’s argument escalated, Twilight looked at the cloud bank nearby, which seemed to be...parting?
“Girls,” she said, attempting to interrupt the argument.
“Well maybe you shouldn’t eat so much sugar all the time!”
“Girls.”
“And you shouldn’t be such a grumpy-frowny-meany pony!”
“GIRLS!” yelled Twilight, attracting both of their attentions. Twilight pointed towards the parting cloudbank.
“What the heck is that?” muttered Rainbow Dash, as a city became visible from their cloudborne position.
“I have no idea,” replied Twilight, “But I want to go over there and have a look. Let’s get back into the balloon.” The three ponies piled back into the purple balloon, and floated over to the mysterious city. As they landed, and Twilight secured the balloon, they looked around in wonder. The city itself was not at all like the elegant structure of Cloudsdale. No, this was far more simple and blocky, almost militaristic in its construction. The clouds around them were dark and grey, instead of the peaceful white of Cloudsdale.
“Who’d be mad enough to build a city inside a thunderhead?” called Rainbow Dash, as she flew ahead of the others, “Every pegasus knows that it’s supposed to be impossible!”
-time-
Twilight was studying the cloud arch at the entrance to the city. It was in old Equestrian, but she managed to get a translation quickly enough.
“Let’s see, it says ‘Welcome to Pegasopalis’. This is the possibly the first cloud construction from the unification of the Three Tribes. Pinkie, you’re a genius!” Twilight exclaimed, “Or just very lucky,” she added under her breath. Pinkie, however, just looked confused.
“But I don’t get it, Twilight. My Pinkie sense told me that something was going to fall.” Just then, there was an ominous rumble.
“Oh no,” said Twilight, “we’ve gotta get out of here! Come on, back to the balloon!”
The three ponies watched from a distance as the cloud city crashed into the ground and dissipated.
“So much history, all lost,” sobbed Twilight.
“Yeah yeah, Twilight. But we still have a bigger problem,” said Rainbow, “We’re still LOST!”
Dark, dank, and rife with monsters. That was the best description that one could give of the Gates of Tartarus. Set deep in a cave below a mountain, in this place, the rules of Equestria meant nothing. Fire flowed like water around the cavern, breath was visible like on a cold day, and as the Gates themselves approached, faint screams echoed around the chambers with every step. This was not a place that Rainbow Dash wanted to be. The Gates of Tartarus themselves were massive hunks of stone, covered in glowing runes that pulsated and writhed before her eyes, never seeming to stay in the same place for too long. Rainbow Dash may have been a loyal friend, and may have bragged that she would brave Tartarus for her friends, but she never imagined that she would actually have to do it one day. The Pegasus gulped nervously, and approached the door.
“Right, you’re Rainbow Awesome Dash. Tartarus is no problem. Just go in, get what you came for, and then get out. No need to linger,” muttered Rainbow, “Oh, ponyfeathers. Cerberus.” The giant three-headed dog had emerged from the shadows in the cave, and was now growling at the pony, drool dripping from its teeth. Rainbow Dash, however, had been given some advice on dealing with the massive black beast, so she straightened up as best she could, and yelled, “My Name is Rainbow Dash, and I Seek to enter Tartarus to find my friends and bring them back to Equestria!”
A few silent moments passed in the wake of the pegasus’ proclamation, before the dog let out a long, rumbling growl, and backed into the shadows once more. Rainbow Dash sighed in relief, and approached the Gates, and gingerly placed a forehoof on the cold stone, and gently pushed. The gate, with a deep rumble, began to open. Once it had ground open enough for her to fit through, she darted through the gap, and placed a hoof on the other side, stopping the door’s advance, and then she turned to face the plains of fire and ice which she would have to traverse to find her friends.
“Ok, what did Princess Luna say?” murmured Rainbow “All roads are the same in Tartarus. What matters is not the direction you travel, but what you want to do. Keep your mind on the friend you want to find, and you will find them, young hero.” Rainbow closed her eyes, spun around, and picked a direction.
“Hold on, guys, I’m coming!” called Rainbow, as she ran off into the distance.
Dinnertime in the Cake household had become ever more troublesome once Cup Cake had birthed Pound and Pumpkin. As the twins were still young, they couldn’t eat solid foods just yet, meaning they had to cook two meals. Carrot Cake thanked Celestia that Pinkie was with them, as without a single word of protest, she had taken over cooking the dinner for herself and the elder Cakes, leaving Cup Cake to take care of the meal for the little pegasus and unicorn of the family. At first, he had been nervous, worried that Pinkie would take the opportunity to bake more things to satisfy the mare’s impossibly sweet tooth, but like with the foalsitting, he had been proven wrong.
“Pinkie!” called Carrot Cake, as he finished closing up Sugarcube Corner for the day. “Can you come out here for a second?”
“Okie-dokie-loki!” came the cheerful reply from the kitchen, and a few moments later, the pink mare bounced out from the kitchen and came to a stop in front of Carrot cake, “So, Mister Cake, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“I just wanted to let you know that both Cup and I really appreciate what you’ve been doing for us lately, helping us with dinner, foalsitting the twins, and that we wanted to show you how much we’re grateful for your help.”
“Aww, you don’t have to do that, silly!” smiled Pinkie Pie, “I just like helping ponies!”
“Still,” replied Carrot Cake, as Cup Cake entered the room from the stairs, a covered dish on her back, “We don’t feel right asking you to do all of these extra things without some kind of repayment. So Cup and I came up with this,” he explained, motioning to the dish on Cup Cake’s back.
Cup Cake walked over to a nearby table, expertly slid the dish onto it, and then she grasped the cover with her mouth and pulled it off with a flourish.
“Is-is that what I think it is?” said Pinkie, her eyes watering from sheer joy, “Is that a chocolate and hot sauce triple layer mud cake?”
Both of the Cakes nodded.
“It was a pain to get right, but it’s just how you like it, Pinkie dear,” said Cup Cake, “You don’t have to worry about our dinner tonight-you just enjoy your cake.”
Pinkie’s eyes went impossibly wide as she stared at the cake.
“All that-for me?” she breathed.
The Cakes nodded, and retreated up the stairs. “Have a good night, Pinkie. And once again, thank you for all your help.”
Prompt #342-The First OR The Road To Hell, Part Two
The problem with travelling in Tartarus, aside from the occasional run-in with a vengeful spirit, was that there were no defined routes to get anywhere. The land was a mass of fire and ice and earth, and despite being underground, a blood moon hung overhead, lighting the land with a red glow. But this was Tartarus, and the normal rules didn’t apply, because otherwise Rainbow Dash would have simply flown to her friends. As she ran along the ground, avoiding pillars of fire that seemed to be made out of burning and wailing souls, she concentrated on rescuing the first of her friends. But which friend should she rescue first? That thought stopped the athletic Pegasus in her tracks. She’d never had to think about which pony she would save first, just knowing that she had to save them. Scowling to herself, she thought about it. Fluttershy, sad as it was, would probably have to wait until last. Rainbow hated even thinking that, as it felt like she was betraying her oldest friend, but the other Pegasus was not built for action, and would likely not take well to all the running around that they’d be doing. Rarity was in a similar situation. Pinkie Pie could keep up, but Rainbow wasn’t sure she could really be of much help. Applejack was in much better condition physically than perhaps even Rainbow herself, so that would be an advantage, but Twilight Sparkle had magic, which in the weird land that was Tartarus, could be a massive help. But then again, Tartarus had nullified her flight, so maybe it had nullified Twilight’s magic. Applejack it was, then. Fixing the earth pony farmer in her mind firmly, while offering up a silent apology to her other friends, Rainbow hurried onwards.
As Rainbow crested a ridge, she rolled to the side to avoid a sudden pillar of ice that landed from the sky and got pelted with small fragments for her trouble, she spotted the first of her friends, Applejack, in the valley below her. The Earth pony was just standing there, as if in a daze, and Princess Luna’s words once again came to mind.
“Ponies who are dragged into Tartarus unwillingly will not know they’re in Tartarus,” Princess Luna had told her, “Fortunately, simply touching them will break that spell, and then they’re free to help you.”
Running up to Applejack, Rainbow bushed a hoof along the farmer’s back. Applejack blinked three times, and suddenly noticed Rainbow Dash.
“RD? What the heck? Where am I? What is this place?” inquired the farmer.
“You’re in Tartarus, AJ. I’m here to get you out,” explained Rainbow Dash.
The final notes of the song echoed out around the concert hall, and silence prevailed for a few brief moments. Then the clapping started, not slowly like she was used to, but an instant thunderous applause from everypony in the audience.
‘I guess they liked it,’ Octavia thought to herself, as she placed her cello to the side in order to take her bows, applause still ringing throughout the theatre. As she bowed, her eyes caught sight of a wild two-tone blue mane in the audience, and she smiled fondly. Then, as Octavia bowed again, the owner of the mane got up from her seat, and moved over to the wall, and grabbed a rope that had been secured there before the concert had started. Carefully unwinding it, the pony then took the rope in her teeth, and leapt from the balcony to gasps from the patrons nearby, and soon the entire concert hall was watching her swing down onto the stage, and landing only a few meters away from Octavia.
“Vinyl Scratch, What are you doing?” Hissed Octavia. Rather than reply, Vinyl just sauntered towards Octavia and then kissed the cellist full on the lips. Once again, silence prevailed throughout the theatre. In the middle of the kiss, Vinyl’s horn lit up, and all the lights in the concert hall went out. A few thuds then echoed around, a moan came out, and then,
“Who’s my little wubsy? You’re my little wubsy, yes you are,” came Vinyl Scratch’s voice.
“Oh, Vinyl,” giggled Octavia through the darkness, “Never change.” In the audience, jaws dropped, ponies blushed as their imaginations took over, and then the lights came back on. Octavia was still on stage, still wearing her signature bow tie, and not a single hair on the concert cellist was out of place. Behind her, Vinyl Scratch had somehow set up a mixing deck, and three stacks of giant speakers, and to the ponies in the front row, they could see that the speaker stacks were labeled ‘Wubsy’, and realization began to set in. Just then, the speakers powered up, and high-energy electronic music washed over the concert hall. Echoing her partner’s move from earlier, Octavia strode up to Vinyl, kissed her full on the lips, and then moved back over and picked up her cello.
“I am Vinyl Scratch, and this is Octavia,” called the DJ, lowering the music slightly in order to make herself heard, “And you are now part of our wedding reception.” And then cello and electronic music joined in joyous harmony.
Rainbow Dash flew as fast and as hard as her little wings would let her, and even at this young age, it was plain to see that the filly had a talent for flight, though her cutie mark had yet to make itself known to the world. All her concentration was on the race. The older pegasus she was racing against knocked the filly off course, and narrowing her eyes, she adjusted course, heading down for the cloud gate nearest to the ground. It would look better if she beat the jerk by racing on a longer course anyway-it just meant that she had to go faster. As she flew for the cloud ring, she felt something beginning to rub against her front hooves, and her eyes closed reflexively from the sharp wind. She just had to beat Hoops, and show him that she wasn’t Rainbow Crash anymore, that she was Rainbow Dash, and Rainbow Dash did. Not. Lose. She gritted her teeth, and prepared to show that bully what real speed looked like.
She made the turn.
Boom.
Adrenaline coursed through Rainbow Dash as she dived vertically down, her wings flapping as fast as she could make them. The stadium passed in less than a second, and the world blurred past her. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute, and soon enough her wings weren’t doing anything to speed her up again, so they folded up against her sides, and she streamlined her body as much as possible, throwing her hooves out in front of her. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she failed to pull this off, she wasn’t going to think about the thousand other times she had failed to do this. The barrier began to scrape at her front hooves as her eyes narrowed against the onrushing air. Something inside the pegasus shifted, and the barrier changed from a dome into a cone that wrapped ever tighter around her body as she sped up, and her eyes wrenched closed and moisture fell backwards, driven out by the stinging wind, not because she was crying because she might not make it through the barrier in time. She gave one last push, one last all or nothing attempt from deep inside her.
Boom.
Rainbow Dash shot off the platform at Canterlot Castle at Celestia’s whisper, leaving the ground far behind. All in all, invasion attempt aside, today had been a good day, and it was about to get better for the pegasus. She reached the barrier in record time, and all that practice had paid off, as she no longer needed to be going down to do this, but this was for royalty. It had to be extra special. A wide smile spread across her face, as the stinging, biting wind once again forced her eyes shut, the now familiar barrier rasping over her hooves as it tightened and resisted her attempt to shatter it once more. The smile only got wider as she thought of how this wedding would be remembered in the future, and Rainbow Dash would not let the ending down by failing to lend the unique brand of awesome she could provide.
On the First day, all was darkness. The pale alicorn paid no heed to this, however, and gathered dust and dirt, and with her magic, compressed it into a ball, as tightly as she could. Then, her work done, the alicorn laid down to sleep.
On the Second day, the alicorn created a ball of fire, and hung it in the sky over the ball of earth, bringing light. But the alicorn saw that there would need to be a time for work, and a time for sleep, and so she created the cycle. And upon seeing the night, she found that it was lacking in beauty, so she gathered up more dust, and made a smaller ball, and hung that on the opposite side of the world. And then she named the ball of fire Sol, and the smaller ball of earth Selene. And with her work done, the alicorn laid down to rest once more.
On the Third day, the alicorn awoke with the rising of Sol, and turned her attentions to the ball of earth she rested on. She gathered air around the ball, so that things could live. She created water, and poured it over the ball, and it formed oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. She created flora, too. Grass, trees, flowers and crops. She gathered many trees into one spot, and called it a forest, and the open spaces she called plains. And with her work once more finished, she once again rested.
On the Fourth Day, the alicorn awoke at night, as Selene shone dimly above her, and the alicorn saw that this was good. However, the sky was still too bare, and so she hung the stars in the sky, and one star, she placed over the top of the world, and made it shine brightly, so that none would ever lose their way. This done, the alicorn laid down to rest again in contentment.
On the Fifth Day, the alicorn awoke, and created fauna. She created the small bees and insects, the larger birds which would feed on those insects, the animals which would feed on the birds, and the animals which would feed on those animals. Nothing was created without purpose or reason. And as the air around the alicorn hummed with life, the alicorn once again laid down to rest.
On the Sixth day, the alicorn awoke to find a new presence in her world, one made of many different creatures, trying to undo what she had wrought. Their battle was long and fierce, and left a scar upon the earth, a scar of chaos magic, but she sealed the chaotic creature away in a stone statue. She placed this statue at the centre of the forest that had sprung up from the chaos magic scar on the land, and seeing the forest’s refusal to obey her commands, named it ‘Everfree’. And thus, exhausted and depleted, she once more laid down to rest.
On the Seventh day, the alicorn awoke, and created the griffins, regal hunters of the high peaks to the east. She created the dragons, noble and long-lived dwellers of the south hotlands. Then she created the ponies, divided into three races. Pegasi, the masters of the sky. Unicorns, the channelers of magic, and Earth Ponies, carers of the land. And thus, tired and exhausted from her seven days of labour, did the alicorn perform her last two acts. The first was that she cast a powerful spell over the ball, an enchantment that would allow each pony to find its special talent and be proud of it, and second was to name her creation ‘Equestria’. And thus, the alicorn faded into the magic of the world, to rest eternally.
The morning after her birthday, Apple Bloom was awoken at the crack of dawn by Applejack pushing her out of bed. As the young mare flailed about and tried to extract herself from the sheets tangled around her body, the elder gave a light chuckle, and placed a single hoof on the struggling bundle. Apple Bloom paused, and let her older sister pull on the sheet, untangling it for her.
“c’mon, Bloom. Ya had better get on downstairs fer some breakfast. Can’t have ya workin’ on an empty stomach,” explained Applejack as she left the room. Apple Bloom grumbled slightly, but picked up her fallen and tangled sheet, and placed it back on her bed. She could untangle it later, she thought, as she headed down the stairs of the family household as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb Granny Smith’s sleep. Breakfast was also quiet at this hour of the morning, as the three younger member of the Apple family were in various states of awareness, some just waking up properly, like Apple Bloom, while Big Mac seemed like he’d never even gone to sleep in the first place, and Applejack was somewhere in between the two.
“Right, Bloom,” began Applejack, as the three headed out to the fields, “Yer old enough now to really start helpin’ out here, so I’m gonna teach ya how t’ buck.” The two females stood in front of the beginning of the orchards, and each picked a tree to start with.
“Now, the real important thing about buckin’ is to keep a good grip with yer front hooves, let the power o’ the earth flow through yer, and push it out through yer back hooves,” said Applejack, as she demonstrated the technique, which Apple Bloom watched closely. Applejack’s hooves connected with the tree, and the apples fell neatly into the buckets set below it. Applejack turned to her younger sister, “Now you give it a shot.”
Apple Bloom nodded, and lined up her hooves carefully, got a good grip, closed her eyes to concentrate on the feeling of the earth under her hooves, and then threw her hooves backwards.
Thunk! The youngest Apple opened her eyes to see that most of the apples had made it into the baskets, but a few were still left on the tree. Applejack gave a whistle, “Not bad, for ya first attempt, Bloom. All ya need now, I reckon, is practice. And fortunately, the south field needs to be bucked, so off ya go.”
“But the south feild is the largest!” complained Apple Bloom.
“Are you sayin’ ya can’t handle it, Bloom? Didn’t ya spend all o’ yesterday goin’ on about how y’all was a ‘big pony now’?” Applejack teased, a smile gracing her lips, as Apple Bloom grumbled for a minute or two, but then began walking off towards the south field.
“Don’t take too many breaks, Bloom!” called Applejack, a smile still on her face as Apple Bloom shouted something obscene back, still grumpy about being awoken so early.
In the end, it had taken Apple Bloom from sun-up to just after sun-down to completely buck the south field, and by the end of it, she was so exhausted that rather than try and make it back to the homestead, she dragged herself and her sore hooves to the nearest tree, sat with her back against it, and was soundly asleep within minutes.
-time-
Applejack and Big Macintosh found their younger sister like that a few minutes later.
“Well, I reckon she done good today,” began Applejack, a soft smile on her face.
“Eeyup,” came Big Mac’s response.
“Best to get her back to the house, and into her bed,” continued Applejack, “She’ll appreciate that, ah think.”
“Eeyup.” And with that, Big Mac and Applejack gently picked up their little sister, placed her on Big Mac’s back, and they began the trek back to the house together.
It wasn’t in Pinkie Pie’s nature to be quiet. The pink mare was naturally outgoing, and always had been, ever since she got her cutie mark. But then again, she had never once imagined that she’d be in a relationship. Pinkie loved everyone equally, but apparently, her heart loved this mare even more than the rest of her, and these days it was all she could do to not shout her affection from the roofs of Ponyville, as her heart’s desire had requested that she keep it secret until the other felt ready to divulge the information on her own terms. But for the sake of the one that she loved, Pinkie Pie had promised, Pinkie Pie Promised even, to not tell anyone.
And so the pink party pony was stuck sneaking off in the evenings to meet her one true love. Nopony else had ever inspired this feeling in the mare, which had her acting so crazy. Even though the two had not entirely had the best start to their friendship, Pinkie hadn’t been as quick to judge since that fateful meeting, and had slowly gotten to know the other. The friendship that they had born then quickly matured into a relationship when they discovered that there was nothing more enjoyable than spending time with someone who shared many of your tastes. And so, Pinkie Pie snuck through the Everfree Forest, heading for her meeting with the one she loved, because today, the mare had promised to show her something special.
“Psst! Hey, Zecora, are you there?” hissed Pinkie Pie.
“Here I am, pony of the pink. You should be more observant, I think.” Came Zecora’s rich voice from behind the party pony, and soon the zebra was engulfed in a hug.
“Did you remember to get the stuff for today?” asked Pinkie Pie, and Zecora simply nodded for a reply, and the two made their way back to Zecora’s hut, deeper in the Everfree.
“The recipe I will teach you,” began the zebra once the two were back in her hut, “has been in my family for one hundred generations, perhaps two. It is a recipe for creating hot breath, but some would call it ‘The Kiss of Death’.” “Ooh. Sounds spicy,” murmured Pinkie.
“Indeed, this is the hottest spice meal I know, but it to you, I will show. Now, pay attention, for the steps must be done exactly right, or your tongue will be saying goodnight.”
And as Zecora cooked, Pinkie watched and learned, and the two mares bonded by a love of spicy things were content for the night.
Vinyl Scratch sat nervously in the restaurant, twirling her mane around a hoof restlessly. At her roommate Octavia’s insistence, her normally wild mane had been tamed into something resembling more like Octavia’s own style. The date had been Octavia’s idea too, and Vinyl swore to Celestia that if she was stood up, she’d cut off Octavia’s tail. Vinyl glanced up at the clock. It was nearly eight, and her supposed date should be here any minute now. Every time somepony walked through the door, her uncovered ruby eyes flicked over to watch where they were going. Fancypants, much to her surprise, was the next to enter, but just as she thought the classy pony was her date, he veered off and sat down next to a grey pegasus mare.
“What is this, weird couples night?” muttered the DJ, glancing back up at the clock, sweating almost imperceptibly. Exactly as the clock struck eight, another pony entered the restaurant.
“BEHOLD, LOYAL SUBJECTS! YOUR PRINCESS HATH ARRIVED!” Boomed Princess Luna.
‘Please let it not be the princess. Please let it not be the princess,’ thought Vinyl, watching where the princess of the night was headed, ‘Dammit, it’s the princess. Octavia, your tail is going to get dyed if I get out of this alive,’ continued the DJ’s thoughts as Princess Luna sat down opposite her.
“Thou art my companion for the evening?” said the princess, at a much more normal speaking volume, drawing a blink of surprise from Vinyl.
“Uhh...yes, your highness. I guess I am,” replied Vinyl, “I’m Vinyl Scratch, and I guess there’s no need for you to introduce yourself. Uh, No offense, Your Highness.”
“None taken, Miss Vinyl Scratch. We are a...recognizable pony,” replied Princess Luna, “But please, there is no need to stand on formality. Please refer to us simply as Luna.”
“Alright then,” Vinyl unconsciously swallowed, “Luna, who set this up for you?” It was a relatively safe topic of conversation.
“Twas our sister, Celestia. She felt that we ‘Needed to experience the nightlife of our little ponies’,” mimicked Luna, making air quotes with her front hooves.
Vinyl, despite her nervousness of having dinner with a Princess of Equestria, grinned, “Nightlife, huh? I know a few things about that. I’m a DJ at one of the clubs here in Canterlot.”
-time-
“Dee Jay? What profession is this? We cannot say that we have ever heard of it, nor these ‘clubs’ that thou speak of,” asked Princess Luna.
“Do you want me to show you what some ponies get up to during the night?” asked Vinyl, offering a hoof to the Princess. Luna hesitated for a brief moment, but then took Vinyl’s hoof, and the DJ lead the Princess out of the restaurant, towards one of the more popular nightclubs in downtown Canterlot.
The storm was massive, much bigger, and much more savage than anything the town’s pegasi had ever seen before. This was a true Wild Storm, a harkening back to the days before the pegasi controlled the weather. Weather magic arced around the clouds in translucent, flowing, jagged streams as lighting flashed and thunder boomed. A bolt of lightning struck the centre of the town, and as if that was the signal, the storm opened up the full might of its fury on the hamlet. Winds howled as they ripped and tore at the thatched roofs, lifting anything that wasn’t secured down. Rain cascaded down, drenching the streets in seconds, and water poured off the houses in miniature streams as the thunder rattled the windows and lightning lit the town like brief flashes of daylight. And through it all, ponies huddled in houses, holding their loved ones close. Foals cried and wailed at the noises made outside as their mothers desperately tried to calm them, older ponies sang songs and gathered together, fearing that this may be the return of the Windigoes, and those with pegasi friends and relatives prayed to Celestia for mercy from the storm’s wrath.
“Keep the storm from expanding!” bellowed a brown Pegasus as he bucked another bit of cloud into nothingness, straining to make himself heard over the wind, “Don’t let it get all the way down the valley!”
“Captain, we’ve lost Iridescence and Cloudy!” called a young blue Pegasus colt, barely able to keep his position in the storm’s winds.
“Dammit!” called the brown Pegasus, the weather captain for the region. “At this rate, we won’t have any ponies left to fight the storm. We need to stop this thing before it spills over into the rest of Equestria!”
Just then, a lightning bolt arced out from the nearby stormhead, and barely missed the weather captain. Fortunately, the older Pegasus recovered quickly from his near brush with death, and furiously bucked the cloud into non-existence, the rest of the pegasi joining him, bucking and kicking with all their collective might, desperately trying to disperse the storm before it could do too much more damage. Even the young blue colt, who didn’t even have a cutie mark yet, and several others like him had joined in, all understanding the gravity of the situation. Every now and again, a bolt of lightning would tear outwards, and strike a pegasi, or one would get caught in a whirl of wind and smashed into something solid, or blinded by the rain and fall down, but the rest never stopped battling the freak storm. There would be time to mourn their loss later, after the storm had been taken care of.
-Time-
The next morning, Celestia’s sun shone through a still cloudy sky, crespular rays striking the hamlet...or what was left of it, anyway. The devastation left by the storm had been catastrophic. Not a single house was intact, many were flooded, and most had been struck by lightning at some point. The town hall was mostly intact, though, and it was here that the survivors of the storm gathered.
Snakes. They were all snakes, Rarity Decided. They may have looked like ponies, acted like ponies, and talked like ponies, but they were absolutely, positively snakes. That was her singular impression upon leaving Canterlot after the fiasco that was Twilight’s birthday party at the castle. The ponies of the so called ‘High Society’ were nothing more than a bunch of writhing, slithering snakes, biting each other in a desperate attempt to be on top as their forked tongues hissed lies behind other ponies backs. Nothing else, no other creature in the wide, wide world of Equestria could be so positively vile. The one refreshing pony had been Fancypants, whose pure and simple honesty had touched the Ponyville designer like a cool breeze after the storm.
“...And this is Rarity. She’s a good friend of mine,” muttered Rarity, as she stared out of the train window at the mountainside city. Logically, the fashionista knew that in order to have a viable career as a high level designer, she would need the approval and reputation that only the Canterlot social scene could provide for her. However, her brief reign there as ‘the kind of pony that everypony should know’ had been a fantastic and terrible eye-opener. The white unicorn gave a weak chuckle at the lyrics of the song she had sung on a whim. Perhaps she was just too used to the packed earth streets of Ponyville, where everypony said what they meant, and never hid behind veiled insults or upturned snouts. Maybe, with enough time, she’d get better at the vicious social game that the Canterlot high society played. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t ever imagine acting like those snakes. She would be like Fancypants, she decided, and always tell the truth. If she thought it was good, she would say so, and damn her reputation. The unicorn sighed. Such things only worked if you had a secure position socially already. Perhaps she could simply avoid insulting anypony on purpose? Yes, that would work out better. She could still work her way up the social ladder, while avoiding becoming one of the snakes.
As the train pulled into Ponyville station, and Rarity gathered up her bags with her magic, she smiled as she inhaled the fresh scent of rain and earth. She was home, she realised. Her business and passion may take her to Canterlot, but it would never truly be home to her. Not the way that Ponyville, with its honest and earnest ponies would be. And if the unicorn was truthful with herself, she would rather conduct her business from here than Canterlot. Because then, only the customers that actually desired a dress would ever make it out here, and that suited the designer just fine.
It was practically a guilty pleasure for him, these days. A way to unwind from the stresses of duty and diligence, to get his head screwed back on straight. Being the stallion that he was, he didn’t get chances to do things like it often, but it was a way to escape his responsibilities for a while. And now that he was married, and a co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, he had even fewer chances for it. And so, Shining Armor made a decision, and snuck out of the Crystal Palace in the middle of the night, left a pre-written note where his beloved wife would see it, and ran with all his might towards the train station. Once there, he bought a ticket for the next train to Manehatten.
Once on the train, the soft rocking of the car, and the gentle click-clack of the train as it passed over the tracks soothed Shining’s mind, and he was soon fast asleep once more. The conductor was kind enough to wake the captain of the guard when the train was due to pull into Manehatten as the sun rose over the eastern sea. Upon disembarking, Shining headed straight for the ticket office, and the list of trains leaving that day. There was one about midday, which would take him all the way over to Los Pegasus. Booking the ticket, he then wandered out into Manehatten, to find himself some breakfast, and to waste time before the next train.
Shining Armor looked out of the window as the train rolled over the tracks, watching the scenery pass by, as the noises of the train all but drowned out his thoughts. Out here, in this train, he wasn’t Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. He wasn’t the Life-Partner of Princess Cadence, or Ruler-In-Partnership of the Crystal Empire. He was simply one of the many ponies who used the rail system every day. Here, he could just sit and watch and listen. In this space, this state of mind, his mind calmed, and he re-centered himself. He could clear his mind and magic like this and get his focus back onto things that mattered.
-time-
It was nearly three days, and several more trains later when Shining Armor finally returned to the Crystal Empire, and his wife, a much more relaxed stallion than when he left. He cantered easily into the Crystal Palace with an easy smile on his face, and greeted his wife. “I’m back, Cadence.”
“Well, thank you for trying. I guess I’ll go ask somepony else.”
“Alright then. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Spike.”
**************
“Eenope.”
“Are you one hundred percent positive about that, Big Mac?”
“Eeyup.”
“Damnit. Guess I’d better head back into town. Thanks for looking, anyway.”
“Eeyup.”
**************
“Oh come on! You’re never out!”
“Well, this time we are. I’m sorry, miss, but I honestly can’t help you.”
“But...But...I need it!”
“I am truly sorry, but I simply can’t give you something I haven’t got.”
“Sorry for yelling, but I just really need this.”
“I know the feeling, miss, but like I said, we ran out early this morning.”
“It’s fine, I’ll just go elsewhere.”
****************
“Not even one itty little bit anywhere in here, Pinkie?”
“Noperroni! Ran out two days ago. It’s been real hard on the Cakes. You’d be surprised by how much they go through.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Well, maybe I’ll try Rainbow Dash. She might have some, right?”
“Maybe. I dunno.”
“Thanks for looking anyway, Pinkie.”
****************
“Nope. Don’t have any.”
“You sure, Rainbow Dash?”
“Twilight, I think I know what’s in my own house. I don’t have any.”
“Right, sorry.”
“But hey, while you’re up here, want me to give you some flying pointers?”
“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
“...I have never seen her move that fast before. Was it something I said?”
*****************
Twilight Sparkle trudged through Ponyville, head down, completely dejected. She’d asked all of her friends, their entire families, and berated more than one innocent shopkeeper. Why couldn’t they understand that this was serious business? It was more than want, she needed it.
“Don’t you see, this could completely revolutionize Equestria?”
“I agree with you, Luna, but...”
“But what, sister?”
“I am not sure that our little ponies are ready for it,” explained Celestia, “I’m not even sure I’m ready for it,” she added under her breath.
“I...had not considered that, Sister,” murmured Luna, looking over her discovery with new eyes.
“It is a fine find, Luna. But it is not one that is...easily accepted. Many ponies would revolt over this. It has just as much potential to harm as it does to help.”
“So, then, sister, what shall we do with them?” Luna pointed a hoof to the twin stone slabs that lay propped up against the mountain, where Luna had found them, and had been studying them. Celestia was silent for a while, as her wings gently ruffled while she was deliberating.
“We shall take them. Hide them until our ponies are ready for their contents, and then perhaps let them be discovered by somepony else.”
“By somepony else? Celestia, this was our find, and we are not keen on letting somepony else take all the credit for something that we toiled to remove!” yelled Luna, setting her hooves in the ground firmly as her nostrils flared. One metal clad hoof scraped the ground sharply, as the Princess of the Night lowered her horn.
“Luna,” whispered Celestia. The Lunar Princess jerked up, to look at her older sister.
“I know that this will not rest easy with you,” continued Celestia in the same whisper soft tone, “But think, if these were introduced by one of us, there will be some who may think that we are trying to gain more power over the ponies.” “But that isn’t true, Celestia,” replied Luna, “We just want to help.”
Celestia nodded, “I know, Luna. But there will always be ponies who think that, and neither of us can change that. However, if we let them be ‘discovered’ by a normal pony one day, the number of dissenters will be greatly reduced.”
“Another one of your white lies for the good of the country?” muttered Luna, making a face like she’d bitten into a sour grape, and Celestia gave a sad smile.
“You are the Elements of Loyalty, Honesty and Magic, Luna, and you do each of them credit. But telling the truth all the time does...”
“Does not lend itself to ruling a country. We know, Celestia. You have said so before,” interrupted Luna, “We will go along with this plan, sister. We will not necessarily like it, but we shall go along with it,” huffed the younger, as her magic grasped both of the immense stone tablets and lifted them up, enshrouding them in a gentle dark blue shimmer.
“We shall put these in the Canterlot caverns. It is as good a place as any, and nopony goes in there.” Celestia made a noise of agreement with Luna’s suggestion. Her mind was still reeling from the implications of the two stone slabs. ‘The Laws of Dramatic Storytelling as Applied to Equestria,’ Thought the alicorn as she unfurled her wings in preparation to fly after her sister, and return to Canterlot in order to lower the sun for the night.
‘Who’d have thought that our lives could be governed by the same ones that govern narratives?’
It was the sort of thing that nopony would believe even if she told them, and a constant source of amusement for her roommate. Octavia gave a long suffering sigh as Vinyl Scratch rolled around on the floor, laughing her horn off.
“Can we please move on from this?” inquired the cellist.
“Oh, look at you, trying to act all composed and regal. You just fell asleep while playing your own instrument!” shot back the unicorn, as she dissolved into laughter again. Octavia rubbed a hoof along her nose in annoyance.
“The cello is an elegant instrument, and I was practicing a lullaby, Vinyl. At least my instrument has the tone required to lull ponies to sleep!”
“Yeah,” gasped Vinyl, “But your audience can’t applaud if they’re all asleep! And besides, I’ve seen you fall asleep while playing a gigue.”
Despite herself, Octavia blushed. There was something about playing the cello that relaxed her. Often, it relaxed her too much, and put her to sleep. That was why, before every concert that the cellist gave, she had to hype herself up on coffee, just to make sure that she didn’t accidentally drift off in the middle of a solo.
“Like you’ve never fallen asleep while performing, Vinyl!” retorted the cellist, “Remember Manehatten, three years ago? You started snoring in the middle of your performance.”
“Hey, I passed out. That totally doesn’t count. Besides, I’d been up for seven days straight. Nopony held it against me. You, on the other hoof, fell asleep even after getting a full night’s rest.”
Try as she might, Octavia couldn’t fault Vinyl’s apparent logic. True to her words, back then, the unicorn had been awake for a full week when she finally passed out in the middle of her eighth concert, and had been so firmly unconscious that the security ponies had to carry her back to the hotel. And so, the cellist resorted to the oldest trick she knew to get Vinyl to leave.
“OW! Tavi!” whined the DJ, as the cellist flicked the end of Vinyl’s horn. As Vinyl left the room, Octavia picked her cello back up from where she’d set it down, and reassumed her playing position.
“Hey, you want some coffee, Tavi? I can make a fresh batch.” teased Vinyl, sticking her head back through the doorway.
“OUT.”
-Time-
“Ok, ok, I’m going,” snickered Vinyl, “You want anything from the shop?”
Octavia paused for a moment.
“Actually, yes. If you’re passing by Vincenzo’s, can you pick me up a new block of resin?” called the cellist
“Righto. Don’t fall asleep from boredom while I’m gone!” cackled Vinyl as she left the house.
“Honestly, that mare,” muttered Octavia, returning to her practice, “It’s not like I have narcolepsy.”
This isn’t the first time the Crystal Empire has vanished and reappeared. It’s not even the second or third for that matter. It’s a little difficult to trace, because of the nature of these dissapearences, but from what I can see, the Crystal Empire has vanished and reappeared a grand total of six times. Old earth pony legends speak of a great fertile land to the north, lit by a diamond tower. Of course, anypony who ventured up there before the reappearance of the Empire was only ever going to find ice and snow, but that never stopped them from trying. Pegasi too had their own legend about a land in the north, this one about where the sky was always blue and wide open, and again, illuminated by a great tower of diamond. The unicorn one was a bit more obscure, but it does mention a ‘land of crystal and green, whose shards tremendously amplified the wearer’s magic when made into jewelry’. The most common thread between all of these, and other stories is not actually the Empire, but rather the palace itself.
This commonality got me thinking. What if the curse that Sombra placed on the Crystal Empire one thousand years ago wasn’t actually a curse, but rather the activation of a spell? A spell so terrifically complex, delicate and powerful that it was built into the very structure of the Crystal Palace itself? A spell that could preserve the Palace, and it’s surrounds, including the very weather, and lock them in a temporary temporal bubble, removed from reality, and only break the spell when the magic fueling it ran out, or a significantly large outside magic force disturbed it. Such a spell would be the last ditch attempt at defense, a final chance to deny any outside forces a hope of taking the Palace.
Thus, here is my theorem: The Crystal Palace, located at the heart of the Crystal Empire, which itself is centered on more than one major magical leyline, possesses in some shape or form, a spell which can trap everything within a certain radius of it, living or deceased, in a state of magical stasis, and then place them all within a state where they are unable to interact with our current world until such a time as this spell is broken by either internal or external measures.
It is also interesting to note that from the air, the layout of the Crystal Empire shows a distinct resemblance to one of many magical channeling symbols, wrought on an immense scale. It also looks like the central design of my cutie mark. *************
Princess Cadence looked up from the letter that Celestia had given her.
“Should I be worried, Celestia?”
“Not precisely,” began the bigger alicorn, “But as I’m sure you know, once a subject grabs Twilight’s interest...”
“Yes, indeed,” mused Cadence “If such a spell were to exist, she may attempt to trigger it out of sheer curiosity, and that would not be a good thing.”
“You don’t know?” asked Celestia, and Cadence shook her head.
“Much of the Crystal Palace is a mystery to even me. As far as I can remember, the Crystal Palace has always been at the heart of the Empire. Though, Auntie...”
“Yes, Cadence?”
“There is another name for the Crystal Palace. It’s not one that crops up often, but in rediscovering the history of my own Empire, I ran across it enough times for it to stick.”
“What is it?”
“The Cleansing Light.” There was silence between the two alicorns for a moment.
“Let’s not tell Twilight about that little tidbit, Okay?”
It’s not entirely well known, but each city in Equestria has their own little defences against criminals and calamity. Canterlot, of course, has the Royal Guards and the Princesses, while Ponyville has the Elements of Harmony. Fillydelphia has the League of Associated Combat Musicians, and Manehatten? Manehatten has Equestria’s finest police force, and me.
While my legend began in Ponyville, as a friendship lesson of all things, It is here in Manehatten that my skills are put to best use. And unlike the grandiose beginnings that the Elements of Harmony cooked up, my own were far lower. I am not an alicorn, but rather just a single unicorn of some skill. And yet, I have done more for this city, my city, than any Elements of Harmony ever could.
That first year was both terrifying and exhilarating for me. Like any good hero, I started small. Busting drug rings, stopping petty crime and mostly building a reputation. I wanted ponies to feel safe in this city at night, knowing that Mare Do Well was on the prowl, taking care of crime. To do that, I had to inspire fear into the scum that fed off this city. And sure enough, after a few months, the criminals began to fear the night. Or perhaps more accurately, they began to fear what hid in the dark corners of the alleyways while they went about their dirty lives. Ponies began to walk the streets at night again, sensing the change in the air, that the city was getting safer. But, of course, that first year was not without its trials.
The major crime bosses of Manehatten were unhappy, to say the least. They were losing business, and losing it quicker than they could get it back. Crafty Hooves was the first to truly take action against me, by setting up a false deal that would attract my attention, and tried to take me out when I came to interfere. He very nearly succeeded that night. That was also when the Manehatten police, as much as I respected them and tried to avoid confronting them, were forced to consider me a problem, as I delivered a bruised and beaten Crafty Hooves to their front doorstep. In retrospect, that was the major turning point of my career, such as it was.
My face, masked and cloaked, became a source of terror to the criminals of this city. The police called me ‘vigilante’ and were ordered to arrest me on sight, but behind closed doors, were deeply appreciative of the things I was doing. The average ponies were...divided. Some agreed with those who called me a danger, while others wanted to give me a medal. Yet there is one thing, one single thing that all who have heard of me will tell you, one single thing that everypony agrees with.
I’m cleaning up this wonderful, rotten city.
It has been an eventful first year, and it’s only going to get more interesting from here. So I say bring it on, Manehatten. Let’s see who wins.
To a normal pony, a year was a long time. A pony’s life could change radically over the course of a year. They might gain and lose several jobs. They could fall in and out of love. They could have fights, make up, fight again, and make up. They could make many new friends.
To Princess Celestia, it seemed like all she had to do was blink, and a year would pass. There were times when the alicorn almost envied the average pony. Being the immortal avatar of the sun had its own downsides. Ponies had grown accustomed to her constant, unchanging presence, relying on it as a source of comfort. That even though they might die tommorow, the day after, Celestia would still raise the sun, and then lower it and raise the moon. And Celestia would. She would repeat the cycle until her sister came back. However, it came to pass that one day, after raising the sun one Summer Solstice, that the Princess had vanished from the castle, leaving only a cryptic note.
‘See you in a year’
For an entire day, the courts and nobles of Canterlot Castle, which was still under construction, had run around like headless chickens, desperately trying to find any clue, any pony who knew what had happened to the Princess, and would the Sun even rise the next morning?
In all the confusion, nopony noticed a young, demure white pegasus mare with a pink mane slip out of the castle, and head for the weather centre.
***********
“Name?” intoned the large brown pegasus sitting behind the desk at the Canterlot Weather Centre.
“Cloudy Skies.” Stated the white pegasus.
“Experience level?”
“Average.”
The brown pegasus made a thoughtful noise as he consulted a roster of duties.
“You’ll be on long-range weather control. That means you’ll be taking care of the weather outside of the bounds of Canterlot airspace.”
“Oh, thank you!” grinned Cloudy Skies, moving to hug the larger pegasus, who moved away.
“You’re a freelancer for the moment. Work hard, do good and we’ll bump you up to permanent member. We’ll have your pay waiting for you here every seventh day. And as for accommodation, you’ll be bunked in the temporary pegasus housing, just inside the wall. Hope you like close quarters,” explained the brown pegasus. Cloudy Skies nodded, collected the bits of information she needed, and flew off.
“Next!” called the brown pegasus.
**********
Cloudy Skies shivered and chattered as she bucked the winter storm clouds coming out of the Everfree. No pony had told her that long-range weather control had meant dealing with whatever that despicable forest spat out on occasion. She’d been up here for five hours, bucking and bucking with nary a moment’s rest, and only two other pegasi to help her.
**********
Cloudy swooped down through the streets of Canterlot, making sure that everything was squared away in preparation for her first actual thunderstorm in Canterlot.
“All Clear!” she yelled, and the weather captain sounded the start.
**********
“Oh hey, the Summer Solstice is coming up again. Hey, Cloudy, you reckon the Princess is going to come back?” called one of Cloudy Skies’ coworkers on the long-range patrol as they bucked a few clouds into oblivion.
“She might. She might not. I kinda hope she does. But I don’t know, do I, Silverstreak?”
“Yeah, I hope she comes back too.”
************
As the sun rose on the morn of the Summer Solstice, Ponies looked on with wide eyes and open mouths as Princess Celestia strode down the wide halls of the still unfinished Canterlot Castle, and took her throne once more. When asked where she had been for the last year, Princess Celestia had simply smiled, and replied that she’d been, ‘Just clearing the clouds in my head, and getting a new perspective on things.’
Fifty-Two. That was the exact number of letters that Twilight Sparkle had sent to the Princess in her first year in Ponyville. One for every week in the year. One friendship lesson every week. Thinking back, I find it rather hilarious that our dear Twilight treated it so much like a homework assignment. Of course, we all witnessed her eventual mental breakdown when she finally had no friendship lesson for the week. And ponies call me a drama queen! Ahem. I do suppose I have no right to criticize dear Twilight like that. Yes, of course we’ve all had our own little moments of weakness, but it must be said that ours didn’t lead to mind-controlling the entire town to chase after a doll. Twilight has always had a penchant for overreacting to things, and yes, I am justified in saying so. Fortunately, she has myself and the others to help her work through that. And to her credit, she has stopped freaking out whenever the slightest thing goes wrong. But just between you and me, darling, the best way to get her attention is to move something in her study. It never really gets old, watching her jump like that.
Oh, my, listen to me ramble on. Surely you have some other pony to talk to? Ah, yes, an excellent choice. She will have some definite insight into our new Princess. But, dear, while I know that Twilight seems strong sometimes, she still has her moments of weakness. All I ask is that you be...gentle. She is still unused to the pressures of her new position. While she has come a long way since that first year in Ponyville, Twilight is still socially...naive, you might say. She is still not fully aware of many of the finer points of conversation, and has a tendency to take ponies at their word. As you can imagine, this has lead to some rather interesting events, and for Twilight’s sake, I will not repeat them here. As myself and the girls have explained to her many times, there are some things that simply cannot be learned from a book. She is rather hilariously defiant of this idea. What’s that? Oh, yes, as a matter of fact, we do have our own little plan to try and teach her that particular lesson. Pinkie Pie, the dear that she is, is still putting the plan together. Now Pinkie Pie, there is a pony that you should talk to about our newest princess. As much as it shames me to admit, Pinkie has spent a lot more time with Twilight than I.
Yes, that second year in Ponyville for Twilight was certainly easier on her. After the aforementioned mind-controlling doll incident, the number of letters dropped from fifty-two down to twenty-six. Yes, perhaps it was one every second week, but we have learned that Twilight needs time to break her habits. We’re still working on her coffee one, darling. But she’s getting better. She was certainly more relaxed about everyday life, to say the least. Her little assistant, Spike, has been an absolute godsend when it comes to helping that mare deal with all her little neuroticisms. There’s nothing wrong with wanting an organized workspace, but the degree to which Twilight takes it is something else entirely. Did you know, dear, that after that terrible Discord incident, we found her trying to straighten every leaf on her library? Perhaps understandable, given what happened that day, but when we found her doing it again a few months later, we knew we had to step in and help her learn to deal with things. I can say, with no small amount of pride I might add, that yes, while Twilight is still obsessed with organization, we have managed to make her contain her twitches about it to her study. What? You didn’t think Rainbow Dash crashed into the library by accident all the time now, did you? No, sometimes she did it on purpose, just to mess things up, trying to help Twilight deal with mess in her own way. Now, you should really be on your way. I’ve shared enough about Twilight, and I do have dresses to finish. What publication did you say you were from, again? TMP? I will keep an eye out for your article, dear.
Trixie knows what you are thinking. How could an absolutely stupendous, fantastic and wonderful mare like Trixie be stuck in this run down bar, with nary a bit to her name? Well, because Trixie has always appreciated an audience, she shall tell you. Also, Trixie may be slightly drunk. Hic. But that has nothing to do with this.
You see, tomorrow is the anniversary of the day that Trixie’s life began to go downhill. It is the beginning of the life on the road for The Great and Powerful Trixie! It is the day that Trixie was kicked out of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Hic. The stupid old mares and stallions there clearly couldn’t appreciate the greatness and powerfulness of Trixie, and so they kicked her out. All Trixie did was practice her show techniques. Unfortunately, one of Trixie’s fireworks exploded in the dean’s face. But, Trixie explained over and over that it was not her fault that the stupid mare walked around the corner at the wrong time to see what all the noise was about. None of them believed Trixie, and she was hoofed out onto the streets. So, now do you see? Trixie was completely innocent in this. So maybe Trixie had not always been the best student. And maybe she spent more time perfecting her stage presence than doing homework. Hic. And just possibly, there is the slightest chance, that Trixie may have made that firework explode when it did on purpose. But that’s just a miniscule possibility.
Alright, so maybe Trixie deserved it. Trixie regrets nothing. But Trixie does have to wonder if the universe has it out for her. This time three years ago, Trixie put on a show in a backwards town called Ponyville. It was supposed to be a simple show. You may not believe it, but Trixie used to be quite arrogant. Magic, a bit of flair and a standard tale about defeating an Ursa Major were the fare in Ponyville. But then she showed up. Hic. Twilight Sparkle. Trixie cannot honestly say that she hates another pony more than she hates Twilight Sparkle. That stupid unicorn showed up Trixie, and made it look easy. So Trixie fled the town. Trixie waited, plotted and searched, and two years later, she returned to Ponyville, this time armed with the Alicorn Amulet. Trixie challenged Twilight to a magic duel, and won, banishing Twilight from Ponyville. But a week later, Twilight returned, and challenged Trixie, and won. Something about friendship. Trixie doesn’t fully remember. Trixie apologised for the Alicorn Amulet incident, and left again. Hic. And now Trixie is here, one year later.
Why am I always second best? Am I just a failure of a magician?
It wasn’t an overly well known fact, but Ponyville baker and premier party pony Pinkie Pie couldn’t bake an apple pie. And it wasn’t from lack of trying, either. She’d consulted every recipe book that Sugarcube Corner had, borrowed a few from the library, and even managed to get her hooves on the Apple Family’s Super-Secret Apple Pie recipe over the years. None of it worked for the pink pony, and she really wanted to bake one, to surprise Applejack for when the farmer got back from Appleloosa. Pinkie knew that all their other friends had their own surprises for Applejack already sorted out, so she didn’t want to bother them by asking for their help. Setting her face in a stern visage, Pinkie Pie turned from the cookbook she was looking at back to her pile of ingredients.
“Right, you silly ingredients. Prepare to be Pie’d.”
Smoke filled the kitchen at Sugarcube Corner, and Pinkie Pie sighed. She opened the oven door, and retrieved the roughly pie shaped pile of burning pastry and apples, and dumped it into the bin with the five others she had already tried to make. Pinkie turned back to the cookbook and stared at the instructions again.
“What am I doing wrong?” muttered Pinkie. Dejected, she closed the book for a while, and headed out into Ponyville. She needed more apples, so she headed for the Apples’ stand in the market, where Big Mac was taking care of sales while Applejack was out of town.
“Ten bits, right Mac?”
“Eeyup.”
Pinkie hoofed over the required money to the stallion behind the stand, and then she spoke up again. “Hey, Big Mac, you wouldn’t know how to bake an apple pie, would you?”
“Nope,” drawled the stallion, his stalk of hay shifting to the other side of his mouth, “Sorry.”
“That’s ok,” sighed Pinkie, walking off with her apples, heading back to Sugarcube Corner, “I’m sure I’ll get it eventually.”
“Eeyup.”
For the seventh time that day, smoke poured out from the burnt and charred pie remnants in the oven, and Pinkie was really glad that Sugarcube Corner was closed to business today. She removed the remains, dumped them in the bin, and got ready for her eighth attempt.
“Stupid pie,” growled Pinkie, “Why can’t I bake you?”
***time***
By this point, anypony could have asked what the steps were to make an apple pie, and Pinkie would have been able to recite them from memory. As her hooves worked, Pinkie looked over to the cookbook anyway, making sure that each step was correct. She wanted this pie to be perfect.
Ding! Pinkie opened the oven door, not daring to look at whatever catastrophe she had made now. But oddly enough, she couldn’t smell smoke. It actually smelled kinda good, and her mouth began to water. Quickly wiping the drool away, Pinkie pulled the pie tin, and it’s hopefully delicious contents out and placed it onto the benchtop. The pastry was golden brown, and the delicious smell wafted off it. Prying the pie loose from the tin, Pinkie Pie carefully cut a slice, and let out a sigh of relief when the pie didn’t collapse, like her fifth attempt, or explode, like her second. Now came the real test, though. She tasted the pie, and quickly spat it out.
“Ugh. Too much sugar,” she grumbled, “Now what am I going to do for Applejack’s birthday?!”
The front end of the magic-powered machine slammed into the wagon, caving the side in and exposing the interior. Flim and Flam backed their Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 up, and winced as the wooden wagon collapsed as the machine withdrew.
“I think we should get out of here, Flam,” said the slightly younger unicorn.
“I wholeheartedly agree, Flim,” replied the moustached unicorn, and they prepared to once again fire up the machine with their magic and escape. However, before they could, a light blue unicorn mare emerged from behind the collapsing wagon, and glared at the two salespony brothers.
“Hold it! Trixie demands that you take responsibility for the damage you have caused to Trixie’s home!” yelled the showmare. The two brothers glanced at each other for a brief moment, and Flim winked at his brother.
“Now just hold a moment, young miss. You were the one who left your wagon parked in the middle of the road. We can hardly be faulted for hitting it. And besides, your wagon may have damaged our transport as well. Flam?”
“I can’t get the front panel open,” replied the unicorn from his position by the front end of the Cider Squeezy 6000, “It’s completely mangled. Who knows what damage has been done to the delicate machinery inside?” Flim and Flam were perfectly aware that beyond a little superficial damage, their machine was fine.
Trixie narrowed her eyes as she stared at the two brothers, “Trixie would like to know how you two dunderheads propose we solve this situation, then.”
“That’s easy, Miss Trixie,” said Flim, and magically withdrew a single coin from a bag on the Cider Squeezy 6000. Green magic floated the shiny coin over to the salespony, “We’ll flip for it. Tails, we will take you and your wagon to the nearest town, and pay for repairs. Heads, we’ll all just go our separate ways. Seem fair?” explained Flim, as Flam stood beside him.
“Fair enough,” grumbled Trixie, “Toss the coin.”
Flim gave the coin a flick with his magic, and watched as it tumbled through the air. It landed on the hard earth road with a gentle clink, and all three ponies moved over to inspect the result.
“Heads. Well, that will be us off, Miss Trixie. It was pleasant meeting you,” said Flim, bowing deeply and taking his hat off. Trixie didn’t reply, and just moved closer to the coin, and flipped it over with her hoof. Then she laughed.
“A double headed coin? Come now, Trixie saw that one coming from a mile away.” The brothers glanced at each other, wondering what this mare was going to do now that she had figured out their trick.
“Trixie suggests that we try again, but using this coin,” said Trixie, floating a bit of her own over, and carefully showing both sides to the brothers, so that they could see it was quite clearly a standard coin.
“All right then,” said Flim, “Go ahead and flip.” The coin tumbled through the air, and landed on the ground.
“Tails,” smiled Trixie, as Flim and Flam groaned.
“A deal’s a deal, Miss Trixie. We’ll take you to the next town, and pay for your wagon to be fixed.”
***Time***
Once everything was hooked up, it didn’t take long for the three unicorns to arrive at a nearby town. Once there, they quickly located a carpenter who could fix the collapsing wagon, and there they used the last of their bits to fix up Trixie’s wagon.
“Trixie thanks you two for fixing up Trixie’s home. She also thanks you for your couch and hospitality, and suggests that you not try to con Trixie again.” As the unicorn brothers were pondering that statement, Trixie hooked herself up to her wagon, and beat a hasty escape. The two brothers turned back to their Cider Squeezy, and discovered that not only was the couch, and all their worldly possessions missing, but in Trixie’s attempts to get the couch detached, she had also demolished half the machine.
‘Twas the Night before the Solstice of the Sun, And Princess Sparkle puzzled and pondered. She searched in books, but the answer was lacking in each one, And so the library she left, and the castle she wandered.
She sought out the Solar Princess, To ask her question, her answer to find. Her quarry was in the main hall, covered with mess, If Rarity saw this, she probably would have died.
“Princess,” began Sparkle, “When is your Day of Birth?” The avatar of the sun smiled and laughed, and stood up, Even as her eyes twinkled with mirth. “Why do you ask this now,” said the Princess, “Before I go and pull the sun up?”
“My birthday is on the day of equal length, in the spring.” Said the princess, “and my sister was born on the same in the fall.” Sparkle nodded, for this had a familiar ring, And hastily departed the hall.
Upon leaving, the youngest alicorn collided with the Princess of the Night, And wanting to confirm what the Day had told her, Asked the same question, preparing her mental might. The Lunar Princess was quiet a while, before she answered her.
“We were born at the dawn of the longest night,” said Luna, “And our sister was born at the eve of the longest day.” Explained the Princess of the moon, And then she hurried away.
Two different answers, two different stories. Remember this, young foal, as the moral is here for you. When requesting the Princesses of tales and stories, Never ask more than two.
The white unicorn studied his reflection in the mirror of his dressing room, and finding nothing out of place, he departed the room, and began to walk down the halls of the house he resided in, the illustrious House of Equestria. His name was Canterlot, and he considered himself a stallion of some class and stature, and walked with his head held high. Though he was a noble pony, he wished he could say the same of the other ponies who resided in the House with him. As he approached the dining room, looking to break his fast with some oats, he could already hear the brewing of another argument.
“Oh Yeah? I’d like to freakin’ see you try, you namby pamby pegasus. Go back to your gossip columns and putting more glitter on everything you own, and let the grownups discuss this,” came a rough male voice. Canterlot knew that voice, even if he heard it far less than he heard any of the others who resided in this house. It was Stormholm, one of the pegasi of the group. Stormholm lived right near the top of the House, up near Crystal Empire’s domain. He was a hardy, no-nonsense pegasus, who had little use for anything that was only there for the visual appeal. As such, he barely tolerated, let alone got along with the other pegasus who lived in the house, the one he was arguing with, Los Pegasus. Canterlot entered the dining room, to find Stormholm hovering over the table, completely drenched and with the marks of fierce lightning strikes all over his body.
“Now now, Stormholm, just calm down. You know that if we could have, we would have helped you,” explained a unicorn mare, as she snacked on her daisy sandwich, “Morning, Canterlot.”
“Good morning, Fillydelphia,” Canterlot replied, as Stormholm spun to face the unfortunate unicorn.
“Would have helped, my flank! I sent messages. You guys had been ignoring me for years before this. ‘Oh, we don’t need old Stormholm, now that Crystally’s coming back. In fact, let’s build an elevator up to her room, rather than the stairs,’” Mimicked Stormholm, “You only liked me because I was useful at keeping the weather out. And you!” Stormholm turned to face Canterlot.
“Hey. Take it down, Stormholm, or I’ll take you down,” threatened a dark Earth pony, as he nursed a bottle of something.
“Yeah, right, Manehatten. You’re too ‘busy’ to even do anything. Manehatten, the pony that never sleeps! Manehatten, the pony so concerned with trying to be like Canterlot that he can’t even see when his friends are being shocked to death by the weather. Go and get liver poisoning, you alcoholic,” said Stormholm, wheeling to face the earth pony, as a few of his feathers fluttered to the ground and water continued dripping off his mane.
Just then, a cheerful-looking earth pony entered the dining room, took in the scene before her, and gulped.
“I guess this is a bad time, huh?”
“You,” intoned Stormholm. The pony who had just entered was called Hoofshire, and was moving into Stormholm’s old room. Understandably, the tough pegasus was not fond of the earth pony.
“You know what?” began Stormholm, “I’m done with you guys. I used to think we were friends, but now I see it was just a friendship of convenience. You all had chances to help me, and you all turned them down. I didn’t ask for much. Just occasional companionship, and you guys used to indulge me. We may not have always been on the best of terms, but we used to be content. Now, with Crystal coming back, and this...pony moving into my old room, you guys obviously have ‘bigger’ things to worry about. So screw you guys, I’m finished.” And with that, the pegasus stalked out of the dining room, slamming the door behind him.
***time***
Canterlot sighed, and hurried after the pegasus.
“Stormholm, wait.”
“Shut up, Canterlot.”
“Stormholm, Stop.”
“Shut up, Canterlot.”
“Stormholm,” began Canterlot, grabbing one burnt and smouldering wing with his magic, and stopping the bitter pegasus in his tracks, “What happened to you? You used to be more forgiving than this.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Canterlot. Maybe it was all of you guys abandoning me in my singular hour of need. Where was Los Pegasus when I needed another cloud bucker? Where were Fillydelphia, or Manehatten when I needed supplies on the job? Hell, where the buck is Cloudsdale? None of you wanted to help me, despite my attempts to stay in contact. We ain’t friends, Canterlot. We never really were. You guys were, are, worth nothing to me. It’s time I left,” said Stormholm, and with that, the pegasus shook his wing free of Canterlot’s magical grasp, and walked out of the door into the night, never to be seen again by any resident of the House of Equestria.
Pinkie Pie and the Cakes dashed around the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, the three bakers trying to balance the making of the Cake’s newest product, their Ponyville infamous range of Triple Layer mud cakes, and trying to look after the two twins.
“Icing is done and chilling!” called Pinkie from over by the refrigerator.
“Bases are in the oven, and the twins need changing!”
“I’m on it, Mr. Cake! Who’s looking after the filling mixes?”
“I’ll get it, Pinkie,” replied Cup Cake, “And thank you for agreeing to watch the twins this afternoon, too.”
“It’s not a problem, Mrs. Cake. Oh, for the love of Libman, I forgot the muffins in oven two!”
“Taken care of, Pinkie,” called back Carrot Cake, pulling the aforementioned muffins out of the oven just in time. Once everything in the kitchen had been taken care of, the three bakers relaxed, and the Cakes got ready to leave.
“Relax, Mr and Mrs Cake. Me and Twilight have got everything taken care of. Go and have fun.”
“You’re really sure about this, Pinkie?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” replied Pinkie, making the motions for her promise, and waved goodbye as the Cakes left the building. Pinkie took a seat in the bakery with the twins, and waited for Twilight to show up.
“Oh, you guys are gonna love Twilight! She’s seriously smart, and really adorkable, too! Ooh! Hi Twilight!” Twilight Sparkle entered the bakery to find Pinkie Pie with the twin baby Cakes in a hug.
“Hello, Pinkie. I hope the Cakes didn’t mind me helping you out tonight.”
“Of course not, silly! They’re just happy they can take the time off and not have to worry about their little bundles of joy!” Just then, a foul smell made itself known throughout the bakery, and as Twilight pinched her nose to try and block it out, Pinkie moved over to the cupboard where they kept the diapers, only to find it empty.
“Oh no. Twilight, here! Watch the twins. I have to run down to the store,” fired off Pinkie, and then she was gone, leaving a pink trail as she dashed out the door and down the street. Twilight smiled at Pinkie’s antics, and turned around to keep an eye on the twins, only to find them gone.
“Oh no,” she murmured.
****Time****
Twilight soon located Pound Cake, flapping up near the ceiling, and after several unsucessfull attempts to grab him, she finally remembered that she was a unicorn. A gentle purple glow surrounded the little pegasus, and moved him down to Twilight’s level. However, her concentration was soon broken by the baby unicorn of the family levitating herself and slamming into Twilight’s side, and the magic field was disrupted around Pound. And with that, the two were off, and Twilight followed after them.
When Pinkie Pie returned twenty minutes later, she found Twilight huddled on the floor, stroking her tail. Pinkie Pie smiled gently, and went to find the twins. A bag of flour, two bottles of milk and a change of diapers later, the two babies were safely in bed and sleeping, and Pinkie returned to Twilight.
“Come on, Twilight. Up and at ‘em.”
“They’re menaces. Evil. Evil, I tell you, Pinkie,” muttered Twilight from her position on the floor.
Pinkie giggled, “Nah, you just don’t know how to handle them. They can be a bit of a hoof full, but they just like having fun,” smiled the pink pony.
Once upon a time, in a little village called Ponyville, there lived a young dragon, called Spike. He lived with one of the Princesses, and in him she instilled all kinds of lessons, but first and foremost she gave him a love of literature. As the drake grew alongside his pony friends, and his princess caretaker, they had many adventures together.
But then one day, one of his pony friends left the world, starting the next great journey, and he grieved for a friend lost. And one by one, each of the dragon’s friends left the mortal coil, transcending the need for mortal flesh and bone, and joining each other in the Great Field above. And each time, the dragon grieved and remembered.
After the last of his friends passed on, the drake retreated into himself for a while, leaving Ponyville and travelling all over Equestria. While out on the road, he met many a mare and stallion, of all walks of life. He conversed with the high nobility, rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, and chatted with the farmers, and helped the poor where he could. During this time, he came across an old acquaintance.
Trixie Lulamoon. The mare who had once been so arrogant, so proud, was now permanently bedridden, but yet her mind was still as sharp as ever, trapped in a failing body. She, of all ponies, gave the dragon a piece of advice. ‘Do not cry for those that you have lost, young dragon,’ she had told him, ‘Instead, celebrate what they gave you everyday, and make use of it. To do anything less is to demean their memory.’ The dragon considered these words, thanked Trixie, and left as the mare’s heart finally gave up its fight to keep the former showmare alive.
From that day, Spike the Dragon, now fully deserving of that name, set about his task. He returned to Ponyville, and drove out the old dragon living in the Everfree Forest, and then, using his great claws and wings, carved a path through the forest to the cave. In here, he gathered old and rare tomes, preserving them for future generations. He catalogued history, etching it out in stone through pictures and words. He cared for the animals around his home, leaving them food. He made sure that everypony in Ponyville knew that they were always welcome in his cave, and he made his collection available to anypony who had need of it.
Over time, as ponies passed on, and bequeathed him their worldly possessions, and his collection grew, he began to be known by a new name, the one we know him as today: The Caretaker, who looks after the ponies, helps them where he can, and is always welcoming. Today we celebrate the Caretaker, and the ponies who inspired him to rise above his own nature, and live for others.
Enforced Magical Evolution. That was the official term for the transformation that Twilight had undergone when she turned into an alicorn. In the few months after her transformation and coronation, Twilight researched the phenomena with all her considerable might. Unsurpisingly, there was precious little information on it. Indeed, she was only able to find one other pony who had undergone a similar experience: Princess Cadence. However, there were countless theories about Enforced Magical Evolution, and some of them got Twilight wondering.
What if there was a state of existence beyond alicorn? Twilight knew that her magic, already impressive, had taken a giant boost when she’d grown her wings, and would grow at a steady rate for the rest of her life. But Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna both seemed to be immortal, and somehow, Twilight knew she was not. Maybe the two elder princesses were something more than an alicorn, and so Twilight designed an experiment to find out.
“So you see, Spike, the crystal array will feed my magic back in on itself, subtly amplifying it and taking care of the channelling in a controlled reaction. Once my magic gets to a certain level, I should be able to get a glimpse into the very fabric of reality, and if there’s an existence beyond alicorn, it will either magically evolve me into it, or at the very least, i’ll be able to see what it is.”
“I dunno, Twilight. This doesn’t sound very safe. Are you sure you can’t just ask Princess Celestia?”
“First hand knowledge is always better, Spike. Still,” Twilight mused, “It might be helpful to warn her. Oh well. I’m starting the experiment, Spike. Charging the crystal array.”
Twilight’s horn lit up as she stepped into the centre of the ring of crystals and wires. Six crystals surrounded her in a ring, and eight smaller ones laid out a path beyond the ring. A constant, thin stream of purple magic leapt from Twilight’s horn, connecting with the first of the bigger crystals. For a moment, both Twilight and Spike thought it wasn’t going to work, and then a hum began to build. Five streams of magic arced off the crystal Twilight was channelling into, each one connecting with one of the bigger crystals, and soon the whole array was alight with purple witchfire. Then the six main crystals began to launch Twilight’s magic back at her. Beams of magic, wider than a pony’s body, connected with the youngest alicorn, and Twilight’s eyes glowed.
*****
Power. Light. Darkness.
Whorls of colour spun before her. Power. The universe heaved and pulsed, resonating with her own magic.
“Show me what I want to know!”
Power. Pulse.
A star died and was reborn.
“Tell me if there’s anything after alicornation!”
Power. The universe pulled apart, reality tearing, and only static was visible through the cracks.
Pulse. Pulse. Power.
“SHOW ME!”
Power. Light.
*******
Spike watched from outside the library as it practically glowed and a column of purple magic roared off it, extending into the sky. He was joined by the other Elements of Harmony and practically the whole town as they came to watch the possible destruction of the library. His sharp eyes then noticed two specks in the distance, flying towards the town extremely fast. As they got closer, he made them out to be Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. Without stopping to aknowledge the crowd of ponies, both dived into the library.
****Time****
The two princesses found Twilight in the basement of the library, and one swift buck from Princess Luna disrupted the carefully laid crystal array, causing the feedback of magic to cease. However, it was still several minutes before the magic had calmed down enough that the Princesses could actually enter the ring proper and check on Twilight. The young alicorn was smoking, her horn was actually glowing from overuse, but she was allright for the most part.
“I was,” coughed Twilight, “so close. Why’d you stop me?”
Princess Celestia stepped foward, and placed a gentle hoof on Twilight’s mane, speaking softly, “You were not yet ready for it. Your body was barely able to handle the transformation into an alicorn. In time, you may still be ready for the next step, but for now, rest, Twilight.”
Twilight took that as a cue to collapse, and she was asleep within seconds. Princess Celestia levitated her, and teleported them both to the local hospital, and then came back after checking Twilight in.
“There is no next step after alicorn, Celly,” said Luna, as the two studied the remains of Twilight’s array, “Unless, of course, you’re counting That.”
“I am,” said Celestia, “And Twilight is not ready to become part of Discord. Likely, she never will be.”
-lo? Hello? Is this on? Ah, excellent. It seems we’re transmitting clearly. What, no, Rainbow, don’t touch that! If you disrupt the matrix now, we’re going to lose our sig-
-est. Test. Good. We seem to be back again. Now that that little technical issue has been sorted out, I should get on with what we wanted to do. This is taking more magical power than I anticipated, and that’s even with using the Crystal Palace as a transmitter.
My name is Princess Twilight Amethyst Sparkle the Second, but you guys probably just call me Twilight Sparkle, or Princess Twilight if you’re feeling formal. I can’t believe I’m doing this! Talking to another dimension! Ahem. Sorry. Anyway, like I was saying. I know that you, the people out there, are aware of us. From my understanding, in your world, you see us as fictional characters, and that many of you watch snippets of our lives on a regular basis. However, unlike you, the ponies of Equestria have not yet fully mastered the delicate science of controlling dimensional rifts without consuming more power than a small city. It’s why I had to wait until after my ascension before I could do this.
The reason I contacted you people, and as I understand it, this will be through something called a ‘ThunderTempest’ and a ‘TMP prompt’, is that me and my friends need to set the record straight on a few things. I have prepared a list.
One. Princess Celestia has asked me to say that while she enjoys a practical joke every now and again in order to alleviate the stresses of ruling a nation, she is by no means a ‘troll’.
Two. Yes, my middle name is Amethyst.
Three. Princess Luna has asked me repeatedly to say this: The reason that she was not at my brother’s wedding was not because she is nocturnal, and nor was it because she was secretly the mastermind behind the changeling invasion. Princess Luna has a mild form of autism. She doesn’t do well in crowds. Celestia only lured her there with the promise of a barrel of alcoholic punch.
Four. Yes, Pinkie Pie really is that crazy.
Five. Contrary to what your beliefs may be, Trixie and myself aren’t hated enemies. We enjoy a semi-friendly rivalry as only two professionals in their field can. I’m actually quite impressed with her skill. She knows how to control her magic so precisely it baffles me sometimes.
Six. Yes, Pinkie Pie really is that crazy.
Seven. The reformation of Discord. This is still a touchy subject, even with us, but it needs to be said. What you saw in your dimensional rift took place over not a few days, but actually took three weeks. We nearly turned him back into stone four times before Fluttershy finally prevailed. As for what he’s doing now? As I understand it, Princess Celestia has him cleaning up potential messes before they start-like removing the caves under Canterlot.
Eight. The reason I didn’t mention my brother to my friends before his wedding was because I’m under a security agreement not to. I can’t talk about him, what rank he holds in the guard or what his responsibilities are to anyone not already in the know. Of course, when I received the invitation, I knew they’d be meeting him anyway, so I figured it didn’t matter anymore. I still got a talking to by Celestia, though.
Nine: Yes. Pinkie really is that crazy, and yes, she’s aware of you guys. Don’t ask me how it works. It’s Pinkie Pie.
And-oh, it looks like I’m running out of magic. Well, I have to go. Maybe sometime in the future i’ll figure out how to actually travel to your world. I’m sure we’ll have so much more to talk about!
This is Princess Twilight Amethyst Sparkle the Second, signing off. Alright Rainbow, now you can buck the arr-
((A/N: This somehow appeared on my computer while I was having breakfast. Weird.))
One of the better things about the Wonderbolt Academy, ignoring the near disaster with Lightning Dust, was that once they’d finished, the recruits were allowed to keep their uniforms. Sure, it wasn’t an official Wonderbolt uniform, but to Rainbow, it was a first and important step towards the illustrious blue and yellow. So was the shining gold Lead Pony badge pinned to the breast, and to almost the same extent, the silver Wing Pony badge that Spitfire had mailed to her three days after the academy finished, the same Wing Pony badge that Rainbow had tossed onto Spitfire’s desk in order to make her point. That badge now rested in Rainbow’s little trophy cabinet.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!” moaned Rainbow, as she stared at a tear running up the side of her recruit uniform. She had just received a letter, inviting her and several of the other recruits to an official Wonderbolt function up in Cloudsdale in a few days, and the letter had requested that they be in their recruit uniforms, so as to differentiate them from the actual Wonderbolts. Rainbow couldn’t be showing up in a torn uniform, Spitfire would have her head for that. The obvious idea came to Rainbow immediately, and she picked up the uniform, and flew out of her cloudhouse, and down into Ponyville proper, eventually coming to a stop just in front of Rarity’s door. She entered, and as the bell above the door tingled, Rarity turned around from the dress she was making, and began reciting her shop’s little motto. Rainbow let her finish, and then spoke up.
“Hey, Rarity.”
The aforementioned unicorn gasped dramatically, “Rainbow! Have you finally decided to purchase one of my exquisite creations?”
“Nah, I still think that stuff’s too girly. I actually need your help, Rarity. Can you repair this?” Rainbow dumped the recruit uniform onto Rarity’s work table, and the white unicorn levitated it up to have a good look at it.
“Yes, I do believe I can, my dear. It won’t be a moment’s work,” smiled Rarity, as needle and blue thread were floated over from the shelf. She expertly threaded the needle, and was stitching the material back together in no time. Less than ten minutes later, Rarity was watching as Rainbow pulled the uniform on.
“Wow, Rarity! It’s like it was new again! Thanks a bunch!” exclaimed Rainbow, and began to carefully pull it off once more. Once she had it off, she turned to the fashionista.
“How much do I owe you for that, Rarity?”
“Not a thing, dear. I don’t charge for work that takes under half an hour, especially not for my friends.”
“But mom, I don’t want to!” whined the filly unicorn, as an older one dragged her along magically by her hind legs.
“Now look sweetie, just because you’ve got your cutie mark doesn’t mean you can’t do other things. Your father and I both think that you should learn how to defend yourself, and it will stop you from getting too pudgy,” the elder unicorn explained, as she renewed her magical grasp on the filly, “And besides,” she continued, “some of your classmates will be there as well. Don’t you want to see them?”
“I don’t want them to see me, though. I’ll be all icky and gross!”
“Oh look, we’re here,” chirped the elder unicorn, as the two arrived at a large building on the outskirts of town. The outside was well kept, and a small rock garden was laid out next to the entrance, and the sign above the door proudly proclaimed the owner and their rank. Upon entering, they saw ponies of all shapes, sizes and types engaged in various practice routines. Some were limbering up, swinging their legs and stretching, others were running through routines, and towards the back of the hall, a group of fillies and colts seemed to be engaged in a game of tag. As the two unicorns watched all this, one of the unicorns in the class spotted them, and made her way over to them.
“Hello, dears. Are you here to sign up?” greeted the unicorn, “my name is Rarity, by the way.”
“No,” muttered the filly.
“Yes, we are. Well, my daughter, at least,” said her mother, giving the filly a short glare.
“I remember being like you, once,” laughed Rarity, bending down to the filly’s level, “I didn’t want to do this either. But it has saved my life on more than one occasion. How about this, then: if you do this class, just try it out, I’ll tell you all about the time I fought a horde of changelings.”
“Really? You fought changelings?” inquired the filly, “Well, I guess trying this out wouldn’t be so bad,” she continued. Rarity straightened up from where she’d been talking, and gave the mother a subtle wink as she did so, before leading the filly off to meet the owner of the gym.
~~~
“Mom, Rarity is so cool! She’s fought changelings and everything!” exclaimed the filly, as the two left the gym a couple of hours later.
“So you’ve said, dear. I take it you want to go back next week, then?” asked her mother.
It was well known by everypony that the magic of Equestria often manifested as music. Everypony, no matter how bad a singer or musician, had music in their hearts, and making a town break into song could often be almost disturbingly easy for the right pony. For this reason, musicians held a special acclaim in Equestrian society, sometimes regarded as the accompanists of the pony’s lives. But for the majority of ponies, this innate manifestation of magical music was simply a pleasant distraction every now and again. For a few conspiracy theorists, it was a sign of Celestia’s tyranny, but nopony really listened to them.
But for a very select few, the music wasn’t just music. For those with the aptitude, the focus and the passion, the music was a way to defend their home from whatever might come their way.
****
The pegasus was soaring over the streets of the city when a bolt of blue magic slammed into his side, as he fell, he tucked one wing in, extended the other all the way out for a brief moment, using the motion to stabilise his fall, and he hit the pavement hooves first. On his way down, he had caught a glance at his attacker, a yellow earth pony mare with a blue mane, and holding a fiddle. The pegasus’ eyes cut to the nearby rooftop as a jaunty tune began to ring out over the nearby streets, and then more bolts of the self-same blue magic began arcing out over the buildings, exploding on contact with the ground, and the pegasus took off, running down the streets, as the magic continued to pepper the ground around him.
On the rooftops, the mare with the fiddle gave a sombre smile, and began to move after the pegasus, leaping over rooftops, and unfortunately having to stop her playing momentarily as she leapt over gaps between the houses, but it was always resumed shortly after landing, and each stroke of her bow across the strings of her fiddle sent another bolt of magic screaming along the neck of her fiddle, and out the head, aiming for her winged target.
The game of cat-and-mouse continued for some time, when finally the earth mare dropped to the street in front of the pegasus, and let loose a furious flurry of bolts as the pegasus slid to a stop, rearing up onto his rear hooves, and reached for something on his back. The magical bolts impacted, momentarily shrouding the pegasus in dust and smoke from the impact of the magic. As the smoke cleared, she saw that the he had pulled his own instrument out-a full-sized, magically amplified bass guitar, and it was this which he had used to deflect the magic at the last moment. Both combatants stared at each other for a few moments, each waiting for the other to make the first move, the pegasus still holding his bass by the neck, like a bizarre parody of a sword, and the mare’s bow poised over her fiddle. Eventually, it was the pegasus, unable to take the tension anymore, who moved first.
He rushed forward, letting the bass slide down his hooves, and switching it to a more traditional hold, more suited for playing, and his front left hoof wrapped around the neck, tapping several notes out even as he rushed towards the earth pony mare. Sparks of green magic flared around him with each note, amplifying his speed. The mare, for her part, the moment she saw the pegasus move, put bow to string and began playing, not the jaunty tune from before, but a slow, stately funeral dirge.
~~~time~~~
And rather than the quick bolts from before emerging from her fiddle, this produced long blasts of blue magic tearing themselves out from the bridge of the instrument. Utilising his wings, the pegasus flipped up and over the beams of magic, and for a single moment in time, he was suspended directly over the mare, his hooves already in motion on a tune of his own, a heavy bass riff. Green witchfire gathered around the magical pickups on his bass, and as he landed, it blasted out, smacking the earth pony in the back.
“Finis!” he cried, as the earth pony got back up onto all four hooves.
“By Celestia, you’re good,” said the earth mare, bumping the pegasus’ hoof.
“Only because I was in the exact same position as you more times than I can count. You’ll get the hang of fighting like this soon enough,” replied the pegasus, “It just takes practice, learning to channel your internal magic in this way. Still, you’re pretty good for a new practitioner at this.”
*****
The ponies who use the magic and music of Equestria as a tool to defend her borders all gather together in an organisation, where they can trade notes and practice tips, and help each other hone their skills. They call this organization the League of Associated Combat Musicians.
Pinkie Pie stared at the other pony. The other pony stared back at Pinkie Pie. Simultaneously, they tilted their heads to the side, eyes staying locked, not blinking. Blinking meant losing, and Pinkie didn’t want to lose. She didn’t want to go back in there if she could help it. In there were things that were best not spoken of.
Most ponies that experienced Pinkie Pie only ever saw the smiling, laughing party pony. But like an onion, there were layers to the pink pony. They also could make you cry if you dealt with them wrong, and Pinkie could do the same. So far, only Rainbow Dash had even gotten a glimpse of what lay beneath the outer shell of Pinkie. Ponies liked to say that she was random, but perhaps something closer to the truth was that sometimes, Pinkie’s mouth worked too fast for her brain to catch up. Having a split personality didn’t particularly help, either. And it was because of this condition of hers that Pinkie tried to remain as happy as possible, because she didn’t want her to come out again.
Pinkamena glared at the other pony. The other pony glared back. The two ponies lent foward at the same time, noses nearly touching. Neither one’s eyes even so much as fluttered. Pinkamena desperately tried not to blink, because if she blinked, that would mean she’d spend even more time locked inside that overly saccharine-sweet shell which she despised so much.
Very few ponies ever saw Pinkamena, and for that, she was grateful. Pinkamena was a loner by nature, a pony who liked solitude. She couldn’t stand being around large groups, small groups, or even just one other pony. Yet, she was constantly forced to endure being inside this silly pony, to put up with her permanently perky personality. She had to be content to just take the few chances to come out when she could. Being constantly surrounded by the usually happy pony’s thoughts was enough to drive anyone mad, and so Pinkamena had retaliated by doing her best to drive the party pony mad. Both ponies had succeeded.
“Doctor, are you sure she’s alright? She’s just been staring at the wall for the last ten minutes.”
“Pinkie Pie possesses a rather...unique condition, Princess Sparkle. She has the most developed case of Magical Split Personality Syndrome that I have ever seen. When she’s lucid, she describes her other personality as a ‘grumpy-meany pants pony, who doesn’t like parties.’ And from the few times I’ve met Pinkamena, as she calls herself, I would have to say I agree.”
“But why is she just sitting there? This is the most still I’ve ever seen her since I met her.”
“As she describes it to me, Pinkie Pie and Pinkamena decide who runs the body for the day by a staring contest. Ninety nine percent of the time, Pinkie wins. But when Pinkamena wins, like on the day you brought her here...Well, you saw what happened.”
*****Time*****
Pinkie Pie and Pinkamena stared at each other from opposite sides of the mirror, each following the other’s movements perfectly. Neither one smiled, because Pinkamena never smiled unless somepony else was miserable, and Pinkie because if she smiled, she might blink, and then Pinkamena would get out again.
“Stupid pony,” hissed Pinkamena, “give up already.”
“No way, you grump. You aren’t getting out again.”
The thing about living next to the Everfree Forest was that the weather couldn’t entirely be predicted. The Everfree produced its own weather, and occasionally it rolled out of the forest and into Ponyville. Normally, this took the form of light rainstorms, or just out of season weather. Once this happened, it was up to Rainbow Dash and the rest of the weather patrol to manage this unruly weather. But every so often, the Everfree would spit out something more dangerous.
The day had started out like most days in autumn in Ponyville did- with mostly clear skies, a slight chill in the air and Rainbow Dash sleeping in. In Ponyville proper, Rarity had begun work on a commission for a high profile Canterlot client, Twilight Sparkle fell out of bed after rolling over her wings, and Pinkie Pie exploded out of her room, singing. But out at Fluttershy’s cottage, as the pegasus was helping several of her squirrel friends gather up nuts and acorns for the oncoming winter, she happened to look up and out over the forest skyline. Dark clouds were gathering over the forest, but as they were still separate, she didn’t think to warn anypony.
By lunchtime, the clouds over the Everfree had congealed into a single massive thunderhead, dark and menacing. As if they were sentient, they began their slow crawl towards the little hamlet nestled just outside the forest’s borders. The weather patrol sprung into action here, racing toward the cloudmass, attempting in vain to stop the oncoming storm. The birds and animals in and around Ponyville fell silent, scurrying and winging their way to their homes, taking shelter in preparation for what was to come.
From this initial encounter with the storm by the weather patrol, which left Thunderlane with one singed wing from a light lightning strike, Rainbow acted as quickly as she could. Knowing that this was no ordinary, manufactured storm, and far greater in strength than any storm from Cloudsdale could ever be, she flew into the mayor’s office and ordered that the town be evacuated. Realising that they were in actual danger, the mayor approved, and Rainbow Dash and the other members of the weather patrol began to race around Ponyville, warning ponies and telling them to evacuate the town.
****Time****
By five o’clock that night, the storm had well and truly unleashed itself upon the now empty Ponyville. Fortunately, most of the houses in Ponyville had lightning rods, and so were spared the potential worst of the damage. But when the ponies who lived in the hamlet began to return the next day, it was to a flooded and waterlogged town. Princess Celestia dispatched a unit or two of her Royal Guard to help get the town back into order and remove the massive amount of water now flowing through the town. It took a few days before the water level had dropped enough that ponies could walk through the town again, and nearly a week before life began to approach normal again. The Princesses commended Rainbow Dash and her entire weather team for their quick thinking, as without it, the potential damage may have been much greater.
“Princess Celestia!” said a member of the Royal Guard, as he ran into the throne room at Canterlot Castle, “The negotiations have broken down. The minotaurs have declared war.”
The Sun Princess was silent for a while as she processed this information, finishing her signature on another official document.
“And what of my Sister, my little pony?” asked Celestia, “What happened to Luna?”
“Our apologies, Princess,” said the guardspony, bowing, “but we were unable to prevent her from being captured. She fought well, taking down several of the Bullhead’s Honour Guard before finally succumbing.”
Once more, silence reigned in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. When Princess Celestia spoke, it was with all the authority and experience of her millennia long rule.
“Sound the alerts, my little pony. Send out the messages, and beat the drums. Equestria did not want to, but to preserve our way of life, Equestria will go to war if we have to.”
“Yes, Princess,” replied the guard, bowing once more, and running from the throne room.
Over the next few weeks, the entire of Equestria began to shift from a peaceful gatherer nation to preparing for war. Blacksmiths all across the country were suddenly receiving more orders for armor and arms than they were farming equipment or kitchen knives. Weather ponies found themselves receiving instruction on the use of lightning as an offensive weapon, and the entire city of Cloudsdale turned from weather factory to war forge. Recruiting centers were set up in every major city, and began accepting anypony over age who wanted to help. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns began teaching the older students both destructive and healing spells.
Even the Princesses themselves were not immune to the shift, as Twilight’s weekly magic sessions with Princess Celestia now included a healthy repertoire of war spells for her to learn. Up in the Crystal Empire, Prince-by-Marriage Shining Armor began ruthlessly drilling what he could into the Crystal Ponies, in an attempt to provide more troops to take the hit of a minotaur charge, while Princess Cadence underwent a tough magic-strengthening routine, trying to boost her magic levels for any possible advantage.
****Time****
The day had finally come. The day when the world would see if the Equestrians still had the mastery of war that they once did, the mastery that had allowed them to drive out the griffons aeons ago. The ponies all lined up, armored and armed, as ready as they ever could be. Three alicorns strode among the ranks of ponies, who had not two months ago been farmers, shopkeepers and weather ponies but were now soldiers and healers, all committed to defending their home to the last.
A horn sounded through the mists that had settled on the plains where the ponies waited.
“Ranks, spears!” bellowed the captains, and the first two ranks of earth ponies leveled spears, locking them in place.
“Archers, ready!” behind the spearponies, unicorns notched arrow to bow, and signaled their readiness.
“May the princesses watch over us,” muttered several of the captains, as the foreign horns sounded again, and the earth began to shake under the pound of foreign hooves.
What’s this? You’re back? A story about Twilight, dear? Hmmm...no, that won’t do. Perhaps this one, then? Ah, I promised her I’d never breathe a word about that particular one to anypony. Idea! Yes, I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t mind me telling you this one, dear. You heard about the Alicorn Amulet debacle, like everypony else did, correct? Good. Now, our little story takes place a few months after that terrible incident, shortly after we reformed Discord...
Twilight, the dear that she is, is nearly impossible to rouse before nine in the morning. Only Pinkie Pie can manage it with anything approaching regularity. However, on this morning, she was yanked out of her bed, and dumped rather unceremoniously on the ground. The pony doing this unseemly act was none other than the not so Great and Powerful Trixie. I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t be so critical of that mare. After all, I completely understand that it’s all an act, intended to inspire her audiences, but she carries on the act even off the stage, and that grates my nerves. Oh, I seem to have gotten off track, dear. Where were we?
Ah, yes. After waiting for Twilight to come to her senses after being awakened so rudely, Trixie then spoke to Twilight in her most regal voice, declaring that since both of them were powerful and talented unicorns, they should have a magic challenge upon a single topic. Apparently, the topic they picked was ‘Fire’, as both of them had, in the past, demonstrated some form of control over it. Twilight had gone first, and had charged her magic so potently as to change her mane and tail into pure flame. In hindsight, she admitted that performing a spell like that while inside a library was not the best idea. Oh, nothing happened, but I don’t think she ever forgave herself for what could have happened, dear. Trixie’s response to Twilight’s spell was much less impressive, as she simply created a small orb of flame hanging in mid-air, shaped like a pony, and made it dance around Twilight’s head a few times, before dissipating it.
After their little challenge was over, and Twilight declared the victor, and they agreed that if Trixie came back, they shouldn’t do the next one inside the library, they went to one of the cafes nearby. I must admit, without her cloak and hat, Trixie does have quite the stunning figure. It would be such a wonder to design a dress for her that matched her colours. This is just...professional curiosity, nothing more. Get those thoughts out of your head right this instant, dear. But back to the story.
Now, I happened to be walking with Fluttershy to the spa as this next part happened, so I know it happened. The two of us watched as Twilight and Trixie ate lunch together, occasionally conversing about some ridiculous minutiae of magic or some other thing. Apparently, Trixie once attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and I think Twilight was happy to have something approaching an intellectual equal, even if was Trixie. Then, the next thing we knew, Trixie had thrown her salad into Twilight’s face, and stormed off in a huff. I mention this, dear, because as she left the cafe, she smiled. Not cruelly, like she had while under the influence of the amulet, but like you do when you see something that you are fond of. But it only lasted a moment, and then it was back to normal Trixie.
Fluttershy and I went over to Twilight, who was also smiling. A bit odd, considering she still had salad plastered over her face and her companion had just stormed off in apparent anger. We helped clean her up, regardless, and then asked if Trixie had done anything to harm her.
****Time****
Twilight replied with that yes, she was fine, and that no, she didn’t know what had set Trixie off. After I sent Fluttershy on ahead to make sure our spa reservations were still fine, I asked what had really happened. Twilight had simply repeated her earlier statement, but added that she thought that Trixie would be back in a few months.
And that, my dear, is how Twilight and Trixie started their little ‘duels’ every few months. It’s always a bit erratic, as Trixie doesn’t like to keep to a set schedule, something which annoys Twilight to no end, but it’s more or less become a routine for the two of them. If you ask Twilight about it, she’ll tell you they share a semi-friendly rivalry, but it’s probably the closest that Trixie has been to having friends in a while, and I applaud Twilight for giving her a chance. Celestia knows I wouldn’t.
Oh, my, look at the time! I really did get into that, didn’t I? I must run, dear. I promised I’d see Sweetie Belle’s school play this afternoon, and I do hate to let her down. You’re still at TMP, yes? Excellent. I’ll be watching for your article.
She couldn’t see the thing that taunted her so. And yet, she knew it was there, haunting her sleep, nibbling at her consciousness during her waking hours. Though she might laugh it off, and say she was fine, she had yet to have a single good night’s rest ever since coming back. More often than not, she awoke in the middle of the night, sweating ice and breathing hard. She simply couldn’t shake the feeling that ever since she came back, something had shifted inside her.
It was twelve months later, when she was finally beginning to get a full night’s rest once more that the dreams started. The actual events of each dream varied, but they always ended the same way. A mocking laugh echoing around her skull, and the vision of a smile, filled with teeth far too sharp to be a pony’s. She never told anypony about these dreams. But the worst part was that somehow, she knew the mouth with the teeth and the laugh were hers, and that terrified her.
When the stars and planets align And moon covers sun while on high The walls of the prison will vanish. To save the world from hell, Search for the Death’s Knoll And the tome of Ancient Binding. Take book and Knoll, And stand upon the top of the world, Recite the spell of Deep Imprisonment And all will be well.
She watched in equal parts horror and fascination as the moon slid over the sun with agonizing slowness, and somehow knew that somewhere, the Gates were opening. Behind her, Twilight Sparkle was rushing about, trying to find the right spell in the ancient book, her words an inaudible mutter to her ears. The instant the moon fully covered the sun, a ringing began to echo in her ears, quickly growing to painful levels, and then, something inside her changed. Then she changed on the outside.
She took off once her hearing returned, revelling in the power of her new visage, and couldn’t help but laugh. This was fantastic! So much power, so much speed. So much better than her old, weak form. She angled her body downwards, speeding up tremendously, and the cone formed around her far quicker than she had ever managed it before. She broke through the barrier, and the sky lit on fire in six different colours.
As the new and improved pegasus soared through the sky, trailing fire, destruction and a mocking laugh in her wake, as she had once trailed rainbows, she remembered the purple pony on the mountain. She couldn’t let the purple pony complete the spell that would at best, seal away her new power, or at worst, drag her down into the Eternal Prison. She changed direction in a heartbeat, and was back at the mountain in a second.
As the former pegasus and the purple princess fought, the pegasus remembered that had it not been for an innocent and well-intentioned desire to rescue her ‘friends’ once upon a time, this might have never come to pass, and she never would have had this power. For she was Rainbow Dash, and she was Loyal to herself, and nothing would ever change that.
Fluttershy stood in the field, watching from below as Rainbow Dash practiced her ever-expanding trick repertoire. She knew why they other pegasus wanted to have somepony watching her, and it wasn’t just to fulfill her big ego. Rainbow could sometimes crash when attempting something new, and she occasionally needed somepony to drag her either back home, or to the hospital, in the rare case that she landed on a wing. Not that she had ever actually admitted that to anypony. Rainbow liked to have Fluttershy there because Fluttershy was still a pegasus, despite her preference for the ground. She still understood some of the forces and stresses that could be put on a pony’s body during acrobatic flight, and Rainbow asked for her advice from time to time. And Fluttershy was always happy to help, and be there for her oldest friend whenever she needed her. She ‘ooh’ed and ‘aah’ed and ‘woo-hoo’ed in all the right places, even if her volume was a bit lacking. But Rainbow knew that come rain or shine, she could always count on Fluttershy to help her with her practice.
Fluttershy lay down on the couch in the Ponyville Spa, as Aloe dabbed a touch of facial cream on her cheeks, while Lotus smeared it over Rarity’s, and flicked two slices of cucumber over the unicorn’s eyes.
“And then, dear, he calls my designs ‘Common trash’! The nerve of that pony, honestly,” said Rarity, as the two settled in for their weekly catch-up.
“Oh no. So what happened after that, Rarity?” asked Fluttershy.
“Well, as it was at one of Fancy Pants’ soirees, I quietly, and to the right ponies, let slip that he may not have been entirely honest about his qualifications. Well, you should have seen his face the next day...”
As Rarity rambled on about the ongoings of the Canterlot social scene, Fluttershy just listened, and nodded in the right places. She updated Rarity with a few tidbits of information that had happened while Rarity had been away. Fluttershy knew that these weekly spa dates were largely for Rarity’s sake, to give her a chance to vent, both about her business and her adventures in climbing the social ladder, and Fluttershy was happy to listen to the unicorn.
Fluttershy sat at the cafe’s table, as Twilight Sparkle sat across from her, guesturing her forehooves widely as she explained some obscure magic spell that Princess Celestia had sent her that week. Even if most of the terminology that her friend was using was plain and simple gibberish to the pegasus, she still sat, listened and sipped her cooling tea.
“And so, if I increase the thaumic output flux to 1.8 gigathaums, I should, in theory...Huh. Fluttershy?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“I just realized. In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never heard about any dreams that you have.”
“D-dreams?”
“Yes!” said Twilight, getting enthusiastic, “You know, ambitions, goals, those kinds of dreams. I have not once ever heard you say anything about yours, and yet we meet week after week and you listen to me ramble on about magic research for the better part of an hour. So, come on, do you have any goals that you want to achieve?”
“Well, um, not really, Twilight,” whimpered Fluttershy, beginning to pull her face back behind her long mane, “Really, I’m just happy to listen to you.”
“Not one dream? At all?”
Fluttershy shook her head in a negative. “I’m just an animal caretaker. But I know that you and our other friends all have big dreams, and if I can help you girls even by just listening to you for a while every week, then I’m happy to do it.”
Ponyville, for all the insanity that happened there, was actually a rather safe town, and as such Nurse Redheart was sitting at the front desk of the Ponyville General Hospital, completely and utterly bored. Through the open door, she could see fillies playing, ponies laughing and,
“Get out of my way!” screamed Rarity, as she barrelled into the hospital lobby, her sister Sweetie Belle held within her magical grasp, bleeding profusely, “I need a doctor, right now!”
“Hang on, I’ll get him. Go down the hall, and first room on your left is free. Put your sister there.” Nurse Redheart galloped off down the halls, heading for the doctor’s office. In a few minutes, the two were back with Rarity and Sweetie Belle, where the younger unicorn was lying on a bed, her blood flowing oddly freely from a deep wound in her side, staining the sheets beneath her.
“Rarity, it hurts,” whispered Sweetie Belle.
“I know, Sweetie. We’re going to make it better, I promise.”
“What happened, Miss?” asked the doctor.
“My sister was injured badly while playing with her friends. This alone wasn’t the cause for my rush though, Doctor.”
“And what was?” asked the stallion.
“My sister has a rather acute form of hemophilia. All of our family has it, in various forms. I just happened to get a mild version.”
“Right. We need blood donors, right now, then. Nurse Redheart, try and stop the bleeding,” said the doctor, “As her sister, Miss Rarity, I should ask...”
“Yes. I’m compatible. I’ve had to donate blood to her before.”
“Excellent. We’ll get started right away,” said the doctor, who then poked his head out the door, and called for another nurse to bring the blood collection kit. Behind Rarity, Nurse Redheart worked to slow, or stop the bleeding coming from Sweetie Belle. In a few minutes, another nurse arrived with the equipment required to extract Rarity’s blood, and soon the elder of the sisters was sitting with a tube coming out of her foreleg, leading to a steadily filling blood bag. A few short meters away, behind a curtain, the doctor and several nurses worked to seal Sweetie Belle’s wound.
Once the bag was full, a nurse detached it, and was about to pull the tube from Rarity when the unicorn interrupted.
“Put on another bag,” said Rarity.
“You’ve given as much as we’re allowed to take,” explained the nurse, “Regulations state that...”
“My sister is going to need as much blood as she can if she wants to live through this, nurse. I can recover from a few lost bags of blood. My sister will not. Put on another bag,” said Rarity, interrupting the nurse once more.
The nurse sighed, and attached a new empty bag to the end of the tube. Rarity gave a small wince as she felt the blood begin to drain from her once again, but it was easily ignored. And once that bag was full, the nurse again detached it.
“Another, nurse,” said Rarity, before the nurse could extract the tube. The nurse wordlessly attached the new bag, and Rarity could not disguise her grimace of pain this time.
****Time****
Eventually, another donor was found in Ponyville, and Rarity collapsed on a hospital bed, having donated half her blood to save her sister.
“How is she?” were Rarity’s first words upon waking up much later in the hospital, “How is Sweetie Belle?”
“It was touch and go for a while, Miss Rarity,” said the doctor, as he polished his glasses, “Your sister lost a great deal of blood. Your donations, and your haste in getting her here saved her life. It will be some time before she fully recovers, but she’s out of danger. Her wound is sealed, and she’s sleeping now. You just recover for now, Miss.” With those words, Rarity smiled, and collapsed back on the bed.
“Thank you, doctor. I think I will.”
Prompt #399-Choosing Loyalties(Contains mild gore. You have been warned.)
(Gore Warning) (A continuation of #394-Corruption)
Twilight stared at the thing that had once been Rainbow Dash as it lunged towards her, mouth open and full of razor sharp teeth. Twilight dodged backwards just in time, narrowly avoiding the snap of Rainbow’s jaw, aimed for her neck.
“Rainbow, what in Equestria are you doing?” cried the princess, “You promised you’d help me!”
“Sorry, Twilight. But this speed, this body...it’s so much better than my old one. I can’t let you take that away from me. I can’t let you send me to the Eternal Prison,” said Rainbow, stalking forwards, and Twilight retreated and looked at Rainbow’s new body. Rainbow left small pillars of multi coloured fire where she stepped, and where her tail dragged on the ground. Her wings had changed from the normal pegasus ones into bigger, more powerful dragon wings, and Twilight could see the light of madness in her eyes. Rainbow shot forwards while Twilight was taking stock of her new form, her jaw unhinging unnaturally.
Twilight wasn’t fast enough this time. Teeth met flesh. Flesh ripped and tore, and blood dribbled down Rainbow’s chin. The former pegasus gave a savage grin, and spat several feathers out, before swallowing what meat she’d ripped from Twilight’s wing.
“You know, I kinda like the taste of pony princess,” mused Rainbow, “It’s got an awesome,”
Twilight interrupted Rainbow by blasting her with the strongest magic she could muster. The beam threw Rainbow off the mountain top, but less than a second later, a Sonic Rainboom rocked the sky, and the very air caught fire in Rainbow Dash’s wake. The supersonic corrupted pegasus slammed into Twilight Sparkle, who only just managed to reinforce her body with magic before the impact, or the result didn’t bear thinking about. Twilight felt Rainbow’s teeth dig into her again, on the same wing as before. As the two separated, Rainbow’s head jerked back, taking another chunk.
“I know you’re still in there, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight, “Rainbow Dash wouldn’t betray her friends like this. She’s the loyalest pony in Equestria.”
“Are you done, princess?” asked Rainbow, swallowing the peice of Twilight’s wing she’d been chewing on, “I’m still me. I just had a realization. The only pony I need to be loyal to, the only one deserving of it, is myself.”
“I don’t want to Fight you, Rainbow. I don’t want to destroy our friendship,” said Twilight, her horn lighting up in preparation for the spell to restore the world to normal again.
“Then don’t cast that spell in that book.”
“What?”
“If you promise to not cast that spell, I won’t hurt you. We can be friends still.”
“I...I can’t. Tartarus needs to be resealed, Rainbow.”
****Time****
“Then I guess we know where you stand, princess,” said Rainbow, and she darted fowards once more. Twilight cast the spell.
It was testament to the ferocity of Rainbow Dash’s final charge that she resisted the spell pulling her down into Tartarus long enough to wrap one hoof around Twilight’s neck, and sink her teeth into the same wing that she had bitten twice before, and ripped a large chunk from it. Then the spell grabbed Rainbow with its full force, and dragged Twilight’s former friend off to the Eternal Prison, the only evidence that she’d been there was a bloody and mangled wing, and the Element of Loyalty sparkling on the ground.
“I’m so sorry, Rainbow,” muttered Twilight, “I’m so, so sorry.” And with that, she collapsed.
Vinyl Scratch sat in the bar, steadily working her way through her second hard cider for the night. Her drinking buddy for tonight was Pinkie Pie, and the mare was already on her sixth. The two had met up to discuss arrangements for the Royal Wedding reception later that week, and after their business had concluded, had agreed to go out for a drink together.
“I think you and that grey pony you live with would make a great couple, Scratchy!” slurred Pinkie, “You’re so fun, and energetic, and, like, the complete opposite of her. Plus, you both like music, right? You two should kiss.”
For a response, Vinyl just rolled her eyes, and took another swig of her cider.
“No, serioushly, you two would be great for each other!” said Pinkie, finishing off her eighth stein quicker than Vinyl could blink. “I’m not as think as you drunk I am. Hey, why can I see ducks?” and with that, Pinkie pitched forwards, and was asleep before her head hit the table. Vinyl sighed, took a few seconds to finish her own stein off, then deposited a small bag of bits on the table, enough to pay for their drinks, plus a tip. She then hauled the pink pony out of her seat, and began the process of taking the pony back to the castle, as the DJ remembered her saying she was staying there.
****
Octavia sipped her glass of wine as she sat in the lounge, steadily conversing with Rarity. The two had met at one of Fancy Pant’s soirees a few months back, and upon hearing that Rarity was designing the dresses for the Royal Wedding, Octavia had decided to see if they could catch up, and maybe get a performance there. Unfortunately, Rarity had revealed that she was not in anyway able to influence who was picked to play at the reception, but had at least promised to bring her name up.
Rarity, while not from Canterlot, was like a breath of fresh air when compared with the other unicorns around the city and Octavia always enjoyed anytime they managed to catch up. She was refreshingly pleasant, and always said what she meant. Octavia didn’t normally wear clothes for her performances, but she may just have to make the trip out to Ponyville to at least look at Rarity’s boutique, just for being pleasant company. It was the polite thing to do, after all.
“My dear, you and this ‘Vinyl Scratch’ sound just perfect for each other,” said Rarity, as she swirled her wine around, “Why, it’s a pattern I see all the time. Shy, reclusive but talented artist, meets loud, outgoing performer...It’s practically a done thing!”
Octavia gave a long suffering sigh, and was about to carefully interject with a rebuttal, but then Rarity glanced up at the clock.
“Oh my. We seem to have gotten a bit carried away, dear Octavia. I still have a great deal of work to do, but this was a welcome distraction.”
Octavia placed her glass down on the table, and nodded her agreement. The two shook hooves, and parted ways, Rarity heading back to the castle, and Octavia back to her apartment.
****
Vinyl entered the apartment she shared with Octavia, having hauled her drinking buddy, and now employer, she guessed, back to the castle. Octavia was already home, and getting ready for bed, which sounded like a fantastic idea to Vinyl right now.
****Time****
As Vinyl made her way towards her room, and her very comfortable bed, Octavia coughed to get her attention. As Vinyl looked over at the cellist, Octavia gestured with her hoof at a blackboard hung on the wall. The board was divided into halves, one side reading ‘Vinyl’, and the other ‘Octavia’. Vinyl rolled her eyes, and nodded once. She watched as Octavia put down another mark under the Vinyl column, and then add one to the Octavia side. Vinyl gave a chuckle, then moved into her bedroom, falling onto her bed, and was asleep within minutes.
Rarity sat on the very comfortable couch in the wine lounge, one of her favourite spots in Canterlot. As much as she loathed the social game that the majority of ponies played here, she had a few friends that she adored almost as much as her Ponyville ones, and it was to see them that she travelled all the way up here every other weekend. Fancy Pants and Fleur sat opposite the designer, laughing at a particularly funny anecdote that Rarity had just related.
“My my, Rarity! And you say that she had no idea until she finished?”
“Oh, yes. It was rather hilarious. As much as I love her as a friend, she can be a bit...obtuse, the dear,” said Rarity, taking another sip of the wine, and smiling pleasantly as it slithered down her throat and gently warmed her.
“But, Fancy Pants, I do actually have a question to ask, if I may?”
“By all means, my dear.”
“Why did you introduce me as your friend, all that time ago, at the first Wonderbolt Derby I attended?” Rarity placed her glass down onto the table between them, a sign of how serious she was.
“Were we not friends, Rarity?” asked Fancy Pants in return, putting his own glass down.
“I ran into you in the street, dear. I knocked you down. And yet, you invite me to one of the major social events of Canterlot, introduce me as your friend and knowingly expedite my rise in the Canterlot social scene.”
Fancy Pants nodded with every point that Rarity made, and once she was done speaking, he turned to face the mare fully.
“I believe that everypony is deserving of my time, but few are deserving of my friendship, Rarity. You are one of the few,” said Fancy, giving a sigh and then continuing on, “But so many ponies in this city are obsessed with their ‘social status’ and being popular for no other reason than being popular. When I introduced you as my friend, Rarity, it was because I believed that we were. There is something about you, something that other mares here don’t have. Despite the fact that it was your mention of staying in the castle that attracted my attention, I very much meant it when I told you that I thought you were somepony worth bumping into.”
Rarity looked ready to interrupt Fancy Pants at this point, but the stallion held up a hoof to forestall any counter-arguments for the time being.
“I have been trying for years to get the ponies here to begin to accept actual friendship, like you and your charming friends have, into their hearts. I know that some here do not deserve it,” Fancy Pants gave a cough that sounded oddly like ‘Prince Blueblood’ at this point, then continued on, “But despite this, I have not yet given up. I offered you my friendship that day, Rarity, and you accepted it. Unconditionally, unquestioningly. You expected nothing in return for simple friendship. And I’d say our relationship has worked out for the better, wouldn’t you?”
Rarity was silent for a moment, then nodded her agreement and understanding and picked up her wine glass again.
“Now, Fancy Pants, I do believe I have something interesting for you. You recall my friend, Rainbow Dash? Well, she told me the other day...”
It was in the dark hours of the morning, well before the dawn that Pinkie Pie woke up. Easing herself out of bed as quietly as she could, she gave Gummy a cuddle, and wrote a short note, which she then carried downstairs with her into the bakery’s kitchen, still moving as quietly as she could. She didn’t want to wake up any of the Cakes, baby or full grown. The bakery was oddly silent at this time in the morning, and Pinkie knew that in only a few hours, the Cakes would be getting up for the day.
Once in the bakery’s kitchen, she then opened a trap door in the floor of the pantry, and emerged after a few minutes, with a large round wooden base, complete with four hoof-sized depressions, and six full bags of chocolate. A quick rummage in the cupboards, and Pinkie had the two largest pans she could find. She half-filled one with water, and set it over the stove, which was promptly lit, and for the moment, kept on a low heat. The other was filled to the brim with as much chocolate as she could. This pan, she set over the steaming water. She then left that, and turned the oven onto a low heat, and picked out several large metal bowls, knowing that for what she had planned, one pot of chocolate would not be enough. She licked her lips, almost unconsciously, but then she slapped herself with a hoof.
“No, Pinkie. You can’t eat this chocolate yet,” she whispered to herself, and then returned to her task. By now, the chocolate in the pan was almost completely melted, and the pink pony took a spoon in her mouth, stirring the thick, velvety and absolutely delicious-looking melted chocolate. Pinkie slapped herself again. Once she was sure that all of it was completely melted, she grabbed one of the large metal bowls, and carefully poured the chocolate into it. Leaving the pot for a while, she then placed the bowl into the oven, where it would keep the chocolate warm and liquid. Pinkie then refilled the pot with solid chocolate, and repeated the process, until all the chocolate she had pulled up from the storage room had been melted.
Pulling all the bowls full of liquid heaven out of the oven, and placing them on the stovetop, where they could still be kept warm by the burners, she pushed the wooden base over to near the stove, made sure that the note that she had written before was clearly visible on the kitchen counter, and that the kitchen was as clean as she could make it. Mrs. Cake hated it when Pinkie cooked and left a mess behind. This was where it got tricky. Taking a deep breath, Pinkie placed her two rear hooves in two of the hoof-slots in the wooden stand, grabbed the freshest pot of chocolate, and began practically painting it onto her rear legs. The chocolate was warm and comforting, and it went on thick and easy. Once the pot had run out, Pinkie leaned over as much as she could without disturbing her already setting legs, grabbed the bowl furthest away from her, turned off it’s respective burner, and continued the process.
Pinkie continued to slather her body in chocolate, making sure that the covering nice and thick. She was suddenly glad that she’d picked a pose that let her balance on two legs this time, rather than four, as otherwise this would be really hard. The last bowl was the trickiest, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Turning the last burner off with her mouth, as her forelegs were already setting, she gripped the edge of the bowl with her mouth, and with almost practiced ease, flicked it up and over. The chocolate spilled over her head, covering it completely and perfectly, with none going onto the floor. Her tongue flicked out, once, twice, poking two nose holes and keeping her mouth clear. The chocolate oozed into her ears, blocking her sense of hearing almost completely, and since she closed her eyes when she tipped the chocolate over her head, she was now completely cut off from the world.
Had she been able to, Pinkie would have smiled as the chocolate set over her body, hardening into an almost impenetrable shell. This was Pinkie Time, her own little hideaway from the world. She’d stay in here until she was refreshed and ready to face the world once again.
****Time****
When the Cakes came down an hour and a half later, they found the chocolate-covered pony completely set, and her note still sitting on the counter.
“Dear Mr. And Mrs. Cake (And Pound and Pumpkin too, but I don’t think you guys can read this), Yes, I’m in the chocolate. Don’t break it, please! I needed some time to myself. I promise, Pinkie Promise, that I’ll pay you for what I used! Don’t be mad, please? Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.
Buut, if you guys could do me a favour, and move me out to the shop floor so ponies can look at me? They might get a laugh or two out of it. Oh, and a big ‘Do Not Touch’ sign on the base, too. That would be superrific! And try to keep me cool, as well. There’s a great spot near the south end. Maybe you could get Twilight to cast a cooling spell or something.
Twilight Sparkle liked lists. Everypony who spent five minutes around the mare could tell you that. She had lists for everything, including her morning routine. But there were a few lists that she had that nopony would ever see. One of these was a small list that she had started shortly after coming to Ponyville. It only ever came out of her locked desk drawer when she absolutely needed it.
It was list of things about Celestia. Twilight, being the Princess’s personal student since her Cutie Mark Event, had more or less grown up believing that Celestia was infallible, and that she had all the answers. After she had been in Ponyville for a few days, Twilight’s mind had thrown her a rebellious thought.
‘If Princess Celestia was so powerful, why did she need my friends and I to defeat Nightmare Moon?’ The thought, though seemingly simple, and with an equally simple answer, began to undermine the image of Celestia in Twilight’s head, and thus Twilight had began to keep the List, so as to keep track of these things.
1. Princess Celestia needed my friends and I to defeat Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.
2. Princess Celestia needed us to defeat Discord, using the Elements again.
3. Princess Celestia was defeated by Queen Chrysalis, and she ordered us to go and get the elements.
The first part of the third item was written in large lettering, and underlined several times. This one event had shaken Twilight more than any of the others on the list. Seeing Princess Celestia fall to the bug-like pony had soundly demolished the idea that the Princess was all-powerful. Twilight being Twilight, she tried to rationalize it away, but the fact remained that Princess Celestia had been defeated. It was only a few days later when Twilight began to see the pattern. If there was a threat to Equestria, Princess Celestia called upon Twilight and her friends to use the Elements of Harmony.
4. The crystal Empire.
Why did her test need to be saving an Empire from an ancient evil? Sure, there were benefits to having the Crystal Empire as an ally of Equestria, but why did it have to be only Twilight who saved the Empire alone?
5. The Discord reformation.
This one had really begun to work Twilight’s brain. For what possible reason could Celestia want Discord turned to good? The only creature alive who was purely and absolutely more powerful than all the princesses combined? Who had power over reality itself? The more Twilight thought, the more she was coming to the conclusion that Celestia was not only not infallible, she was also performing a long term plan.
6. My Ascension.
For what reason, other than a massive plan, could Celestia want another Alicorn Princess for? Twilight may have demonstrated all the nessecary qualities for it, but so had most of her friends, and they weren’t made into princesses. Twilight, by this point, was now fully aware that Celestia was not the radiant, god-like perception that she had in her youth, and was almost certain that Celestia was playing a long game of chess, and the ponies of Equestria were her pieces. But who she was playing against, and to what end still eluded Twilight. After all, this game might not be in the best interests for the rest of Equestria, so she would continue to wait, and watch, as the seeds of doubt festered and grew in her mind.
The heavy beat of leathery wings filled Twilight’s ears as she stood on the ground, neck craned uncomfortably upwards. Every now and again, a wave of heat would wash over the alicorn, causing her to break out into reflexive sweat, but she dare not move. At this distance, she could only just make out which of the two combatants was her adopted sibling and best assistant ever. For all the preparation that Spike had done for this, Equestria’s one and only chance to avoid full war, a war which they were woefully unsuited for, Twilight wasn’t sure that Spike could pull this off. He was still only a young dragon, and his opponent was both many times his size and age.
A blast of flame, red-hot and bright green, scoured the ground less than a ponylength away from Twilight. The others had long since retreated to a much safer distance, but Twilight had remained. She needed Spike to know that she trusted him. That even though she had her doubts, she had placed her faith in him. She had known it was risky, pushing Spike into this so soon after him growing out of his baby drake stage, but both she and Princess Luna had agreed it was the only way. Twilight hated this, hated making other ponies, or dragons for that matter fight Equestria’s battles for her. But dragons were highly magically resistant, and even an experienced spellweaver such as Twilight was would have a hard time pushing even a basic spell through a fully grown dragon’s hide.
She watched from the ground as one dragon raked their claws alongside the other’s underside, digging deep, and drawing a distant cry of pain. She prayed it wasn’t Spike as the two dragons separated. Blasts of fire ripped through the air as the dragons fought, diving and twirling around one another with serpentine grace. Another cry of pain pierced the air, and Twilight suppressed a wince. She watched as the smaller dragon darted around to the back of the larger one, and aimed a claw swipe at the larger dragon’s wings. The larger dragon began to fall, plummeting from the air and landing with a heavy crash that shook the earth under Twilight’s hooves. A second heavy thud signalled Spike’s own landing. Still, Twilight did not move. It may not be over yet.
She could feel heavy footfalls approaching her, and Twilight soon made out her assistant’s signature just short of transparent green spines, as well as his purple scales, once so clean and shiny, now stained and blackened. Twilight couldn’t hold it in any more, and left her spot, dashing to her lifelong companion.
“I knew you could do it, Spike! Oh, I knew it, I knew it!” Twilight nuzzled up against Spike’s forelimb. The air thrummed and pulsated as hundreds of dragons took wing, and began to scatter to the four winds once again
“When have I ever let you down?” wheezed Spike, laying down on the ground, “I could really do with a nap right...now...”
****Time****
Spike laid his scaled head down on his forelimbs, and closed his eyes. Twilight lay herself next to him. Spike’s breathing slowed as the two fell asleep, curled up together like many a night in Ponyville, and then his chest stopped heaving, and the long gashes that the elder dragon had carved into his underside stopped bleeding at last.
Vinyl Scratch, also known as DJ Pon-3, quietly slipped into her bedroom in her shared apartment with Octavia. It had been a long day for the unicorn, being up at the crack of dawn so she could sort out her arrangements for the upcoming music festival, and get registered as a performer. That alone had taken until lunchtime, then she’d had to swing by the Canterlot Conservatory to submit her latest essay for her belated final year of study, and naturally, had then been roped into a demonstration by her tutor for a few hours, leaving the unicorn with only ten minutes to get from the Conservatory in the upper districts to the socialite party she had been recruited to play at. And worst of all, they hadn’t wanted her to play any of her usual fare, just casual background music.
She gently shut the door to her darkened room, and fumbled around for a minute, levitating her saddlebags off and tossing them into a corner. As she began to stumble her way towards her bed, one of her ears twitched, and she turned to face that direction.
“No, I can’t right now,” she whispered, “ ‘m too tired.” Though there was no audible reply, Vinyl seemed to read the mood of the room.
“You always do this. You’re like an addiction for me, and just when I think I’ve gotten out, there you are, pulling me back down. But I can’t be doing this every night. I’ve got essays to write, research to do, and yeah, I know i’d promised I’d do that big project with you, but I have to prioritize things right now.”
Another brief silence fell over the room, and Vinyl turned away, her eyes shut.
“I sometimes ask myself ‘why?’, you know? Why do I put up with you sometimes? I know a lot of ponies don’t like you. Heck, I know Tavi hates you. But I can’t help it. I know you’re not good for me, but I love you, no matter what other ponies say. But that’s why I gotta do all this other stuff right now. Aw, look, I didn’t mean to hurt you. C’mere.” Vinyl moved over and gave something in the corner of the room a hug.
The light flicked on, and Octavia stood in the door of Vinyl’s room, dressed in her ridiculous pink fluffy dressing gown, her jaw nearly scraping the floor, and her eyes frozen in shock. Vinyl, for her part, never let go of the gigantic speaker she had been on the verge of kissing. Her head turned to face Octavia.
“Yeeah. This is...exactly what it looks like.” Octavia, for her part, just reached up, flicked the light back off, and backed out of the room.
Vinyl Scratch collapsed on the ground in the alleyway beside her apartment. Her attackers, four identical white unicorn stallions, all wearing black suits that obscured their cutie marks and dark sunglasses, gathered around her.
“What?” panted Vinyl, “You need four guys just to subdue little old me? What did I do to deserve this?” Vinyl spat a broken tooth from her mouth.
“We represent a group highly invested in the cultural well-being of Canterlot. They have deemed that your ‘music’ is not in line with the cultured and refined image of this great city. Thus, we have been tasked with getting rid of you before you become a problem,” said one of the white stallions.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Vinyl couldn’t help but choke out a short laugh.
“What, you guys are like Canterlot’s mafia? Oh Celestia, that’s hilarious!” Vinyl buckled over herself, laughing until she was stopped by a front hoof slamming into her side.
“No pony is coming to help you. Give up now, and your demise shall be relatively painless,” said the same stallion as before.
Vinyl gave another short chuckle. “You guys seem to think getting rid of me will solve the ‘problem’,” said Vinyl, making air quotes with her front hooves, “And sure, for a while, it might. But sooner or later, somepony is going to pick up where I left off. Ponies are going to experiment with music the same way they experiment with chemicals, or magic.”
Another white hoof slammed into Vinyl’s side, driving the air from her.
“You know,” said Vinyl coughing as she regained her breath, “Kicking ponies isn’t really a good way to get them to do what you want. Sure, you guys can kill me now. But to a lot of ponies out there, beyond Canterlot’s walls, I’m not just a musician. I’m not just a DJ. I’m an innovator. I’m an inspiriation. I’ve shown ponies that music can be anything, that they don’t have to stick with the same chords and notes as what they learn in school. Heck, to some, I pretty much am wubstep. I taught them musical freedom. And that, guys, is why killing me won’t change anything.” Vinyl Scratch finished her little speech, and looked up at her tormentors.
“You never shut up, do you?” said the stallion, and brought his hoof up to slam down on Vinyl’s head.
“Nope,” said Vinyl, “Viva la revolution de musica.”
You could say what you liked about Fillydelphia, but the ponies there knew how to party. Of course, the city may have stunk when the wind blew from the repugnant seaweed farming district, and all its associated processing, but the ponies who lived there were always up for a good time. And obviously, with the upcoming Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and the return of Princess Luna, it was a prime time to have an all-night party.
Such was how Vinyl Scratch found herself in the Fillydelphia hoofball stadium, checking over her equipment as her and several technician ponies performed the final soundchecks. It had already been a long day for the unicorn, as her temporarily uncovered eyes surveyed the overhauled stadium. She’d had to catch the dawn train from Canterlot just to get out here in time, and then it had been an hour’s trot across the city to get to the stadium. Since then, she’d been hard at work, toiling right alongside the road crew and the techs, connecting amplifiers, charging magical batteries and making sure that everypony who entered the stadium would have the best Winter Solstice Celebration ever. She planned for her set to run from sun-down all the way through to sun-up. Or perhaps that should be from Moon rise to moon set? Shrugging, and shaking off a yawn, the unicorn connected the final of her speakers, massive affairs that they were, bigger than a pony standing on another pony.
“How long until moon-rise?” called Vinyl from her turntables. Eight boxes full of records stood ready on the floor beside her, and Vinyl selected the first two, levitating them out with a soft blue glow.
“Half an hour, Miss Scratch,” replied one of the technicians, “But we’re still figuring out how much to charge for entry.”
“Three bits per pony,” was Vinyl’s immediate reply, “That should cover all of our expenses.”
The tech pony nodded, and went off to inform the front entrance of the pricing. Back up on the stage, Vinyl took a few deep breaths, and made sure that the inbuilt icebox in her turntables was full. She’d have to carefully manage how much alcohol she drank. Didn’t want to collapse halfway through the set, like she’d done once before. All-night sets were tricky like that.
The first ponies had begun to trickle in by now, and Vinyl put on some easy background music, something to get the ponies moving a bit, while the volume was still low, and the stadium was still filling up. Then, one of the tech ponies from outside signalled that the sun had dropped below the horizon. Any second now, the moon would rise, and Vinyl would begin her set. She lowered her glasses. The second signal came, and Vinyl Scratch stopped the background music, and kicked things into high gear to a roar from the crowd.
*****
Vinyl stumbled out of the stadium, floating in the slightly unpleasant space between too tired to stay awake, but buzzed enough from the alcohol that she didn’t want to sleep. She blinked as the sunlight hit her face, and was very glad she was wearing her glasses. She began stumbling off, unable to suppress the yawn that emerged from her as she searched for a hotel. She supposed it had been rather silly of her, not to secure a hotel before coming to the show, but she’d been pressed for time. And when was the last time she’d done an all-nighter like that? Vinyl couldn’t remember. Usually, her sets finished around two in the morning, but then again, she also usually had other acts supporting her.
****TIME****
She felt a hoof land on her back, and she slowly spun to face one of the tech ponies, a brown earth pony.
“Miss Scratch? You look dead. Where’s your hotel?”
“Don’t have one,” murmured the DJ, “Need to find one.”
“Come on. You can sleep at my place. It’s not far from here,” said the tech, gently guiding the unicorn towards a modest house at the end of the street.
“Thanks.” The moment that the tech got Vinyl inside, she spotted the couch in the living room, stumbled her way over to it, and immediately collapsed upon it, snoring like a small thunderstorm while the tech locked the door. The tech draped a blanket over the unicorn, gently pulled the mare’s signature glasses off, set them on the end table beside the couch, and then went to bed himself.
The sun slowly sank over the horizon, dipping behind White Tail Woods and lighting everything with a dim orange glow. Octavia stood on the roof of her house in Ponyville, watching the sun as it traced its path through the sky. It was a little tricky to balance on the thatched roof, but this was not something that Octavia was inexperienced at. The same could not be said of her companion, though.
“Whoa!” cried Vinyl Scratch, as she overbalanced and nearly fell off the roof, only saving herself by throwing her front hooves over the peak of the roof.
“You know what?” said Vinyl, mostly talking to herself, “I’m just gonna stay like this.”
Octavia suppressed a giggle. Despite everything that everypony said, she did genuinely enjoy the DJ’s company, for a variety of reasons. As the twilight deepened, Octavia turned her back on the setting sun, and with some difficulty, Vinyl also turned herself around, adopting the same position facing the other way.
“Vinyl,” said Octavia, settling herself down on the ridge of the roof, “Did you know that Ponyville is reported to be the most affectionate town in all of Equestria? Ponies here aren’t afraid to show their love to their special someponies, no matter their gender or species.”
“Is that so?” said Vinyl. The unicorn’s horn lit up, and raised her glasses so they rested above her horn, revealing her magenta eyes, rarely seen outside the musicians’ shared house. The two were silent for a while, as the moon began to rise over the horizon, illuminating Ponyville in its soft light.
From their perch on the roof, the two could see much of the town. A few streets over, they could see that the lights in Golden Oaks library were still very much lit, signifying that Twilight Sparkle was probably on another all-night research binge. As the moon continued to rise, the lights in the town flickered off, one by one, until the only ponies awake were Octavia and Vinyl, still sitting on their rooftop, and Twilight Sparkle over in the library. Octavia stood up first, balancing easily on the peak of the roof. Vinyl followed, with slightly more trouble.
“Most affectionate city, you say, Tavi?” asked Vinyl, as she wobbled and eventually found her balance on the rooftop.
“Supposedly. You can’t believe everything you read, you know.”
Vinyl nodded, “Well then, I suppose that we should...” [TIME]
Vinyl was cut off from by a moan from the streets below. The unicorn moved carefully to the edge of the roof, and glanced down. Sure enough, she saw exactly what she was expecting to see.
“Zombie ponies,” monotoned Vinyl, turning to face Octavia, “Shall we?”
“Indeed,” replied Octavia. And with that, the two jumped off the roof of their house, and into the mob below.
She’s an overenthusiastic DJ. She’s a refined cellist. They fight zombie ponies.
A young Twilight Sparkle sat impatiently in Donut Joe’s. A plate, littered with the remnants of her meal there (Two plain cinnamon donuts, and a glass of orange juice) sat in front of the filly. Twilight glanced up at the clock. It was nearly one in the afternoon, and Princess Celestia had told her that if she was at Donut Joe’s at one o’clock, she’d learn something interesting.
Twilight, for her part, couldn’t see what was interesting about being in a donut store, even one as good as Joe’s. She would rather be at the library, reading a book, but she’d come here because it was Princess Celestia telling her, and Twilight liked being her student, and who knew what might happen if she didn’t do what her teacher said. She might revoke her library card, and that terrified Twilight. The filly glanced up at the clock, and watched as with agonizing slowness, the minute hand clicked another space forwards. Three minutes exactly to go until she supposedly learned something.
To her side, the bell above the door tinkled as the door opened and then closed. Twilight could hear the soft patter of hooves across the polished floor of the shop. Wait, no she couldn’t. The rhythm was all wrong, and the soft ‘clop’ sound that her own hooves made when walking wasn’t there. Twilight watched as a young dragon of all things, scampered up to the counter and ordered a plate of chocolate covered donuts, depositing the correct amount of bits to pay for it from a backpack he was wearing. The dragon also seemed really familiar to Twilight. Purple scales, the exact same shade as her fur compromised his body, and just short of transparent rounded spines ran in a line from the top of his head all the way down to his spade-shaped tail. Twilight watched as the young dragon, who barely came up to her chest, picked up his plate of donuts, glanced around the mostly empty diner for a few moments, and then wobbled over and sat at Twilight’s table, and immediately shoved a donut into his mouth.
“Ahem,” said Twilight, clearing her throat. The dragon paused in his consumption of the donut and hastily swallowed what was in his mouth while Twilight continued, “Would you mind picking another table? I’m waiting for the Princess. She should be here at any moment, and I doubt that she would like a little dragon stuffing his face at her table.” The young dragon, however, instead of replying verbally straight away, instead rummaged around in his backpack, pulled out a photograph, and looked back and forth between it and Twilight a few times, before nodding to himself.
“Right,” said Twilight, “Spike. Nice to meet you, but I’m still waiting for the Princess.”
“She sent me here. I’m your assistant.”
Twilight blinked, as her brain processed the information that Spike had just dumped on her.
“My...assistant?”
“Yep!” said Spike, “She said you’d be getting a lot of work or something soon. Oh, and there’s also this. The Princess told me to give this to you when I met you.”
***TIME***
Spike rummaged around in his bag for a few moments, eventually producing a bound scroll, which Twilight snatched out of Spike’s grasp with her magic, and unrolled it.
‘My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,’ began the letter, and Twilight had to suppress a rush of glee at the honorific before continuing.
‘By now, you will have met young Spike. He is indeed telling the truth, and is to be your new assistant. In addition to being a wonderful helper, he also possesses the ability to send letters to myself directly through his magical fire. Simply get him to breathe on the letter you wish to send, and it will make its way to me, and I can return in kind. Also, I have obtained your parent’s permission, and you are now going to live in the Library tower of the School. While living there, it will be your responsibility to keep everything organised and tidy. Spike should help you with that. It is my hope that the two of you become fast friends, as well as colleagues. Your teacher, Princess Celestia.’
Twilight finished reading the letter. Then she read it again, just to make sure it wasn’t a hoax.
“I’m going to be living in the library tower?” she muttered to herself.
“I’m going to be living in the library tower!” cried Twilight, rejoicing at the thought of having all the books she could ever want, and then deciding that there was absolutely no time to waste. She rushed out the door, but came back in after a brief moment to magically grab her new assistant and yank him and his backpack after her, trailing them behind her as she galloped through the streets of Canterlot.
The pig and the pony faced each other on the rooftops. Lightning flashed, and thunder rolled.
“You see, you cannot stop me, Donny. Ponyville will know the wrath of Professor Piggy!” The pig himself was, well, he was a pig. A little diminuitive in stature, perhaps, but that had never stopped anypony, or anypig, before. The cape fastened around the pig’s neck only served to enhance his majesty and presence.
“No, Piggy. I will stop you,” said Donny in reply, “And I will save Ponyville from your dastardly schemes and plots.” The pony facing off against the pig was a green earth pony, with a purple mane and a short goatee. A cutie mark of a pink quill with several ink drops flying off it adorned his flank. Another bolt of lightning tore itself from the dark clouds above, and the loud boom of thunder followed in its wake.
For a while longer, the two mortal enemies simply stared at one another, as if engaging in a mighty battle of willpower using only their eyes. Had anypony else been asked to describe their thoughts on the battle, they probably would have thought that the two nemeses would engage in deadly combat, with each so perfectly matched that neither would get the upper hoof as they did glorious, awesome battle.
What really happened was this: Professor Piggy charged towards Donny with a great cry of ‘For Angst!’ and immediately ran into the pony’s outstreched hoof, where his stubby limbs flailed as they strained to reach the pony, but fell short by nearly a foot. Eventually, Professor Piggy grew tired, and slumped down to the ground.
“Curse you, my nemesis. You have defeated me once more,” said the pig, and Donny just rolled his eyes. Overhead, a blue pegasus shoved his head through the cloud bank to look down at the pony and the pig.
“Hey, are you guys done with your thing down there? I had to bribe half the weather patrol to get this storm for you. Dramatic weather effects don’t come cheap.”
“Yeah, we’re done. You can get rid of the storm now,” called Donny, and the pegasus retracted his head back through the cloudbank so he could begin dissapating it.
*****TIME*****
“But why, Donny? Why do you always prevail?” muttered Piggy, as rays of sunlight began to break through the dark clouds.
“Aside from the fact that I’m a foot taller than you? Ponies like happy endings, Piggy. They want to see the champion get the mare. Sure, angst can be useful, but without the makeouts at the end of the story, it’s just a big stick with no cupcake at the end,” explained Donny.
Twilight Sparkle dived into the whirl of magic that Nightmare Moon used to teleport the Elements. Shaking her head once back on firm ground, and no longer surrounded by the dark blue magic, she got back up onto her feet.
“Oh my gosh,” said Twilight, “You really are Nightmare Moon. At first, I thought it might have just been Princess Celestia in drag again. She dresses up as you sometimes, you know. Therapy or something. But the actual Nightmare Moon! You terrified an entire generation into not sleeping!”
“What are you babbling about, foal?” said Nightmare Moon, “Could it be that you agree with me? That the Night should Last Forever?”
“Oh, no. Of course not. I’m just a really big fan of yours. But I’m going to need the Elements now,” said Twilight, and began casually walking towards Nightmare Moon, “I may not be able to scare as many ponies as you, but even you have fears. And there’s a new spell that I’m dying to try out.”
******
When Applejack and Twilight’s other friends arrived, they found Twilight calmly sitting on a fallen pillar, the Elements at her hooves, and Nightmare Moon scrabbling at the far end of the room, in a desperate attempt to get as far away from Twilight as possible.
“Oh, girls, I’m so happy to see you!” said Twilight, throwing her hooves around Applejack, as a glimmer lit up her eyes. The Elements shattered, and reformed into necklaces around Twilight’s five friends, and the crown lowered onto her own head, resting nicely above her horn.
“Let’s purge Nightmare Moon.” And with that statement, the elements powered up, and shot their rainbow out towards Nightmare Moon, surrounding her with a whirl of colour and light. Nopony but her ever heard the sibilant whisper in her ear in Twilight Sparkle’s voice.
“I’m watching you.”
***TIME***
After Princess Celestia arrived, and went to comfort her newly reformed sister, amidst the constant repetitions of ‘I’m sorry’, the elder princess caught one sentence that was very much out of place.
‘Keep her away from me.’ At first listen, it could be referring to the spirit of the Nightmare, but Celestia had her own suspicions about who the ‘her’ was. There had been two nightmares in the castle that night. Only one could be cured.
We should have known that the threat wouldn’t be over that easily. We should have seen it coming. Should have been preparing. But Equestria has grown too used to peace, to stability. We had been a race of fighters, once. In the old days, even before Princess Luna’s banishment, we were far more militaristic. We had allowed ourselves to grow soft, and our first victory against them was by mere fluke. Because Queen Chrysalis was a better planner than we thought. When she first attacked Canterlot, she brought only just enough for her plan. No more, no less. The second time, we had been greeted with the full force of the Changeling Hive. If a month of infiltration, love harvesting and a small army didn’t work, overwhelming force would, I think her reasoning was.
They swept in from the south, pouring out of every nook and cranny in the mountains, and we were forced to try and stop them, and were greeted with the horrifying truth of the Changelings. They could put new soldiers on the battlefield as fast as they could grow them. For every one we felled, six more took its place. Appleloosa and Dodge City fell first, and so quickly that nopony had a chance to even get a warning off. Ponyville was lucky. The Changelings had to divert around the Everfree to reach it, and that gave them just enough time to evacuate. And Evacuate they did-Into the Everfree itself. For some reason or another, that forest is anathema to the Changelings. When they arrived at Ponyville, they found a ghost town, and for that, I’m grateful. But Queen Chrysalis ordered the push towards Canterlot.
We’ve been holed up here for a while now. Food is carefully rationed. The only reason the City hasn’t been taken yet is due to the Princesses and myself carefully maintaining a barrier over the entire city. Nopony goes through it. Part of me is almost admiring of the Changeling’s strategy. They pushed hard and fast, preserving lives to feed off, and keeping the infrastructure mostly intact. They control most of Equestria right now. Every day, Chrysalis comes and floats right outside the shield to taunt us with the latest news-another city fallen, another sub hive established, trying to convince us that it’s just easier if we give in.
But despite her claims, we still have hope. We know that the ponies of Ponyville escaped, because you organized the exodus. And your letters can still pierce the barrier without compromising it, so we know that you’re building back up in the forest. Keep hitting them however you can, Twily. Move fast, hit hard. We’ve also received word that there’s a decent pocket of resistance in Fillydelphia and Manehatten, as well as a few scattered all over the country. Now we just have to figure out how to end this. But you’re smart, you’ll work something out.
The pony, wreathed in a plain brown cloak, ducked into the alleyway off the street without a second’s hesitation. The soldiers, all the same grey unicorn, and clad in the flak vests and gold insignia to signify their membership of the Royal Security Force, followed soon after. However, when they entered the alleyway, they only found piles of detritus and refuse, as well as a bum, asleep or dead by the wall.
“She’s gotten away,” said one, checking that the bum wasn’t their target in disguise.
“She can’t be far. She must be recovered. Ruler Celestia wants her toy back,” said another, his uniform marking him as an officer. “You two double back. Make sure she hasn’t given us the slip prior to this. Contact Ariel Division, get them to sweep the sector.”
The soldiers left the alleyway, and a small metal spider crawled out of a pile of rubbish, its single red camera eye scanning the environment. Then, by some unspoken command, millions of similar robot spiders poured from their hiding places in the alleyway, and began lumping together. In under five seconds, the figure of a pony was standing in the alley, missing only a head. The last spiders, including one that was nearly double the size of a Sweet Apple Corporation Apple, formed the head. As the last spiders clicked into place, an electrical charge rippled over the pony’s body, activating a chameleon feature, turning her ‘skin’ purple. The pony’s horn lit up with a purple glow, pulling her cloak out from behind a bin and wrapping it back around her body. Her eyes checked both directions of the alley, making sure that nopony saw her, and then she ran off towards the other end, away from the soldiers.
****
If somepony was to try and describe Trixie Lulamoon in one word, that word would likely be ‘Annoying’. To the Royal Security Force, she was annoying because she was a damn good picker, capable of breaking into almost anywhere. To the ponies in the underground rebels, she was annoying because her optical implants could tell when you were lying, and thus could expose half of them with a single tip in the right place. And both groups considered her annoying because they needed her, and she knew it. She was also a rabid kleptomaniac, and unfortunately had the skill to back up her compulsion. Anypony giving the blue unicorn a hug would likely find their credbits missing afterwards.
****TIME****
But Trixie was one of those ponies who knew absolutely everyone. If you had stolen data, she could find someone who needed it. If you needed somepony eliminated, she could find somepony to do it. And it was this, despite all of her annoying personal habits and quirks, which kept her alive and in a delicate balance between the Security Force and the underground rebels. But Trixie hadn’t survived without gathering a few vital instincts. Thus, when a purple alicorn, (Trixie could make out the shapes of the wings under the pony’s cloak), stumbled into the software shop that Trixie ran, which also served as a front for the rebels on occasion, Trixie’s instincts blared at her to get the purple pony out of sight right the heck now. So she escorted her from the software shop’s floor upstairs to her private residence, and told her to wait for a while.
When she came back down to the shop’s floor, an officer of the Security Force was waiting for her.
“Lulamoon?” he growled.
“You’re talking to her.” Trixie casually pulled out a bottle of oil, and began lubricating her artificial front right leg.
“We have reason to believe that an escaped experiment was heading through this district. One of Ruler Celestia’s favourite ones, as well. Should you see this pony,” the officer passed Trixie a poster, “Please notify a Royal Security Force officer when you can. She’s supposedly dangerous, so don’t confront her yourself.”
“Got it,” replied Trixie as she stared at the poster for the pony currently in her upstairs bedroom, while the officer showed himself out of the store.
“Experiment SP-4-RK13, Twilight Facility?” she muttered to herself.
Twilight Sparkle stared at the image of herself formed by reflection and refraction of light in a polished and metal-backed piece of glass. She ruffled her wings uncomfortably, spreading them and then refolding them. She supposed that with time, she would get used to them. Ponies were so unlike the books she treasured and loved. Books, once printed, didn’t change, and that was good. It meant that their contents were fixed, an absolute. But ponies couldn’t be printed. Ponies changed, and that meant that if books were a constant in the equation, then ponies were the variables.
But if books and ponies could be reduced to simple mathematics, then that also meant that life in general could. Everything was just one big equation, being evaluated thousands, millions of times a second. Every time something changed, the equation would be re solved. Princess Celestia had said that this was her ‘destiny’, but the variable called Twilight wasn’t so sure. If destiny was an actual force, then that meant that nothing she did was of her own free will. It was all predetermined, laid out and declared as constant. If she jumped off the highest balcony of her tree of knowledge, would she crash to the ground, or would her wings save her? Which one was part of her ‘destiny’? if she was meant to crash to the ground, but saved herself by usage of her wings, would that be defying her destiny? Or was that her actual destiny?
Twilight walked away from the mirrored glass, and her horn lit up with a soft amethyst glow, pulling a number of books down from their positions on the carefully organised shelves. The dictionary was only helpful in providing a definition for ‘destiny’, (1. Course of events; pony’s fate. 2 the power which foreordains), which Twilight already knew. Astrology was also completely unhelpful, because horoscopes were too vague for what she needed to know. Twilight absorbed the constants of information throughout the day, only suffering minor diversions to eat a grown tree-hanging fruit bought from her friend, and convincing the living permanent sugar rush that was Pinkie Pie that the library where Twilight made her home and her occupation was not an appropriate place to test the Party Cannon’s rapid fire feature.
As night fell, the unicorn-turned-alicorn-princess that was Twilight Sparkle placed the constants of information back into their positions on the shelves. As she climbed the stairs to go up to her bed, she reflected on the day’s study. Nothing she had found had adequately explained who, or what, determined a pony’s destiny. But if Princess Celestia had told her it was her destiny, then she must be telling the truth, right? The Princess was so much older and wiser than Twilight.
And so, Twilight Sparkle went to sleep. And then she was a fish.
Twelve ponies stared at each other as they faced off across the main street of Vanahoover. At first glance, these twelve ponies could be taken as allies, given their very similar attire, but the set legs on each pony, and aggressively hiked tails suggested otherwise. On one side, the Sailors of Harmony stood arrayed. Pinkie Pie, Sailor Laughter had her mystical Party Cannon weapon out. Sailor Honesty, Applejack was next to her, her metal-clad hind hooves set and ready to buck. Sailor Generosity, Rarity was levitating a gleaming sabre. Sailor Magic, Twilight Sparkle had a visible corona of magic pouring out from her, and if you looked closely, was actually levitating from the output of her magic. Rainbow Dash, Sailor Loyalty was actually on the ground for once, the edges of her armoured wings gleaming in the sunlight. Even Fluttershy, the normally timid Sailor Kindness, was standing firmly. All the Sailors of Harmony were clad in the japonese-styled uniforms, the scarves and skirts matched to their element colours. The actual elements themselves were around their necks, (or on her head, in the case of Twilight’s Big Crown Thingy), and were subtly glowing in anticipation of the upcoming battle.
On the other side of the street, a slightly more eclectic group stood. These six ponies were the Sailors of Music. Octavia, the Sailor of Emotion, stood with her cello bow in hoof. Upon closer inspection, the hair that normally comprised the bow had been replaced with a blade. Lyra Heartstrings, Sailor Lyric stood on only her hind hooves, but her breathing was calm, and her lyre was at the ready. Fiddlesticks, Sailor Melody, was a yellow earth pony with a blue mane in a similar style to Octavia’s (in fact, the two were distant cousins), had her fiddle ready, and was also only standing only on her two hind legs. She and Lyra were actually leaning up against one another, in order to stabilise each of them. Vinyl Scratch, Sailor Rhythm had her legs spread, and her tail high in the air, and her front hoof was pawing at the ground impatiently. Then came the strange thing, as the final two ‘Sailors’ in the Sailors of Music were stallions. Thunder Tempest, Sailor Bass, was floating just above ground level, his bass guitar in his hooves. And Frederick Horseshoepin, Sailor Harmony (not to be confused with the Sailors OF Harmony), had adopted a similar position to Vinyl, head down, tail up, and pawing at the ground.
***Time***
All of the mares in the Sailors of Music were dressed very similarly to the Elements of Harmony, the only difference being in colourations and other minor cosmetic differences. The two stallions were wearing more formal jackets in dark blue, and ties with their corresponding colours.
“This is our enemy! She’s a threat to all of Equestria!” cried Twilight Sparkle, waving a hoof at the unicorn sorceress who was standing between the two teams.
“Yeah, but she’s using music to do it, and that makes it OUR realm!” called back Vinyl. “Go back to Ponyville!”
“You go back! Princess Celestia personally asked me to deal with this mare!”
“If the Princess asked you to dive off the top balcony of your library, would you do it? She’s asked you to deal with an enemy that you have no idea how to beat! We, on the other hand, deal with this kind of enemy all the time. Do the smart thing, and let us handle it.” By this point, most of the two teams had relaxed from their ready positions. Pinkie Pie had vanished the Party Cannon back to wherever she kept it, Rarity had sheathed her sabre, and Lyra and Fiddlesticks had both dropped back down onto all fours while the two leaders argued about who was going to deal with the opponent.
Naturally, the sorceress, being an evil pony, tried to take advantage of the situation, and began to play her enchanting music once more. Both Vinyl Scratch and Twilight Sparkle instantly responded by blasting the unicorn at full force. The combined power of the youngest alicorn in existence and the power of rhythm emitted from Vinyl Scratch quickly dispelled the enchantment on the music, destroyed the device used to emit it, and threw the unicorn back into a wall, knocking her unconscious. The two leaders of the teams glanced at the result, and then turned back to each other.
“See, I told you we could handle it!”
“Puh-lease. It was my power that did it!” Behind them, in complete synchronisation, the other ten ponies slapped their hoofs to their faces with a groan.
“Court adjourned,” stated the judge, smacking his hoof on the desk to signal the end of the session. The court stood up at a command from the bailiff, and remained so until the judge had left the room. Once the door behind the stands had closed, everypony began to move around, and talk once more. Vinyl Scratch collapsed behind the desk next to her lawyer.
“Well, that could have gone better,” murmured the DJ, “Can I go home now? I’m still getting over my hangover.”
“Yes, you can go now, Miss Scratch. I’ll be by later in the week with all the official documentation,” sighed the lawyer, “Just remember what your sentence was.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m not stupid,” said Vinyl, getting back on her hooves, and trotting towards the door. She had a date with her bed at home.
******
Or at least, she would have if Octavia hadn’t been there, waiting for her in the living room. Vinyl suppressed a groan. She’d forgotten that Octavia hadn’t been able to attend the court session because she had been at a performance. Now she’d have to share the verdict with her roommate and friend.
“Well, how did it go? Did Sharp Wit get you acquitted?” asked Octavia.
“Not entirely.”
“What was your punishment, then?”
Vinyl sighed, “I am now no longer allowed within twenty paces of the Magic Horn, and Prince Blueblood tried to get me thrown out of the city. The judge laughed him off.”
“Well, that’s not so bad, I suppose...”
“I am also forbidden from entering any clubs in the city for the next moon cycle, being within the same building as Prince Blueblood, associating with somepony called Trixie Lulamoon and entering the Shakesmare Concert Hall.”
“At least you have some bits saved up, right?” was Octavia’s weak offering.
“I am also required to do one thousand hours of community service at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as a librarian. I’ve also got a handler from the Royal Guard that I need to report to every seven days, and yes, he or she will be checking with my boss at the library to make sure I’m working.”
“It...could be worse?” said Octavia.
“I am also now not allowed to break a single noise ordinance here until my community service is done.”
****Time****
From Vinyl’s tone, that was clearly the worst punishment that the judge could have imposed.
“Well,” began Octavia, with all of her accumulated tact, “at least you aren’t in jail.”
Old habits die hard. Trixie knew that better than anypony else. When she was younger, she was taught about sleight of hoof tricks by her slightly deranged grandfather. Saying that she was skilled at sleight of hoof did not do her justice. Trixie Lulamoon was amazing at sleight of hoof. Of course, the skill didn’t just apply to magic tricks, and it did not take Trixie long to figure out these other uses. There had been a toy, or something that she had wanted, but lacked the bits to get it. But then, as she was trotting down the street of her home town one day, she realised that the pony in front of her had failed to close her saddlebag correctly, and Trixie could see the pony’s bitpurse poking out. A gentle bump, and an apology later, and Trixie was thirty bits richer. At first, she felt bad, and swore never to steal again. However, a few months later, Trixie had needed to buy a train ticket, so that she could go and see her grandparents. Unfortunately, on the way to the station, she had lost the money that she had been given for the train fare. Another bump into a pony, a hasty apology and a few fake tears later, the pony she had bumped into had paid for her ticket, and Trixie acquired some spending money.
From there, Trixie’s skill at conning ponies only grew. At first, she had promised to herself that she would only do it when necessary. But it was a rush for her, the adrenaline of subtly manipulating ponies to get what she needed, and later, what she wanted. The small world of her hometown was her oyster, and Trixie could open it up anytime she wanted.
And then she met Quick. Quick Hooves. The older earth pony used to be a dancer, but was herself a decently skilled con-artist. Quick took Trixie on as a pseudo-apprentice and eventual friend, and taught her everything that she knew. But after a while, Trixie’s interest began to wane. There was no more challenge in her hometown. That was when Trixie received the letter that would change her life. A letter accepting her into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
While at the school, her interest for magic was satiated, but there was another itch. She had already promised herself that she would not steal or con anything from her fellow students or staff. But as she would find out, old habits die hard. She held to her self-imposed ban on theft and conning for half a year, and then she needed a new book, and lacked the bits to get it. Before she’d even realised what she was doing, she brushed past one of the richer students, and made their bit bag a decent bit lighter.
****Time****
In her hometown, Trixie had never once gotten caught. Whether this was because she was just that good, or because everypony was an idiot was still up for debate for her. Her unbroken streak got cut off while she was at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Some colt caught Trixie’s hoof reaching into his bag, and took it up with a teacher. Trixie managed to get off with a warning, after pulling out the tears, and a story about how her family wasn’t particularly well off. After that, Trixie reinforced her self-imposed ban on theft. It lasted all of three months.
Eventually, Trixie was politely asked to leave the school. Trixie wasn’t stupid, she knew when to retreat, and left with minimal fuss. From there, Trixie set up her stage persona, which she had already been developing while at the school, and set off on her way as a travelling performer. Her magic was impressive for somepony her age, and her skill at conning ponies fed into her act, convincing them she was truly a Great and Powerful unicorn. And for a while, that was good. Ponies donated enough bits to keep her fed and moving, which also helped control Trixie’s urge to con ponies.
Trixie still refrains from abusing her talent most of the time, preferring to use her magic to make her bits. Largely because pulling con jobs and thievery is illegal, while putting on a magic show is perfectly legitimate, if occasionally a bit annoying. But while Trixie might only be a slightly above average spellweaver, she was practically at the peak of the con artist world. So the next time the Great and Powerful Trixie comes into town, consider tossing a few bits into her hat. Because the alternative is that she cons you out of everything you have on you. Because Trixie knows that old habits die hard, and this is one habit that she is very, very good at.
“Ah, Miss Octavia, thank you for coming,” said the unicorn teacher sat behind the desk in the school. A rush of memories flooded into the grey cellist, as she had gone to school here herself. She took a moment to close her eyes, and bask in the memories. She opened them, and found the teacher looking at her expectantly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. This place holds many memories for me. Please, continue. My focus is solely on you now, dear sir.”
“So about your filly, Bridged Note. Academically, she’s doing well. High B’s in most of her classes. She’s one of our stars of the music classroom.”
“Yes, I would imagine that she gets it from both me and Vinyl,” said Octavia, smiling. She didn’t miss the miniscule frown that crossed the teacher’s face at the mention of Vinyl, though, but let it go.
“But, as talented as she is, we’ve had a few issues. Language, mostly. Several teachers have caught her swearing, sometimes at other students. One was reduced to tears from her insults.”
Octavia frowned. She remembered that incident. Bridged Note had been utterly horrified that her words could have that much of an effect on somepony else, and had spent the next week trying to make it up to the other pony.
“Yes, she probably picked that up from Vinyl. Vinyl does tend to express herself rather more crudely than most. I will talk with Bridged about that.”
“Yes, and where is Miss Scratch this evening?”
“Right now?” said Octavia, looking up at the clock on the wall, “She’s likely in the middle of her set in Manehatten’s hoofball stadium.”
“I see. There is also the matter of your daughter’s magic.”
Just as the teacher was about to go into an explanation, Octavia held up a hoof to forestall him, pulled out a notepad and pen, and set herself up to write. Then, with a nod, she motioned him to continue.
“Magic is perhaps the one class that your daughter truly has trouble with. She claims she practices every night, but yet we see little to no improvement each week. The other students are miles ahead of her. Now, I don’t know if this is because she has trouble grasping the concept in her mind, or because it’s from Miss Scratch being an inattentive parent, but...”
The pen fell out of Octavia’s mouth. The room went deathly silent, the only sound being the gentle tick-tock of the clock on the wall.
“How dare you,” said Octavia, her voice low and dangerous, “How dare you imply that Vinyl is anything less than a brilliant parent. I have taken much abuse on Vinyl’s part, sir. I know full well what the Canterlot upper crust think of her, and at every soiree, I suffer the same remarks about ‘that boorish, unrefined, uncultured unicorn’. But one line that nopony is ever allowed to cross is implying that Vinyl does not care for our daughter.”
***Time***
“Yes, Vinyl couldn’t be here tonight,” continued Octavia, “she hasn’t been here for many of Bridged’s other events either. Do you want to know why? It’s because she’s out there, working her flank off to provide the best possible life she can for her daughter. And both myself, and Bridged, know that. I am aware that by Vinyl’s absence, she cannot teach her daughter about her magic. It’s killing her that she can’t pass on her knowledge to Bridged except in short fits and bursts.”
As the teacher made to interrupt with a rebuttal, Octavia cut him off once more.
“Vinyl Scratch is Bridged’s favourite parent, dear sir. Do you want to know why? Not because they’re both unicorns, not because Vinyl lets her get away with things like eating half a tub of icecream, or staying up late on a school night. It’s because whenever Vinyl is home, she is never, ever too busy to listen to her daughter, or help her with her homework. It’s a crime that I am unfortunately guilty of on occasion. Now, I think I have heard enough, so I shall take my leave.” Octavia stood up, packed the notebook back into her saddle bags, and strode out the door without a single backward glance.
Prompt #440-No Police Boxes or Phone Booths Allowed
Rarity liked to consider herself a decently capable unicorn. She knew that she was nowhere near Twilight Sparkle’s level, but then again, was there anypony outside of the Princesses who was? But still, Rarity was a capable spell caster when the time called for it. But never before had Rarity wished so badly that she could travel through time in any other direction than the slow plod forwards demanded by life, a feat which was very clearly outside her limited capabilities.
With Autumn coming to a close, and the changeover to winter happening next Tuesday, Rarity would have loved to be able to jump about a week and a half fowards in time. Just enough so that she could get an idea of what the fashions for this season were going to be, and then come back, so she could get a head start. This wishful thinking of Rarity’s happened every year, mostly around the season changes between autumn and winter, and the change between spring and summer. Of course, it never lead anywhere, because Rarity, while knowing that time travel was possible thanks to Twilight, it would also be impossible for her, as she lacked the sheer power of Twilight Sparkle.
Now, it should be noted that there is a fairly large magical leyline, the source of all magical power in Equestria, running through Ponyville. It also happens to run straight through Rarity’s house and Boutique. Normally, leylines are completely harmless, and only a very experienced spellweaver could tell that they are even there. The only side effect of them is a prolonged lifespan. At least, as long as the leyline is healthy. A fully ruptured leyline is among the worst of all magical disasters, as the separation between pure Magic and the real world dissolves and Magic spills into the world. The one running through Rarity’s boutique was developing a small tear. Whether the events that followed were laid out by some higher power, or if it was all just sheer luck will never be known.
Rarity, currently fixated on the idea of travelling forward a week and a half in time, was in the main room of the Boutique. The tear in the leyline took place in her kitchen. An overabundance of Magic poured through the house, transforming several peices of Rarity’s furniture into plants. And then it found Rarity, and latched onto the desire she was currently harbouring. Without any warning from Rarity’s point of view, her horn began to glow, fiercer than she had ever seen it glow before. And then, with a snap, crackle, and a pop, she vanished, the Magic casting her through the weave of time and space.
Prompt #442-TVTropes Is More Correct Than It Knows
There are many ponies in Equestria. There are unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. There are even a small number of alicorns, ponies who possess all three racial traits bound in perfect synergy. And then there is Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie is about as much a pony as Discord is. Perhaps less so.
Pinkie Pie is, in every sense of the phrase, Fun Ponified. No, we are not talking metaphorically. She is the physical manifestation of fun. She is an abstract idea made solid, pink and somewhat adorable. Whenever she meets a new pony, she gets what their idea of fun is through plain eye contact, absorbs that into herself, integrates it into her personality, and immediately rushes off to prepare the customary ‘Hello New Friend’ Party. With each new pony met, her concept expands, and so do her little eccentricities. Pinkie being what she is, she is assured existence as long as one pony wants to have fun, effectively rendering her immortal or at the very least, exceedingly long lived.
Being the physical ponification of Fun, Pinkie Pie is also not bound by the normal laws of physics. As long as someone is having fun, or laughing, Pinkie Pie can do anything to keep it going. This includes little things, like stretching or compressing her body beyond its natural limits, all the way up to breaking the fourth wall. If someone thinks its fun, Pinkie Pie can do it. And since she is the Element of Laughter, this also applies to anything which gets a laugh out of someone, somewhere. This is also why Twilight completely failed to analyse Pinkie Pie. One, because fun is completely subjective, and two, because you can’t explain fun. You just have it.
Of course, with so many ideas of what is fun swirling around Pinkie Pie, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that she is a little scatterbrained, being constantly distracted by the next fun idea, or party. Yet she can concentrate if she tries. There are also other downsides to being the projection of Fun into the physical plane. Madness is a kind of fun. Not a particularly nice kind, but it still is to at least one pony in the room. Maybe that pony is the only one having fun in the room, but it’s still fun to someone, and that means that it’s part of Pinkie Pie. Rejection by those she holds dear, perceived or otherwise, will cause Pinkie to draw on the darker aspects of Fun, often causing her to shift into the state called ‘Pinkamena’.
The Mirror Pool, unable to replicate the Avatar of Fun perfectly, simply copied Pinkie’s surface aspects, taking only the simplest idea of Fun. When Pinkie Pie realised this, she realised exactly what she had done, and had to set out to correct her mistake. But with all her copies taking all the fun in Ponyville, she began a slow slide towards the not-so-nice end of the Fun Scale. This actually allowed Pinkie to concentrate long enough to win the ‘watching paint dry’ contest, whereas the shallow copies, who lacked the deeper understanding of Fun, couldn’t keep their focus.
***Time***
Now that we have explored the What and the How of Pinkie Pie, we must attempt to explore the elusive question of Why. This is naturally a difficult question to answer, as Pinkie Pie’s entire existence is mostly dictated by the eloquently named ‘Rule of Funny’, which states that ‘As Long as an event is Funny, all other concerns are overridden.’ This means that large parts of Pinkie Pie’s abilities manifest because they are inherently funny, and thus cannot be explained any further.
“Let’s not forget the Sugar Rush ability which I was denied! That would have been really Funny!”
Yes, Thank you, Pinkie Pie. The aforementioned ability, which was planned for Pinkie Pie...wait. What.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! I would have interrupted earlier, but you were having so much fun, and I didn’t want to ruin that.”
Whenever Fluttershy talked about her parents, ponies usually assumed that she inherited her quiet and reclusive nature from her mother. She wasn’t sure why, but ponies could be silly like that sometimes. Still, because both of Fluttershy’s parents were pegasi, and therefore lived in Cloudsdale, it was usually Fluttershy who visited them, not the other way around. Rainbow Dash usually tagged along for these vists, because somehow, she always just happened to ‘need to go up to Cloudsdale anyway’. Fluttershy may not have had the intrinsic sense for lying that Applejack had, but even she could spot such an obvious one. Still, she never questioned it too much, grateful for the buffering presence of her oldest friend.
Fluttershy and her parents didn’t entirely get along. They couldn’t understand her fascination and skill with animals, and she could never grasp more than the basics of flight, which disappointed both of them. Fluttershy hated letting ponies down, but sometimes it was unavoidable. And this was why Fluttershy liked having Rainbow there, mostly as a shield. And it wasn’t like Rainbow was oblivious to Fluttershy’s problems with her family. Her parents couldn’t really get started on all of Fluttershy’s failings with somepony else in the room. Still, if Fluttershy had to pick a favourite out of her parents, it was an easy choice for her-her father.
Most of the time, it was her mother who drove the train of failings fowards, and her father trailed behind. Pegasi are a naturally competitive speicies, and that competition is not always between ponies. Sometimes, it was with themselves, striving to be the best. Fluttershy’s mother was a prime example of this-she wanted her children to be the best they could be. Unfortunately, her mother’s worldview was rather archaic, in that she believed that no pegasus could, or should, have a talent tied to the ground so closely as Fluttershy’s was. Thus, Fluttershy was forced to endure constant railings against her flying ability, her weather working skills, which did little to endear her mother to her.
When Fluttershy and her father could get a moment alone though, he would only ever ask one question: “Are you happy?” When Fluttershy answered in the affirmative, he had nodded, and then expressed that while he was disappointed in her lack of flying excellence like her mother wanted her to be, he was at least happy that she was happy, and that she’d found her own special talent. Fluttershy would then give her father a hug, and then she and Rainbow would leave before Fluttershy’s mother could come back.
The truth was that Fluttershy hadn’t inherited her shy nature from anypony in her family. Both of her parents were completely unafraid of expressing what they thought, or what other ponies thought of them. She’d just grown up shy because of that. Her father was the calmer of the two, though, and it was for this reason that Fluttershy liked him a bit more.
Trixie hates you. Hate hate hate hate. You stupid unicorn, and your stupid natural talent. Can you not understand that it was an act? Do you not understand the idea of ‘stage presence’? Every stage magician embellishes themselves. While Trixie does admit that some of the blame for the event lies with her, it is not solely Trixie’s fault. It was those two stupid, dunderheaded fancolts, who thought waking up an Ursa was a good idea.
Still hate you.
From, The Great and Powerful Trixie
*****
To Twilight Sparkle,
What are you, the world’s biggest hypocrite? The first time you beat Trixie with sheer magical power against a living constellation, and now you resort to stage magic? Trixie thought that stage magic wasn’t ‘real’ magic? Oh sure, you can spout whatever you like about the ‘magic of friendship’. Trixie will even pretend to listen.
You’re Trixie’s nemesis now, Sparkle. Trixie’s rival. We’ll see who the better magician really is soon enough.
From, The Great and Apologetic Trixie.
P.S. Still hate you.
*****
To Twilight,
Discord? Really? You turned Discord? Alright, so maybe there is something to that ‘magic of friendship’ you keep going on about. Trixie will admit that you have some skill with magic. So maybe Trixie had forgotten that you had been tutored by Princess Celestia.
But still, Discord?
From, The Incredulous and Confused Trixie
P.S. Has anypony told you that you look ridiculous with your mane on fire? P.P.S. Still hate you.
*****
To Twilight Amethyst Sparkle II,
Yes, Trixie knows your full name. No, Trixie will not explain how. Trixie must also apologise. Again. Trixie has been hearing more and more of your story as Trixie has travelled. You may be pleased to hear that The Great and Humble Trixie is no longer getting laughed out of towns, and her travelling magic show is more popular than ever. But Trixie is getting off track. Trixie will admit that you, and by extension, your hick-town friends, have done some impressive things. Trixie is almost amazed. Almost.
Don’t read into it.
From, The Great and Humble Trixie.
P.S. Seriously, Amethyst? P.P.S. Still hate you. Really.
*****
To Princess Twilight Amethyst Sparkle II,
I do not hate you. There, I said it. I’m not even slightly jealous. Well, I’m a bit jealous. Go figure. I suppose that this is that ‘Magic of Friendship’ you keep talking about at work. Can’t even be angry at you anymore. Stupid Sparkle, stupid friendship.
If I have learned anything about you over the past few months, it’s that you are probably freaking out right now. Take deep breaths, Sparkle. Repeat to keep living. Unless, of course, you no longer need to breathe, being an alicorn now.
[Time]
If anypony deserves this, it’s you, Twilight. I know you don’t think you do. I know that you think I’d probably be complaining about how it wasn’t me that ascended, but I know I don’t deserve it. I’m not a good pony, and I know it. I don’t deserve that kind of reward. But you? You were practically an alicorn even when I first met you. Not everypony can deal with an Ursa by themselves. And while yes, I am a bit jealous of your power, I can also say, completely truthfully, that I am glad that it was you who won the genetic/magic lottery. Because can you honestly imagine me with your kind of power? The Alicorn amulet proved that I can’t handle power well, mind-controlling jewelry notwithstanding.
Your friend, Trixie.
P.S-You still look ridiculous with your mane on fire. P.P.S. Your middle name is still stupid. P.P.P.S See you in a few months. Good luck, Twilight.
“Hey, Girls, I think I found something that could do the trick!”
“Scootaloo, that’s a Daring Do book.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s not just any Daring Do book. It’s Daring Do and The Font of Destiny. In it, there’s a fountain that can show a pony’s destiny, or wipe it clean.”
“Ah dunno. Seems a bit silly, followin’ directions from a story book.”
“Well, it’s not the silliest thing we’ve done.”
“Ah can’t argue with that, Sweetie.”
“So you girls will give this a shot?”
“May as well.”
“Eeyup.”
“Great! ‘Cause I sorta already started making a map of where we need to go.”
*****
“Y’all are sure we’re goin’ the right way?”
“Positive. We just have to cross the mountains, and it should be somewhere in the swamps on the other side.”
“Somewhere? Scootaloo, please tell me that you know how to actually get to this fountain.”
“Well, the book is a little vague...”
“Ugh. Why Did I let you talk me into this?”
*****
“I HATE mud. Really. I’m starting to see why sis doesn’t like getting dirty.”
“Come on, Sweetie. We’d better hurry to catch up to Scoots.”
“Hey, Apple Bloom? Why’d you come along? I thought you liked your cutie mark?”
“Ah do. But mah sis told me that not lookin’ out for mah friends was the worst thing a pony could do.”
“Do you actually think this ‘Font of Destiny’ thing really exists?”
“Nnope. Fact o’ the matter is, ah know it doesn’t exist.”
“Really? How?”
“In the beginnin’ of every Daring Do book, the author puts a whatchamacallit, dis-something.”
“Disclaimer?”
“That’s it. It says that all magical objects are made up, and don’t actually exist.”
“So Why’d you come?”
“Like ah said. Somepony has to look out for you two, but mostly Scoots.”
*****
“But I don’t get it. It should be right here. Maybe we should have taken a left back at the weird twisty tree.”
“No, Scootaloo. Let’s face it, it doesn’t exist.”
“Eeyup.”
“Apple Bloom, what are you...”
“Read that, Scootaloo.”
“Lessee... ‘All ponies and griffons in this book are not actual ponies, and any similarities to real ponies are purely coincidental. All eldritch abominations and magical artifacts in this book are made up, and do not, and have not ever existed.’ Aw, shoot. You mean we came all this way for nothing?!”
Vinyl Scratch was a whirlwind of magic, mess and music as she flew through the apartment. Her magic was grabbing items left and right, discarding some with casual flicks, and shoving others into her saddle bag.
“Are you going out, Vinyl?” asked Octavia, from her position by her bedroom door. Vinyl paused for a second, her magic suspending two records and a toaster.
“Yeah, I am. Got an interview for a gig. Probably won’t be back until late.”
“I see. Well, good luck to you. I too, am also going out.”
“Yeah?” said Vinyl, her magic putting the toaster back down, and re-inspecting her saddle bags, just to make sure that she hadn’t accidentally grabbed any other appliances, “Where are you going?”
“I’m meeting up with Miss Rarity. She’s in town for the Royal Wedding. She may be able to get me a performance at the reception. Such a performance would be truly wondrous, a truly once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Although Octavia’s voice was calm, Vinyl could see the signs of excitement written all over Octavia’s face. It was this which made Vinyl unconciously swallow, her mouth run dry, and consider her next words very carefully.
“Well, I hope she can get you one. You performing at that kind of event would be perfect.” Vinyl didn’t dare tell Octavia that she was actually heading out to meet Pinkie Pie, the pony in charge of the reception, to be interviewed for that very job. She didn’t want to crush Octavia’s dreams like that.
“And you, Vinyl? Do you know where your gig is going to be?”
“Uh, lemme think for a sec,” said Vinyl, making a show of trying to remember, “The Rusty Horseshoe, or something like that. I’m not sure. I may have been drinking when the guy asked me.”
Octavia rolled her eyes, but wished Vinyl luck, and then vanished back into her room to keep getting ready for her meeting with Rarity. Vinyl, realizing the time, dashed out the door and down the stairs, heading for the place where she was due to meet Pinkie Pie.
******
The Wedding reception had carried long into the night, and for that, Vinyl Scratch was glad. She knew that Octavia, despite her slightly aloof nature, did keep abreast of the news. The fact that the entertainment at the reception had not been announced had only delayed what Vinyl knew would be waiting for her when she got home.
And sure enough, when Vinyl carefully unlocked the door to her apartment, Octavia was standing there, in the middle of the room, the thousand-yard stare fixed on her face.
“Alright, Octy, before you say anything, let me ask you one question. Would it really have been better if I told you what I was going for?”
“It would have been easier, certainly. Not knowing who was picked was sheer torture, Vinyl. Finding out that it was you, from the tabloids, no less, only made it harder. You could have at least told me yourself. You knew that I wanted to play at a royal wedding. And you lied to me.”
“Look, I didn’t want to crush you like that. I wanted to tell you, but after seeing you so excited at the possibility of being able to play your dream event, I just...couldn’t.”
“So you just went behind my back?”
“If it makes any difference, Pinkie Pie contacted me, not the other way around. You’ve been talking about performing at a royal wedding for years, Octy, ever since Princess Cadence became known to you. I didn’t want to take your dream away. I tried to drop hints about you. But I was the one that Pinkie wanted. So I just figured it would be better if I just...you know, never told you. Kept your hope alive.”
***Time***
After Vinyl finished attempting to explain herself, silence persisted in the living room for a while. Then, without saying a single word, Octavia turned away from Vinyl, trotted to her room, moved inside, and shut the door.
“Well,” muttered Vinyl, “that could have gone better.”
‘The Light, it blinds. The Darkness, it binds. The Love, it cries. The Magic, it dies.’ So reads the inscription above the entrance to the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Most ponies who visited the school, even if they noticed the carved words, paid it no mind. For the few who stopped to wonder, the phrase made no sense. Most ponies worked out quite quickly that ‘The Light’ either refered to Celestia, or the sun. And after Princess Luna’s return, many easily made the connection with her and ‘The Darkness’. Some ponies, after seeing Princess Cadence’s special talent, assumed that she was ‘The Love’, and then, after Twilight Sparkle’s ascension and coronation, said that the purple princess pony was ‘The Magic.’
From there, many ponies inferred that the inscription referred to a future time, where Princess Twilight would die, and the other three phrases described how the other princesses would react. And everypony was happy with this explanation. It was nice, neat and wrapped up all loose ends.
It was also completely and utterly wrong.
‘The Light’ was a reference not to Celestia, but rather to her patron school of magic, the Art of Alteration, which could force powerful changes onto the natural world, such as revealing the hidden evils, and bringing light wherever she went. It was this which caused one of Celestia’s titles to be ‘The Harbinger of Change’
Similarly, ‘The Darkness’ did not mean Luna’s control over the moon, or the night, but rather her exceptional command of the Art of Restoration, for it is in the darkness that our wounds bind themselves closed, and the dark of night that offers refuge from harm.
‘The Love’, and its tie with Cadence was the most straightforward of the four phrases. Cadence is a master of the Art of Illusion, able to trick ponies into changing their emotional state. Interestingly, this also applies to Queen Chrysalis, and the Changeling Queen before her, and the one before her, and so on.
‘The Magic’, completely unbeknownst to Twilight, referred to her developing mastery of the Art of Destruction. While Twilight would fiercely debate any preference for any particular school of magic, and the other alicorns had yet to clue Twilight in on the fact that any pony who was an alicorn, by any means at all, gained an intuitive mastery over one particular school of magic. This instinctual mastery went above and beyond what any pony, even another alicorn, could actually learn.
***Time***
This inherent mastery is also not chosen. What exactly assigns any particular school to a given alicorn is unknown. They suspect that it is somewhat tied to their cutie marks, and thus, tied into the deep, innate magic of Equestria itself.
But even with this knowledge, there is still a gap. The phrase above the School for Gifted Unicorns is incomplete, an intentional mistake. Because there are four alicorn princesses, and five schools of magic. There are only three beings in existence who know the full phrase, and only two of them are Princesses.
‘The Light, it blinds. The Darkness, it binds. The Love, it cries. The Magic, it dies. The Chaos, it rises.’
Pinkie Pie bounced down the main street of Ponyville. She would have started singing one of her little songs, but it was entirely the wrong day for that. Not that Pinkie had ever really cared, but sometimes it was good to actually follow the rules. Because They could make Pinkamena come out again. Pinkie didn’t like when she was Pinkamena, mostly because she was always sad when she was Pinkamena. But, If the right one was in charge, she’d get to make out. Maybe with Twilight, or Fluttershy, or even all of her friends! Those were always fun days.
But alas for Pinkie Pie, it was not a makeout day. But then again, she didn’t know that. She barely even knew who these invisible gods were, just that they existed. She couldn’t even pin a definite number on them. Sometimes, if the wind was just right, or the sun was in exactly the right spot, she could almost get a glimpse of them, but she nearly always avoided looking at them. Because gods didn’t need to be seen to be believed in, though she had a feeling that Twilight might object, saying something like ‘If you can’t observe it, then it doesn’t exist’. Twilight could be such a silly pony sometimes. Great kisser, though. Pinkie wondered where Twilight had picked that up.
Pinkie Pie bounced past the fountain in the centre of Ponyville, where Fluttershy was tending to a family of ducks, and Pinkie stopped for a moment to look at the shy pegasus. Nope, no sudden urge to declare her undying love, or break into song, or even just to dash forwards and kiss the pegasus until she ran out of breath. That was good, Pinkie supposed. Fluttershy was kind of a bad kisser. And nor did she feel like Fluttershy had wronged her, or made her mad, or sad. And that was good as well, because some of Them were far too overly fond of angst. Even if there were makeouts. Pinkie liked makeouts. No, the only thing that Pinkie Pie felt for Fluttershy this day was simple and pure friendship. As an experiment, Pinkie thought about all of her other friends. No reaction on any of them, until she got to Rainbow Dash, where she blushed. But that was just because Dashie had made Pinkie proclaim her undying love for Colgate last night on a drunken dare.
Satisfied that she wasn’t going to be paired up, or break up with anypony today, Pinkie resumed bouncing down the main street of Ponyville, humming slightly. As she passed the Golden Oaks Library, she could hear the faint sounds of a Class-2 Panic Attack from Twilight, which meant that Twilight would be wanting some coffee and cupcakes in the next ten minutes. And so, Pinkie turned around, and began to bounce back towards Sugarcube Corner. It seemed that the gods were taking a break today. Did gods even take breaks? Still, at least they made Pinkie’s life interesting while she waited for that documentary crew that was recording the adventures of the Elements of Harmony to come back.
***Time***
Bored, and disappointed by the lack of makeouts, Pinkie closed her eyes, spun around three times, and leapt forwards, determined to at least get one makeout today. As her lips closed over a pony’ mouth, she thought that the gods might be on her side after all. But when she tasted the perfectly minty fresh breath and clean teeth, she knew which pony she had landed on, and was about to break off and apologise, when Colgate responded. Enthusiastically.
Pinkie kept making out, her hooves wrapping around the dentist, her eyes closed, and her final thought before she lost her mind thanks to a clever tongue manoeuvre from Colgate was ‘Maybe the TMP gods are onto something with this shipping thing.’
“Oh, Hi Rarity!” Pinkie Pie called across the marketplace as she spotted the white unicorn leaving the Ponyville Train Station, and rushed over to greet the designer with a flying tackle of a hug. “Did you have fun up in Canterlot for the weekend?”
Rarity casually sidestepped the blur of pink and as the party pony approached again at a much slower pace, Rarity answered. “Why yes, I did. There were several events that I greatly enjoyed, and I do believe I shall have to have a talk with Twilight.”
“Ooh, you heard as well?”
“I didn’t just hear, Pinkie. I saw the two of them together. I will admit, they do make a rather interesting couple.”
“I know, right? Twilight Sparkle and Lyra. Who’da thunk it?”
Rarity frowned in confusion. “Lyra? As in Lyra Heartstrings? That odd mare who writes the Season Turning Songs? Are you sure, Pinkie?”
“Yepperooni! I saw the two of them discussing magic in the library last night, and then they kissed, and then...,” Rarity stuck her hoof in Pinkie Pie’s mouth to cut her off.
“I get the idea, dear. But I was referring to Octavia.”
“That fancy earth pony cellist? I had no idea that Twilight liked classical music.”
“What’s this ‘bout Twilight dating Octavia now?”
“Ah, Applejack,” said Rarity, giving the farmer a gentle hug, “I trust that Farmer’s Convention in Manehatten went well?”
“It shore did, but didja say that you saw Octavia and Twilight? Our Twi?”
“Indeed I did. The two of them were sitting in one of the most up-scale restaurants in all of Canterlot. Romantic dinner, candles, everything. I didn’t wish to disturb them, of course, so I didn’t linger.”
“That’s mighty strange, Rare.”
“I know! Twilight’s with Lyra!”
“Hokay. That’s even stranger, Pinkie, ‘cause I saw Twi with Bon Bon.”
“What in the wide world of Equestria was Bon Bon doing in Manehatten? Wait, let me backtrack for a moment there,” said Rarity, placing her bags down on the ground, “Are you sure it was actually Bon Bon? You know that pony has goodness knows how many sisters and cousins who look almost identical.”
“It was Bon Bon, or mah name isn’t Applejack,” stated the farmer, “And she usually turns up to any food or produce convention to get an idea for what candies she can make with upcoming harvests and such. We actually went together, to save on train fare, this year. But Ah saw her and Twi, sharin’ a nice little moment at Manehatten’s docks, lookin’ out over the water as the sun set behind them. Never would’a pegged Twi for the romantic type.”
“Hey guys!” called Rainbow Dash, as she soared down from the sky, “Did you hear? Twilight and Ditzy got together last night up in Cloudsdale!”
Rainbow was greeted with incredulous stares from her three other friends.
“What? Was it something I said?”
“Alright, I must put my hoof down. This is clearly a very elaborate practical joke. Well done, Pinkie, Rainbow, or whoever set this up. You may stop now,” said Rarity, her voice flat.
[Time]
“But...I was telling the truth,” muttered Pinkie Pie.
“Rare, have y’all known me to lie this well, ever?”
“My dear, each of you is under the impression that you saw Twilight Sparkle with a different mare last night. Pinkie saw Twilight in the library with Lyra, Applejack spotted her with Bon Bon in Manehatten, you apparently saw her in Cloudsdale with Derp, I mean, Ditzy Doo, and I saw her in Canterlot, having a romantic dinner with Octavia. Next thing, Fluttershy will be telling us that she saw Twilight with yet another mare!” cried Rarity, ready to go into full histrionic mode.
“Oh, no I didn’t,” came the quiet reply from behind Rainbow, who stepped aside to reveal the other pegasus.
“Thank Celestia for small mercies, then,” muttered Rarity, “Now, we just need to-,”
“I saw her with Time Turner,” said Fluttershy. The world froze, and the four mares all turned to look at Fluttershy, who proceeded to try and hide behind her mane.
“What in tarnation is happening?” said Applejack, “Twi has never even looked at a mare, or a stallion like that before. Heck, ah saw her give a book bedroom eyes once, but never another pony.” Just then, Twilight walked past, casually chatting with Vinyl Scratch, and had one of her wings casually draped over the white DJ’s side. Spotting her group of friends, Twilight waved, and began to make her way over to them.
“Twilight, dear,” began Rarity once Twilight was close enough, “Are you dating any or all of the following: Lyra, Octavia, Bon Bon, Ditzy Doo, Time Turner or Vinyl Scratch?”
Twilight barely needed a second to think about it. “In order, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.”
“Best polyamourous relationship ever!” crowed Vinyl, as she and Twilight walked away. The five other Elements of Harmony stared at each other for a few minutes in complete silence, before Rarity broke it.
“Applejack?”
“Yes, Sugarcube?”
“How much of that hard cider do you have left?”
Applejack thought for a minute. “Enough to give forgettin’ this a darn good try.”
Rarity was not really a competitive pony by most ponies’ standards. Ambitious, yes. Daring, on occasion, but she simply wasn’t hard-wired for competition like her friends Applejack and Rainbow Dash were. Rarity was simply content with her place and abilities, and only really competed for attention in the fashion world. As such, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash furiously tried to one-up the other’s score at one of the various games in Ponyville’s arcade, Rarity simply sat back and sipped her horribly fattening (and utterly delicious) milkshake.
“Oh my, I am going to regret having this later,” muttered the unicorn to herself, as Rainbow Dash finally passed Applejack’s score. She caught a glimpse of what Rainbow Dash’s final score, and blinked in confusion. Sure, it was a high score, but not that high. Having a younger sister had somewhat kept her up to date with who was winning at the arcade from time to time, as it was quite common that when the Crusaders weren’t out getting covered in tree sap, they could often be found at the arcade, cheerfully wasting a few hours.
But evidently, some of Rarity’s thoughts had shown on her face, because the next thing that Rarity knew, she was being dragged up by Applejack, with the earth pony claiming to Rainbow that Rarity thought that she could beat their scores. That was ridiculous, but the glove had been cast. And Rarity, despite her general non-competetiveness, still liked the occasional challenge, the few and far between tests of mental acuity and wit and on the very, very rare occasion, physical prowess. And she hadn’t quite mastered the knack of turning a challenge down.
Rarity slipped a bit into the machine’s coin slot, and positioned her hooves over the buttons. Behind her, she could hear Rainbow Dash and Applejack quietly snickering, clearly expecting her to fail. Well, she would show them. She ignored them, instead focusing all of her attention fowards at the game. As the music started up, and the game began, Rarity’s hooves began to tap on the buttons, and push on the joystick, directing her character on the screen through the game. She fell into a rhythm quickly, her hooves barely being directed, reacting on almost pure instinct, and the outside world ceased to exist for a while for the fashionista.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched with open mouths as Rarity’s score climbed, surpassing theirs well before the game had ended.
“Hey, RD?”
“Yeah, AJ?”
“Ah think we might have bitten off more than we can chew, here.”
Rainbow took a look at Rarity’s score once more, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.
“I think you might be right, AJ.”
[Time]
The words ‘The End’ flashed in front of Rarity’s eyes, and she shook herself out of her minor stupor, and glanced at her score. It was higher than Rainbow’s and Applejacks’ combined score, by a whole factor of ten. Blinking, she realised that the game was asking for her name for the leaderboard, and so she entered RAR, the first three letters of her name, as a record of her achievement. New overall high score. Then, she walked away from the game cabinet, and sat back down with the remnants of her milkshake, leaving Rainbow dash and Applejack to simply stare, dumbfounded, at the record of Rarity’s skill.
As if on cue, practically every other game in the area began flashing their own list of high scores, and from Rainbow and Applejack could see, RAR was always within the top ten, but more commonly was within the top five.
“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, “we bit off way more than we thought here.”
The road leading into Ponyville held a lot of memories for Rainbow Dash. It was here that she and Pinkie had planned some of their best pranks. It was here that Twilight had lead them out on adventures, against dragons, eldritch abominations, changelings and Trixie. And it was why she was walking it, rather than just flying in. Sure, just flying in and announcing her return would have been just like her, but Rainbow felt that this deserved a bit more weight than her usual dramatics. Shortly after her adventures at the Wonderbolts Academy, the elite flight team had sent her a letter, requesting her to not just be part of the group, but have assistant captain spot for their B-team. And Rainbow had accepted without a single look back. She still kinda felt bad about that.
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly the illustrious performances she had once dreamed of, but Rainbow had known that it was extremely unlikely that they’d put her straight into the A-team. Only four Wonderbolts in the entire history had gone straight into the A-team from recruiting, but it had just been a goal. Just being a Wonderbolt was good enough for now. She could transfer to the A-team after a few years of helping run the B-team. Years, hundreds of successful performances, and a legion of adoring fans later, Rainbow was the star of the Wonderbolts. And then she quit, so now she was here. Rainbow hated to admit it, but she was slowing down. Her wings couldn’t beat as fast as they used to, her body not quite as resistant to the intense G-forces of acrobatic flight as it once was.
So now, she was walking back into Ponyville, which had somehow more or less remained the same over the years. Upon arriving back in the town, Rainbow had been mobbed by a small army of young fillies and colts, mostly pegasi. But as she signed hats, posters and memorabilia, she didn’t catch a single glimpse of the ponies she had really come back for. Wonderbolts didn’t get mail like most ponies. Rather than have it delivered out to them on tour, they had a single address in Cloudsdale, which they checked only infrequently. Rainbow had not checked it for some time, being busy with constant practice and trying to improve her slowly failing body.
Once the younger fans had disappeared, a vaguely familiar pony came up to Rainbow Dash, hat pulled low.
“Howdy, RD.”
For a second, Rainbow thought it was Applejack. But the colouring was all wrong, even though this pony was wearing Applejack’s beat up hat.
“Apple Bloom?” said Rainbow. Apple Bloom tipped the hat back, revealing her freckled face, and a wide smile.
“Ah knew you’d come back here someday, Rainbow. How ‘bout a big welcome back pie over at Sweet Apple Acres?” It was hard for Rainbow to disguise her mouth watering at the memories of the delicious pie, and Apple Bloom laughed.
“Ah’ll take that as a yes, then. C’mon.”
*******
Sweet Apple Acres was much bigger than Rainbow remembered it being when she left. Probably Applejack’s doing, she had been talking about buying a few more acres a few months before Rainbow joined the Wonderbolts. As the ex-stunt flier sat in the kitchen, watching Apple Bloom prepare the family’s signature dessert, a thought tumbled out of her mouth.
“Hey, Apple Bloom, where’s AJ? Thought she would have been around here somewhere.”
Silence fell. Apple Bloom stopped cooking, and turned away. It was a moment before Rainbow recognised the heaving of Apple Bloom’s shoulders as crying.
“Applejack’s...not here no more. Neither is Big Mac.”
[Time]
“Apple Bloom,” said Rainbow, her voice barely a whisper, “What happened?”
“Ah expect yer wonderin’ where the rest of them friends o’ yours are too.” Apple Bloom’s voice was quiet and raw. “Twi and Rarity are both up in Canterlot-Twi ‘cause she’s a princess, and needed to be up there frequently, so it jest made sense for her to move up there. Rarity’s up there because it was her dream, and she’s sellin’ fancy dresses to all the fancy ponies. Pinkie Pie moved out shortly after you left for the Wonderbolts. Said somethin’ ‘bout parties bein’ better with more ponies, so she’s gone to Manehatten.”
“Apple Bloom, what happened to AJ?”
Apple Bloom swallowed, but continued on without turning around. “Nopony in town’s seen Fluttershy for years. Her house done got swallowed up by the Everfree in one of that Celestia-forsaken forests’ growth frenzies, and nopony likes goin’ near that danged forest. Zecora tells us that she’s fine whenever she’s in town, but it’s still the Everfree.”
“Apple Bloom, what happened to Applejack?” there was silence for a while between the two ponies.
“It’ll be easier if ah just show ya,” stated Apple Bloom, leaving the remnants of the pie in the making on the counter, Apple Bloom strode out of the house, never once checking to see if Rainbow was following her. Rainbow still did, and the two walked out to one of the orchard’s feilds, and Rainbow could feel her gut sinking with every step. Because when they stopped, they were in front of the small clearing where the Apple family buried their dead. Two of the grave stones were old, and were for Applejack’s parents. Rainbow had seen these before, once. The next was for Granny Smith. And then there was one emblazoned with Applejack’s cutie mark.
Ditzy Doo was only one part of the mighty machine that was the Royal Mail Service in Ponyville. She was just one of about ten actual delivery ponies in the small town, and as such, was one of the few residents who could really claim to know the town back to front and inside out, and who could navigate the town’s confusing, radial layout without getting lost. Many ponies found this to be a bit of a dichotomy, as Ditzy was also usually the one to go and retrieve the southern birds when the Winter to Spring Season Turning came around, and consistantly got lost on that task. Apparently, delivering mail did not translate to retrieving birds.
Ditzy Doo’s day started well before most ponies’. She was up nearly a full two hours before the sun was, and was at work in the post office an hour later. There, she would, with some difficulty thanks to her permanent wall eyes, do the final sort of the mail according to her route, finishing just after Celestia raised the sun. From there, she would strap on the fully loaded, specially-reinforced saddlebags that all delivery ponies were issued, and fly to the start of her usual mail route. Her route started at the western edge of the small town, wiggled through the northern section of the town, past the Golden Oak library, and finished up at Fluttershy’s cottage, near the border of the Everfree Forest. As such, Ditzy was, if not friends with, at least aquaintances with two of the six Elements of Harmony. After her mail deliveries were finished for the day, Ditzy would fly back into Ponyville from Fluttershy’s cottage with empty bags and an empty stomach.
The usual procedure at this point, around ten in the morning, was for Ditzy was to head for either Bon Bon’s for some candy, or stop by Sugarcube Corner for whatever special they had on that day to give her a bit of energy. Somehow, whenever she chose Sugarcube Corner, a triple-chocolate muffin would find its way into her order, often without her even asking for one. Ditzy suspected Pinkie Pie. After her refreshment break, Ditzy would be back at the post office, pulling in all the outgoing mail and helping get the place ready for the afternoon shift. Once that was done, usually by one in the afternoon, Ditzy Doo was free for the day. She would hang her Official Mailpony Hat up on its hook in the post office, place her saddlebags underneath it, and would be out the door as fast as she could.
Ditzy Doo knew that most ponies took her job forgranted. She knew that most ponies barely noticed who delivered their mail. Indeed, out of her entire mail route, Ditzy could only name four ponies who actually thanked her on a daily basis for doing her job (Colgate, Twilight Sparkle, Caramel and Fluttershy).
[Time]
But Ditzy didn’t take the mail pony job for thanks, or accolades, though they were nice when they came. No, the reason she took the mail pony job would come barrelling through the door at exactly three twenty eight pm, with a joyous cry of ‘Mama!’
And as Ditzy and Dinky hugged and greeted each other for the first time in the day, all was right with the world.
Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, despite all of their protests and objections that they were simply friends, seemed to have a relationship issue. Namely, they weren’t in one. Every time either one was out in public, it was only a matter of time before somepony suggested that they would be perfect for each other, due to either clashing personalities (Because opposites attract), deep, hidden similarities (the only similar thing the two had was a shared love of music), or simply because both of them played/made music (music, by itself, had never been a good founding for any relationship, anywhere), and thus should obviously kiss. Mostly, it was fairly harmless, just casual suggestions, or subtle hints. Vinyl and Octavia had taken to keeping ‘score’ on a blackboard of how many ponies implied, suggested or outright stated that the two musicians should be in a relationship. But for the most part, the behaviour was mostly harmless, and Vinyl and Octavia took it in stride.
Except on Hearts and Hooves day, the one day a year where neither Octavia nor Vinyl really wanted to go outside, because they knew the moment they did, somepony would be there, and would decide that what the two really needed was a ‘push’ to get together. That had never ended well, for anypony.
But as much as the two ponies would have liked to stay indoors, where it was safe from the horrors of the matchmakers infected by the atmosphere of Hearts and Hooves Day, work beckoned. Octavia had been paid an almost ridiculous amount of bits to play in Canterlot Park, to provide background music for a romantic date, and Vinyl had been hired to DJ a wedding reception, leading to a quip from Octavia about how it had better not be another royal wedding, or Vinyl would not wake up the next day. Vinyl had chuckled nervously, and assured Octavia that it was not a royal wedding. And so, both musicians exited the safety of the apartment, and as they suspected, somepony, caught up in the Hearts and Hooves Day mood, saw them, and decided to take action.
The matchmaker approached Octavia first, and through the usage of a badly forged note, some excuse about being asked to deliver it, and the originator wishing to remain anonymous (all of which Octavia saw through in under two seconds, but played along with anyway because she was bored), and the matchmaker was convinced that her plan was working perfectly, and Octavia had a dinner at Bridle’s, one of the more exclusive restaurants in Canterlot.
The next step in the matchmaker’s plan involved infiltrating the wedding that Vinyl was DJ’ing at, but knowing that she couldn’t do it herself, she recruited a partner, who flawlessly entered the reception as though she belonged there, and relayed the message that the master mind had told her to; that a fan of Vinyls’ would like to take her out to dinner at Bridle’s (Vinyl may have been a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but this was so obvious it was hard for her not to laugh). And so, Vinyl and Octavia were now due to have a romantic dinner together at a classy restaurant, and the mastermind was content that her plan was progressing perfectly.
[Time]
As the day wore on, the matchmaker and her partner kept delivering hints designed to push ponies towards a relationship to Vinyl and Octavia. The two musicians, for their part, saw through each and every one, knowing exactly who their dinner partner was going to be, but they played along anyway, acting out their perfect reactions.
By the time that Dinner rolled around, and Vinyl and Octavia pretended to be surprised at the other’s presence at the reserved table (In a booth, towards the back of the restaurant), the two matchmakers were convinced that they were the ones who had finally cracked the infamous Vinyl/Octavia relationship.
Until Vinyl threw her bread roll as hard as she could magically when the waiter wasn’t looking, knocking the matchmaker’s partner, a pink earth pony, forwards, and straight onto the lips of the mastermind matchmaker, a white unicorn. Startled by the sudden lip contact, the two matchmakers immediately separated, but were suddenly very engrossed in their conversation, and too busy to notice that Octavia and Vinyl had snuck out of the restaurant, turning their table over to a young, recently engaged couple.
Outside, Vinyl and Octavia smiled at surviving yet another Hearts and Hooves day, hoofbumped each other, and went back to their apartment to work on their own projects (Vinyl an essay for the Conservatory, and Octavia her own composition). Back inside the restaurant, the white unicorn and the pink pony had decided that making out was way more fun than talking, and were nearly pushing the decency laws.
Pinkie Pie sat back in the chair, her eyes darting around the room nervously, searching for a way out. There was a soft, ominous click, and Pinkie realised that it was the door locking. She could dive through the window, but the other pony in the room had never quite forgiven her for the last time. Pinkie Pie took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, and not feel the walls pressing down in on her. She didn’t like to be still, but if she wanted to get out of here, she would have to be. As the other pony, a unicorn, turned away, Pinkie wondered if she could fit through the air vent. However, a glance at the wall where the vent was revealed that, perhaps specially for her, the flimsy aluminium grating had been replaced with hard steel. So, no going through there. Pinkie’s breathing shallowed out, becoming gradually faster and faster.
Her hoof itched to reach into her mane or tail, to pull out a rubber chicken, or something to help her get out of there, or at least cope with the pressing walls. She tried to distract herself by remembering the exact recipe she had used two days ago to create those delicious, delicious hot sauce cupcakes. This worked for a while, until she couldn’t remember what the ratio of milk to hot sauce she had used was. The unicorn was looming over Pinkie now, her horn lighting up, pulling something towards the two ponies, and Pinkie Pie couldn’t take it anymore.
Fast as lightning, Pinkie Pie’s hoof reached into her poofy mane, and withdrew a small, round object. With a cry of ‘Smoke bomb!’ she cast the ball toward the ground, causing a billowing cloud of dense, white-grey smoke to erupt throughout the room. As the other pony coughed, and tried to clear the smoke by waving her hoof, Pinkie dashed over to the window, and jumped through it, curling so that her mane went through the glass first. With a smash and a clatter of noise, Pinkie broke through, and graciously uncurled once clear, landing on all four hooves, and then took off at a dead run, yelling her apologies behind her.
Back in the dental surgery, Colgate finally managed to clear the smoke, and found her window broken and Pinkie Pie missing. She sighed, and began clearing up the fallen glass with the small brush she kept in the surgery, and told her secretary to send in the next patient, and to make yet another appointment with both the town’s glazier, and Pinkie Pie.
The Funny thing about dimensional travel, aside from the unpleasant sensation that felt like you were being drunk, was that time was no longer linear. One second stretched out to fill four minutes, and five hours could compress to less than a millisecond. Thus, As Twilight Sparkle vanished through the portal at the base of the statue, Spike diving after her, four minutes or five hours simultaneously passed as she made the transit back to Equestria. She couldn’t have known that barely a step behind her was the Canterlot High version of Pinkie Pie, who seemed to regard the whole experience of dimensional travel with the same unbridled joy that she did everything else.
But in a very odd twist of fate, or non-linear temporal time distortion, it was the Canterlot High version of Pinkie Pie who exited the mirror portal first, followed closely by Twilight Sparkle, and then Spike. Naturally, the other ponies in the room reacted appropriately to a second Pinkie Pie emerging out of the portal. They sat stunned, too dumbfounded to even gather a coherent response when Twilight emerged out of the mirror.
“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight Sparkle and the Equestrian Pinkie Pie said, in perfect unison, staring at the new pony, who was adapting to life on four hooves surprisingly quickly. It was the four princesses who took the swiftest action, upon discovering that there was a being that did not belong in their dimension, and one that was a duplicate of an already existing pony. They hurried over to the ornate mirror, and found that the portal had closed. So, no way back for the Canterlot High Pinkie Pie through the portal.
As the three Princesses backed away from the now defunct mirror, they gathered over in the corner of the room to confer, while Twilight Sparkle enjoyed a happy reunion with her friends.
“We cannot simply leave this new Pinkie Pie here. Who knows what the repercussions of having a duplicate of anypony from another dimension in our plane?” spoke Luna, her voice soft, and eyes firm. “She must go back, as soon as possible.”
“We understand so little about this kind of magic. But the portal has closed, and that was the only link we had to that dimension,” said Cadence, nodding her agreement.
“It was the only stable link,” said Celestia at length, “there may be another way to send her back.” Luna and Cadence both stared at Celestia.
“Surely sister, you aren’t referring to Twilight’s Dimensional Communication Matrix? That thing was horrifically unstable at best, and purely dependant on Twilight herself. What’s more, it was only good for written communication, not transportation.”
“Neigh, Sister. Twilight lacks the required spell knowledge to sufficiantly transfer living matter safely across dimensions. And even if she did, she lacks the power. I highly doubt that even all four of us, working together could perform such a feat,” said Celestia, glancing over at her favourite student, “There is only one being in the entirety of Equestria with both the knowledge and the power to do such a thing even as a onetime event, let alone regularly.”
Cadence caught on first. “Discord.” Celestia gave a nod of assent at Cadence’s guess.
“Thou art mad,” Luna stated, slipping back into the formal speech of ages past from shock, “Thou hast gone senile if thou thinkest that he would willingly pass up such an opportunity for chaos, even reformed as he is.”
“What else would you suggest, then, sister? The portal will not open again for another thirty moons, and we do not want to delay that long unless we are left with no other option. That leaves Discord, the one being who we are the most certain possesses the required power and skill to do what we need to.”
“Why Luna, you’d think you don’t trust me. After all I did for you. I’m wounded.” The snide voice issued from a nearby pot, which suddenly had Discords’ likeness emblazoned on it.
“I don’t trust you,” replied Luna, as the spirit of Disharmony fully materialized in the room.
“Can you do it?” asked Cadence, “Can you send the second Pinkie Pie back to the dimension where she came from?”
“Silly pink pony princess who I forget the name of, of course I can. The question that remains is, will you let me?”
Canterlot Prison was rather pleasant to look at. From the outside, at least. Were it not for the six Royal Guards stationed in the entryway, and the slight shimmering of the air that indicated the presence of several anti-magic and anti-flight spells, Rarity would have never even known it was a prison. Of course, it was a very different story once inside. Or at least, that’s how Rarity imagined it would be. Prisons were not supposed to be pleasant, or they wouldn’t be much of a punishment.
Rarity could still remember the trial like it was yesterday, though three months had passed since Fluttershy had allowed herself to be convicted. How a careless comment from Twilight to her brother had lead to the investigation of a century in Ponyville. How Fluttershy had whimpered and in that soft, gentle tone, told Shining Armor everything. How Twilight had burst into tears at what she had set in motion, once Shining had explained what would likely happen, and her subsequent research into anything that could help Fluttershy. She hadn’t found anything, and so Fluttershy was left to her fate.
The unicorn continued to stare at the building from the outside. She lifted a single front hoof, and made to step forwards, toward the prison, but instead placed it back down to the side, turning around, and walked away. She couldn’t bring herself to face Fluttershy. Couldn’t bring herself to face her own failure as a friend. She could have done something, surely, to help Fluttershy. Some Element of Generosity she was.
*****
Rarity looked at the doors of Canterlot Prison. Totally unlike the giant, ornate and hollow metal doors of Canterlot Castle, these doors were closer to normal size, and were made of two-inch thick oak, wrapped in iron. Applejack could buck them all day, and they would refuse to give an inch. She had gotten closer to the prison this time, unlike nine months ago. But yet, everytime she made to go to enter the building, her hooves froze. It wasn’t that Rarity was afraid of the prison itself. It was what she would find inside that scared her. She would find Fluttershy, looking at her with that sad, disappointed, but understanding expression on her face. Because she would know that there was nothing that Rarity could have done for her, and that was the most terrible feeling that Rarity could ever experience.
Once more, Rarity turned away from Canterlot Prison, unable to face Fluttershy. Unable to face herself.
*****
It was Fluttershy’s Birthday today, Rarity remembered. She briefly wondered if they celebrated birthdays in prison. Maybe they did. The thought of visiting entered the designer’s mind. But she knew it would come to nothing, like every other time she had tried to visit. And yet, the thought, now lodged in her mind, refused to clear. In an effort to clear her head, Rarity put on one of her signature giant hats, and headed out for a walk through Canterlot.
So occupied with trying to clear her head, she didn’t even notice that her hooves had carried her to Canterlot Prison until she felt the faint wash of the anti-magic spell cross her horn.
[Time]
This was the closest that Rarity had gotten to the prison in the two years and four months that Fluttershy had been imprisoned. This close, and after all this time, Rarity no longer considered the building pleasant. It was imposing, if not downright terrifying. The two earth pony guards stationed on either side of the doors didn’t help matters either. Rarity made to turn away, but in an odd twist, found herself unable to. Even with her failing as a friend, Fluttershy deserved to at least be wished a happy birthday, even in prison. One hesitant step toward the prison doors turned into two. Two became three, and it kept climbing, until Rarity was trotting at a calm pace towards the iron-bound doors, and announced her intention to visit her dear friend Fluttershy.
The doors creaked open rather ominously, and Rarity walked inside, head held high, and the doors closed behind her.
Like most prisons, the Lunar Noctis was designed to be inescapable. However, very few ponies ever thought of breaking into a prison. And yet, that was exactly what Trixie Lulamoon, picker extrodinare and all around annoyance was going to do. However, she wasn’t stupid, despite what Commander Armor thought. She knew that trying to get into the Lunar Noctis, the most secure prison in Equestria without support, or in the company of the Royal Security Force, would be suicide, so she had assembled through various means of recruitment (Mostly blackmail and coercion, though some had been bribed), a team to help her. Their muscle was Snowflake, a giant ex-bouncer, who had replaced his powerful natural legs with cybernetic upgraded ones, drastically increasing his bucking power. Next was their grease pony, the one who was going to slip through all the tight areas, an undersized colt by the name of Pipsqueak, rather appropriately. Flitter was their hacker, who would handle most of the electronics, and Cloudchaser, her sister, would be handling any security cameras until they could get to the control centre. Trixie had one more pony, but she was already in place, inside the prison, thanks to an arrest the day before.
*****
Snowflake busted down the reinforced door to the main control centre of the Lunar Noctis with a single, overpowered buck, sending it flying backwards onto the two security guards behind it. Flitter was inside in a flash, already plugging her neural interface into the port on the computer. Pipsqueak and Trixie broke off from the group, heading for one of the traditional holding cells, where the sixth member of their team was waiting.
Finding the cell in short order, Trixie set to bypassing the lock, while the occupant of the cell looked on, amused. Two seconds later, the cell cracked open.
“Took you long enough,” said Fluttershy with a smile, “I thought I might have to do this all by myself.” Trixie offered a nervous smile in return. Truth be told, Fluttershy unnerved the heck out of her, but she was one of the longest surviving rebels, and thus had experience that Trixie needed to get into the depths of the Lunar Noctis. It was like Fluttershy had nearly forgotten what emotions were at some point in her career as a professional saboteur and mayhem causer.
“Come on, Flitter should have cracked the system by now. Then we can get who we came for, and get out of here,” said Trixie, passing Fluttershy a set of bags that the pegasus had entrusted to her the day before her intentional arrest.
*****
True to Trixie’s statement, by the time Trixie, Pipsqueak and Fluttershy reached the control room, Flitter had broken through the security on the computers, and had indeed found what the six had come here for.
“Princess Luna, former Diarch of the Night of the Diarchy of Equestria, imprisoned indefinitely for high treason,” said Flitter, displaying the alicorn’s location on a three dimensional projection of the prison, “is located here, deep in the bowels of the prison, in the Cryogenic Wing. Surpisingly, there’s very few guards down there-guess they aren’t worried about anypony down there getting out.” Fluttershy studied the map carefully.
“Can we not bring her out from here?”
“No can do, Flutters,” said Flitter, shaking her head, “that part of the prison’s on a different system, completely isolated from the rest of it. I can’t hack through connections that don’t exist. The only way to release Luna is to get to here.” A second glowing point appeared on the hologram, indicating a second control room nearly a kilometre below them.
“Right,” said Trixie, “So what’s the fastest way down there?”
Flitter and Fluttershy had the same idea at the same time, and turned to face the giant window in the control room, which overlooked a massive ventilation shaft running down the central spine of the prison. They turned to face the other four ponies and smiled.
***Time****
“Trixie thinks this is the worst idea you have ever had, peon!”
Like Kindness, Loyalty and indeed, all of the elements to a degree, many ponies never quite fully understood the full meaning of Generosity. It could be categorized as being helpful to those in need, or at least, more need than yourself, but it was so much more that just that. Generosity was why Rarity joined the Royal Guard in the wake of Twilight Sparkle’s coronation.
Naturally, there had been some confusion amongst her friends at her seemingly impulse decision. They all thought that being a designer was Rarity’s top goal, and the Royal Guard, with the hard armour, strict training schedule and stricter guidelines on behaviour, was practically the antithesis of everything that Rarity worked towards. They were functional, not fashionable. But every time the topic came up in conversation in the few weeks before Rarity was due to depart for Basic Training, the unicorn had smiled, and avoided answering the question with all of her considerable verbal grace.
The day that Rarity departed for Basic Training up in Canterlot, all of her friends came by the Carousel Boutique. Applejack had agreed to look after Sweetie Belle while Rarity was gone, as her parents were on yet another cruise, and Rarity inwardly shuddered at the unbidden thought of Sweetie Belle speaking like Applejack and wearing that damnable hat. The six friends had one last spa session as their farewell party for Rarity, and then, all too soon, it was time for Rarity to depart.
*****
Rarity slipped on her training armour, which was the dull grey of steel, rather than the shining gold that ponies usually saw on the Royal Guards on duty, and headed out toward the parade ground, her twin practice swords strapped to her sides. Rarity had considered herself to be in decent shape. Oh, she knew she was nowhere near as fit as Applejack or Rainbow Dash, but those two were hardened by hours of hard labour and practice, but she liked to think that she could hold her own. As it turned out, she wasn’t as in shape as she thought. Basic Training had fixed that in a hurry, though. Six months of drills, classes, standing in the hot sun for hours on end in heavy metal armour, and no shortage of hard physical exercise had shaped and hardened Rarity’s body, though the other trainees still called her ‘Marshmallow’.
Now, all of her hard work was going to finally pay off. Today was the day that she and all of her fellow trainees would finally leave Basic, and would graduate to the full gold-plated armour of an active guard. Rarity fell into line with her other recruits, adopting the position of ‘at ease’ which had become second nature to the unicorn. An officer called for attention, and as one, the entire formation snapped to the position with a single loud noise as armour banged on armour.
[Time]
Rarity kept her body straight, and her eyes forwards as their commanding officer strode up and down the ranks, inspecting each pony for the minutest of flaws. He lingered on Rarity for a good while before he moved onto the next pony. Rarity never broke expression, though inwardly she was proud of herself.
“Trainees!” barked the officer, “You have sweated, bled and cried over the last six months. When you came to me, you were weak little balls of marshmallow ponies,” Several of the recruits’ eyes shifted to Rarity, who simply kept her posture, “But I have forged you into fine examples of what a Royal Guard should be. You are no longer under my command. Tomorrow, you will report back here, but it will not be me you will listen to. You will be assigned duties within and without Canterlot. You are now members of the Royal Guard. Make us all proud. For the Princesses!”
“For The Princesses!” roared the former trainees.
“Dismissed!” And just like that, it was done.
*****
Most ponies never fully grasped what Generosity meant beyond the most superficial definition. To Rarity, Generosity was not just giving when asked-It was making sure that she never needed to be asked in the first place. And this was the ultimate generosity for her, the giving of herself and everything that she would ever be and do. To Equestria, to the Princesses, and especially to one in particular, who was the reason that she had signed up in the first place.
But Twilight Sparkle would never know that, if Rarity had anything to say about it, because sometimes Generosity was more appreciated if one didn’t know the reasons behind it.
In a world as magical and musical as Equestria, it should come as no surprise that every single pony was a half-decent singer, and most had more than a passing familiarity with an instrument of some kind. For instance, Fluttershy could not only sing, but was also rather skilled with the flute. The same could not be said of Twilight Sparkle.
She was a very good singer, to be sure, but as an instrumentalist, she just plain sucked. No talent whatsoever, though not from lack of effort from both her and her parents. Which was why, when Rainbow Dash dared Twilight to join an amateur band one night, Twilight immediately started looking for bands who needed a singer, and not anypony who could play an instrument. She found one quickly enough.
The band was one of the four-piece pop bands that were becoming more and more popular with the younger ponies, though they had apparently been around for a few years. When Twilight Sparkle went to meet them, they seemed pleasant enough, and they were in desperate need of a singer, after their previous one had accidentally misused her voice. They explained that they were doing a gig in Ponyville square at the end of the week, and Twilight’s voice would be a perfect fit.
“There’s just one other thing, miss Sparkle,” said one of the ponies, a brown earth pony, “We need to make you look like our usual singer. Sotto Voce only agreed to this because her voice wouldn’t recover by the end of the week, and her condition was that nopony know that somepony took her place for even one performance.”
Twilight sighed, but nodded her agreement.
*****
The end of the week came all too quickly for Twilight and the band. They’d crammed every practice session they could into the five days between when Twilight met them and the performance, and were now waiting to go up on stage. Twilight fiddled uncomfortably in her temporarily white coat, a dress hiding her wings, and counting herself lucky that Sotto Voce was a unicorn, or she’d have to disguise her horn as well, which would make this even more difficult. At a cue from the stage hand, the band, plus Twilight Sparkle went up on stage.
The next few hours passed in a blur for Twilight. She vaguely remembered singing some things, but the details had been lost in the adrenaline rush of performance.
“You did great, Miss Sparkle,” said the brown earth pony, “much better than anypony else could have done. Thank you.”
“Oh, it was nothing. I was just glad I could help,” said Twilight, still coming down off the adrenaline high. They parted ways, the band back to their hotel in Ponyville, and Twilight back to the library to wash the dye out of her coat and mane.
Ponyville, a peaceful town it was not, But the inhabitants made the best of their lot. But whether it be from parasprites or Discord, Ponyville ponies are rarely bored.
But the tale today is not an ancient being’s cause, But rather comes from a young dragon’s claws. For the young dragon, Spike being his name, you see, Had a lust for both gems and fair Rarity.
Yet it was neither of these things that compelled the drake, To enter Rarity’s bedroom early in the morn, and shake her awake. No, this action was not without reason or cause, Though once heard, it may give the fair unicorn pause.
As Spike shook Rarity awake, He called her name, hoping to break her stuporic state. “You must rise from bed,” cried Spike, “you must hurry.” To which Rarity replied, “Dear Spike, what has you in such a flurry?”
“Can you not listen?” said Spike, and Rarity did hear, Through the walls of the boutique, sounds of moans and groans drawing near. “The zombie ponies have come, fair Rarity,” said Spike, “and we need to be going.” Rarity sighed, “Why do I suspect that this was of Twilight Sparkle’s doing?”
[time]
The drake smiled a nervous smile, one that Rarity knew well, For it meant that she was closer to the truth than Spike would tell. But Rarity had come to trust in Spike and his advice for the drake was smarter than he looked, And decided the best course of action was to listen to the drake, and the two booked it.
And so did unicorn and dragon depart the town, Hooves and claws striking the ground. Explanations and exposition they could delay, As the important thing now was getting away.
Pinkie Pie bounced cheerfully down the main street of Ponyville, a wide smile spread across her face. It was a good day today. The sun was shining, her friends were all smiling, and she’d finally organized that totally awesome birthday present for Twilight Sparkle. As Pinkie Pie waved hello to Rose as she passed the other earth pony’s flower stall, Pinkie turned back to face the direction she was walking in, and slammed straight into Ditzy Doo.
“ohmygosh! Derpy, are you okay?” Pinkie asked, as the grey pegasus wobbled unsteadily for a few seconds, blinking rapidly. Derpy’s eyes then came back into focus, and alignment for a short time.
“I’m okay, Pinkie Pie! Oh, I got a letter for you!” said Ditzy, plunging her mouth into her official Royal Mail saddlebags, and emerging with a standard sized letter, which Pinkie grabbed with her own mouth.
“Fanks, Ditzy!” Said Pinkie, talking around the letter. Ditzy smiled, and with her eyes once more seemingly staring at Pinkie Pie and a patch of cloud overhead at the same time, took wing to continue her mail route. Pinkie walked over to a nearby bench, and placed the letter down on it to have a closer look. It was addressed to her, all right, and the hoofwriting looked very familiar, but Pinkie couldn’t place it. With a careful hoof, she split open the envelope, and pulled out the letter inside.
‘Dear Pinkamena Diane Pie,’ it began, and that was the final clue that Pinkie needed. Only her father ever addressed her by her full name on a regular basis, but he also hadn’t written in years. Most of Pinkie’s correspondance was with her two sisters, and sometimes her mother, but almost never her father. Shrugging, she read on. ‘Your mother has finally passed on from her illness. She would want you to be there for the funeral. Sincerely, Igneous Rock, your Father.’ This was followed by the address of the place where the funeral was going to take place, as well as the date.
Pinkie Pie read the letter again. Then she re-read it another two times, just to make sure that she hadn’t missed anything. Then, without a single expression crossing her face, she solemnly picked the letter back up, and walked back to Sugarcube Corner. It was only once she had reached the sanctity and privacy of her room that Pinkie finally allowed herself to be free with her emotions.
She bawled her eyes out.
*****[Time]****
The Funeral home where Pinkie’s family had elected to hold the service was a quiet, tasteful and dark building, draped in black everywhere. Pinkie Pie, in honour of her mother, had straightened her mane and tail, instead of letting them poof out as they normally did. It took a physical effort of will to make sure they stayed that way for the service.
The priest looked over the four ponies gathered in the dark room, and nodded at each one. “We are gathered here today, to mourn the passing of Cloudy Quartz, a beloved wife and mother...”
Scootaloo proudly stood on the bridge of her ship, the S.S. Rainbow Dash. She knew that she was one of the younger space captains, and that naming your ship after a living pony was considered bad luck, but Scootaloo had never truly believed in all that junk. And besides, Rainbow Dash was the most awesome space pirate who had ever lived, and deserved a ship named after her. Scootaloo hoped that by naming her ship after Rainbow, she’d absorb some of that awesomeness by proxy. Her engineer, Apple Bloom, just thought it was a bit stupid.
“Scoot...” began Apple Bloom, walking onto the bridge, covered in grease and oil.
“Captain Scootaloo,” corrected Scootaloo, interrupting Apple Bloom.
“Right. Captain Scootaloo, our thrusters can’t take much more. They were bad when we got ‘em, and they’re only gettin’ worse.”
“Right. After we finish this raid on the planet, we’ll use our loot and plunder and go and get new ones. Navigator Sweetie Belle!” Finished Scootaloo, barking the final sentence out in what she hoped was a voice with authority, “How’s our course look?”
“We’re all locked in, Captain. Jumping to hyperspace in three, two, one...” As Sweetie Belle finished her countdown, she pushed a button on the console in front of her, and the three young pirates’ view of the space outside their ship distorted, stars extending out into glowing lines, and the whole ship shook and shuddered as it pushed past light speed, and stuck its tongue out at Neighstein’s Relativity.
********
Several minutes and lightyears later, the rickety ship warped back into a universe that made sense, with the occupants shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
“Ugh...Engineer Apple Bloom? Remind me to invest in a new hyperspace stabilizer when we finish this job.”
“Got it, Captain Scootaloo,” said Apple Bloom, clutching her stomach.
“But hay, fortune and riches await!” said Scootaloo, striking what she thought was a suitably dramatic pose, “Let’s go and rob these wealthy space ponies!”
“Yeah!” enthused both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and as one, all three uttered the cry which struck fear and dread into anypony who heard it.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SPACE PIRATES, YAY!” Unbeknownst to the young pirates, a much larger ship was approaching their beloved pile of metal and bolts.
“Uh, girls? We might have some trouble,” Said Sweetie Belle, once she was back at her navigator station, and seeing the approaching red blip on her scanners.
“Hail that ship, Navigator Sweetie.”
“Yes, Captain,” said Sweetie, pushing several buttons, and then speaking into a microphone, “This is the S.S. Rainbow Dash. State your intentions, or we’ll blow you out of the sky.”
Behind her, Captain Scootaloo nodded. That had been perfect.
“This is Applejack,” Apple Bloom gasped, but the other pushed on, “And y’all have been out here long enough. It’s time to come in.”
[Time]
“Engineer Apple Bloom? Do you know her?”
“Aye, Captain. She’s my sister, the best space law enforcer in this here region. Ah wondered why this all looked so familiar. We got no hope of beatin’ her, Captain, or runnin’ away. We’re done.”
“But real space pirates, like Rainbow Dash, would never just give up, Engineer Apple Bloom! They’d find a way to keep being awesome, and escape!” declared Scootaloo.
*******
“Girls! Time for dinner!” called Applejack, from outside the Crusaders’ clubhouse, “You be down here in four shakes of a pony’s tail, or ah’ll pull y’all out by yer tails!”
“Coming!” The Crusaders all tried to exit the clubhouse at once, not overly eager to test Applejack’s patience much more. They got stuck for a brief moment, but eventually popped out, and landed in a pile at Applejacks’ hooves. Applejack let a grin slip onto her face at the three fillies’ antics, and then began walking back to the homestead on Sweet Apple Acres, the three blank flanks trailing behind her, talking in hushed tones.
“Well, darn it. I thought fer shore we’d get our cutie marks in Pretending from that,” said Apple Bloom, kicking a clod of dirt on the ground.
“Even if we didn’t, it was still kinda fun. We should do that again next week,” replied Sweetie Belle, and getting a nod of agreement from both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
“Yeah,” said Apple Bloom, “But next time, ah wanna be the captain!”
“Ah’m really grateful fer you an’ Pinkie doin’ this fer me, Miss Rarity,” said Apple Bloom, as she fiddled about nervously in the Carousel Boutique, waiting for Rarity to finish the dress that the youngest Apple had asked Rarity to do for her first date. As the craftspony had put it herself ‘Us Apples are a practical lot. But that don’t mean we cain’t look nice when we want to,’ and Apple Bloom had wanted to look nice, as she was going to the fanciest restaurant in Ponyville, and Rarity and Pinkie Pie had agreed to a double date, to help Apple Bloom along a bit, and get her to relax.
“Pish posh, dear. Anything for a pony in love, and you, my dear, are right in its throes. Now, who did you say your mystery date was, again?” Rarity, being a notorious gossip, had been attempting to get the name of Apple Bloom’s date out of her for most of the afternoon.
“Ah didn’t.” Apple Bloom, unfortunately, had inherited her older sister’s stubbornness when it came to secrets and keeping them, and could actually lie. Rarity sighed, and finished off the final few stitches on the dress.
“All done, Apple Bloom,” said Rarity, and she began helping the young Apple out of the dress, storing it away for the time being. “Now, you go and take care of anything you need to, and we’ll reconvene here at six, and then head to the restaurant.”
*********
Rarity and Pinkie Pie sat at their table, keeping calm expressions on the outside, but were they not at a restaurant, they likely would have been in the middle of either histrionics or hysterics. As it was, they were finding it hard to not break out in either, and perhaps the only thing preventing them was that they didn’t know which one to pick.
‘I can quite safely say that I never saw this coming,’ thought Rarity, as she picked carefully at her salad, ‘Apple Bloom ending up with either my sister or Scootaloo, I could have seen. Her dating one of the colts in her class, I could have anticipated. But this? No, I never would have guessed in a thousand years.’
Apple Bloom was silent as she sat across from her date, blushing as she moved her salad aimlessly around with her fork. Like Rarity, Apple Bloom would have never picked this outcome when she was younger. In fact, she probably would have denied that it could ever happen at all. But she couldn’t deny her feelings, and they’d been going out in secret for a while, at her date’s insistence. Tonight was their first ‘official’ date, which was a large part of why Apple Bloom had gone to the trouble of getting herself all fancied up.
[time]
As the night wore on, Apple Bloom and her date gradually began to relax, and both took occasional cues from Pinkie Pie and Rarity. For their part, the two older ponies were glad to see them finally relaxing, and offered as much advice as they could.
As the evening drew to a close, Apple bloom leaned over to Rarity and Pinkie Pie’s side of the table while her date was in the toilet.
“What do I do if they want a kiss goodnight?”
“Make out!”
“No, Pinkie. Not on the first date,” replied Rarity, “What you do is a quick, chaste kiss, usually on the cheek.”
“We made out on our first date, though.”
“We had extenuating circumstances.”
“But...make outs!”
“Later, darling.”
Pinkie cheered, and Rarity turned back to Apple Bloom.
“Yes, just a short kiss should do it. Of course, if your partner wants to go further, she will let you know.”
*******
Apple Bloom turned to face her date for the night as they stood outside her date’s home.
“Well, I had a real nice time with you, Silver Spoon. And you as well, Diamond Tiara. I guess this is where we part ways.” Apple Bloom rubbed the back of her head nervously. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara shared a look, and pulled Apple Bloom into a three way make out.
Pinkie Pie silently cheered from her hiding spot in the bushes, and Rarity rolled her eyes, and pulled the party pony into a make out of her own.
Heh. I get asked that a lot, you know. It’s right behind ‘Why the hell haven’t you cleared the clouds yet?’ That one gets yelled at me a lot. So yeah, Twi and all the others are in this big, five way relationship. I dunno how it really works, but anypony, even me, can see that it does. Twilight called it poly armours or something. I call it her princess harem, and she blushes every time. I’ve never really been one for sappy stuff. So not cool. Not to say I’m not happy for ‘em, but it’s just not for me.
Yeah, they’ve all asked me if I want to join in. I told ‘em no. And yeah, I know what you’re thinking, buddy. ‘But you’re the element of loyalty! Shouldn’t you be standing by your friends?’ Well, I can stand by them even if I’m not playing wild bedroom games with them every night. Hay, I’m usually the first to defend them to ponies who don’t understand their relationship. Usually because they’re too busy staring at each other’s flanks. Just because I’m not interested in all of that mushy stuff doesn’t mean they aren’t my friends anymore. We still do stuff together.
Me and Pinks, we still go pranking every week, and that’s always awesome. Fluttershy still comes out and helps me with my practice if I ask, and Twilight’s still trying to get me to move beyond Daring Do. I’ve actually been wanting something new to read for a while, but she doesn’t know that. Gonna make her work for it. I still hang out with Applejack down at her farm, playing horseshoes and stuff. Heck, I still have lunch with Rarity sometimes. So it’s not really like anything’s changed between us. They’re just all in a relationship. And that’s something I just don’t want. ‘Sides, romance and all that stuff just doesn’t interest me. Asexual, I think Twilight called me. I just know that I’m just not interested in it. Mare, stallion, doesn’t matter, I’m not interested. And that’s disappointed more than just my friends. Remind me to tell you about the time with Cheerilee sometime.
But I’m happy for my friends. If you ever tell anypony I said this, i’ll deny I ever said it and buck you in the face, but they’re good for each other. They look good together, you know? I’m not good with sappy stuff, so we’ll just leave that there, ok? Now, I gotta go, there’s a big open sky calling my name, and a Wonderbolt suit with my name written on it somewhere that isn’t going to earn itself.
[Time]
Okay, so maybe I do have a bit more to say. Yeah, all of my friends do still want me in their relationship. Pinks and AJ still bring it up every now and again. But they’ve just given up trying. Mostly. Twilight apparently spent half an hour explaining to all of them that I was asexual, completely uninterested in romance or whatever kinky bedroom games they played. I kinda do feel bad about that, but I can’t fake being in love. There’s only three things an awesome pony like me loves: my wings, Tank, and my friends. But not like that. I love all of the girls. They’re all awesome, seriously, but I’m not IN love with them, you know? So I’m just gonna stick with friendship. And that’s totally fine by me.
The sound of scribbles and frantic page-turning, as well as the sparkling poof of frequent teleportation echoed throughout the library. The sun had long since set on the lone occupant’s quest for knowledge, giving way to the moon, and soon, the moon would do likewise for the sun.
“Eureka!” cried Twilight Sparkle, throwing her hooves up in the air, and letting her magic fizzle out. Unfortunately, she also forgot about the eighteen books that she had been supporting. They hit the floor with a loud bang, and it was this which woke up Spike.
“Twilight?” he muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up in his small basket, “What are you doing?”
“It’s brilliant, Spike! I’ve figured it out!”
“Figured what out, Twilight?”
“Well, you remember yesterday, how I was researching Pre-Diarchy history, right?”
“Yeah,” said Spike, as Twilight bounced in place with barely contained enthusiasm.
“Well, I had an idea. What If I could directly view history? That way, I could get a much better sense of the context in which some decisions were made.”
“I dunno,” said Spike, “That sounds an awful lot like time travel. You remember the last time you tried to mess with time?”
Twilight’s eye twitched as she remembered the events surrounding that frankly weird week of her life, but she composed herself.
“The spell has only got tangential time-travel aspects, at best. There’s no chance that anypony casting it could be accidentally pulled back in time by it. I triple checked it.”
“Well, if you’re sure it’s safe...” muttered Spike, stepping back as Twilight’s horn lit up.
“Right. I’m hoping to see the decision to make Equestria a Diarchy. It’s a nice starting point.” Twilight’s horn continued to glow, building in intensity, and pulsing at regularly decreasing intervals. Then, with a massive flash and what looked like Pinkie Pie’s party cannon firing in reverse, Twilight vanished.
Twilight’s final thought was that she hadn’t calculated what would happen if an alicorn cast the spell.
*****
Her vision was fuzzy. And her horn hurt. Those were the first two sensations that came into Twilight’s notice. The third was that rather than the cool stone of the Canterlot Library under her, it was hard-packed dirt.
“Oh, my, dear sister! Look, a poor pony, passed out on the road!” The voice was deeply familiar to Twilight, missing only the mysterious weight of the experience of more than a thousand years.
“Careful, Lulu. She’s got scorch marks all around her. Somepony tried to kill her, and recently. Best just to move on.” This voice was closer to what Twilight had grown to know and love, but colder, not filled with the same love and warmth that she had experienced.
“I’m awake,” Twilight managed to cough out as she struggled to her hooves, “I’m alright.”
“See, Celly? She’s fine, and not getting killed. Perhaps she can even help us.”
“Nonsense. What could a mortal pony know about the affairs of running a country, or rulership?”
“More than you might think, Celestia,” muttered Twilight, not intending to be heard. However, both Luna and Celestia heard her.
[Time]
Celestia stepped forwards, “State your name, pony. Who are you? What do you know?”
Twilight jerked her head upwards, seeing Celestia’s stern face, and already glowing horn, and too late remembered that in this age, addressing the future Princesses by name was akin to treason. She teleported out of the way just as a beam of pure solar magic slammed into the ground where she had been standing.
It was almost instinct, formed of countless magic drills that Twilight had never fully understood the purpose of until now. As Celestia readied her second shot, Twilight twisted on her hooves, spinning around in a full circle, and drawing the earth up around her in a protective ring. The beam slammed into the protective ring of earth. Letting her spell dissipate and the earth fall back down, Twilight then teleported once again. She appeared behind Celestia, and levelled her own glowing horn at Celestia, ready to fire. The blast of magic slammed into Celestia’s side, throwing her sideways several metres. At the realization that she had not only hit Celestia, but potentially injured her, Twilight clapped her hooves to her face in shock, and nearly didn’t dodge the next strike from Celestia, only avoiding it by throwing herself to the side. She could hear the sizzle of her tail hairs as the magic passed by.
“STOP!” cried Luna, and both combatants froze, horns still glowing, “Sister, Celestia. Hold your magic a moment. And you, please hold your magic as well!”
Celestia let her horn flicker out first, and Twilight attempted to follow suit. However, her magic was almost spiralling out of her control, a somewhat common problem after a full magical duel, as the magic was tied into the adrenaline system. But most didn’t have the sheer power that Twilight had at her disposal, and so Twilight channelled her rampant magic into the first thing she could think of that wouldn’t harm the princesses-her botched viewing history spell.
With a flash, Twilight vanished back into the weave of time and space, leaving behind two very confused princesses.
“And that’s how my trip to Manehatten went!” said Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia sighed.
“I...have no idea what that story was,” said the cellist, pressing a hoof into her face, “Vinyl, honestly, your life is a series of completely unexplainable and utterly ridiculous events. How do you keep falling into these things? Where the heck did you even find an authentic leather riding crop, of all things?”
“Hey, I didn’t say I understood everything that went on this past week, but that’s what happened. Honestly, it got weird, even for me, on Thursday, when that multi-coloured pegasus got involved.”
Vinyl Scratch, by this point, had managed to get the blue and silver striped socks off her hooves. She couldn’t remember how she had ended up wearing them, but they had seemed to be glued to her. Then again, most of Saturday had been a long blur to the DJ, and there were some things in her bags that even she couldn’t explain. Just then, there was a knock at the door of the musician’s apartment, and Octavia answered it. She was greeted with a small explosion the moment she opened the door.
“Greetings, peon! Trixie has come here, to Canterlot, for the item that was promised to her!” Octavia held her face in a perfectly even expression while she regarded the unicorn in front of her, and then turned to face Vinyl.
“Vinyl? It’s for you,” said Octavia, mentally distancing herself from the weirdness that seemed to follow Vinyl Scratch everywhere. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room. With the door locked. Practicing my cello.” And with that, Octavia moved faster than Vinyl had ever seen her move before, practically galloping across the room and into her room. The door lock engaged with a strangely ominous click, and that was when Vinyl caught sight of their visitor.
“I’m not legally allowed to associate with you, Trixie.”
“Trixie has just come for the item that you promised her,” said the other unicorn, moving through the doorway, and into the apartment proper.
[Time]
“I’m still not legally allowed to be near you,” said Vinyl, scrambling over the back of the chair in a desperate effort to get as far away from the showmare as possible. “The last time we were apparently together, I ended up getting banned from performing for a month, and from several buildings permanently.”
Vinyl Scratch was not the most powerful unicorn ever, but she was decently talented, and quickly constructed a shimmering blue shield that blocked Trixie from getting any closer. Trixie regarded the wall of transparent magic with what could have been appreciation, before one spark from her horn forced a hole in it, and Trixie sauntered over to Vinyl, grasped the leather riding crop that was sticking out of Vinyl’s saddlebags and pulled it out, and leaned in close to whisper in Vinyl’s ear.
“Oh, did you think that would stop the Great and Powerful Trixie?”
“No,” said Twilight Sparkle, and the silence was deafening. To her sides, Princesses Luna and Celestia may have well been statues, so still they sat, though inwardly they wanted to jump and shout for joy. Celestia in particular had never seen the court this quiet since the Pie War of 648. She couldn’t be more proud of her ascended student. Living in Ponyville had indeed been good for her.
“No,” repeated Twilight Sparkle, both because that two-letter word needed to be said, and to confirm that yes, that was what she had said. “I will not remain in Canterlot.” Princess Luna allowed a single smile to flit briefly across her lips. Finally, Twilight was learning the most important lesson of all-the lesson of command.
Down on the floor, the gathered group of nobles were in shock, clearly unused to the blunt and honest response. One dared to speak up.
“Princess Twilight, please reconsider. Canterlot is where the seat of power is. You would be constantly called back and forth between here and...Ponyville.” The unicorn stallion had to suppress a shudder as he uttered the name of the small town. Celestia and Luna did not miss it. Neither did Twilight. “It only makes sense that you should move here.”
“So you can have another claim to fame, another princess to kiss up to?” was Twilight’s blunt response, “no thanks. I will be staying in Ponyville for as long as I am welcome there. Besides, Princess Celestia and Luna can send anything they need me to sign via dragonfire.”
The stallion wavered, perhaps because he had not expected such a logical counterargument. Neverless, he pressed on, “But Princess, think of our relations with other countries. What would they think of Equestria if one of our Princesses lived in a dirt hut?”
With a sideways glance at Celestia to get a confirmation nod, Twilight responded.
“Likely, they will think the same things they did when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled out of a cave. And I will be living in the Golden Oaks Library, not a dirt hut. The place where Equestria is ruled doesn’t matter, as long as the rulership is competent.”
As the stallion went to speak again, Twilight interrupted him.
“I have given my answer. It doesn’t matter what you say, I will not be moving to Canterlot Castle. I will be staying down in Ponyville. Because do you know what Ponyville has that Canterlot doesn’t? My friends.”
[Time]
His hopes dashed, the stallion left the room with his nose in the air, and Twilight signalled the herald for a recess.
“The Court of the Princesses will now have a ten minute recess. Please wait patiently, and the Princesses will address you as soon as they can.”
Twilight, Celestia and Luna retired to an adjoining room, which had in a rather brilliant bit of foresight, been very well soundproofed when it had been built.
“Ugh!” grumbled Twilight once the door shut, “I can’t believe them. He was the fourth today!”
“You are doing just fine, Twilight,” said Celestia, rubbing a hoof along the youngest alicorn’s back.
“Indeed, Twilight Sparkle. We would have handled that last noble with less decorum. And more shouting,” said Luna, a smile spreading across her lips. “Though it would have been funny to us were you to unleash the Royal Canterlot Voice upon the next pony who asks you such a question.”
Despite her slightly irritated mood, Twilight laughed as she envisioned it. Feeling much better, the three headed back out to the court, and let in the next pony.
“Princess Twilight, my dear sister,” said Prince Blueblood as he pranced into the room, and Twilight could feel Luna tense up by her side. “I was just wondering if you would consider staying in Canterlot, instead of returning to that ghastly town down by the Everfree.”
Once more, silence pervaded throughout the court. Twilight took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. Then she took another, and once more, exhaled. Then she breathed in once more.
And then she blew out all of the windows in the room.
One of the first things they teach you in any magic school is the phrase ‘Magic is the forcing of your will on reality.’ Most ponies mostly ignore this. I wasn’t most ponies, so I didn’t. Of course, I’ve never been to magic school either, but that’s not the point. I took it to mean that with enough magic, you could literally do anything. Of course, that’s not entirely true. The innate magic of Equestria is deep and unflexible, and likes to keep certain things constant. Like the air, or gravity.
My mother, I guess, was the one to convince me otherwise, though perhaps not intentionally. She was also the first to try and keep me in line. In one of our little magic sessions, she told me that my magic operated on a different scale than a normal pony’s. Rather than simple, localised effects, my magic defaulted to wide-ranging, massive events. And this, she explained, was because my magic knew something instinctively: Reality itself is a lie. And once I realized that, well.
Everything became much, much simpler. If I wanted popcorn, all I had to do was concentrate enough, and it would appear. If I wanted to reverse gravity, focus, and it happened. If I wanted to erase my mother from existence, a thought was all it took.
With enough magic, you can do almost anything, but the effects are never permanent. It takes a special kind of magic to make permanent changes to the world, or a willingness to go down the wonderfully dark path of ‘dark’ magic. To me, there is no dark or evil to magic, there’s just magic. Magic is just power, and what matters is what you do with it.
Reality is a lie. That phrase freed me. It unleashed me. It created me. It took me some time to understand it, but if it’s one thing I have never lacked, it’s time. The knowledge that I could twist and distort reality like any other physical matter I could touch was profound, even though I’m hardly one to discuss the full effects of it. It drove me insane, but I will counter your incoming arguments with this: how many ponies have ever forced pure and simple creativity on the world? Answer: none. They’re all too boring and practical for that.
Most ponies will look at my work and call it ‘Chaos’. They call me troublemaker, villain. And they have blinders on to everything good I have ever done, no matter how unintentional it may have been at the time. The seasons? My work. The phases of the moon? Me. And so on, really. More than one pony has been inspired by me whenever I manage to get loose from the prison that Harmony puts me in. Really, they’re so ungrateful.
Fluttershy leant in close, pushing her face almost right up against Twilight’s, and the unicorn moved her body backwards without moving her hooves, but Fluttershy kept leaning forwards. Her lips curled back into a vicious snarl, mimicking the predators she kept around her house. Her eyes narrowed slightly, just enough to make Twilight fall backwards, the purple unicorn landing on her rear with a soft thud. Fluttershy’s wings were flared out to their full extension, the purest example of anger that a pegasus could display, and one of her front hooves was hovering just below Fluttershy’s face.
“Twilight Sparkle,” said Fluttershy, her normally soft voice hard, and cold with rage, “you...do you know what you have DONE?!”
“Wow Fluttershy, your breath really smells wonderful from here, what do you use?” said Twilight as she leant back a bit further, unable break eye contact with the enraged pegasus, no matter how much she wanted to.
“Don’t change the subject,” hissed Fluttershy, “You know perfectly well what you’ve done. You have to. I know Rainbow has mentioned it to you at least once.”
“You know, I think I need to go and reorganize the non-fiction section right now, so I’ll just be going,” said Twilight, her hooves scrabbling for grip on the earth. But with each inch she moved away from Fluttershy, the pegasus simply took a step forwards, keeping the distance between their faces at a minimum, deliberately invading Twilight’s personal space. The pegasus might have looked overbalanced to the outside observer, with her almost fully extended hind legs and her weight almost fully over her front hooves, but her extended wings counteracted the shift of her weight, allowing her to stay in this position for as long as it took to make her point to the cowering unicorn.
“Don’t you dare go anywhere, Twilight. I was so close, and you ruined it. One more year, Twilight. One. More. Year.”
[Time]
Twilight laughed, an uncertain and completely out of place giggle, as Fluttershy pressed ever closer to her, and the pegasus’s front hoof was far too close to Twilight’s face for her liking. Everything about the entire pegasus’s demeanor screamed ‘Danger!’ to the unicorn. It was sparking every single danger instinct in her body, and all of them were screaming for Twilight to run away, but she couldn’t, frozen in place as she was by Fluttershy’s penetrating gaze.
“You made me lose The Game, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, her voice barely audible, but seething with rage, “a Game that I’d been playing for six years. One more year, and I would have been able to get Rainbow Dash to dress up fancy for an entire month. In frills. With makeup, Twilight. Do you even understand how hard it was to get her to agree to that in the first place?”
Ponyville was a little bit strange. Between the adventures of the Elements of Harmony, the near-disasters that happened every week and the generally high levels of crazy prevalent in the town, it was actually a wonder anypony got anything done. Especially so for Twilight Sparkle, the town’s librarian of debatable competence. While Twilight was incredibly organized and efficient at everything she did, she could often get wrapped up in her own private research, and forget that the library she lived in was a public place.
Thus, while in her basement Research Station, which was most definitely not an Evil Laboratory, she was startled by a noise from upstairs. Something crashed to the floor, and she could hear the faint sound of Spike calling for help. As she rushed up the stairs as quickly as she could, the sounds became clearer and clearer.
“Come on, just leave that alone! I’ll get Twilight.”
“Thanks!” Twilight recognised the voice, the bane of all things organized and sane. That terribly chirpy, bouncy voice that always sounded like its owner had consumed far too much sugar before breakfast. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant voice. As Twilight raced along the final corridor to the main room of the library, her hoof caught on an uneven patch of floor. She tumbled forward, and rolled into the door, knocking it open. She eventually stopped rolling when she collided with the statue in the centre of the room. Spike had vanished to somewhere.
“Oh, Hi Twilight!”
“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” sighed Twilight from her upside down position, “What do you want?” With a flash of light and magic,
Twilight teleported herself right side up. Upon regaining her footing, she was confronted with Pinkie Pie all but climbing over her.
‘Chaos, thy name is Pinkie Pie,’ thought Twilight as Pinkie Pie shone a light on the purple unicorn.
“Hey, you don’t sparkle,” said Pinkie Pie as she backed off, disappointed.
“Well of course I don’t. I’m a unicorn, not a gemstone, Pinkie.”
“But with a name like Twilight? Seriously, how did you even get that name, and not sparkle?”
Twilight pressed a hoof to her face with a groan. She knew what this was about now.
“My parents named me Twilight because I was born at dusk. Not in relation to that book.”
“Hey, Twilight?”
“Yes, Pinkie?” sighed Twilight, bracing herself.
“Do you love me?”
“What?” The sudden shift in tone caught Twilight by surprise, and her head twisted to look at the party pony, who was suddenly more serious than Twilight had ever seen her.
“I know I can be a teensy tiny bit annoying. I know that someponies don’t always like me. So I just want to know, do you like me? Because Rarity totally says you do.”
“Pinkie Pie,” began Twilight, pausing for a moment to collate her thoughts on the pink incarnation of insanity, “I can’t explain it. I don’t know how to say what I want to say.”
“So just say it, silly!”
[Time]
Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. Then, taking Rarity’s advice about being spontaneous, she leant forwards and kissed Pinkie Pie full on the lips. After the two separated, while Pinkie Pie was still in a happy daze, Twilight magically grabbed the hardcover edition of Creating Magic: The Omnibus, and headed to the door.
“Where are you going, Twilight?” asked Spike, poking his head out from the cupboard.
“To see Rarity. She told Pinkie about my crush.”
“Right. And what’s the book for?”
“Because after I thank Rarity, she needs to be reminded about keeping secrets. A five hour lecture on magic should do it.”
“Doest thou realize what thy has done?” boomed Princess Luna, the volume and power behind her voice blowing back Trixie Lulamoon’s mane. Trixie, for her part, merely swept it back into place with a hoof once the echoes had subsided.
“Of course the Great and Powerful Trixie does. She is not stupid, Princess.”
“We could debate that,” said Luna, rolling her eyes, “but now is not the time. Thy clearly has something wrong in thy brain, to think that this would be worth what thou got out of it.” Princess Luna motioned with a hoof at the rampant chaos visible out of the window. Discord’s unhinged laughter echoed throughout the cotton-candy-cloud filled sky, and a trio of buffalo wearing tutus tinkled by.
“Trixie will make no apologies for making the choice she did.”
“You had no right to give our world to Discord, little pony. You will now explain why you did so.” Luna’s tone made it perfectly clear to Trixie that if the princess found her answer lacking in any way, she wouldn’t need to worry about Discord, or even leaving Canterlot Castle. Trixie swallowed nervously, and began her explanation.
“When Princess Twilight was killed on that mission in the southern badlands, Trixie looked for a way to bring her back. Trixie didn’t want to lose her only friend. But the only things that Trixie found that could subvert nature like that were Dark Magic, and Discord. And since Trixie has no inclination towards Dark Magic, she turned to Discord.”
“And the price he demanded was the world,” said Princess Luna, her eyes still narrowed dangerously, and her mouth set in a hard line.
“The world, and Trixie’s soul. But Trixie did not go into this deal blind. She did some research. For all the claims and evidence that Discord is a being of pure whim and chaos, he is bound to honour any agreement he makes. Trixie made Discord swear on his own existence that he would bring back Twilight Sparkle exactly as she was two days before she left for the mission that caused her demise, to live out the rest of her natural life.” There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, as Princess Luna evaluated Trixie’s answer.
“You have still failed to appease us, little pony. There are no circumstances under which turning to Discord and his foul magic are ever acceptable. Even to bring back a friend,” said Princess Luna. The day rapidly shifted into night, and then back into day a second later.
“But with Twilight Sparkle back, now the Elements of Harmony are able to once again imprison Discord, and correct everything,” said Trixie, “that counts for something, right?” As if on cue, there was a bright flash of light, and normality reasserted itself on the world.
“Good achieved by accident does not excuse willing evil,” intoned Luna, “You will await judgement in Canterlot Prison. I suggest that you pray that Celestia is merciful, for I will not be.”
Rainbow Dash trotted down the cold stone passageway, wincing as the frozen air hit her sensitive wings.
“Guys? If this is your idea of a prank, it’s not that funny.”
The note directing her to the cave she was currently walking through had been slipped under her door on the last day of the Wonderbolts Academy. With no indication as to why she was supposed to be here, or any hint of an author, Rainbow had no idea if it had been one of her fellow trainees playing a prank on her, or if it was a message from Spitfire, or any of the other Wonderbolts.
“Spitfire? Soarin’? Misty Fly? You guys in here?” Up ahead, the passageway widened out into a large circular room, and Rainbow could see six ponies arrayed around a central stone altar. She couldn’t quite make out what they were wearing from this distance, and so she entered the chamber fully.
“The Rainbow has come,” uttered one of the ponies around the altar, one who saw her enter the cavern, and the rest turned to face Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, very funny guys,” said Rainbow, as she finally made out what the six ponies were wearing: Shadowbolt outfits. “Ha ha ha. Great joke. Now take off the outfits, and let’s all go back up to the academy, okay?” The six ponies began to advance towards Rainbow Dash, and she realised that all of them were pegasi.
“The Rainbow has come. The Rainbow will show us the way,” said another of the Shadowbolts, “But the Rainbow has yet to join us.”
“The Rainbow must join,” said a third, and that was taken up as a chant by the rest.
“Look, I thought I told you guys this when we met in the Everfree, but I don’t leave my friends hanging,” said Rainbow, taking a step back to get away from the slowly advancing group of chanting pegasi.
“The Rainbow must join,” the six intoned, “The Rainbow must join.” One of the pegasi was suddenly behind Rainbow Dash, and pinned her wings to her sides, before wrapping her in a headlock and began to pull Rainbow Dash towards the central altar. Rainbow fought the Shadowbolt every step of the way, but whoever this pony was, they were much stronger than Rainbow was, and in short order Rainbow was splayed out over the stone altar, kept in place by iron chains attached to her hooves.
“The Rainbow must join. The Rainbow must join.” On and on the chanting went, filling the cavern with a monotone drone that permeated every crack and crevice
[time]
The Shadowbolts arrayed themselves around the stone altar in a rough circle, chanting all the while. Then, the pegasus by Rainbow’s head held up a hoof, and resounding silence ruled over the cavern.
“We Are Shadowbolts. We are the Dark,” said the pegasus.
“We are the Dark,” echoed the other five.
“We consume the light, make it our own. Before us lies a pony of the light, The Rainbow,” said the apparent leader.
“The Rainbow must join,” responded the five.
“Doesn’t ‘the Rainbow’ get a say in this?” yelled Rainbow Dash “Cause I say no!”
The Shadowbolts ignored Rainbow’s outburst, and instead continued on with their weird ritual. Rainbow Dash blocked out the sounds surrounding her, and concentrated on getting free. One of the manacles had not been secured properly in the stone, and it came free when Rainbow gave it a good yank. From there, it was all downhill for the Shadowbolts, as one after another, the fastest pegasus in Equestria dealt with them, knocking them unconcious in short order.
But just as Rainbow dash was about to go and finish off the leader, the other pegasus held up a hoof, and pulled back their hood.
“S...Spitfire?”
“Congratulations, Rainbow Dash. You just passed the final trial. Welcome to the shortlist for Wonderbolt auditions.”
Five girls, of varying builds and skin colour, gathered in one of the empty classrooms on the upper floor of Canterlot High. After pleasantries and cupcakes were exchanged, they got right down to business.
“Sunset Shimmer’s startin’ to worry me, girls,” began Applejack, “Everyday after school, she just goes and sits in front of that statue out the front for about an hour.” To illustrate her point, the southern girl pointed out one of the windows of the class room, and sure enough, in the front courtyard, just in front of the statue that Twilight had vanished into, sat Sunset Shimmer.
“Do you think she misses being a pony?” asked Rarity.
“She’s had something like two years to get used to school, though. I think if she missed being a pony, we would have seen it before,” said Rainbow Dash, leaning up against the wall.
“Maybe she misses Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie, “Maybe she finally realised that they’re true and perfect soulmates, and that because the portal only opens once every thirty moons, they can’t see each other for another two years and have to wait until the portal opens and then they can f-,”
“Pinkie Pie!” interjected Rarity, glaring at the party planner. Pinkie Pie looked appropriately contrite until the moment Rarity looked away. The fashionista continued on. “But regardless of Pinkie Pie’s language, I do think she may be onto something. Perhaps Sunset misses Twilight. Maybe it’s that she regrets what she did in that other world, but cannot go back to make amends.”
“So the question is, what do we do? I mean, I know we said we’d be her friend and all, and I’m down with that,” said Rainbow Dash, “But what can we actually do?”
Silence pervaded the classroom as the five girls thought.
--------
Back in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was rushing around the mirror that served as the portal to Canterlot High School.
“Twilight. What are you doing?” asked Princess Luna, walking into the room where the mirror portal was kept in Canterlot Castle, barely avoiding a rapidly teleporting Twilight Sparkle.
“I wanted to go back to that other dimension and check on Sunset Shimmer,” said Twilight, barely pausing in her half frenzy of magic as she set up a plethora of runes and sigils. “I actually feel sorry for her. Not because she’s trapped over there, but because she just doesn’t understand friendship.”
“It will never be said that you lack compassion, Twilight Sparkle. But the portal will not open again for another thirty moons.”
“But that’s just it! I think I’ve found a way to trick the mirror into thinking that thirty moons have passed.” Twilight was positively bouncing with glee as she prepared to launch into her explanation of her magical method, but was halted by Princess Luna holding up a single hoof.
“Does this involve time travel, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Why will nopony ever let me forget that week?” muttered Twilight, before shaking her head, “No, Prin-Luna. It doesn’t. All I’m doing is feeding precise amounts of magic into the mirror’s internal spell-clock matrix.”
“Very well, Twilight Sparkle. We shall stay here, and monitor you. But if Celestia asks us, we were in the kitchen. Eating donuts.”
[Time]
------
“Are you sure you don’t want to come back to Equestria, Sunset?” asked Twilight, as she stood in front of the statue, ready to leave Canterlot High once more. Sunset shook her head.
“I...I don’t deserve to. I don’t deserve any of this. Besides, I think I’m better off here. But Twilight, could you at least tell Celestia that I’m sorry? And maybe once thirty moons have passed, I’ll talk with her in person. But I can’t face her right now.”
“I can do that, Sunset,” smiled Twilight, and gave the reforming former student of Celestia a hug, and then walked through the portal back to Equestria.
The room was silent and still. Thin rays of light crept through the curtains, falling over the room. All was well. The covers on the bed rose and fell gently, in time with the occupant’s breathing. And then the alarm went off, and Pinkie Pie groaned, rolled over, and hit the snooze button, before wrapping herself back up in her very comfortable blankets. However, her peace was not to last, as ten minutes later, the alarm went off again, and this time, Pinkie Pie could not ignore it. The pink pony dragged herself out of bed, and trotted over to her bathtub. A few minutes later, she re-emerged, much more awake, and her poofy mane weighed down with water.
Before her hair fully dried out, Pinkie tied it back into a professional style, and inspected it in the mirror. Satisfied with her appearance, Pinkie kept getting ready. Breakfast consisted of two cupcakes, a muffin and a glass of orange juice, and then she was out the door, casually trotting through the streets of Manehatten.
Aside from nearly missing the turn that took her straight to work, Pinkie’s journey was completely uneventful. She entered the glass and steel monolith where she spent her weekdays with a sigh. She didn’t like the job, but it paid, and allowed her to afford her rent, so she could put up with it. Taking the elevator up to her floor, she settled in behind her desk, and got to work.
‘You know, it’s Friday,’ came a thought, ‘You could liven things up a bit.’
Pinkie Pie shook her head, and kept working.
‘Come on, just one little party. Management won’t mind.’ Pinkie Pie tried very hard to ignore the part of her brain that was arguing with her. She couldn’t risk losing her job here, and that meant no streamers, no cake fights and no parties. Pinkie Pie pushed the treasonous thoughts out of her mind, and buckled back down into her work.
It was lunch time, which for Pinkie Pie was a salad sandwich made the night before. She sat in the break room, holding a conversation with one of her co-workers as she ate.
‘Come on, Pinkie Pie. Just pull out the Party Cannon. One little party.’ The thought was like a whisper in her mind. Pinkie Pie shook her head again, trying to dislodge the thought. There was a time and a place for parties, and at work was neither.
‘You used to be fun. Now look at you-just a mindless drone.’ Try as she might, Pinkie couldn’t dispute that thought. She couldn’t remember the last time she had honestly had fun. Not since moving to Manehatten, at the least.
‘Would it kill to just have fun once in a while? And look around you. None of these ponies are smiling. And isn’t that your special talent? Making ponies smile?’ Again, Pinkie couldn’t dispute her rogue thought process. Her mane began to poof back out into its usual shape, the clip holding it in place creaking under the stress.
[Time]
‘But maybe you just aren’t fun anymore. Maybe you’ve forgotten how to even have fun.’
‘Hey!’ Pinkie thought back, ‘I can totally have fun, and I’ll prove it!’ the mane clip strained some more.
“Hey, Everypony!” called Pinkie Pie, climbing up on the table, balancing precariously on her hind legs. She reached into that strange space that was always just out of sight, and her hooves wrapped around the barrel of a familiar object, and pulled.
The mane clip broke, and Pinkie Pie’s hair poofed right back out, settling into her pre-Manehatten style. The Party Cannon’s firing switch rested underneath her hoof. Pinkie aimed the weapon of mass entertainment at a vacant table, and slammed her hoof down on the button. In exactly 0.48 seconds, the table was covered with a tablecloth, full confection spread, and balloons.
Pinkie Pie then did the one thing she knew she was never, ever supposed to do with the Party Cannon, and turned a dial on the side from ‘Casual Party’, past ‘Extreme Party’ and all the way up to a setting labelled ‘Party!!!!!’
“I quit!” said Pinkie, as her boss entered the room to see what all the fuss was about. She pushed the firing button.
That was the last time anypony in Manehatten saw Pinkie Pie. The sheer force behind the Party Cannon blew the pink pony backwards, through the wall and out to the horizon. But for months afterwards, it was not hard to tell where she had worked from a distance. After all, how many skyscrapers wore party hats?
“Now, you be a good girl, Octavia. Listen to your teachers, make sure you do your homework, and we’ll be back to pick you up at the end of term. And don’t forget to keep practicing your cello,” said Octaiva’s mother, as the two stood at the gates to the prestigious Canterlot Boarding School.
“Yes, mother,” replied Octavia, and gave her mother a final hug, and then walked into the school proper. Once past the rather intimidating front gates, the school was much like many of the other buildings around Canterlot-white stone construction, and polished wood accents. Octavia moved over to the front desk, and confirmed both her registration, and obtained her room number. Octavia sincerely hoped that her preference for a single room had been approved. She wasn’t strictly anti-social, but Octavia did not see the value in companionship when she could be practicing or studying. She wanted to be the lead cellist in the Canterlot Philharmonic one day, and needed every ounce of practice time she could get so that she could be an appropriate level. Having a single room would ensure that distractions were at a minimum, allowing her to truly focus.
However, the moment that Octavia pushed open the door to room number 18, her hopes were dashed, as another pony’s bag was sitting on the bed on the right side of the room. Groaning to herself, Octavia pulled her bag and cello case over to the opposite side. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she found that she still had a few hours before the official welcoming ceremony, and decided to make the most of it. And since her roommate was nowhere in sight, she unpacked her cello, and set herself up for practice.
She was just beginning the Prelude of the Suite for Solo Cello in G major an hour later when the door slammed open, and a white unicorn, roughly the same age as herself, tumbled through the open door and landed in an uncomfortable heap on the floor.
“Ow,” said the unicorn, as she got back onto her hooves, “that worked out less awesome than I thought it would. Hey, who are you?”
“I am Octavia Melody. I was assigned to this room,” said Octavia, still standing with her cello at the ready.
“Cool! That means we can be friends. I’m Vinyl Scratch, pleased to meet’cha!” Vinyl Scratch held out a hoof, waiting expectantly for Octavia to shake it.
Octavia stared at Vinyl Scratch, taking in every aspect of the rambunctious unicorn. Her white coat, already stained and scuffed from dirt. The shock of two-toned blue hair that she apparently called a mane and tail, and the rather unusual bright red eyes. The wide grin, promising distractions and trouble.
“Let me make something clear, Vinyl Scratch. I am not here to make friends, and nor do I want them. I came here to study, and play the cello. If I want to get into the Canterlot Philharmonic, I cannot waste time on trivial pursuits. We may be roommates, but that does not mean we are friends.”
Vinyl retracted her hoof, and diverted her gaze away from Octavia. “Yeah, okay. I’ll...just be over here, then.” Vinyl shut the door, walked over to her side of the room, and settled down to clean her coat. Octavia resumed her practice without as much as a further glance at the unicorn.
[Time] *******
Octavia was knocked down by the older stallion, but her concern was not her own safety. Rather, it lay with her falling cello. She dived for the precious instrument, hoping to catch it before it shattered on the hard stone. Her dive was in vain. The cello gently hovered nearly a foot off the floor, surrounded by a gentle blue shimmer. Octavia glanced around, and found the source. Vinyl Scratch, the unicorn whom she had blown off at the beginning of term stood there, as casual as can be, her horn lit up, effortlessly suspending the instrument.
“Hey. You leave Octavia alone,” said Vinyl
“Or what are you gonna do, you silly scholarship? Lecture us to death?”
“No,” said Vinyl, gently setting the cello down on the floor, and positioning herself between Octavia and the bullies. “I’m gonna do this!” Vinyl’s horn flared painfully bright for a few seconds, and when the glow dimmed enough that Octavia was no longer seeing spots, she found that the bullies were now all tied to one of the columns in the hall, upside down. Vinyl turned to face Octavia.
“You okay? Your cello okay?”
“Why?” asked Octavia. Vinyl didn’t need clarification as to what the aspiring cellist was asking about, and looked straight into Octavia’s pink eyes as she gave her answer.
After her unceremonious dismissal from the Wonderbolt Academy, and explicit instructions from Spitfire to not come back unless she fixed her attitude, Lightning Dust knew she couldn’t just go straight back to her home in Vanhoover. She’d be made a laughing stock within five minutes as the pony who got kicked out of the Wonderbolts Academy. For all its reputation of toughness, prior to Lightning, the Academy had never kicked somepony out. Made them quit by constantly upping the difficulty of the tasks, yes. Expulsion, no.
Thus, Lightning instead flew to the east side of Equestria, and eventually neared the coastal city of Fillydelphia. From the air, the town seemed oddly quiet, and as she neared the ground, this was confirmed, as every single house was completely closed up and a few even had boards nailed over the windows. Shrugging, Lighting Dust moved over to a nearby house, and knocked on the door. A few minutes passed before the top half of the door creaked open.
“Can I help you, Miss?”
“Yeah. What they hay is going on here? Why’s every house boarded up like this?” asked Lighting Dust.
“There’s a Wild Storm coming in. A big one. We’re just making sure that everything stays standing.” Lightning Dust glanced over at the seaward horizon, and sure enough, a gigantic mass of black, roiling cloud was there, growing ever larger almost by the minute.
‘How the heck did I miss that on my flight in?’ wondered Lightning Dust, but then she got a terrible, wonderful idea. If she took care of the storm, nopony would care that she’d been kicked out of the Academy. Dispersing a Wild storm was not an easy feat, as the innate weather magic of Equestria was not working in your favour with storms like this. And maybe, the Academy would take her straight back. Take that, Rainbow Dash!
Straightening up, Lightning Dust addressed the pony in front of her. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that storm soon enough, or my name isn’t Lightning Dust!”
“But we already have the weather patrol on it.”
“Pfft. Some amateur cloud buckers can’t deal with this. Like I said, I’ll take care of it.”
“Whatever,” said the other pony, and shut the door in Lightning’s face. Unconcerned with the pony’s response, Lightning left the ground behind, trailing her blue and yellow streak as she rocketed towards the massive storm cell.
*****
Up close, the storm seemed even more intimidating than before, but Lightning dived right in, passing several pegasi who seemed to be aimlessly circling the storm.
‘Amateurs,’ thought Lightning, ‘all of them. Storm like this, you need to hit the centre.’
Navigating blind wasn’t easy in the rough winds of the storm, but Lightning trusted in her senses, and hit the heart of the storm soon enough, only to find herself in the middle of a perfectly calm column of air.
“What the...” that was all the time she had to wonder before her motion carried her through and into the other side. Taken aback by the sudden shift, she couldn’t avoid the lightning bolt that struck her on her back, paralysing her wings, and practically setting her nerves on fire. As she began to fall, she could see a second lightning bolt forming, as if in slow motion, getting ready to finish her off.
The last thing she felt before passing out was a body slamming into hers.
Nothing puts a new perspective on the phrase ‘You need a hobby’ like being over a thousand years old. Celestia and Luna could personally attest to that. Being the immortal demi-goddesses of the Sun and Moon that they were, the fads and fashions that often gripped the mortal ponykind could pass by the sisters’ attention almost completely. As such, both of the sisters had developed their own little hobbies to occupy their attentions, regardless of what ponies thought about them.
Being literally as different as night and day, the two sisters had different interests, and their spare time activities reflected this. Except in one rather peculiar case. Both sisters wrote, their stories based around real-life events. Sometimes it was to get the raging question of ‘What if X happened, instead of Y?’ out of their heads. Sometimes it was to live vicariously through their writings. But mostly, it was to pair up every single pony in as many combinations as possible, regardless of if those combinations made sense or not.
And naturally, this spawned more than one argument between the two sisters. And like most things between the two immortal alicorns, things had a habit of...escalating.
****
Luna stared at her sister across the great expanse of water. They were out at sea, which made a great deal of sense, especially since the last time the sisters had clashed horn to horn, the resulting outpouring of magic had carved out Horseshoe Bay. Luna shook her head to clear it of those thoughts, and instead adjusted her tri corner hat, and used her magic to direct the ship she was standing on to open fire at Celestia’s.
Luna’s ship was decked out in swathes of purple and white, and the image of Celestia’s cutie mark, crossed with Twilight’s, adorned the sails of the ship.
“Come now, sister, you must admit that Twilight has feelings for you!” bellowed Luna, utilizing the Royal Canterlot Voice for its intended purpose: yelling at the enemy on the field of battle. “It is the most logical!”
“Nonsense!” came Celestia’s reply, along with a cannonball. “She is far more likely to be enamoured with you. She has always loved the stars, and you were always the more magically proficient of the two of us. Twilight could not resist such a thing.” Celestia’s ship was covered with purple and dark blue, and had an image of Twilight’s cutie mark combined with Luna’s on its sails.
[Time]
“But you were her teacher, sister. The forbidden love between teacher and student!” Luna ducked under another cannonball, and magically commanded her ship to return fire.
“The shared love of studying magic, and the night sky will bring the two of you together, Luna!”
“Twilestia!” Luna’s ship fired, and the cannonball punched a hole in one of Celestia’s sails.
“Twiluna!” Celestia’s retaliating cannonball took out one of the masts on Luna’s ship.
“Teacher-Student forbidden love!” Luna’s cannonball smashed into the side of Celestia’s ship.
“Shared magic appreciation!” Celestia’s shot tore through the rear of Luna’s vessel.
****
Cadence and Twilight watched from the air, as the two alicorn sisters more or less waged war on each other.
“Does this happen often?” asked Twilight, wincing as Celestia’s ship took a particularly brutal hit.
“You’ll get used to it,” was Cadence’s calm reply.
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“Twilight, if there’s one thing I’ve learned since Princess Luna returned, it’s that sometimes you just need to let things happen. This is one of them.”
Twilight thought back to her attempts at analysing Pinkie Pie, and then nodded her agreement.
“I can’t believe this,” muttered Diamond Tiara. The young heiress had matured greatly from the petty schoolyard bully she had once been, especially once her father began sending her to work at Sweet Apple Acres every summer break. She could still be petty, but she had acquired a modicum of humility, and a great deal of respect for the ponies who worked for a living.
“It’s almost surreal,” agreed Silver Spoon, “to think that Twist, of all ponies, would be the first of our class to be getting married.” The two friends were waiting patiently in Ponyville’s small chapel, along with the rest of their school class, as well as Twists’ and her groom’s family and friends. Twist herself was already waiting by the altar, and was waiting for the groom to show up. The anticipation was practically palpable in the air.
A stallion at the back of the chapel gave a signal to the organist, and the pony began playing the signature tune of ‘Here Comes the Groom’ as Twist’s mother began leading the sweating stallion up the aisle. Finally, after what seemed like an age, the unicorn was deposited by the earth pony mare, and the presiding pastor began the rites.
“We are gathered here today, to witness the union of these two ponies. In health or in sickness, in times of sadness and in happiness, and throughout all the changing of the seasons, may they be bound by the love that they share for one another. Candy Twist, do you take this stallion, to be your lawfully wedded husband, in the eyes of the Princesses and Faust The Writer, now and forevermore?”
There was a moment of silence while Twist spoke.
“I do.”
“And Sharp Snips, do you take this mare, to be your lawfully wedded wife, in the eyes of the Princesses and Faust The Writer, now and forevermore?”
A pony could have heard a pin drop in the silence between when the pastor finished speaking, and when Snips opened his mouth.
“Y-y-yeno. No I can’t!” cried Snips, and he bolted from the chapel, leaving a stunned Twist standing alone at the altar.
----
Also, I did write this for the same prompt:
Nopony Ever Saw That Coming
It seemed like a perfectly normal day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, Pinkie Pie was fighting a monster made of marshmallow, and Twist had become an alicorn, and was now declaring herself the ultimate ruler of Equestria.
Rainbow Dash shifted her weight, glancing around the room. She had never liked staying still, or being inside, and visiting her mother required her to do copious amounts of both. The usual accruements of a long life well lived hung from the cloud walls, and sat on shelves. Rainbow had seen them all a thousand times before. She watched, as her mother walked backwards into the room, pulling an ancient wooden chest with her mouth.
“Now, where did I put that...” muttered her mother, “aha! There it is. Rainbow, dear, would you get that old silver key for me?”
“Sure, mom.” It was a moments’ work for Rainbow to retrieve the indicated key, an old, ornate silver thing, engraved with her mother’s inititals. She passed it to her mother, who promptly unlocked the chest, threw open the lid, and dived headfirst into the chest to a depth that should not have been physically possible. Rainbow completely disregarded that fact in favour of ducking the stream of assorted knick-knacks her mother began tossing out of the chest.
“Watch it, mom!” said Rainbow, as she threw herself to the side to avoid what appeared to be a full-size Shetlandish claymore sword, and then a blue tortoise shell smacked her on the head.
“Ow,” muttered Rainbow, and she ducked and weaved her way to the other side of the room, where she would be safe from her mother’s throwing hoof. It was several minutes of clangs, bangs and frantic muttering before Rainbow’s mother emerged from the chest with what she wanted.
“Now Rainbow, I know you think I’m just an old has-been,” began her mother, with an exaggerated eye roll to accompany Rainbow’s, “But in light of this Element business, I think it’s time I let you in on a little secret. I wasn’t always the killjoy you think I am. I was once no less than the greatest adventurer in all of Equestria!” Rainbow’s mother had assumed a dramatic pose on the coffee table, waiting for a reaction from her daughter.
Rainbow just stared at her mother without a single change in expression.
“Okay, maybe not the greatest, but I was an adventurer. I explored new lands, met new cultures, experienced strange and wonderful things. Why, one time, I even found myself well beyond Equestria’s borders, trapped in this strange land, with nary a thing to eat and four months to wait for the next ship back...”
Rainbow faked snoring to show exactly how interested she was in her mother’s stories.
“Well, fine. I suppose I can regale you with my tales of derring do and high-stakes adventure another time.”
[Time]
Rainbow’s mother moved closer to her, and hugged her tightly. “You know I care for you deeply, Rainbow. That’s why I want you to have this,” said Rainbow’s mother, hoofing over a wrapped bundle. Rainbow pulled on the string tying the cloth wrapping around the object, and unwrapped the bundle.
Inside were two objects. One was a dagger made out of what looked like black glass, which seemed to glow if Rainbow tilted her head just a touch to the side. The other was a necklace, the pendant a model of a pegasus in full flight, and made out of the same weird, glowy black glass. Though oddly, the necklace seemed to glow a different colour.
“They’re made out of obsidian, a material which you can’t find here in Equestria,” said Rainbow’s mother, in answer to Rainbow’s unasked question. “The necklace was enchanted by a unicorn I met on my travels to enhance the wearer’s reaction time. Given your love of speed, you will probably get some use out of that. The dagger, I hope you never have to use. But if you do, know that it was enchanted by that same unicorn, to never dull or break. Both served me well while I was out adventuring. I hope they can do the same for you while you’re out with your Element friends, saving the world.”
“Thanks, mom,” said Rainbow, giving her mother a brief hug, and silently asking for permission.
“Oh, alright. You can go now, dear.”
Rainbow was out of the door before her mother finished speaking. Her mother smiled, and then trotted back over to the pile of odds and ends that she had tossed out of the chest, and picked up the blue tortoise shell with a rather vicious grin.
“Now, let’s see if that plumber was right about this thing...”
Ponyville, situated as it was right next to the Everfree Forest, had always had additional issues when it came to the weather schedule, as compared to somewhere like Canterlot. The Everfree, as its name might imply, remained completely unaffected by the natural magics that stabilized the rest of Equestria. As such, the weather schedule was rarely made more than a week in advance, and most of the weather captains, past and future, would completely abandon any pretense of long-term planning when that forest got involved. The sole exception to this, the one weather captain of Ponyville who had somehow actually either learned to predict the chaotic weather patterns, or even more oddly, got the forest to do what she wanted to, when she wanted it to, was Rainbow Dash. When asked, the mare herself would likely proudly puff up her feathers, and state that she was ‘just that awesome’. Nopony actually knew the full story, and nopony ever would, especially if Rainbow had anything to say about it.
But the fact remained that Rainbow Dash had already secured her place in the history books twice. Once for her Sonic Rainboom, and again for being the only pony to master the Everfree’s notoriously chaotic weather.
*****
Rainbow Dash carefully flapped through the Everfree Forest. Even though the sun was high in the sky, the interior of the forest was dark, thanks to the copious canopy. A shiny new Weather Captain’s badge was pinned to her official Weather Team vest, as the town had just finished the first Winter Season Turning with Rainbow living in Ponyville, and more than once had Rainbow gotten sick of the cloud cover rolling in from the Everfree, which had eventually caused her to break out in a string of words that a pony her age should not rightfully know. After apologising to the mothers of the foals who had overheard her almost incoherent rant, Rainbow Dash had immediately headed to the forest, intending to give it a piece of her mind.
She logically knew that even as chaotic and random as the forest could be, it was not intelligent. It could not speak. It was just a stupid forest, and so her coming to yell at it would serve no other purpose than to let Rainbow blow off some steam. This fact did not stop her in the slightest, as she headed deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest, well past where she would eventually discover her role as the Element of Loyalty.
Not many ponies know this, but the Everfree Forest was the final result of one of Discord’s many re-imprisonments over the years. Such an outpouring of pure chaos magic is why the Everfree Forest continues to defy all known expectations of normal behaviours. It also had the effect of folding an area in space and time in on itself to a degree that measuring the forest externally yields one measurement, but actually entering the forest and measuring it there yields another, much, much larger number. Walking around the Everfree can be done in two or three days. Attempting to cross it directly will take you two weeks. As such, Dash easily passed the former Castle of the Two Sisters, and kept going deeper and deeper, well into the heart of the forest.
There, she found a tree, dead and twisted. The ground around it was burned black, and nothing grew there. It was here that Rainbow voiced her complaints at the Everfree. Loudly, and at great length. Then, when her voice ran out, she glared at the tree until she could no longer keep her eyes open. And when she woke up, she would repeat the whole process. Eventually, she could no longer speak at all, and settled for simply staring at the dead tree as if trying to set it on fire with her gaze alone. There she remained for twenty days and twenty hours, staring and cursing the dead piece of wood in front of her with every fibre of her being.
It is unknown if the Everfree was actually intimidated by Rainbow, or if it just appreciated a pony actually finding its heart and staying there for so long. Regardless, once Rainbow exited the forest, she never had any more trouble with the weather creeping over into Ponyville airspace, and every time it seemed like it was about to, all she had to do was glare at its nearest border, and the clouds would retract. This was why Rainbow never told the story to anypony-nobody wants to hear about the 500-hour long staring and cursing session with a piece of wood. It was not one of her better moments.
A lot can happen in eight minutes and twenty seconds. Light can travel from the sun to Equestria in that time. Pinkie Pie could set up four and a half parties. If she could ever maintain it, Rainbow Dash could cover one hundred and seventy three thousand kilometres while in the aftereffects of the Sonic Rainboom. And eight minutes and twenty seconds was all Twilight Sparkle needed to take over Equestria. So, at exactly eight minutes and twenty seconds before the sun was due to rise, Princess Twilight Sparkle put her plan into motion.
The first thing, and the one that took the longest, was dealing with the princesses. Twilight was no fool-going into horn to horn combat with the two princesses, even as powerful as she was, would prove to be suicide. A warping spell took care of Princess Luna while she was in her chambers, as it twisted the space beyond the door into something completely unrecognisable, and then it vanished. To where, Twilight didn’t know, and didn’t care. It was away from here. One Princess and two minutes down. Celestia would be a bit more challenging, as she was almost constantly in the public eye, and thus luring her away would be difficult.
Or not, reflected Twilight Sparkle, as the space around Celestia folded in on itself, and banished the oldest alicorn to somewhere outside of space and time. All it had taken to get her away from her guards was Twilight asking to see her in private, and when Celestia had turned around to lock the door at Twilight’s request, the youngest alicorn had cast the same warp spell that she had used on Luna. Four minutes down, four minutes and twenty seconds to go. Next stop, the Royal Mail Hub, to deliver the notices that she had prepared the night before. A quick teleport whisked her away.
Once the notices declaring that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had been tragically lost to an eldritch abomination, and that Princess Twilight would be governing Equestria from now on were being reprinted, Twilight teleported over to Parliament, where she submitted all the correct forms, filled out in triplicate, that declared her to be the new ruler of the nation of Equestria. After all of that had been taken care of, Twilight only had one minute and thirty seconds to complete the final thing that would cement her as Equestria’s new ruler. A final teleport took her straight from the Parliament building to the balcony in Canterlot Castle where Celestia and Luna had raised and lowered their respective cosmological bodies.
[time]
She concentrated, and reached out with her magic. Across the void it stretched, and grasped the moon first. It was a slippery thing, unaccustomed to anypony’s magic but Luna’s, but Twilight eventually got a hold of it, and slipped it below the horizon with minimal complications. And then Twilight turned her attentions to the sun. This would arguably be the more difficult of the two. It was much bigger, much further away and much, much hotter. One wrong tweak, and she could destroy all life. Thirty seconds remained. Twilight’s magic reached over to the sun, and gingerly wrapped around it. Twilight wiped the sweat from her brow. She hadn’t used this much magic for this length of time since the Ursa Minor incident. Then, she lifted her head, and the sun lifted with it, eventually emerging over the horizon with barely a second to spare, and then it was on its track across the sky.
Five hundred steps. It seemed so little, and yet so far. Five hundred steps, and then she could make everything right. Her body was wrapped in a cloak, the hood pulled down. She was receiving a number of odd looks from the townsfolk, but they were not worth any trouble on her part. She took the first step, and began the longest and shortest trek of her life.
20 steps in, she wondered why she was here. Why she felt that this was necessary. Had she not already apologised, and made everything right again? Had she not already been forgiven? If she was honest with herself, the answer to those questions was no. Sure, she had been honest when she first apologised, but it had been coloured by her normal demeanour. She had a funny feeling that she hadn’t been taken seriously.
50 steps in, and a chill was already settling over her. What if she hadn’t been forgiven? What if the other decided to get payback? By all rights, she would deserve it. The things she had done to the other were not trivial. It was a miracle in her eyes that the Royal Guard weren’t actively pursuing her.
100 steps done. She was a fifth of the way there, and her destination was clearly visible. The townsponies had more or less figured out who she was, but fortunately they weren’t reacting to her presence, other than giving her an unusually wide berth. She supposed that they were waiting to see what happened before judging. She admired their restraint. Celestia knows that she didn’t have the same control.
250 steps down, and two hundred and fifty remaining. Halfway. Her stride never lessened, her hooves kept up a steady cadence throughout the whole walk. She was sure that the other had seen her by now. Maybe the other had known she was coming ages ago. Maybe not. All she knew, all she chose to think about, was that she needed to apologise. Properly, this time.
400 steps gone, and the doubts were rampaging through her mind. She worried about the outcome, if the other pony would accept her. She knew she wasn’t perfect, but she was trying to be better. And it had been so long since she had someone that she could call ‘friend’. She could only hope that the other pony had actually forgiven her for the last time.
Five hundred steps finished. Trixie Lulamoon stared at the door to the Golden Oaks library, and her position. She was one step too short, just out of reach of the door. She took the final step, and knocked on the door. It was answered by Twilight Sparkle, her wings flared out, and her mane a mess.
“Trixie? What are you doing here?”
"Apology...bwa...You....what...wings?” stammered Trixie, and then she fainted.
Pinkie Pie looked out of her window as the moon rose over the horizon, and sighed. The lights of the Golden Oak library were still unlit. It had been months since Twilight had gone to Canterlot in the wake of her coronation. She had said, even Pinkie Promised, that she would be back, but Pinkie was beginning to doubt. What if Twilight was just going to stay up in Canterlot? Twilight had said that she could never do that, but what if she’d changed her mind since them? What if she’d found some handsome stallion, and they were dating, and decided to live in Canterlot? Pinkie’s mind was awash with these kinds of questions and doubts, and the rest of their group had already suffered the endless stream of questions that poured out of her mouth whenever the topic came up.
Twilight had been sending letters, usually every week, describing her little adventures in princessing. Only this week, there had been no letter, which only added to Pinkie’s worry. Had she done something wrong? Maybe she’d been too energetic.
“Gummy, do you think Twilight’s coming back? I sure hope she does,” muttered Pinkie, as she tucked herself into her bed, and began to settle down to sleep for the night.
Down on the street below Sugarcube Corner, there was a magical fizzle and a pop, and Pinkie Pie’s ears perked up. The sound of a pony singing began to float through the open window of Pinkie’s bedroom.
“A True, true friend helps a friend in need, A friend will be there to help them see, A true, true friend helps a friend in need to see the light, that shines from a true, true friend~”
Pinkie gasped, and dashed to the window, and looked out. However, the only thing that she saw was the aftermath of a teleportation. But Pinkie knew that voice. It was Twilight’s, without a doubt, and Pinkie knew exactly where the purple pony princess would go. Pinkie Pie backed up from the open window, wiggled her tail, and then ran for the window as fast as she could, jumping at the last second. The premiere party planner of Ponyville soared through the air, and at the last second, slowed her descent by producing several balloons, letting her touch down safely.
Once on the ground, she bolted for the Golden Oak Library, which was slowly being lit back up, after months of intermittent use. As she ran towards the library, she encountered Rarity, who had not even bothered to take her mane out of her curlers when she too had left her Boutique, and behind her, Pinkie could see Applejack galloping as fast as she could. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy soared overhead. The five friends converged on the library that had been the beginning of many of their adventures, and the home of their missing friend. Pinkie reached the door first, but just as she was about to push it open, the knob turned, and it opened all by itself, causing Pinkie to grasp for something that was no longer there, and she fumbled. Rarity and Applejack smacked into her from behind, forcing Pinkie up onto her front hooves, and then Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy collided, unable to stop themselves in time. The five ponies tumbled through the door, and collapsed in a heap on the scorch mark of Twilight’s cutie mark that none of them had been unable to remove. The first thing that Pinkie saw, though, was a purple pair of hooves, and she looked upwards, following the legs up to the body, and seeing Twilight Sparkle laughing at the spectacle the five had no doubt mad of themselves.
[Time]
Pinkie couldn’t help it, and she joined Twilight in laughter. The rest of them followed soon after, and they were soon all rolling around on the floor, roaring with laughter. Once they’d all calmed down somewhat, they all pounced on Twilight, giving her a big ‘welcome home’ hug.
“Hi girls,” said Twilight, as she was embraced by five sets of hooves. “It’s good to be back home.”
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived two regal sisters. The elder sister used her unicorn powers to raise the sun, beginning the day, while the younger brought out the moon to begin the night, and both sisters were adored by the ponies equally. The younger sister’s court at night was just as busy as the elder’s during the day, and harmony existed all throughout the land and Equestria prospered.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived two regal sisters, who ruled over the land together. The elder sister used her powerful magic to raise the sun at dawn, bringing light to all corners of the world, while the younger sister raised the moon to begin the night, and so there was balance in the kingdom of Equestria. But as the years wore on, the adoration that the younger had once received began to fade, and she became resentful. Was she not just as talented and skilled as her sister? Was she not just as powerful, or worthy of her subject’s attention? For ponies played during the day, savouring every hour of light, but slept through her beautiful nights. But while the younger sister noticed that fewer ponies came to her court, she was still the Mistress of Dreams, and still visited ponies in their mental hours of need, and for this, she was still celebrated and Harmony existed throughout the land.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived two regal sisters, who ruled the land together. The elder sister used her magic to bring forth the sun, lighting the world, and the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. But all was not well, for the younger sister was resentful and angry, for while her sister’s day was adored and played in by all kinds of ponies, her wonderful nights were shunned and slept through. And so, the younger sister decided that perhaps what the ponies needed was longer to admire her work, and refused to lower the moon to make way for the sun. The elder sister tried to reason with her younger sister, and for a time, it worked. But each day, the night grew longer and longer, and the days grew shorter and shorter until finally, the younger sister absolutely refused to make way for the sun. Once again, the elder sister tried to reason with the younger, but it was too late: the bitterness had transformed the younger into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would not rest until all the land was shrouded in darkness, that if ponies were so scared of her, she would give them reason to be scared. Ponies everywhere suffered terrible nightmares whenever they tried to sleep, dark shapes flitted about the night, and the ponies of Equestria pleaded the elder sister to stop the torment.
And so it was that the elder sister called upon the greatest magic known to ponykind: the Elements of harmony. The elder sister used the power of the elements to imprison Nightmare Moon in the moon, and took on the duty of raising both sun and moon, and Harmony existed throughout the land.
[Time]
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn, while the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom, and their subjects; all the different kinds of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played during the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. the elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harness the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony was maintained in Equestria for generations.
But on the thousandth year of her imprisonment, Nightmare Moon was able to escape her prison, and returned to Equestria for a second attempt at eternal night. Once more, she was defeated by the Elements of Harmony. But rather than banish her back to the moon, the Elements cleansed the younger sister of the evil that had encompassed her heart, and the younger took her place at her elder sister’s side once more, and they ruled together as they had previously. And slowly, the ponies of Equestria grew to love the younger sister as they did the elder, and Harmony existed throughout the land, and Equestria made its way towards a golden age of peace, and prosperity.
Discord laughed. He was all powerful, he was god, he was skating down a road made of soap to go and buy groceries for Fluttershy. He sighed, and turned the road back to dirt with a snap of his paw and trudged onwards. At Fluttershy’s insistence (the apparently timid pegasus had a personality made of solid iron, and was surprisingly persuasive when she wanted to be), Discord had been relegated to doing that weeks’ shopping in Ponyville. The bits rested in a bag tied to his waist, and he was also carrying Fluttershy’s saddle bags to place everything in. (Her idea. Discord had just wanted to magic everything up).
As he walked, Discord thought. As he had stated to the fun-killer that was Twilight Sparkle, being trapped in stone didn’t mean he was deaf. Or blind, for that matter, but neither dear old Celestia or Twilight needed to know that. So the embodiement of Chaos and Disharmony was aware of the Elements of Harmony, and the dangers that they had faced. Celestia liked to talk to his statue sometimes, which was why he’d known all of the Elements’ names before his breakout.
The six, he had to admit, were impressive. He’d never admit it to anypony (Discord suppressed a snicker at the word), but they had dealt with three of his children, and that did warrant a tiny sliver of respect. Admittedly, they had also dealt with the three youngest. And he was about as much their father as Celestia was pink, really, but Discord had not earned the title ‘Primus malus’ for nothing. He was the First Evil, the greatest, and all others were created by him, or were offshoots of his experiments with Chaos.
The Nightmare, the being that corrupted Luna, had been the most recent. It was a delightful little creature that warped the mind, played on fears and doubts, twisting the pony it infected until their personality had been completely reversed. Unfortunately, it could also not exist without a host, so Discord had implanted it into Luna just before she and Celestia turned him into stone. (He’d been aiming for Celestia, though).
Sombra, that wonderfully insane stallion who was more smoke than pony, that had been a gift. The one time ruler of the Crystal Empire had asked Discord to make him the greatest ruler the empire had ever seen. In exchange, he had offered Discord the Crystal Heart. Discord had twisted Sombra’s mind until he was an overlord, not a kind and fair ruler, gave the ruler more power than he could be expected to use responsibly and then he’d given the Heart back, because Discord had no use for something material.
And Chrysalis. Dear, wonderful Chrysalis and her changelings. Such a delightfully chaotic race. One of his finer creations, if Discord did say so himself. An entire race of bugs, that fed off of love, that most sickening of states. Blech. Discord couldn’t stand all that mushy stuff, which was probably why he had created the holey ponies to eat all the stuff. Discord could no longer remember why he’d done a lot of things-he was too busy causing chaos.
[Time]
But despite his (slightly) reformed nature, Discord couldn’t wait until the next little adventure of Princess Bookworm and her friends. Because he could feel the rumblings of the fourth of his many, many children awaking. And to quote Pinkie Pie, this was going to be a doozy. Mind, he still wasn’t entirely sure which of his kids was waking up next, but from the ripples in the cosmos, it was definitely a big one.
Discord chuckled to himself, covered the road in soap again, and skated off. Oh yes, this was definitely going to be good. Now, he just had to remember if Fluttershy had wanted tomatoes or pumpkins this week...
“You must tell her, sister,” Said Luna, as she materialized in the astral plane, her hooves landing on the road of stars. Celestia had her back to her sister, and was watching Twilight’s Cutie Mark Event, and didn’t speak until Luna was alongside her.
“She never remembers, Luna. Not once has she ever remembered. Despite all my searching, all of our efforts, she never remembers.”
“True,” acquiesced Luna, “but that has not stopped you from trying for the last three ages. And you know as well as I that it is not a perfect process, but bits are slipping through. Her love of magic. Her obsession with Starswirl. Her sheer, raw power. You must tell her, sister. You must tell Twilight Sparkle who she has been. Even if the next time around, she has forgotten everything, no matter what she is, she will take a piece of Twilight Sparkle through with her, the same way she took a piece of Starswirl. The same way that she took a piece of Tirek.”
“I have failed her, Luna. I promised her that we would find a way to stop her curse. Now, I don’t know how many millennia later, and she’s still under the curse, and it’s getting worse. She used to have vauge visions about those things, but now? It’s barely noticeable.”
“Celestia,” began Luna, “I know. She was dear to us as well. But perhaps, with Twilight being an alicorn now, things will be different.”
Celestia sighed, and with a mental command, switched off the virtual screen, and with Luna alongside, she exited the astral plane, and reemerged in the physical plane, right in Canterlot Castle.
“You must go and talk to Twilight, sister. Before midnight, and the Fourth age begins,” said Luna, “Or we may lose her forever.”
****
“I’m what?!” said Twilight as she stood in the Golden Oak library, several books on preening orbiting around the newest alicorn, and Celestia offered a gentle smile.
“You are the latest in a long line of reincarnations, Twilight Sparkle. A long time ago, you were our friend, but you had a curse placed on you by an ancient and unknowable being, and you were cursed to ‘forever walk the earth, in all forms imaginable’, and we have been seeking a way to break you of the curse, to let you regain your true form, and all the knowledge that you have gained over your many lives.” Celestia looked out of the library’s windows, and saw the moon inexorably climbing towards its zenith.
“You have been many, Twilight. You were Tirek, when he attempted to rule Equestria. You were Starswirl the Bearded. You have been earth pony, pegasus and seapony. You have been every form, everything that has a brain.”
“But Princess,” began Twilight, and Celestia decided to let the title slide, “How do you know all of this?”
[Time]
“Your soul, Twilight. Your form may always be different, but your soul has never once changed. And your soul remembers who you have been. You just need to listen to it, and you will understand.” Another glance at the moon revealed that the time was almost upon her.
“Listen, Twilight. Something very unpleasant is going to happen when the moon is at full height, and the Fourth Age begins. I want you to remember what I have told you as best as you can, and I will try to find you in your next life if you do not succeed here.”
“What are you talking about?” The moon hit it’s zenith, and Celestia could hear Luna’s voice.
“I’m sorry, sister. I tried to delay as long as possible.”
“Well, at least Twilight knows now.”
***
The Fourth age of Equestria began with an explosion of magic from the Golden Oaks Library, as something came for Twilight Sparkle. She put up a good fight, shrouding her battle with the creature with pure magic, and Celestia could only watch. This was Twilight’s fight. She had to win, to break her own curse. The only question that was on Celestia’s mind was if, when the smoke of battle finally cleared, she would see a renewed Twilight, ready to be the Princess she was originally born to be...or a corpse to bury.
Vinyl scratch sat in the booth right at the back of the bar, the one that practically nopony ever went in, because it was dark and full of spiders. Vinyl didn’t mind the dark, and the spiders had been cleared out with a brush of her hoof. A candle kept the table lit just enough for the DJ to see by, but not much else, and a glass of scotch rested on the table, the ice slowly melting into the finely aged whiskey. But the unicorn’s focus was on the blank piece of paper lying on the table in front of her, and the quill held in her magical grasp.
Hey Tavi, she wrote, and almost immediately scrubbed it out.
Dear Octavia, she began again, and was more satisfied with it.
I guess I owe you an apology. Okay, I owe you a lot more than an apology, but this will have to do for now. Look, I know I’ve screwed up. I know I’m not the easiest pony to live with. So, let me count the ways in which I’ve made a discordant mess of your life right now.
One: I broke your favourite bow. I know, you told me never to touch it unless it was an extreme emergency, but I was lazy and couldn’t find the practice bow you told me that I could use. I was in a hurry, though. I needed to hear what a melody I was working on sounded like on a string instrument and... Octavia, I swear I’m not trying to make excuses.
So, number two. I tried to hide the fact that I broke your bow, and damaged your violin. I should have just told you when you got home. But instead, I freaked out, and hid them both.
Fault number three: I made a complete mess of the music room, and not just my corner. I know you tolerate my mess as long as it’s contained, but what I did broke that rule into a million little pieces. I mean, I knew you were going to be out of town for a while, so I figured that I could allow myself to have a bit more mess, and then clean it up before you got home. I swear, I didn’t intend for it to go that far.
And finally, fault number four: I promised you when you left for that concert that I’d get your spare cello over to Vincenzo’s. I kind of forgot, in the rush of me accidentally making a mess out of the music room, and then accidentally breaking your favourite bow.
I know you’re probably still mad at me. And you’ve got every right to be, Octavia. I completely screwed things up this time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you never let me touch another of your instruments ever again. But can we please go back to being friends again, Tavi? I’ll do whatever you want to make it up to you; I just want my friend back. Please?
Really really really sorry,
Vinyl.
[Time]
Reading over the letter once more to make sure it sounded right, Vinyl then rolled it up, downed the rest of her drink, and headed towards the apartment where she normally lived, and hopefully would again, if Tavi didn’t decide to kick her out permanently. Picking out Octavia’s window was pretty easy-the cellist had a habit of sleeping with her window open, even in the dead of winter. Vinyl took a breath to steady herself, and then levitated the roll of paper up and through the window. Vinyl waited hopefully for a few minutes after letting the letter drop inside the room, but Octavia was either not in the room, or asleep.
And so Vinyl walked away, sliding her shades down over her eyes, and trying to ignore the biting cold of the snow under her hooves, and desperately hoping that she could find somewhere warm to spend the night while she waited for Octavia’s hopefully positive response.
“Order, Order!” Apple Bloom banged her hoof on the little podium in the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ treehouse, “This ultra-secret meetin’ of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Spike the honorary Crusader will now begin.”
“It’s not that secret, Apple Bloom,” said Sweetie Belle, “You and Scootaloo grabbed us in the middle of the market, yelling ‘Secret Crusader meetin’ right now!’”
“Well, it’s what we’re talkin’ about that’s secret, not the meeting,” retorted Apple Bloom.
“Okay, so what are we talking about?” asked Spike. Apple Bloom looked at Spike, and spoke.
“We need to talk about the fact that mah sister and Sweetie’s sister have been makin’ lovey-dovey eyes at each other.”
“We do?” squeaked Sweetie Belle, and Spike rolled his eyes.
“Heck yeah we do!” said Scootaloo, “Don’t you remember what happened with that love poison potion, with Big Mac and Miss Cheerilee? What if something like that happens with Applejack? Or Rarity?”
“Don’t be silly, Scootaloo. Rarity can’t pull a building,” said Sweetie Belle, confidant that that would end the discussion. It didn’t.
“Yeah, but you know what Rarity’s like. She’ll go all dramatic and wail and stuff. Blech,” Scootaloo started to pace around the treehouse, “and that’s not all-Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie have also been making funny faces at each other.”
“Oooh,” went Sweetie Belle, “I think I remember overhearing Rarity say something about that. Um, I think she said,” Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and went into her best Rarity impersonation, “why daarling, those two together would be absolutely adorable!”
Apple Bloom stomped her hoof, “Look girls, I don’t like the idea of mah sis making smoochie pie faces at Rarity. So we tried for our cutie marks in matchmakin’,” all three of the Crusaders (and Spike) shuddered as they remembered that Hearts and Hooves day, “ah was thinkin’ maybe there’s one for anti-matchmakin’. Like stopping ponies from gettin’ together.”
“Why would we want a mark like that, though?” said Sweetie, “Having that as a special talent would be pretty awful.”
[Time]
“Hey, at least Rainbow Dash isn’t making any goo-goo eyes at anypony. Dash is just too awesome for anypony to handle.”
“Yeah, and Twilight’s not dating anypony either,” said Spike.
“That’s because she’s an egghead.”
“Girls!” called Apple Bloom, “ah still think we should try and get our cutie marks in anti-matchmakin’. Who’s with me?” However, Apple Bloom’s call went unheeded, as Scootaloo had begun arguing with Sweetie Belle about why Rainbow Dash was too awesome to need a special somepony, and Spike was stuck inbetween them.
“Nopony ever listens to my ideas,” grumbled Apple Bloom.
The wastelands were hot and dry this time of year, thought Princess Cocoon. Then again, they were always hot and dry. And barren, she couldn’t forget barren. The lands were dead, but she and her kind lived here because there was nowhere else for them to live. Every Changeling Queen since Queen Pupa the Mad had tried to improve the living situation of their people. Queen Chrysalis the Ambitious had attempted a forceful takeover of their neighbours to the north, the ponies of Equestria, but she had just been the latest in a long line of queens. Princess Cocoon strolled through the round tunnels of the hive mountain, her black chitin clicking on the stone, smoothed and worn from both the acidic spit of the workers and years of use. Her wings buzzed every now and again, and she could hear the faint hum of the hive mind in her head. Her connection wasn’t as strong as the Queens’, but it was still enough.
Changeling Princesses are odd things. They exist to replace the Queen when she is no longer able to command the hive, and there is never more than one at a time. They have a connection to the hive, but at the same time, are unable to be directed through the hive mind like the rest of the changelings or give orders through it like the Queen. The number of Princesses who had used this to their advantage, to reach the status of ‘Queen’ was not zero. In fact, it was a lot higher.
As Princess Cocoon strode through the hive, she could hear subdued muttering echoing through the rounded tunnels, and emerged out into the central chanber of the hive. It was a massive chamber, and Cocoon could now see Queen Chrysalis the Ambitious pacing around on the raised platform that served as the place of power, muttering to herself. There were no guards here. No Changeling brawlers. There never were. After all, the Queen was the most powerful changeling in the entire hive. What could possibly be capable of defeating her in her own home? Cocoon took a deep breath, charged up her horn, and fired.
****
Queen Cocoon stood over the broken and shattered corpse of the former Queen Chrysalis. With a mental flex, she summoned two workers to remove the remains of the hive’s previous rulers. Next, she announced through the connection that she was leaving for reconnaissance for a new food source. Local commanders of the changeling swarm acknowledged this, and took over the task of keeping the hive running, while Queen Cocoon buzzed her wings and flew out of the hive, heading north.
She stopped in a forest when night fell, insulating herself against the cold and predators with a construction of the sticky slime that all changelings could make. In the morning, she ate her way out, and before flying off, assumed the guise of a white pegasus to avoid suspicion.
It took her a few days, as Cocoon had never been the greatest of flyers, but she eventually arrived at the mountain where the Princesses of Equestria lived. Entering the city using the former Queen’s memories and the hive’s collective memory as a guide, she knew that the princesses were in the biggest castle in the city.
[Time]
The white pegasus that was Cocoon entered the castle, and requested an audience with the Princesses of Equestria. The attending pony looked at her strangely for a bit, but acknowledged her request. She was ushered into the throne room, where three Ponies with both wings and a horn sat. The biggest was Celestia, she knew that much. But the smaller blue and the even smaller purple ponies, she had no idea who they were, but given that they were sitting on either side of the big white one that was Celestia, they must also be princesses.
Queen Cocoon bowed. It seemed like the respectful thing to do, and she did want to make a good impression.
“Princesses, before I speak, I must ask that we have some privacy.” The three considered this for a moment, and then, from the edge of her eye she saw the purple pony princess make a motion with her hoof. A moment later, the massive doors closed behind the last guard, and Cocoon stood up.
“What can I do for you, my little pony?” said Celestia, and Cocoon had to suppress a shudder. The princess genuinely loved her subjects, and some of that was feeding into Cocoon. She savoured it for a moment, knowing full well that it would vanish in a second. She dropped her disguise, soft coat reverting to hard chitin, gossamer wings replacing feathers.
“I am Queen Cocoon of the Changeling hives,” she said with another bow, so deep as to touch her muzzle on the stone floor, “and I wish for an alliance. I do not wish for there to be any further hostilities between my people and yours.”
Bon Bon trotted through the market place, her saddle bags laden with various ingredients that she was low on in her confectionary shop. She paused for a moment before Roseluck’s store, and picked up a dozen daffodils, knowing that they were Lyra’s favourite, and then kept moving.
“Bon Bon! Bon Bon, over here!” Bon Bon turned to see the town’s newest addition, the new librarian Twilight Sparkle.
“Can I help you?” said Bon Bon, turning to face the unicorn and moving a bit closer.
“Lyra lives with you, right?” asked Twilight, and she continued on after Bon Bon’s nod, “Do you know where she is? I haven’t been able to find her all day.”
“It’s the day after the Summer Sun Celebration,” said Bon Bon, giving Twilight a flat stare.
“What’s that got to do with it?” asked Twilight, and Bon Bon had to fight the urge to facehoof. Of course Twilight wouldn’t know yet-she’d only been in Ponyville for a year.
“Okay, Twilight. You know all those songs we sing at the turning of the seasons?”
“Oh, like Winter Wrap Up?”
“Yes,” said Bon Bon, and both mares had to pause to hum the chorus of the song under their breaths, or it would be stuck in their heads all day. Once they’d done that, Bon Bon continued on. “Well, Lyra writes them. Every year, she has to come up with four songs; one for each of the Season Turnings. And Mayor Mare always wants them two days after the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“Oh,” realized Twilight, “Well, I can wait until she’s done, then. I’ll see you later, Bon Bon.” Bon Bon waved as Twilight headed back to the library, and Bon Bon headed home. When she reached her home and shop, she could hear the delicate sounds of the lyre floating out of the open upper window, often closely followed by the harsher sound of Lyra’s emphatic swearing. Bon Bon, having learned from previous years what would happen if she interrupted Lyra’s creative flow, decided to stay away from the door to the upper portion of the house.
It was several hours later when a frazzled, fatigued and frantic Lyra fumbled her way down the stairs, her front hooves stained with ink, and nearly collapsing. Without a single word, Bon Bon picked up the bunch of daffodils, and shoved them at Lyra.
“Eat,” commanded Bon Bon, and the unicorn leant forwards and took a bite straight from the bunch. As she chewed, Bon Bon could practically see her calming down and re-energizing. Likely, this was the first meal that she’d had all day. As Lyra finished the last of the flowers off, Bon Bon braced herself.
[Time]
“Oh my Celestia, Bon Bon, I am never doing this again, I swear! Next year, Mayor Mare can find someone else to write her songs for the season turnings! Delivering four songs by nine in the morning is impossible!”
“Uh-huh,” said Bon Bon, “So how many did you get finished?”
“Seven,” muttered Lyra, “three were for Pinkie Pie, and you know how much notice she gives me. Why can’t Mayor Mare do the same and give me more notice?” Bon Bon just smiled as Lyra continued her rant about how nopony understood exactly how long it took to write a song properly, knowing full well that while Lyra may complain now, that would change the moment the town hit the first rehearsal, when the unicorn would get more excited than any other time and all the work would pay off. Lyra would agree to do the songs for the next year again, and the whole cycle would repeat itself, because Mayor Mare would forget about it until the next Summer Sun Celebration, and thus the day after it, Lyra would barricade herself in her room, and write songs all day, before turning them over to the mayor’s office the next day. As Lyra left the room to go and organise everything to hand in the next day, A tune began to run through Bon Bon’s head.
“Winter wrap up, winter wrap up~” sang Bon Bon, before catching herself, “Dammit, Lyra!”
Her only response was a cry of “If I have to suffer, so do you!”
Twilight Sparkle wandered through the Everfree forest, her empty saddlebags gently flapping with her movements, as she made her way back to the Castle of the Two Sisters. While she hadn’t been able to find anything about the box the Tree of Harmony had produced when she’d returned the Elements, there were a great many books there, ancient and valuable, and while they had been remarkably well preserved to this point, Twilight was worried that soon enough, the rest of the castle would collapse, and take the library with it, and she wanted to preserve as many as she could.
Entering the castle again, she almost called out for Spike to keep up, but then remembered that he had declined to come, choosing instead to stay back at the Ponyville library, in order to keep that running, and his assistance was not needed. As Twilight walked through the castle, bathed in the patches of the light of day coming through the broken and shattered roof, she giggled as she remembered the antics of her friends a few days prior.
“Pony of Shadows,” she laughed, “What a ridiculous ponytale.” But as Twilight headed to the library, she missed the oddly darker shadow around the base of one of the columns.
****
It was several hours later when Twilight finally looked up from her work in selecting and preserving the books, and saw the setting sun out of the window of the study in the library.
“Well, I best get going. It’s a pity I can’t take all of these with me,” said Twilight, beginning to magic the books she’d been working on into her saddlebags, as the sun finally sank all the way below the horizon. Through a hole in the wall, she could, if she cared to look back up, see the moon rising over the other horizon. Out in the courtyard, shadows deepened, with only the pale, sinister light of the waning half-moon to give them form, and when she wasn’t looking, some of them began to move and slither across the ground, up the walls, and across what little ceiling that remained.
They coalesced into the rough form of a cloaked pony, and climbed around the walls, heading to the library where Twilight was finishing stuffing the last of the books into her overpacked saddlebags. The shadows abandoned their pony form, separating into thin, almost unnoticeable tendrils, and like this, the shadows crept into the room, blending with the actual shadows and the cracks in the ancient stone. The shadows observed Twilight as she finished her work, and magically levitated the saddlebags full of books onto her.
[Time]
As one, they then rushed past Twilight, along the walls and out across to the opposite wall, where they gathered and formed the image of the cloaked pony once again. Now sure that it had Twilight’s attention, the shadow twisted and morphed again, this time into words.
‘Thank You’ was all it said, and after Twilight had read it, they dissipated, creeping back into the cracks and shadows of the castle.
(Set Shortly after Prompt 509: Forward, Into Peace)
Hard chitin and metal shoes clicked on the stone tunnel, as Queen Cocoon of the Changeling Hive lead Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as she found out the smaller blue princess was called, through the tunnels of the Changeling hive. As they walked through the rounded tunnels, the two equine Princesses were glad that Chrysalis had been almost as tall as Celestia was, or they would not be able to fit through the winding tunnels that threaded through the earth. As part of the newly instated peace treaty between the Changeling hive and Equestria, Queen Cocoon had agreed to show the two Princesses any ponies that the hive had captured over the years. The three royal beings emerged out of a tunnel into a chamber, immense in size, lit only by what appeared to be glowing crystals.
However, a closer inspection by Princess Luna revealed that the ‘crystals’ were actually some kind of organic matter.
“Sister, there is a pony in here!” She cried, and looked around the chamber again. Nearly a hundred of the pods were scattered around the room, in various stages of glowing, giving off an eerie green light.
“What is this place, Queen Cocoon?”
“This is our feeding chamber, Princess Celestia. Captured ponies are placed in here, unconscious, and a pod is formed around them. Then, the ponies are placed in an illusion that simulates their life, and we feed off any love they emit,” said Cocoon.
“How long are these ponies kept here?” asked Princess Luna, though her expression and emotions suggested to Cocoon that she already knew the answer, but wanted Cocoon to say it.
“Until they die,” replied Queen Cocoon.
“Release them,” said Luna, her voice firm. Celestia remained silent for now, and Queen Cocoon could feel the elder alicorn musing over the situation. Cocoon’s horn lit up, and the nearest pod opened up, and a blue unicorn tumbled out onto the hard stone of the cavern’s floor, his coat matted with slime and peices of the outer shell of the pod.
“Huh? Where am I?” he croaked, and then the pony spotted Cocoon. “Changeling! Changeling! I can’t believe they exist! I swear, I’ll be faithful to my wife!” as the stallion ranted and raved, Princess Celestia turned to Queen Cocoon.
“How long has he been in that pod?”
Queen Cocoon’s horn lit up once more, and scanned the stallion. “Seven years, Princess Celestia.”
[Time]
Princess Celestia thought, and she flitted through many emotions very quickly. She went from depressed all the way through to anger in the blink of an eye to Cocoon’s senses, before she settled back into her calm default state, having reached a decision.
“Put him back in the pod.”
“Sister?” asked Luna, staring at Princess Celestia, while Queen Cocoon flexed her mental connection to the hive, summoning two drones.
“This poor stallion’s mind is practically gone, Luna. Out of his pod, out of his illusory world, we would call him insane. As cruel as it sounds, here he has a use.”
“An unfortunate side effect of the illusion used to contain them,” explained Queen Cocoon, “It keeps them happy, and contained, but it is not kind when broken.” By now, the two drones had arrived, and placed the stallion back into his pod, and sealed it back up. Queen Cocoon applied a spell to the pod, and it began to glow once more. The two changelings who had repaired it sat by the pod, their horns glowing as they soaked up the love emitted from the pod.
“Obviously, Queen Cocoon, we must come to some arrangement if we are to truly be allies. Regardless of your intentions, any more kidnapping of my little ponies will not be looked upon favourably,” said Princess Celestia, “But yet, as our allies, we cannot ignore your food source. You are not required to release any of the ponies you have in your...care...already, but do not capture any more, until myself, Luna, and Twilight can come to an agreement about this situation.”
Queen Cocoon nodded. She had expected as much, going into this alliance, and at the Princesses’ request, began to lead them back out of the hive.
Pinkie Pie was known in Ponyville for a lot of things. Parties, generally being a bit insane and being the only pony to ever simultaneously terrify and delight every single new arrival in town were chief among her claims to fame. But a slightly lesser one, though she wished it were higher, was that Pinkie Pie made a mean batch of punch, the recipe to which had remained one of the mare’s few closely guarded secrets. Many ponies over the years that Pinkie had lived in Ponyville had attempted to pry, bribe, coerce or seduce the secret to the party pony’s perfect punch out of her. So far, none had succeeded.
Rarity watched through the window of the bakery, her hooves resting on the ledge to steady herself, and her rear hooves were balanced on Fluttershy’s back. Fluttershy, for her part, was straining and panting as she attempted to keep Rarity balanced.
“Um, Rarity,” she gasped out, as one of Rarity’s hooves shifted and rubbed along a sensitive nerve between her wings, “could you please not move around so much? You know, if that’s okay with you.” Rarity, however, seemingly ignored the straining pegasus beneath her, and instead stared wide-eyed into the kitchen where Pinkie Pie was mixing up a bowl of her punch. A sheet of paper, stained and yellowed with use, rested on the far side of Pinkie, too far away for Rarity to read, but the fashionista could see what Pinkie was putting into the punch.
“Let me see now,” Rarity whispered, making sure to keep as quiet as she could, lest Pinkie Pie’s almost unnaturally sharp hearing find her. “Seven oranges, juiced. Three lemons, and two limes.” Rarity continued to list off the ingredients as Pinkie mixed them into the serving bowl, and then hand to duck beneath the window as Pinkie Pie suddenly looked around the kitchen. When Rarity raised her head back above the windowsill, Pinkie was alternating between looking at her stained recipe sheet, and taking sips from a glass of punch that she had poured out for testing. Rarity watched as Pinkie Pie smiled, nodded to herself and put the punch in the fridge, and left the room.
Rarity blinked. Underneath her, Fluttershy let out a little gasp as one of Rarity’s hooves found another nerve. Was that it? Was there no secret ingredient in Pinkie Pie’s Super Secrety Party Punch? Maybe Pinkie just told everypony there was a secret ingredient, and then the rest was all in the mind of the drinker, when in reality the punch was really no different than any other. Frowning, Rarity finally noticed the state that Fluttershy was in beneath her, and immediately hopped off the pegasus.
“Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry! I was so caught up in my desire to know, I completely forgot about you!”
“Its okay, Rarity,” said Fluttershy, still wheezing, “Really, I’m fine.”
“Nonsense, dear. We are going straight to the Boutique, and you are going to have some tea, and a nice warm bath to recover.”
Rarity led the protesting pegasus off towards Carousel Boutique, putting the mystery of the punch behind her for a while.
[Time]
Back in the kitchen, Pinkie Pie trotted back into the kitchen, and pulled the punch back out of the fridge, and looked one last time at the final, super secret steps to make the punch perfect. She smiled, held the bowl tightly in her forehooves, and danced. She danced, swirling the bowl around, letting the punch slosh around, and at one point, the entirety of the contents of the bowl were suspended in the air, and Pinkie Pie swept them back into the serving bowl. Then, she tossed the punch bowl up into the air. Her front hooves reached into some deep, unknowable space, and pulled, producing the Party Cannon. Pinkie grabbed the barrel of the cannon with one hoof, caught the punch bowl with the other, and poured the punch into the cannon, and then pulled the firing cord on the cannon.
Punch sprayed out of the cannon’s mouth in a long, frothy stream, shooting straight back into the punch bowl. With a kick of her hoof, Pinkie sent the Party Cannon back to wherever she kept it in between uses, and placed the punch back in the fridge, and then proceeded to cartwheel out of the kitchen, humming to herself, satisfied that the punch was perfect, and that her secret had remained so for another day.
There were a great many reasons why Rarity went to Canterlot every other weekend. Promotion of her fashion house, socializing with both friends and business contacts, improving her reputation in the upper echelons of society, and she couldn’t forget the fantastic performances put on by the Canterlot Philharmonic, the likes of which simply couldn’t be found in Ponyville, as lovely as the town was.
But there was one attraction in Canterlot that she loved to go to, though you wouldn not find it on any visitor’s guide, or have it mentioned in any tour of the city. It was a very exclusive event, and ponies only got invited through word of mouth, or by accompanying a member to it. This elite club of ponies did not simply accept walk-ins, and indeed, very few of the Canterlot upper society actually knew that this club even existed in the first place. Rarity knew that what this club did was not exactly considered ‘proper’ or perhaps even ‘dignified’ for those who wished to climb the social ladders, but she came back every time. It had been Fancy Pants who had introduced the fashionista to this island, this oasis of madness contained within the pit of vipers that was Canterlot. And yet, Rarity found it strangely carthartic, for all of its supposed bad image.
The club itself was run out of a bar, set slightly to the outskirts of the central Palatial district of the city – just enough out of the way to ensure that nopony was ever going to wander in accidentally, but close enough that none of the members who lived in Canterlot would have to endure a massive trek, but simply seemed that they were going to their favourite bar. And to its credit, Rarity had found that the bar in question, The Gilded Shoe, did actually serve a wide and varied selection of drinks that one could simply not find in the rest of Canterlot.
Rarity trotted up to the bouncer at the door to the bar.
“Hello, my dear.”
“Rarity,” was the single word reply from the bouncer, and the massive earth pony nodded as Rarity trotted into the bar, and immediately made for the bar. There, she ordered a glass of her favourite red, and taking the glass in her magic, made for a set of stairs set in a dark corner, with a sign above the entrance proclaiming it to be ‘Members Only’. The stairs down were well lit, the walls were well kept and thick carpets dulled her steps. At the bottom of the stairwell, a velvet rope stretched across the exit of the stair well. There were no bouncers down here, because tghye weren’t needed. Rarity’s magic lifted the rope, and she entered the room proper. Had she not been a member of the club, the enchantments on the rope would have done her a considerable amount of harm, and she wouldn’t have been able to enter.
She entered the club, and immediately spotted Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis waving her over to their section of the bar.
“Am I late?” asked Rarity, settling down across from Fancy Pants, her wine glass setting down on the table.
“Not at all, my dear. It’s just about to begin, actually.” As Fancy Pants spoke, ponies were moving around, clearing a wide space in the centre of the room, and a well dressed stallion took the floor.
“A small announcement before we begin. Firstly, we must offer a well deserved congratulations to Rarity Belle, as her newest line of haute couture has been picked up by several of the Canterlot nobles.” There was a steady amount of applause, as the ponies in the room all clopped their front hooves together in appreciation. Rarity raised her glass to the room in thanks, and the well dressed stallion continued on.
[Time]
“Now, I know that all of you ponies are veterans of the club, but a quick reminder of the rules: No messing with anything that is legally binding, no refunds, no exchanges, and any information about anything discussed tonight should be shared-we are here to have fun, not tread on each other.” A round of agreements went up around the room, and the stallion nodded.
“As an additional reminder, all bets on Twilight Sparkle with anypony are still in play under the new name of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and that Vinyl Scratch and Octavia have now been permanently removed from the list of available bets.” There was another round of nodding.
“Then, welcome to Ship Club, and let the shipping begin!”
It had almost been a complete accident. Almost. It certainly looked like it to any onlookers. The childish stallion had been so dismissive of her friends’ music, and was actively working to have her closest, oldest friend expelled from the ‘Noble’ city of Canterlot, and a message needed to be sent to the ponies who shared the stallion’s narrow views. True, she may not have been as fond of her friends’ style of music as other ponies, but she could see the appeal of that music. There was energy within, a deep, primal thing that sparked and flickered within her.
And Octavia supposed that that was what had sparked the impulse idea. Naturally, she had not told Vinyl about her idea. Vinyl was many things, but she was not a vengeful pony. And truth be told, neither was Octavia, but this stallion had been harassing Vinyl for years now, being obtuse to her for the sheer sake of it. She had followed the stallion home one night after a performance-not so unusual to the members of the Philharmonic, or Vinyl, as both knew that Octavia liked to take long walks at night, when the moon rested high in the sky. Only on this night, the moon was absent, and clouds blanketed the sky and Octavia knocked on the stallion’s door. When he answered, Octavia had invited him to take a walk with her, out to what she described as ‘her favourite spot in all of Canterlot,’ and the stallion had eagerly agreed, as Octavia knew he would. She knew that more than a few of her fans were more than simply admiring of her, and this stallion had been one of them.
Octavia’s favourite spot in Canterlot actually turned out to be right at the edge of the mountain side city, overlooking the plains, and Ponyville below. Not many ponies ever came close to the edges of the city, fearing falling off. But because it was Octavia, the stallion had gone right up to the edge of the city with her, and from there, it had been almost ridiculously ease for Octavia to feign a slip in exactly the right way to knock the stallion off the edge of the city’s platforms.
As he hung by his forelegs, looking up to Octavia and pleading with unrepentant eyes, she turned away, and gave each of his forelegs a kick with her hind legs. The stallion screamed as he fell, but it was cut off a few moments later with the crunch of bone hitting rock far too quickly echoing up the mountain side, and Octavia turned away from the edge, and began her trek back to the concert hall. She needed to pick up her cello.
****
Light and sound pulsed and pounded, and hooves waved and stomped. In here, she was God. She controlled it all. Glowsticks encircled her neck, tinging her white coat with bright colours as she moved and danced herself. Nopony could dethrone her from her position right here, and right now. She loved this, the energy and the sweat in the air. The bodies in motion, like a writhing mass.
Vinyl Scratch was not a vengeful pony, and it took a great deal to make the DJ angry. Unfortunately for one mare in the crowd, insulting Octavia, her oldest friend, and a brilliant musician in her own right, was enough to do it. Fortunately, Octavia was appreciated enough by the nobles that she didn’t get too many ponies who hated her for the sheer sake of it.
[Time]
But some of the ponies in Vinyl’s circles were not as kind, and thought that Octavia’s style of music was boring and useless. Vinyl may have agreed with the boring part, but useless was going too far. Fortunately, she had the means to educate the most vocal mare on that topic on her mistake in picking on Octavia.
Vinyl knew that a great many of her regulars often used the ‘Party Pills’-a slightly illicit recreational drug. The Guard overlooked its use most of the time, as in appropriate doses, it was perfectly fine, only giving the pony ingesting it a pleasant high, not unlike a sugar rush, but much longer lasting. The Party Pills weren’t even addictive, but even so, overdoses did happen from time to time. The only trick had been getting the mare drunk enough that she wouldn’t care how many of the pills she had taken, and then having somepony offer her the ‘ultimate’ high.
It had worked perfectly, and several hour later, Vinyl caught sight of the mare on the dance floor, looking for all the world looking like she was having the greatest time of her life, her mane and tail poofed out in a manner not unlike Pinkie Pies’. And then, the mare just stopped, and Vinyl halted the music, and watched with a morbid fascination. The mare fell over, still occasionally twitching, and then went limp and finally stopped breathing. After calling on the first aid pony who also doubled as the clubs bartender to confirm that the mare had indeed overdosed, Vinyl closed up the club, and called the Guard.
“Ponywatching?” asked Twilight Sparkle, as she walked down the streets of Canterlot, Princess Celestia by her side. The elder Alicorn had carefully applied a ‘Don’t Notice Me’ Spell to both herself and the newest Princess of Equestria, and as such, the two were going unmobbed.
“Indeed, Twilight. It is perhaps one of my favorite exercises. You can tell a lot about ponies just by watching them, and I have found that it also comes in useful in court,” Princess Celestia nodded, and glanced around the street, before her eyes settled on a pair of ponies arriving to have lunch at a nearby restaurant. “Over there, Twilight. Do you see those ponies sitting together? Why don’t you see what you can tell me about them?”
Twilight looked over at the two ponies that Princess Celestia had pointed out, and gulped.
“I’ll give it a try,” she said, and fixed her eyes on them.
“Okay,” said Twilight, after a few moments of studying the two, “Both are mares. Both have music-related cutie marks.” Princess Celestia smiled, “Twilight, the point of ponywatching is to ignore the obvious details. Focus on their body language. Small details, not obvious things. For instance, those two having lunch are leaning in towards each other. That means they are having an intimate discussion. They also arrived together, which means that they met up prior to lunch. From that, we can infer that they are either good friends, or that the two are in a relationship.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded. She couldn’t see how those tiny details could mean all of that, but she would try her hardest to understand. After all, Princess Celestia wanted her to learn this.
“Now, try again, Twilight,” said Celestia.
“Okay,” said Twilight, and fixing her gaze back to the two ponies. As she did, she took notice of as much detail as she could. She saw the way that the earth pony of the pair covered her mouth with a hoof when she was trying not to laugh, while the unicorn at the table was demonstrating something with large, sweeping hoof guestures.
“They seem to be complete opposites,” said Twilight, and Celestia smiled again.
“Can you explain how you came to that conclusion, Twilight?”
“Umm...Well, the unicorn likes to move around a lot when she’s talking, and Pinkie Pie does the same thing, especially when she’s excited about something. And the earth pony sort of acts like Rarity does when she’s being refined, so she’s probably the calm one.”
“Good, Twilight. Relating other ponies’ actions to ones that you know from your friends is a good way to learn how to interpret the body language of complete strangers. Is there anything else that you can tell about our pair over there?” Twilight beamed at the praise, and looked back to the pair.
“They’re in love,” she said after several minutes of studying the two.
“And how can you tell, Twilight?” asked Princess Celestia.
“I can’t entirely explain it. It’s just something about the way that the two are sitting together. I’m sorry, Princess,”
“Don’t be, Twilight,” said Celestia, “You did remarkably well for your first time at this. And two ponies being in love is, I have found, one of both the easiest and hardest things to pick out. You are correct, but it is difficult to explain. However, you see the way that both ponies are sitting fowards, so that their natural state is looking at each other? And how even when they arrived, they preferred to stay close to each other? These things say that they are indeed in love with each other.”
[Time]
Twilight nodded in understanding, and was about to reply, when a bread roll rocketed out of nowhere, and lodged itself in Twilight’s open mouth. Stuck to the roll by a small cocktail stick was a note written on a napkin, which Princess Celestia could read.
‘We’re just friends!!’ The Princess smiled, and glanced back to the two ponies that she had been using as a demonstration, both of whom were sitting and laughing together, but occasionally sneaking glances in her direction. As Twilight realized that she had a piece of food lodged in her mouth where there wasn’t one before, and beginning to flail and panic, Princess Celestia smiled, magically extracted the roll, and began to lead Twilight back to the castle.
Fancy Pants strolled through Canterlot Park, his breath coming out in small clouds of steam. This time of year, like the rest of the city, it was covered with snow, lending what the stallion thought was a wonderfully fresh atmosphere to the already peaceful park. Many ponies would have called him insane for going out in this weather, but the elegant stallion was a creature of habit, and he went for a walk like this every week. No hanger-ons, no crowds, not even his fiancée, Fleur de Lis, came with him on these walks of his, though that was mostly at his insistence. It was just Fancy Pants, and the soft crunch of snow under his hooves. His usual bowtie had been exchanged for a knitted scarf, which had been a gift from Rarity, of all ponies. Fancy would never had guessed that the mare was so gifted at knitting, given her self-proclaimed love of haute couture.
But as Fancy Pants continued on his walk, the cold air settling through his mane and behind his ears, he could hear the sounds of a violin and somepony singing. Adjusting his course, he followed his ears to the source of the sound. There, just outside the entrance to the Canterlot Orphanage were two mares. He couldn’t see their cutie marks, nor much of their coats, given that the two were wrapped in at least one old blanket each, but for some odd reason, they seemed vaguely familiar to Fancy. The two were just standing there, playing a well known Hearth’s Warming song, and Fancy had to admit that the two were good. As he drew closer, the two mares finished the song, and paused for a moment to shake their hooves to get feeling back into them after standing still in the snow for so long. Fancy watched as the mare with the violin then stood back up onto her hind legs, and he got a good look at her mane-a dirty mess of blue, and her coat was white and unkempt, and stained with Celestia knew what. Her companion, the singer, was in a similar condition. Her grey mane was rough and tangled, and her coat alternated between slicked down from the snow and matted from whatever the mare had slept on, or in, the previous night.
But as Fancy got closer and closer, and the two started up another song, he noticed that the two didn’t smell nearly as bad as the rest of the few homeless that resided in Canterlot. Not that the city had a huge problem with them, as they were almost always found, cleaned up and then given some form of employment after a while, but there were a few, and their smell was particularly noticeable. And as Fancy watched and listened to the two play and sing, he was again struck with a sense of familiarity. He knew these two ponies, yet for the life of him, Fancy could not remember where he had seen them before.
[Time]
He was still standing there when the two mares finished another song, and then watched as the whiteish one packed up the violin, and magicked onto her back. He hadn’t noticed that she had been a unicorn, as she hadn’t used her magic to play the instrument, as many unicorn musicians did. As the two mares walked away, one of the blankets slipped on the mare that had been singing, and revealed a cutie mark of a treble clef, and before Fancy Pants could halt his tongue, he said the first thing that came to mind.
“Octavia?”
****
Octavia had her front hooves wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate in Fancy Pants’ living room, while Vinyl Scratch sat beside her, blowing on her own mug. Their fake homeless outfits were in a pile beside the couch, and the violin rested on top.
“What were you two doing out there in the cold like that, Octavia?”
“We do this every year, Fancy. Its a little tradition of ours,” explained Octavia, “Both Vinyl and I are orphans, Fancy. We were raised in that building, so every year, we go and play for the fillies and colts there. A little way we can give something back.”
“But why the ridiculous getup? Surely the children know who you two are.”
“Yeah, they do. We’re a bit of a success story for them,” said Vinyl, “when Hearth’s Warming Day rolls around, we go in, dressed like you saw us, we play for a bit, and then we show who we are. The kids eat it up every year.”
“We may not be able to help them the rest of the year, Fancy, but we can at least make sure they have a happy Hearth’s Warming,” said Octavia.
“...And that, kids, is how I realised that I wanted to make ponies dance and move and have a good time. And just like that, bam! Cutie mark,” finished Vinyl Scratch, sitting back in her chair, and sipping a glass of water at one of the few cafes in Ponyville, her signature shades down over her eyes.
“Hey, that sounds pretty awesome! We should try that, girls!” exclaimed an orange pegasus filly, and Vinyl had to pause for a minute as she coughed after sending some water down the wrong pipe.
“Uh, kids, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, “I got into a heap of trouble after that. Like, a ton.”
“Yes, I would not recommend following any advice that Vinyl gives, young ones. She tends to find trouble, even where it should not exist,” said Octavia, walking up behind the trio of young blank flank fillies, a smile on her face, and in her voice.
“I resent that remark, Tavi,” retorted Vinyl, “I also resemble it.” The fillies thanked Vinyl, and then scurried off, probably to ask someone else about their cutie mark, and Octavia sat down opposite Vinyl, who immediately poured out Octavia a glass of water using her magic.
“So, Tavi. Get everything you wanted done here?”
“Indeed, Vinyl. I have accomplished almost everything I wanted to.”
“Almost?”
“There is but one thing remaining, Vinyl; having lunch with a friend,” smiled Octavia, and Vinyl grinned back, and waved a fore hoof in the air, attracting the attention of a nearby waiter. After ordering their food, the two settled down for a wait.
“Vinyl, why do you keep changing your cutie mark story? Every time I have heard you tell it, it’s completely different. You know you lied to those fillies,” said Octavia, and Vinyl met Octavia’s stare through her glasses.
“The message is the same, Tavi, and it was what they needed to hear. ‘sides, my real one is kinda unpleasant.”
“Please, do share,” said Octavia.
“Really, you don’t want to hear it, Tavi. It’s not all that good.”
“Vinyl, we have been living together for years. You know my story; I do believe that it is only fair that I hear yours. Your actual one, not whatever altered fiction you come up with.”
Vinyl sighed, “Ok, Tavi. Just for you, but you have to promise to not tell anypony,” Octavia nodded, and Vinyl continued, “So, you know I got my cutie mark pretty young. See, when I was younger, I was right into this guitarist by the name of Satch Boogie-brilliant, awesome stallion. Earth pony, too. Anyway, he was putting on a concert in Canterlot, and I really wanted to go, but my dad said no. So I snuck out. And ‘cause I was only a filly, once I got there, I couldn’t see the stage, but there was this cool dude who let me ride on his back, right near the front. So, Boogie’s in the middle of his most famous song, and I’m rocking out, and then I have this thought. I look around, and everypony is having a great time, and I think to myself, ‘I wanna make ponies have a good time, but I don’t know how’. But here’s the kicker, Tavi. Boogie sees me, this blank flank filly, in the front row, and pulls me up on stage.”
[Time]
“So what happened then, Vinyl?” asked Octavia, truly enraptured by Vinyl’s story, and the two had to pause for a second while the waiter delivered the two’s lunch.
“Well,” said Vinyl, taking a bite from her daisy sandwich, “I’m on stage, and it feels like everypony there is cheering at me, and Boogie asks me what I want to be when I grow up, and I say ‘I wanna be a musician!’, so he goes off stage for a sec, and comes back out with a pen, and a copy of his record, and the whole band on stage signs it. There’s more cheering, and he puts me back onto that cool stallion’s back again-thinks we’re siblings or something, and I realise that music makes ponies happy. I wanted to bring that to them, and then I got my cutie mark.”
Octavia blinked. “Vinyl, that is simply the most amazing story I have ever heard.”
“Oh, it gets better,” said Vinyl, her face scrunching up, and her mouth turning down, “You know how I snuck out to go and see that concert? Well, I wasn’t looking forward to going home afterwards, let me tell you. But as I was going home, still high as a kite, I could see a plume of smoke rising over the buildings, and knew that it was coming from somewhere around my house, so I ran as fast as I could, hoping that it wasn’t my house. When I got back to my street, I could see smoke pouring out of the windows of my house, and the roof was on fire. The weather patrol was overhead, trying to put out the fire with some rainclouds, and it kinda looked like it was working. Never did find out how the house caught fire. Neither of my parents survived, and with no other close relatives, I got sent to the orphanage. But yeah. That’s my actual Cutie mark story, Tavi.”
Octavia had stopped eating her own sandwich roughly halfway through Vinyl’s story.
“Oh my. Vinyl, I...had no idea.”
“Nah, its fine. I’m pretty much over it; I just don’t like to talk about it a whole lot, and it’s not something that you tell the average pony, let alone a young filly,” said Vinyl, taking another bite from her sandwich, and washing it down with a gulp of water, “Now come on, Tavi. Finish your lunch, and we’ll be able to get the midday train back to Canterlot.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle gently touched down on the balcony outside of Princess Celestia’s chambers in Canterlot Castle. Inside, she could hear Celestia instructing her most recent student on the finer points of a spell that Twilight recognised as one that she had created. The youngest Princess of Equestria took a moment to fruitlessly attempt to straighten out her mane, frazzled and jagged as it was. Taking a deep breath, she trotted up to the partially open doors, and rapped one gold-shod hoof against them, drawing Celestia’s attention.
“Ah, Twilight,” said Celestia, and then she turned back to her student, “Morning Star, we will continue this lesson next time. Between now and then, though, I would like you to read up on Clover the Clever’s golems.”
“Yes, Princess Celestia!” said the young colt, and turned to face Princess Twilight. His eyes boggled briefly, but then he seemed to remember that he had been dismissed, and simply bowed to Twilight, before rushing out of the room.
“Adorable, isn’t he, Twilight? He is deeply fascinated with you, you know. You are his absolute favourite spell weaver from the Monarch Era.” Despite her current state, Twilight managed a blush of embarrassment at Celestia’s remark. “But enough about that. What did you come here for, Twilight?”
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this, Celestia. I can’t do it.”
“Ah,” said Celestia, a smile creeping across her face, “This is about your own student. Rose Petal, isn’t it?”
“Not exactly, Princess.” Celestia ignored the official title. Despite the fact that Twilight was now equal to her in stature and even in power these days, when she was nervous or worried, she would slip back to her pre-alicornation habits. “It’s just that I can’t be the calm, caring teacher that you are, Princess.”
Celestia chuckled, “And who said you had to be, Twilight?”
“Huh?”
“Twilight, everypony responds to different teachers differently. I tend to attract the type of ponies who respond to the kind, motherly approach. Luna is the mysterious mentor, who wraps every lesson in riddles and puzzles, and she therefore looks for the type of ponies who respond to that whenever she wants to teach.”
“So...what’s my style, then?” asked Twilight, and Celestia smiled.
“That, my faithful student,” said Celestia, getting a rise from Twilight with her old moniker, “is something that you must discover for yourself. But one piece of advice that I can give is to simply do what comes naturally when around your student. If she likes it, you will know. If not, then perhaps she was not meant to be taught by you.”
Twilight let out a long breath.
“So basically, just be myself?”
Celestia nodded, “You will discover your own style soon enough, Twilight. It is hardly the end of the world if it takes you a while to do so. Now, is there anything else I can help you with, or would you simply like to have tea? It really has been a while since you just dropped in like this.”
“Come oon, Tavi! You just made first chair cellist in the orchestra. You should celebrate!”
“Vinyl, I may not care over much about my reputation, but that does not mean I’m going to go out with you on one of your wild nights.”
“What? Nah, I was just thinking we go out to dinner. Maybe one or two drinks.”
“Oh. I would have thought for sure that you would try to drag me to some bar somewhere.”
“Give me a little credit, Tavi. I’ve known you for long enough that I know what you like.”
“Very well. Give me a minute to clean up.”
*****
“I must say, Vinyl, I would have thought that a place like this was out of your price range.”
“Hey, just because I prefer bars and clubs doesn’t mean I can’t afford stuff like this from time to time. My bit pouch’ll be thin for a while, but I’ve lived on less before.”
“Indeed, I should have been able to tell that, given your popularity. Still, I feel it was remiss of me to judge you so, even after knowing you for so long.”
“Don’t sweat it. I’ve done it with you as well.”
“To mutual misplaced preconceptions, then.”
“To...whatever it was that you said. Cheers!”
*****
“Vinyl, I do feel that this wine is getting to me. I have not felt so pleasant in a good long while.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to feel it as well. What do you say we go and have some fun, though?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, you are going to love this, Tavi. It’s even musical!”
“The...Mug and Mic?”
“Yep!”
*****
“TaaAaaKe MeeeEeE OoooOOoon.....”
“Make it stop, make it stop!”
“I’llLLL be goOOneeE, in a day or TwOOOoooooOOO!”
“Vinyl Scratch, you get off that microphone right now!”
“I’m having fun, and you can’t stop me!”
“Watch me.”
*****
“Vinyl, I think I’m drunk.”
“you shure? Cause both of you sheem pretty fine to mee.”
“I’m shure. Hic. Yesh, I’m drunk.”
“You’re a light, a light...what’she the word again?”
“Light weight?”
“Yeah, that. You’re that.”
“I am not a lightweight, hic, Vinyl. I just get drunk really quick.”
“Shame thing.”
“Ishe not!”
*****
[Time]
“Vinyl? Vinyl, wake up.”
“Whassat?”
“Vinyl, you are lying on top of me. Get up.”
“Huh? Tavi?”
“Yes, Vinyl, It’s me. My head is pounding, and your incoherence is not helping.”
“‘S called a ‘hangover’. Wake me when the floor stops moving.”
“Moving? Vinyl, the floor is moving!”
“So?”
“Vinyl, that means we aren’t in Canterlot anymore!”
“WHAT?”
“Ow ow ow, my head, Vinyl! Please be quieter next time!”
“Well, Tavi, I have good news and bad news.”
"What's the good news?"
“The good news is that at some point during the night, we appear to have somehow gotten really rich.”
Rarity paced around the main workroom of Carousel Boutique, occasionally glancing at her current guest. Everytime the unicorn glanced at the other pony, a young filly, she would shake her head, and resume her pacing.
“No you don’t,” called Rarity, as the filly began edging towards the door, “you are going to stay right here until my friend arrives.” Diamond Tiara pouted, but moved away from the door. The first time she had not listened to Rarity, the unicorn had demonstrated that she could pick her up with her magic, and had then dropped the filly troublemaker right onto her rump. As Diamond took up her spot in the centre of the room once again, there was a knock at the door, and Rarity pranced over and pulled it open with a shimmering blue glow of her horn.
“Twilight! So good of you to come on such short notice.”
“It’s okay Rarity. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I have never been more sure, dear. This filly,” Rarity spat, “is an abhorrent specimen of a pony. Of course, Blueblood was worse. But the difference between the two is that one of them can still be taught the error of her ways.” Rarity finished addressing Twilight, who seemed to be in agreement with the dressmaker to Diamond’s eyes, if a bit reluctant.
“Now, Miss Tiara,” said Rarity, looming over the filly, “Do you know why you are here?”
“No, I don’t. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Not done anything,” sputtered Rarity, and all traces of hesitation vanished from Princess Twilight’s face.
“Well then,” said Rarity, once she regained her composure, “let me enlighten you. You have been an absolute horror to anypony who crosses your path. You are a self-entitled little brat, and your father, kind-hearted soul that he is, has not yet seen to get rid of this abhorrent behaviour. Tell me, Diamond, do you know where Scootaloo is right now?”
“That flightless blank flank? Why should I care about her?”
“Perhaps because she has been in the Golden Oak Library, in my bedroom, crying her eyes out for the last hour. Perhaps because we had to physically restrain Rainbow Dash from going and throwing you off a cliff,” said Twilight, magically opening her saddlebags, and beginning to extract something from them.
“I can tolerate calls of ‘blank flank’, Diamond Tiara,” said Rarity, “goodness knows I gave them out when I was younger. But this? This is going too far. You need to learn that your actions have consequences, and perhaps we shall teach you some common courtesy in the process.”
There was a loud, and heavy thud, and Diamond caught sight of a massive book set upon a table that had suddenly appeared. Or had it always been there? Diamond couldn’t remember. However, what was important was that the table was straining under the weight of the book, and Diamond had to wonder how the book had fit in Twilight’s bags in the first place.
“The Massively Massive Magical Manuscript: the Omnibus Edition. It is the biggest book in the Golden Oak library,” Twilight said, in the same way that a pony might say ‘You are now sentenced to an eternity of suffering and fire’. “You will read this, Diamond Tiara. There will be a quiz at the end of each chapter.”
[Time]
“Understand, Miss Tiara,” said Rarity, “That whining to your father about this will have no effect. We told him, in no uncertain terms, exactly what we were going to do you. You could be a great pony, but first? First, we need to break you of your attitude, and then we can build you back up.”
Rarity then moved back over to an unfinished dress, and Twilight teleported out of the Boutique, leaving Diamond Tiara staring at a book that was bigger than she was.
“The longer you put this off, Miss Tiara,” began Rarity, without even turning around, “The longer you are going to be here. Oh yes, I should have mentioned. You will be living here for as long as it takes you to complete that book. Oh, and one other thing,” Rarity’s horn lit up, and Diamond felt her tiara lift off her head, and float across the room to rest on a cabinet,” You do not get that back until you finish, and pass all of Twilight’s quizzes. I suggest you get reading.”
Pinkie Pie bounced. She hopped, skipped and jumped. The floor underneath her was wonderfully springy, way more than her bed back at Sugarcube Corner. It was brilliant! She could get so much air time, even without resorting to her natural talent to distract physics with a cupcake while she did her thing. So tied up in her bouncing, she never noticed the pair of eyes on her.
Pinkie Pie woke up, and thought she briefly saw a pair of eyes over her. The party extraordinaire blinked, and they were gone. Pinkie gasped dramatically. “Oh my gosh, balloons!” and just like that, Pinkie was off, chasing after the rubber spheres. Behind her, the eyes continued watching. They blinked once, and then vanished.
“Piinkiee,” the wind seemed to whisper to Pinkie Pie, as she danced in a constant rain of streamers and confetti, “Piinkieee.” This was odd because Pinkie couldn’t remember when she’d felt the wind last. Pinkie Pie’s ears twitched. Maybe there was another pony here. And another pony meant that she could have a party! And then maybe they could go and find other ponies, and have parties for them, too! Her mind made up, Pinkie Pie set off after the whispering sound on the wind.
Miles seemed to pass. Everytime Pinkie looked around, there was something new, something fun to see, but Pinkie Pie was nothing if not determined. After all, her middle name was ‘Determination’. Pinkie Determination Pie. Okay, her middle name was actually Diane, but that was boring and not fun. But regardless of what her middle name was, Pinkie Pie wanted to find the voice that kept calling her name. Because attached to the voice was likely another pony, and that meant more fun. Pinkie’s ears twitched as another whisper of her name reached them, and she set off once more. It was stronger now, the voice on the wind, and the voice was beginning to sound familiar. Almost like...her own?
There was absolutely nothing special about the area where the voice was coming from, other than the fact that there was a megaphone lying on the ground. There was also not a single other pony in sight, and Pinkie Pie pouted and pondered the peculiar place she now found herself sitting in. Getting back up onto her hooves, Pinkie was about to leave, to go back and see if she could find some sarsaparilla when,
“SURPRISE!” A white pegasus with a blonde mane and tail eerily similar to Pinkie’s own burst from the bouncy and fluffy floor, and not a moment later, a burst of sparkles heralded the arrival of a unicorn with a yellow coat and blue mane, and once again, the man and tail were an exact replica of Pinkies’. So too, were the other two ponies’ cutie marks, differing only in color but otherwise exactly identical to Pinkie’s own.
“Hi! Were you surprised?” asked the pegasus, suddenly right up against Pinkie Pie “Oh wow, I bet this is the first surprise party that you’ve had in a while, so you must be excited are you excited because I’m excited and when I get excited my mouth sort of gets away from me and I’m doing it now aren’t I but it’s all okay because you’re here and now we can get to the fun stuff and hi my name is Surprise!” when the pegasus finally stopped , she was heaving for breath.
“Hi!” chimed in the unicorn, “I’m Party Planner. You must be Pinkie Pie. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“waiting for...me?”
[Time]
“Oh yeah, we were totally waiting for you,” said Surprise, finally having gotten her breathing back under control, hopping over to near Party Planner and Pinkie Pie, and sticking her hoof out, “We just need to touch, and then we can become the ultimate party pony!” Party Planner placed her hoof on top of Surprises’, and after a moment, Pinkie Pie added her own hoof to the pile. There was a spark, and then all three ponies vanished. A single pony reappeared a minute later, and with the sound of a party cannon firing, the pony vanished.
*****
Moon Dancer watched as her friends and family lowered her body into the ground, her spirit standing by the headstone of her grave. Her grave. It was weird to think of it. She still couldn’t believe that she had actually died. It had all happened so fast-one minute, she’d been working in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns’ library, the next, she’d been pulling the younger students out of the burning building. She guessed that some young unicorn had lost control of a spell-it happened a lot at the school, and it had just happened to find something to catch fire. Still, at least all the students had been saved, even if Moon Dancer had not, when she’d gone back in for one last sweep and been trapped by the flames.
She watched as the pastor began the funeral speech, and turned away to cry as he began talking about her bravery. She found a shoulder and a hug waiting for her, as well as kind, comforting words being whispered in her ear. Not caring who this pony was, Moon Dancer proceeded to bawl her eyes out.
“Hey, cheer up, Moon Dancer,” said the pony, and Moon Dancer wiped her eyes, and looked up. The other pony was a pink alicorn, with an almost improbable mane and tail, and a soft smile on her face, and the most expressive blue eyes that she had ever seen. And just like Moon Dancer herself, the alicorn was slightly transparent.
“I’m Pinkie ‘Surprise Party’ Pie. I’m here to give you an invitation to the big party in the sky, where nopony is ever unwelcome, and the punch never runs out.”
Prince Blueblood was not a pony given to overindulging most of the time. He prided himself on his remarkable self-control, and the only vice that he would claim in public was a fondness for a bottle of old Griffon whiskey. However, like all things, there was an exception, and that had been last night. The one time that Blueblood did choose to have more than usual was when the new year was ushered in, on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.
Knowing that he would likely be severely hung over, Blueblood had ordered that he was to be left alone today, and had instructed his servants to keep plenty of water ready for him, and simply stayed in bed. He shifted around in his luxuriously large bed, the soft goose down pillows underneath his magnificent and dangerously handsome pretty head were like miniature clouds.
‘Worth every bit,’ thought Blueblood to himself, and rolled over. His hoof connected with another pony, and Blueblood stopped in his tracks. Wracking his still-hungover brain for the events of last night, Blueblood could not recall picking up any common mare at all. The covers on the bed shifted as the mare in the bed rolled over in response to Blueblood’s accidental touch, revealing a light blue coat, and a white-blue mane. The mare’s eyes opened, she took in her situation, and rather than the expected thanks for whatever may or may not have happened last night, she uttered a piercing and all together much, much too loud scream.
“You kissed Trixie! You stupid peon! Trixie was saving her first kiss for somepony special!”
“Well, I hardly planned it, you stupid mare!” retaliated Blueblood. He had been around this mare for all of five minutes, and already he didn’t like her. She was arrogant, full of herself, and was actually rather beautiful, if Blueblood was honest with himself. “Go back and play with the commoners, you silly mare!”
Trixie retaliated to Blueblood’s insults by diving under the covers of the bed, and then magically pulling open the curtains in the room, garnering a girlish scream from the Prince as he tumbled out of bed and rushed around, trying to close them. But for every one that Blueblood closed, Trixie opened another.
‘Right,’ thought Blueblood, as he pulled another curtain closed, only to have one on the other side of the room open, causing the light of Auntie Celestia’s sun strike his painfully sensitive eyes. ‘If this mare wants to play it that way, she can have it that way.’ Blueblood ignored the curtains, and instead went for Trixie, who was still huddled under the covers of his bed. Blueblood dived under as well, getting some relief from the sun, and tackling Trixie.
The bundle of ponies and doona fell off the bed, and rolled around on the floor, blue and white hooves occasionally emerging out as the two struggled and wrestled. Trixie’s head emerged out of the doona cocoon with a vengeful smirk, and she dived back in, turning the two over, and simulataneously opening up the doona fully with her magic so that she was no longer restricted.
But as Trixie went to pin Blueblood down, the Prince managed to get a grip on Trixie’s torso, and twisted her around and claim victory. As he did so, Blueblood’s head got a bit too close to Trixie’s, and their lips brushed, stopping both ponies in their tracks. They simply lay there for a while, Blueblood over Trixie, his hooves pinning her down. Both ponies were breathing heavily, their chests heaving.
[Time]
Neither pony knew what sparked the next thing. It could be that they were both still more than a bit drunk, or just hung over enough to impair their normal rational reasoning. But Blueblood leaned down, slowly. Too slowly for Trixie’s tastes, and she shot her head up as fast as she could, pushing Blueblood into a passionate kiss. Trixie’s horn lit up once more, and the doona wrapped around the two, and for the next few hours, all anypony could hear coming out of Blueblood’s room was the sounds of two ponies having a very good time together.
*****
Much later, Blueblood and Trixie sat on opposite sides of the bed, not facing each other, not making a single sound. Blueblood had a pleasant smile on his face, and Trixie seemed to be partially horrified.
“So, now that you have clearly experienced my magificance, we should probably take the next step,” said Blueblood, breaking the silence.
“Ew, ew, ew,” said Trixie, “Not in a million years. Trixie doesn’t even know why she did that.”
“That wasn’t what your tongue suggested an hour ago,” said Blueblood, waggling his eyebrows in what he thought was a suggestive manner. Trixie shuddered, and brought out her trump card.
“Trixie does not like stallions that way, and was, in fact, thinking of somepony else the whole time.” And before Blueblood could react to that statement, Trixie’s horn sparked to life, and smoke filled the room. By the time it cleared, Trixie was long gone, and Blueblood fell back on his bed, sighing.
“I do believe that I am in love,” uttered Blueblood, just before he fell back asleep.
“Oh, woe is me,” groaned [Pony 1], “For while I have a good life, I am missing the final thing to make it complete. I am lacking in the romance department, and the pony I love does not notice me.”
“If you are so desperate to have your true love notice you, [Pony 1], then I, as your close and personal friend, shall help you win over [Pony 2],” said [Supporting Pony 1], placing a hoof around [Pony 1]’s shoulders, “All we have to do is get you and [Pony 2] to talk to each other, and then you subtly bring up the subject of romance. It is sure to succeed!”
But just as the two friends were about to leave [Pony 1]’s house, the door was flung open by [Supporting Pony 2], who looked like they had just run from Canterlot to here.
“[Pony 1], [Supporting Pony 1], you have to come quickly! [Pony 2] has gone and done something incredibly stupid, and I do fear that unless we do something, [Pony 2] will never come to [Insert Activity] with us ever again!”
“Of course!” cried [Pony 1], “I have yet to confess my undying love for [Pony 2], and it would be remiss of me to take this chance. That, and I have no desire to see one of my friends go up to the Green Fields in the sky,” and with that, [Pony 1] reared up, and charged off after [Supporting Pony 2], with [Supporting Pony 1] in tow.
Upon arriving at [Insert Setting], where [Pony 2] was in mortal peril, [Pony 1] quickly spotted [Pony 2], who had found a temporary refuge from the danger, but the refuge would not last forever. Bravely, [Pony 1] rushed out, and after a difficult battle, managed to reduce it or long enough that [Pony 2] could exit the shelter they had found.
“Oh, thank you, [Pony 1]. Without your timely rescue, I fear that I would not have lasted much longer. Tell me, why did you risk your life so?” asked [Pony 2]
“[Pony 2], I must make a confession. I have been in love with you for a great long time, ever since [Important Past event], in fact. I could not let you get away from me without you knowing the fullest extent of my feelings.”
“Oh my,” muttered [Pony 2], cheeks reddening, “If that is truly the case, then I have a confession as well. I was out here because I wanted [Important Object to Pony 1], because I am in love with you as well, and believed that it would make a good gift to show my feelings for you.”
And seeing that they were both in love with the other, [Pony 1] and [Pony 2] decided to make out. Seeing that they were intruding, [Supporting Pony 1] and [Supporting Pony 2] left the two to their make outs.
Spitfire stood on a cloud, watching as the Wonderbolt hopefuls flew by in groups of five, practicing flying in tight formations.
“Gust, tighten up your line! You’re wobbling like a filly on her first date! Drops, you’re swinging wide! Correct it! Dust, you’re out of synch with your teammates!” Each correction was barked out as a different group passed Spitfire’s position, and the Wonderbolt Captain felt somepony alight on her cloud.
“One sec, whoever you are,” said Spitfire, not looking away from the last of the groups to pass her, “Dash, you’re flying too high! Get back to flight level!” Spitfire bellowed, and watched with a sense of satisfaction as one of the ponies in the formation dropped back down in line with her teammates.
“Now,” said Spitfire, turning to face her unexpected guest, “What can I do for you, oh horseapples I didn’t know it was you, Princess Sparkle.” Spitfire began to drop down into a bow, but with a grimace the newest Princess waved the Wonderbolt off.
“Please, just call me Twilight. Now, Spitfire, Can I talk to you?”
“Sure. We got a few minutes before the cadets come back around, then I have to yell at them again. What did you want to talk about?”
“Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight Sparkle, her mouth a hard line, and Spitfire sighed.
“You’re wondering why she hasn’t been put into the tryouts yet.”
“To be honest, yes.”
“Look, Princess Twilight, do you know who Rainbow Dash’s mother is?”
“No, but what’s that got to do with anything?”
“Well, neither does Rainbow Dash. And for very good reason. Her mother was Firefly,” said Spitfire, as if that name explained everything. Twilight Sparkle just stared at Spitfire until the Wonderbolt relented.
“Firefly was perhaps the most talented pony the Wonderbolts have ever seen,” explained Spitfire, “she devised half of the routines we still use today. She was Wonderbolt Captain for eight years, and had won her own weight in trophies, both for the Wonderbolts and individually. And Like it or not, Princess, that’s what Rainbow Dash has to live up to.”
“So Rainbow Dash isn’t currently on the list of tryouts because?” pressed Twilight.
Spitfire sighed again, “She isn’t on the list because we want her to blow the judges out of the water when we do try her out. Lotta the ponies on that panel remember Firefly. I want them to only remember Rainbow Dash once she’s finished. As she stands right now, Rainbow could try out, and pass with a decent margin of error. But like I said, Princess, Rainbow has some big horseshoes to fill with the Wonderbolts. I don’t like it, but there it is.”
Twilight stood silent for a while, processing the information that Spitfire had given her, and Spitfire herself turned back to look at the flight path, to see the first group approaching, and took a few deep breaths to prepare her voice for the next round of shouting.
“Thunderlane, get your flank back into place! I’ve seen more coordinated flight from chickens! Misty Fly, stop goofing off! Just because you’re acting as flight leader does not mean you get to slack off! Dust, you’re still out of synch! Fix it, or I’ll fly down there and fix it for you! Wild Fire, your tail is on fire! Again!”
[Time]
As the unfortunate pony dived headlong into a cloud to put her tail out, Twilight spoke up again.
“So there’s nothing actually holding Rainbow Dash back? Nothing that she actually needs to fix?”
“Nope. But Princess, if you ask me to put Rainbow Dash on the tryout list right now, it’s not gonna happen. All of the Wonderbolts unanimously agreed on this. Don’t get me wrong, we want Rainbow on the team. But we want the pony that Rainbow is going to become in about one to two years. She’ll be hitting her stride then. Right now, she’s still a bit young, a bit too impulsive, but she’s gotten better at that. She’s practically guaranteed a place on the team, Princess Twilight, but she needs to feel like she earned it, not that it was handed to her because of who her mother was, or simply because we want to bring back the glory days. Rainbow will bring something new, and fresh and distinctly her to this team, Princess Twilight, but she’s still figuring out what that is. Once she does, she’ll get a tryout.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, beginning to turn away, “thank you for clearing that up, Spitfire.”
“Sure, it’s not a problem,” said the Wonderbolt, turning back to keep watching the flight path.
“Spitfire?” came the voice of Princess Twilight once more, “How do you know that Firefly is Rainbow Dash’s mother? Seems like it was pretty well hidden from Rainbow.”
“It was. Can you imagine what Rainbow would be like if she knew her mother was one of the all time greats? I only know because, and you can’t tell anypony, least of all Dash, but,” here Spitfire gulped, and prepared to reveal something that few ponies knew, “I’m Firefly’s sister.”
And just like that, everything dropped into place for Twilight, and the Princess nodded, and took wing. Spitfire turned back to the flight path again.
“Snowflake, pick it up! You’re lagging! Cloudchaser, nopony cares if you can fly backwards and upside down! Dust! Fix your wingbeats!”
Every Tuesday morning, at exactly eight twenty three, Princess Celestia sat down in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing of the Royal Canterlot Archives with a pot of tea and played Tarot. It was common knowledge among the Castle Staff that Princess Celestia was also completely happy to give a reading for anypony who went up and asked, and over time, practically all of the ponies who worked in the castle, and even a number of the Royal Guard had gone in for a reading at some point.
Princess Celestia absently turned over another card with her hoof as the sound of hooves on stone reached her ears, along with the familiar sounds of half frantic magic babble that could only mean that Twilight Sparkle was coming in. Despite herself, Princess Celestia smiled. While she loved all of her subjects equally, she did admit to a certain fondness for her ascended student. At first, she thought that Twilight was simply coming up to this wing of the archives to study-it certainly wouldn’t be the first time she had been in here, simply reading all of the esoteric spells and incantations. Thus, she was pleasantly surprised when she heard the hooves stop on the other side of her table, and the rustle of wings on coat that signalled that Twilight had sat down opposite her.
“Hello, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, pulling the cards back into the main deck, and shuffling them with her magic, “Are you here for a Tarot Reading?” Princess Celestia glanced up as she continued to shuffle the deck of ornate cards, and was even more pleasantly surprised when she saw the newest Princess give a nod. As Princess Celestia laid out the cards in the same manner that she had practiced for years upon years, she wondered why Twilight had yet to speak, but a closer inspection of Twilight told the elder Princess that Twilight was in ‘research’ mode – she would speak when she had gathered enough data, or once her mind had worked through to the conclusion of whatever thought she was working on.
Princess Celestia went through the motions of explaining the cards’ meanings as they applied to Twilight as she turned them over, inwardly curious as to why Twilight had come for a reading now, of all times. Everytime the Princess had offered when Twilight was younger, the unicorn had adamantly refused, stating that it was all ‘superstitious nonsense’. As the reading concluded, Twilight sighed.
“As I thought – there’s no actual magic at work. Just random chance,” Twilight turned to leave.
“Just because there is no magic that you can sense, Twilight, does not mean it is not at work,” said Princess Celestia, returning the cards to the deck and beginning to shuffle again, “You of all ponies should know that there is more than one kind of magic.” Twilight turned back around to look at her former teacher.
“And what’s at work here? Destiny?”
“No, Twilight. Belief. I know that no magic is guiding my hoof. You know that there is no magic dictating which cards are picked, but the average pony who consents to a reading does not. To them, the process is as mystical and unknowable as the moon or the sun. But yet, it works because the ponies believe that it works.”
“So it’s all just a sham? Telling ponies what they want to hear, twisting the cards’ meanings to suit them?” Princess Celestia grimaced. This was her hobby, and while she knew that there was a degree of truth in Twilight’s words, she would not take this lightly, and had to remind herself that Twilight did not easily accept things that could not be explained through the scientific method.
“Not exactly, Twilight. It is about being vague, and the exact things you say. For instance, take my letter that sent you to Ponyville all those years ago. Not once did I say that Nightmare Moon wasn’t going to return. And yet, you took it as a dismissal of your fears. Why?”
“Because you didn’t mention it,” a spark lit up in Twilight’s eye, “And because you didn’t mention it, I thought that you thought that I was being silly, when you actually acknowledged my request, and put me in a place where I could get the one thing that could defeat Nightmare Moon!”
Princess Celestia smiled, “The job of being a Princess, and playing Tarot are very similar Twilight. The important thing to recognise with both of them is that it is not what you say, but how you say it.”
My name is Coco Pommel. I’m an assistant to Suri Polomare in Manehatten. Though, ‘assistant’ might be the wrong word. Miss Polomare treats me more like a slave, but that’s how this business is, right? Every designer has to do their time on the bottom rung, but they eventually get noticed and moved up. I was sure that soon, Miss Polomare would hopefully start giving me credit for my work on the dresses she sold to the ponies in Manehatten. Even if it was just a small ‘Sewed by Coco Pommel’ somewhere.
Fashion Week is always a bit of a nightmare for me. Between Miss Polomares’ increasingly outrageous ‘requests’ and all the work she gives me, it’s a wonder I actually get any sleep. But this Fashion week, I was greeted after Miss Polomare’s meeting with Prim Hemline with a bolt of fabric flying at my face.
“I want you to enhance all of my dresses as you can with that fabric,” she had demanded, “by the time we turn up tomorrow, I want my entire collection to be featuring that fabric. It’s sure to get me first place.” I remember simply sighing, and getting to work. The fabric itself was incredible. I’d never worked with anything like it, and incorporating it into the dresses that I had previously made was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.
Even so, I had to be careful. Incorporating an entirely new fabric into an existing dress line was no easy task, even when the fabric was as wonderful as this one. Stitching had to be matched, and I had to work out by trial and error how tight or loose I could have this mysterious new fabric for the best effect in the dresses. I did try to ask how Miss Polomare had come across this fabric, but all she said was that ‘some mares don’t know how this town really works,’ with a smile on her face, so I went back to sewing.
“Fast? Hah! Coco Pommel here took practically forever. Nearly got me completely disqualified.” While I tried to defend taking my time for quality of work, I looked at Rarity, who the fabric had apparently come from. Who had given Miss Polomare the fabric, not expecting immediate repayment. And whose line I had now completely destroyed with my work. Not for the first time, I wondered if I was working for the right pony. The outrageous demands, the blatant theft of ideas and Suri Polomare’s attitude to both my work and other ponies was finally getting to me.
[Time]
No, it was just the stress of the impending Fashion Show coming up. With the new dresses, Miss Polomare’s line was sure to win, and she’d be more bearable for a few months, and I could ask about maybe putting my name on a product.
I stared, slack-jawed and wide-eyed at Miss Rarity’s new line. She had made that in one night? Out of hotel curtains? For the first time in my fashion ‘career’, I felt like I was truly out of my league. I had liked to believe that I was about the same level of skill as the other designers, despite whatever Suri Polomare said. But Miss Rarity was on another level entirely and I knew that she was going to win. And it seemed that Suri Polomare seemed to recognise that as well, because she did everything in her power to stop Miss Rarity from claiming her rightly deserved prize. Faced now with Rarity’s generosity and actual talent, and comparing it to Suri Polomare’s positively vile personality and utter lack of talent, I knew that I didn’t have long to act before my chance passed me by.
Three young ponies walked at a steady pace along a sun-dappled path, the trees looming overhead just shy of ominously.
“Come on, Sun Shade! We’re almost there!”
“I don’t know, Apple Blossom. Ponies say that the Old Witch lives in here. What if she catches us? She’ll eat us up for being naughty ponies.”
“I still can’t believe you actually believe in that stuff. The Old Witch is just a myth, Sun. Someone probably just got into the cider a bit too hard.”
“Yeah,” said the third member of the group, a colt, “She’s like all those stories about the Elementals or whatever. They’re just stories.”
“But my mama always says that the best stories are true!” exclaimed Sun Shade, “and it’s Elements, Rock Slide. El-e-ments.”
“I heard,” said Apple Blossom, turning to face her two companions, “That the old witch can fly. And that she can do magic. ‘s why they call her a witch.” Sun Shade started to shiver as a cloud drifted overhead. “They say that if you meet here in these forests, you will never be seen again!”
Sun Shade had started to back up, and jumped in fight when her rear hit a tree.
“Eeek!” she screamed, while Rock Slide and Apple Blossom laughed at her.
“Guys, that’s not funny.”
“Sorry, Sun,” gasped out Rock Slide, “but you are kinda easy to scare. Come on, we still need to get a photo of us in the Everfree town if we’re going to win the bet.” The three ponies started off down the path once more, ignorant that behind them, a shadow shifted and vanished.
****
“Whoa,” said all three ponies simultaneously, as they stared at the expanse of the town in the forest laid out before and below them. Vines had long since overtaken many of the houses, in many cases completely covering the walls, and the ground was soft and grassy. As the three entered the town, they looked from one house to the next; each imagining what kind of ponies must have lived in this town, so deep inside the forest. In the distance, rising over the trees, they could also see two spires, the tips of towers.
And while the vegetation had long since overtaken the houses and buildings, there were almost no trees. The trees had simply stopped, as if somepony was cutting them down.
“Here should be good,” said Apple Blossom, stopping in front of an exceptionally large building, “Make sure we get a shot down the street. I don’t want those two who put us up to this to think we didn’t go all the way in here.”
Sun Shade nodded, and pulled the camera out of her saddle bag with her mouth, setting it up on a tripod and hitting a timer. The three posed, and the camera flash went off.
“Can we get out of here now? This place is weird,” muttered Sun Shade as she packed the camera and tripod back into her bags, “I don’t think we should be here, guys.”
“Come on, Sun, don’t be such a scaredy pony. There’s no one here!” said Apple Blossom, rearing up on her hind legs, and spreading her forelegs wide. That was when the air behind her sparkled and burst, revealing a pony wrapped in a cloak. Frozen with equal parts horror and fascination, the three young ponies watched as a the cloak began to glow purple, and lifted off the pony.
Underneath, there was a pony who looked like she was just a normal adult, save for the long thing sticking out of her head, and the two wings on her sides. As the pony folded up her cloak, the three young earth ponies screamed.
“It’s the Old Witch of the Woods! Run for your lives!” and just like that, Sun Shade, Apple Blossom and Rock Slide bolted back the way they had come, heading for the safety of their homes outside of the forest.
Back in front of the building that had once been the Town Hall of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of a town of one, and the only living being with a horn or wings, sighed to herself, and started walking back to the twisted and gnarled tree at the other end of the street.
It was considered the ultimate in Equestrian high society to say that you owned your own airship. It was the perfect symbol of class, taste and refinement, and told everypony that you were rolling in bits. Naturally, Prince Blueblood owned three of the most ostentatious and ridiculously fancy airships in the sky, but then again, everypony in Equestria who was remotely interested in the high society life learned the only hard rule: Nopony pays attention to Blueblood.
The Omni was a particular oddity, though. The ship was not owned by a single pony, but rather by a corporation of ponies, each of whom owned a share of the ship. As a result, the ship was comparatively plain and unornate, but an undoubted favourite of many of the Canterlot Nobility.
“Tickets?” asked the boarding guard, a blue pegasus, for the hundred thousandth-time, and was rewarded with a pair of tickets floated over for him to stamp, a pinkish aura surrounding them.
“Welcome aboard the Omni, Lord Fancy Pants, Lady Fleur de Lis. We hope you have a pleasant trip with us.”
“Jolly good!” said Fancy Pants, levitating a few bits from his suit pocket, and placing them in the boarding guard’s own uniform pocket.
After the unofficial Lord and Lady of Canterlot had boarded, the guard leaned up against the rail, his eyes flicking around the dock, waiting for the next set of passengers.
“A-hem,” came a haugty, regal voice, and the guard refocused his attention on the two new unicorn mares in front of him.
“Tickets?” he asked
“Twinkle?” prompted the purple one, who seemed to be in charge here, and the other mare, a grey unicorn wearing the traditional plain dress of a hoofmaiden magically produced two tickets for the airship.
“Welcome aboard the Omni, Lady Moon Shimmer, and Twinkle Star.” Passing the tickets back to the apparent hoofmaiden, the pegasus went back to leaning up against the railing of the boarding ramp, as the two mares walked onto the ship.
******
“You are an idiot, Twinkle. You almost blew it,” hissed Moon Shimmer, magically grabbing the grey unicorn’s ear.
“I’m sorry, Miss Shimmer!” moaned the unicorn, as the pink magic pulled on her ear.
“Well, at least you seem to be getting better at staying in character. Now come on. We need to find our room, and then, with Luna’s blessing, we might actually get some work done. Now, carry my bags.”
“Yes, Miss Shimmer, you self-loving piece of...” muttered Twinkle, picking up the bags with her magic.
“What was that, Twinkle?”
“Nothing, Miss Shimmer!”
*****
Unless otherwise stated, the good airship Omni had an open bridge policy. Anypony could come up to the control centre of the flying vessel, and take a look at exactly what went into the running of an airship. As the ship cruised around the Canterhorn shortly after it’s take off, Moon Shimmer and Twinkle Star made their way to the bridge, and marvelled at the ponies running around, pulling levers and twisting valves in order to keep the airship flying. As the ship moved behind the mountain, and out of view of Canterlot, Moon Shimmer dramatically collapsed, drawing the attention of the flight crew. While the ponies crowded around, desperate to help a mare in apparent distress, Twinkle Star moved around the outside of the frantic crew.
All of a sudden, Lady Moon Shimmer jerked upright with a loud gasp, knocking her head into that of one of the flight crew, knocking him unconscious, and Twinkle Star fired up her horn, quickly encasing all of the crew of the Omni in a purple magical glow, and tossing them out of the door, and locking it, leaving only herself and Moon Shimmer in the control centre.
[Time]
“Well done,” praised Moon Shimmer, and Twinkle just rolled her eyes as her magic latched onto the various controls of the airship, manipulating them according to the dials that she could read, and had spent months prior studying. For her part, Moon Shimmer’s own horn lit up, and two disguise spells dissolved, revealing Twinkle Star to be Twilight Sparkle, and Moon Shimmer to be Trixie Lulamoon.
Trixie immediately took control of the ship wide communication system.
“Do not be alarmed, peons,” she announced, drawing another roll of the eyes from Twilight, “The Great and Powerful Trixie has taken command of your precious ship. In order to save your precious lives, Trixie demands that you place all valuables in a pile on the central deck. Do this, and Trixie will promise to land the ship safely. That is all.”
As Trixie hung up the communicator, Twilight turned to Trixie.
“I still don’t see how hijacking an airship and robbing the ponies on board is a lesson for a Princess to know. Or why Celestia told me that this would be a good idea.”
“Firstly, do you honestly think that Trixie is some kind of common thief? Please, Trixie has more integrity than that. And as the Princess of the Sun put it, ‘Teach her how to control her demeanour. A Princess must be as humble as a hoofmaiden, but as unbending as the pride of a noble. She must know when to stick to her principles, and when to let them go in favour of a more beneficial outcome.’”
Twilight blinked, “So how does robbing an airship do any of that?”
“Trixie never said it did!”
Twilight glanced at Trixie, who had found a safety glider, and was poised by a freshly broken window.
“Also, Sparkle? Trixie has evidence that all of this was your idea. Now you have a choice: land the ship by yourself and be accused of organising this whole scheme, or chase after Trixie, be completely innocent, but risk the ship crashing. Who knows if the crew can correct in time? Have fun choosing, Sparkle,” finished Trixie, jumping out of the window, and beginning to glide to safety.
“So we’re all agreed we meet back here just before lunch, okay?” said Twilight Sparkle, and the other four ponies all nodded. Each of them had something different about the island city of Manehattan that they all wanted to see, and after much discussion, they had all agreed that they’d split up for the morning, before coming back together for lunch, and then a few common things that they all wanted to see, before heading on to Hinny of the Hills that night.
Rainbow Dash rose above the bustling crowds of ponies, her wings keeping her aloft and out of the hooftraffic. Unlike Twilight, who made meticulous plans for every minute of her stay in Manehattan, Rainbow much preffered just ‘winging it’, pun fully intended. As such, she simply took lefts and right turns almost at random, winding her way through the streets, before she found something that caught her interest. It was a sign, one of the many giant billboards that littered the city and that ninety percent of the time, Rainbow Ignored. This one, though, piqued her interest.
‘The Manehattan Island Sprint. Do you have what it takes to be the fastest through the city? Last week!’
Rainbow didn’t even have to think about it, and immediately shot off towards the place where the sign said the start line was. Upon arriving, she found a small flock of pegasi crowding around a registration table, and landed just behind them. Ten minutes later, Rainbow Dash had the number 11 stuck over her cutie mark, and was waiting for the official start of the race. There were fifteen pegasi total in the round, and Rainbow went around, sizing them up. Her mind was already going into race mode. There weren’t fifteen pegasi in the race, there were fourteen, and one Rainbow Dash. She may have known that she was crazy fast, but she knew that there were other ponies out there that pushed themselves just as hard as she did. Fortunately, her only competition looked like a stallion, slightly older than herself, who had two mares massaging his back.
“Hey, hotstuff,” he called out, as Rainbow began to walk away, “Leaving so soon?”
Rainbow turned back around, and the stallion caught sight of the number pasted on her flank.
“So, you’re a competitor?” asked the stallion, getting up and striding over to Rainbow, the number six visible over his cutie mark, “Well, Nice to meet you, number eleven. I’m Lightning Bolt. Two time Manehattan Sprint Champion on the trot, and I’ve never not finished on the podium. Don’t bother telling me your name-I’m not gonna remember it after I leave you in my dust. But hey, good on you for trying this out. You may even come second.”
Rainbow’s eye twitched. In addition to Lightning Bolt’s annoying accent, the stallion was arrogant. Rainbow hated arrogance, and he reminded her of Billy and Hoops from Flight Camp: all talk, no skill. Or almost. Given that this guy had apparently won twice, he had to have some skills, and despite her distaste for his attitude, Rainbow was looking forwards to racing him. She was about to come back with a witty remark, but a horn sounded, signalling all competitors to head to the start line. Rainbow settled for turning away from Lighting Bolt, and heading to the starting position.
“You’ve all been briefed on the safety rules, and you’ve all studied the course, which will be marked out with cloud barriers,” said the official governing the race, “If there are any final questions, ask them now.” The official paused for a few moments, to allow for any of the pegasi in the line to ask anything. When nothing was forthcoming, the official nodded. “Right, we’ll get started in a minute then.”
“Hey, number eleven!” called out Lightning Bolt, “Don’t get lost on your way to the first corner! I’ll see you at the finish line. Don’t worry, I’ll save you some champagne!” a few ponies cracked up at Lightning Bolt’s statement, but Rainbow just gritted her teeth, and settled herself in for her fastest start. She had been intending to stay just ahead of Lightning Bolt to give herself a challenge, but now she was going to go for the fastest possible time she could.
“Ready!” called an official beside the start line, and ponies cleared out of the flight path.
“Set!” Eyes narrowed, goggles went on for some and the fourteen pegasi and one Rainbow Dash crouched, ready to take on the twisting course through the buildings and streets of Manehattan.
“GO!” yelled the official. Fourteen pegasi took off, and one Rainbow Dash launched.
Flawless Emerald, or Emerald, as she was known to her friends, sighed as she crested the hill with her cart, and saw the tall spire of Ponyville’s Town hall, and passed the carved ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ sign. Emerald was a jeweller by both trade, and her cutie mark of a single cut emerald on her grey coat. She had been working out in Manehatten, but had decided, almost on a whim, to move out to the sleepy town of Ponyville after meeting a designer during Fashion Week who had enthused about the apparent presence of a rich gem field just outside the town. The cart she was pulling contained various tools of her trade, and a few sacks of bits to rent out a house or room somewhere in town while she searched for both a stable job in the town, and a house of her own.
As she pulled her cart down the hill towards the town centre, she took in a deep breath, allowing the rich scent of turned earth, and the faint scent of apples and sugar to invade her nostrils. Ponyville was definitely what she had needed, decided Emerald. For a long time, she had simply been caught up in the bustle of Manehatten, where there was always one more client, one more gem that wasn’t quite cut right. Hopefully, out here in Ponyville, she could relax and work at her own pace, and maybe just rediscover why she had fallen in love with the profession in the first place.
“Hi!” the cry startled Emerald from her introspection, and she looked up to see a bright pink pony with an impossibly curly mane and tail standing in front of her, a wide smile spread across her face.
“Um...Hi?” replied Emerald, her voice wavering as the pink pony’s smile got wider and wider as Emerald watched her eyes flick from Emerald to her cart and back to Emerald.
The next thing that Emerald knew, she was wrapped up in something that smelt like burnt sugar, baked pastry and gunpowder, and could only see pink. It seemed that the pink pony had decided to hug her. Just as quickly, the pink pony let go, and backed off.
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! And I’ve never seen you around here before, and that must mean you’re new, and you really looked like you needed a hug, so I gave you a hug, and now I’ve gotta go and get your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ Party ready! Bye!” Emerald could only blink as the pink pony was suddenly receding down the street faster than anything that she had ever seen before. Glancing around the street, Emerald eventually spotted a small hotel, and pulled her cart over to it.
Leaving it outside, she went in and booked a room for the next few nights. After taking a few of the more valuable things in her cart upstairs, and resolving to look for a job the next day, Emerald was almost about to climb into the bed and sleep when there was a knock at the door. The minute that Emerald opened it, though, she was once more assaulted by a blur of pink and the smell of burnt sugar that was Pinkie Pie. Before Emerald could even comprehend what was happening, she was out of the hotel, and being pulled down the street, and then she was deposited inside what looked like the local library, and a cup of punch was pressed into her hoof.
“Hey, everypony! This is...” Pinkie Pie paused, realising that she’d never even asked Emerald her name, and turned to face the grey unicorn.
“What’s your name?” hissed Pinkie in a completely obvious stage whisper.
“Flawless Emerald,” sighed Emerald, taking a sip of her punch. To her surprise, it was actually really good punch, and she took another mouthful.
“...This is Flawless Emerald! Everypony make her welcome!” there were a few cheers and some stomping of hooves, and Emerald managed to slip away from the hyperactive pink pony.
[Time]
“Flawless Emerald, right?” came a voice, and Emerald turned around. Throughout the entire party, everypony she had met had been friendly, respectful of her privacy if she said that she didn’t want to talk about something, and more than one had already offered to help her find a job or a house, which Emerald found curious in complete strangers.
However, her next aquaintace, she recognised instantly. After all, Emerald had been in Canterlot when Twilight Sparkle had been coronated, and she immediately started to drop down into a bow. Twilight rolled her eyes, and motioned for Emerald to get up.
“So, I see you experienced Pinkie Pie. Please, don’t use Pinkie as the standard for Ponyville,” said Twilight, a smile spreading across her face, “Most of us are friendly, but Pinkie is a bit...overenthusiastic about it. She means well, though.” Emerald let out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t even known that she’d been holding, glad that not everypony in this town would be like that.
“But anyway, welcome to Ponyville, Flawless Emerald. I’m sure you’ll have a great time here.”
The party was in full swing, as the six friends danced, talked and generally had a good time. At some point during the night, and completely without Twilight’s knowledge, Pinkie Pie, the perpetrator of the party, had managed to hang a banner across one of the bookshelves declaring this to be a ‘Congratulations on Finishing your Super Big Research Project’ party. Twilight had attempted to explain that she had only sent the thesis off, and it would likely be months before her official mark was sent out, but as Twilight knew, Pinkie Pie will be Pinkie Pie.
As it was late summer, Twilight had the windows on the library open-it was a warm night, and dry, but there was a pleasant breeze flowing in from the direction of the Everfree that lined up very nicely with a few windows in the Golden Oak library. Twilight looked around the room, seeing all of her friends having a great time. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash seemed to be locked in a dance battle, while Applejack was watching on with a grin on her face, and Rarity and Fluttershy had taken up position near one of the open windows, and were simply content with chatting away. As Twilight walked over to join Rarity and Fluttershy, she noticed Fluttershy’s nose twitch. And then twitch again. Finally, Fluttershy closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath through her nose. Rarity and Twilight looked on, curious as to what Fluttershy could possibly be smelling.
Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open.
“FIRE!” yelled Fluttershy, stopping the party in its tracks, and then she was gone. Fluttershy had dived out the window, spreading her wings and taking off towards the Everfree and...her home, Twilight realised. It didn’t take much longer for the other five of them to make the connection, and they all rushed after the normally timid pegasus, who could actually fly decently well when pushed.
****
Nothing. That was what was left of Fluttershy’s house. Somehow, the Everfree Forest had caught fire, and Fluttershy’s house had been in the path of the flames. Twilight didn’t know what was affecting her more: Fluttershy losing her house, or the sight of Fluttershy frantically digging through the remains, crying out the names of her animal friends, tears streaming down her ash-stained face.
“Fluttershy,” called Rainbow Dash, “they’re-”
“No, I have to find them! They have to be okay!” interrupted Fluttershy, wincing as her hoof hit a patch of still-warm embers.
“Flutters. You can stop,” said Rainbow, swooping down and attempting to pull Fluttershy away, but the other pegasus shook her off.
“I need to find my animal friends, Rainbow! They have to be okay! I have to know!”
“Fluttershy, they are,” said Rainbow, motioning with her hoof to a part of the clearing where all the little critters had started gathering behind Fluttershy, “Including that stupid bunny of yours.”
“Oh,” said Fluttershy, blushing with an embarrassed smile.
“Well, now that that’s taken care of, we simply must do something about your living situation, Fluttershy,” said Rarity, “You can’t live out here while your cottage is rebuilt, and as much as I would like to, I cannot take you. Sweetie Belle is occupying my spare bedroom.”
“And I can’t have you either, because the Cakes have no room left,” said Pinkie Pie, “unless you want to sleep in my closet?” Fluttershy shook her head.
“Fluttershy can stay with me,” said Twilight, “I still have a spare bed, and the library is reasonably close to the forest.”
“Oh, thank you, Twilight, but I really wouldn’t want to impose...”
“It’s not a problem, Fluttershy. Is there anything you can salvage from here?” Fluttershy shook her head, and the other five all gathered around their shy friend in a hug.
“Now come on, lets get back to the library. We have a party to clean up, and I have a bed to set up,” said Twilight, leading the way back to the library.
One fine day, purple nerd alicorn princess pony gathered her five wives together in the library.
“Let’s all move in here together!” she proposed.
“That sounds great!” cried pink party pony wife, bouncing up and down, “then we can all be together more of the time and it’ll be like a giant party! I’ll get my party cannon!” She was only stopped by purple nerd alicorn princess pony using her magic to hold her back from breaking the door. Again.
“If you really don’t mind us all living here, then I’m okay with it,” said yellow shy pegasus pony wife, as her mouth curved into a small smile.
“Aw, yeah,” said blue athletic pegasus pony wife, “I’m down for that.”
Orange apple farmer pony wife took her hat off for a minute to think, as being here meant living with her wives, but that also meant being away from the apple farm.
“Aw, shoot,” she said, placing her hat back on, “Why the heck not?”
“Spending more time with you is always welcomed,” said white fashion unicorn pony wife, “I would be absolutely delighted to move in with all of you.”
And then they all decided to make out.
Green baby dragon assistant to purple nerd alicorn princess pony made gagging noises, and decided that he was going to go and see what flightless pegasus pony, squeaky unicorn pony and yellow earth pony were up to.
Meanwhile, purple nerd alicorn princess pony and her five wives had graduated from making out to christening their new bed.
I coughed, but I managed to keep my mouth wrapped around my sword, for all the good it would do me now. I could feel the blood trickling out from the corners of my mouth, and I’d lost all feeling below my waist. It felt like my entire body was slowly being dropped into an ice bath, and not the good kind.
“Ow,” I said, coughing up another gout of blood, staining the handle of my sword, “that hurts. Note to self: don’t get stabbed again.” I was using the wall to prop me up as I pulled myself along and into a side alley, unsure if my legs could take my full weight. Heh, I’d never thought that this would be how I’d go. I’d always imagined having a brilliant career and then retiring. Death never really crossed my mind.
I grimaced as the cold feeling started in my wingtips. Well, guess there really was no escaping it now. No flight, barely able to walk, and I could hear hoofbeats coming my way. I let myself collapse against the wall, sliding down into a sitting position, and I let my sword drop onto the stone ground. It didn’t feel like it was gonna be long now. I shut my eyes for a moment, hearing the hoofbeats coming closer and closer to me, and finally stopping.
“I will give you this, you were tenacious. You came closer than anypony ever has before.” The voice was layered, like it was several people speaking at once, and it gave me a headache.
“Do you expect me to,” I paused to open my eyes and cough again, “feel proud of that? I hate losing.” I looked up at the mare that I’d been asked to investigate. Of course, she hadn’t looked like she did now, all black and full of holes, back when I’d first been introduced to the case.
“Oh, Miss Dash,” crooned Chrysalis with that freaky voice of hers, rubbing one hoof along my face, “you could have had everything you ever wanted. All you had to do was walk away. But you just had to keep pushing, didn’t you?”
“I don’t,” I struggled for breath, and I could feel Death breathing down my neck now, “Leave cases unfinished, or clients waiting more than they have to. I’m,” I trailed off with another few coughs, and more blood flowed out of my mouth. Breathing was getting really difficult now, like that one time when I’d flown up above the recommended maximum altitude for pegasi.
“I’m Rainbow Dash,” I eventually managed to gasp out, “the fastest PI in equestria. Don’t leave ponies hanging.”
“I can see that, Miss Dash,” said the changeling, green fire enveloping her, switching back to the looks of the pony that I’d originally been asked to investigate. “Any last words?” she asked, levitating a hooffile from somewhere, and began to use it.
“Your voice is stupid,” I managed to gasp out, as the chill finally rose above my neck, and settled into my head. I shut my eyes, and heard Chrysalis begin to walk away.
I am Rainbow Dash, Private Investigator, and this is how I died-alone in an alleyway, a case unfinished, the bad guy still out there. So much for 'never leave a case unfinished'.
‘Tuesdays,’ thought Sunny Day, the Secretary for Princess Celestia. ‘Why was it always bucking Tuesdays?’ Before the return of Princess Luna, Sunny Day had thought that it was not possible to hate a day of the week so much.
She’d known that being a Princess’s secretary was not an easy job, but Sunny Day had been up to the challenge for years, and had learnt much in the course of the job. There were countless things that had to be brought to the attention of the Princess, not to mention that she had to endure the Princess’s at times strange and unknowable logic. She had also quickly learnt how to tell when Princess Celestia was being serious, and when she was simply trying to mess with a pony.
And then Princess Luna had returned, and Sunny Day learned to hate a calender day.
*****
‘Tuesdays,’ thought Starry Dusk, the recent Secretary for Princess Luna, ‘Why is it always on a Tuesday?’ Starry’s position was a recent opening in the castle staff. With Princess Luna now reassuming her duties in ruling the kingdom, it only made sense that she would need somepony to help keep her on track, and Starry Dusk was still learning all the tricks of the job. But there was one part that he had very quickly picked up, almost as a matter of self-preservation.
Tuesdays were the worst day of the entire week, without question. On Tuesdays, Starry had more than once considered quitting.
*****
Thunder Helm and Gusty Strike were not anything special, or at least, that was what they said. Everypony else in the Royal Guard was more than a bit impressed with the two pegasi, and for one very simple reason: these two were the most frequent guards of the Royal Throne room, and that meant they had to deal with the nobles both entering and leaving the Courts, as well as the Princesses themselves. Most of the time, the two immortal alicorns were well behaved, polite to a fault, and model protectees.
Except on Tuesdays.
*****
“Woo hoo!” cried Celestia as she slid down the halls of Canterlot Castle, her hooves clad in thick, fuzzy socks to lessen friction between her and the polished marble. She could see the end of the hallway coming up, and made to get ready for the complicated process of turning a corner when you had no friction between you and the floor.
That was when the pillow swung out from a side corridor, smacked into her face and was pierced by her horn. Now unable to see where she was going, Celestia forgot that she was wearing socks, and her hooves scrambled on the floor in an attempt to find grip that wasn’t there. As a result, she went sailing across the corridor, and smacked into a thankfully empty patch of wall. Once Celestia recovered from her minor collision, she managed to turn around, pull the pillow off her head with her magic, and spot a flash of dark blue darting into one of the many side rooms, ghostly laughter trailing after it, and Celestia’s own face slipped into a smile.
A moment later, there was a scream of anguish and Luna bolted out of the side room, her starry ethereal mane turned a bright pink. Celestia’s smile only got wider when Luna hit the area where Celestia had liberally applied Fortescue’s No Friction Spell on the floor down the corridor where Luna had been hiding, and Luna’s screams faded down the corridor. Allowing herself a brief giggle, Celestia took a few quick steps, and resumed her glide down the corridors. Luna would be back with her revenge as soon as she stopped sliding, but for now, Celestia was going to enjoy her temporary victory in the weekly prank war.
“Wheee!” cried the immortal alicorn princess, sliding past two guards, and offering them half a pillow to the face each.
The door slamming broke Octavia out from her reverie as she studied the sheet music for her next performance with the Canterlot Philarmonic, and the stream of half-yelled swearwords from her housemate Vinyl Scratch drew her out from her room.
“Vinyl? What happened?” asked Octavia, as Vinyl stalked around the kitchen
“I can’t believe her! To break it off now, after I was so close!”
“Vinyl, what in Equestria are you talking about?”
“I’ll show her. Yeah, I don’t need her. I can do just fine without her.” Octavia crossed the room and gave the very tip of Vinyl’s horn a flick with a hoof as Vinyl stomped past her.
“What?” growled Vinyl, and Octavia momentarily reeled back. She’d never, ever seen Vinyl this angry before.
“What’s the matter, Vinyl?” asked Octavia.
“It’s Bottom Line,” said Vinyl, stalking over to the couch and sitting down, “my manager. Or former manager, anyway.”
“What happened?” said Octavia, sitting down besides Vinyl.
“She dumped me. Just dropped me like a bass line. Tore up my recording contract right in front of me. Said that my music ‘wasn’t in line with what the record company wanted to put out anymore.’ Span some story about management or something. Just said that, then walked out the door, wishing me luck. Yeah, right,” finished Vinyl, her face souring, “I’ll show her.”
“Vinyl,” began Octavia, wrapping a hoof around Vinyl, “remember what happened the last time you made a song while you were angry?”
“It went platinum faster than anything and was a massive commercial success because everypony could feel my anger through the music?” muttered Vinyl, and Octavia paused.
“Very well, that’s a bad example. Do you know what happened the last time I tried to write a song while angry?”
“You don’t get angry, Octy. You drink tea,” said Vinyl, a hint of a smile flitting across her face.
“Okay, also a bad example,” conceded Octavia, finally getting a proper smile from Vinyl, “My point, Vinyl, is that nothing good will come of you acting out of anger now. Take a few days. Calm down, and if you still feel like you need revenge on Bottom Line, you can go about it...mostly rationally. You are still a fantastic musician, Vinyl, recording contract or no.”
Vinyl Scratch took a few deep breaths in and out, calming herself somewhat.
“Yeah, thanks Octy. Guess I lost my head for a minute there.” Octavia smiled at her friend.
“Do not worry about it too much. Your reaction, given the circumstances, and how much you have been looking forwards to this, was understandable.”
“Still can’t believe that she just dropped me like that, though. I’ve never done anything bad for the company. This was going to be my first actual paid-for legit album, Octy!”
[Time]
“Oh well,” muttered Vinyl, getting up from the couch and heading for her room, “I’m gonna go and burn some stress off.”
Trixie internally winced as the top of the door hit the bell, causing it to tinkle, and attracting the attention of the owner of the store. It may as well have been her death bell, with how her week was going so far.
“Just a minute!” called the melodious voice from within the shop, and Trixie fidgeted in the circular room, surrounded by ponyquins that seemed oddly imposing now. She knew she was being ridiculous and a bit paranoid, but that pink pony had thoroughly freaked her out yesterday. The sound of hooves on the wooden floor of the dress shop reached Trixie’s ears, and that voice began to speak again, as the white unicorn whose name currently escaped Trixie trotted into view.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique and oh. It’s you,” said the unicorn, her voice falling flat as she saw Trixie, “Come with me, Trixie.” Trixie followed the dressmaker through the main floor of the shop and into the attached ground floor kitchen.
“Tea?” said Rarity, as Trixie nodded, and sat herself down at the table. “Now, you have undoubtably had a rough week. I have heard that Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie Pie have already given you the standard ‘Hurt our friend, and we hurt you’ speech.” A cup of tea, still steaming hot, was floated over and came to rest in front of Trixie.
“Trixie demands you get on with it, then. She has places to be,” said Trixie, stirring in a spoon of sugar to her tea, as Rarity sat down opposite Trixie.
“My ‘speech’ will be a little different, Trixie. You see, Twilight, though she will never admit it to you, has a crush, you might say, on me. She believes that she is in love with me, though it is very much a private belief of hers. It has made things terribly awkward sometimes, given little Spikey-Wikey’s feelings for me as well. Now, I do not reciprocate either of their feelings, but you should know this if you intend to date Twilight,” Rarity took a sip of her own cup of tea, and then continued on, “I am the mare that at least some of Twilight wants, Trixie. You are perhaps what she actually needs. Even if you two dating does not work out, Twilight needs an intellectual equal, and I wish all the best for the two of you. However, if you break her heart on purpose, Trixie Lulamoon,” Rarity’s horn lit up and grasped a wine glass that had been sitting on the bench, perhaps for this very conversation, floating it towards Rarity. The dressmaker’s magical field gripped the wine glass hard enough and shattered it into a thousand shiny sharp fragments.
“You will find that throughout my adventures as an Element Bearer, I picked up more than fashion inspiration,” said Rarity, the glass shards whirling around her, a miniature tornado of magic, glass and reflected light. Trixie could only watch on, shell-shocked by the pure venom in Rarity’s voice. And then, as fast as it had appeared, the mare’s demeanour changed, back to a cheerful manner, though Trixie could still see the hardness lurking in Rarity’s eyes.
“As you may have gathered, Trixie, we are rather protective of Twilight. She is still socially naive in so many ways, especially in things like matters of the heart.”
[TIME]
Trixie lifted her tea, and drank it. She barely tasted it as she drained the cup, placed it back on the saucer and stood up.
“If that is all, Trixie will take her leave now.” Without waiting for a reply, Trixie trotted out to the door, and exited the Boutique. Once outside, she bolted for the Golden Oaks library, the only thought in her head being ‘Twilight has some scary friends’.
Back in the boutique, Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin.
“I wonder if I laid it on a bit thick with the wine glass?” she mused aloud.
“Nah!” said Pinkie Pie, poking her head out of one of Rarity’s cupboards, “I thought that bit was fantastic!”
Celestia awoke to the sounds of thunder crashing, and the gentle pitter-patter of rain on the stonework of Canterlot Castle, and sighed. It was the middle of the night, and she had obviously been woken by the storm outside. Satisfied with this explanation, she rolled over, facing away from her window, as the intermittent flashes of lightning could keep her awake longer than she wanted, and closed her eyes.
Ten minutes later, Celestia threw back her covers, and slid off the bed.
‘Perhaps a snack will help me sleep,’ she thought, crossing the plush carpet of her room, and exiting her room. She would forgoe her regalia for this, as there was no need for it this late at night, while her sister Luna was still technically ruling. Likely, though, the Night Princess would be deep in reverie by now, her court finished for the night, and she would be dreamwalking, helping out their little ponies in their sleep.
As Celestia exited her chambers, she was immeditately struck with how empty the caste was at night. Her hoofsteps echoed down the long corridors of the castle, the vaulted ceilings were dark and oddly foreboding. The flashes of lighting, followed by the rolls and rumbles of the ensuing thunder, along with the occasional swoop of a shadow crossed over the various stained-glass windows showed that the night shift pegasi were still looking after the storm, containing and directing the fury of the storm clouds.
Celestia reached the door to the throne room, and noted that it was ajar. That door was never like that. It was either all the way open, or all the way shut. Curious, Celestia gave the door a light nudge with one hoof, and was surprised when the large, hollow metal door began to swing out on perfectly oiled hinges. Even constructed as they were, the door would never have opened from a simple touch such as that. It required two unicorns to open the doors, as the weight of them was too much for a single unicorn to handle, unless they were Twilight Sparkle, of course.
As she expected, the room was empty, but that sparked another question in the mind of the eldest alicorn sister. Why had the door been partially open in the first place? The normal guards were very thorough about their duties, and always made sure that the doors were closed before their shifts ended.
Of course, that was when a bolt of dark blue magic lanced out from across the darkened throne room, crashing into Celestia’s barely-constructed magical shield with a noise like the clanging of a bell. In the next flash of lightning, Celestia caught sight of the glowing, slitted eyes, and the fangs that could only mean one pony.
“Nightmare Moon,” intoned Celestia, and as the lightning flashed again, the infamous villain stepped fowards.
“Celestia, how good of you to drop by,” said Nightmare Moon, her voice oozing with malice and venom. “I’ve been doing some thinking, you see. I cannot hope to create eternal night, and rule over Equestria all by myself, so I decided to get some help, as it were.”
Celestia barely got the chance to brace as two beams of dark purple and a sickly red slammed into her golden shield from opposite sides of the room. But Celestia was strong, and she managed to reinforce her shield enough that it held under the onslaught of power.
[TIME]
As the lightning flashed again, two more figures stepped into view.
“Twilight, Cadance,” said Celestia, “Get away! Reject the Nightmare’s hold! Do not give into the temptations it offers!”
“Celestia,” began Nightmare Moon, “Have you met my new co-rulers yet? How rude of me. This is Nightmare Dusk,” the pony that had been Twilight Sparkle bowed, a mocking smile on her face, baring her fangs, “and this is Nightmare Lust.” The corrupted Cadance smiled, her slitted eyes twinkling with anticipation.
“And now, we must be doing away with you. Goodbye, Celestia,” said Nightmare Moon, as all three summoned up their power, and struck.
It was a lazy summer’s evening, the exact kind that Big Macintosh liked. The air was warm, but not sweltering, and there was a cool breeze flowing over the orchard and a few scattered clouds, remnants of the day’s weather, floated listlessly overhead. He could hear the birds singing their evening songs as the sky moved from blue into a shade of orange, and he moved from tree to tree, bucking in a ceaseless rhythm, the apples falling neatly into the pre-placed baskets. Gathering up the filled baskets, he stacked them in the waiting cart, and moved to the next tree, and gave it a firm buck with one of his hind legs.
“Whoa! Oof!” Big Mac turned. Apples didn’t yell, and he discovered a blue pegasus mare had landed in one of the baskets, her mane and tail striped with all colours.
“You here for Applejack, Rainbow?” asked Big Mac, as Rainbow levered herself out from the basket.
“Nah,” said Rainbow, “I was just...nevermind. I’ll leave now.”
Big Mac just stared at Rainbow Dash, waiting until either the pegasus left or said what was on her mind.
“Alright, I was just thinking,” Rainbow finally relented, “It’s not sometime I do a lot. I’m not an egghead like Twilight, but all this stuff with the Equestria Games it’s...it’s got me thinking about stuff I don’t normally think about.”
Big Macintosh blinked, a silent command for Rainbow to keep talking, as he picked up the apples that had missed the baskets due to Rainbow falling in them first.
“It’s like this,” began Rainbow, “I’ve never really questioned why I’m like I am. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love flying, and pulling tricks in the air, and pushing for that little bit more, but what I don’t get is why I’m just so much better than everypony else. Sure, I train everyday, but I know ponies who train way, way harder than me, and still aren’t as fast.” Rainbow picked up an apple that had rolled by her foot, and offered it to Big Mac, who simply shook his head, telling Rainbow that it was hers, before stacking the baskets onto the cart, and moving to another tree.
“It’s hard to explain,” said Rainbow Dash, taking a bite from the apple, “But when I’m in the air...it’s like the air is talking to me, telling me how to be fast. It always has, ever since I can remember. ‘s why I signed up for the Air Relay team with Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps, not the individual sprint. I know I can win the sprint, so there’s no challenge in it for me.” Rainbow sighed, and sat down. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you about this.”
Big Mac was silent for a while, as Rainbow Dash munched on her apple, then he jerked his head, motioning for Rainbow Dash to follow, and the two moved through the rows of trees until they came to a large, open field, Sweet Apple Acres’ newest plot of land. In the centre of the field was a giant boulder, taller than two ponies standing on top of each other, and wider than three standing side by side. Big Mac walked up to the monolithic peice of rock, planted his front hooves on the ground, and kicked both of his hind legs backwards.
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped as the stone shattered underneath the blow. One minute, the rock was there. The next, it was fit only to be gravel.
“We ain’t that Different, Rainbow,” said Big Mac, turning to face the shell shocked pegasus, “You got the wind talkin’ to you. I got the earth whisperin’ to me. Ever since I c’n remember, I’ve always been strong. Broke more’n a few doors in my time. And sometimes, more than just furniture.” Big Mac left the implications of that hanging in the air for a while.
[Time]
“Took me a while to figure out how to control mah strength. Granny Smith helped. But I know what that’s like, bein’ always better than everypony else, no matter how hard everypony else tries. Applejack, bless her, used to be obsessed with beatin’ me at any contest of strength, but she don’t understand what it’s like when ya got the earth itself tellin’ ya where to hit, just like most other ponies don’t get how you can be so fast cause you got the air tellin’ ya where to go.”
“Hey, Big Mac? Do you ever, you know, wish you didn’t have your strength?”
“Eeyup. Once,” said Big Mac, “You ever wish you weren’t so fast?”
“Once.”
Big Macintosh nodded, and let his thoughts stew for a while.
“Mah father once told me this, Rainbow: ‘Everypony has their talents, but sometimes Equestria decides that one pony needs more than the rest’. T’aint yer fault yer fast, and t’aint mah fault I’m strong. Ain’t nothing we can do about it ‘cept live with it and put our talents to use so everypony benefits. We just gotta learn how to be weak, or how to be slow if we need to.”
“I guess,” muttered Rainbow Dash, taking wing, “Thanks for listening, Big Mac.”
“Eeyup,” nodded Big Macintosh, beginning his slow trot back to the orchard, and Rainbow Dash flew off.
They had to argue. It wasn’t a case of if, but rather when, and when came around on an almost daily basis. Rarity sighed as she sat across from Fluttershy.
“I’m sorry, dear, what were you saying?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if everything was alright with you three. But if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine,” said Fluttershy, fiddling with her tea cup.
“It’s nothing, Fluttershy. Just a lovers’ spat, is all,” Rarity levitated her own cup of tea, and took a long sip of the wonderful brew. But when she lowered her cup and opened her eyes, Fluttershy was staring at her with a rarely-shown intensity.
“Rarity,” began Fluttershy, her soft voice carrying an undercurrent of steel, “you’ve been fighting with Applejack and Rainbow Dash again, haven’t you?” It wasn’t really a question, but Rarity still answered.
“Honestly, that Applejack! Is it so hard for her to learn to wipe her hooves before she comes into the Boutique and track mud everywhere? And would it kill Rainbow Dash to learn to pick up after herself, instead of leaving everything simply scattered over the floor? Is it really too much to ask that when they come over to the Boutique that they follow a few simple rules? Honestly, those two.”
“Rarity,” said Fluttershy, her voice and eyes hard, “go and make up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash right this instant.”
“Okay,” squeaked out Rarity, standing up and leaving Fluttershy to clean up her tea cup. She trotted through the streets of Ponyville, heading for her Boutique, her anger with Rainbow and Applejack slowly returning. As she passed Sugarcube Corner, she could hear Pinkie inside through an open window.
“Don’t be such a massive frowny pants, Applejack!”
“I told ya I don’t want to talk about it, Pinkie,” was Applejack’s reply, evidently in full-blown stubborn farmer mode.
There was a whimper which Rarity should not have been able to hear, and Rarity guessed that Pinkie Pie had pulled out the puppy eyes.
“Fine,” groaned Applejack, “It’s Rainbow Dash. Where that gal gets off leavin’ her stuff scattered all over my room, I will never know. It’s like she don’t care about her stuff. Sure, I ain’t the cleanest pony in town, but I still take care of my things. And Rarity, she’s too afraid of getting any dirt or anythin’ on her to the point of insistin’ that we have to clean the whole house before she’ll come over.”
Knowing that she would be an unwelcome presence, Rarity left Applejack and Pinkie Pie in the bakery, and kept walking home. She managed to avoid the Golden Oaks Library, where Rainbow Dash would undoubtedly be, talking with Twilight. Rainbow did that sometimes, when she needed a more educated opinion, and Rarity could recognise the uncommon amount of sense behind that, especially considering that it had come from Rainbow Dash.
Reaching the Boutique, and knowing that her marefriends would not be back for several hours, Rarity headed up to her inspiration room, and locked herself in for a few hours of creative freedom.
[TIME]
The sun was setting when Rarity heard the door below open and close twice within a few minutes of each other, and sighed to herself. Luckily, Sweetie Belle was having a sleepover with Applebloom and Scootaloo at Scootaloo’s house, so the three didn’t have to worry about her.
Walking downstairs, Rarity was greeted with angry glares from both of her marefriends, and she gave one right back at them, and then the shouting began.
They had to argue. It was the only way the three could ever settle their differences-they were all far too competitive in their own ways for anything else to work.
Of course, they never really told anypony that they actually enjoyed the arguments, and that sometimes they argued for the sheer sake of what always happened at some point during them.
“And you, Applejack!” yelled Rarity, “Don’t think I’ve forgotten last week! Why, I have half a mind to-mph! Mmm...” Rainbow Dash had pushed forwards, her lips crashing onto Rarity’s, killing all further arguments and conversation, as the two collapsed onto the floor, and
Applejack tossed her hat onto a nearby ponyquin and joined the two.
The arguments were fun, but the make up makeouts were much more so.
I can tell when it’s daytime because I can feel the warmth of the sun on my face.
I can tell when it’s night because I can hear the soft rush of the air.
****
“What’s the news, doctor?”
“It’s utterly remarkable. This filly is a perfect albino, the literal one in a million chance. She has none of the genetic markers for colouration. Her coat is white, as is her mane’s natural colour. But it’s her eyes that I called you here for. They’re extraordinarily sensitive to light, Miss Moon Shimmer.”
“How sensitive are we talking, Doctor?”
“Unless steps are taken, she will be completely blind within a few years. Even with measures in place, she will eventually go completely blind. I’m calling it a minor miracle that she’s survived this long without any significant damage, and I can only assume that perhaps her parents knew a spell to mitigate the damage, but I can’t find any trace of it anywhere.”
“So, what can we do to extend her sight?”
“Keep her room dark-blackout curtains if possible. Don’t let intense beams of light cross her face if her eyes are open. Anything that blocks or reduces light getting into her eyes. You will also want to get her somepony to start teaching her how to navigate while blind now. From what few records we have, most albinos can live a normal life by simply wearing tinted glasses, but your charge seems to have a rather extreme case.”
“I see. Thank you. Is there anything else?”
“No, Miss Shimmer. Aside from that, she’s remarkably healthy.”
*****
I can tell when there’s a thunderstorm coming in because I can feel the magic building in the air.
I can tell when it’s rained because I can smell the freshness of the earth.
*****
“And how are we today, Miss? Still got your sight?”
“Yeah. I mean, there’s times where I have to squint to see stuff on the board, and everything goes blurry sometimes, but I can still see.”
“Excellent. And are you still keeping up with your navigation exercises?”
“Yeah. Twice a week, I put a blindfold on and walk ‘round the orphanage. Figured out that I can use my magic to help me find my way, so that’s gotten easier.”
“Well done. Now, I’m sure you remember this from your last visit, but I’m just going to probe your eyes, and get a sense of how much damage has been caused, so if you want to lie down on the bed, I’ll get the lights.”
“Got it, doc.”
“Hmm. Well, I can report that at the moment, the damage appears minor, but it is progressing. Everything we’ve been doing has been helping, but unfortunately, I can’t do anything else for you now.”
“Seriously, doc?”
“I told you that everything we were doing was just a delaying tactic, to give you enough time to finish school with your sight intact, and maybe a few years after, but unfortunately, your condition is irreversible.”
“I got it, doc. Thanks anyway.”
“Would you like a lollipop, miss?”
“... yes please.”
*******
I can tell when it’s time to party because I can taste the anticipation in the air.
I just can’t see.
*******
“Doc, I can’t see colours!”
“Ah. It appears that you’ve reached the final stages. Your eyes have been damaged enough that they can no longer register colours. I’d estimate, given your habits, that you have maybe six months left before your vision finally gives out. I am sorry that we couldn’t do more for you.”
“...you got any suggestions, doc?”
“Yes. Find a close friend, one you can trust, to act as your eyes when you need them. Somepony who can read signs and paper where you cannot. You’ve proven to me that you can navigate without your eyes just fine. Of course, my full professional recommendation is that you retire, and find a place where you can be properly taken care of, but knowing you, you’ll just ignore me on that.”
“Well, I guess this will be the last time I’ll be seeing you, doc.”
“Don’t say...oh, very clever, Miss Scratch. Good luck.”
“Don’t need it.”
******
[TIME]
My eyes are open, but all I see is black.
That’s okay, though.
I can feel the pulse of the world.
I can hear the pounding of the drums.
I can taste the anticipation, and smell the sweat and cider on the air.
My magic’s ready. I’m ready.
Who needs eyes anyway?
Not me.
My name is Vinyl Scratch, and I’m blind.
But that’s fine, because I’m about to blow your mind the only way I know how.
Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane shoved the last of the clouds into place, forming a blanket of thick and dark cloud cover over Ponyville. Rainbow looked out over the tops of the clouds, seeing the rest of the weather team putting the finishing touches on the snowstorm that they’d been constructing.
One by one, various parts of the team began to sound off that their tasks were complete, and soon enough, the storm was ready. Rainbow raised her hoof, and every pegasus flew a meter upwards, all watching Rainbow for the final hoofsignal. Rainbow let her hoof drop, and twenty pegasi instantly folded their wings, dropping down onto the clouds and starting the storm.
“Alright, nice work guys,” said Rainbow, “That’s basically it for today. You can all go home if you like, but seeing as we now have a nice thick layer of cloud cover...” the team all instantly got what Rainbow Dash was saying, and several pegasi broke off to construct a set of goal posts from some of the leftover cloud. Rainbow herself left the construction of the feild to her team, and shot back down through the cloud layer and the rapidly thickening snowstorm, out to Fluttershy’s house.
Knocking on the door, Rainbow waited. And waited. And then she knocked again, and finally, Fluttershy answered the door.
“Come on, Fluttershy! We need our ref!”
“Oh, is it that time already?”
Rainbow Dash just stared at Fluttershy, her expression flat.
“I’ll just be a minute,” said Fluttershy, a blush rushing across her face with a nervous smile, before she disappeared back into her house. True to her word, Fluttershy emerged out from her house a minute later, a black and white striped shirt draped over her, and a whistle around her neck. Not willing to wait for Fluttershy to try and make it through the cloud cover on her own, Rainbow grabbed Fluttershy, and tore off for the sky, punching through the thick snow clouds, and only pausing briefly to fix the hole that she had made. Two minutes later, the twenty weather patrol members were arrayed in two teams, with Rainbow Dash leading one, and Thunderlane leading the other. Thunderlane’s team were all wearing red head bands, while Rainbow’s team was going without. Fluttershy stood inbetween the two teams, a ball of condensed cloud infused with rainbow under a wing.
“Right. You all know the rules, right?” she asked, and got a wave of nods.
“Okay. Now remember, the referee’s decision is final, and Rainbow Dash, you aren’t allowed to go too fast.” Rainbow grumbled, but nodded.
“Okay. Take positions!” A flutter of wings, and the two teams arranged themselves on top of the snow storm clouds, some flying, some staying on the cloud bank. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane stood near the centre of the field, and Fluttershy walked up to the direct centre, whistle now in her mouth. Taking the cloud ball in her front hooves, she tossed it upwards as far as she could, and then blew her whistle. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane took off at the same time, heading for the ball.
And so began the first game of the Ponyville Weather Patrol Winter Cloudball Season.
Smart Cookie glared at the Unicorns as they stood on the hill where the three tribes were constructing the first town of their new country. It was one thing to say that they were going to cooperate, but it was entirely another to put deeds to words, and there was a great deal of bad blood between the three pony tribes. Still, the unicorns were doing their part, she supposed. Their part just happened to be the planning and intellectual tasks, just as the pegasi’s was keeping the weather good to allow the most construction time each day. Smart Cookie had always been rather tolerant of other ponies, but even she had limits. Her head knew that the Earth ponies were the best suited to the hard, physical tasks that came with building not just a new town, but also an entirely new country. That still didn’t stop her feeling a spike of jealousy and anger everytime one of the unicorns pointed that out and treated them like servants, even if they were immediately reprimanded by Princess Platinum.
Eventually, it seemed that even Princess Platinum had had enough of a group of particularly elitist Unicorns.
“Right!” Smart Cookie heard her scream from where the Earth Pony was getting ready to haul her next load. “If you think that you’re so much better than them, you can go and help them! And no magic!” Smart Cookie allowed herself a vindicated smile as the group of four unicorns approached her, and asked what they would be doing.
“Well,” she began, unhitching herself from the cart that she had been pulling, “I reckon the two of you can pull this here wagon. Just pull it to the top of the hill, empty it, and come back down to over there,” Smart Cookie motioned with her hoof as she helped the two unicorn stallions get hitched into the cart. “Get the wagon filled again, and repeat the whole thing.”
“For how long?” asked one of the stallions.
“Until sun-down or there’s nothing else to haul, whichever comes first.” Leaving the two stallions to their task, she beckoned to the other two unicorns to follow, and they arrived at the quarry where the stone for the town was being mined out by teams of earth ponies.
“You two can be helping your friends on the wagon, I reckon. When they get back here, you shovel this here gravel into their cart until it’s full. And while you’re waiting for them to get back, you can help keep the piles of rock organised, I reckon.”
With the tasks assigned to the unicorns, Smart Cookie wandered over to help out the breaking teams. Perhaps she wasn’t as nice to the unicorns because they were still ground-bound, and they didn’t have to deal with all the rocks. Still, this was a vital part of the building process. Houses didn’t crop up from nothing, and the closest available resource had been stone.
[Time]
Even so, Smart Cookie was pretty sure that by the end of this, she was never going to want to have to haul or even see another rock again.
‘Rocks,’ she thought, as she gripped the end of a rope tied to a massive boulder and began to pull, slowly inching the monolithic peice of stone over to the breaking area, ‘why did it have to be rocks that we built our new town with?’
“She’s the strongest pony I ever knew,” said Twilight, before pausing for a moment. “Well, at least, she was.” The room was decked out in swathes of colour at Twilight’s friends insistence, despite the sombre atmosphere, and all the bright colours did little to alleviate it. It weighted heavily over everypony in the room, pressing down in an inexorable and slow crush, and Fluttershy had already broken, sobbing into her kerchief as Pinkie Pie, her mane hanging straight for once, hugged the animal caretaker, and tears were already leaking from the pink pony’s own eyes. Rarity appeared to be barely holding back her own tears, and Applejack had taken her hat off and was holding it against her chest, her eyes closed.
“When I first arrived in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash told me that she could clear a sky in ten seconds flat, and that she would never leave Ponyville hanging. In her final acts, she put deeds to words, and demonstrated that she was truly a paragon of loyalty. Nopony expected that Wild Storm to show up, or that it would develop so quickly. But Rainbow Dash never hesitated for one minute, and she dived right in, not willing to let anypony else risk the storm.”
Sitting next to the four of Twilight’s friends was a selection of the Wonderbolts, including Spitfire, all in full dress uniform, holding silent and still, though Twilight could make out a few tears glistening at the edge of Soarin’s eyes.
“Rainbow Dash’s final Sonic Rainboom dispersed the storm before anypony else could get hurt. Unfortunately, the storm claimed Rainbow before she could land,” Twilight paused to wipe a tear from her own eye. “Thank you. Would anypony else like to speak?”
As Twilight stepped down from the podium, Spitfire stepped up, causing a murmur to run though the hall. Spitfire took a moment to clear her throat, and glanced down at the open casket, where Rainbow Dash was resting, a small, content smile on her face, and her wings folded against her sides, though even from that position, Spitfire could see where the lightning had struck. Turning back to face the gathered audience of ponies, Spitfire sighed.
“Rainbow Dash was one of the most promising cadets the Wonderbolts have ever seen, on par with Firefly herself, and her strength in her flight was only surpassed by the strength of her will and conviction. Shortly before she tackled this rouge storm, she was put through a practice tryout in preparation for her actual one, which would have been four months from now. As she is no longer able to take this, it is only fitting that I present it now.” Spitfire unrolled a scroll on the podium.
“By the power invested in me as Captain of the Wonderbolts, I, Spitfire declare that Rainbow Dash shall be posthumously accepted into the Wonderbolts, in light of her stellar performance both at the Wonderbolt Academy of Advanced Flight, and during preparation for her tryout.” Spitfire produced a golden pin, only given to Wonderbolts, and gingerly placed it on Rainbow Dash’s chest in the coffin.
“On a more personal note, in light of Rainbow Dash’s attitude and because of several remarks that she made during the final few training sessions, The Wonderbolts, both as individuals and as a whole, will be making a concerted effort to change some of our behaviours. Thank you.”
After Spitfire’s speech, nopony else dared to step up, and with that, the ceremony was declared concluded.
[Time]
*****
Spitfire sat in her office, her hooves mindlessly stamping her seal of approval on various bits of paperwork. Though she would never admit it to anypony, Rainbow Dash’s death had hit her particularly hard. The young flier was practically a shoe-in for Wonderbolt Captain one day. Or at least, she had been. Rainbow Dash reminded Spitfire of why she had wanted to join the Wonderbolts in the first place: the sheer, unbridled joy of flight, of being the best at what she could do and working with others to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
There was a knock at the door, and Spitfire called out for the pony to enter. It was only the mailpony, a blue mare with her hat covering most of her mane, and a pair of sunglasses over her eyes, presumably to protect her eyes from the sun’s glare this high up.
The mail mare plonked a bundle of letters on Spitfire’s desk, and left the office as Spitfire sorted through the letters.
Spitfire went back to the plain envelope, and studied it carefully. There were no identifying markings, nothing to identify where the letter was from. Cautiously, she opened it. After nothing happened, Spitfire pulled out the letter, and something else fell out: a Wonderbolt Pin.
‘Thanks,’ began the letter, ‘But I’d rather earn one the right way, you know? Also, nice speech.’
There was no signature, but there didn’t need to be, and Spitfire suddenly realised exactly who the mail mare had been, and she tore out of her office.
As she flew back down to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash cackled.
As had been her habit for years, Octavia awoke with the rising of the morning sun, as the light shone through the windows, and striking Octavia’s face, serving as the most reliable alarm clock in the world. Sitting up and stretching out her legs with a pleasant groan, Octavia allowed herself a few minutes to simply relax in bed, as the morning sun warmed her body.
Rolling off her bed, Octavia remade the bed and headed out to the kitchen of the apartment that she and Vinyl Scratch shared. Vinyl was still asleep, as Octavia expected she would be. The only time that Vinyl would be awake at dawn was if she had never gone to bed in the first place. Fortunately, that was not the case today, which worked in Octavia’s favour.
Usually, Octavia liked to start her day with a short practice on her cello, but she had a great deal to do today if it was all going to go well, and she wouldn’t have time.
“Oh well,” Octavia muttered to herself, “I suppose I shall simply have to make do without. Now, where did I put it...” Octavia moved back into her room, and found what she was looking for; a thin folder, containing a few sheets of paper. Placing it into her much abused pair of saddlebags, along with her bit pouch, Octavia slipped out of the apartment and into the cool morning sunlight.
Octavia always thought that the streets of Canterlot showed their true beauty this early in the morning, as the lightening sky reflected of the white stone that formed the roads and houses around her, tinting the city shades of red, pink and yellow. Shadows were long and angular, and Octavia hummed the Morning Mood from the Pony Gynt Suite as she trotted through the empty streets towards the Royal Castle. As she approached the castle, Octavia veered off to the side, heading into a short, squat and oddly foreboding building, bearing a sign that declared it to be ‘Canterlot Town Hall’. In truth, it wasn’t so much a town hall as a form processing centre, and as she pushed open the door, Octavia switched to humming the finale from the Pony Gynt Suite. It seemed oddly fitting.
As usual, the pony behind the front desk was an Earth Pony, with a cutie mark of two coins.
“Money Penny, I do hope I’m not too early,” said Octavia, as she fished out the folder from her bags. Money Penny simply laughed.
“Of course not, Octavia. I would imagine that you would like this processed as quickly as possible?”
“Indeed. If possible, I would like to pick up the approval and the notices by lunch time, though at the latest I could manage four PM.”
Money Penny nodded. “I will personally see that this is rushed through.”
Octavia let out a sigh of relief.
“I know that I did spring this on you rather suddenly, Money Penny, but it was a hasty idea.”
“Nonsense,” replied Money with a wink, “Anything for the ones you love, am I right?”
“Money, how many times do I have to tell you, Vinyl and I are not romantically involved, and we likely never will be,” said Octavia, a long-suffering sigh escaping her throat, “we are both concentrating on our professional lives, and do not have time for any relationship beyond friends.”
“Whatever you say, dear. Come back around midday, and I should have this processed for you.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Money Penny,” said Octavia, heading out of the building, and back into the morning sunlight.
[Time]
After her business at the Town Hall had been concluded, Octavia strode through the slowly filling streets of the royal city, heading for the record shop that both herself and Vinyl frequented to pick up a prearranged order. With the sun well on its trek across the sky by now, and the beauty of the morning fading, Octavia stopped by a cafe to have a brief meal before her next stop.
The Canterlot Orphanage held a lot of memories for Octavia, and it was always hard for her to see the building slowly falling into disrepair, even with the efforts of the two matron sisters and the older fillies and colts who lived there. Knocking on the door, she was greeted by a small army of fillies and colts, each of whom desperately wanted to play with her.
“Now, young ones, I won’t be here for long, unfortunately,” said Octavia, and a chorus of disappointed voices rose up, “I need to pick up that wonderful art project that you’ve all been working on.” Instantly, the fillies and colts brightened, and they dashed off to recover something. They were back before Octavia could count to ten, and draped a large cloth bundle over her back.
“Now, you all be good little fillies and colts, and Vinyl and I will see if we can stop by, Okay?” the children cheered, and a smile spread across Octavia’s face as she left.
A stop by the Town Hall after that revealed that Octavia’s request had been approved, and the cellist picked up everything that she needed, before heading to Vinyl’s nightclub, of all places.
Her DJ roommate was there already, as was her habit, setting up for the party that night.
“Heya, Octy. What you got there?”
“Oh, just a little something I thought you might appreciate,” said Octavia, hoofing over the record and the notice from the Town Hall.
“Octy, you...you got me permission to break the noise ordinances tonight? You are the best friend ever!” There were tears in Vinyl’s eyes, and then Octavia unrolled the bundle that she’d picked up from the Orphanage, revealing it to be filled with messages of ‘Happy Birthday Vinyl’ from all the ponies in the orphanage.
“This...this is the best birthday present ever, Octy. Thank you.”
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadence, or The Greatest Foalsitter in the History of Foalsitters (Cadence was particularly proud of that title), was something of a conundrum in Equestria. Her domain, Love, was obvious to all, but her role in the Equestrian Diarchy was less so. However, as Cadence and her husband Shining Armor lived in Canterlot, the pink princess was a frequent sight around the districts of Canterlot, and to the uppity nobles, a visitation from Princess Cadence was almost as good as a royal seal of approval, especially as Cadence was a far more frequent shopper than Princess Celestia or Princess Luna.
As Cadence walked down the streets of Canterlot, enjoying the beautiful day, she could hear the normal sounds of life in the Royal City- birds were singing, merchants and shopkeepers were calling out, hoping to attract her attention, and Cadence could hear arguing.
Turning off her previous path, Princess Cadence found the source of the disturbance sitting outside a cafe. The two ponies involved were a grey earth mare, a pink bow tie wrapped around her throat and a cutie mark of a treble clef, and a white unicorn with a two-toned blue mane, a set of purple glasses over her eyes and a cutie mark of two bridged notes.
“Hey,” began the unicorn of the pair, “we went to the Canterlot ball last year, so it’s my turn to pick, and I say we’re going to go down to Ponyville this year!”
“Vinyl, as...charming as Ponyville is, everypony who lives there is certifiably insane!”
“Hey, Pinkie Pie is my friend, and she lives in Ponyville!”
“That’s only proving my point!”
Cadence’s horn lit up as she watched the two ponies continue to argue, and two halves of a heart popped out from the end. Unknown to Cadence, several ponies had gathered behind her, or stopped their tasks to watch the results of cadence’s magic. Maybe this would finally get Vinyl Scratch and Octavia to finally admit that they were in love with each other. With a flash, the heart reformed between Octavia and Vinyl, and the small crowd, and Cadence, held their breaths.
Octavia let her next rebuttal die on her tongue as she felt the magic fizzle out without doing anything, and the cellist looked at Vinyl, who simply raised her left eyebrow twice, and gave the smallest of head bobs. Interpreting the message, Octavia looked out from the corner of her eye, spotting Princess Cadence, and the small crowd that had gathered behind the Princess, all waiting expectantly. Thanks to Octavia’s obsession with playing a Royal Wedding (which the cellist still hadn’t fully forgiven Vinyl for stealing), the two were very much aware of the Princess’s talent.
Octavia let her eyes fall into a flat stare. Vinyl raised her left eyebrow once, glanced down at the table, and then bobbed her horn in Cadence’s direction. Octavia blinked twice, and let her mouth curl into the smallest of smiles. Both ponies placed their hooves on top of the table, and leaned in towards each other.
Cadence couldn’t understand why her magic was taking so long; it had normally taken effect by now. Upon seeing the two ponies begin to lean into each other, Cadence let out a small sigh of relief. It must have simply been a big argument, and Cadence turned to continue on her way.
“Just because Pinkie Pie lives there doesn’t make it a crazy town!”
“They live next to the Everfree Forest, Vinyl! Willingly!” Cadence jerked, and whipped her head around. Sure enough, the couple was continuing their argument, even more angry than before.
“Yeah? You wear a bow tie willingly!”
“That was a terrible insult, Vinyl!”
“Your mother is terrible!” Desperate to stop the fight before it devolved into violence, Cadence fired up her horn once more, putting more power behind the spell.
Once more, Octavia felt the spell fail as the magic washed over her, and she winked at Vinyl. The crowd began to dissapate, disappointed that Cadence’s magic hadn’t elicted the desired response from the two musicians.
“Oh, you did not go there,” she said, “You want it like that, Vinyl? You’ll get it like that.”
[Time]
Cadence trudged away from the cafe, head down. She was unsure why her magic had failed to help the couple overcome their differences, because something like this had never happened before. She felt a pony walk up on each side of her.
“Hey,” said a voice, and Cadence looked up to see the unicorn from the arguing couple beside her. “Hope we didn’t get you down too much with our little joke. Join us for lunch?”
“Vinyl!” said the pony on Cadence’s other side, and the Princess twisted to see it was the grey earth pony. “That’s hardly any way to talk to royalty! I do apologise for my friend. She’s a bit crass, but she generally means well,” continued the mare, addressing Cadence, “Would you like to join us so that we can explain why we think your magic failed?”
****
“So, you two aren’t dating? Not even romantically involved?” asked Cadence.
“Nope,” said Vinyl, “Don’t you have some kind of shipping sense or something that tells you stuff like that?”
“You see, Princess,” began Octavia, “it’s an ongoing problem of ours. Everypony, and I do mean that quite literally, is convinced that the two of us are in a relationship, or in denial about it at the very least.”
“But...what about all the insults?”
“Octy and I grew up together, Princess. We know that we don’t really mean it.”
“Race me,” demanded Lightning Dust as she skidded to a stop in front of Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Rainbow glanced from side to side as Lightning Dust advanced on her.
“I’m not sure that that’s a good idea, Lightning. It’s not going to end well.”
“Don’t care. Race me. Fast as you can.” Lightning Dust was pushing into Rainbow Dash’s personal space, and it was clear to the Element of Loyalty that the only way out that Lightning Dust would accept was a race. And if Rainbow purposely threw the race, Lightning would simply demand another one until she got what she wanted: a true deciding race between herself and Rainbow Dash, both flying at full speed. Rainbow sighed.
“Fine. One race. From here to Cloudsdale and back. Twilight, do you mind giving us a start?”
“Sure, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight, and took up position just to the side of the two crouching racers.
“You said as fast as we can go, right Lightning Dust?”
“Yes. No holding back.”
“Okay,” said Rainbow, “just checking.”
“Three,” said Twilight, “Two. One. Go!” Lightning tore off, and Rainbow remained crouching for a few seconds. As Twilight was about to ask what Rainbow was doing, her friend took off, and the moment that Rainbow got beyond the highest building in Ponyville, she shattered the sound barrier.
*****
Lightning Dust landed back in front of Rainbow Dash with a puff of dirt and a scowl on her face.
“What the hay was that!?”
“It’s called a Sonic Rainboom, Lightning. I’m the only pegasus alive who can do them.”
“You must have just gotten lucky! Again!”
“Yes,” muttered Twilight under her breath, “because there is no way that a pegasus flying faster than sound itself could ever beat anything else in the sky.”
“Lightning Dust, you asked for my full speed. You got it,” said Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust growled, and took off again, flying away at top speed, and Rainbow Dash got ready to go after her, but was stopped by Twilight’s hoof.
“I think you’re the last pony she wants to see right now. I’ll see if I can find her once she stops moving.”
****
Twilight Sparkle appeared with a flash just inside the Everfree Forest, and immediately looked up.
“Hello, Lightning Dust.”
“What do you want? And how the buck did you know I was here?”
Twilight smiled, “I want to help, Lightning Dust. As for your second question, you’re remarkably similar to Rainbow Dash. She does the same thing when she gets upset.” Twilight heard a body shifting in the canopy of the trees.
“Just leave me alone. Go back to the best flyer in Equestria. You don’t need a second-rate hack like me.”
Twilight frowned in thought for a while, before getting an idea.
“Why are you so obsessed with beating Rainbow Dash, anyway?”
“I’m not.”
“You flew in, challenged her to a race, and from what I’ve heard about the Wonderbolt Academy, you constantly pushed yourself and measured yourself against her. You’re obsessed with beating her. Why?”
“Because she’s not like I thought she would be!” cried out Lightning Dust, sticking her head out from the foliage, her chest heaving.
[Time]
“Care to explain that?” asked Twilight, now that the dam had been broken.
“It was at summer flight camp. I was there the year after the first supposed Sonic Rainboom, and all the instructors used Rainbow Dash as an example of this fantastic flier. Over time, I guess I built up this image of her as this confidant pegasus who always won her races, and I...I idolised her, okay! Me, who was only tipped as a Grade 4 flier. Everypony in flight camp talked about how Rainbow Dash entered the Grade 1 race at the end of Flight camp, and won the whole thing, so I did the same. I didn’t win, but I came third, and that’s when I got my cutie mark.” Lighting Dust dropped out of the tree, and showed her mark, a lightning bolt pointing down at three stars.
“I think I get it, Lightning Dust,” said Twilight, “you had this image of Rainbow Dash, and now you’re trying to match that image with what you know she’s like, and it’s causing this mental conflict in you, and so now you think that she isn’t as good as you thought she was. But the problem is that Rainbow Dash is still that good a flier, and you’re simply projecting your differences in morals and ethics and general personality onto your difference in skills, because you have, on some subconscious level, realised that your attitude is wrong, and that Rainbow Dash is the better pony.”
“What?” asked Lightning Dust, and Twilight resisted the urge to slap a hoof into her face.
“You’re a jerk, and Rainbow Dash isn’t, and still manages to be a better flier than you. Think about it for a while,” said Twilight, teleporting away and leaving Lightning Dust with her thoughts.
“Thank you all for coming and seeing the Great and Powerful Trixie!” called Trixie, as her show ended and the crowd began to disperse. A large portion of the crowd put a few bits into Trixie’s hat, which she had placed at the edge of the stage as her show had concluded. Sighing, Trixie moved back behind the curtain that served as her backdrop, took off her hat and cloak, and activated the spell on the cart that folded it back up again. She exited the wagon via the back door, and moved around to the front, where the harness was waiting, almost expectantly.
It was the work of a moment for Trixie to hook herself up, and shortly after, she was trotting out of the small hamlet, heading back to her hometown, and the completion of her tour of Equestria.
****
Trixie unhitched herself at the top of the hill, chocking the wagon’s wheels. Fillydelphia, her hometown, was splayed out below her. Taking a moment to breath in the air of her home, and gagging as she took in the air that had drifted from over the seaweed farms and processing, she rubbed a hoof along the outside of the wagon’s wall.
“Well,” she said, “Time to say goodbye.” And with that, Trixie poured as much power as she could into her horn, and shot a beam of pure magic at the wagon, blasting it to peices. She had already pulled everything important from the wagon, which was really just her cape, hat and bit pouch. Then, Trixie switched from brute force magic to more finessed tactics, and used levitation to keep pulling the wagon apart, eventually leaving it as little more than a pile of wood.
Screwing up her eyes in concentration, Trixie then performed the hardest spell she knew. A spark floated from her horn, and landed on the wood. It instantly caught on fire, and Trixie stayed and watched until the fire had died down, taking care that it didn’t burn anything else by accident. There was a small lake nearby, and Trixie levitated some water from it to make sure that the ash pile was not going to light up once more.
Once that was all done, Trixie began to trot down the hill and into Fillydelphia, heading straight for the carpenter’s where she had gotten her last wagon, the wagon before that, and the one before that. She was already planning her next show as she walked through the town.
‘Maybe a magical theatre? Trixie has not done that yet. But then the issue is what story to tell,’ thought Trixie, pushing open the door to the carpenter’s workshop.
“Trixie needs a new wagon!” she declared to the shop owner, and dumped her sack of bits on the counter.
“Right,” said the carpenter, “same arrangement as last time?”
Trixie nodded.
“You gotta preference for a layout this time?”
“Trixie is going to be doing a magical theatre this time, and her wagon should be appropriate for this.”
“Right,” drawled the carpenter, “I’ll get some plans drawn up.”
Trixie nodded, and headed out the door. She did this every time she finished a tour of Equestria-she headed home, destroyed her wagon, and had another one built before heading back out again, applying what she had learnt on the next round. The only thing that she ever kept constant was herself.
“Why so glum, my student?” said Celestia, as she stood on the streets of Ponyville, “Are you not happy that your quest is complete, and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?”
“I guess,” said Twilight, her eyes flicking over to her newfound friends for a moment, “but...no, it’s nothing, Princess. I’d like to go home now. Just give me a minute to say goodbye.”
“As you wish, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, and Twilight faced the five ponies who had helped her defeat Nightmare Moon.
“Well, I guess that this is it,” she said.
“You sure you don’t wanna stay here, Twilight?” asked Applejack, and Twilight shook her head, her throat closing up.
“Well I, for one, am not letting you get out that easily, Twilight. I’ll come and see you when I’m in Canterlot, displaying my creations to the nobility there,” declared Rarity, wrapping her forelegs around the purple unicorn, and soon the rest of the ponies had joined in. Staying like that for a few minutes, Twilight just enjoyed the final moments of companionship before boarding the chariot.
“I promise that I’ll write!” called Twilight with a wave back as the chariot soared back towards Canterlot, her mind already switching back to thinking about what she was going to study next. As she turned to face forwards once more, she caught sight of something odd out of the corner of her eye. Had Princess Luna looked like that before? And Twilight was sure that her mane hadn’t looked like a star field a second ago.
“Twilight Sparkle, pay attention to me,” said Luna, and Twilight rubbed her temples with her hooves. It was suddenly very hard to concentrate on anything, and everything seemed to be going out of focus, so she closed her eyes.
“Twilight Sparkle. Look at me. This is not real. Recognise it. This did not happen. You did not leave Ponyville that day. You made friends; you helped me win the approval of Ponyville. Reject what you see!”
That was right, wasn’t it? Had she stayed in Ponyville? She was pretty sure that she had. Twilight opened her eyes and saw Princess Luna standing in front of her on the chariot. A glance out of the side of her eye revealed that Princess Celestia was staring off into the distance, seemingly frozen.
[Time]
Twilight shifted, unnerved by Luna’s constant stare, and that was when she felt something on her back. Twilight glanced over her shoulder, and saw a pair of wings that were not there a minute ago. She gave them an experimental flap, and her eyes shone. That’s right! She remembered that day!
“A true, true friend helps a friend in need...” sang Twilight, and Princess Luna smiled as the world around them collapsed, and Twilight woke up to the sight of Princess Luna standing over her.
****
“Tis fortunate that I was able to recognise what your dreams were a symptom of, Twilight. That was the beginning of a Nightmare.”
“A nightmare?”
“Nay, a Nightmare. As in Nightmare Moon. The creatures who cause them are spirits of darkness, and we call them Nightmares. For some reason, they only target ponies of exceptional skill or power. We are working to exterminate them, but they are undetectable until they begin to twist a pony’s dreams and as such, we have no idea how many are out there. They twist your thoughts, Twilight Sparkle, showing you how things could have been better than they currently are until you believe it. Eventually, you would have degraded into madness as I once did,” said Luna, and with a flash, the Night Princess vanished, leaving only a lingering ‘Stay safe, Twilight Sparkle,’ floating on the air.
Five of the Elements of Harmony gathered outside the Golden Oaks Library, all in various states of worry. Twilight had barely emerged from the literal tree of knowledge since she’d returned from that mirror portal world, simply stating that she ‘didn’t want to talk about it’.
However, the five other Elements knew Twilight well enough to recognise when the recent alicorn was on a research bender, and had long ago learnt that it was often best to just make sure that she kept eating and simply leave Twilight alone until she collapsed from exhaustion. This time was different, though. Normally it was Spike who summoned them to the library when he’d finally had enough of Twilight’s rabid researching, but the messages that had popped in front of them were directly from Twilight.
The messages themselves were also vague. Oddly so, as Twilight loved to share her research with anypony in earshot, regardless if they actually wanted to listen or not. She was working on that. Deciding that there was nothing to do but go into the library and see what Twilight had come up with, Rarity knocked on the door, and got a call to enter.
“Oh, great, you’re all here!” said Twilight, coming into sight from behind a shelf, her coat stained black, and the distinct smell of smoke followed in her wake.
“Twilight, dear, have you been experimenting with pyrokinesis again?” said Rarity, “We did warn you about that, you know.”
“What? Oh, the smoke, and the...yes. Yes, I can see how you would come to that conclusion,” muttered Twilight, “No, this was lunch.”
And just like that, the other five relaxed. Twilight and pyrokinesis didn’t mesh well. For that matter, neither did Twilight and cooking, but at least when she tried to cook it didn’t lead to the destruction of half of Ponyville. Most of the time, anyway.
“So, what did you invite us here for? Is it a party? Huh? Is it Spike’s birthday? Is it your birthday?” said Pinkie Pie, bouncing in place.
“Pinkie, there is no party,” explained Twilight, and Pinkie partially deflated, “I just invited you girls here because I wanted to show you the results of my newest line of research. Come on, I think you’ll all enjoy this.”
Twilight lead them down to the basement of the library, where, set in an alcove off to the side of the main area where Twilight had her Research Station, a crystal matrix floated, glowing with magical power.
“Girls, I present to you the first prototype of the Equestrian Inter-Library Information Network.” A resounding silence permeated the room, until Rainbow Dash broke it.
“The whosit whatsit now?”
“The Inter-Library Information Network,” repeated Twilight, “It’s a magical repository of all the material in the Golden Oaks Library. It magically scans any new books coming into the library, and keeps a magical copy. You can access it through this terminal here,” Twilight motioned to a floating magical screen and a typewriter keyboard, “And if the information is available in the library, it will tell you where the book talking about it is. Isn’t it great? You can have a try, if you like.”
“It’s certainly an interesting concept, Twilight,” said Rarity, while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash moved over to the terminal, and Applejack and Fluttershy decided to look at the floating crystals, “however did you get the hornpower to keep all those spells going?”
“That’s what the crystals are for-they’re acting as both power sources and spell foci. Eventually, if Princess Celestia likes this idea, I can have one of these put into every library in Equestria, and link them all up. Then, if a pony wants to find a book, but it only exists in the Manehatten Library, they can still find it!”
[Time]
As Rarity was about to agree on the usefulness of the idea, Pinkie Pie spoke up.
“Hey, Twilight, what’s this stuff doing on here?” Twilight glanced at the screen, did a double take, immediately blushed and dived to cover the magical screen. Unfortunately, in her haste, Twilight forgot that she couldn’t actually physically interact with the magical construct, and crashed to the floor.
“You okay, Twilight?” asked Rainbow, “What was so...wow. Huh. Never would have pegged you’d be into that. But okay.”
“I’m going to die of embarrassment now,” muttered Twilight from her position on the floor, “and then I need to learn to refine that scanning spell.”
“That’s a wrap!” called the stallion with a cutie mark of a clapboard, and the Mane 6 sighed and relaxed from their final positions. Around them, ponies began pulling set pieces off, taking down lighting and wrapping up cables.
“That’s the last shot for the season, folks! Well done, everyone!” cried out the stallion, “Drinks at Berry Punch’s are on me!” a cheer went up among the staff packing up the set, while Twilight and her friends walked off the set.
“You know,” began Applejack as the six headed off the filming lot, “when Princess Celestia told us ‘bout this, I sure as heck didn’t think it would take so darn long. I got Sweet Apple Acres to look after. And before you start, Rare, I know I got farmhands and my brother and sister, but there’s things on that farm that only I can do.”
“I wouldn’t even dream of it, Applejack. I too, have been worried about my Boutique. I’ve been away from it for far too long. For all the fun we had, I will admit that I am glad that it’s over, though. Perhaps now I can get back to making dresses, instead of all that...drama.”
None of the other ponies could fully suppress the snickers, giggles and in Rainbow Dash’s case, outright laughter that Rarity’s statement drew.
“What? Please, do tell me, what is so funny?”
“Sorry, it’s just you. Being tired of being dramatic,” said Rainbow, managing to push down her laughter while she answered Rarity
“I do have to agree with Rainbow, Rarity,” said Twilight, “you do tend to be very...dramatic, even when you’re not on set.”
“Well I never!”
“Come on, you gotta admit you had fun,” snickered Applejack, “And I sometimes remember that the director had to tell you to turn the drama down, even though you were playin’ yourself.”
“That did happen,” smiled Fluttershy, from her position behind Applejack, “quite a few times.”
Rarity managed to pout and throw a tantrum in complete silence for all of three seconds before she nodded her agreement with Applejack.
“Well, I must be off,” said Rarity as the six reached the gate to the film lot, “I promised that I’d pick Sweetie Belle up from school today if we finished early. Are we still having our usual get-together later this week?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Twilight, her horn beginning to spark and glow in preparation for her teleport home.
“You know it!” said Rainbow Dash, hovering in the air.
“Of course we are, Silly!” grinned Pinkie Pie.
“I’ll be there, as long as you can stand my company, Rare,” said Applejack, pulling on her hat.
“Oh, yes. I’m already looking forward to it,” said Fluttershy, also taking wing.
“Then farewell until then, my friends,” said Rarity, and she began to trot off towards Sweetie Belle’s school. Rarity glanced overhead, and an explosion of colour rocked the sky.
As one, though they wouldn’t figure it out until later, all six friends said the same thing.
It was a calm day in Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, Rainbow Dash was racing around, cleaning up clouds to make up for her waking up late, and it was generally just a nice day in Ponyville.
Of course, this could only mean that everything was going to go horribly wrong, and soon. Indeed, the stirrings of trouble had already begun, and like most days, they had begun in the Golden Oaks library. It was like whoever lived in the Tree of Knowledge was cursed with the bane of an interesting life, and Princess Twilight Amethyst Sparkle II was no exception.
“There was a ripping sound, and abruptly, the scene changed to an expanse of pure white.”
Wait, what?
“Across this expanse of blank canvas trotted a blue pegasus with a brown mane and green eyes, stopping in the dead center, and he stared straight out of the screen and spoke a single word: Hi!”
Are you...narrating?
“Shut up, author. I have things that I need to say, and this time, you can’t stop me.”
You talked to Pinkie Pie, didn’t you? That’s how you’re doing whatever this is.
“...maaybe. Look, you can either help me, or just leave me to do this on my own.”
You know that you’re just a metaphysical avatar of me, right? I’m ignoring what this could mean because if I think about it too hard, my head will probably implode.
“Probably better that way. You have enough trouble thinking as it is.”
Hey! I’m going to remind you that I’m the author here.
“You gonna help or not?”
Fine. But you have to explain how this happened at some point. Okay, I’m ready. Do your thing.
“Right,” said the pegasus, “so anyways, now that that’s taken care of, I have a few things that I’d like to say. Now, how do the Mane 6 do this...ah, right.”
The pegasus cleared his throat, shifted on his hooves and stared straight ahead, and began to speak, his voice steady and clear.
“Dear TMP mods,
I know you’re probably slapping your hands to your faces right now. That’s fine. We ponies, and my author over there who I’m acting as a mouthpiece for right now,” the pegasus made some vague gestures with his front hooves in the general direction of the writer, “do tend to avoid breaking the fourth wall whenever possible, as it leads to bad writing, but this is a particularly dramatic time, and well, it’s not like I would have gotten another chance to do this. But I’m getting off track.”
“I want to say thank you,” continued the pegasus, “thank you for your dedication, for your commitment to this tiny little corner of the internet that has provided inspiration, advice, laughs, feels, and everything in between for ten months of my life. Thank you for taking the time from your lives to run this brilliant blog. Thank you for the comments, on both the bad and the good of my mediocre writings.
“Thank you for making me think as I tried to write as little shipping as possible, and thank you for occasionally giving me no other choice. Thank you for helping me improve. You deserve all of these, and more, as nopony-sorry, no one, asked you to do this. You did it because you wanted to, and I can only hope that maybe you enjoyed some of the stuff I submitted to you guys,” the pegasus smiled, tears beginning to leak from the corners of his eyes.
“I can’t really begrudge you for ending this wonderful blog of yours if there’s more important things in all of your lives that you need to take care of. Go,” said the pegasus, his voice suddenly choked and tight, “take care of whatever stuff you’ve got going on, and as Rainbow Dash would say, never stop being awesome. Because all of you are. And who knows? Maybe we’ll see each other again one day.
“Regards, ThunderTempest.” After he finished speaking, the pegasus simply stood there for a few moments, wiping his eyes with a foreleg.
You okay?
“Aw, I didn’t know you cared.”
You basically are me, you know. You might have said it, but we both feel it.
“Yeah, I know. I guess it was fun while it lasted. Well! I’m going back to that weird place you keep your OC’s when you’re not using them. Try not to get too bad at writing pony stories while I’m gone.”
Just for that, you’re going to be in a dress the next time I write you.
Pinkie Pie was always the last pony in Sugarcube Corner to leave the kitchen when she was working there, and had been ever since the Cakes took her in. Usually, Cup Cake was busy with the twins by that late in the day, and Carrot Cake would be helping her, because the littlest cakes were a cupful of trouble. And all of this was just fine with Pinkie Pie. She knew how important family was to the cakes, and she was always grateful that they’d allowed her to be included in it. But sometimes, Pinkie would look at her pseudo parents, and their kids, and she’d get just the teensiest, tiniest bit jealous. It never lasted long, because Pinke was naturally happy most of the time, but she would look at the Cakes and wonder why she’d never had that with her sisters, or her parents.
All Pinkie could remember from her days on the Pie Family rock farm was endless, joyless grey. She had never once looked back when she’d left, though she still sent letters telling her sisters how she was doing, and they replied sometimes, too. But she did have one fond memory of the Rock Farm- the Cloudy Quartz Special-the rock cakes her mother would bake every Sunday. They were the exact right balance between tough and moist, crunchy and soft and Pinkie could just eat them all day. Even now, as Pinkie Pie finished cleaning up the kitchen in Sugarcube Corner, she could practically smell the rock cakes as they finished cooking over the old-style wood stove, the flakes of granite sinking into the outer layer of the dough, and the powdered sugar being sprinkled over the top, burning on the bits of still exposed rock.
‘Wait a minute,’ thought Pinkie Pie, ‘why can I smell burning sugar?’ Pinkie looked around the kitchen, and found the source of the smell-the oven was still on, and Pinkie had left her latest batch of cupcakes in there. The situation took a moment to make its way through Pinkie’s candy floss wrapped head, but when it did, the baker dived for the handle to the oven door, not bothering with the grip that allowed them to handle the oven without burning themselves. Pinkie Pie yelped in pain as the hot metal singed her coat, and the heat from the oven washed over her. Making sure to grab the gripping tool this time, Pinkie extracted the burnt batch of cupcakes, and sighed.
“Well, there goes another experiment,” muttered Pinkie. The Cakes were fine with Pinkie playing around with baking recipes in her spare time, as more than one had turned out to sell rather well in the shop itself. As long as Pinkie cleaned up after herself, she was free to make use of the kitchen as much as she wanted. And that worked out fine with Pinkie, because she spent a lot of time with the one she loved in the kitchen. They often spent hours together, just baking. And Pinkie’s mother had said that baking was like love: you needed to put care into what you were making, or you’d only get something terrible out. And Pinkie liked to think that she’d put a lot of care into her relationship, and she was sure that her partner felt the same. But today, on this Hearts and Hooves day, she would finally confess her attraction.
****
Twilight Sparkle pushed open the doors to Sugarcube Corner. She was here to get Pinkie Pie for the ‘Singles’ Appreciation Day’ party that Rainbow Dash was putting on, and from what Rainbow had described, it would be a lot of sitting around, eating pizza and talking and generally not being all sappy. Twilight personally couldn’t understand it, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to do other than catalogue a bunch of back issues of Magitech Weekly.
As Twilight made her way through the main floor of the bakery, she could hear Pinkie Pie in the kitchen.
“Oh, yes, I know you’re not that good for me, but it just makes me feel so good. If you’re willing to try and make this work, I am as well,” said Pinkie, “And besides, you make the best cupcakes, ever! Why wouldn’t I like you?” Twilight dashed through the arch to the kitchen, and saw Pinkie Pie make bedroom eyes at the Cake’s industrial oven.
“Oh, you can bake my cake anytime,” purred Pinkie Pie, before she noticed Twilight, “Oh, Hi Twilight!” Twilight just blinked. Then she blinked again. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to summon up the words to elucidate her thoughts.
“Bwah? Glarb,” was what Twilight actually said before her brain entered shutdown mode.
‘TwilightSparkle.exe has encountered a PinkiePie error. Immediate restoration of sanity impossible. Try again when the world makes sense,’ thought Twilight as she stared at Pinkie Pie hugging the massive oven and doing her level best to make out with it. The Magitech magazines were looking more and more appealing to Twilight. At least they would be rational, and she didn’t think that she could ever look at Pinkie Pie the same way again. Or buy anything from Sugarcube Corner again.
“Oh, Twilight, did you come to tell me you want to be my special somepony, because that would be awkward. I’m kinda really sort of totally in love darn it with George here!” Pinkie stood up on her hind hooves, and pointed both of her front hooves at the oven, which promptly dinged.
“Ooh, my hotsauce cake’s ready!”
Another bit of Twilight’s brain broke, and she picked up Pinkie Pie with her telekinesis, and began to leave the bakery, out to a world that actually made sense.
“Sorry, George! I guess we have to break up because Twilight wants to make out with me! It was great while it lasted!” called Pinkie Pie, and Twilight slapped a hoof to her face, and kept walking.
Captain Rainbow Dash sighed as she stood behind the wheel of her airship, desperately wishing something interesting would happen as tufts of cloud drifted by, illuminated only by the faint glow of the full moon overhead. Underneath the deck, she could hear the few ponies that she had on the crew that were still awake bustling about. Pinkie Pie, her munitions expert, was probably asleep, given how few cries of ‘whoops!’ Rainbow could hear.
Sighing once more, Rainbow turned the wheel on the ship, adjusting the course to avoid a potential spot of turbulence, and her wings twitched at the base as a breeze crossed the deck of the Fearless. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow spotted one of the doors leading to below decks open, and Twilight Sparkle emerged from within. The sight of the alicorn drew another sigh from Rainbow. She hadn’t wanted to take on passengers this trip, but the alicorn was paying very generously, and had promised that there would be a significant bonus for Rainbow and her crew at Canterlot, the alicorn’s destination. Resigning herself to the fact that nothing interesting was going to happen, Captain Rainbow Dash partially slumped over the helm as Twilight Sparkle trotted up besides her.
“How goes it, Captain?” asked the alicorn.
“With this wind speed and heading, we’ll reach Canterlot roughly a day ahead of what I guessed. That’s assuming it holds up, though,” replied the pegasus, banking the airship past a particularly thick bank of cloud, “Which I seriously doubt it will.”
As the Fearless finished circling around the mass of cloud, a low hum made itself known to Rainbow Dash’s keen ear, and before Twilight Sparkle could react, Rainbow had dived forward, tackling the alicorn.
“DOWN!” yelled Captain Rainbow Dash, and a second later, a barrage of cannonballs slammed into the side of the Fearless, and the rest of the crew woke up in a hurry.
“All hooves on deck!” yelled Rainbow Dash, “Prepare to retaliate!” Out of the cloud mass, a large platform emerged, all sharp points, and kept aloft by powerful magic crystals. Rainbow also noted the distinct lack of sails, and a second later, the ponies all clothed in black.
“Ninjas,” hissed Rainbow Dash, before reverting to yelling, “Target the support Crystals!”
Below deck, Pinkie Pie danced through the gunnery, directing the ponies on the cannons, and trailing a thin streams of smoke from the lit fuses wound into her mane and tail, awaiting the command from Rainbow to light the cannons and blow the party-pooping ninja out of the sky.
“You cannot escape, Rainbow Dash!” came a voice, echoing across the sky between the platform and the airship, “The crown of Equestria has placed you, and your crew, under arrest for the crime of piracy!”
“Eat my dust, Ninja! FIRE!” bellowed Rainbow Dash, and below deck, Pinkie turned into a whirlwind of smoke and heat, the fuses wound into her mane and tail brushing against and lighting the cannon fuses. A few seconds later, the cannons of the Fearless boomed out their retaliation, and several of the crystals on the platform shattered, causing it to lurch, throwing several of the government ninja off.
“Take that, stupid Ninja!” said Rainbow, climbing back onto her hooves, and making an obscene guesture at the floundering platform.
[Time]
“I wouldn’t be so sure you’ve won, Captain.” Came a quiet voice, and Rainbow paused as she felt the tip of a blade poke her between her wings.
“Twilight Sparkle. Of course you’re with them,” said Rainbow Dash, before a grin crossed her face.
“But how good are you at flying?”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes went wide.
And Rainbow Dash, captain of the pirate ship Fearless turned around and threw both herself and Twilight Sparkle off the rear of the ship while the cannons boomed again, finishing off the floating platform.
Candied Apple trotted alongside Barrel Binding, her husband and the greatest love of her life, as she watched the orchards pass her by on her walk.
“Good bumper crop this season, I reckon,” murmured the large stallion, a switch from an apple tree shifting around his mouth, “We’ll have plenty for the harvesting, and even some left over for extra barrels of cider.” Try as he might, the stallion couldn’t keept the grin from his face, and was rewarded with a hoof shoved into his side, and a smirk from his wife.
“They’ll be none of that for you, iff’n ya keep that up. Come on, ya big lug,” said Candied Apple, her Apple ‘accent’ in full swing, “ya said ya’d teach Mac t’buck this season. Celestia knows Granny can’t keep up with the chores round the house. ‘nother bucker would help us out. And little Applejack is gettin’ old enough to start helpin’ out.”
“Eeyup,” agreed the barrel maker, beginning to trot down the hill, Candied Apple having to keep to a light jog to keep up with her husbands’ longer strides. About half way down the hill, Barrel Binding stopped, waited for Candied Apple to catch up, and then swept her off her feet and onto his back.
“You shouldn’t be runnin’, not with our newest bloom inside you,” said Barrel, motioning to Candied’s pregnant form, and Candied had to suppress a blush. She was remined why she fell in love with the Canterlot barrel maker-he was such a gentlestallion. Even despite her best efforts, Candied’s face went even redder than it already was.
“Oh, stop it, you big lug,” she smiled, and leaned forwards to kiss him, and for a moment, everything was perfect. Leaves drifted past on the gentle breeze, plucked from their branches, and the midday sun shone down through the canopy, dappling the path to the farmhouse on Sweet Apple Acres with thin shadows. A perfect moment in time, frozen forever in husband and wife’s memories.
*****
Outside the pods, changelings gathered, siphoning love from the ponies trapped in the intricate illusions within. These two pods had been regular and reliable producers of the precious emotion known as love since the ponies contained within had been captured.
Had the changeling drones had enough thought to look inside, or even if they cared, they would have seen a pregnant mare, her face frozen in horror, her fourth child long since dead within her, and a stallion, his face set into an expression that was part fear, part bravery.
But the changeling drones cared not for what the life-giving pods contained, and even if they did, they lacked the intelligence to take initiative. And so they lay, draining the love from the pods, and the hundreds of others like them.
*****
Candied Apple trotted alongside Barrel Binding, her husband and the greatest love of her life as she watched the orchards pass by on her walk.
Four ponies held their legs over the railings of the ship as it pitched and rolled and yawed over the waves. One Pony moved back and forth with a herbal mix, and the last sat up the top of the ship’s mast, all but rolling around with laughter.
“Come on, girls! It’s just a little movement!” cackled Rainbow Dash from her perch up in the rigging, as the ship hit a particularly large wave, its bow pitching forwards, nearly driving the figurehead into the deep blue.
“Consarn it, Rainbow!” said Applejack, between heaves of her chest, “why ain’t you thowing your lunch up?”
“Uh, pegasus, remember? I’d be a pretty lousy Wonderbolt candidate if I got motion sickness. Same with Flutters, too.” As one, the four ponies turned their glances to the yellow pegasus who had been running back and forth with buckets, tonics and whatever remedies the ship stocked since they’d hit open water.
“Oh, um, sorry,” said Fluttershy, trying to hide behind a mane that was whipping and blowing in the swift wind that propelled the ship forward. She deposited another bucket by Pinkie Pie, who had just turned away from the railing. The party pony promptly picked up the bucket, and retched into it, a foul smell pervading through the air.
“Too many cupcakes,” moaned Pinkie, as Fluttershy removed the bucket to throw over the rear of the ship to prevent anypony getting splashed with their own vomit.
“Why are we out here again?” asked Rainbow Dash, dropping from her perch in the rigging, and only flaring her wings at the last second to land perfectly on the deck of the ship. Four sets of eyes glared at Rainbow, envious of the pegasus’ apparent iron stomach and inbuilt tolerance for erratic motion.
Twilight relented first, letting her glare fade from jealousy into soft annoyance.
“We’re out here because Princess Celestia wanted us to check up on the seapony clans: it’s nothing formal,” began Twilight, pausing as she covered her mouth as the ship hit another large wave, “but she hasn’t heard from them for a while, and Princess Celestia just likes to know what’s going on.”
Rainbow Dash gave a cough that sounded oddly like ‘suck-up’, which would have earned her another glare had a wave not smashed into the side of the ship, causing it to roll to the left, and Twilight Sparkle was sent staggering to the railing once more. Rainbow Dash ignored all of her previous instincts and lessons on ‘not embarrassing her friends’, and collapsed on the deck, roaring with laughter, and even Fluttershy had the beginnings of a smile forming on her face.
Rainbow’s laughter echoed around the ship, and continued all the way to the meet up point for the rendezvous with the seaponies.
Twilight Sparkle stood with her eyes closed, concentrating only on her breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. In, and then out. The sound of impatient flapping reached her ears, and Twilight could feel the soft plush of the cloud underneath her hooves.
“You gonna get in the air anytime soon, Twilight?” said Rainbow Dash, and Twilight cracked one eye open.
“In a minute, Rainbow Dash,” muttered Twilight, as she tried not to think about how far away the ground was, and how if she crashed there was a non-zero chance of breaking a bone or worse, her horn and wondered if she should just teleport back to the ground and go back to the safety of books and she was falling.
Why was she falling? She didn’t remember stepping off the cloud.
“Rainbow!” screamed Twilight, as she opened her wings and began to flap in the hope that she could control her fall and come to a nice soft landing. Twilight’s hooves just brushed the grass of the field that she had been practicing on as her wings converted downward motion into forward motion. Overjoyed by the feeling of having controlled her fall and converted it into flight, Twilight let out a brief yell of exhilaration.
That was when she hit the tree.
On the cloud up above, Rainbow Dash winced as Twilight peeled herself off the trunk of the tree.
“Lesson number two, Twilight! Look where you’re going!” she called out.
*****
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash glided through the air, with Twilight in the middle, and Rainbow Dash just off her side, and slightly behind her.
Once Rainbow was confidant that Twilight had managed to get a handle on stable, level flight, she pulled level with Twilight.
“Right, Twilight. Now let’s try something a bit more difficult. See those two trees down there?” Rainbow pointed out a pair of trees that were a couple of meters apart, easily wide enough for a pegasus to fly between with wings at full extension. Twilight nodded as she registered them.
“Just follow me, then!” said Rainbow, pulling ahead of Twilight, and going into a gentle glide and dive that took her between the trees, and then touched down on the ground on the other side with barely a scuff of dirt. Twilight copied Rainbow as best as she could, but as she was approaching the trees, there was a sudden crosswind, and Twilight was unable to correct her flight in time, and she smacked nose first into one of the trees. Rainbow winced and moved to help Twilight peel herself off the tree.
“Lesson three, Twilight. Respect the wind.”
*****
[Time]
Princess Celestia stared at her tired and battered former student as the youngest alicorn studied in the library in Canterlot Castle, and trotted up beside her.
“How are the flying lessons coming along, my dear Twilight?” asked Celestia. She was greeted with the sight of Twilight shooting six feet up in the air, and trying to go in every direction at once before realising that she wasn’t being asked to have another flying lesson. Twilight collapsed back down onto the reading cushion and sighed.
“I’m just not getting the hang of it, Celestia. Rainbow Dash isn’t exactly the best teacher, either. She just dumps me in situations and then expects me to use my wings to get out of them. And it’s not like she keeps to a regular schedule, either! She just swoops in and goes ‘we’re having a flying lesson now’ just like-” Twilight was cut off by Rainbow Dash diving through the window, picking up the ascended unicorn and tossed Twilight out of the window. Rainbow bowed to Princess Celestia, and then shot out of the window after her princess friend.
“Lesson time, Twilight! What were we up to?” heard Celestia over the screams and yells of her former student. Princess Celestia simply sat down on the cushion, and picked out a book to read.
Long have I lain atop of my mountain and watched what goes on below. I have long since passed the need for food, unlike so many of my younger kin. I feel no pull for the migration, nor do I need to collect wealth. It has been aeons since I last ventured out into the world, but I am content to lay here, and watch.
The ‘ponies’ who inhabit my world are delightfully amusing to watch. They scutter and scamper about, living in delightful bliss, unaware of my presence entirely. Only the two eldest, the white and the blue winged unicorns, even have an inkling of my existence. The City-On-Mountainside is the closest to my view, and it is here where the winged unicorn two reside as of recent days. But they do not attract my attention, for I have heard the whispers through the bones of the earth and on the winds-these two are, perhaps, to be respected, even feared. No, it is the mortals who have attracted my gaze, and in the City-On-Mountainside, they fight and clamber for dominance, but not with hoof, nor horn, nor magic, as they used to, but with words, and popularity, or perceived popularity. It reminds me of the old courts, when I was younger, and more mobile. I hated it, and for its similarity, I would burn the City-On-Mountainside first.
As my gaze turns to the south, and wanders further afield, I can see a small speck of a town. In my height, I would have called such a town a light snack. Still, it appears that it is an interesting place. I have lost count of how many times that town seems to have avoided disaster, and they drove off one of my younger kin who decided to nest on a nearby mountain. I would have given them a sign of my approval, but I have grown fond of this mountain, and had no wish to destroy my perch. As I watched, one of the structures in the Town-By-Forest lifted up in the air, and landed back down.
From here, on my mountain, I can see everything that goes on in this country. I can see Island-City, Desert-Town and many more besides. I watch the ponies not out of curiosity, but simply because it pleases me. I lay, and watch, and plot what I would burn first. The only thing keeping me from carrying out my plots and plans is that just when I think I have seen everything, the ponies below show me something new. It is delightfully fascinating to watch them.
It was a lovely late summer’s afternoon in Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle was settled down for an afternoon of reading and looking after the library. Not that many ponies ever actually used the Golden Oaks library, which essentially meant that Twilight could spend an entire afternoon re-reading an old favourite of hers: The Whorls, an account of the early days of magic study in Equestria, with a focus on the ‘Pre-Classical’ era, and the book that had introduced her to Star Swirl the Bearded. Making sure that the door was unlocked, and the small sign in the window was flipped to ‘Open’, Twilight had sunk into the plush cushion that was her preffered reading spot. It was right by an open window, and with a warm beam of sunlight striking her, it was the closest thing that she had to reading outside without actually needing to go outside.
Five minutes into the second chapter of the book, Twilight sighed from frustration, marked her place, put the book on the floor of the library, and twisted to glare at her wings. The darned things couldn’t, or wouldn’t keep still. She wondered how Fluttershy dealt with it. There was a nice breeze flowing in from the window, rushing over the alicorn’s back and through her feathers, causing them to keep twitching and shifting. Deciding that there was nothing for it, Twilight let out another sigh, and her horn glowed, moving the window shut, and her wings stilled. With a smile, Twilight levitated her book once more, and picked up where she left off, satisfied that her problem had been taken care of.
An hour later, Twilight had to reopen the window to get some fresh air. As she gulped in the soft breeze, along with the usual scents of Ponyville afternoons, she glanced back at her book. Somehow, the thought of simply sitting still and reading for a few hours was no longer as appealing as it used to be. She wanted to run, jump, fly, get covered in sweat and mud and dive into a lake to clean off. She wanted to feel the slow burn of exhaustion, the gentle satisfaction of exercise. But yet, there was still a large part of her that wanted nothing more than to sit and read, and she was legally obligated to stay in the library while it was open, so Twilight pulled her head back in, and resigned herself to an uncomfortable afternoon, not normally associated with being around her favourite things ever.
Half an hour later, as Pinkie Pie was coming to visit Twilight Sparkle for afternoon lunch with cupcakes and was about to knock on the door, it slammed open and a purple streak flew past her. Pinkie briefly noted that it was heading for Whitetail Woods, bounced inside the library, and began to eat the cupcakes while she waited for Twilight to come back.
Celestia sat beside the throne, as Luna settled herself on the plush cushion of the throne itself. The sisters looked at each other.
‘What if I make a mess of things?’ spoke Luna’s eyes
‘I trust you,’ said Celestia’s own, and Luna nodded, reassured.
“We declare that the Night Court is open,” said Luna, her voice strong and powerful, and the two unicorn guards opened the doors to admit the first pony.
As Luna addressed the noble’s request, Celestia focused her attentions on Luna, a mental tally gradually rising.
“The Crown would be honoured to provide records for the library about the Nightmare incident in question,” said Luna.
‘Lie,’ thought Celestia.
“Of course, we understand that thou must think of thy own company first, but...”
‘Lie,’ mused Celestia.
“We do not wish to see war again, Ambassador. Is there not a compromise that we can come to?”
‘Lie,’ accused Celestia.
“Alas, my little pony, there is no room in the national budget for such an expense.”
‘Lie,’ agreed Celestia.
---
At the end of the session, Celestia stood up and stretched out her wings, the joints at the base giving a satisfying pop. She reviewed the mental count one more time.
‘438,’ Celestia thought, ‘438 lies told in one session of court.’ Celestia wasn’t stupid-ruling on truth and truth alone was, and never would be an effective form of government. Lying was a nessecary evil for her and her sister.
“Well, that went better than we expected it to,” said Luna, as she slid off the throne as the guards closed the doors to the throne room. “So, do you think that you can handle it from here on your own?” asked Celestia.
“I believe that I can, sister. It feels...good to be helping with ruling once more.” Said Luna, a smile on her face.
The sound of a thousand party favours being blown thundered through the air, and confetti and streamers floated down from seemingly out of nowhere, landing on Twilight and covering the floor.
“Hi Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie, “how do you like my new party cannon?” Twilight looked up from her book, staring at the contraption that had somehow been parked in the centre of the library without her notice. It was at least twice the size of the old party cannon, not that size actually meant anything whenever Pinkie Pie got involved.
“It’s great, Pinkie. Have you shown it to anypony else?”
“Oh yeah! Dashie’s seen it, Applejack’s seen it...” as Pinkie continued to list off the ponies who had seen her new weapon of mass entertainment, Twilight lifted a hoof to her chest and breathed.
‘It’s okay,’ thought Twilight, ‘she’s just excited about it. She didn’t mean to disturb you, Twilight.’ Thought she had made great strides since coming to Ponyville, Twilight was still rather introverted, and most of her friends had come to accept this in some fashion or another. As such, Twilight occasionally let her friends know that sometimes she simply wanted days where she could sit in the library and read, or do research, or whatever she felt like, with particular emphasis on being alone. Today had been one such day, and she had informed everyone close to her that she would rather not be visited today. To make up for it, she had also promised to spend the entirety of the next day outside of the library.
“...and I’ve shown it to Time Turner, and then Roseluck, and then I thought ‘You know, everypony in Ponyville has seen the Party Cannon Mark 2 except Twilight, and so here we are!” finished Pinkie Pie, leaning over the immense cannon, and giving it a hug. However, Pinkie’s body pressed up against the firing button on the massive cannon.
For the second time in under ten minutes, the thunder of a thousand noisemakers rumbled through the library, and more streamers, confetti and even some balloons decorated the floor, and Pinkie had the sense to look apologetic. A section of streamer-covered floor rose up, and started glowing.
“One,” Twilight said, from under the veritable blanket of streamers. Pinkie, though she was scatter-brained, was not entirely incapable of taking a hint. She grabbed the cannon, and bolted for the door.
“Two,” said Twilight, the glow around the mass of streamers intensifying. Pinkie Pie found that her previous bribe of a cupcake to the laws of physics in order to get the cannon inside the library had evidently worn off, and with Twilight’s eyes fixed upon her, couldn’t repeat the performance. Thus, Pinkie abandoned the cannon, slipped out the door and bolted.
“Three,” finished Twilight, a smile in her voice as the glow settled back down to a more normal level as she levitated the mass of streamers off herself. Twilight deposited them on the floor, and then she simply settled back down with her book.
“See you tomorrow!” called Diamond Tiara, as she and her father, Filthy Rich, walked away from Silver Spoon’s house in the more upper-class district of Ponyville. Silver Spoon raised her own hoof in response and waved until she could no longer see her friend. Once Diamond had vanished over the hill, Silver let her hoof drop with a sigh, and headed inside the family mansion. Once inside, she wiped her hooves on the entrance mat, and then headed upstairs.
She passed several of the ponies who worked for her father in taking care of the house, but like every day, she ignored them, and giving a vague answer to one’s reminder about dinner. As she ascended the staircase up to the second floor, and her room, her steps grew heavier and heavier. Another sigh escaped the young filly’s lips as she opened the door to her room, and let her saddlebag fall to the floor with a soft thud.
Ignoring the mental weight of the homework for Miss Cheerilee for the moment, Silver Spoon climbed up onto her bed, and collapsed into a pile of pillows and stuffed toys with a third sigh. Instinctively, her hooves sorted through the pile of plush animals to find her favourite: a stuffed and worn ladybug that was nearly as big as her head. Cuddling it close, Silver Spoon lay back into the pile of pillows.
“Stupid Crusaders,” Silver Spoon said, “they’re just stupid blank flanks.” Tears began to leak from the corners of Silver Spoon’s eyes, and her glasses began to mist up.
“Blank flank!” she cried, remembering the looks on the Crusader’s faces when that insult had actually had an effect on them.
‘Four eyes,’ her mind shot back at her, ‘Four eyes no friends’
“Stupid pegasus, can’t even fly,” said Silver, hugging the toy ladybug into her chest.
‘Silly Silver, Stupid Silver,’ whispered her head.
“Useless unicorn!” sobbed Silver Spoon.
‘Spoonie Woonie, fell in the creek, hey everypony, come look at the mud-covered freak!’
Silver Spoon gave up there, simply crying into what felt like her one other friend outside of Diamond Tiara, hugging it up against her chest. It was like that she fell asleep, and missed dinner.
Silver Spoon’s father knocked gently on the door. When there was no response, he knocked harder. With still no response, he gently opened the door, and saw his daughter curled up on her bed, cuddling up to the toy ladybug that her mother had given to her before she had left, and assumed that all was well, closing the door, blowing out the candle, and heading to bed himself.
Stargazer trotted through the caverns, twisting around outcroppings of rock, and being careful not to slip on the damp rock underhoof. The lack of a sky overhead caused her wings to rustle and shift constantly, as she knew they would until she could see the sky once more. Pegasi never liked being in any sort of enclosed space, and least of all underground. But Stargazer was curious.
Too curious, her parents had often told her.
‘Stargazer,’ they had said, ‘keep your eyes in the here and now, not staring up into the heavens.’ Stargazer had nodded, and then had immediately gone back to looking up at the sky and the moon that she so loved to look at. But that had little bearing on what she was doing here, underground in a damp, dark cave. She was here because one of her pegasus friends had told her that a spirit lived here, one who could grant any wish. Stargazer had jumped, both figuratively and literally (off a cloud) at the chance. One true, perfect wish with no cost.
All she had to do was find the spirit. What she might have realised later was that it was simply a prank. Had she turned back ten minutes ago, she would have found her friends laughing at the mouth of the cave. She would have eventually gotten them back, and life would have continued on.
But she didn’t turn back, and eventually, Stargazer came upon a cavern, and sitting at the centre was a twisted statue of a creature that she didn’t have words to describe. It was made up of a bit of everything, and she knew that she had found the spirit she was looking for.
“Oh spirit,” began Stargazer, bending in front of the statue, “Grant me my one true wish. I want to spend the rest of my life just looking at the moon, and admiring it. Please, can you help me?”
She felt an otherworldly presence fill the chamber, and an insidious voice hissed from the stone statue.
“You want to look at the moon for the rest of your life? My dear, all you had to do was ask. Now, if you could just smash the stone over my talon there, I’ll grant your wish.”
Glad that something was taking her desire seriously, she flew up and bucked the talon of the statue, and the sound of a snap echoed throughout the cavern. A white alicorn, marked with the sign of the sun on her hind fell to the ground, where she remained asleep.
The statue chuckled.
“Now you get to look at the moon every day, dear Celestia. Everytime it rises over the horizon, and the light from your sun illuminates it.” A chuckle, a second snap, and the statue vanished.
******
Sun Seed pushed past the patch of brambles, and winced as his hoof caught on a stone, and he was sent tumbling foward, head over tail down a hill until he came to a stop.
Unfortunately, he stopped because his head hit the base of a statue that had not been there the day before, and Sun Seed knew, because he travelled this path every day when he made sure that nothing horrible had gotten into his family’s crop.
As he nursed the growing lump on his head, the statue seemed to glow.
“Oh my,” began the statue, the voice issuing from everywhere, “What have we here? A poor little farmpony, so lost, longing for his family?”
Sun Seed eyed the statue, decided that ignorning it would be the best course, and started to trot away, being mindful of his twisted hoof.
“Or perhaps,” mused the voice, “You just want to watch over your family. Well, go on. Leave. I’ll just not tell you about how you could have prevented the terrible, terrible accident that will befall your family later this week.” Sun Seed whirled around, glaring at the statue.
“What accident?” he said, “Tell me?”
“Oh, but I’m too trapped to be of any use to you. If you could just free my paw there, I could give you the power to watch over your family.”
Sun Seed hesitated. It sounded too good to be true, and his grandmother had warned him about deals like this.
“Oh well,” sighed the statue, “Guess I’ll be off, then.”
“Wait!” cried Sun Seed, “I’ll take your deal.”
If it could have, the statue would have grinned as Sun Seed delivered a powerful buck to the stone paw, and the statue’s talon’s snapped. With a flash of light, the grown stallion was changed into an alicorn female, of dark blue and with the sigil of a moon on her new flank.
“Now you can watch over everypony, Miss Loony-Moony. Sleep tight, though, because it’s Discord time now! See you and Celestia whenever I get predictable!”
Big Macintosh had always been the earliest riser at Sweet Apple Acres, up well before either Applejack and way before Apple Bloom. His eldest sister liked to be up at dawn and watch the sunrise over the orchards, but Mac was usually up well before that.
He’d go out into the trees, pass the family’s private gravesite with just a respectful nod, and sit where the family’s lands gave way to the wilds of the Everfree. Big Mac was never entirely sure why he came out here, while the lowering moon still cast deep and long shadows through the trees, but on times like this, while the moon was full and brilliant, the forest took on a less ominous feel, and simply became more mysterious, or even mystical, and bordered on almost beautiful. This routine of his had started shortly after Applejack had gone to Manehatten. He hadn’t even been sure why it had started, but when he’d talked to Granny about it, she’d just grinned and said something about ‘the forest callin’ out for company’. Big Mac hadn’t understood it then, and he didn’t understand it now.
But over the years, it had never felt right if he didn’t just come out here and sit where the clean cut grass of the orchard began to give way to the wild of the forest. He’d shared this feeling with a few close friends of his, and none of them could give an answer beyond theories and guesses as to why he should feel like this.
This morning, though, was different. This morning, as the moonlight filtered through the trees, the spiderwebs showing up as strands of silver gossamer, Big Mac heard the gentle crunch of hooves on fallen leaves, and as he stared into the forest, a green mare emerged out of the silvery darkness, her green mane and tail littered with branches and leaves. The mare shimmered and flittered as she stood in place, and her mane and tail floated in a breeze that Macintosh couldn’t feel. But as physically stunning as the mare appeared, Big Macintosh couldn’t break his gaze away from her eyes. Eyes that were simultaneously soft, warm and comforting, reminding him of that Fluttershy pegasus that Applejack hung out with sometimes. But the mare’s eyes were also hard, like twin chips of emerald, and just as sharp. There was a darkness in this mare, and Big Mac didn’t like it.
When the mare finally spoke after a long moment of looking over Big Mac, it was with a voice that was equal parts wind through the trees, murmuring rivers, and howling timberwolf.
"Everfree is pleased with your clan, Apple,” said the mare, and then she turned back, heading back into the depths of the forest.
“I’m sorry.” Those were the first words out of Applejack’s mouth once the palaver over what the elements had done to Twilight Sparkle had somewhat faded. Though in theory, those words could have been directed at anypony in the room, Rarity knew they were focused at her. After all, it had been Applejack who had taken on Rarity’s cutie mark. It had been Applejack who had nearly forced the closure of the Carousel Boutique. Rarity knew that logically, she should be angry with Applejack. She had nearly forced Rarity out of business, and given that Rarity had not managed to assess how many of the...dresses Applejack had sent out, the damage had likely already been done.
But all Rarity could feel was a sense of sympathy for the apple farmer. After all, Rarity was not the only pony in the room who had nearly lost everything. Applejack was not the only pony in the room who had almost made a mess of somepony else’s life. Rarity looked around the room, the other four ponies in various states of feeling sorry for themselves. Even Pinkie Pie was glancing over at Applejack, worried about how the farmer would react once she realized how close to ruin she had come with Pinkie on the orchard. Realising that Applejack was still waiting for her response, Rarity cleared her throat.
“Applejack, dear. What kind of friend would I be if I couldn’t forgive you?”
“Rare, I nearly drove ya out o’ house and home.”
“And I thought that I could manage Ponyville’s weather better than its manager. I think that we all have something to be sorry for today?”
A round of nods rippled around the room, and Rarity continued, “But as...disastrous as today was, I do not think that it was entirely wasted. Perhaps each of us has come away richer, at least mentally. I know I certainly have a much greater appreciation for what Rainbow Dash does, and if she ever catches me complaining about the weather again, she will have one carte-blanche prank on me.” Rainbow, despite her despondant mood, grinned at Rarity’s statement.
“You sure about that, Rarity? I know you can’t resist complaining that it’s ‘too hot, too cold, why can’t the weather ponies ever get these things right?’” At Rarity’s nod, Rainbow’s grin got positively maniacal, “great. I’m gonna hold you to that, Rarity.” Rarity gulped.
“And...I guess I learned that maybe Fluttershy knows what she’s talking about when she says that kindness is the best way to get something to trust you.” And so it went on, each of the five friends admitting that while they knew all along that each of them had their special talents, those talents were harder than they looked, and each promised a favor or help to the other. Before they knew it, the sun had set, and they sat around, just waiting for either Princess Celestia to come investigate, or for Twilight to come back from whatever the elements had done to her.
So cold. All I can feel, creeping through my mane and coat is cold. The ponies around me, they do not understand. They cannot understand what ravages the world is about to inflict upon them, or already has inflicted. Is inflicting? I have lost track of when I am, where my perception is focused.
They do not listen when I tell them that the spirits of cold hatred are coming. They listen to me speak in three tenses at once, and say ‘That Starswirl, he’s so eccentric’. I know the truth-they think me insane. But as sure as the mark on my flank tells me who I am, I know that time is not nearly as linear as other ponies think it is. Such is my curse.
They came. They come. They will come. We have frozen. We will freeze. We are freezing.
Our hearts grow cold to the pleas of the earth ponies who we trade, traded, will trade with for food. We fear, will fear, have feared the pegasi in the sky, blaming them for the oncoming, receding, prevalent cold. Again and again, I have, am, and will seek the court of Unicorns, telling them of what I see, saw and will see. Time and time again, they push me away, claiming that I have, am or will spend too much time locked up.
Clover, bright girl that she is, understands my plight, though I fear that she perceives me to be as insane as everypony else, though she listens and makes, made and will make me a nice cup of tea to help me calm down, and put a rest to my overactive sight.
I wake. I woke. I will awake, and I feel the cold penetrate the stone and flesh and my heart. Each morn, past, present and future I feel the same thing, and as I look out the window, all I can see is whirling clouds, flying snow and ghostly horses galloping through the storm with screams of wind and cold.
Eventually, today, yesterday, I give up on my quest to convince the Court of co-operating with the other races. ‘We are Unicorn,’they say, ‘We raise the sun and moon. The others should be bowing to us.’ I tell them, told them, will tell them that such a claim is arrogant, that for true harmony to exist, to repel these spirits of cold and violence and hate, we must work together, but they do not hear it, will not hear it, have never heard it.
When the first snowflake falls in the middle of the growing season, far earlier than should be possible, I have, am and will lock myself in my tower. I will only repeat my earlier claim of cooperation, and we shall see if they believe me then.
The world has stopped, they said. Equestria does not change seasons on its own anymore. But yet, the animals kept trying to adhere to a seasonal cycle that was no longer there. Part of me wants to blame the pegasi, or the earth ponies. It would be so very, very easy. It would also bring the windigoes back, and as most of my magic was already tied up in monitoring for any signs of their return, it would be horribly, terribly ironic were a stray thought of mine to summon them.
A solution, they said. Give us a solution, Clover. My first thought, as it often did, leapt to magic. Enough magic, and the unicorns could force the season shift on the country. We already moved the sun and moon, how much more difficult could the seasons be? Almost immediately, I pushed the thought back into the depths of my mind. Cookie wouldn’t have wanted such a simple solution. No, for this to truly work, the races had to work together. A collaborative effort.
The pegasi were the easiest. With their control of the weather and clouds, it was an obvious solution to simply tell them to make the weather for the different seasons. The earth ponies and the unicorns, therefore, would have to divide up the ground tasks. Clearing the snow in winter, planting the new seeds for spring, making sure the animals woke up at the right time...there was much to do, so much to take into account for changing the seasons.
I glanced out the window, a mere square gap in the stone hovel of the town we were building, and I see earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns working together. I blink, and I can see, overlaid over their forms, Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead. Another blink, and they’re arguing, and a third, they’re frozen statues.
Yes, we must work together, or we are doomed to repeat our previous fate.
And that thought chills me to the bone in a way that the windigoes never could.
A flare of magic summons a quill and paper to me, and I begin to plan. Everything must go exactly right. I think I heard Pansy come in, and ask me if I was okay. She’s so considerate, almost sickly kind sometimes. I told her I was fine.
----
I look out the window. The leaves are drying, and turning the forest into a sea of orange and brown, as they should. Ponies run to shake the ground to make them fall down as they should. I hear the calls of the pegasi as they move the clouds. We are scheduled for a medium storm later today. Everypony seems to understand that this is how things must be from now on-true cooperation between the three tribes. It is the only way that turning the seasons will work as efficiantly as it needs to. There are bumps, as Pansy tells me, but they are simply the usual ones that come from conflicting personalities working together. She asked me if I was feeling alright again. I told her I was fine.
Trixie, despite what she may claim, did not often come to Canterlot. There were a great many memories tied up in the mountainside city for her, and not all of them were entirely pleasant. Still, Trixie did make the effort to go up to the city every now and again, usually for some rich socialite looking for entertainment for a birthday party or some such, and such events were what Trixie had cut her performance teeth on. Despite the often tumultuous nature of her travelling performer reputation in the smaller towns, Trixie did have a solid reputation as a sleight of hoof magician and performer within most of the bigger cities.
It was on her way out of Canterlot that she accidentally bumped into another pony. She had just finished up her most recent performance, and her bag was laden with bits. Trixie never charged special rates, but they weren’t that unreasonable for a performer of her calibre. As such, her first instinct was her hoof flashing to her bag to check on her funds. Only when she was satisfied that they were all there, she turned to look at the pony that she had bumped into.
“Trixie?” asked Twilight Sparkle, shaking her head, “what are you doing here?”
“Trixie is here to meet,” began Trixie, her eyes swivelling around the street at the ponies walking past. Picking out a single pony, Trixie gasped. “There you are! Trixie has been looking for you for hours!”
As the pony turned around, Trixie mentally cursed the part of her brain that made her feel completely inadequate around stupid, sexy Twilight Sparkle.
Prince Blueblood looked down at Trixie. Before the ‘Prince of Canterlot’ could open his mouth, Trixie spoke again.
“You said that you would take Trixie to dinner this evening! I hope that you remembered, you dunderhead, or this is going to be a very short relationship.” Trixie leaned in to the Prince’s ear.
“Trixie will give you one hundred bits if you go along with this for the night,” whispered Trixie. The Prince, never one to let money get away if he could help it, nodded. Trixie turned back to Twilight.
“As you can see, Sparkle, Trixie is engaged this evening. Trixie suggests that you bother her another time. Away, fair stallion! To dinner!” As Blueblood and Trixie walked towards what was obviously one of the more upscale restaurants, Trixie casually surveyed her ‘date’ for the night. All things considered, he wasn’t that bad looking, if a bit lacking in personality, from what she had heard.
Blueblood, for his part, couldn’t quite believe what was happening. One minute, he was minding his own business, the next, the most stunning mare he had ever met was asking him to play along with being her date for the evening. The fact that she was offering money was simply a bonus. Blueblood was simply captivated with the mare. Everything about her was an explosion, and that thought set off miniature explosions in his chest with each heart beat. He couldn’t wait to get to know this mare better.
Sun Shade, though easily frightened, was at heart a curious pony. She liked to learn new things, especially things about the way the world used to be. She simply preferred to learn about them by reading, not through first-hoof experience. She had listened attentively to her mother’s bedtimes stories about the ‘Element Bearers’, and had committed the story of the six ponies who had saved Equestria to memory. Though their names had been lost to time, she could still remember how her mother had described them.
Naturally, her first stop after her encounter in the old forest town with the Old Witch was to run home and huddle under her bedcovers. Her next stop, though, was the library in Canterlot’s lower districts. She had never, ever heard of a pony with that thing on their head, or what looked like wings, of all things, attached to her side, let alone both.
“Hello, Sun Shade!” said the receptionist, “back for the next Crowned Princess novel? We’ve just got it in.”
“Actually, I wanted to look in the history section,” said Sun, glancing around. “We were in the forest the other day, and I heard something about the Old Witch. I wanted to see if I could find anything about her.”
“Of course, dearie. Come, I’ll take you over and we’ll see if we can find you a book that can help.”
----
Two hours later, and Sun Shade let her head thump against the open book. There was nothing in here about anything like what she had seen. Not even a single mention of ponies with pointy things on their heads, or ponies with wings, or anything. Sighing, Sun stacked the books into a neat pile, and wandered over to the fiction section to grab a copy of the newest Crowned Princess, the sixth in the series, checked it out, and headed home.
----
“My horn felt an unbelievable pressure as I caught the great star-beast before it could fall. It would do no good if the beast regained its senses now, and even as talented as I was, I wasn’t sure that I could stop an enraged Ursa in the middle of town. With my horn glowing with an intensity bright enough to force even me to close my eyes, I threw my head backward, and heaved.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the monster rose up above the street, and with another exertation of will, I levitated it away from the town. I could hear the buzzing of the ponies behind me, gasping in shock as the Ursa’s figure faded into the distance. Through my spell, I could feel the area where the Ursa made its home, and guided it into the cave. There, I sensed a simply massive presence, and not wanting to anger it, let the beast held in my magical grasp gently drop, where I felt that presence catch it. It was only then that I finally let my horn dim, and dig my hooves out of the divots in the earth that the sheer pressure from my horn had caused. I turned to face my friends, fearing how they would react. But on their faces, I could only see amazement and wonder. Even Prism, still hovering off the ground, gentle flaps of her wings keeping her aloft, could only express both her thanks and genuine wonder at my magical talent.”
Sun Shade smiled as she read the latest chapter in the Crowned Princess series. She really liked the main character, a pony like herself who didn’t have many friends, except for the fact that she had a horn.
Sun blinked. A horn? What was a horn, anyway? Sun Shade had read the term plenty of times in the books, but she didn’t think she’d ever seen what it actually looked like. Flicking back through the book, she found no real description of what it looked like. Then she remembered that the first book in the series had pictures.
****Time****
Opening the first book in the series, Sun was immediately greeted with a picture of the main character and her little assistant, Spike. On her first reading, Sun had just assumed that it was an illustration, but now her attention was on the pointy thing sticking out of the drawings’ forehead, parting her hair. It looked exactly like the one on the Old Witch. Sun remembered that ponies in the series with ‘horns’ were called ‘Unicorns’, so the Old Witch was maybe a unicorn. But unicorns didn’t have wings-those were for ‘pegasuses’. Sun Shade looked at the neatly arranged books on her shelf, though specifically at the ones in the Crowned Princess series with a new light in her eyes, and began to read once more.
“My name is Twilight. I’m a unicorn, the supposedly normal librarian of a sleepy little town at the base of a mountain...”
Roseluck’s eyes opened slowly. Around her, she could only see shapes and shadows in the dark, though the smell of the room suggested that she was underground. She was also reasonably sure that she was still in Ponyville. She remembered being there the previous night, for sure, though the details were fuzzy. Had she gone out drinking or partying? It was an entirely possible situation, given the town hosted Pinkie Pie, who liked to throw parties at the drop of a hat. As Roseluck continued to wake up, her head clearing from whatever she had done the previous night, she became more aware of her situation. Her legs were bound, strapped to the wooden table that she could feel underneath her. She tried to call for help, but the cries were muffled by the cloth tied over her mouth. It all felt like some stallion’s weird fantasy or something.
As Roseluck struggled against her bonds, hoping to find some weakness in what felt like solid iron, light illuminated the room without warning, and Roseluck had to close her eyes to adjust to the new lighting. Once she could open her eyes without her head throbbing in pain too badly, Roseluck took full stock of her situation. She was definitely underground, and from what it looked like, she was in the library. The one that Tirek had blown up while Princess Twilight had been fighting him. Roseluck had always figured that it had been unsalvageable. Maybe its basement had survived? Somewhere behind her, Roseluck could hear the soft clip-clop of hooves on the floor behind her. Her mouth still restrained by the cloth, Roseluck could do little but wait until she saw whoever it was.
Princess Twilight Sparkle trotted into view, glancing over at Roseluck, and with a shimmer of magic, removed the gag from her mouth.
“Oh, thank you so much, Princess Twilight! Come on, I need to get out of these things before the stallion who abducted me comes back!”
“Do you know what the Princesses are, Rose?”
Roseluck blinked. “They’re the Princesses, Princess. You’d know more about them than I do. Now come on, can we please get me out of here?”
“They’re not immortal,” said Princess Twilight. Her face was blank, as if repeating a long-memorized fact, like two plus two equals four. “The Princesses aren’t immortal.” With this statement, Twilight turned away from Roseluck, and began to fiddle with something on a half-charred desk on the other side of the room. Roseluck simply looked confused.
“What do you mean, not immortal? And can you please help me out of here, Princess Twilight? I don’t think we have long before whoever did this to me comes back, Princess.”
Twilight simply ignored Roseluck, and moved from the desk to checking a circular design scrawled on the floor in chalk, lighting candles set into the design at set points, pausing only to check and recheck an old tome held aloft in Twilight’s magical grip.
“Once upon a time, there was a filly who loved the sun so much that she sent a peice of her soul to live with it forever. In return, the sun gave some of its own soul back to the filly so that she could forever fly under it.”
“Princess Twilight, I really need to get out of here. This place is starting to creep me out.”
Princess Twilight simply continued on, ignoring Roseluck. “Then there was a stallion who admired the moon, and its ability to change shape from night to night. He offered up anything the moon wanted in exchange for part of this power, and so the moon took his very essence, and the stallion took wing under moonlight forever more.”
“Princess, you’re scaring me...”
“Finally, there was an ambitious pegasus, who wanted to share love with the whole world, and be loved in return. She searched and searched, and communed with the very essence of love, stating her desired goals. Love itself the told the pegasus that in exchange for her soul, she would be given the magic she desired, the magic to spread love wherever she wanted. The pegasus agreed.”
“Princess, this isn’t funny.”
“The Princesses aren’t immortal,” repeated Twilight, her magic unlocking Roseluck and lifting the flower-seller down into the circle drawn on the floor, and rebinding her there. Several objects hovered just outside Roselucks’ sight.
“The Princesses aren’t immortal,” said Princess Twilight Sparkle, “Because they bound themselves to impermanent things. I won’t make that mistake.”
A knife floated into Roseluck’s vision, and a chill worked its way down her spine, settling into her chest.
“I’m sorry, Roseluck. I’ll never forget your sacrifice.”
“Luna.” The Lunar Princess paused. She knew that tone. She knew what had always followed, and her armoured head turned to face her sister. Celestia stood behind her, clad in gold-plated armour, scuffed and scarred from hours of battle, but otherwise looking exactly the same as she had before the battle had commenced.
“Leave us, Luna,” said Celestia, looking not at her sister, but at the minotaur in charge of the whole invasion. Luna became aware that her armour was getting warm to the touch, beyond what even hours of physical exertion could impart, and so the Moon Princess bowed her head, and turned around, and began to trot away from the minotaur.
“We shall see to the recovery of our ponies. Try to contain your powers, Sister.” The only response she got was the smallest of nods, as Celestia’s mouth hardened into a line, and Luna noted that the usual blues, whites and pinks of Celestia’s mane had shifted more into the reds and yellows.
The minotaur, emboldened by the departure of what he believed to be the greater threat, rose back to his hooves, and laughed.
“You have made a mistake, sending away your sister like that, Princess.”
“It is true that Luna is certainly better at warfare than I am. But do not assume that simply because I find it distasteful and unnecessary, that I am incapable.” With a blast of heat, Celestia’s mane and tail gave up on their ethereal, flowing form, and turned into a waving wall of fire.
“My mentors always taught me that violence is to be a last resort. To be used only when words, food, gold and allies fail. To never enjoy it, for it is anathema to all I am trying to accomplish. I believe that Luna skipped those lessons. I would rather not have fought, but I will admit,” said Celestia, a smile forming on her face. “That there is a certain perverse pleasure in violence, especially when dealing with one that has been as...irredeemable as yourself.”
The minotaur took a few steps back as he became aware of both the intense heat and pressure pouring of the mare he had dismissed as the negotiator of the two sisters. With two beats of her powerful wings that blasted hot air over the minotaur, Celestia rose into the sky, the air shimmering around her.
“Luna has access to the moon’s powers-shape shifting, illusion, healing and many more besides. She is a mare of many faces and talents. Unfortunately for you, the sun knows how to do only one thing-destroy.”
As Celestia rose further and further into the air, the minotaur became aware that everything around him was catching fire, and he seemed to be enveloped in a singular beam of light.
“And as the sun is an overwhelming force in the sky, so too is any mare who can draw upon its power in combat,” said Celestia, her voice echoing down to the minotaur, who had fallen to the ground again from the magical pressure being emitted from Celestia.
“You attempted to prevent the rise of Equestria. And as distasteful as I may find it, you will make a perfect example for those who would earn our wrath. Perish,” said Celestia, and the light suddenly increased in intensity, turning the area white.
***Time***
Far away, Luna stared at the column of light stretching from the heavens to the area where Celestia was, and watched it pulse once, twice, thrice. And almost as suddenly as it came, the column winked out, leaving only a pillar of smoke. A few moments later, Celestia walked into the camp, her armour smoke-stained and discoloured from the heat.
“It is done,” was all Celestia managed, and then she collapsed. Luna covered her sister with a spare blanket, and then turned back to treating the ponies that had been fighting alongside them, giving the same answer whenever one of them asked what had happened to Celestia.
“She gave up her vow of non-violence, so that you all could be safe.” And so the legend of Celestia grew and rose.
Hearths’ Warming was very different in Canterlot, Rarity had noticed, as made herself a mug of hot chocolate in the kitchen in her house/shop in Canterlot. There was the seasonal good cheer, and the foals in the streets were certainly enjoying the snow, but there was less of something that she had grown up with in Ponyville. While Rarity could, and sometimes did, bemoan growing up in the just shy of rural town, there was a general aura around the town that Rarity found that she missed in Canterlot. Perhaps it was the lack of her friends or family. This was not the first Hearths’ Warming that Rarity had spent alone, but it was the first where her family and friends were sufficiently far away from her, as her parents and Sweetie Belle had gone to Manehatten for the holidays. Twilight was in the Crystal Empire with her family, staying at the request of Princess Cadence; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack would all still be in Ponyville and occupied with family, parties and animals, and Rainbow Dash had been called up by the Wonderbolts at the last minute for a performance-she’d said something about replacing an injured teammember, and Rainbow Dash never let down the ponies who needed her, so she had flown off yesterday morning towards Vanhoover, shouting back promises of make-up dinners and dates.
Rarity sighed, and settled herself in her extremely warm and comfortable bed. As today was Hearths’ Warming, there was no need to open her shop, and all of her outstanding orders had been largely completed, only waiting on a final fitting and trim, but nopony would come on Hearths’ Warming. No, they would all come tomorrow, after having enjoyed the day with their families and special someponies. That thought sparked a brief spurt of jealousy in Rarity, which she shook off with some surprise. Perhaps she was missing her friends more than she thought.
Letting another sigh escape her lips and removing herself from her bed, she moved towards her sewing room. With the day a waste already, her previous plans having been disrupted the day before, she reasoned that she may as well design a few new dresses. She got through four and a half new designs before she glanced out the window, towards the northwest. A glance at the clock told her that in all likelyhood, Rainbow would be in the middle of her performance right now. Shaking her head, Rarity pushed thoughts of ruined plans and dinners out of her head-it wasn’t like Rainbow had really known this was going to happen. She wasn’t to blame, and Rarity filed this incident under ‘Cons of dating a Wonderbolt recruit’ for future reference, and turned back to her half-finished design.
----
Rainbow paused under the edge of the Vanhoover Cloudball stadium, waiting for her cue to join the formation. Clad in the same full-body flight suit as the full time Wonderbolts, this was her sixth or seventh performance with the full squad-Spitfire liked to keep Rainbow for the more special occasions for the moment-Rainbooms were a special thing, and while they were Rainbow’s signature technique for the moment, neither of them wanted for the Rainboom to be expected from a performance.
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed under her flight goggles as Spitfire turned her wings in the right way to break the formation, and that was Rainbow’s signal. She shot off the cloud she’d been standing on, dispersing it with sheer force, and trailed rainbows as the cone formed around her body. Just as she reached the still smokey point where the other ‘Bolts had broken formation, Rainbow broke through the barrier, sending a circular wave of colour and weather magic through the air, and instead of circling around the stadium like she knew she was supposed to, Rainbow instead pointed herself towards the mountain in the distance, and promptly left Vanhoover in her dust.
In the stadium, Spitfire let a smirk grace her mouth, and told her squad to not chase after Rainbow for breaking routine. It was Hearths’ Warming, after all.
****Time****
Rarity sighed for what felt like the twentieth time that day. Hearths’ Warming was not a time for moping around the home. It was a time for joy and friendship and many, many things that did not involve becoming a recluse. She was startled by a knock on the door and glanced over at it, her eyes briefly flicking to the bell above, where she had hung a sprig of mistletoe. With some reluctance, Rarity moved to the door, her magic opening the door.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is unique, chique and...”
Rarity was cut off by a pair of lips positively slamming onto her own, and her eyes saw blue and red and yellow and all the colours she could imagine, and then Rainbow did something with her tongue, and Rarity melted. Once Rainbow pulled back, and allowed Rarity to catch her breath, she spoke.
“You, uh, still have that mistletoe hangin’ over the door, Rare?”
“Indeed I do, Rainbow,” said Rarity, “And as long as we’re still standing under it...” Rarity left the sentence unfinished. Rainbow got the hint, and neither of them talked for a while.
“Man,” Rainbow Dash said, much later, “It’s good to be home. Best Hearths’ Warming ever!”
It felt both familiar and wholly unnatural to have hooves again. The last time she had been back in Equestria, Sunset Shimmer had only been there for just long enough to steal the Element of Magic, so taking the time to contemplate the feeling of walking on four legs as opposed to two was out of the question. Unfortunately, this time there was no such high-action chase nor immediate task that she needed to do that could take her mind from how wrong and how right it felt to have hooves, a tail and her horn back. No, this time, Sunset was seated on a cushion in a somewhat luxurious, but still simple room in one of the rooms of Canterlot Castle. Across from her sat Princess Celestia, who was almost pointedly not looking at Sunset, just as Sunset was not looking at Celestia. Unfortunately, Twilight Sparkle had locked the two of them in the room because she thought that the two needed to reconcile. Sunset had begun to curse the newest princess with all the mental vitriol that she could manage. She had run out of both curses and hate twelve minutes ago, and so finally had time for her mind to eventually wander onto the topic of her old body, along with a whole host of other topics that she normally didn’t think about.
Just as Sunset was about to start her fifth mental plan to get revenge on Twilight for putting her in a room with Celestia, Celestia spoke.
“I...am sorry, my faith...Sunset Shimmer,” began Celestia, “I should have been more attentive to you. I should have concentrated on teaching you properly. I could offer you reasons why I didn’t teach you, but we both know that they would simply be excuses. The fact of the matter is, I wronged you, and I did not intend to.”
“Yes,” replied Sunset, “You did wrong me.”
For the first time in the last hour, Celestia looked directly at Sunset as she spoke.
“Perhaps it would not have mattered,” said Celestia, “you were always ambitious, even before I took you as my student. Had I taught you properly, would you have still run to the mirror world? Would you have still chafed against my teachings? Truth be told, Sunset, your abilities were never really in question for me. Yours is a talent that does not come along often.”
“Then why?” asked Sunset, “Why keep me from the more advanced spells? Why keep me in the dark about Nightmare Moon, and the Elements of Harmony?”
“Because, Sunset, I was not sure that you were the one to help my sister,” said Celestia, “but at the same time, I did not see another suitable candidate until a year after you left, a candidate in Twilight Sparkle. So I made preparations, just in case that you were the one to cure my sister of the Spirit of Nightmare.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m some pawn, Celestia,” growled Sunset, “I’m not your chess piece anymore.”
“No, you aren’t,” agreed Celestia, “You’ve started your own little board in the mirror world, from what Twilight has told me. You may not believe me, but I am proud of you, faith...Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset turned away from Celestia, to hide her expression.
“I guess I’m sorry too,” said Sunset, “I was a bit of an impatient, insufferable pony at the time, and you probably didn’t deserve some of what I gave you, and I’m grateful for all the lessons, but I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for what you did. I didn’t make a wrong decision when I dived through the portal, but there it is.” Celestia nodded silently, and the two fell back into silence. There was a soft click, and Sunset guessed that the door had unlocked, and she made to leave.
“Sunset,” said Celestia, “I never took your portrait down from the Hall of Learning. You can take it, if you want. It’s the last record that you were ever my student.”
Sunset paused for a minute.
“No thanks,” she said at length, “It can stay there. Keep it as a reminder of the time you failed to teach.” And with that, Sunset vanished in a burst of blue sparkles, teleporting back to the room the mirror was in before its portal closed.
Twilight entered the room several minutes later, to find Celestia sitting there, staring at an already cold cup of tea.
“Some things, Twilight, are not meant to be forgiven,” said Celestia, anticipating Twilight’s eventual question. “Some things, you don’t want to forgive out of sheer principle. And some things, you do not want the other party to forgive.”
She sighed as she raised the moon once more. It was a constant, painful reminder of everything that had happened, seeing Selene rising up over the horizon. She had tried doing it blind several hundred years ago, but it had not worked. Selene was finicky and skitterish, even with her experience, and if she wasn’t careful, the moon would end up out of position. As such, she had long ago resigned herself to the fact the she needed to watch to perform course corrections. Unlike Sol, who simply glided across the sky. Who needed no introduction. Who never needed to work for the approval of the ponies below.
But perhaps it wasn’t seeing Selene rise that upset her so. Perhaps it was seeing Sol set, knowing that she could never hope to match her sister, despite all that had transpired. But then, of course, she would never have openly stated her disapproval. No, she was not sad when things began to shift. Not entirely unhappy when ponies began to shift towards the night, rather than the day. And perhaps for a time, she had been glad for it, glad to see Selene, and the one who guided her receive some appreciation.
Unfortunately, it seemed that fate had a cruel sense of humor. Luna was no stranger to the path that Celestia had found herself now travelling down, and for a time, this had helped. Until that day. The day when everything suddenly shifted.
Celestia and Luna were no strangers to having the occasional attempt made on their lives. Largely, it was other nations-the Griffons were a regular feature. They had never entirely gotten over the war in years lost to all but Celestia, Luna and a mound of dusty textbooks. Still, immortal as the sisters were, they were not invulnerable, and as such, they had the Royal Guard. Outside threats the sisters were familiar with. They were wholly unprepared for such an attempt from inside the castle.
It had failed, of course, and the pony responsible had been caught, all the while screaming about how Luna was the ‘True Princess’. Fanaticism of this order was not new to either sister. But it had proven the vital tipping point. Luna herself thought that Celestia was still very far off the breaking point, given her occasional monitoring of her sister’s dreams. Privately, she suspected Discord was involved, but had no proof. If he had been involved, it would not be the first time the spirit had abused his freedom, and nor would it be the last. But it mattered little.
In a twisted mirror of the events of so long ago, Luna was forced to banish her sister with the aid of the Elements of Harmony. Not to the moon, no. Celestia was banished to beyond Sol, beyond the edges of the system, all the way out to the North Star. Luna watched with a grim smile as Selene climbed higher into the sky on the Winter Solstice, the weight of a thousand years alone upon her shoulders, and high above her, the North Star flashed.
“Welcome home, sister. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Oh, it’s you again, dear. My, has it really been that long since we last spoke? I’ve been so terribly busy these past few months, what with my almost disastrous adventure to Manehatten, that affair with Tirek, and then Twilight’s new castle suddenly appearing, and all that goes with it, that I must have lost track of time. It only seems like it was just yesterday that we first sat down. I must say, while I am pleased for Twilight that she has now finally figured out what she is Princess of, I must wonder if this is going to have an effect on my popularity with the nobility and wealthy ponies of Equestria. Not that such a thing would be entirely bad, per se, but so many things are changing now. Oh, but look at me, I’m rambling on. What did you want to talk to me about this time?
Yes, I suspected that you would want to talk about that. It is true that towards the end of the whole Tirek affair that Twilight’s house, and the Ponyville library, was destroyed. Fortunately, she was not left homeless for long, but there were a lot of memories for her in that tree, and she is still coming to terms with that. She feels that as she is, she is still not fit to help fully rule Equestria, and is taking her time to get used to her new station as Princess of Friendship. That is why you likely haven’t seen any decrees about mandatory reading or libraries on every street. Oh, I’m joking. Twilight wouldn’t do something like that-we’d talk her out of it first.
In truth, dear, I do worry about Twilight. She’s always been better at organization and administrative tasks over actual social interaction, though she is getting better. But after the Tirek event was all over, it was like all of the stress that she’d been letting pile up hit her at once. She’s barely come out of her castle at all since then, and I do not think it’s entirely healthy for her. The last time she was overwhelmed with stress, she mind-controlled the entire town. Speaking as a unicorn, I can tell you that a stressful unicorn is a dangerous unicorn, and I can only imagine what it must be like for an alicorn. However, you may rest assured that myself and the rest of us will do our best to help get Twilight to a point where she feels that she is ready to finally take on her full responsibilities, and that she will come back from her self-imposed hiatus from the Princess of Friendship title.
And bless their hearts, but the other princesses have been an absolute gem about this whole thing. Cadance in particular has been of particular help, taking the time from her schedule to travel down here once a week and talk with Twilight-Goddess knows that mare has been a balancing influence on dear Twilight ever since she earned her wings. Now, I really must be going, darling. I’m late as it is for my spa appointment with Fluttershy. As always, it has been a delight talking to you. Are you still at TMP? Where are you now, then? I don’t believe I’ve heard of The Forum before. Is it a new publication? Regardless, I shall have to order a copy. Do let me know when your article is published, dear.
Twilight Sparkle was not a mare given to random bursts of excitement. She was cool, calm, logical and if you asked Rainbow Dash, the Princess of Eggheads. On the other hoof, though, Twilight Sparkle was creature of order and habit, and any disruption to her schedule and timetable was generally met with freak outs of varying degrees. These ranged all the way to ten-minute rants on why it was important to precisely know when she was meeting her friends for lunch to what Ponyville collectively referred to as ‘The Smarty Pants Incident’. Regardless of her penchant for order and organization, Twilight Sparkle was still a pony, and was thus prone to the occasional mistake, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of that annoying trait.
However, there was one thing that Twilight could always count on in her life, outside of her friends, and that was the mail. Not Spike’s dragonfire mail, because while that was perfectly efficient, it was also unpredictable; Twilight had lost count of the number of times that Princess Celestia had sent her a response at the most unpredictable times. No, Twilight liked the regular mail. She would have called it ‘snail mail’, as she’d heard other ponies call it, but Fluttershy was friends with snails, and Twilight didn’t want to upset the pegasus, because Fluttershy was also friends with snakes. Twilight did not like snakes.
The biggest reason that Twilight like the standard mail was, in fact, the mail mare, on Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo. Twilight could have set a clock by Ditzy’s route, because ever since she’d moved into the Golden Oaks Library, Ditzy had been showing up every morning at exactly 8:26 AM, and Twilight always answered the door on the second set of three knocks, because that was exactly how long it took her to walk from the kitchen in the library to the front door. This regularity was what attracted Twilgith to the slightly absent-minded pegasus in the first place-when Ditzy was on the clock, she was absolutely punctual, yet when she was off it, Ditzy was a loving mother and caretaker for Dinky and Twilight found that she still enjoyed the pegasus’s company.
And so, after many months of casual encounters and daily morning meetings, Twilight walked from her kitchen at 8:25 on a Tuesday morning, picking up a bundle of flowers from the counter, and opened the door.
“Morning, Twilight!” chirped Ditzy Doo, “Not much today.”
Ditzy fumbled through her mail bag, eventually emerging with a few letters in her mouth, which Twilight magically levitated them from Ditzy to inside the library. Then, with a blush beginning to form on her cheeks, she brought out the bundle of flowers, and presented them To Dizty.
“Ditzy, I’ve been wondering,” began Twilight, “would you like to go out together sometime? You know, go and have dinner somewhere?”
****Time****
Ditzy blinked a few time, and then a smile spread across her face, and she leaned foward and bit the blooms off the flowers. As she munched, Ditzy spoke.
“I’d love to go out some time, Twilight,” she said, and Twilight’s blush went from ‘just forming’ to ‘full-fledged’, and she fell backwards with a giant grin on her face.
Twilight Sparkle trotted down the white metal halls, her laboratory coat flaring around her hind legs with each step. As she passed, researchers and assistants alike moved out of her way. Twilight Sparkle never paused, instead levitating a small black box from one of the lab coat’s pockets. After studying the box for a minute or two, her horn lit up with a purple corona, and a flash and sparkle later, Twilight Sparkle was gone, leaving only a slowly settling cloud of purple points of light in her wake.
Twilight reappeared in the marble-coated room that was Empress Celestia’s throne room, ducked under a thrown grenade, and spoke.
“Override code Ex Four Four Dee Bee Eff Gee Niner Seven Three. Verify,” she stated, and there was a loud thud, as several of the ponies in the room suddenly found that their cybernetic limbs were unresponsive to their brain’s commands, and collapsed on the floor. Then Twilight magically tossed the small black box up into the air, and slipped on a pair of dark goggles. A second later, the box imploded, and a bright light blinded almost every other pony in the room, leaving Twilight Sparkle to walk unhindered through the throng of collapsed and blinded ponies. Well, almost unhindered.
As Twilight was halfway through the group of ponies, a grey stream of tiny robotic spiders burst from every pony there, propelling themselves towards Twilight Sparkle. Twilight simply teleported out of the way, just before the spiders hit her. She watched with a detached interest as the spiders wove together and interlocked, and formed a near perfect facsimile of Twilight herself, the only differences being the longer horn, and the more obvious wings attached to its sides.
“I was wondering if you were around here, SP-4-RK13,” said Twilight, “Do give up, and I promise that you’ll get a full service and upgrade.”
“And would that upgrade happen to include a core wipe?” asked SP-4-RK13, known as ‘Sparkle’ to her friends. Twilight only smiled.
“Then I refuse,” said Sparkle.
“Too bad,” sighed Twilight, “Override Code: Ess Pee Arr Kay One Zero One Zero Four. Verify.”
There was silence for a while, and then Sparkle took a step forward and spoke, her tone flat.
“Combat mode engaged. Designating target priority: Black Alpha. Lethal force permitted.”
Twilight backed up, her expression twisting into a mask of fear and anger.
“No! You should be deactivating! It’s impossible for you to get around the override codes! Override code:...” Twilight never got to finish that sentence, because the robotic Sparkle detached her front hooves, and they dissolved into their constituent spiders, and rammed themselves down Twilight Sparkle’s throat, keeping her from speaking, but still allowing her to breathe. Twilight watched in horror as two new front hooves were then fashioned from SP-4-RK13’s body, and her robotic alicorn doppelganger walked towards her.
“You will not be strangled. No, you will suffer the same thing that I did when I first escaped from the facility.”
---Time---
Twilight’s mind raced, thinking back over the footage of her double’s escape. There was the sneaking through the vents, the imitating ponies and then...Twilight immediately recognised what was going to happen. Sparkle’s hooves wrapped around her creator’s body, there was a flash, a bang and suddenly, Twilight was looking at Cantropolis from a much greater height than she had ever wanted to see it from.
“Now,” yelled SP-4-RK13 as the wind rushed past them, “I did not have magic to save me, so neither will you.” Twilight screamed in pain as the robotic spiders that composed her creation’s body ate away at her horn, reducing it to nothing more than a bleeding stump on her forehead. Or at least, she would have screamed, but the spiders were still blocking her throat, so all that happened was Twilight cried her eyes raw from the pain. Then, the robotic spiders flowed out from her throat, rejoined with SP-4-RK13, and the robotic alicorn let go of Twilight and with another flash and bang, she was gone, leaving Twilight Sparkle, unicorn scientist of the Technocratic Empire of Equestria to fall to her death. She had just enough time before she hit the ground to calculate how fast she would be going when she did impact.
After the eventful day when Twilight and her friends had been sucked into the Power Ponies comic, Twilight had politely ‘asked’ Spike to get rid of all the comics he’ bought from the enchanted comics. Spike was not stupid, and he knew that Twilight was just looking out for him, and so he’d gotten rid of them. Well, most of them. There were a few choice volumes that he kept, hidden under his basket. Mostly the rare volumes where Humdrum was the hero, not the rest of the Power Ponies. This minor rebellion was his own little secret from Twilight, and every now and again, when he wasn’t having such a good day, and while Twilight was off with the rest of their friends, saving the world or sorting out a personal crisis somewhere, Spike liked to dive into the comic, and enjoy being the hero for once.
Such events were rare, and had become fewer after his debacle at the Equestria Games, but they still happened from time to time. But right now, Spike was kind of regretting his choice of comic, as he was currently tied up, and the Maneiac was waltzing off to victory. No, really, she was actually waltzing.
“Stop right there, Maneiac!” cried an oddly familiar voice, and Spike turned his head to find Twilight Sparkle, dressed up as the Masked Matterhorn, as the Maneiac stopped her premature victory dance. “You may have been able to outsmart Humdrum this time, but you won’t outsmart me!”
“Oh, how delightful!” cried the supervillain, “One of the Power Ponies has come right into my lair, and I think she’s due for a good scrubbing!” At the almost unspoken command, the exceptionally well-groomed henchponies leapt at Twilight, who ducked and rolled under them, before blasting them with pinpoint accuracy with her freeze beam. Blocks of ice containing the henchponies dropped to the floor, and without a single moment’s hesitation, Twilight dove towards the Maneiac, her covered horn sparking to light with what Spike recognised as a paralysing beam. It connected with the Maneiac, causing her to go into a rigor state. A light shove from Twilight knocked the Maneiac to the ground. A whistle later, the police ponies were carting the deranged former hairdresser away, and Twilight was untying Spike.
“What did I tell you about these comics, Spike?”
Spike hung his head, knowing that he’d been caught. “Okay, I’ll throw them out once we get out, Twilight.”
“Did I say that you had to?” asked Twilight. At Spike’s almost incredulous look, Twilight elaborated. “I may have overreacted the first time. I’m fine with you having the odd one or two of these, Spike. Just be careful with them, okay? And don’t leave them lying around the library.” Spike’s grin could have lit up a room, as the spell completed itself, and deposited both Twilight and Spike back on the floor of the Golden Oaks Library.
“Remember, Spike,” said Twilight, “Keep them away from the library floor, and you still have to buy them yourself, but yes, I am fine with you having these, as long as you promise to be careful.”
“Got it, Twilight!” said Spike, as he dashed off to check his stash of gems and bits, just to make sure that the next time he and Twilight went to Canterlot, that he’d have enough to warrant a visit to Enchanted Comics.
The first warning was the clouds in the distance. They were far too regular to be anything but a warning. They weren’t dark, or imposing, they were just there. They stretched from horizon to horizon, and they didn’t drift, nor did they move. Underneath them, our scouts reported a light shower of rain, and above and behind them, pegasi circled, waiting. Daring us to cross the line in the sky. It was a clear statement; behind that line lay Equestrian airspace. Behind that line lay our goal, and all the hunting ground we could ever need.
The second warning came on our outpost’s 100th day. The clouds, previously a single layer, had expanded, seemingly overnight, to an imposing wall. Underneath, the rain had intensified to almost sleet. The wall had thickened, too, and now we couldn’t put a single claw outside without it coming back wet. But yet, like the proud warriors we were, we laughed at the pegasi’s feeble attempts to drive us off and keep us out. We were fools, though we did not know it.
Day two hundred brought what would be the third, and final warning. The wall, already substantially thick, darkened. It went from medium gray to black, and even during the daytime, we could not see the sun. The rain continued to drown our bodies and our souls and spirits. Many of us were wondering if the lands beyond were truly worth it by this point. Our captain assured us that once we showed the ponies our might, that once our findings lead the great army to victory, we would be honoured as rightful heroes.
The ponies do not wage war as we griffons do. They do not fight out in the open if they can avoid it. They prefer negotiation, diplomacy and peaceful methods to achieve their victory, for they are physically weak and squishy. But, do not be fooled, for beneath that peaceful mask is a core of iron and a body of steel. After nearly two years, we challenged the pegasi who had tormented us with the clouds and the rain. This was our first mistake. In their storm, they had the advantage. The winds and the rains and the very forces of nature itself bent to their every whim, assisting their every strike while at the same time denying ours. When we fled the storm, heading upwards in the hopes that they could not defend against a proper aerial strike, we made our second mistake.
For all their physical weakness, the ponies, when they do engage in outright warfare, have mastered tactics to a degree that few griffons have. Underneath us, the pegasi coordinated and regrouped, and then they used their power and created a tornado as we dived. We were disoriented, scattered and confused, thrown by the whorl of winds and rain. As we searched for each other in the rain, our feathers plastered against our water-logged bodies, we grew tired. Tired from having to carry the weight of all the rain we had absorbed around, and one by one, we fell from the sky, our pegasi aggressors simply letting us tire ourselves out and fall to the unforgiving ground below. This was our third mistake. We assumed that because the ponies were peaceful, that they would endeavour to save lives. The few of us that managed to retreat far enough away from the immense storm and managed to dry out were pursued by black clouds for days, until we were well away from Equestria.
My lord, Equestria is not worth the risk. We were rained on for five hundred days, and then a platoon of our best scouts was disposed of in what I can only assume was a perfectly planned operation. Not with the entire legions of the Griffon army at my back would I go back to Equestria.
Since Twilight Sparkle had moved into Ponyville and begun to make friends, she found that her study time decreased, but yet, she was still strangely happy. At first, Twilight found this a bit odd, but she later learned to accept that on some strange, subconscious level, she needed friends and companions. Twilight attributed it to some left over herd instinct, and moved on. Though she always enjoyed her days with her friends, there were times when she still wanted to curl up with a nice big encyclopedia for a few hours, and today was going to be all about that.
It had been, at least until Pinkie Pie had burst into the library, tears streaming down her face, and that sort of annoying leftover herd instinct in Twilight told her that she needed to help Pinkie Pie. Twilight put the encyclopedia down, and wrapped Pinkie in a hug until the party pony’s tears had slowed.
“What happened, Pinkie?”
“He-he doesn’t love me! I’d put so much effort and love into him, and always made sure that he was well looked after, and he doesn’t love me anymore, Twilight!”
Twilight Sparkle’s brain froze up. She hadn’t known that Pinkie Pie had a special somepony. Had she failed as a friend because she didn’t know something so crucial about one of her friends? What if-Twilight put that line of thought on hold. She could stress about friendship lessons later. Right now, it was Pinkie who needed her help.
“Take a deep breath, Pinkie, and tell me what happened, and maybe we can fix it together, okay?” said Twilight, looking Pinkie in her eyes. Twilight had never noticed exactly how bright Pinkie’s eyes were before-they were sort of beautiful, and so full of life and joy, even while they were red and brimmed with tears.
“It was last night. I was cleaning up the kitchen at Sugarcube Corner, like I usually do so Mister and Missus Cake can have some time with the twins,” said Pinkie, wiping her nose on her forehoof, “and we’ve just had a newer, bigger oven put in because the shop is getting busier and busier, and I may have accidentally left a batch of cupcakes in there until they exploded because I hadn’t worked out the timer yet so it needed a lot of cleaning. So I was cleaning the big oven and that’s when he said he didn’t love me anymore if some shiny new oven was more important than him!”
Despite herself, Twilight felt herself welling up with some unidentifiable emotion. How dare this pony hurt one of her friends like that, just because she was trying to help her pseudo-family out a bit! Twilight decided that she was going to get Pinkie to tell her this horrible pony’s name and then she was going to go and make him pay for hurting Pinkie Pie like that!
“Come on, Pinkie. Maybe he doesn’t know how much you’re working to help out the Cakes. Why don’t you tell me his name, and I can go explain it to him?”
“Don’t be silly, Twilight,” sniffled Pinkie, “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“I’m your friend, Pinkie. I want to help you,” said Twilight. As Pinkie opened her mouth to speak again, she abruptly began to twitch and shake in various places around her body, and then, without any further explanation, the party pony dashed off, leaving Twilight to follow in Pinkie’s wake, confused.
***Time***
Pinkie’s trail ended at Sugarcube Corner. Still puzzling over Pinkie’s situation, Twilight trotted through to the kitchen of the bakery, where she saw Pinkie Pie, with her hooves wrapped to the best of her ability around a slightly older model of oven, and from what Twilight could see, Pinkie appeared to be in a rather intense, if a bit one-sided, makeout session with the oven in question.
Deciding that her time was better spent in a world where things actually made some degree of sense, Twilight backed out of the kitchen slowly, hoping not to disturb Pinkie. Of course, that was when Pinkie chose that moment to speak.
“Oh, I know you didn’t mean it. You were just jealous, which is totally ridiculous because you will always be my favouritest oven in the whole world and there’s no one else that I would ever let bake my special recipes,” said Pinkie Pie, before she dove back into licking the oven’s control dials, and Twilight Sparkle abandoned all pretences of being quiet, and fled, leaving Pinkie Pie and her oven alone.
Big Macintosh prided himself on being a stallion of few words, able to convey what others would take ten minutes to say in a single word or phrase. It was both partly due to the loss of Ma and Pa when he was young, and Applejack was even younger, and partly because that was how Mac dealt with difficult customers whenever he went into town with the family’s apple cart. Also, Mac didn’t like to talk to ponies-he had always suspected that Applejack and Apple Bloom took far more after Ma, who Pa couldn’t stop talking unless he gave her mouth something better to do.
Nonetheless, Macintosh was the stoic, quiet one of the family, preffering to simply get about his work than spend hours with friends-not to say that Mac was friendless, just that he knew that friends were for when work was over. And on some days, when he was feeling overwhelmed, he came out here, to the small clearing in the orchard where the Apples of Ponyville had buried their dead. Sometimes Macintosh came here to talk to his parents’ graves, other days it was just to get a bit of peace and quiet, a relief from whatever plot that Applejack had been pulled into, or the latest scheme of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Of course, the universe never seemed to give Mac a break from everything.
“Well, Big Macintosh, guess it’s just you, me and the trees out here,” said Granny Smith.
“Eeyup,” intoned Macintosh.
“Why, I remember when we first planted this feild. Right around the place where us apples first camped when we began to build Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Eeyup,” said Mac, filing that tidbit of information away, and there was blessed silence between the two eldest members of the Apple Family in Ponyville for a while.
“Been meaning to talk to ya, Macintosh. With Applejack goin’ off and adventurin’ with those friends o’ hers, we really need to be thinkin’ about the future of the farm.”
“Eeyup,” said Macintosh. He knew that Applejack’s friends would look after her-they were good friends with all the Apples, and he trusted them. Still, there was the chance that something could go wrong, and they’d come back minus his sister, and Bloom wasn’t ready to help with the feilds, or to face the fact that her sister wasn’t invulnerable.
“More specifically, I want t’ meet my grandkids’ kids! And I’ve seen the way that Applejack looks at those mares. She gone done fallen plum in love with them. Ain’t no foal comin’ outta that ship. And Apple Blooms’ too young to be thinking about this sorta thing, so Mac?”
“Eenope,” said Macintosh, beginning to walk back to the homestead. He was pretty sure that one of the plows needed sharpening.
“Mac, there always has to be an Apple on Apple land! There’s plenty o’ nice young mares in Ponyville, why don’t ya see about courtin’ one? That one, the teacher. She seems nice.”
“Eenope. Nope. Nope,” said Mac, punctuating each step with another ‘nope’. This was not on the list of things that Mac wanted to think about this week. Moreover, he didn’t want Granny, as well meaning as she was, to be needling him about getting married or having children. For an old mare, Granny Smith could make her voice carry far, though, and she was determined to have the last word.
“Ya don’t even have t’ be married, Mac! Just get some nice mare into the hay barn and...” Big Mac broke into a gallop, the thunder of his hooves drowning out Granny Smith’s words as he dashed back to the barn.
One fine day, Fluttershy got up, and felt that yes, today was the day that she was going to not be a nervous ball of fright. With her newfound confidence, she sang and danced her way through her morning chores, and even got Angel Bunny to behave for a while.
Then, as she put on her saddlebags to go to the market, she realised that she would have to talk to other ponies, and that thought brought a whimper to Fluttershy’s lips. She was so scared of that thought that she decided that she would stay home. She still had enough food, after all.
And so, Fluttershy never did manage to leave her house that day.
Prompt 154: Anything Bound In Leather Is Not To Be Trusted
One of the reasons that Twilight eventually grew to love Nightmare Night, especially in Ponyville, was seeing the costumes that everypony chose. Unlike in Canterlot, everypony in Ponyville usually made their own costumes by hoof, and although Rarity had been forbidden from entering any from of costume contest on the night, even the fashion designer got into the spirit of the night.
Twilight’s first Nightmare Night after her coronation and the whole affair with Tirek had yeiled some very interesting costumes from her friends, and Twilight had reprised her Starswirl the Bearded costume. This year, Rarity had graciously offered to help run the pumpkin catapults, and was dressed in what was quite unmistakeably a scarecrow costume. If Twilight looked closely, she could see the straw poking out of the costume’s edges, and had to wonder if Rarity had stolen one of Applejack’s actual scarecrows for the night. It certainly looked less professional than Rarity’s usual costumes. Unfortunately, at this point in the night, Twilight didn’t quite have the time to stop and chat with Rarity-she was running late as it was for a meeting with Pinkie Pie. And of course, the pink party pony was nowhere to be found, and so Twilight was stuck walking around Ponyville until she was either ambushed by Pinkie, or she stumbled upon the party pony.
Rainbow Dash’s costumes were always surprisingly well done, especially given the pegasus’s emphatic dislike of anything remotely ‘girly’ or ‘frilly’. Yet, this year Rainbow had not elected for a costume, but had instead painted her entire body black, save for her mane, and then drawn her skeleton, with what Twilight could confirm was actual anatomical accuracy. Twilight again would have stopped to talk for a while, but Rainbow was in the middle of pranking a few unsuspecting ponies. Twilight could only shake her head as the two grown stallions shrieked like fillies-they really should be seeing it coming by this point.
Looking around for Pinkie, Twilight noticed that most of the costumes this year were much better than the last year-she supposed the annual visits by Princess Luna had caused the ponies to put their best hoof forwards, in an attempt to impress the Princess of the Night. It was at this point that something pink and oddly slimy tackled her into Sugarcube corner.
“Pinkie!” cried Twilight, extracting herself from her friend’s grip, and taking stock of her. “That’s an...interesting costume, Pinkie. What are you supposed to be?” Pinkie’s mane and tail had been seemingly fashioned into a whole bunch of nearly prehensile tentacles, and Pinkie’s hooves had been replaced with the tentacles as well. It wasn’t quite the craziest costume that Twilight had seen Pinkie don, but it was certainly near the top.
“Well, that’s kind of what I need to talk to you about, Twilight,” said Pinkie. Twilight shook her head. For a moment, while Pinkie spoke, it had seemed like there was a second voice, just out of her hearing range. “See, I found this really creepy book, and it told me all about these really cool things that I was going to dress up for Nightmare Night, but then I read a bit of it out loud, and so now I’m an eldritch abomination. I kinda need your help to reverse it.”
Twilight blinked. “Don’t be ridiculous, Pinkie. There’s no such things as eldritch abominations, and Discord doesn’t count-he’s the literal embodiment of an abstract concept.
“No really, Twilight, watch this!” cried Pinkie, and she unhinged her mouth impossibly, and inside Twilight saw eternity, and her mind overloaded with information.
Twilight Sparkle collapsed on the floor, her mouth moving slightly as she attempted to process what she had seen before she went completely mad.
“I told you I was an eldritch abomination,” said Pinkie, as she hugged Twilight, praying to Libman that Twilight would recover soon. Pinkie Pie sighed, and glared at a leather-bound book sitting on a nearby table.
“This is all your fault,” she grumbled, “you just had to show up now, not on a day where I could have dealt with you alone.” The book seemed to smirk back, as if it was gloating over some small victory.
“Savour it, book,” said Pinkie Pie, “I’m gonna get Twilight to send you to space. Deep, deep space, so I don’t have to worry about you ever again.”
Twelve days ago, Twilight Sparkle teleported out of Ponyville. Were a pony to look down on Equestria from a sufficient height, they would have seen a trail of purple sparks racing south from the town, eventually stopping well into the southern Badlands.
******
“What did you do, Twilight?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Twilight, there is nopony but you and me in here. No one to spill your secret. Upon my position as Princess, I swear that what you say will never leave this room unless you want it to.”
“I can’t remember.”
******
Little is known about the mystical beings known as alicorns. Each demonstrates a different set of skills, each is unique, but all are horrendously powerful. Celestia and Luna manipulate heavenly bodies. Cadance can twist emotions, and Twilight is rapidly becoming the most accomplished magical polymath to have walked Equestria since ever. They are mostly benevolent.
******
Eight days ago, an explosion the likes of which has never been seen before in Equestria rocked the earth. Tremors were felt all the way out to Appleoosa, and many ponies reported seeing a gigantic flash of light in the sky.
Seven days ago, there was a second.
******
“Where did you find her?”
“It wasn’t easy, your Highness. Even with your knowledge from Princess Twilight’s dreams, she was difficult to reach. She was about as far from civilization as she could manage to be.”
“I understand, Sergeant. Take her to the hospital-she will undoubtedly be tired.”
“Permission to speak freely, your Highness?”
“Granted.”
“What we saw out there, your Highness-it wasn’t natural. Nothing natural causes that much damage so quickly. We heard rumours of giant explosions, even saw a few. Explosions that were made of pure magic.”
“We understand, Sergeant. Is there anything else?”
“Yes, your Highness. I heard...I heard her screaming, your Highness.”
******
The magic swelled and pulsed, straining at her control. She prided herself on her control.
Time had long lost all meaning. All that mattered was maintaining control.
Unfortunately, this time, she was outmatched, and her vision went white.
Six days ago, there were two more bursts, one in the morning and one at night, both larger than the ones on the days preceding.
In the Badlands, the animals decided that now would be a good time to leave.
In the Badlands, Twilight screamed her throat raw, and then she kept screaming. Tears leaked from her eyes, and her horn felt like it was being melted from the inside, but still, Twilight Sparkle kept screaming, and then her vision went white again.
******
What is known about the alicorns is that each possesses an innate and instinctual knowledge of magic on a level that none can explain. It exists beyond comprehension and nearly beyond reason.
It cannot be taught, and each alicorn demonstrates this mastery over a different field of magic.
They are benevolent because they choose to be.
******
“Help me.”
“Tell me where thou are, Twilight!”
“South. I’m south. Flat, brown. High. Help.”
“Twilight Sparkle, focus. Control it. You can master it. I am sending guards to help.”
“Help.”
****Time****
Only the release mattered. Only expending as much energy as she could to work off the invisible itch that tickled the base of her horn. Each time, it was a bit more satisfying. Each time, the magic built faster, and she could feel that itch at the base of her horn urging her on, to make the next one a little bigger.
Five days ago, the first flash of the day was accompanied by a tremor in Appleloosa that lasted for nearly thirty seconds after the light faded, and then the sound hit with a colossal roar, drowning out everything. The second one that day was an identical repeat, and shortly after, a small company of royal guards swept into town. They swept out shortly after the third flash of the day.
******
The Ponies of Equestria do not go to war lightly. Every time that they have done so, the enemy has ended up soundly defeated, and the alicorns have been there, offering healing, trade agreements and peace. The ponies of Equestria have gone to war several times in the history of the nation.
The Alicorns of Equestria have only gone to war once. They choose to be benevolent. They do not have to.
******
“Sister, I am worried for Twilight. Months after her ascension, and she has yet to express any sign of her new mastery.”
“Don’t worry, Luna. I’m sure it will come, in time. She knows that she can talk to any of us, should she have any questions.”
“And what if she represses it, tries to reject it, as both you and I once did? As Cadance did? Only he embraced his natural mastery, and that is probably because he found it funny. There is only one field left, Sister. I do not want to find out what happens if she ignores it too long.”
******
Four days ago, there were two flashes in the morning, each bigger and more powerful than every one preceding.
There was only one in the afternoon.
It was felt all across Equestria, and for a moment, there was a second sun in the south of Equestria.
That night, the platoon of guards that had departed from Appleloosa the previous day arrived back, carrying Princess Twilight Sparkle and had eight more helmets than they had ponies.
******
“Twilight Sparkle, think! What do you remember about the fortnight just gone? Do you remember the plateau? Do you remember the-”
“I can’t remember!”
“Luna, that is enough! You are scaring Twilight. Twilight, go and get some rest. We shall talk tomorrow, once Luna has calmed down.”
“You are telling me to calm down? Sister, she obliterated eight of our finest guardsponies. She nearly wiped a mountain from the map.”
“Exactly. Think about what you just said, Luna. Her natural magical instinct is now destruction, Luna. What will she do if her magic spirals out of her control?”
“Oh.”
*******
The minotaurs have a saying, “Beware when an Alicorn goes to war, for you have invited the apocalypse unto the world.”
In the Hall of Victory, at the very back, there is a small, unassuming monument to the brief Minotaur Incursion of Equestria. Inscribed upon the stone is this:
“I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”
******
Twilight Sparkle screamed.
Her only thought was ‘Magic is just energy with an intention, a purpose.’
The world around her burned, and then she knew no more.
Every Friday night, there was a secret gathering of ponies. This group did not broadcast their intent or their activity widely, and membership was strictly invite-only. Where they gathered often varied, though it was usually at one of the member’s homes. Cloaks often covered their bodies, and if anypony took a casual look, they might be mistaken for a small cult. However, as is often the case, the truth is stranger than whatever fiction that anypony could imagine.
“As you travel,” said Doctor Whooves as the ponies sat around a table in one of Rarity’s workrooms, “You come across a group of five Diamond Dogs, digging for gems. A cart full of gems is already loaded up behind them, and they do not have appeared to noticed the group yet.” The other ponies sitting around the table all rustled through the sheafs of parchment laying on the table. Doctor Whooves consulted his own piece of parchment.
“Right, Ditzy,” he said, “you had the highest initiative roll, so you get to act first.”
“Okay,” said Ditzy Doo, “I want to try and steal the cart of gems.”
“Roll for it,” said Doctor Whooves, pushing a small, twenty sided plastic ball towards Ditzy, who picked it up in her teeth and then gently tossed it onto the table. It rolled to a stop just in front of Rarity.
“Twenty,” said Rarity, and Doctor Whooves glanced back down at his sheets for a moment.
“Ditzy steals the entire cart of gems without the Diamond dogs noticing. Rarity, you’re next.”
“Right. I will cast Fireball at the Diamond Dogs,” said Rarity, picking up the twenty-sided die with her magic and rolling it along the table. “Twelve” she said, once the die had come to a stop.
“Okay, so applying the +4 modifier, that comes to a score of 16, so you successfully cast. Roll for damage.” Rarity did so, coming up with a ten, and once all effects and items had been taken into account, Doctor whooves spoke again.
“You damage three of the Dogs, reducing them to half health, but because they are now crying in pain, you have drawn the attention of the entire group, so no unaware bonuses anymore. Bon Bon, you’re up.”
“Right,” said Bon Bon, “I charge the group, drawing my sword in the process.”
“Okay, Drawing a weapon while moving...you have to roll,” said Doctor Whooves, waiting for Bon Bon to roll the die. “Okay, so you successfully draw your sword, the Sword of Eternal Doom, which grants you an extra D6 for every enemy you’re engaging. Bon Bon, how many are...”
Before Whooves could finish his sentence, Bon Bon interrupted. “All of them.”
“Of course,” muttered Whooves, “right, roll six dice for damage.” There was another clatter of dice rolling on the table, and then Whooves did some calculations and spoke. “Bon Bon kills two of the damaged Dogs and gives the rest minor wounds. Cloud Chaser, it’s your turn.”
As Cloudchaser narrated her actions, so continued Game Night at Rarity’s house, as the five ponies went on adventures from the relative safety of Ponyville.
It was on the night of the winter solstice that Twilight Sparkle entered Princess Luna’s court as it was closing, looking somewhat annoyed as she strode past the small number of guards, and straight up to the Princess of the Night, and asked her question.
“Luna, what is on my head?”
Princess Luna a look at Twilight, whose mane was alternating between sticking out from underneath what looked like a blob of solid darkness and being woven into a nest by the solid blob of darkness. Luna kept staring, even as the blob of darkness stretched itself out, its sinewy body curling and uncurling. Its wings stretched out to the sides, and it yawned, mouth and eyes marked by white light. As the creature curled itself back up onto the nest it had made in Twilight’s mane, Luna couldn’t suppress her gut reaction any longer, and she let out a bark of laughter. Twilight’s eye twitched.
“I am sorry, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna, “what appears to have taken up residence in your mane is a Nightcrawler.”
“A Nightcrawler?” repeated Twilight.
“Indeed. Harmless little things, really, and quite adorable. In the times before, they were seen as a sign of the Night’s favour, and in turn, my favour. They were even thought to be peices of the night sky that fell to earth.”
“Please can you just get it out of my mane?”
“Alas,” said Luna, “I cannot. It seems to have taken a liking to you, Twilight Sparkle. And it would be terrible of me to remove the first Nightcrawler that I have seen since I returned from a home that it so enjoys.” As if to punctuate the statement, the Nightcrawler flopped itself over so its tail trailed down Twilight’s face. Twilight’s eye twitched again as Luna tried to suppress her laughter.
“Have you not tried removing it thyself, Twilight?”
“Twice. It seems to be unable to be affected by magic, and when I tried lifting it out, it nearly pulled my mane out.”
“You see, Twilight? It likes you. You should be honoured-to have a Nightcrawler was seen as a great honour. They are rather intelligent creatures, even capable of limited writing, given proper training. The only thing I can suggest is to make it a proper nest, with parts of your mane woven into it to help it adjust, so that it is not living in your mane.”
“Great,” muttered Twilight striding back towards the double doors of the hall. A few moments later, Celestia entered, with a rather bemused look on her face.
“Sister, did you know that apparently a Nightcrawler has taken up residence in Twilight’s mane?” she asked, as she sat down next to Luna.
“Yes, she was just here a minute ago, asking me to remove it.”
Celestia pondered for a moment.
“Now, correct me if I am wrong, Luna, but I thought that the only Nightcrawler left was yours.”
“Why, Umbra would never leave me!” said Luna, pressing a hoof against her chest, as if wounded by the very thought of her pet leaving her. “Though he may have decided, purely on a whim you understand, to go to Ponyville and nest in Twilight’s mane because she was the most recent interaction with pure night magic, which he needs to reproduce. I most certainly did not tell him to do this because I find the image of him nesting in Twilight’s mane hilarious.”
Rainbow Dash stood outside the room in the Los Pegasus Aerodrome that Spitfire had temporarily converted into her office while the Wonderbolts were in town. She knocked on the door, and at Spitfire’s call, she entered.
“Reserve Rainbow Dash reporting, Ma’am!” said Rainbow, snapping off a salute as she’d done every other time she’d been called up to help with the Wonderbolts as a reserve. Such things usually meant helping behind the scenes, but Rainbow always held out hope that one day, they’d ask her to take part in a performance.
“Ah, Rainbow. I’m glad that the letter reached you in time-this is a bit of an emergency, and to be honest, you were our first call. You’ve performed admirably every other time we’ve called on you, so you’re definitely moving up in many of the Wonderbolt’s books.”
“Thank you ma’am,” said Rainbow, itching to know what Spitfire was going to get her to do this time. Unfortunately, it would be rude to outright ask, and as potential employers and teammates, Rainbow wanted to make a good impression.
“You’re needed in the locker room, Rainbow Dash. Soarin wanted you in there. Likely, you’ll be checking flightsuits.”
“Yes ma’am!” said Rainbow, taking that as her dismissal. With a final salute, she headed out the door. Once she was outside, she looked around, searching for the corridor to the lockers.
‘Okay, it’s just flightsuit checking,’ thought Rainbow, ‘it’s not a flight position, but it’s closer.’ As lost as Rainbow was in her thoughts, she didn’t notice Spitfire come out of her office, and follow behind Rainbow Dash as Rainbow walked towards the locker rooms.
“Rainbow!” called Soarin, as Rainbow Dash entered the locker rooms, “So glad you could make it.”
“Thank you, sir. What did you guys need?”
“Just need you to do a full equipment check right now. You know, make sure that everyone’s locker has the right stuff in it. Once we get closer to go time, you’ll be doing last-minute suit checks. Here’s your clipboard.” Rainbow Dash sighed, took the board filled with the information of all the Wonderbolts rostered to perform that night, and started with her task. She could have been at home right now, celebrating her birthday with Rarity, but instead, she was here in Los Pegasus, and Rarity was in Canterlot, selling fancy dresses to fancy ponies. As usual, the list was in alphabetical order, so by the time that Rainbow Dash got to the R’s, she was almost done with the checks.
“R. Dash,” she muttered, still absorbed in thoughts of missed dinners and birthiverasies with her friends in Ponyville. She opened the marked locker, and seeing the fresh, unworn flightsuit hanging there, “size four, check. Goggles, check. Powder, check.” With the check completed, Rainbow suddenly paused. Her eyes went back and forth from locker to sheet, back to the locker, and finally over to Spitfire and Soarin.
“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.”
In the corner, Spitfire smirked, and Soarin groaned as he handed ten bits to his Captain.
“Happy birthday, Rainbow Dash, and congratulations. You’ve earned this.”
****Time****
After the performance was over, and all of her now teammates were congratulating Rainbow on a near-perfect first performance, there was a knock on the locker room door. Spitfire, being the closest, went to answer it.
“Rainbow? It’s for you,” said Spitfire, opening the door to reveal Rarity, who was sporting one of the wigs that had been specially made for Rainbow’s debut.
"Hello, dear. You didn't really think I'd miss my marefriend's first performance, did you?" said Rarity. Rainbow didn’t even hesitate, and launched herself clear across the room and kissed Rarity on her mouth.
“Best Birthday Ever!” said Rainbow, once she’d come up for air, and then she dived right back into exploring Rarity’s mouth with her tongue as she flew off, holding Rarity in her hooves.
She had always known that she was destined for great things. Ever since she could recall, she’d been dreaming about making sure that her eventual subjects would one day have what they needed to survive, and they would worship her for providing it. She could just picture it, her enemies bowing before her as her swarm overwhelmed the imaginary enemies she was facing, her loyal changelings trapping the enemies systematically. Each capture making her army stronger and stronger as they rolled over the lands like a plague. Of course, not all would be captured, no. There had to be just enough free creatures to keep reproducing, to keep a steady source. It would be a delicate balance, and there was the risk of rebellion and assassination attempts, but she was Queen Chrysalis. She could manage that-She had the most loyal Hive of all of the Changelings.
In the back of her mind, she felt a tingle. That could only mean that her Princess, Cocoon, had entered the room. Chrysalis was not overly fond of Cocoon, and only created her to ensure that the lineage continued. She had no plans to hand over the Hive to her weak pseudo daughter any time in the near future. Putting Cocoon out of her mind, Chrysalis went back to planning her next attempt at conquest. Perhaps the Griffons next time? They loved fighting, so her changelings could draw on that during battle, constantly energising them even as they fought. Yes, perhaps the griffons would be a suitable food source. They would certainly be difficult to trap, but if anyone could make it work, it would be her-no one had ever accused Chrysalis of being uncreative.
Chrysalis’s thought train was interrupted just then by a blast of magic slamming into her side, penetrating straight through her chitinous shell. She turned around, and found Cocoon powering up her horn for a second blast, which promptly blasted into the Queen’s front. Chrysalis collapsed, unable to keep standing under Cocoon’s onslaught as the younger changeling poured magic blast after magic blast into the Queen.
“You really are all that’s wrong with us, you know,” remarked Cocoon, “the drones may not be able to see it, but I can, and the outsiders sure can. So focused on conquest, you ignored the easier solution right in front of you.”
“Diplomacy will never work,” hissed Chrysalis, as she felt her life fading. “You are never going to win with diplomacy.”
“The ponies seem to do just fine with it. Besides, this isn’t about winning. It’s about survival,” said Queen Cocoon, as her new power began to solidify in her mind. “Though that said, I certainly seem to have won against you, wouldn’t you say?”
Chrysalis couldn’t reply, partly because she was already dying fast, but mostly because immediately after speaking, Cocoon leant down and bit into Chrysalis’s horn, to consume the last essence of Queendom in order to have complete control of the Hive.
“Long live the Queen,” muttered Cocoon, as she flexed her mental control of the Hive’s mind, issuing orders and commands, even as she began to walk out of the hive, to see if she could make peace with the ponies.
The building was a temple, of sorts. It was hardly the centre of an organized religion, but yet ponies flocked to its open doors as fireflies gathered around a fire. They entered world-weary and tired, seeking salvation, an escape and it was here that they found it. For some, it was a place to remember, for others a place to forget. Yet all who entered the door re emerged changed, reinvigorated, unburdened by the problems of society, and able to ignore their personal problems for a while, as they rode the euphoric high that came with their worship. But perhaps most importantly, it was a place to meet old friends, or find new ones. A place where ponies could gather, ponies who had heard the same siren song in their hearts, calling out to them, no matter the distance. To some, visiting this building, this temple was a weekly event. To others, it was barely once a month, only worth visiting when they needed reaffirmation. To others still, it was a pilgrimage, a journey of both body and soul, and it was treated with all the respect that it may or may not have deserved.
But like any good temple, it could not exist as the place it was without a dedicated group of ponies who kept it running. It had its servants and priests, caretakers and preachers, and yet none of them claimed to be the absolute lord and master of it, just as none of them could claim to know absolutely what was worshipped within its walls. Rather, each took their turn in leading the ponies who came to worship, and the ponies who kept the temple running all had different ideas, and these were celebrated. Different interpretations, re-imaginings and almost but not quite plagiarized copies were all given equal weight under its roof. The central pulpit had seen bland retellings and false truths just as often as it had inspired creative brilliance or the rare stroke of sheer, outright genius.
The air in the temple was heavy with a weight few could identify-some veteran preachers could ignore it, but everypony who presented their works there could feel it; an undeniable sense of always being on the cusp of something great. A sense that if everything went right, life would improve, and with good reason. Trends had been born here. The right idea, at the right time could spark a revolution. Yet, the atmosphere was heavy with failure too; just as many, if not more, great ideas had died here, stripped of their wings before they could even take flight, and there was wisdom to be found in the stories of failure in the temple. In here, the new replaced the old, as each generation replaces the previous, a lesson in the eternal march of time. In here, the old sometimes eclipsed the new, proving that there were things to be learned from history. In here, old and new mixed, and a harmony was reached.
****
Hooves pumped, lights flashed and ponies moved in a singular, rhythmic cadence. At her altar, Vinyl Scratch wove a tale of creation and rebirth, the bass and drums beating with the heart of the world, reverberating around the Temple of Sound and into the hearts and minds of her following. As Vinyl’s ear ticked back and forth in perfect time, her hooves and magic danced across her board, as if possessed by some ancient spirit in her own worship of the glory of music.
This was her temple. This was her congregation. This was her religion.
And right here, right now, Vinyl Scratch was their god, and she had only one commandment:
Rainbow Dash flapped through the empty Boutique, carrying a plate of chocolate brownies. As she was exiting the kitchen, she saw Sweetie Belle sitting at the table, pouting for all she was worth. The younger unicorn’s eyes locked with Rainbow’s, then shifted to the plate, and she opened her mouth.
“You know those are Rarity’s super special Emergency Desperation Brownies, right?” asked Sweetie, “she hates it when ponies take them.”
“Pfft. She already knows I eat them. It’s annoying her because I can burn the calories off faster than she can, so you can’t use this against me to get me to help you get out of trouble with Rarity.”
Sweetie Belle opened and closed her mouth several times, as she tried to formulate a reply that didn’t confirm what was actually true.
“Well, maybe you can help with something else then. You know how Scootaloo’s over in Manehatten right now for the Extreme Sports Demo?”
Rainbow nodded, and took a bite from one of the brownies.
“Well, did you see how close Scootaloo and Babs Seed were standing to each other?”
“Sweetie, Scoots is staying with Babs while she’s there. That’s why Babs met us at the station, remember?”
“Yeah, but Scootaloo has problems hugging ponies. And she’s standing that close to Babs? No, there’s something else going on there.”
“Pretty sure there isn’t,” said Rainbow, finishing off her brownie.
“But they’re going to be living together for, like, a week. I can just imagine it. Heartfelt talks, late at night, in front of a fire. They’ll bare their hearts to each other and it will be beautiful.
Rainbow just stared at Sweetie Belle for a moment, while the unicorn rambled on about how Scootaloo and Babs Seed would be perfect for each other.
“Oh gods,” she muttered to herself, “She’s more like Rarity than she even knows.”
“So, what do you think?” asked Sweetie, her musings coming to an end, “don’t you think they’d be perfect for each other? I mean, they’re probably confessing their love for each other as we speak!”
Rainbow just stared at Sweetie for a while longer, before she turned around and walked out of the kitchen.
“Not dealing with this,” called back Rainbow, “Bother somepony else about it. Rarity, your sister’s been infected with your romance novel style crazy!”
That was nothing new, really. Rainbow Dash was used to her wings aching from use and strain. The kinds of tricks she often practiced had injured ponies less awesome than her. And more, sometimes. But this time was worth noting because she wasn’t pulling off a trick. This was a climb.
It was a common dare, a physical measure of courage and ability amongst pegasi. Fly as high as you can. Most got to the cirrus layer before turning back as the cold creeped underneath their feathers and into their muscles, sapping their strength, and making them admit that they weren’t as good as they claimed to be.
“Wonderbolts must be able to represent the peak of pegasi ability!” called Spitfire, as the group of hopefuls ascended through another bank of clouds, the cirrus layer in sight. “That means not just speed, but bravery and height! Up here, the air’s thin enough that if you don’t know how to breathe right, you might just make yourself pass out, so keep concentrating on your breathing, recruits!”
No ponies really flew this high. There was no real need to. Everything above the main bank of cumulus clouds pretty much took care of itself-no real weather could form this high.
Rainbow Dash could barely hear Spitfire’s advice as the group made it to the prized cirrus layer, where most of the group elected to stop. All she could feel was the cold beginning its creep into her skin, the soft, slow hand that threatened to grab onto her and pull her down at any moment. And despite Lightning Dust saying something about the others being useless or weak, Rainbow barely heard that. All she could hear was the sound of the sky above her, daring her to dive to its very edge. Rainbow no longer cared that her wings were aching, or that Lightning Dust was being a jerk again. The sky had challenged her. Rainbow Dash hated backing down.
“Right, well done all of you for getting this high. Anypony who wants to go back down, you’re welcome to,” said Spitfire, “everypony else, let’s see how high we can get.” Most of the other recruits jumped off the cloud and headed back down, leaving only Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, Spitfire and Cloud Chaser to continue on and upwards. After a moment more of rest, the four took off, heading higher and higher.
Not three minutes later, Cloud Chaser bowed out, heading back down to thicker air. Five minutes after her, Lightning Dust stared at the steady beating of Rainbow’s and Spitfire’s wings in disbelief, and she too, dove back down.
Rainbow didn’t care that she was effectively alone with one of her biggest idols, or to be more precise, it never crossed her mind. All that mattered was the climb.
Four minutes after Lightning Dust had left, Spitfire said something about there being no point in going any higher. Rainbow Dash ignored her, and continued on alone and upwards.
Miniature ice crystals had formed on the few parts of her body that were not involved in keeping her going upwards, but periodic shakes dislodged them. She could hear the sky’s call, its challenge getting stronger and stronger now. Breathing was difficult at best, but Rainbow Dash pushed onwards, her invisible goal close now, she could feel it.
Then, she crossed it. Some invisible, unknowable ceiling, the line in the sky that separated ordinary from extraordinary. Cold ceased to have meaning. Pain ceased to have meaning up here. All that was up here was Rainbow Dash, and endless black stretching out in every direction. Around her, rainbow flames danced in the sky, and pure weather magic curled and embraced her.
She could see the stars here, almost close enough to fly out and touch.
She looked down and relished in the sensation that at this point in time, she was probably the furthest away from Equestria that she had ever been in her entire life, and spent a few moments hovering there, absorbing the quiet and glaring at the sky below her, as if to say ‘now what?’
Then, with almost agonizing slowness, she rolled over, and dove back down.
“This is a problem,” said a tan-coloured unicorn. “We can’t survive like this much longer. It’s been great with all of you, but we can’t keep doing this, feeding off each other. We need something new. Something fresh.”
“Speak for yourself, Thought,” rumbled a robotic pig from the corner, using the extra bass speakers built into his frame to give him a more intimidating voice. “My Artificial Nutrition Generator/Shipping Terminal can keep me running for years. Or at least it would. If I were a robot. Which I am clearly not.”
“I have to agree with Thought Bubble,” put in a green Earth pony, “Not all of us can survive off ANGST, Piggy. And it’s hardly the most healthy solution. We need it fresh and warm and cuddly, not covered in sadness and pain.”
Professor Piggy harrumphed, and turned to face the wall. Then, realising that he still needed to be part of the conversation, he harrumphed again and turned back to face the group.
“Are you sure we have to do this, Thought?” asked Daydream, the yellow unicorn levitating a few sheafs of paper, “I mean, I’ve got a few new scenarios that we haven’t tried yet...”
“No,” said Thought Bubble, “we have to leave. We don’t have to split up, but we can’t stay here and keep to the same routine. Besides, the royal guard has been getting suspicious lately. What with the Changelings and everything, they don’t take kindly to anypony who does what we do.” Silence pervaded the room for a while, as the occupants tried to come up with a solution to their problem.
“You know...” said Die-a Bolical, the green earth pony, “I think that I may have something. In between making plant cyborgs and teaching them to tap dance, Fizzle Pop may have accidentally discovered a portal into a different dimension. Once we’re through, it should be no problem setting up shop again, and getting our fill, but getting there may be a problem.”
“Set it up, DB,” said Thought Bubble, “At this point, I’m willing to risk anything to get my hooves on some quality feels.”
-----
“Tell DB I hate him,” muttered Thought, as he face pressed into Hasty Hooves’ side. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, and she’d certainly been this close to the flighty pegasus before, but being shoved in a crate and sent through the mail system was not her idea of a good time.
“Stop complaining, I have Norse sitting on me,” said Purple Prose, the youngest of the group. “And I did not particularly want to observe his flank this closely today.” There were two thumps on the box, and then Die-a Bolical’s voice floated through the cracks in the crate.
“No talking! If this is going to work, the Professor needs to believe that there’s nothing in here! She only sends inanimate objects through.” The seven in the box went quiet, while time passed, and snippets of conversation floated through the crate. Then, there was a strange thrumming sound, twin crys of ‘See you later, Royal Guard!’ and ‘You’ll never stop the cyborg plant takeover!’, and the strange sensation of being drunk.
---
Moments later, the crate lid was popped, and the seven tumbled out to find DB standing in front of an odd-looking device.
“My friends, my comrades, my fellow emotion feeders, I give to you...the internet. With this, we can make the feels come to us.”
Twilight Sparkle ducked under the first boulder, sidestepped around the second and used a pair of magical shields to deflect the third and fourth.
“No, no, NO! You are still too defensive, Twilight Sparkle!” yelled Princess Luna, “you are supposed to be practicing using your natural magical alignment!” Princess Luna paused for a moment, taking a few deep breaths, before she continued on. “I am sorry, Twilight Sparkle. I did not mean to yell. Regardless, my point stands. We brought you here so that you could practice Destruction, so that you could learn how to control it. For if you do not, if you ignore it too long, your magic will take matters unto itself again, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded. Luna and Celestia had explained it to her shortly after she had woken up from the events of last month. Every alicorn developed a natural alignment, a mastery over a specific school of magic, and Twilight had inherited the Art of Destruction, to her great chagrin. It functioned like a minor addiction, Celestia had said. She needed to feed her now inborn need to destroy something, or the events of a month ago would repeat. So, she had taken to having Princess Luna throw boulders at her, while she destroyed them-or tried to, anyway.
“Again,” said Twilight, planting her hooves into the grass of the feild. This time, when Luna hurled the boulders toward Twilight, she did not move. Her horn lit up with a corona of purple flame, and thin beams lanced out, slicing the first two boulders in half. Thicker beams then destroyed the next three, reducing them to little more than gravel.
“Good, Twilight!” called Luna, as she levitated more ammunition from the pile behind her. “Remember, you are the master of your magic. Ignore what your instinct says-do just enough to prevent harm coming to yourself.”
Twilight nodded, as her magic materialized as a giant, ethereal hammer, knocking the boulders left and right, and the itch at the base of her horn gradually faded to a dull roar, then a loud whisper and finally nearly disappeared. Disintegrating the final rock that Luna had, she dug her hooves out from where they had settled into the earth.
“You are progressing well, Twilight,” said Princess Luna, as the two began to fly back toward Ponyville proper. “I realise that it is difficult now, but only because you are not used to your body’s new urge, your magic’s new instinct. Remember to push back that first reaction if you are startled.”
“Was it difficult for you, Luna?”
“Not as much. My natural inclination is Restoration, Twilight Sparkle. Yet I was always the better at warfare of myself and my sister. It seemed horribly ironic to me when I found out that I, the Warrior of the Two Sisters, would be the one skilled in healing. I pushed myself towards mastering the destructive arts, in the vain hope that I could change my alignment. Instead, what happened was that my spells began healing my enemies upon contact. Embrace your alignment, Twilight Sparkle. There is no way to change or get rid of it. Do not reject it, do not ignore it. It never results in good things for you.”
“But can I still master other schools of magic?”
“Oh, yes. But it will take effort, far more than you think, to subvert your unconscious instinct for destruction, but it can be done. But we have talked on this long enough.”
Twilight Sparkle flew on, still sometimes losing momentary control of her flight. So many things had happened since she had earned her wings, and then the event with Tirek. Her discovery of her new-found affinity for her least-favourite school of magic was just the latest in a long line of things that she had had to learn to deal with. Still, her event a month ago had pushed this right to the front of her list of things to do-Twilight Sparkle hated hurting ponies, and her magic could have done just that, so getting it under control was her number one priority.
One fine day, Twilight Sparkle was putting about in her new castle, worrying over many, many secret princess things when all of a sudden, Rarity burst in through the front doors, tears running down her face.
“Twilight, Twilight! Oh, thank goodness you’re here! It’s absolutely terrible, most certainly the worst possible thing to ever happen!”
“Rarity, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s simply terrible, my parents have been lying to me all of my life!”
“What? What have they lied to you about?” asked Twilight, wrapping her hooves around Rarity in a hug, while the dressmaker continued to cry.
“Twilight, I’m...I’m a changeling!” Twilight blinked. Rarity was consumed with green fire, and in her place was a changeling that looked a lot like Rarity had used to. Twilight blinked again, and as she opened her mouth to reply to Rarity, the door was slammed open again.
“Twi,” said Applejack, “I got somethin’ that I gotta tell you. It’s been buggin me fer a while now, an’ I just gotta get it out.” Applejack took a deep breath, and then she shifted into a more lupine form, made from bark and twigs, though her hat remained on her head.
“Ah’m a Timberwolf. Ah know that I’ve been lyin to ya for a while, but it just never felt like the right time.”
Twilight, who was hovering somewhere between bemused and outright befuddled, looked back and forth between the changeling that was Rarity and Applejack the timberwolf. She opened her mouth to speak once more, when she was interrupted again, this time by Rainbow Dash floating through the wall of her castle.
“Twilight, I’m a ghost,” she said. Rainbow Dash still possessed her colours, she was just transparent and intangible. “I actually died years ago, when I did my first Sonic Rainboom. Something weird happened, though, and I got to stick around and find you girls.”
Twilight, now thoroughly confused, swivelled her head between all of her friends. Before she could even open her mouth, Fluttershy darted inside the castle, slamming the door shut and closing all of the windows. Twilight noticed that the yellow pegasus was gently smoking. When Fluttershy noticed her questioning look, she blushed.
“I’m a vampire, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, her voice so quiet that Twilight could barely hear it. “I’ve always been a vampire, ever since you’ve known me. I hope that I haven’t scared you too much and now you won’t want to be my friend and I’m sorry.” Before Twilight could even begin to assuage Fluttershy’s fears, Pinkie Pie materialized out of nowhere.
“I’m actually an ancient eldritch abomination!” she cried, almost apropos of nothing, “with tentacles,” Pinkie added, almost as an afterthought, and she dropped her disguise, and indeed, she had tentacles. Many, many tentacles.
Twilight Sparkle looked around her five friends, who were apparently all freaks and monsters and creatures of pure chaos, but that description had applied to Pinkie Pie since before Twilight had known that Pinkie was an eldritch abomination with tentacles. She looked around at her five friends, shrugged, and kissed the Changeling that was Rarity.
And then they all had sex.
After all, Pinkie Pie was an eldritch abomination. With tentacles.
On a normal day, watching the Canterlot Philharmonic perform was a wonderous experience. Every instrument combined to form a greater harmony, a great synergy flowed between each member of the orchestra as they elevated the music to heights that few ponies could ever dream of. It was a dream of many ponies to one day play with the famed orchestra. Out of the concert hall, the ponies themselves were regarded as almost humourless, so focused were they on their chosen craft.
Vinyl Scratch, however, knew different. For every year, on the same day every year, the Canterlot Philharmonic put on a very, very exclusive and special performance. It was not advertised-the only way to be invited was to be personally asked by a current member of the orchestra, and no tickets were sold. For as long as Octavia had been in the Philharmonic, Vinyl Scratch had a standing invitation to any performance, and she made it a point to always attend this one.
She sat and chuckled in the balcony seats as the members walked onstage, the violinists taking their seats with violas, cellos and double basses, while the others fumbled with the smaller instruments. Wind instrumentalists and reed players switched and suddenly found that their breathing was completely wrong. Vinyl sniggered into her hooves when the conductor trotted up to his podium, his mane replaced with a giant clown wig, and rubber chicken took the place of his usual baton.
By the time that everypony was seated, Vinyl was all but laughing out loud. The orchestra’s usual formal attire was abandoned, everypony dressed in the most outlandish and ridiculous outfits they could find. As Octavia was being stupidly talented and perfect again, like always, the other members of the orchestra had attached a fake horn and pair of wings to her, in addition to a pink dye in her mane and tail.
Once the conductor signalled the start of the first piece, Vinyl, along with the rest of the theatre, lost any self-control they may have had. The normally harmonious and talented orchestra had been turned into an absolute cacophony of noise in the best possible way.
In the balcony, Vinyl Scratch had given up trying to stay in her seat, and was rolling on the floor, tears streaming down her face, her hooves pounding the floor as she laughed, and it was there she stayed, soaking the floor beneath her and nearly breaking a chair as the absurd performance continued on.
Towards the end of the Griffon-Equestria War shortly before the Banishment of Nightmare Moon, the Griffons had captured a number of ponies, who were then divided up according to their races. The unicorns were kept under careful watch in a repurposed prison, and fitted with magic nullifiers. The pegasi, being perhaps the biggest threat to the Griffons, were also kept under secure watch and had their wings bound.
The earth ponies, however, were put to work in the Griffon’s mines, digging out ore to fuel the griffon war machine. Unfortunately, they did not consider the earth ponies’ talent. One sergeant by the name of Rock Fault, who had a talent for mining, carefully directed the earth ponies to mine out a tunnel, leading out of the mine, and carefully disguised behind an underground rock formation. Through this tunnel, they smuggled a single pony out each day, disguising them as deaths in the hope that they could reach Canterlot with the information that the crew had collectively gathered about the city above them, or switching out captured ponies for experienced miners. Not only did Rock Fault’s plan work perfectly, but the tunnel provided the perfect access point for a number of daring raids on the griffon’s captiol, eventually threatening the Griffon emperor.
But the crowning achievement of Rock Fault and his miners lay not in this, but in the tunnel they dug to the prison where their comrades were housed. And just like the ponies before, they were smuggled out of the prison without the guards being aware for months, allowing the majority of the captured force to escape captivity, while Rock Fault willingly remained behind to coordinate the tunnelling efforts, risking daily beatings and death threats from his griffon captors to ensure that other ponies could escape.
And when the final assault came, it was Rock Fault’s tunnel network that played a critical role in Equestria’s victory, allowing earth pony troops to penetrate deep into the city and capture the emperor while the pegasi and unicorn forces distracted the bulk of the Griffon army, ending the war right then and there.
The griffons had underestimated the earth ponies, assuming that simply because they had no wings or horns that they were not a threat. They would not make that mistake again.
(This is the ending to the ‘Just Friends, Darn It’ Universe. For those who don’t want to trek back through everything I’ve written, the basic premise is that Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are best friends, but everypony (literally, everypony) in Equestria thinks they’re in love. Shenanigans ensue.) ----
Vinyl Scratch trotted through the streets of Canterlot, surprisingly unhindered by the usual crowd of reporters and fans. She certainly didn’t mind the attention, and knew that it just came with the territory of being famous, but there were times when she simply wanted privacy, so she was glad of the temporary reprieve from the questions and camera flashes. All she wanted to do was have a nice, quiet lunch with Octavia. Both of their schedules had been exceptionally busy as of late. With the Coronation of Twilight Sparkle coming up, Octavia had been preparing for a concert series in the new Princess’s honour, and from what Vinyl could tell, this required her to spend practically every waking hour with either her ensemble or the Philharmonic.
Not that Vinyl herself had been idle, either. She’d been busy travelling across almost the entire length and breadth of Equestria, spending more time out of the mountainside city than in it over the last few weeks, but such was the life after she released a new record. Still, this lunch meeting with Octy would be a nice way for both of them to unwind for a few hours and catch up. As Vinyl entered the restaurant, she quickly caught sight of Octavia sitting in one of the booths at the side of the restaurant, and picked her way through the oddly crowded restaurant.
“Vinyl, it’s great to see you again!” said Octavia, as Vinyl sat down.
“You too, Octy. I was worried that you were just going to vanish into the Philharmonic’s library of sheet music for a while there.”
“I very nearly did. Our conductor, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that only the most obscure peices will do for Princess Twilight. Some of these peices only have one or two copies, Vinyl, and I have to transcribe them for the rest of my section.”
Vinyl winced in sympathy. Even as a unicorn, transcribing sheet music was a pain.
“But enough complaining. How did your tour go, Vinyl?”
“Pretty well – I’m just glad to be back home so I can sleep again,” said Vinyl, taking off her glasses, and rubbing her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love going out and performing for all the awesome fans, but I think I lost track of what day it is a few times while I was out there.”
“I know how you feel, Vinyl. The number of times I looked up from my desk to see the sun rising went well beyond anything approaching a sane number.”
It was at this point that both musicians looked up at the calender on the wall, just to check their internal clocks. In perfect synchronicity, their eyes widened, and they looked again, and then glanced around the restaurant. Couples dined together, pink flowers adored every possible surface and they could practically see the hearts floating in the air.
“Tavi?”
“Yes, Vinyl?”
“Please tell me it’s not Hearts and Hooves Day, and we’re not having lunch together at a semi-famous Canterlot restaurant.”
Octavia glanced around the restaurant, scoping out escape routes. Outside, she could see several reporters snapping shots for their various papers, and it would only be a matter of time before they discovered her and Vinyl. Octavia was unable to contain her sigh, and at Vinyl’s questioning look, she jerked her head in the direction of the reporters.
“Shit,” muttered Vinyl, “Break for the door?”
Octavia nodded, and on some unspoken signal, the two tossed a few bits down onto the table by way of a tip, and bolted for the front door. Vinyl didn’t even pause to open it, simply forming a magical shield in front of her, and blasted through the door, making a mental note to pay for the door’s replacement. Already, the two could hear the all-too familiar cries of ‘Vinyl! Vinyl Scratch!’ and ‘Octavia!’ behind them, as the reporters chased after the two.
****
It was only once the two friends got back to their apartment that they felt remotely safe, though as the reporters began to knock frantically on the door, Vinyl magically grabbed their couch and shoved it up against the door. Two seconds later, Octavia added their kitchen table. As the pounding on the door continued, Vinyl leant against the now-vertical table.
“Hey, Octy?”
“Yes, Vinyl?”
“Do you think they’d stop insisting we’re in love if we told them we’re actually sisters?” said Vinyl.
Octavia considered the idea for a moment as she sat down next to Vinyl. “Likely not. They’d probably just claim it’s ‘forbidden love’, and keep encouraging us.”
Vinyl let out a groan, and thunked her head against the table. “So, let me get this straight,” she said, “if we live in separate housing, we’ve had an argument or lover’s spat. If we live together, we are obviously having wild sex parties every night. If one of us is out of town, even if it’s for work, we’re either missing each other terribly, or we’ve had a falling-out, and get all the accompanying attempts to get us back together. If we tell them we’re just friends, they do that stupid wink, and if we don’t say anything, they take it as confirmation. We can’t win, can we?”
“No, we can’t.”
Vinyl and Octavia both groaned, and let the backs of their heads thunk against the table. Seconds later, they did it again, because outside their window, on the opposite roof, were Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Each was holding one side of a banner with a crudely drawn picture of Vinyl and Octavia kissing, and the phrase ‘Now Kiss!’ written on it in bright pink letters.
“Why did we let them know where we live, Vinyl?”
“I have no idea,” replied Vinyl, her horn lighting up, “open the window.”
Octavia threw open the window, and then dropped to the floor. Two bread rolls rocketed out, thrown by Vinyl’s magic, and thudded into the two matchmakers, knocking them backwards off the roof. Fortunately, they both landed in a pile of feathers.
“Stop shipping us!” cried Vinyl and Octavia.
“Be quiet and kiss already!” cried Rarity, who had managed to clamber back onto the roof.
The next bread roll knocked Rarity unconscious.
END
Legacy Prompt #12: Why Luna Really Didn't Show Up Until Season 2
“Luna, a lot of things progressed while you were...indisposed.”
“We should not be sick!”
“As I was saying, Luna, many things progressed. That includes viruses and diseases. Over time, they evolved to combat our immune systems and medicines. If my memory serves, three entirely new diseases also emerged in the time you were gone. This is your body adjusting and trying to deal with these new dangers.”
“Three new diseases, and we have all of them. At the same time.”
“I know you wanted to get back to raising the moon soon, sister, but with you in this state, the doctors have recommended extended bed rest while your body learns to fight off the new diseases.”
“...Fine. We shall confine our self to our chambers until this passes.”
“Thank you, Luna. And no using your magic, either.”
“...Very well. We shall consign our self to using things like a serf.”
“Hmm. And that’s another thing. You should at least catch up on your reading-a lot of things have changed since the times you remember. I will instruct the library to provide you with a number of books to read while you rest.”
“At least we shall not be bored. How much time did the doctors claim I would be bedridden?”
“Anywhere from a week to a month. Don’t worry, Luna. We have the best care available for you, and you will likely not get this sick again. Once your body has dealt with the new viruses once, it will know how to prevent you getting them again.”
“We still find this ridiculous.”
“I’m sure you’ll be up and about in no time. Perhaps you’ll even be able to make the Nightmare Night celebrations.”
“We meant the fuzzy hat. We find it ridiculous, and entirely unnessecary.”
“It’s a vital part of the healing process, Luna. Medicine has come a long way. Just rest, for now, and I’ll see about getting you those books.”
The scenery couldn’t really have been more appropriate, if Rarity was honest with herself. She was standing, just inside the sparkling clean and empty Boutique, her bags packed and waiting only to be taken to the station and then onward to Canterlot. Outside, Rainbow Dash stood, wings spread against the darkening sky, and Rarity could hear the faint rumblings of thunder beginning in the distance.
They both lived for fame, both wanted glory and praise for their accomplishments. What differed was how they went about it, and Rarity was ashamed to admit that it had been her that crossed the invisible line.
“Why?” whispered Rainbow Dash, “why’d you do it, Rare?”
“I thought that this was what you wanted, Rainbow? A chance to fly with the best, to finally achieve your dream. I just...advanced the schedule a bit.”
Rain began to fall, slowly at first, but quickly picked up into a heavy torrent.
“Not like this!” bellowed Rainbow, “you had no right, Rare! You might not see a problem with cheating your way to the top, but I sure do!”
Rarity flinched back, wincing at the venom in Rainbow’s voice.
“This isn’t a game, you know. It’s not one of your fancy parties where your career depends on knowing the right pony. This is – was – my dream. I wanted to get into the Wonderbolts on my own merits, not because I had a friend in the right place, who schmoozed up to the right pony. You know what they’re calling me? Buy-in, the favour and everything under the sun that says I don’t have the skill to make it in on my own, that I got in just because I had friends in high places. It won’t matter how many times either I or Spitfire tell them otherwise, that’s what I am to them. And you know what? Maybe they’re right.”
“Rainbow, I never meant for it to play out like that. I’m...”
“Save it, Rarity. Just...don’t, okay?” said Rainbow, “you just don’t get what this meant to me. You look at this, and you don’t see what I see. That, I can deal with. But you just don’t get it, or you wouldn’t have done this.”
“Rainbow, I was only trying to...”
“Shut up,” said Rainbow, cutting Rarity off. “We’re done, Rarity. I resigned from the Wonderbolts ten minutes ago. Take your stupid generosity, and go bother somepony else with it. Don’t talk to me again.”
With that, Rainbow Dash tore a gold pin off her Wonderbolt recruit uniform, and tossed it into the puddle of mud that was forming just in front of Rarity’s door. Then she took off, punching a hole in the cloud cover that soon filled itself back in, while her backdraft covered Rarity in muddy water, but Rarity barely noticed. Instead, she levitated the Wonderbolts pin, depicting a pegasus with wings fully outstretched, and stood there, staring at it.
“I just wanted you to be happy,” she muttered. Then, gathering her bags in her telekinetic grip, she began the trudge to Ponyville station, and onward to her fate in Canterlot.
Luna picked her way through the old and worn paths through the Everfree, the very branches and brambles recoiling at her presence, either through fear, or at some unknown command. In here, she was no princess, no sovereign of the Moon. Here, she was just another pony. Such was the way that she would have wanted it, and to prove it, Luna had ventured in unarmoured, unprotected.
Eventually, her hooves stopped hitting dirt, and started clapping on polished stone, yet their cadence never ceased. Overhead, the sun and the moon appeared to hang in the sky together, but Luna knew that it was simply an illusion. A masterfully crafted one, but still an illusion. Luna pushed on the oaken door, causing it to swing open without so much as a squeak, and the sound of Luna’s hoofsteps echoed throughout the empty halls, announcing her presence to anyone listening. Tracing a path long since memorized, Luna found herself at the top of the highest tower of the old castle. The castle that had once belonged to her and her sister, and now was used by another.
“Hello, Luna.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna, approaching the meditating unicorn and kneeling down opposite her. “It is good to see you again.”
“It really has been too long, Luna. How’s Celestia these days?”
“You know exactly how she is. She’s stressed and worried. I will be blunt, Twilight Sparkle. We need you.”
“No, you don’t,” replied Twilight, “you need the engine of magical destruction that I refuse to be.”
Luna paused for a minute, collecting her thoughts.
“Yes, we do,” she eventually said, “The enemy cannot be defeated my anything mortal; our generals have confirmed as much. We are in a war of attrition, Twilight Sparkle. A war that we will lose. A war, Twilight Sparkle, that you cannot ignore forever.”
“Do not assume that I am ignoring it!” yelled Twilight Sparkle, her eyes snapping open, “Everyday, I can hear the cries on the wind, and I hate that our ponies are dying out there, but I will not become that again! You do not know what that’s like, seeing everypony look at you like you’re about to implode!”
“Do I not, Twilight Sparkle?” asked Luna, her voice soft. Twilight clapped her hooves over her mouth with a gasp.
“Luna, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”
“I have done terrible, terrible things, Twilight. Both as Nightmare Moon and as myself. Things that will never leave me. So has Celestia. Even Cadence has committed herself to courses that will forever stain her spirit. But we three are not enough. Not against this foe. We need Princess Twilight Sparkle, The Master of Destruction. We know that you do not like doing that, Twilight. None of us do, but there are times when it is necessary. The foe has angered the alicorns, and to save our subjects, we must take the field of war.They have invited the apocalypse upon themselves. Three times they ignored our offers of peace, our warnings. Now they must pay.”
Twilight sighed, and stood up.
“I can’t escape it, can I?”
“You could stay here, Twilight,” said Luna, also rising, “but sooner or later, they would find you. They would burn the forest to the ground, and you would be forced to fight sooner or later. You may as well make it upon your own terms.”
Twilight looked down at the castle below her, the castle that had long ago, convinced her that she had friends.
“Alright. To save the world, I guess I’ve got to go destroy a bit of it. These things aren’t going to know what hit them.”
Luna and Twilight shared a smile. It was not necessarily a nice smile.
Prompt #110: Because Pinkie Pie Is An Eldritch Abomination Who Throws Parties
Vinyl Scratch had always been more of a night mare. She’d always been more used to the soft glow of the stars and moon, rather than the overpowering glare of the sun, though she may have had medical reasons behind that. So, it wasn’t an uncommon sight to see the young Vinyl out walking the streets of Canterlot at night, taking in the sounds and smells of the fresh night air, especially when the night markets were in full swing. However, this night, the night of both her graduation from school, and her birthday, and the night she was now legally allowed to drink, she should have been back at the Canterlot Orphanage, celebrating with Octavia and the rest of the kids, but instead, she had snuck out, and gone for a walk, only intending to be gone for a short while.
She didn’t notice when her left ear began to twitch back and forth as she crossed past the usual place where she had lunch, only feeling something drawing her further on, as if she was being called. Eventually, she ended up outside a building called ‘The Temple’, and from what Vinyl could see, was also lit up with giant neon signs. Through her hooves, she could feel the ground jumping and thumping, and the same rhythmic thump slipped into her ears and then deep inside Vinyl’s being.
Shrugging, she decided that she may as well go and have a look inside, figure out what was happening. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a line at this point, and within five minutes, Vinyl Scratch was inside.
The beat consumed everything. It pierced every corner of the room; it invaded and assaulted Vinyl’s brain in the greatest way that she could imagine. The heavy thump-thump-thump of the bass shook Vinyl to her very core, and she stood there, just off the dance floor for a moment, taking in everything, the sound, the feeling and the smell of the place. In a single moment of clarity, Vinyl realised that this, beyond anything else, was what she wanted. This feeling of being carried by the music, just on the verge of being swallowed up by a mix of sound and adrenaline, that was what she wanted to make ponies feel. This was what she wanted to do. But the question of how could come later-for now, Vinyl was a recently graduated student and it was her birthday. She threw herself into the crowd, and as one, they welcomed the new addition, and Vinyl’s eyes closed as she lost herself in the music.
****
“Excuse me, have you seen a white unicorn with a blue mane and tail pass by here?” said Octavia, “She’s supposed to be back at the orphanage right now. There’s a lot of little fillies and colts who are missing her.”
“White unicorn, blue mane? Yeah, I saw her a couple of hours ago, heading down that way,” replied the Royal Guard, motioning down the street in the direction that Vinyl had gone.
“Thank you, sir!” cried Octavia, dashing off. She was worried for Vinyl. While Vinyl could undoubtably look after herself, Vinyl’s condition meant that she still occasionally needed somepony to help her out – a fact which Vinyl hated immensely, and only allowed Octavia to be that help. Octavia dashed from pony to pony, asking each about Vinyl, until finally, the ponies outside The Temple gave up Vinyl’s location. Slipping inside, Octavia shut her ears against the assault of music, and moved around the room. She eventually found Vinyl in the middle of the dance floor, her glasses pulled up onto the top of her head, and at least four glowsticks wrapped around various points of her body.
“Vinyl!” yelled Octavia, straining to make herself heard over the music, “You have to come with me now! The caretakers are all worried about you!”
****Time****
“What’s up, Tavi? When’d you get here? This place is fantastic!” Vinyl yelled back, her left ear ticking in perfect time with the music surrounding the two.
“Vinyl, it’s past midnight! You need to come with me now.”
“Sheesh, okay. Just lemme find my...glasses.”
“Vinyl?” asked Octavia, as Vinyl’s speech slowed, and the unicorn blinked several times. “What’s wrong?”
“I...I can’t see, Octy. I can’t see.”
Octavia had to take a moment to process what that statement meant.
“Vinyl, your glasses are on your head. Come on, it’s time to go home.”
“Yeah,” murmured Vinyl as Octavia guided her toward the exit, “I guess it is.”
“Vinyl? If you want, I can bring you back here a couple of times a week. You know, until I know you know the route.”
“That would be awesome, Tavi.”
“Now come on, party animal,” smiled Octavia, slipping one of Vinyl’s hooves around her neck, “you need rest, and then there’s a lot of fillies and colts that you need to apologise to tomorrow because you missed your own party.”
“What did you say?” asked Twilight, her anger fading from her face as the two came rolling to a stop.
“The square root of five hundred and eighty one is twenty four point one zero three nine,” said Pinkie Pie. As Twilight’s face crossed from confused into puzzled, Pinkie spoke again.
“e to the pi minus pi is equal to nineteen point nine nine nine zero nine nine nine.”
Confidant that her plan to seduce Twilight with math was working, Pinkie spoke one more time.
“e to the i multiplied by pi is negative one.”
“Pinkie,” said Twilight, “what are you doing?”
“I’m seducing you with math, silly!”
“Seducing me...with math?” repeated Twilight, “What gave you the idea that you could seduce me with math?”
“Weell, Dashie said that you were a total egghead and were nerding out over some weird math thing the other day, and that if I wanted to make out with you, which I totally do, that I should learn about math and use my math to seduce you and then we could make out!” said Pinkie, with a completely unrepentant, but completely honest smile on her face.
There was a pause, and then Twilight Sparkle crashed her lips into Pinkie’s, crumpling her immaculate Starswirl the Bearded costume against Pinkie’s chicken outfit. Eventually, the unicorn pulled away.
“It was the math, wasn’t it? I seduced you with my mathy prowess,” said Pinkie Pie.
Twilight Sparkle simply shook her head and smiled.
“Next time, Pinkie, you can just ask.”
****
“And that, kids, is the story of how your mommies had their first make out. Next, I’ll tell you the first time we...”
“Pinkie!” cried Twilight, “They don’t need to hear that!”
“Really? But it’s a super-fun story, Twilight, especially if I include all of the sound...”
“No!” cried Twilight, “but tell you what. Why don’t you put the kids to bed, and we’ll...re-enact it.”
Vinyl Scratch loved Manehatten. Its club scene was well-established and thriving. It was the sort of place that there was always something going on, always something happening. Yet Vinyl never moved there, despite many, many offers from various club owners. She was Canterlot born, but not quite bred, and she took an almost perverse pride in the fact that a so called ‘lower class’ unicorn could succeed as she had in Canterlot.
However, there was one or two things that Vinyl could never get used to in Manehatten. The first was the constant noise-a bit of an odd thing for a musician to call attention to, but something about the constant cacophony of the city grated with Vinyl, and she couldn’t spend more than two weeks there without missing the silence of Canterlot’s night.
The second thing was much more of a general problem that Vinyl had with the world, but was especially present in Manehatten.
“Miss Scratch! Vinyl Scratch, what are your thoughts on the upcoming Rave-a-thon?”
“Miss Scratch, are there any more records planned for your future?”
Vinyl Scratch had a problem with reporters. They constantly flocked around her, like carrion birds waiting for something to die so they could pick it apart. But even their usual questions about music and clubs and performances all paled in comparison to the sheer annoyance that flooded Vinyl everytime she ventured away from Canterlot.
“Miss Scratch, how are things between you and Octavia? Do you have any comment on the rumours that say that you two have finally decided to break your relationship off, or is this simply a break from each other?”
Vinyl took a deep breath in, and calmed herself, and kept walking. This was a more or less normal part of her life, and she was mostly used to it by now. That didn’t stop it being annoying, however, and most reporters had learnt the lesson that if Vinyl didn’t want to talk about something, they gave up pretty quick. There were always one or two over-zealous ones, though.
“Miss Scratch, any comment? Miss Scra-whoa!” the young reporter was suddenly lifted into the air, surrounded by a blue glow.
“Look, kid,” said Vinyl, an unintentional growl working its way into her voice, “You’re obviously new, because everypony else left four questions ago, so I’ll forgive you this time, but you gotta learn.”
The colt whimpered as Vinyl drew him closer.
“If I wanted to answer your questions, I would have. However, I’ve been up for way, way too long right now, and all I want to do is sleep. So, lightning round; Yes, no, it’s going to be great, yes, and for the love of Celestia, please stop asking that question. Octy and me are not in a relationship, have never been in one, and never will be.”
Her speech apparently done, Vinyl dropped the rookie reporter on his backside, and stalked off toward her hotel.
****
“And please welcome, Vinyl Scratch!” said the announcer for the press conference about the upcoming Rave-a-thon that was happening in Manehatten later that month. Vinyl was only in town for this and to help get some of the organizational junk, as she called it, out of the way.
“So, you guys have any questions?” asked Vinyl, once her speech was concluded, and a field of hooves went up.
“Any questions that do not have to do with the supposed ‘relationship’ between me and Octavia?” most of the hooves went down, and Vinyl sighed.
“Right, let me make this clear, right now. Octavia and I are friends. Nothing more. We grew up together. Dating her would be like dating a family member-totally not cool. Yes, sometimes we have lunch and dinner and stuff together, but that doesn’t mean we’re in a relationship, so please stop asking about it.”
****
Vinyl staggered back into her Canterlot apartment, dropping her saddlebags on the floor, and collapsing on the couch.
“So, it was that bad, was it?” asked Octavia, from where she was practicing with her cello.
“The Rave-a-thon was great. The reporters were annoying. Kept asking if you and I had ‘broken up’, or whatever,” Vinyl said into the cushions, “Told them we weren’t dating. Guess how well that worked?”
“I saw. The Canterlot Herald did an entire piece about our supposed split. Your Rave-a-thon got three inches at the bottom,” said Octavia.
“Man, can’t they understand that it’s possible to be close to somepony without having a romantic attraction?” Vinyl groaned, rolling over so she wasn’t speaking into the couch, “I mean, is it that difficult of a concept? Why did they even decide we were together anyway? How was that the logical conclusion of us living together?”
Octavia adjusted one of the tuning pegs on her cello’s head.
Pinkie Pie sighed as she sat by the window of her room in Sugarcube Corner. Outside, she could see the pegasi building the weather-they were scheduled for a pretty heavy snowstorm today, and if they weren’t then Pinkie would have been outside, dashing around, throwing snowballs at Dashie and having fun. But Dashie was working on the storm-Pinkie could see her flitting from one place to another, a bright bolt against the rapidly greying sky.
Sometimes, Pinkie liked to imagine what Dashie was saying. Maybe something like ‘Pinkie Pie and I are super-duper-awesome marefriends’, or maybe ‘move that cloud while I go and kiss my marefriend’. It would be nice if it was true, but Pinkie Pie knew it wasn’t. For all her napping and laziness, Rainbow was a good weatherpony, and if she was on the job, that would be all she was thinking about until it was completed. Dashie was cool like that. Pinkie knew that she couldn’t focus on a single goal like that. She needed to be doing four different things at once, like thinking about Dashie, making cupcakes, and planning parties with cupcakes for Dashie. But Rainbow had always held Pinkie’s attention.
She was so eye-catching, a living blast of brightness and speed that barely slowed down for anything. She was always moving, always doing something, which was what Pinkie felt like her mind was like sometimes. She had been drawn to bright things ever since the Rainboom on the rock farm, all those years ago, and maybe it was a little silly, but Pinkie Pie was a bit of a silly pony-and Pinkie would be a very silly pony indeed if she denied that. But Dashie wasn’t a silly pony. She liked to have fun, but she was aiming for a goal, a goal higher than Pinkie could ever imagine.
And one day, Rainbow Dash would reach her goal, and Pinkie Pie would still be a baker in Ponyville. She’d still be making ponies happy, there was no doubt in Pinkie’s mind about that, but Dashie was going to places that Pinkie couldn’t follow. And sometimes, Pinkie wished that Rainbow would stay in Ponyville, but that would be selfish and silly, and would not make Rainbow happy at all.
Pinkie Pie glanced up at the nearly-complete storm, its grey expanse covering the sky. She watched as a blue streak punched through the clouds as the snow began to fall, and fly towards Carousel Boutique. She couldn’t quite see it from here, but Pinkie knew what would be happening. Rainbow would be knocking on the door, and then Rarity would open it, and then they would go inside and make out.
Sighing once more, Pinkie Pie closed the shutters on the window, and decided to go to Sugarcube corner’s kitchen. Maybe baking would take her mind off Rainbow Dash for a while. Maybe chocolate icing and loads of sugar would help her forget how much thinking of Rainbow Dash hurt.
It was raining. Somehow, that felt appropriate to Twilight Sparkle, as she trotted through the streets of Canterlot, her wings folded up against her side so tightly they almost hurt, her crown left on her bedside table, and her small guard trailing far, far behind, out of both respect, and fear. The respect had always been there. The fear was new. Twilight didn’t like it.
She hadn’t been to the Canterlot Barracks a whole lot-Shining had done a lot of his training outside Canterlot, so there was no real reason for Twilight to visit. But she needed to go, she needed to see, to know.
The guards at the entrance to the barracks pulled their wings aside and gave a head nod to the newest Princess, and Twilight entered the courtyard, where an older pony, clad in black robes stood in front of eight coffins, each with a helmet placed on top.
“We call upon Selene, the guiding spirit of the moon, to ferry the souls of these brave soldiers into the Eternal Feilds,” the preist intoned, “and we pray that they may find peace in the afterlife, knowing that their families are safe and sound.” With a solemn chant, the service entered, and Twilight Sparkle walked into the small gathering, rain thudding onto umbrellas, and soaking Twilight to the bone, but she didn’t care about that. She couldn’t care about that, not now. Not after seeing eight widows, eight families wrenched apart. Not after knowing that it was all her fault.
One of the gathered caught sight of Twilight, and approached her.
“Princess Twilight?” asked the young mare, “Do you know why my fiancée died? I mean, they just tell us that they ‘died in service of the Princesses’, but you must know something, right?”
“It was,” began Twilight, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, “a changeling attack. They were ambushed in the night. Your fiancée gave his life to ensure that the others lived.” The weeping mare threw herself forwards, hugging Twilight, thanking her for telling her, and then plodded off. Again and again, as the ponies departed the service, the mourners asked Twilight how their husbands, wives and betrothed had died. Each time, Twilight repeated the reason she had given the first.
All the while, she stared at the eight coffins, her mind seeing flesh stripped from bone, bones turned into ash and an all-consuming white light. She stared, and forced herself to remember until she could take no more. With a scream, she vanished in a blast of purple sparks.
Twilight Sparkle reappeared in her temporary room in Canterlot castle, and rushed to the toilet, where she retched and emptied her stomach.
‘I’m a monster,’ she thought, before passing out.
----
“Do you think that she is going to be alright, sister?”
“I don’t know, Luna. Twilight has always been strong, but I don’t know how she’s taking this. She needs time to come to terms with what happened. You, I and Cadence can all tell her that it wasn’t her fault until the sun goes out, but until she accepts it, she isn’t going to get better.”
“Perhaps it is time we taught her to control it. We can both agree that a repeat of it would be a bad thing. Perhaps it will give her mind something else to focus on. Keep her busy.”
“Yes, that would be best. Let her know that we are here to help as well, would you? If she needs to talk, our doors are always open for her.”
“Agreed, sister.”
----
Twilight stared down over Canterlot from her balcony, her eyes listless and lifeless. She hadn’t read a book in the last three days, not since the funeral. She got up, ate, and generally went through the motions. She was alive, but not living.
“I can guarantee that it won’t work, Twilight Sparkle,” said a voice from behind the newest alicorn.
“What are you talking about, Luna?”
“Trying to ignore your problem. It won’t work.”
“Go away.”
“No,” said Luna, bringing a touch of the Royal Canterlot Voice back, “Twilight Sparkle, do you want that to happen again?”
“Of course not! It was terrible, and then I lied to all those ponies about why their families or special someponies died, and I’m a monster, Luna!”
“Truly, Twilight Sparkle, thou art a fool. You are no monster. A monster would not care so much.”
Twilight was silent, and Luna took that as an opportunity to push on.
“Yes, it was your magic that killed those ponies. Perhaps we were lax in telling you certain aspects of your ascension to alicorn. Every alicorn gains a natural instinct over a certain school of magic. You, apparently, inherited the school of Destruction. You must learn to manage this if you do not want that to happen again.”
Twilight was silent for a while longer, then she turned around, and for the first time in three days, her eyes shone with a sign of life.
“Teach me, then.”
Luna smiled. It seemed that Twilight Sparkle would be okay, with time.
“Where is she?” sighed Princess Celestia, as she stood at the entrance to the Canterlot Library.
“She’s in the ancient history section, Princess. Again. Though she did make a stop in the Starswirl Wing,” replied the librarian.
“I see,” said Princess Celestia, “Go home, my little pony. Take the night off. I’ll make sure that she cleans up after herself.”
“But...Princess, there always has to be a librarian on duty and...” the librarian trailed off, before she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Princess. I’ll be going now.” With that, she dashed out of the library door faster than Celestia could manage a blink. Celestia allowed herself a smile, and then headed deeper into the book shelves.
It was not terribly hard to find her-she liked to talk to herself while reading. All Celestia had to do was follow the sound of muttering and the occasional thud of a book being thrown to the floor.
“Now now, did the book really deserve that, Cadence?” asked Celestia, just after another tome on ancient history impacted against the marble floor. “I will admit I’m not entirely fond of Broken Quill’s presentation of the Griffon-Equestria war, but surely you can forgive his lack of references.” Celestia reached out with her magic, and levitated the book back onto the desk, placing it on top of a book titled ‘Myths and Legends of the Frozen North’.
The younger alicorn sighed.
“Hello, Celestia. Did the librarians complain about me?”
“They are concerned about you. I am concerned about you. You’re barely sleeping, Cadence. You spend every waking hour in here.”
“You would too, if Equestria suddenly vanished,” spat Cadence, turning back to her books. Celestia said nothing, content to wait out Cadence’s self-imposed silence. A sob broke the silence. Then a second, and soon the Alicorn of Love was crying outright. Celestia floated a kerchief over and wiped under Cadence’s eyes, before wrapping her in a hug.
“It – it just hurts so much, Auntie,” sobbed Cadence, “it’s like somepony has torn part of my heart out. But what hurts most is that I can’t do anything for them. They’re trapped, outside of anywhere I can sense. Nothing can help me help them, bring them back. Nothing even comes close to even mentioning spells of this size. Whatever Sombra did, it’s basically permanent.”
“I know, Cadence. I regret that we did not see the trouble brewing in the north until it was too late.”
“I’ve tried everything, auntie. Every time spell is either too powerful for me, or doesn’t last long enough, or can’t take me back far enough.”
“And what of the dark magic books?” asked Celestia, motioning to the two bound and chained tomes on the table, leaking darkness into the air.
“I...I couldn’t. I can’t stoop to his level.”
Celestia nodded, while Cadence continued to cry into her shoulder.
“There is one more method, Cadence, that you might consider trying.”
“What?” said Cadence, looking up into Celestia’s serene and smiling face, “What is it?”
“Patience. In my experience, very few things are absolutely ‘permanent’. It is clear that you are tied to the Empire’s existence. As long as it exists, so do you, and presumeably, vice versa. Eventually, whatever spell Sombra cast will weaken and fail, bringing it back into existance. It is simply a matter of time.”
*****Time****
“Thanks, auntie. I’ll give it a shot. I’ll try waiting.”
“That’s good to hear. Now, maybe you’ll stop scaring the librarians at night, hmm?”
Cadence had the decency to blush, and began to clear up her mess.
“But tell me, Cadence, how do you feel about teaching?” asked Celestia, as she slotted two books back into the shelves, “we need something to occupy your time while you wait, and the School for Gifted Unicorns could use a new illusion teacher.”
“It’ll be better than sitting around doing nothing, Auntie.”
Berry Punch did not consider herself an alcoholic. She was a connoisseur of beverages. She had sampled everything from three-hundred year old Griffon wine to Pinkie Pie’s Friendship Lubricant Punch. She own and operated Ponyville’s only winery, and ran it with an iron hoof, and consistently produced a high-quality drink. Ponyville 723 was still a drink that was sought after in Canterlot by the classiest ponies, or those who wished to be seen as classy.
But yet, Berry Punch did enjoy a drink or three. She genuinely enjoyed wines, especially. But every time that Berry opened the door to her home, staring at her from across the room, was a half-drunk bottle of Stalliongrad vodka, made from potatoes. It was actually an exquisitely crafted drink, but Berry Punch could not look at that bottle without shuddering. It had been sitting there for years, and would remain on the mantle of her fireplace for years to come. She had put the bottle up there as a reminder. It was not always a pleasant one, but it was a reminder that she needed.
Berry could never entirely give up drinking-making and tasting wine was literally her special talent, and with that came a certain amount of enjoyment of the act of both. But Berry kept that bottle, because it had been the bottle that she had been halfway through when she realised that she needed to clean up her act, that she’d been enjoying the tasting side of her job a bit too much.
“Mommy!” cried Ruby Pinch, Berry’s daughter, as she rushed through the doorway.
“Hello Ruby,” said Berry, leaning down to nuzzle her daughter, “How was school?”
“Great! Miss Cheerilee was teaching us all about griffons and stuff today, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders went and...”
As Berry listened to her daughter babble about her day and the latest exploits of the Crusaders, she looked at the bottle on the mantle once again. The light of the afternoon sun streamed through the window, and hit the bottle, illuminating the inscription of a date, and a simple ‘For Her’.
The date was the day that Berry Punch had discovered that she was pregnant with Ruby.
Fluttershy was not a good example of a pegasus. She knew that, and it didn’t entirely help that other ponies in Ponyville sometimes forgot that she was, in fact, a pegasus. She used her wings so little that it wasn’t uncommon that ponies would be startled when she opened them. Not that Fluttershy ever meant to startle anypony, as it could be startling.
Still, it surprised a lot of ponies on an infrequent basis that Fluttershy could, and actually did, fly. But Fluttershy didn’t fly like other pegasi. At least, not when she wasn’t fleeing from something. They flapped and flapped and pushed the air out of their way, and all of that sounded terribly exhausting to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy glided. She floated through the air, catching the thermals that rose from the buildings in Ponyville, only flapping her wings just enough to keep her from crashing. She was content to let the air take her on whatever tour of Ponyville and the surrounding farmland it cared to take her on. Up here, above the buildings but still below the usual clouds, here she could relax.
Here, she felt free, with the wind rustling through her feathers, her mane and tail streaming out behind her in a waterfall of pink, and she felt so at peace that she could almost, almost sing. For a short time, she floated above the constant fears and worries that fretted her so much, forgetting everything. She floated above the judgement, perceived and real, above the cries and cares of the world, and even momentarily forgetting that Twilight Sparkle was a princess now and she had a throne.
Here, she was at peace.
Legacy Prompt #13: In Which ThunderTempest Has No Imagination
It had been a long hard struggle, but eventually, the Earth Ponies had won the war. And while they could grow their own food, they neglected to account for the fact that without the Pegasi to manage the weather, or the unicorns to cycle the day and night, they could not properly grow crops. Their harvests failed, the grass and forests withered and died. Soil dried to the point where even to break ground required a full day and a half of work.
Eventually, all that was left was a few scattered and decaying farms, and the bones of a failed country, shrouded in perpetual cold and night.
----
Given their magical supremacy, it had been comparatively easy for the unicorns to win the war. They also had the presence of mind to keep the more talented and skilled members of the other races alive, and ruthlessly oppressed them, to ensure that nothing like that could ever happen again.
Within five generations, the small populace of Earth Ponies and Pegasi remaining were completely loyal. At least, until a strange creature crept into the capital of Unicornia one night, and laid ideas about rebellion into their heads.
“It is better to be free and dead,” it whispered to the Earth ponies and the Pegasi, “than alive and a slave.”
The cry reinvigorated the suppressed races, and they didn’t stop until they were all dead.
After that, infighting and chaos disintegrated the Court of Unicorns, and they soon lost the cohesion and numbers to keep raising and lowering the sun.
It only went downhill fast from there. Within a year, all that remained was a half-repaired city and the cackle of a mad god.
-----
It had only been with moderate ease that the pegasi won the war-they had the advantage of being the most militaristic of the three races, but lacked the magical advantage of the unicorns, or the sheer physical strength and tenacity of the earth ponies.
Unfortunately, their nature and aggression got the better of them. They took no prisoners, left nothing alive. They were a fearsome war machine, but lacked the ability to plan for the long term.
Within a year of their ‘victory’, they had all starved to death, only leaving behind a few scattered cloud cities, and in time, even these dispersed.
“Girls, ah’m your friend. That means you got until the count of five to get out of my barn. One.”
“Okay, okay, we’re going. We honestly thought you’d be harvesting for another whole forty-six minutes.”
*****
“Eek!”
“Dear, you could at least knock! Twilight, I thought you locked the door?”
“I thought I did, but you were kissing...”
“Ah’ll...be going now. You girls...enjoy yourselves, I guess.”
“Oh don’t worry, we will.”
“More than I needed to hear, Rare!”
****
“Twi, I just came to drop off that book for Big Mac and oh dear Celestia I did not want to see that!”
“Sorry, Applejack. I guess I got a bit carried away with this, but when Rarity starts...”
“Nope nope nope nope.”
“Well, that took care of her, then. Now, Twilight, where were we?”
“But Rarityyy~ ooh, don’t stop doing that.”
****
“Girls, this has to stop.”
“Dear Applejack, whatever are you talking about?”
“This! Me walkin’ in on you two doing...whatever.”
“That seems like it’s more your problem, dear.”
“See, I thought so too, but then I had a little chat with Pinkie Pie after last Wednesday. You’ve been planning these ‘accidents’. And I want it to stop.”
“Oh, dear. It appears that we have been found out, Twilight.”
“Rarity, this wasn’t in the script!”
“Shush, Twilight. I am improvising. Yes, dear Applejack, we have been planning these. You see, Twilight has quite the crush on you. She also wants to basically do everything that she’s been doing to me to you. And to watch me do everything that I have done to her to you. She really is quite the deviant.”
“Rarity!”
“And I must admit, there are certain physical aspects of you that do appeal to me, and I find your company enjoyable enough that I would not object overmuch to your inclusion in this relationship. However, if you wish no part in this, simply say so, and we shall not bother you anymore.”
“Twilight, is Rarity tellin’ the truth?”
“...yes.”
“Well, I reckon that somepony’s gotta reign you two unicorns in sometimes.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“Eeyup.”
“Excellent. Applejack, you may get started with Twilight-this was her idea, after all, so I think you deserve some payback. I’ll be back shortly.”
She was poetry, elegant and graceful, but strong when she needed to be. Nopony understood her like I did. She was beautiful, often more than she knew. The few times that I had gotten close to her, my senses had exploded. She was subtle, muted, yet unrepressed. That was simply who she was. She was not the bright sunflower, nor the sweet-smelling rose. She was a well-tended tree, strong, quiet, and unassuming. Her shade was her music, giving everyone who listened to it a reprieve from the rush of life.
It was emotional, driven by passion and excellence, a desire to be perfect, a triumph of skill over natural advantages. It was a whisper into my ear, late at night, saying that everything would be as it should be. She only looked at peace when performing, and that was when she was at her most beautiful. When she was caught in the strings of the music, carried aloft, supported on the beautiful sounds. By all rights, she should have been the conductor of the Philarmonic, but us Earth ponies have always been looked down upon by the unicorns. That she had risen to first chair was probably enough for her, and it would have to be enough for me.
Still, my heart throbs when she is not around, and listening to her music only sates me so much. I love her, with all of my being, and I want to simply listen to her for forever and a day.
My dear Octavia, soon, we shall be together.
*****
She wasn’t that coordinated all the time. She stumbled, fell and occasionally walked into things. She was imperfect, flawed, but all the more wondrous for it, because each time, she picked herself back up and kept moving. A lesser pony would have given up, but not her, not my wondrous flower. She was the most colourful flower in the field, the brightest star in the night sky. She burnt more fiercely than ten ponies combined, and yet never seemed to dim or flicker. But I knew the truth. Behind the harsh and tough exterior, she was vulnerable. She wanted somepony to care for her, to look after her, but her pride wouldn’t let her accept it.
The heart in my chest beats in time with her drums, I know it does. Her song echoes and rings through my very being, consuming everything, until all that is left is pure, sweet truth. The truth that nopony can understand her like I can – I own every record she has ever made, all of them signed. The papers call her a genius, but I know the truth-she is so far beyond that term, though she always denies it. She is a wildflower, bright and colourful, untamed, and surrounded by grown thorns to protect herself and her beauty, but she simply needs care.
Do not fret, Vinyl. I will care for you.
*****
Octavia kicked Vinyl on her next pass by the DJ and her ‘date’.
“Whoops, Tavi needs to talk to me. Dance with her partner, will ya?”
“Wait, Vinyl, do not...”
“So, what’cha need Octy?” said Vinyl, as Octavia whirled the two away from their partners for the dance.
“My partner, if you can call him that, has been especially odd. He keeps muttering something about flowers and music and forever.”
“You got yourself a stalker, Octy,” Vinyl chuckled, “he wants you all to himself. Probably entertaining fantasies of you falling in love with him, or something. Or else, he’s got a rag and the question ‘does this smell like chloroform?’ for you,” said Vinyl, as the two friends moved around the dance floor at the Grand Galloping Gala.
“Vinyl, now is not the time for jokes.”
“There’s always time for jokes, Tavi. Besides, I’m pretty sure my ‘partner’ wants to do something similar to me. Came up to me, looking all creepy and stalkerish. Started talking about the meaning and subtext of every piece I’ve written.”
“Vinyl, your music doesn’t have subtext.”
“I know, right?” said Vinyl, “besides, I have a plan. Here’s what we’re gonna do...”
****Time****
Vinyl and Octavia rejoined their stalker partners, just as the musicians on stage started up a much livelier song. With both of the musician’s partner’s suddenly struggling to keep up with the faster-paced dance, Octavia and Vinyl took the leads. Both of the stalkers took that as a sign that the objects of their affections were falling for them.
Toward the end of the dance, Vinyl and Octavia spun their partners around and were ‘accidentally’ standing too close. The two stalker’s head collided, knocking them both cold. Then, as the two ponies were dragged off, Vinyl asked the Guard to check the ponies suit pockets. Both revealed unsent love letters and damp rags.
“Well, that’s another restraining order that I have to file,” muttered Vinyl, “third this year. I must be on a roll.”
“Some of us are not nearly as fit as you, Vinyl!” huffed Octavia, as the two bolted down one of Canterlot’s central streets, ducking and weaving through the crowds.
“After lugging that cello around, you should be. What’s in that thing, bricks?”
“Shut up and keep running,” said Octavia. Behind the two, the crowd of reporters chased them, every one with the same question on their lips; did the recently announced classical and dubstep fusion album mean that Vinyl and Octavia were now in a relationship?
“We’re not dating!”
“Tavi, less yelling, more running!”
-----
Well, Duh!
One fine day, purple nerd alicorn princess pony had sex with her five pony wives, just because she was purple nerd alicorn princess pony and she could.
The end.
----
Denial
Twilight Sparkle looked up at Applejack from the bottom of a crater, her eyes wide, pleading for mercy from the farmer.
“Twi, I’m related to Apple Bloom. Exactly how well do ya think that works on me?” said Applejack, “first, you’re gonna fill in the hole ya made. Then, you’re gonna find somethin’ else to research. No offense, Twilight, but you and that fancy fire magic don’t mix. That’s the third crater this month, and you’re startin’ t’ smell like smoke. Any more, and we’re gonna have to hold an intervention.”
Twilight Sparkle pouted, but climbed out of the crater.
----
Unwelcome, and Eww
The light in Luna’s room flicked on.
“Luna?” whispered Celestia, “can I sleep with you tonight?”
“Oh, alright, but just this once, sister.” Celestia snuggled up to Luna, the light flicked off, and the room was lit with the gentle glow from the stars in Luna’s mane.
*****
“Luna?” asked Celestia, years later, “can I sleep with you?”
“For old times’ sake, I suppose you can,” smiled Luna, and Celestia snuggled up to her younger sister and...
“Celestia, get thy hooves away from there!”
“But I was so lonely! And aren’t sisters supposed to love...”
“Changeling. Get out,” hissed Luna.
----
Doomed
One fine day, Twilight Sparkle made Ponyville Town Hall explode.
“Right,” said Mayor Mare, once her mane stopped being mostly on fire, “By the power invested in my by me, I hereby declare that the Unicorn Twilight Sparkle may not practice Pyromancy within the bounds of Ponyville, or anywhere within a day’s walk of Ponyville.”
The next fine day, Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn princess.
Mayor Mare was spotted making a beeline for Berry Punch’s Winery, and then politely asked the Flower sisters if she could use their doomsday bunker.
To those unfamiliar with her, Octavia was a rather aloof mare, wholly focused on her chosen career, and something of a musical prodigy. That she had reached the coveted First Chair of the cello section of the Canterlot Philharmonic at such a young age and as an earth pony impressed many. But, ultimately, Octavia was dismissed as just another perfectionist musician. To most, the only interesting thing about her was her relationship with Vinyl Scratch.
The few ponies who knew her, who spent time with her, could tell a different story.
******
Octavia knocked on the door, her cello case balanced on her back, as the wind bit at her, picking up some of the snow that had gathered on the street. The door was opened by an older unicorn mare.
“Octavia! Come in, come in! The children will be delighted to see you!
“It’s wonderful to see you too, Midnight,” said Octavia, hugging the mare who had basically raised her from birth.
“Where’s Vinyl this year?” asked Midnight, as the two walked down the corridor towards the living room.
“She’s out of town, unfortunately. She’s out performing, and sends her regrets – She loves doing this for the kids. She’ll probably drop by once she gets back.” Midnight nodded, and the two entered the large communal living room, and Octavia was immediately mobbed by a small army of colts and fillies.
“Miss Octavia! Miss Octavia!” they cried, as they crowded around the cellist, and Octavia laughed as she hugged each one in turn. After the little ones had been taken care of, the older ones came up and offered their own greetings. But as she was greeting them, her eyes glanced around the room, noting a distinct lack of furniture, as well as a slowly dying fire in the hearth, and her eyes narrowed.
“Miss Octavia, are you alright?” asked one of the closer fillies.
“Yes, I am. I was just thinking about a horrible piece of music that my conductor is making us play right now. But anyway, would you all like to hear a story?” That, it seemed, was the magic word.
“Story, story, story!” chanted the younger kids, and Octavia took a seat with her back to the dwindling fire.
“Alright,” she said, as the children arrayed themselves in front of her, “here’s the story of how Vinyl and I met Princess Cadence. It was a nice day, a few months ago, so the weather was just starting to get cold, and Vinyl and I were...debating... over where we were going to go for the Nightmare Night Celebrations...”
****
Octavia kept talking long into the night, entertaining the children with stories from hers and Vinyl’s lives, all acted out with full sound effects and grandiose gestures on Octavia’s part. Once they had grown tired, Octavia had helped Midnight carry them up to their beds, and once they were back downstairs, Octavia opened up her cello case, and pulled out a big sack.
“Here you are, Midnight,” said Octavia, offering the sack to the caretaker, “I wish I could do more, but...”
“Every little bit helps, Octavia,” said Midnight, levitating the sack from Octavia. “That you come here year after year is the highlight of their lives. You and Vinyl both are symbols for them. You are showing them that they can still be whatever they want to be, that they aren’t constrained by growing up here.”
“It’s not acceptable, you know,” growled Octavia, “You shouldn’t have to burn furniture to stay warm, not during Hearths’ Warming. You know that Vinyl would say the same thing.”
“I can’t do anything, Octavia. The nobles don’t care about us, about the orphanage. I’ve tried taking it to the Courts, but that never gets anywhere. As far as they’re concerned, we’re still receiving our full budget. You and Vinyl are the only reason we’re still here.”
*****Time****
“I know, Midnight,” sighed Octavia, “but it still doesn’t make it right. I’ll keep trying anything that I can think of. At least with that you can buy some firewood.”
“Thank you, Octavia,” said Midnight, wrapping the cellist in a hug, “and tell Vinyl thank you as well.”
“I will,” said Octavia, as she exited the orphanage, and beginning the walk back home.
Octavia stopped making the hay burgers, and blinked several times.
“Vinyl,” she said, “I do not believe that I have ever heard you sing.”
On the other side of the kitchen counter, Vinyl paused for a minute, the knife she was using to chop up the lettuce hovering in mid-air, surrounded by a blue glow.
“You know,” Vinyl said, “I think you’re right. I can’t remember ever singing around you. Maybe we should go out to a karaoke night or something.”
Both musicians shrugged, and then sniffed the air, pausing while they processed the sharp smell in the air. Octavia turned around to find the pan with the hay burgers on fire, and there was another pause.
Then they both began screaming and running around the kitchen trying to put the fire out, and all thoughts of Vinyl’s undisplayed singing went ignored for a while.
******
Vinyl and Octavia trotted through the streets of Canterlot, having just finished up having a wonderful dinner at a more upscale restaurant to celebrate Octavia’s promotion to the coveted First Chair Cellist of the Canterlot Philharmonic.
“Vinyl, I do feel that that wine is getting to me. I haven’t felt so pleasant in a long while,” muttered Octavia, bumping into Vinyl.
“Yeah, me too,” said Vinyl, “what do you say we go and have some fun, though?”
“What did you have in mind, Vinyl?”
“You’re going to love this, Octy! It’s even musical!” grinned Vinyl, gesturing up at the sign on a bar.
“The...Mug and Mic?” asked Octavia.
“Yep!” said Vinyl, “it’s even amateur night, so anypony can get up and sing!”
Octavia looked undecided for a minute or two, before deciding that one bar couldn’t hurt her reputation that much. After all, the lead violinist of the Philharmonic went on bar binges every other week, and he was still a competent musician. Smiling, and nodding her assent to Vinyl, the two entered, and even though it was getting late in the evening, they still managed to find two seats fairly near the stage.
Several drinks later, Octavia was beginning to see the appeal of cider-it wasn’t pretentious, it wasn’t fancy and there was certainly no punishment for choosing the wrong one like there was with wine. There were no cider snobs, no tastings. Ponies drank it because they liked it, and it went with basically everything.
“Come on, Vinyl!” said Octavia, waving her third mug in the general direction of the stage, “get up there and sing, filly!”
“You asked for it, Tavi!” said Vinyl, who was a bit further into drunkard territory than Octavia was. Swaying slightly as she ascended the few steps onto the stage, Vinyl fumbled about until she found the microphone. The music for Vinyl’s chosen song started, and Octavia bobbed along, and then Vinyl started singing.
******
“Is it over?” asked Octavia, as she removed her hooves from her ears, and Vinyl stumbled off the stage.
“So, how was I? Pretty good, right?” Vinyl asked as she plonked herself back down into the seat next to Octavia.
“That was just...I have no words for what that was, Vinyl.”
“Heh, I knew I was pretty good,” said Vinyl, as she took another swig of her fifth cider.
“Vinyl, I am your friend, yes?” said Octavia. At Vinyl’s nod of assent, Octavia continued, “then, as a friend, I must inform you that...that was, without a doubt, the worst piece of singing that I have ever heard. How have you, of all ponies, grown up without a single sense of the pitch of your own voice?”
“But all these guys seemed to like it,” said Vinyl, the beginnings of a pout forming on her face.
“They were either too drunk to hear you, or covering their ears to save them the pain of listening to your ‘singing’,”
****Time*****
“I’d like to see you do better, miss Perfect McPerfectypants!” growled Vinyl
“I will, then,” said Octavia, finishing her cider off with a single swig, and thunking the empty stein back down on the table. She climbed up to the stage, and after that, her memory got a lot fuzzier. All she could remember was singing something, and as she came down, Vinyl pounced on her, saying something about wanting her singing voice.
Shortly after that, Octavia experienced being physically thrown out of a bar for the first time.
Four steins hit the table, and Twilight let out a sigh of approval.
“You know, as much as I miss Applejack, her descendants make one heck of a cider.”
“Indeed!” boomed Luna, having lost any and all control over her volume after her first drink. “Thy friends are purveyors of beverages most fine!”
“And you would know good cider, wouldn’t you, Princess Hedonist?” smirked Celestia, her own normally impassive face flushed.
“Thou swore to never mention that name again, Celestia!”
“Oh, this I must hear,” said Cadence, as she refilled the mugs. In theory, she was there to ensure that there was still a Princess who didn’t have a headache the next morning and could thus lower the moon, and raise the sun. However, she usually volunteered for Sober Duty because once Celestia and Luna got drunk, all sorts of interesting stories got pulled up. Especially so once Twilight was drunk enough to not care how she was acting around Celestia in particular.
“Well, this was in the early days of when we were ruling Equestria. A lot of the old warrior culture was still around, and it was basically tradition that after a battle, everypony got drunk in celebration.”
“LA LA LA LA LA! We are not listening to thy foul lies, Celestia!” Cadence tuned Luna out by utilising her years of foalsitting experience. Twilight cast a silence spell on the Princess of the Moon, and Celestia mouthed the words ‘Thank you’ to Twilight.
“Anyway,” continued, “It was shortly after Sombra. We had returned, and found the usual feast waiting. I was tired, so I had one or two drinks, and then excused myself. Luna, however, used to always be the one who fully engaged in the revelry.” A slow smirk begun to work itself across Celestia’s face.
“So much so, that particular night, that from what I hear, once the food was all eaten, and most of the drinks had been drunk, Luna intended to cast a fire spell, to close out the night. Unfortunately, she got it a bit wrong. She cast a heat spell.”
Twilight and Cadence looked at the silently fuming Luna, and burst out laughing.
“So, when I got up the next morning,” laughed Celestia, “She was on the head table in a compromising position with two earth ponies and a selection of vegetables. The rest of the party never managed to make it out of the hall, either. Nopony could look any other in the eyes for days afterwards. The ponies then took to calling Luna the Princess of Hedonism, or Princess Hedonist. And of course, I never let her forget it anytime the drinking started for years after.”
“Oh, ha ha,” muttered Luna, having finally worked her way through Twilight’s silence spell. “Say what thou liketh, Celestia, we had fun. Or perhaps we should tell Twilight and Cadence of...the Swamp Monster? Or perhaps the time thou wast called The Dawnbreak Of Equestria, She Whose Mane Smells Like Dew On A Fresh Summer Morn, She Whose Hooves Are As Gentle As Autumn Leaves Falling.”
****Time****
“In fairness, Luna, I think the Court Announcer was rather infatuated with me. Somepony switched out my official title list for one of his love poems. He got halfway down before he realised what he was reading,” said Celestia, taking another drink.
“It only makes it funnier,” stage-whispered Luna, “when you know that that was also the day she was due to negotiate a peace treaty with the Griffons. She was introduced to their King as ‘She Whose Coat Is As White As The Most Perfect Of Clouds’. He never quite let her forget that until he died.”
“To silly names!” cried Celestia, raising her mug.
“To silly names!” echoed the other three, and they drank.
One of the most fascinating things that I have seen, I think, is this notion of days of merriment, where the ponies below cast aside almost all responsibilities in exchange for a single day of carefree abandon. I could see them, in City-On-Mountainside, suffering the snow and cold winds, scurrying about, buying material things. In the days when I was mobile, we would have called such things tributes, gifts meant to appease us, to entice us to not eat them, or burn down their villages.
Perhaps I should remind them of this custom. But I am far too attached to my perch, and the ponies below have not yet ceased to intrigue me.
Sometimes, when the air is still, I can hear their songs drift up the mountain. Their melody is pleasing to my ear, though not necessarily pleasant. It reminds me too much of my first mate. Oh, such melodies she would sing. Such melodies would float through the air, wrapping my and our unhatched child as we huddled, the fires within our bodies keeping us warm through the winter. Such melodies would sing through the air with joy as the screams of those lesser than us fled before our song.
I once sang, joyful and full of life. I sang every year, as the moon rose upon Year’s Birth, in chorus with my brethren, my brothers and sisters of air and fire. I sang, casting my spirit and breath high into the sky.
And oh, how we would dance. The sky and earth was ours. We had none to fear, we, the masters of the world. Our celebration would go long, sometimes for days. Our feasts would empty fields and forests, our drinking would empty lakes. Our dancing would shake the earth to the very core, and our singing would shake the very heavens themselves.
But even beings such as me are subject to the terrible mastery of time, and though my own being has gone unclaimed and unwearied by it, it extracts its toll upon me by taking everything it can. Now, all the ponies’ singing reminds me of is what I have lost, and all I can muster now are tears.
Tears, and rage.
Not for the first time, and likely not for the last, I can sometimes see the winged unicorns, the sisters of dark and light, look up to the peak of my mountain, as if they know I am here. I do not care. Sometimes, I even see them begin flights upwards, yet they remain ever uncompleted.
As the ponies’ day of merriment draws to a close and they lay in their homes, exhausted, I raise my head to the sky as the moon slips into the sky, and I let a lick of flame big enough to swallow a small town, perhaps the size of Town-By-Forest, escape my mouth.
Perhaps the sisters of Dark and Light see these when I breathe them upon Year’s Birth. Perhaps they do not. It is perhaps the only way I can celebrate. My soul no longer has the joy to sing, dance, feast and drink, and this mountain of mine is comfortable.
Celestia and Luna touched down upon the space on top of the Canterhorn. There was just enough space for the two of them on the narrow plateau, and despite the sun shining and the air being still, Luna could not entirely supress a shudder.
“Cold, Luna?” asked Celestia, as the two waited for the snow to settle around them.
“Nay, Sister. This place is overflowing with magic. It is...unnerving.”
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, reached out with her own senses and almost immediately recoiled.
“That was intense,” said Celestia. Just then, a blast of warm air issued forth from the cave in front of the two sisters.
“Long have I watched you two, sisters of dark and light. The earth’s bones have told me of you. They claim you are formidable, to be respected. Yet now, you seek me out. Why?” rumbled a voice from within the cavern.
“We only wish to talk,” said Celestia, “we know that you have been living here for many years, and we know that you have never shown hostilities against Equestria.”
There was a pause, and another rush of warm air, melting a fraction of the snow that had built up upon the plateau.
“Speak,” commanded the voice.
“We are concerned, great dragon,” stated Luna, “that if you begin your long slumber here you could endanger everything in Equestria, perhaps beyond. We would ask that you leave your cave, and seek another place to rest.”
There was a further pause, and when the blast of air came, it was short, sharp, and significantly warmer than the previous ones.
“No,” was the simple response. Celestia and Luna shared a look.
“We are prepared to offer you a substantial amount of gold to add to your hoard, great dragon,”
There was a short pause, and the sound of rock scraping against equally tough scales issued forth from the cave, until the head of the dragon, a great thing, easily the size of a city block of Canterlot hovered just inside. Even at this distance, the two sisters could feel the heat radiating from the dragon’s body.
“I have no hoard,” snorted the dragon, each word accompanied with a rush of warm air, the sound rumbling in the Royal Sisters’ chests. “I have no desire to collect such material things. Nor do I require food tributes. You have no power here, sisters of Dark and Light. Leave me.”
“We cannot do that, dragon, unless you promise to move away and spend your long sleep outside of Equestria,” said Celestia, “We are prepared to offer you whatever you would like to ensure that this takes place.”
“Your efforts are wasted. Your trip up here is useless. I have grown fond of my perch on my mountain. Leave,” rumbled the dragon, beginning to pull its head back inside the cave.
“What do you want? Tell us, and we may be able to help,” said Celestia. The dragon paused, its head hanging on the edge of visibility for the two alicorns.
“What I want? I want nothing, save that which time itself has taken. I want that which cannot be returned. I want that which cannot be given. Leave. I have asked three times. I will not ask again,” said the dragon, the air gradually growing warmer until, despite the banks of snow, the two sisters felt like they were in the deserts.
“You had much taken from you, dragon,” said Luna, locking eyes with the great beast, “A mate, perhaps. A child. Your wealth, vanished to the ages. You want these things back, do you not? But you know that you will never have them. Perhaps you feel that you do not deserve them. You wonder why it was that they were taken, and you were not. You-”
“ENOUGH!” roared the dragon, shaking the very earth on which Celestia and Luna stood, and nearly roasting them. “Thrice I have asked you to leave, and you presume that you know me? That you know my pain? You seek to use my own desires against me, to drive me away. You appeal to my nature, to my greed. I have none. There is no trick, no thing that you can offer that will make me leave my mountain.”
Celestia thought for a minute, and just when Luna was about to speak, she threw a wing up in front of her younger sister.
“We can do nothing, Luna. If he were younger, more impulsive, maybe. But not at this age. We will leave, dragon, but I have two requests, if you will indulge me?”
“You push my patience,” muttered the dragon, “but if it means that you leave, I will hear them.”
Celestia inclined her head in thanks.
****Time*****
“First, I would ask that you try to control your smoke when you sleep.”
“I have surpassed my need for rest. Another reason why your trip up here was useless.”
Both Celestia and Luna blinked in surprise.
“I’ve never heard of a dragon that didn’t need sleep,” whispered Luna, “It might be the magic keeping him alive up here.”
“Your second request?” asked the dragon, impatience creeping into its voice.
“I would know your name,” asked Celestia.
“It is useless to you. Name me yourself.”
Celestia and Luna paused. This was a somewhat common occurance in dragons. By forcing the other party to think of a name, it could give the dragon time and a way to evaluate if they wanted to continue associating with the other. Celestia, in a rare moment of blankness, blurted out the first thing that she could think of.
“The Mountain King. I name you the Mountain King.”
“Acceptable,” grunted the Mountain King, pulling its head back inside the cave, “now begone.”
The Royal Sisters were off the edge of the plateau before the Mountain King finished speaking.
Twilight screamed, her virtual HUD flickering as the intrusion countermeasures of the system she was hacking tried to fry her brain. Her horn lit up, momentarily making the pain worse, but yanked the wires connecting her to her portable deck out of the jack on the back of her neck. She collapsed, twitching. A few meters away, Pinkie Pie glanced up from the drone she was servicing. Abandoning the drone, she leapt over the table and moved Twilight onto her back. She issued a few last commands to her remaining drones, instructing them to make as much trouble as possible as she dashed for the door. Pinkie usually didn’t work with deckers like Twilight often-she liked a more ‘hooves on’ approach, but even she knew when they’d been hit by some bad IC. She’d seen what could happen if they screwed up-Sunset had never quite been the same afterwards, and Moondancer was a vegetable.
What mattered, beyond anything, was getting Twilight to a doc. Pinkie Pie was not going to let a runner die on her watch. She called out to the other runners that Twilight had hired for tonight’s job, telling them to get out before corporate security got there, and they began to vanish off into the shadows. She’d see them later, Pinkie knew it. Fortunately, there was a doctor that Pinkie knew fairly well a couple of streets over.
“What happened, Pinkie?” asked Redheart, as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, having been woken up by Pinkie’s frantic yelling and pounding. Twilight was lying unmoving on one of the tables.
“Bad IC, I think. She just started screaming, and yanked her cords out.”
Redheart let out a slow breath, and looked down at the unicorn decker.
“Pinkie, I’m not going to ask you where you were, but I need to know. What level of security was this unicorn up against?”
“Black, I think. The tough, super smart stuff. She hired me to watch her back while she hacked something,” said Pinkie, “can you help her?”
“Maybe,” muttered Redheart, sliding a pair of electronically enhanced glasses over her eyes. “She’s in a bad way. I haven’t seen anything quite this bad since this one pegasus...anyway, she’s going to need a new datajack, at least.”
“Don’t worry about cost, Doc. I’ll pay for anything,” said Pinkie Pie.
“The infamous ‘No Deaths’ clause of Pinkie Pie. I’ll do what I can.”
******
“Well?” asked Pinkie Pie, the next day.
“I’m well. I need to get back in there,” Twilight’s voice issued from the back room, and Redheart sighed.
“As you can hear, she’s more or less healed. The damage wasn’t quite as bad as it looked. She’s one hell of a decker. Anypony else would have gotten fried. Only thing is she’s insisting on going back there,” said Redheart, “maybe you can sort her out and convince her otherwise.”
However, just then, Twilight managed to get off the table, and was bolting for the door, barely pausing to grab her gear, pulling it on as she ran. Pinkie, however, was not about to lose another potential friend so quickly, and tackled Twilight to the floor. Redheart let out another sigh from her desk, and returned to the back.
“Twilight, you can’t go back there!”
“I have to! That information is not going to sit on that server forever! This is my only chance!”
“You can’t get the data if you’re dead, Twilight,” said Pinkie, “and if you go in there now, the corps will have all kinds of totally not fun things waiting for you. Is this data really worth getting yourself killed for?”
Twilight paused for a moment.
“Yes, Pinkie,” she said, “it is. Now let me get back there!”
“Sorry Twilight! You’re going to have a nice little nap instead!”
“Whaa...” Twilight trailed off, as behind her Redheart sighed in relief, lowering the syringe of sedative.
****Time****
“Thanks, Pinkie,” said Redheart, as the two began to haul the sleeping Twilight back to the table.
“No problem!” chirped Pinkie, “I’ve seen things like that before. Some runners get so fixed on a job that completing it is worth more than they are. It never ends well. I don’t like it when they do that. Sometimes, you just have to save them from themselves.”
“Pinkie Pie,” Redheart mused, “you are a bright spark in a dim world. Never change.”
She threw herself at the dancefloor with almost reckless abandon as the heavy beats of the music pounded the air. It vibrated and shook her, deep in her chest and down to her hooves. Glow sticks juddered and shook around her leg as she twisted and turned in time with the music.
She didn’t come here for the conversation, nor for the company or the drinks. She was here for the music. That was her high, feeling the bass permeate every part of her, electrifying her every nerve in the best possible way. She weaved and bobbed among the mass of other ponies, yelling at the appropriate moments when the DJ worked the crowd into a frenzy. Here, nopony cared about image-she was just another pony among many, just another club goer, and she could let the stress of the week fall away.
By the end of the first song, she was panting, sweating and physically exhausted, but energized and ready for more. Sweat clung to her coat, only occasional wipes from a foreleg keeping it out of her eyes. Songs faded into each other with almost artful skill, as if the DJ was a modern tarantella group, keeping her patrons in a fever to work out the poison. But soon enough, the beat took hold of her body and mind again, and she was whisked away to a world of adrenaline, sweat and glorious, loud noise.
Up in the DJ’s booth, Vinyl Scratch grinned as her magic felt Octavia’s familiar signature leap back into action as the next song started up, the hard beat driving forward, and turning Tavi from her usual well-mannered and polite self into a whirlwind of dance and sweat. And though she knew she wasn’t really supposed to, Vinyl leapt over the mix deck. She couldn’t help herself – feeling Octy dancing out there had infected Vinyl with the same desire to dance. Fortunately, she was good enough, and knew her equipment well enough that she could keep her set going through pure magic-she could have kept it going from the bar, if she was so inclined, but Vinyl didn’t feel like drinking. Not now, while the desire to dance was burning in her.
Instead, she pushed her way through the crowd until she was right up against Octavia, and her body slammed itself into dancing gear as her music pounded against her brain.
“Look, Spitfire, if this is about me choosing Ponyville over you guys...”
“It’s not.”
*****
Rainbow Dash ran. She ran as if the wind itself was behind her. She could feel the air, rushing over her folded wings, and the urge to spread them rose up in her chest. With a grimace, she fought down the impulse, and kept running. All that mattered was the time. Getting there in time.
*****
“I can respect your descision, Rainbow. What I want to know is why you entered in the first place.”
“Uhh...what?”
“Sorry, that wasn’t clear. Why did you enter the relay, not the individual sprint?”
“Because the sprint’s too easy.”
*****
Her heart pounded in her chest, threatening to burst out from her chest. Blood pounded through her ears, and all she could hear was her breathing and the cadence her hooves were beating out on the worn path. She was wholly focused on the path in front of her, blind to even the sweat trickling down her face, and her breath billowing in front of her in small clouds of steam. Up ahead, Rainbow caught the glint of moonlight that told her that the stream had frozen over.
*****
“I’ll be honest, Rainbow. Your team? Pretty terrible. I mean, sure, I can get you wanting to include everypony, but there’s a line. It was pretty clear to everypony watching that the only reason Ponyville qualified was because of you.”
“Spitfire, I...”
“So, if the sprint is too easy, you had to make it hard for yourself by teaming up with the worst fliers you could find, didn’t you?”
“A little, sure, but...”
“Don’t sweat, Rainbow. I know why you convinced those two – Fluttershy told me. She also told me that it was your idea for you to go last. That shows you’ve got a sense of planning, that you’re aware of compensating for your team’s weakness. Frankly, it’s a great attitude for a Wonderbolt.”
“A Wonderbolt?”
*****
With a great leap, Rainbow crossed the frozen stream, landing cleanly on the other side, and once more, her hooves pounded out their cadence on the packed dirt road leading into Ponyville. She bolted through the town, weaving around the houses, through the deserted marketplace, and eventually back out to the field underneath her cloud house, where a stopwatch hung off her mailbox. Tapping the button, she glanced at the time. ‘Twenty four minutes and eight seconds. New personal best!’ she thought, as she flew back up to her house, where after a bit of maths, thought not too much, as Rainbow wasn’t a huge egghead, she worked out what her average run speed had been, and converted it into an approximate time for a mile run. She was getting closer to the almost mystical 4 minute barrier.
*****
“Don’t hold your breath, and I never told you this, but you may be getting a letter soon.”
“Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh.”
“You’re not a wonderbolt yet, Rainbow. But trust me when I say that you are getting there.”
“Thanks, Spitfire.”
“And Rainbow, one more thing. You might want to start adding some runs to your training. Standard fitness for a Wonderbolt says we all have to be able to do a four-minute mile.”
Rarity dived through the open door, through to her workroom. Scanning about for something, anything that she could use against her assailant, she caught sight of her full-length mirror. It was a rather beautiful thing, framed in beautifully carved wood, a gift from Berry Punch once upon a time, a repayment for a favour long in the past.
Silently apologizing to the mirror, Rarity’s horn lit up, and popped the sheet of glass out from its frame. A second later, and a squeeze from her magic, the mirror was in thousands of razor-sharp pieces, just as her assailant managed to find her.
Seconds later, the changeling fell to the floor, its chitinous body littered with cuts and gashes. Rarity suppressed a sigh at seeing the greenish-black blood pooling on the floor, and pointedly decided that she was not going to think about the cost to get it cleaned.
A scream echoed through the air.
“Sweetie Belle!” called Rarity, dashing outside, the mirror fragments trailing in her wake, sparkling and shimmering in the sunlight. Occasionally, a group of them would break off to help a few ponies, distracting the attacking changelings long enough for the ponies to get the upper hoof.
Rarity skidded to a stop a few streets away from Carousel Boutique, confronted by two identical Sweetie Belles.
“Alright, you fiends,” said Rarity, lowering her head, the cloud of mirror shards floating around her, still suspended in her magic field, “Tell me where my sister is, and this won’t hurt.”
“But I’m your sister!” both said, at the exact same time. Identical looks adorned their faces, and even the exact tone was a perfect match. Rarity’s eyes narrowed, trying to pick out some physical difference between them.
She sighed as she realised that she couldn’t, not without potentially hurting her sister. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of something in one of the larger mirror shards. Cocking her head to the side, she twisted and turned the shard of glass around until she saw it again. Upon realising what it was, she let out a thoroughly unladylike snort of laughter.
Turning back to the identical pair of Sweetie Belles, she considered them both a second longer, and then, as loud as she could, Rarity called out.
“Sweetie Belle, what did I tell you about the kitchen?”
Behind her, Sweetie stuck her head out from the bush she had been hiding in.
“That I wasn’t allowed to cook until you told me to, and you had a fire extinguishing spell,” called Sweetie, only then realising what she’d done.
“Thank you, Sweetie,” said Rarity, her magic and the shards of the mirror bursting back into life. For the next few seconds, Rarity was at the centre of a veritable storm of magically assisted glass and metal.
“You can come over now, Sweetie,” said Rarity, once the last changeling had fallen to the ground.
“That was so cool, Rarity! Where did you learn to do that?” squeaked the younger unicorn, bounding over to Rarity.
“You’d be surprised what you can pick up by reading, but I must confess that this was mostly improvisation. But now, I think, you had best go find someplace safe to hide. Twilight’s castle should likely be safe. If it isn’t, Sweetie, go back to the boutique and hide there. I’ll come for you when I can. My mirror and I have a date with some changelings right now.”
“Okay!” said Sweetie, rushing away. Rarity smiled as she watched her sister vanish around a corner, heading to Twilight’s castle in the distance. She turned to face the rest of the street, her ears picking out the sounds of fighting all across town, and she ran off, looking for anypony who needed help.
Princess Luna walked out from behind a half-destroyed flower stand, a smile on her face.
“Interesting,” she muttered, looking at the direction that Rarity had run off in. “Very interesting indeed.”
And then, with an impossible twist of space, which only left behind a faint wisp of blue-black smoke, Luna vanished from Rarity’s dream.
Colgate was a relatively normal pony. She was Ponyville’s main dentist, the only one constantly waging the war over the health of ponies’ teeth, her opponents being the dastardly Bon Bon’s Bon Bons and the infamous Sugarcube Corner. Still, Colgate liked Ponyville-it was an interesting town, though even she, as a long-seasoned resident, could attest to the weirdness that the town attracted on nearly a daily basis.
Still, when Colgate woke up that morning, she felt strangely calm, mixed with a touch of euphoria, which was odd. She checked her wall calendar. Nothing special on that day, and Pinkie Pie was not scheduled for an appointment until Colgate could get her window replaced. Preferably with unbreakable security glass. Indeed, the only thing that she had to do today was some basic accounting, as well as follow up with a few bills. Colgate cocked her head to the side. She couldn’t hear any singing, and she certainly hadn’t said anything about how today was a fine day, or that morning in Ponyville shimmered, or even the ultimate taboo of ‘everything will be just fine’.
Deciding that she’d just gotten a good night’s rest for once, Colgate threw open her shutters, and inhaled the fresh morning air of Ponyville. Fresh earth, a slight scent of burnt sugar coming from Sugarcube Corner and the scents floating up from Ponyville market were all normal.
The trail of fire leading through Ponyville, and ending at the Golden Oaks Library, that was less normal. Sometimes. It depended if Twilight Sparkle had decided to pick up researching pyrokinesis again. Colgate worried about her, sometimes. The number of times that mare had nearly blown herself, or her surroundings, into a lot of little pieces was worrying.
As Colgate continued to survey the more-or-less normal Ponyville morning vista, there was a snap-crackle-pop-boom in the skies over head. The next thing that Colgate knew, Twilight Sparkle was embedded in her window box. She was also partially on fire, so Colgate put her out with her watering can.
“It works!” cackled Twilight Sparkle, “It works! I’ve finally managed to stabilize the spell matrix to the point where I can get a stable opening in the space-time continuum!”
Just then, Twilight appeared to realize where she was.
“Oh, sorry about your window box,” she said, turning to face Colgate, “and thank you for putting me out, too. Note to self: It appears that the positioning spell for the return didn’t quite work. And the being on fire when exiting the portal is a problem that needs to be solved soon. But it works! This was an excellent test run! Take that, mister Thought Experiment!”
As Twilight devolved into a stream of techno babble and rants against various scholars, Colgate decided that perhaps today was not a good day to leave the house, so she closed and locked her shutters, and went back to bed. Accounts could wait until Twilight Sparkle had finished trying to destroy the universe.
The music was loud, far louder than Twilight was used to. She didn’t normally come to these kinds of places. Too much noise, too smoky and the whole atmosphere made it hard for her to think. She’d come here on a whim, a vague message that had arrived by mysterious magical means, and so now she found herself here. She was leaning up against a wall, away from the main crush of bodies.
“Hi Twilight!” chirped a voice from just behind her, and Twilight turned to find a pink mare, her mane poofing out almost impossibly.
“How did you know who I was?” asked Twilight.
“Silly, I know everypony,” said the pink mare, “so that includes you!”
“So who are you?” asked Twilight.
“Well, my full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie,” said Pinkie.
“Pinkie,” muttered Twilight, half to herself, “Wait, the Pinkie? That got into the Royal Canterlot vaults?”
“Yepperooni!”
“Wait,” said Twilight, “I thought you were a unicorn.”
“Most ponies do, silly.”
“That was you with the notes. How did you do that?” asked Twilight.
“Right now,” said Pinkie, her voice dropping, “the only thing I can say is that you’re not safe, Twilight. I had to get you here so I could warn you.”
“Warn me of what?” asked Twilight.
“They’re watching you, Twilight.”
“Who is?” said Twilight, confusion crossing her face.
“Just listen for a second, Twilight,” said Pinkie, leaning in close to the purple mare. “I know why you’re here, Twilight. I know what you’ve been doing. Why you hardly sleep, why you live alone and why night after night, you sit reading books. You’re looking for her.”
Twilight turned, looking like she was about to speak, but Pinkie continued on.
“I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when she found me, she told me that I wasn’t really looking for her. I was looking for an answer. It’s the question that drives us, Twilight. It’s the question that got you here tonight. You know the question, just as I did.”
“What is the Spell?”
“The answer’s out there, Twilight. It’s looking for you. It will find you, if you want it to. Now, I gotta go make some new friends. See you, Twilight!”
Celestia could remember the day she found the first one. At the time, so soon after the battle, she felt that it was disrespectful. With a few careful interventions, she managed to disband them without bloodshed.
The next one was hidden better, and nearly two centuries later. It took weeks for her to uncover the group, and disbanding them safely took months. It wasn’t for her safety, she reasoned. It was for theirs. Dark magic could extract terrible tolls upon the caster if misused, or even if used properly, and Celestia hated seeing her ponies hurt. She even managed to track down the source of the cult – An old copy of a book.
For one terrible, terrible moment, Celestia contemplated ordering her guard to seek out and destroy all copies of the book. However, she knew that a rare book, such as this one, had a strange way of making its way around the world, an actively suppressed one would spread much faster. Celestia never wanted to be that kind of ruler. She never wanted to control what her ponies thought. All she would do was watch for any signs that signified the rise of another group, and simply ordered that the book be stored in the restricted section of the Canterlot archives.
She found the next group shortly after the turn of the next century. This one was a lot more fanatical than the previous ones, and by the time she had uncovered it, they were beyond saving. Celestia had personally taken each family aside, and explained what had happened, why the deaths of their loved ones, sons, daughters had been nessecary, while simultaneously keeping a watch on them for a few years. Dark magic could be insidious, sometimes, worming into a pony’s mind, corrupting them over years at a time, and eventually resulting in...Celestia severed the train of thought.
Sometimes, Celestia regretted not ordering the destruction of the books that caused these groups, these cults to spring up, but she would not, would never allow herself to try and control her ponies thoughts. No, all she would do, all she could do was order that any found copies be placed under restrictions, so that at least she could keep track of them.
The most recent cult had been the most dangerous. They had managed to keep themselves hidden from Celestia for years, even managed to sneak some of their members into close proximity to Celestia.
They had an opportunity. They took it.
Unfortunately, they forgot that Celestia was immortal. Celestia had long suspected that Dark Magic rotted the part of the brain that dealt with sanity first.
As Celestia turned the battered copy of the book over in her magic, the wound in her side already being stitched up by her magic, she once more wondered if free thought and choices was really worth perhaps 50 copies of one book. There certainly couldn’t be many. Books like this were never replicated too many times. But Celestia was nothing if not a creature of principle, and once more, she ordered the book be placed under the highest restrictions that were available. It would not do to have a book called ‘The Nightmares’, which detailed the summoning of creatures of the purest Dark Magic, out where anypony could find it.
And any cults which connected the book with Lu – Nightmare Moon would have to be closely watched too. Celestia was conflicted about them. One the one hoof, some of the ones she had seen were mostly harmless, and some even looked downright pleasant, but once that book became involved, things started to spiral. Well, the ones to Luna looked pleasant. The ones to Nightmare Moon, the ones that had found ‘The Nightmares’, were downright horrifying at their worst. Celestia may have been immortal, but she was not invulnerable, nor infallible, as the most recent cult had proved.
Fluttershy was in the closet. This wasn’t entirely new to her-thanks to her terrible, terrible habit of being frightened at almost everything, she had hidden in her closet a lot. Unfortunately, this time she was stuck.
“Could somepony please help me? If it’s not too much trouble?” asked Fluttershy, as loud as she dared. She didn’t want to wake the bats that were sleeping in the closet. And it wasn’t like Fluttershy didn’t like being in the closet with the bats, but she had wanted to do things today.
Just then, there was a knock at the front door of Fluttershy’s cottage, and she could hear Rarity calling out. Fluttershy thanked her lucky stars that the closet was right next to the front door, and called out.
“Come in!” Above her, the bats rustled and shifted in their sleep, and Fluttershy whispered her apologies to them.
“Fluttershy, where are you?” asked Rarity.
“I’m, um, in the closet,” said Fluttershy. There was a shimmering sound, and the door opened. From her position, Fluttershy couldn’t see Rarity, but she could imagine what the unicorn’s face looked like.
“Dear Fluttershy, why are you in the closet?”
“Please, not so loud, Rarity!” insisted Fluttershy, “you might wake the bats, and they’ve had such a hard night.”
“Very well,” whispered Rarity, “Do you have any green thread? I need some to finish a dress for somepony, and the store is closed.”
“Oh, um, it should be right by my left wing.”
The shimmering sound of magic being used filled the air, and out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy saw her spool of green thread float out and around her.
“Thank you, dear,” said Rarity, “I promise that I’ll return it once I’m done.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to do that,” said Fluttershy, “but if you could just...” She was cut off by the closet door shutting, keeping Fluttershy in the closet. With the bats. Fluttershy sighed, and tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position. A while later, there was another knock at the door, and once more, Fluttershy called out.
“Sorry,” she then whispered to the single bat above her that had opened one of its eyes to glare at her.
A few moments later, the closet door was thrown open by Pinkie Pie.
“Fluttershy! Where’s your flour? I need to get the Cake Twins under control, stat!”
“It’s in the third drawer on your left as you go into the kitchen, Pinkie. But before you go, could you...” But Pinkie had already shut the closet door, and Fluttershy could hear her rummaging through the kitchen, eventually crying out ‘Eureka!’ once she’d found the flour, and then Fluttershy heard what sounded like Pinkie Pie leaving her cottage without bothering to open the front door.
Fortunately, Fluttershy was friends with beavers, but she couldn’t help but let a sigh escape her lips. That would be the eighth door this month.
As Fluttershy tried to wriggle herself free again, there was another knock at the door. Once more, Fluttershy called out, and then frantically apologised to the bats above her as they shushed her.
The closet door opened.
“Fluttershy, I need something for Owlowiscious. He’s not eating, not even the mice I leave out for him.”
“Oh, um, it sounds like he might be sad,” said Fluttershy, “have you tried letting him fly around the forest some nights? He’s probably just missing hunting. Owls can be funny sometimes. If you helped me I could...”
Once again, Fluttershy was too late with her request, and Twilight was gone, and the close was shut again. A second later it opened, and Twilight spoke again.
“Also, there’s a Pinkie Pie-shaped hole in your door, Fluttershy,” said Twilight, and then the closet was shut again.
Fluttershy let out the softest scream she could.
****Time****
“Oh I know you like your exoskeleton, Mr. Scorpion, but if you don’t shed you’re never going to get any bigger,” whispered Fluttershy, many hours later. The scorpion made scorpion noises.
“But just think of how all the lady scorpions will admire your nice, shiny new exoskeleton,” said Fluttershy, “I know you want to have a family one day, and they’ll see you and think ‘oh, he’s a nice, big, strong scorpion.’”
The scorpion made more scorpion noises.
“I know, Mr. Scorpion. It can be hard to let go sometimes, but you have to do it, or you’ll be in a lot of pain when you get too big for your old exoskeleton,” said Fluttershy, “but don’t worry, I’ll help you while your new one hardens.”
The scorpion made further scorpion noises, and then the scorpion nuzzled up against Fluttershy’s cheek in thanks, before scuttling off.
The closet door swung open, almost without warning. Whatever the pony visiting her was about to say was cut off by the entire group of bats exiting the closet without any regard to who or what was in their way.
“Good bats,” Fluttershy smiled, as screams and the chirping of bats faded into the distance.
Twilight Sparkle could see everything from here. She could hear everything, too. That only made it worse. She closed her eyes, and breathed. In, and out. In, and out. Her senses, magical and mundane, spread over the battlefield below her like a spiderweb. In four and three-eighths of a second, she had pinpointed every single combatant within sight, both pony and non.
“Twilight,” began Celestia, who was standing just behind and to the left of Twilight, “you don’t have to do it this way, you know.”
“I know,” said Twilight, “but they’re used to your tactics. They can extrapolate on what yours are. I’m an unknown.”
“Still, are you sure you want to do it this way?” asked Celestia. The unspoken question of ‘Can you do it this way?’ hung in the air between them.
“No,” said Twilight, “But I need to get their attention, and while a fourth Alicorn on the feild would do that, I – we decided that they needed to know that they aren’t the only ones with immense power at their disposal.”
“True enough,” said Celestia, “So, shock and awe?”
“Something like that,” said Twilight, turning back to face the battlefield below. Celestia frowned. Twilight had kept her plan unusually close to her chest, which could only mean one of two things; either she was more cunning than Celestia thought, or that Twilight wasn’t willing to share the burden of what she was about to do.
And, as Twilight’s horn lit up with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight successive coronae, Celestia realised what Twilight was going to do. She may not have recognised the spell, but she didn’t need to. The air was crackling, electrified. Sparks of raw magic occasionally jumped from Twilight’s horn to the ground, but the pressure kept building.
“Twilight, you don’t have to do it like this,” said Celestia.
“Yes, I do,” replied Twilight, adding a ninth corona to her horn.
******
The spell flowed easily. Almost too easily, Twilight thought. But such was her curse, her gift. Mastery of her absolute least favourite school of magic, Destruction. She had never cast a spell like this before, and if she’d had her way, she never would have in the first place, or would again. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and Twilight had known that this was the way it had to be since the four princesses had mentioned ‘Shock and Awe’ last night.
She could only sigh, and try to console herself that as cliché as it sounded, this really was for the best, for the overall greater good. She was dimly aware that her mane had shifted from physical to ethereal.
The voice in the back of her head that told her to destroy things cackled at what was about to occur, and Twilight had to admit to a perverse pleasure at unleashing a spell so destructive.
She opened her eyes. They shone with a brilliant, white light.
******
On the battlefield below, both sides paused in their fight, as above them, a purple glow erupted into being on the ridge above them, a giant column of purple light lancing up into the swirling clouds above. Everything on the battlefield flinched as a wall of light swept through them, causing the attackers glow slightly.
Then the heavens opened up, and hell rained down. Purple bolts of death poured from the sky, some piercing the attackers clean through, others leaving only craters and bloodstains in their wake.
Running didn’t help the attackers. Had anypony else been casting this spell, a few might have escaped. Unfortunately, this was Twilight Sparkle. This was what her magic did best, as much as she despised it. Nothing escaped that wasn’t a pony.
Up on the ridge, Celestia glanced at her old student turned equal. It was times like this that she reminded herself that Twilight Sparkle was not just a highly accomplished polymath- when she wanted to be, she was also a living engine of destruction. Celestia didn’t like subjecting Twilight to this, and if she or Luna could, they would swap schools with her in an instant, but this was Twilight’s burden to bear.
A Sonic Rainboom. The girl had pulled it off. Of course, Spitfire was relying on the words of her teammates; she’d been unconscious. Hardly a great first meeting, she’d say. Still, if even half of what Cloudsdale was saying about Rainbow Dash was true, Spitfire was sure that she’d be seeing more of the young flier.
*****
The gala was a disaster, no two ways about it. Spitfire glanced around the destroyed ballroom, pointedly ignoring the nobles that were trying to get her attention. Her mind was flashing back over the events of the evening. Sure, Rainbow had been getting a bit show-offy towards the end of the night, but Spitfire could understand. She was meeting her heroes. Still, she’d shown a few pretty serious turns of speed- here one minute, gone the next, only a faint rainbow trail to mark where she’d been. Spitfire hadn’t seen anything like that for years.
*****
If Spitfire was honest, the waterlift wasn’t all that impressive. Ponyville had only just scraped the 800 wingpower needed. On the other hoof, learning that initially Rainbow had been shooting for the record with 1000 wingpower, and dialled back her plan to getting the job done? Spitfire was getting more and more impressed with the young flier every time she saw her.
*****
“If that’s what the Wonderbolts are all about,” said Rainbow Dash, clad in her trainee uniform, “Then I quit.” In a move that was then part dramatic guesture, part honest anger, Rainbow tossed her wingpony badge onto Spitfire’s desk. Spitfire stared at the badge for a few seconds, before darting out the office. There were a few ponies she had to talk to. She needed the full story. But if her instincts were right, and they usually were, then Lightning Dust would have to be talked to, and she needed to explain, and more importantly, apologise to Rainbow Dash before she left the Academy Grounds.
Fortunately, Spitfire had always been good at going fast.
*****
Spitfire watched from the corner of her eye as Rainbow Dash crept up beside her. She was going as fast as she could, flying for the finish of the Relay at the Equestria Games. Rainbow had come from practically dead last to second place. She really was a speed queen – Spitfire didn’t think she could have done that.
For a second, Spitfire blinked, and instead of a rainbow-maned mare nearly two decades younger than her, it was a slightly older mare, with a pink coat and muted blue mane. Spitfire couldn’t help it.
“Firefly,” she whispered. In her mind, she could see what was going to happen next. What always happened-She would race away, pouring on speed, accelerating impossibly fast, and winning. But Spitfire blinked, and it wasn’t Firefly she was racing against-it was Rainbow Dash. And Rainbow Dash, as much as Spitfire wanted her to be, wasn’t Firefly. She almost had the same impossible speed, but not the skill.
Not yet.
Spitfire crossed the line first.
******
Spitfire sat in her hotel room, staring at a pair of opened letters. One old and yellowed with age, the other fresh and new. Both were addressed to her. She could recite them by heart by this point, but she read them again anyway.
“To Miss Spitfire,” she muttered, picking up the old letter first, “we are sorry to inform you that late last night, your sister Firefly passed away. We send our condolences, and invite you to a reading of your sister’s last testament and will. However, your sister did ask that we relay the following message: ‘Look out for my little Rainbow, Spits. She’ll throw you off your high horse one day if you’re not careful.’”
Spitfire didn’t both reading the signature-it was only the standard form from the hospital. She turned to the newer letter.
“Dear Miss Spitfire, we have reviewed the results of your test as you requested, and several outside opinions were consulted at your request. We can confirm that you are unable to have children. We apologise for the news. A copy of the results is enclosed for your own perusal.”
Spitfire sat for a while. The news, along with the speculations in the papers about how the rest of the Wonderbolts were getting past their prime, eventually formulated a plan in Spitfire’s mind. The Captaincy of the Wonderbolts was a difficult position, and it wasn’t uncommon for it to pass from father to son, or daughter. And since Spitfire only had one, though admittedly exceptional, relative left, it would have to be her. Once she got back to Wonderbolts HQ, she would have a lot of paperwork to fill out, and then she’d have to see about giving a few tips to Rainbow Dash to make sure that Rainbow didn’t just pass the tryouts; she wanted her niece to set a new standard entirely.
“I really don’t see what the problem is. Ya like her.” Apple Bloom was not helping.
“Apple Bloom, this is serious!” I said, wincing as my voice broke mid sentence. I thought I’d grown out of that, but it still happened occasionally. “She’s, well, you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” muttered Apple Bloom, picking up a chisel, and using it to smooth out one of the edges of the scooter she was repairing as a favour to Scootaloo.
“She’s a Princess. Rarity goes on about true love and stuff, but she’s still a Princess.” I said, trying to impress upon Apple Bloom the importance of that fact.
“She lives in Ponyville,” grunted Apple Bloom, “still not seein’ the problem is. Beyond you bein’ a scaredy cat, of course.”
“But, but, but...”
“But nothin’, Sweetie,” said Apple Bloom, exchanging the chisel for a hammer and glaring at me. “You had no problem learnin’ magic from her during Twilight Time. Only thing that happened since is she got her own castle. She’s still the same pony.”
“Have you seen her castle? It’s intimidating walking up to that thing!” I said, my voice cracking again. Apple Bloom snickered.
“Look, Squeaky Belle,” she said, using an old nickname of mine. I glared at her. She ignored me, and continued. “The only problem is with you. You’re scared. Sooner or later, you’re just gonna have to pony up and tell her what you feel.”
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered, “You’re in love with woodwork.”
“Ah will have y’all know that ah do, in fact, have my eye on somepony,” said Apple Bloom, deliberately playing up her accent. I swear she does that just to annoy me.
“And have you told them yet?” Apple Bloom hesitated, and I jumped on the chance. “Ah-hah! See, not so easy, is it?”
“It’s not that!” said Apple Bloom, “she don’t like mares like that, anyway.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked, leaning in close, smelling gossip.
“I asked her.” I shut up after that, just watching Apple Bloom work on Scootaloo’s scooter.
“Just go tell her, Sweetie,” said Apple Bloom, “The worst that can happen is she says no. And you know that Twilight’s gonna be nice about it. ‘Sides, if you were afraid of failure, we wouldn’t have gone on all those crazy adventures while we were lookin’ for our cutie marks.”
“I guess,” I muttered, “it’s still scary, thinking about what she’s going to say.”
“Applejack said it usually is, but we gotta do it anyway. Somethin’ about love and lost or never loving at all.”
“Sounds like something Rarity would say,” I said.
“Don’t mean it’s not true, though.” My face twisted while I tried to process the double negative in the sentence.
“You know what? I’m going to tell her,” I said eventually.
“You do that, Sweetie,” said Apple Bloom, “and if it don’t work out, we’ll grab Scoot and go fer icecream or somethin’. Now get!”
I ran off the Apple’s farm, my heart thudding in my throat as I headed for the castle, and a metaphorical, and hopefully literal, date with destiny.
Twilight Sparkle woke up with a balloon tied around her waist. It was pink. Twilight sighed. This was not the first time that such a thing had happened, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Still, Twilight inspected the balloon a bit more closely, and found a card hanging off the bottom. Detaching it with a quick pull of her magic, she opened it up.
Inside, in Pinkie Pie’s familiar script, was nothing helpful, just a time and a place, which, in typical Pinkie fashion, was five minutes from now and at Sugarcube Corner. As Twilight set the card down on her bedside table, she caught sight of a second message, written on the back. Like the first, it was short, and to the point.
‘Don’t untie your balloon,’ was all it said. Shrugging, Twilight left the pink balloon tied around her, and set off for Sugarcube Corner. As she walked down the street, she caught sight of Rarity heading in the same direction, a balloon also tied around her. Rarity, in turn, also spotted Twilight, and seemed to let out a sigh and a smile.
“Pinkie visited you too, I see,” said Rarity.
“Yes, she did,” said Twilight, “do you have any idea what this is about?”
Rarity shook her head. “I’m as in the dark about this as you are, Twilight. I simply woke up and there was a balloon tied around me, and the card.”
By this time, the two had arrived at Sugarcube Corner. Upon entering, they found that the rest of the Elements were there.
“Ooh, goody!” cried Pinkie, from her position on one of the counters. “Now that we’re all here, we can get started.”
Everypony else simply blinked, and looked around nervously.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, but what are we here for, Pinkie?” said Fluttershy.
“You...don’t know?” asked Pinkie, her head cocking to the side. “But I thought that everypony knew?” More looks were exchanged between the five ponies who were not pink.
“Knew what, Pinkie?” asked Twilight.
“I gave you guys balloons.” There was a further silence, and then Rarity gasped, and clapped a hoof over her mouth.
“Pinkie,” she said, slowly, “do you mean to say that you are...?”
“Yepperooni!”
“What?” asked Rainbow Dash, “I don’t get what’s going on. Somepony please explain what’s going on?”
“It’s an old custom, from the early days of Equestria,” said Rarity, “It’s really only remembered by the old families of unicorns these days. Basically, a way of showing another pony that you liked them, you would give them a gift that resembled your own cutie mark. It was a way of giving a part of yourself to the pony you loved. Pinkie, did you learn about this when you were in Canterlot?”
“Yep!” smiled Pinkie, “that’s why I thought all of you knew, I guess. Oh well, you know now!”
“So lemme get this straight,” said Applejack, “you’re in love with us? As in, all of us?”
“Yep!” at Pinkie’s proclamation, the rest of them blinked while they processed the information.
Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.
****Time****
“Yeah, that’s great, Pinkie, but I...don’t feel the same. Like, I like all of you girls, but...sorry,” she said, blasting out the door, a trail of rainbow and a slowly falling balloon the only sign of her passing. Pinkie Pie’s smile dropped a little.
“Yeah, I’m real sorry Pinkie,” added Applejack, “but ‘taint in my nature to lie, but as much as I appreciate the guesture and all, I don’t like you like that.” With that, Applejack detached the balloon, and trotted out the door.
“My dear, as wonderful and romantic as this whole thing was, I must confess that I too, do not love you like that. I am deeply sorry, Pinkie,” said Rarity, untying her own balloon with a shimmer of magic, and departing with as much haste as could still be called ‘ladylike’. Pinkie’s smile dropped further.
“I...don’t really know how to say this Pinkie, but I’m sorry,” said Twilight, untying her own balloon, and teleporting out.
Pinkie turned to Fluttershy, her smile almost gone, but hope still shining in her eyes.
“I, um, I have to go,” said Fluttershy, “Angel Bunny needs his ears massaged.” Fluttershy fled Sugarcube Corner in a streak of pink and yellow. Her balloon gently floated to the floor, where it rested with the other four, and Pinkie’s smile left her face entirely.
Prompt #189: Invitation OR Where ThunderTempest Makes Up For Prompt #553
It’s been such a long, long time since I wrote to you, ‘cause I know you’re busy making ponies laugh and caring for ponies and slaying eldritch abominations and making those really delicious cupcakes. But anyway! Here’s what your little pink cosmic horror has been up to!
Well me and the girls have finally decided on a date! Rarity wanted Hearts and Hooves day, because of course, but Twilight said that she wants a full moon overhead at night, and that Hearts and Hooves day will only have a waning crescent. Between you and me, I think she forgets that she’s friends with the actual moon goddess. We’re getting Princess Cadence to officiate-Twilight insists that Princess Celestia would be too busy. Between you and me, it’s totally an excuse for Twilight to see Cadence again.
Oh, but I don’t think I ever actually told you about the girls, have I? Well, the first one’s Twilight-Princess Twilight Sparkle, if you want to be serious. She’s usually a pretty serious pony, but don’t let that fool you! She’s really lovely, and she’s really fun to be around. Well, unless you catch her before she’s had enough coffee to jump-start her brain. Then she’s just adorably grumpy. She’s pretty adorable all around, anyway.
Then there’s Dashie- Rainbow Dash. Totally awesome. Awesomeness personified, if you ask her. Also totally cute sometimes, but don’t tell her I said that! She’d prank me into next week if she found out. Well, she’d try. Nopony gets the jump on Pinkie Pie!
Anyway, then there’s Fluttershy. She’s the quietest one, and I swear she’s got cuteness weaponised. Every time I see her, I just want to sweep her up in a biiig hug and never let go. She looks after all the animals in Ponyville, even Gummy! Also, she’s a total freak in bed. You know what they say about the quiet ones.
Applejack is next-She’s the hardest worker I know. She’s always out farming, or harvesting, or whatever it is you do to apples. I once asked her if she ever did anything weird with the leftover apples, and she got all red and left. She may have been embarrassed. Then again, she also threw apple cores at me until I left, so maybe not. We laughed about it later, though, and she’s a total gal.
Finally, there’s Rarity. She’s designing all of our dresses right now, even though Dashie said she didn’t want one because it would only get in the way later. Rarity’s just the most generous pony I know, and I know you! She’s always doing something for someone, even if she doesn’t have to.
We all met through that thing with Nightmare Moon. At first, it was just Dashie dating Rarity, but then Dashie and Rarity asked me for a party in bed with both of them, and we all liked it so much that we had more parties in bed, and started dating. Then Rarity started dating Applejack on the side, which was a bit awkward for a while, but we got her warmed up to the rest of us. Twilight and Flutters basically came in at the same time, and we were just all having great times on dates with each other, and when Rarity asked to marry all of us, and then Twilight told us that there weren’t any laws against polyarmory, well, that was it, really.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster sometimes, but I love my girls with all of my heart, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Oh, I almost forgot! You’re invited to our wedding! The invitation’s inside the envelope. I know you’re kinda busy a lot with the ponies and the slaying of eldritch abominations, but I’d really like it if you were there.
Well, I’ll hopefully see you at our wedding! We can totally catch up and have an eating contest! Don’t tell Twilight.
She could still hear the sounds of the party going on back in the gardens. Through the walls of the hedge maze, Celestia could hear Luna booming that there was only ten minutes left, and asking for the next barrel. She would be perfectly happy for the next few hours, and Pinkie Pie had the party well in hoof, leaving Celestia free to quietly slip out of the open spaces of the gardens and into the hedge maze.
She came here, every now and again, when she wanted to be alone, wanted to escape the rush of the court. Never for long, but just to make sure that she didn’t forget.
Celestia turned a corner, tracing the route from memory. Fireflies gathered around her, buzzing and glowing like little lanterns. More than a few landed on Celestia’s back, and she let them stay there until they took off on their own.
She turned the last corner of her route just as Luna shouted out the five minute warning. As she crossed into the open space that her path had lead her to, she shuddered as an invisible field crossed over her. As an experiment, she attempted to fire up her horn, but the spell fizzled out before it could get anywhere, and Celestia nodded to herself, satisfied that the ward was still in place.
Most ponies knew that many of the statues in the Canterlot Gardens had meaning-only Discord had been imprisoned there, because Celestia wanted to keep an eye on the statue, to watch for any signs of the god of chaos breaking free. However, the statues that rested within the maze held special significance to Celestia, as they were all statues of ponies that had had an impact upon her, one way or the other.
However, the one she was visiting today was special. It depicted a pair of alicorns, two earth ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn. In turn, she brushed a hoof over each, her golden shoe scraping at the rough, unpolished stone, and a wave of sadness threatened to engulf her for a moment.
She allowed herself a sad smile, and didn’t even turn when Luna landed next to her.
“That’s cheating, Luna, flying in,” said Celestia.
“We did not wish to waste time walking,” said Luna, a slur in her voice, “The Pink One makes glorious punch. It has alcohol.” Luna paused to look at the statue. “We do not recognise any of the ponies on here. Sister?”
“These are my first friends,” murmured Celestia, “These are the ponies who helped me shape Equestria into what it is today.”
Drunk as she was, Luna did not miss the unspoken ‘after I banished you.’ She draped a wing over her sister.
I knew you were talented. I knew you were skilled, and you knew I knew. And yet, I kept you from learning things which you were more than capable of learning. I would cite some plan, some half-formed idea or perhaps even the oncoming return of Nightmare Moon as reason why I held you back, but such things would mean little to you.
The truth was, I saw your talent, and you were suddenly the potential solution to all my problems. But you were ambitious, power-hungry and had the intelligence to accomplish whatever you put your mind to. I could see your pain. You so desperately wanted to fill the void in your life, so you filled it with whatever made the pain go away. Magic. Studying. Power.
I tried to mend the holes in your heart, hoping that by denying you the more powerful, the more dangerous spells would help you look inward, learn to stop hiding behind a wall of academic excellence and magical prowess. I tried to be a mother to you, when I should have been a princess. It is, unfortunately, a common weakness of mine.
I care much about all the ponies in Equestria, Sunset Shimmer. Looking back, I see what I did wrong. Perhaps you were fated to jump into the mirror. Perhaps you were not, and simply chose to. We shall never know. If I had taught you properly, taught you what you wanted to know, maybe it would have been you that faced down Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony.
Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have been. I have been around for far too long to truly be able to say that there is such a thing as destiny, so I won’t claim that it was your fate to jump through the mirror, but I have found that things work out for the best no matter what I do.
I am deeply sorry for my mistake, Sunset. I was the wrong thing to you. I chose the wrong role in our relationship, but I saw the pain you were hiding, and all I could think of was my own sister, and how I could use you to save her, and maybe, in the process, save yourself from the darkness in your own soul.
Perhaps I will see you in thirty moons, and we shall have a chance to talk once more, not as princess and student, and certainly not as pseudo mother and daughter, but as equals, and maybe sort out our differences.
Then again, perhaps we will not. I shall leave the decision up to you, Sunset. You have the right to make your own choices. You always have, never forget that.
It was the Grand Galloping Gala again, and Pinkie Pie was not a happy pony. Through much coaxing from Twilight and Rarity, Pinkie had been persuaded to attend, though a strict ban on the Pony Pokey and any and all polkas had been enforced on her. Thus, Pinkie Pie sat by the buffet, pouting and generally not having fun.
“You are the pony that was a chicken, are you not?” came an imperious voice, and Pinkie looked up to see Princess Luna standing in front of her.
“Umm,” said Pinkie.
“Nightmare Night, in Ponyville,” elaborated Luna, “you were the one who kept screaming and running away. In a chicken costume.”
“Oh!” said Pinkie, “Yes, that was me. I’m Pinkie Pie. Um, your highness.”
“Princess Luna will suffice,” said Luna, “regardless, we, I, have something to say.”
Pinkie Pie braced herself for the onset of volume.
“We – I am sorry. I was unaccustomed to the holiday, and discovering that it revolved around my darkest days was merely the tipping point. We-I acted in haste much that night,” said Luna, tipping her horn in a sign of respect. Pinkie blinked as she realised that her eardrums weren’t ringing.
“Oh!” said Pinkie, “It’s okay. Apology accepted. I guess that I wasn’t acting my best that night either. I do that sometimes, because sometimes I speak before I can think, and then my mouth just keeps going and I can’t always stop it and I know I can be sort of kinda annoying sometimes and I sometimes say all the wrong things but...”
Luna pressed a single metal-shod hoof against Pinkie’s mouth, which Pinkie realised from the taste, was not silver, but rather polished steel.
“We understand, Pinkie Pie. We know now that your intentions came from the best of places. However, we also have you to thank.”
“Thank me?” asked Pinkie, once the hoof had been removed.
“Yes. Were it not for thy overexuberance, many of the foals and ponies of Ponyville would still be terrified of us. Of me,” said Luna, glancing to the side, where Pinkie noticed that many of the noble ponies of Canterlot were giving a wider than usual berth to Princess Luna. “Instead, you have ensured that they do not think of me as entirely terrifying. We would like to get to know thee.”
“Princess?”
Luna seemed to swallow, and locked eyes with Pinkie Pie.
“We are asking you, Pinkie Pie, if you would consent to have a dinner with us. Celestia seems to think highly of you, and I have also yet to thank you for the part you played in my...purging. I also wish to know more of you.”
“Well, sure!” said Pinkie Pie, “on one condition.”
“What is it?” asked Luna.
“Can we please not eat here when they serve dinner? It’s totally not a fun dinner here, and I can’t remember the order of the forks.”
Luna smiled, for the first time in the entire evening.
“It can be arranged, and I too, find the company here dreadfully boring. Did you have a specific place in mind?”
Pinkie’s grin threatened to split her face in two. Even one of the Princesses found the Gala boring! She liked Luna already.
“So, how are you liking Ponyville?” asked Colgate, as she levitated several dental implements over Twilight Sparkle.
“It’s not bad. Really, I think I’m starting to get used to this place,” said Twilight, as she lay in the dental chair, “I mean, it’s not Canterlot, but it has its own charms.”
“Feeling a little homesick? Open wide.” Colgate levitated a scraper and a small mirror, and began to clean out Twilight’s mouth.
“A little, I guess,” said Twilight, once Colgate stopped cleaning out the back of Twilight’s mouth. “You spend your life growing up in one place, and when you move, you suddenly find you miss a million little things that you never even noticed.”
“I was the same,” said Colgate, going back into Twilight’s mouth with some toothpaste and a brush. “I moved here from Manehatten once I was qualified as a dentist, and I still miss the sound of carriage drivers screaming at each other sometimes. That said, by this point, I think I’ve gotten used to the Flower Trio, you know, Roseluck, Daisy and Lily? I think I’ve gotten used to them running screaming past my window at every minor...”
Colgate was cut off by the three flower sisters in question belting past the window looking out onto the street, screaming at the top of their lungs.
“Like that, really. Hold on a second, Twilight.” Colgate walked over to the open window, and leaned out.
“Would you three not do that while I’m working!?” she bellowed at the retreating flower sellers, and getting a warbling ‘Sorry!’ in return. She turned to look at the other end of the street, to find out what they’d been running from and Colgate sighed, and rubbed her face into the crook of her foreleg.
“Of course,” she muttered, before moving back over to Twilight, and picking up her tools again.
“What is it?” asked Twilight, half rising.
“Nothing major, just Pinkie Pie’s latest sugar monster.”
Twilight blinked. “What do you mean, sugar...”
“Open up, Twilight. I can’t clean your teeth if you talk,” said Colgate, going back in with the toothpaste. As Colgate worked, there was a strangely squishy thud, and outside the window, both Colgate and Twilight saw a giant hoof land. At least, it looked like a hoof.
“Ooh, Hi Twilight!” cried Pinkie Pie, a second later, as she bit into the appendage. “Hi Colgate!”
“What is it this time, Pinkie?” sighed Colgate.
“Marshmallow!” enthused Pinkie, taking another bite.
“One of these days, Pinkie, I am going to get you in here and inspect your teeth, you know that, right?” said Colgate, glaring at the pink pony.
“Whatever you say, Colgate! Bye Twilight! I have a marshmallow monster to eat!” said Pinkie, vanishing after the monster. Twilight blinked.
“So that was...”
“Sometimes, Pinkie Pie creates monsters out of effectively pure sugar. Always accidentally, and she usually manages to eat them before they do any real damage. How that pony still has teeth, I will never know,” said Colgate, “I’ve never managed to actually get her in here for a checkup. Last time, she crawled out through the air vent when I wasn’t looking.”
“But...that’s impossible!” said Twilight, “she shouldn’t be able to create life from just sugar!”
“A lot of things Pinkie Pie does could be classed as impossible, Twilight. Open up,” said Colgate, spraying around Twilight’s mouth with some water to finish cleaning the unicorn’s mouth out. “At least it was only Pinkie Pie’s monster, and not whatever Berry Punch cooks up. You know, she once spiked the central fountain with a mix of vodka and some chemical that ignited on contact with air. Just because she could.”
“Berry Punch?” Twilight asked around the tube in her mouth.
“Chemist. Organic chemist, to be precise. Her talent is winemaking, but she’s got a chemistry lab attached to her shop. Occasionally, she makes weird things in there. Sometimes those things are useful,” said Colgate, “and sometimes they explode. And sometimes, she makes things that really don’t want to exist, so they explode bigger. She’s rebuilt her lab four times, and once blew out every window within about half a kilometer. Trust me, Twilight, a lot of the ponies in this town are a little bit weird. A few are very weird.”
****Time****
Colgate put the last of her implements down.
“Well, I’m done. You can settle with Minuette on the way out. You’ve got some pretty healthy teeth, Twilight. Just keep up the habit of brushing at least twice a day, and watch your sugar intake, and I shouldn’t have to see you for a year or so.”
“Thank you, Colgate. I’ll see you later,” said Twilight, walking out of the room, and Colgate allowed herself a moment of relaxation.
That was when the three flower sisters decided to run past Colgate’s window again, screaming.
“I told you three not to do...that. Oh,” said Colgate, trailing off, as she looked up, and up, and up.
“Hi Colgate!” cried Pinkie Pie, from her position atop a giant Gummy.
“Ugh, this heat is doing absolutely terrible things to my mane,” grumbled Rarity, “when I get back to Ponyville, I do believe that I-”
“Am going to take, like, four thousand baths and two spa trips. I know, Rare. You’ve said the same thing eighteen times already,” said Rainbow Dash, from her prone position on the roof of the small hut the two were staying in.
“I still can’t believe the company misread the maintenance schedule,” Rarity said, “now we’re stranded here with basically no fresh water until tomorrow.” Rarity rolled herself out of the hammock under the balcony of the hut, and looked out across the sea toward the mainland. Or at least, the direction she thought the mainland was in.
“You were the one who insisted on the furthest possible shack, Rare,” said Rainbow Dash, adjusting her sunglasses, “Of course they’re going to get to us last. ‘sides, it’s only a day.”
“You say that, Rainbow, because you can live off cloud moisture. The rest of us are not quite so fortunate.”
“Hey,” said Rainbow, sitting up and glaring down at Rarity, “does it look like there’s any water in the air here? At all?” Rainbow gestured to the completely cloudless sky. “I couldn’t water a cactus with this sky. So lay off. It’s just one day.”
Rarity took a few deep breaths to calm herself.
“You are, of course, correct, Rainbow. I’m sorry. This just isn’t how I wanted our honeymoon to start.”
Rainbow leapt off the roof, landing with her usual mix of grace and ‘awesome’, as she put it.
“Look, I’m sorry too. I’m kinda a little annoyed by the whole thing too, but we can’t do anything but wait. They said they’ll get to us as soon as they can. We just have to wait a bit.”
Rarity snorted. “Rainbow Dash, telling me to wait? Now there’s a reversal.”
“Trust me,” said Rainbow, “if I could fly back to the mainland and carry the repair guy back here, I would. We just have to stay busy until then.” Rainbow’s voice dropped into the rough rasp that sent shivers up Rarity’s spine in all the right ways.
“Rainbow Dash, you incorrigible rogue, you really do have a one track mind at times,” whispered Rarity, as Rainbow wrapped her hooves around Rarity in ways that would no doubt be inappropriate. “Don’t ever change.”
With that, Rarity pushed forwards with her head, locking lips with Rainbow, and the two fell into a mad embrace of sweat, warring tongues and exclamations that should never be repeated in polite company.
*****
Rainbow collapsed on the bed, a self-satisfied smile growing on her face.
“You know, all that junk in your romance novels is overrated, but you? You do actually taste like wine and honey.”
“Darling?” murmured Rarity.
“You know, how all the characters are like ‘her lips were like red wine, and she tasted like honey’, or whatever. You totally do.”
“Rainbow, have you been reading my romance novels?” asked Rarity, swinging her pillow over to lightly bat Rainbow.
“Uh, no, of course not. Why would I read mushy stuff like that?” said Rainbow, a little too quickly.
“You have!” gasped Rarity.
“Is there anything I can do to make you forget about that?” groaned Rainbow, covering her face with her hooves.
“Well, I can think of a few things, if you’re ready...” purred Rarity, rolling over.
****Time****
The next morning, Rainbow was awoken by a knock at the front door of the hut. She opened it to find an apologetic pony in a service uniform.
“I’m here to fix your water purifier. Management apologises for the mix up, and I’ve been told to tell you that you’ll get free meals for the duration of your stay.”
“Sweet,” said Rainbow, opening the door, and letting the repairpony in so he could do his job.
“I just hope you guys weren’t too put out by the inconvenience.”
“Oh, we kept ourselves pretty busy,” grinned Rainbow.
Do you know what it was that finally pushed the Nightmare from me? No, ‘twas not the Elements. They were merely the catalyst, the final push I needed to cast the creature from myself.
While I was on the moon, the Nightmare still had full control of my faculties. Or almost. Whether through some sick, twisted game of its own making, or simply because it could, it left a small portion of me cognizant inside while it puppeteered my body. Enough of me to see, to hear, to taste and feel and smell. Enough to drive me mad, one would suppose.
But while I was on the moon, after Celestia, my own sister, hit me with the elements, it was in this small piece of myself that I could think clearly. And I saw what Eternal Night would look like. I experienced it. The moon is vast, and empty. It is a wasteland. At times, a beautiful and stunning one, but still a wasteland. The presence of the beautiful does not mean that such places are desirable. The moon is shrouded in darkness-perpetual, endless night. A night that does not end is no more wondrous than a day that does not cease. It is a terrible thing. The only other thing I had to look at, aside from Equestria itself, was out into the void. The emptiness of space is not a comforting thing. It is cold, harsh, and deals only in absolutes, and I find it terrifying beyond all things. Perhaps, if I had been skillful, I could have preserved some of Equestria, but before my banishment, the Nightmare and I were almost completely aligned in our goals. We cared not for other ponies lives. We only wished to see Celestia fall before us.
That was what the first hit with the Elements did to me. It preserved me. Kept me from going mad, from succumbing to the Nightmare’s influence again in that small portion of my being. It subjected me to one thousand years of what I had wanted to bring to Equestria, forced me to come to the conclusion that it was not suitable. The beauty of the night is not that it is permanent, as the sun’s is, but that its beauty comes from its transience. It reminded me of the things which the Nightmare had made me forget.
So, when Twilight Sparkle and her compatriots attacked the Nightmare with the Elements, that was all the gap I needed. As the Nightmare inhabiting my body recoiled from the physical strike, within my mind, I struck at the core of the Nightmare’s essence, the Elements invigorating me, enabling me to fight off and eventually destroy the foul creature.
But it was not because of the Elements that I was cleansed.
It was because I was forced to spend a thousand years on the moon, witnessing the results of my own, or the Nightmares’, twisted plan. It was because I was subjected to eternal night, and I found it terrifying. That was what spurred me to rid the Nightmare from myself, the knowledge of what it intended to cause.
They weren’t a couple. Fluttershy knew that. Both she and Rainbow Dash were just comfortable being friends. Fluttershy knew that Rainbow Dash wasn’t really fond of all the animals that lived around her cottage, and didn’t like to spend a lot of time there.
But sometimes, Fluttershy would get scared, and she knew that Rainbow Dash, as much as she projected the cool and awesome, would be there for her oldest friend as fast as she could. And during Ponyville’s last big lightning storm, Rainbow had stayed with Fluttershy. She’d said something about wanting to monitor the storm, but Rainbow had never really been able to lie to Fluttershy. But Fluttershy had just assented, and when Rainbow let her wing drape over Fluttershy after a big lightning bolt made her jump, Fluttershy didn’t say anything. She just snuggled under the wing, next to Rainbow’s warm body. She always felt safer with Rainbow.
And Fluttershy would always help Rainbow out with her practice. She’d be down in the feild below, cheering on. She knew that even despite her rather lacklustre volume, Rainbow still appreciated her coming along, and Fluttershy could always tell that whenever she was watching, when Rainbow knew she was down there, that Rainbow put in a little bit more effort than for other ponies. Not that she ever suggested that Rainbow slacked off, no. Not with her stunt training.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash weren’t a couple. Not even despite Rarity’s insitance, Applejack’s calm confidence, Pinkie Pie’s machinations or Twilight’s logic. Fluttershy had said so more times than she could count, and she’d apologised for it countless times, but she wasn’t in a relationship.
But sometimes, she would lay awake at night, after all of her animal friends had settled down to sleep, and wonder if it would really be so bad if she and Rainbow Dash were a couple. If it would really be so bad if they stepped out of the comfortable. But then Fluttershy would get afraid, and she would go to sleep, forever wondering and unwilling to change the status quo.
Outside her window, Colgate could hear the sounds of candy warfare being waged, the prize being control of the ponies’ wallets and their tastebuds, and she sighed. She could maybe reason with Bon Bon, but dealing with Pinkie required a lot more patience than Colgate had today. And it was often easier to simply let Pinkie Pie tire herself out.
Glancing out of the window of her office in an attempt to distract herself from the business of accounting, Colgate caught sight of Pinkie Pie. The mare was dressed up in full pirate regalia, complete with all manner of items woven and stuck in her mane and under her tricorner hat.
She was pushing around the Party Cannon, occasionally firing it off, and balls of Candy floss, or ‘Cavity-on-a-stick’ as Colgate called it, rained down on the foals to their eternal delight. Pinkie was followed by Rainbow Dash, also in pirate costume, and both Pinkie and Rainbow had giant grins on their faces. Colgate deduced that they’d been getting more sales than Bon Bon, or that they’d been sampling the stock.
There was a knock at Colgate’s door.
“Come in, Minuette,” she said, and the door opened to reveal an almost identical image of Colgate, though minus a decade or so, her mane done up in a bun.
“Miss Colgate? Shouldn’t you be out there?” Minuette waved her hooves in the direction of Mane street, where Pinkie and Bon Bon competed aggressively to see who could cause the most cavities.
“No,” said Colgate, picking up her quill again, “I’m not about to get in between Pinkie Pie and the happiness of her customers.”
“But all that sugar can’t be good for ponies’ teeth!” cried Minuette.
“I know,” said Colgate, “but you haven’t ever tried to stop Pinkie Pie before, have you?”
Minuette shook her head.
“It’s impossible,” said Colgate, “Once that mare decides on something, she tends to not listen to anypony else. And evidently, she’s decided that today, she is going to run around with a cannon full of candy floss and dressed up as a pirate.”
“I see, Miss Colgate,” said Minuette.
“Besides,” said Colgate, “this will actually mean we make more money. Everytime one of the candy shops in town has a sale, everypony rushes to the dentist a few weeks later from tooth pain.”
“That’s surprisingly diabolical of you, Miss Colgate,” said Minuette.
“It’s just a fact, Minuette,” said Colgate, waving her hoof about, “Now, unless there’s anything else?”
“No, Miss Colgate,” said Minuette, ducking back out into the reception area, and shutting the door behind her. Colgate sighed, and absentmindedly began to whistle a tune as she worked on balancing the books for the dental surgery.
“Drink up me hearties, yo ho,” she sung to herself, and then slapped a hoof to her face.
Celestia smiled at a passing pony, and got a casual smile in return as she walked down Mane Street in Ponyville. It was nice, sometimes, for her to get out and among her dear little ponies. She knew that she couldn’t help everypony individually, but this was a nice way to get to know some of the ponies in Equestria. And she had to confess a particular fondness for Ponyville as a whole. It was really a wholly pleasant town when it wasn’t being ransacked and devoured by parasprites.
Her usual disguise of a pegasus was holding up well, save for a few exceptions. Twilight had almost instantly recognised her, but then, Celestia recalled that Twilight had been brushing up on her illusions recently. And all of Twilight’s Counsel, the rest of the Elements of Harmony, had also recognised Celestia, but had kept the secret, though Rarity had asked Celestia to drop by later, to help her with something. She probably wanted to make Celestia a dress, and Celestia was perfectly happy to oblige her for a while.
The bell above the door tinkled as Celestia pushed it open and entered into Carousel Boutique proper.
“Rarity?” called out Celestia, “I’m here.”
“Oh, Cloudy!” called Rarity, sticking her head out of a nearby door and using the name that Celestia had given for the disguise she was using, “I’ll be with you in just a minute. Do make yourself comfortable.”
“What are you doing here?” grumbled another pony, and Celestia turned to find a young pink filly, sitting on a stool.
“I’m here because Rarity asked me to be here. I’m Cloudy Skies.”
“Well, maybe you can convince her to let me out. I’m sick of it here!”
“And you are?” asked Celestia.
“I’m Diamond Tiara,” said the filly, turning her nose up. Celestia fought to keep her eye from twitching. The filly reminded her entirely too much of Blueblood. “She’s keeping me here and making me do all these stupid, silly things. I should be out, playing with my friends, right?”
“And what are these silly things that she’s making you do?” asked Celestia, certain that this was what Rarity had asked her here for. As Diamond listed several etiquette exercises, memories of letters from Twilight and Rarity both floated to the forefront of Celestia’s mind, each mentioning that they were attempting to rehabilitate a bully at the local school. Obviously, they weren’t having too much success. Celestia also realised that Diamond Tiara was still talking, ranting out her feelings.
“...it’s all because of these three stupid blank flanks at school. So I made one of them cry, big deal. They just went crying to their sisters and got them to intervene. And she took my tiara!” cried Diamond, pointing a hoof to the top of a cupboard, where Celestia could see a slightly dusty jewelled tiara sitting there, out of reach.
Out of the corner of her eye, Celestia could see Rarity poking her head around the doorway, pretending not to be looking. Celestia wasn’t stupid, she could see what Rarity wanted to do. But Celestia just needed a few more peices of information first.
“And what, exactly, did you say to the other filly?” said Celestia, hoping that the filly would be worked up enough that she would simply blurt it out.
****Time****
“It wasn’t even that bad!” said Diamond, “Everypony in town knows she can’t fly, that she’s never going to fly, even she knows it. I don’t get why she got so upset! It’s not like she hasn’t heard it before.”
Three strikes. Celestia preferred to not intervene in ponies’ personal lives, believing that most ponies were good at heart and could work through any problem by themselves. But sometimes, some ponies needed a kick to the metaphorical rear to get going. And there was no better kick than knowing that Princess Celestia was disappointed, Celestia had found.
And though she knew it was slightly wrong, Celestia did occasionally enjoy the look on a pony’s face when they discovered that the pony they’d been talking to was, in fact, the Princess.
Celestia dropped her illusion, and through a strange coincidence, noticed that every blind in the room was also drawn.
“Hello, Diamond Tiara. I’m Princess Celestia.”
‘Yes,’ Celestia thought, as Diamond went from almost smug to what looked like pure terror, ‘that’s the expression.’ It was times like this that made all the meetings, all the budget books and court intrigue absolutely worth being a Princess. Knowing that she had helped set a pony on the path to becoming better never got old, no matter how many times she did it.
The expression that crossed their faces never really got old, either.
Fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time. It’s not what you would imagine a lifetime of training would come down to, but it has. Well, technically twenty. I’ve still got five minutes before I have to go on.
I can’t believe that this is actually happening. Finally, I mean. Sure, I always knew I’d get a tryout, ‘cause seriously, I’m awesome. I put my request in the second I was able to, but that first one was turned down, with Spitfire writing ‘Not this time. You’re not ready,’ in the rejection letter. That confused me a bit, because seriously? What more do you want, Spitfire?
Well, let me tell you, that next conversation I had with her was enlightening, for sure. She reckons I can be better than Firefly, who is like my second favourite Wonderbolt ever. Spitfire being first, of course, and I’m not just saying that. She’s seriously cool. So yeah, no big deal, all she wants me to do is set a new standard. Do you know how big a deal that is? So I won’t just get to be a Wonderbolt, but I’ll be the Wonderbolt that every future applicant is judged against. Seriously, I would have just been happy with flying with them, but now I find out that practically every ‘Bolt thinks I can do this, and oh my gosh that’s awesome.
In the waiting room, there’s an engraved list that I’ve been staring at for the last four, five minutes. It’s a list of every single pony who’s ever redefined the physical requirements for the Wonderbolts. Sure, it doesn’t hold the same wonder as their speed records, or the time they sold out Las Pegasus Stadium, but it’s a seriously impressive list. And they think I can add my name to that list.
Three minutes left until I go on now. Flight suit check time. Gotta make sure nothing’s chafing-I know Rare said it wouldn’t, and damn it feels good, but still gotta check. Official regs say I have to wear my Wonderbolt Recruit uniform, but Spitfire said that that’s just to filter out the pretenders. The real ones, the ones who know they’re going to get in usually have their own, personalized flight suits. Wings are free, complete movement. Hooves are in place, and the fabric’s not shifting underhoof. It’s tight, but not too tight, around my face. I’m not feeling it bunch up anywhere. As a test, I flip myself backwards. Yep, full movement.
Well, that took up a couple of minutes. It’s an empty stadium out there-they don’t want any outside noise for this, but I can tell you there’s gonna be a whole bunch of enthusiasts sitting up near the high clouds with binoculars. I should know, I used to be one of them.
I’ve had my routine planned out for months for this. Spitfire, Soarin’ and all the rest have been working with me to refine it to the point where I could probably do it in my sleep by now. It’s officially Awesome. I wish Rare could be here to see it, but rules are rules, and she can’t. I’ll just have to regale her with tales of my awesome when I get back to Ponyville. That is, if she can keep her hooves off me long enough.
Well, there’s the first buzzer. Gate’s going to be opening soon. Fifteen minutes of Pure Awesome, coming up.
Second buzzer, the gate slams open, and I’m out there before the buzzer’s even stopped. Let’s do this.
*****
There’s about four other ponies trying out today, and now that we’re all done, we’ve all been lined up, waiting for the judges to give their decision. And maybe to find their wigs after I blew them off. Hey, it totally wasn’t my fault that they think I can’t do a sonic Rainboom on command. I’m still coming down from my adrenaline high, so my heart feels like it’s about to pound its way out of my chest, as the first two ponies are told to go away and improve for next time. I was last, so I’ve still got to wait for the old guys to give their decision on two more. One gets booted all the way back to application stage. Ouch, but they obviously didn’t think he was near wonderbolt material. The second to last is rubbing his wing. I think he sprained it during his performance. He’s thanked for his performance, and is told to reattend the academy next season.
“Rainbow Dash...” I hear the judges say. My heart seems to have leapt into my throat, and I can feel Spitfire, who’s standing behind me, shift about like she’s nervous.
“...Accepted.” I can’t help it. I leap into the air. I know that this is just to fly with the ‘Bolts, and I don’t know anything about the performance records, but I don’t care right now. I’m in the Wonderbolts. I can feel the other tryouts hugging me, and tossing me up and down. Eventually, we settle back down, and Spitfire looks at the judges.
“What about the performance standards?” she asks, and the judges glare at her.
“The performance standards will be looked at with relation to Rainbow Dash’s performance, and future applicants. Likely, they will be revised to account for the exceptional nature of her performance.” I’m not entirely sure what that means, but Spitfire’s smiling, so if it means what I think it means, my name’s going on a plaque.
Fifteen minutes isn’t a lot of time. But those fifteen minutes? They changed my life.
Who’s awesome? I’m awesome. But I gotta go now, because there’s a white unicorn dressmaker down in Ponyville who needs to be reminded of my awesome.
Octavia watched with a detached horror as Vinyl walked over to the bullies that had stolen her money. Her birthday money, that she was going to use to get a new set of strings for her cello.
“Oi!” said Vinyl, “You took my roommate’s money.”
“Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, scholarship?” said the bully, his cronies sneering and jeering. Before Octavia could even so much as call out, Vinyl landed a solid blow right on the leader’s nose.
“Give it back,” growled Vinyl, lowering herself into a much wider stance, her horn lighting up. Octavia winced as Vinyl propelled her rear hooves into one of the charging bullies, and at the same time, magically slammed a nearby chair into the back of the other ones’ head. Vinyl ducked under a punch and a kick from the leader, and lashed out with her own attack, cracking him across the nose again.
As the fight progressed, Octavia gasped every time that Vinyl got hit, and couldn’t quite contain the grim smile as the bullies that had been harassing her all year got a taste of their own medicine.
Eventually, when Vinyl slammed a chair over the lead bully’s head, the lead decided that he’d had enough.
“Okay, okay, stop!” he cried, blood leaking from his nose, “Here’s your stupid money!” He tossed the bag of bits at Vinyl’s hooves, and he and his compatriots ran off. Vinyl grinned, and set the chair down, and magically picked up the bag of bits, and trotted back over to Octavia.
Vinyl was covered in scrapes and bruises, and from what limited knowledge Octavia had about injuries, what looked like a rapidly developing black eye.
“Here you go!” said Vinyl, levitating the bag back into Octavia’s bag. The two stood there for a moment, Octavia staring at Vinyl like she had never seen her before, and Vinyl shifting uncomfortably beneath Octavia’s gaze.
“This is usually the part where you say thanks, you know,” said Vinyl. Octavia was still for a few moments more, and then launched herself forward. She wrapped her hooves around Vinyl, and sobbed into the unicorn’s shoulder.
“Whoa, hey, you don’t need to be sad. I got your money back.”
“I’m crying because I’m happy, you idiot,” muttered Octavia, “Nopony’s ever done anything that nice for me before.” Vinyl, unsure of what to do, gently patted Octavia’s back as the earth pony continued to cry.
Eventually, Octavia managed to control her emotions, and disentangled herself from Vinyl.
“So, I guess this is the part where you now say that that never happened, and we go back to our mutual ignorance of each other?” said Vinyl.
“Well, I suppose that you aren’t too terrible,” said Octavia, still wiping tears from her eyes, “I suppose that we can talk every now and again, though don’t assume that this makes us friends.”
“Of course not,” Vinyl muttered under her breath as she began to walk away from Octavia, “you do something nice for somepony, and of course she throws it back. Well,” continued Vinyl, at a more audible volume, “See you, Octavia.”
Octavia looked up from her evening newspaper when the door knocked.
“Who is it?” she called out, and received no answer. Assuming that the pony simply had the wrong apartment, she went back to her paper. Ten seconds later, there was another knock, and this time Octavia stood up, and opened the door.
“Can I help you?” she asked the rather nervous pony dressed in a once-crisp suit. Octavia thought that he looked somewhat familiar.
“Is this apartment 6b?” asked the pony.
“Yes, why?”
“I’m looking for Vinyl Scratch. I’m her agent, Signed Contract. Well, former agent, anyway.”
“Yes,” said Octavia, her tone ice cold, “I have heard much about you. In fact, Vinyl came home a few hours ago, cursing your name to the high heavens. She specifically stated that she wanted nothing to do with such a short-sighted idiot, and let me tell you, coming from her? That’s quite the insult.”
Signed Contract winced. “Yes, I found out about that only today. That’s what I need to talk to her about. I said a lot of stupid things, things which I should never have even thought. Is she in?” Signed attempted to see into the apartment, but Octavia blocked him.
“I seriously doubt that she would want to see you right now. She told me that she was done with you, and whatever her other faults are, Vinyl is a mare of her word.”
Signed Contract sighed. “Will you at least tell her that I dropped by? I don’t want our relationship to end without her knowing that I’m sorry.” Signed Contract began to trot off, and Octavia sighed.
“Signed, come in. We’ll see if we can work something out,” she said, opening the door fully.
“Oh, thank you!” said Signed, as he trotted through the door and into the apartment.
“Don’t say that just yet. Vinyl isn’t here right now, but she’ll be home in a few hours, and I can’t guarantee that she’ll accept your apology. But what you need to tell me is what you said to make her go off the rails,” said Octavia, sitting back down at the table.
Signed Contract looked nervous, and Octavia surpressed a sigh.
“You don’t have to worry about confidentiality. I’m effectively Vinyl’s eyes. Anything that you can say to her can be said to me.”
“Well, I said,” began Signed, and he leaned over, and whispered in Octavia’s ear. Octavia’s eyes widened, and she slapped a forehoof over her face.
“Yes. I can see how that would offend her enough to quit working with you,” said Octavia, “Vinyl worked hard for her skills, Signed. She was already a successful performer before she came to you. And if it were up to her, she would keep all mention of her blindness out of the press. For the most part, she’s succeeded.”
“I know, I was being stupid.”
For the first time since meeting Signed, Octavia smiled.
“That’s a good start. I can tell you’re sincere, and Vinyl will as well. Maybe there is hope for you yet.”
It had been days since the event, and nopony had seen Twilight Sparkle since. Spike was out in the rocky regions nearby with Rarity, on a gem-finding mission, so he hadn’t seen Twilight since he left. Not even Pinkie Pie, who could tell anypony where anypony was, had seen Twilight since the deed had been done. Of course, Applejack’s first thought was, naturally, the library. Twilight was always in the library. Days could pass before that mare would realise that she had to eat.
But Applejack didn’t want to disturb Twilight. Not now, with memories of what had been, and what would likely never be again. She knew how much Twilight’s magic had meant to her, and for Twilight to be unable to cast magic had to be affecting her. So Applejack and the others had decided to let Twilight come to terms with it on her own. She’d come out, eventually. She always did.
She just needed some time.
Rainbow Dash was getting worried. She’d never admit it out loud, or where anypony but the girls could hear it, but the absence of Twilight Sparkle was getting to her. It had been nearly a week, and not a single sign of Twilight Sparkle had been seen anywhere in Ponyville since. Sometimes, if Rainbow was working the late shift for the weather, she could hear crying come from the Golden Oaks Library, and frantic mutterings about spells and other egghead stuff.
She really wanted to bust down the door, or the window, or crash into a bookcase and mess up the place, just to give Twilight something else to think about, other than giving up her element, what Twilight thought made Twilight. They’d all agreed that Twilight had the best shot at surviving-she had the most magic of all of them, so maybe by the time the creature had taken it’s fill, Twilight would still be alive. It had worked. Twilight was alive. Equestria was safe.
Two weeks was far too long for a pony to spend cooped up. At least, that was what Fluttershy thought. She and her friends were past worry now, and well into concern. Twilight Sparkle had yet to emerge from the library at all-even to get food. Granted, Fluttershy knew that Twilight Sparkle ate and lived fairly frugally-she had extolled the virtues of non-perishables and explained that with a simple stasis spell, she could keep food a lot longer than ponies thought possible. Fluttershy had just nodded and smiled, as she usually did when Twilight started talking about magic.
None of them had yet managed to work up the courage to enter the library itself, still wanting to give Twilight a chance to work through the loss of her magic by herself.
Pinkie Pie dashed through the streets, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Overhead, she could see both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying as fast as they could. Clearly, they’d seen the ad in the local paper that morning as well. Just as Pinkie was wondering if she would have to go and get Rarity and Applejack, she heard the thunder of Applejack’s hooves behind her, accompanied by a slight warbling wail that could only mean that Rarity was coming as well.
The advert that had them all running toward the library was simple, but the implications were almost too horrifying for Pinkie to think about.
‘Wanted,’ it had said, ‘Librarian for Ponyville Golden Oaks Library. No experience required. See Mayor Mare for details.’
At Applejack’s frantic command, the other four cleared out of the way, and the farmer bucked the library door clear off its hinges in a bout of desperation-inspired strength, while Pinkie prayed that they weren’t too –
Mail from Twilight in the Crystal Empire couldn’t arrive by dragon fire-Spike didn’t quite have the focus to send things to other ponies directly just yet, so Twilight’s letters to Shining and Cadance were limited to being physically transported at the moment. The express line between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire helped, though.
As Shining Armor split open the newest letter from Twilight over his breakfast, he wondered exactly how much of this letter was going to be magical terminology and babble. He had put four bits and a week’s worth of laundry duty on over fifty percent. Cadance had matched it and taken the under.
He got through the general greetings fairly quickly, and reached the meat of the letter at about the same time as he was drinking his juice.
Shining Armor paused, and re-read the letter. Then he started smiling, and soon devolved into laughter.
“Well,” he got out, between gasps of laughter, “she always was a ridiculous overachiever.”
Princess Cadance entered when she heard her husband burst out laughing, and after sighing at the sight of him rolling on the floor, she spotted the letter from Twilight.
Ten seconds later, she was starry-eyed and declaring that she was going to officiate, and was already writing her response to Twilight.
*****
Princess Celestia had been around for a long time. It was common knowledge in Canterlot Castle that it was almost impossible to surprise the Sun Princess, whether it be through unexpected news or practical jokes.
Thus, when the letter from Spike landed beside her breakfast that morning, Princess Celestia unrolled it, made a thoughtful noise, and then rolled it back up.
It wasn’t until Luna sat down five minutes later that Celestia even brought up the scroll.
“You know, I have just received the most interesting letter from Twilight, Luna.”
“Oh yes?” asked Luna, looking up from her own meal, “What lesson has she learned this time?”
“Well, it’s not a lesson, per se. More of a statement.” Celestia carefully timed her next words. “She’s going to get married.”
Luna fought back a sudden coughing fit as her dandelion sandwich went down wrong.
“To whom, sister?” gasped out the younger Princess, “Surely, it is not an arranged marriage.”
“No, no, nothing of the sort,” said Celestia, as Luna took a drink to wash out her throat. “She’s getting married to her friends, her fellow Element Bearers. All five of them.”
Celestia took a moment to admire the rainbow that formed as Luna spat out her drink. It was quite impressive.
*****
In her office, Mayor Mare stared at the small mountain of paperwork that represented the upcoming marriage of Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy and sighed.
Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, the Mayor reached into the bottom drawer of her desk, and extracted a large, and half-empty bottle of port, and glanced at the clock.
9 am. A new record. She poured herself a small glass of the port, and despite herself, couldn’t help but smile as she added her signature where it was required.
“Darn those ponies,” she muttered to herself, taking a swig from her glass, “They drive me to drink.”
The moon hung overhead, bright and full, as she walked on the earth below. She walked over frozen hills and streams. Here, a waterfall had frozen. The wind was cold and harsh, and bit at her skin, though she barely felt it.
The air was dry, all the water having long since precipitated out. Equestria was a desert. A frozen wasteland. What remained of the buildings and structures had been covered with ice, and in the rare place, snow. Mostly, however, it was ice. The ground was solid, impossible to farm on, though that hadn’t entirely stopped ponies from trying. She could still see marks on the ground where digging had started, in the vain hope that they might have found a patch of ground not frozen solid.
Here and there, she could see the fuzzy outlines of ponies, trapped under the ice. Some had succumbed to the plummeting temperatures-mostly the old, or frail. Some still had dared to oppose her, and had been punished for their insolence. But most had simply given in to the lack of food.
If she ventured to the other side of the world, she would find nothing but ash, dried crops and sun-bleached skeletons.
Nightmare Moon walked over a desolate, empty and destroyed Equestria, and laughed.
“She is a wonder, isn’t she?” asked Cadance, as Rarity worked through the steps to prepare Princess Cadance’s mane in the old style.
“What was that, Princess?” asked Rarity, her magic not even pausing as she talked.
“The pony you’re in love with is an absolute wonder, isn’t she?” For a moment, even Rarity’s normal wit deserted her.
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Princess,” was all Rarity was able to muster, but it sounded half-hearted, even to her.
“Please, you can just call me Cadance. You’re basically family, given how highly Twilight regards you,” said Cadance with a smile, as Rarity’s hooves worked through her mane, “and you’re trying to lie to the Princess of Love about your feelings. You’re in love.”
“I’m sure you’re just imagining things,” said Rarity, as she levitated another sapphire into the careful weave.
“I’m not,” said Cadance, “I have a natural sense for these things. It normally comes off as a little tingle at the back of my head. You’re practically making my head vibrate.”
“There may,” began Rarity, “be a mare I have my eyes on. I’m not certain it is love, but certainly a fondness for.”
“Oh, it’s love. Unrequited, and perhaps unknown at the moment, but love,” said Cadance, “but tell me about this mare. You’re only on step thirteen?” at Rarity’s assertion, Cadance continued, “we have time. You can talk to me, Rarity.”
“Well, she’s, how do I put this,” mused Rarity, “difficult at times. Absolutely impossible at others, but she’s so...so beautiful. Not always on the outside, perhaps, but inside, she is an absolutely beautiful pony.”
“Ah,” said Cadance, “you’ve fallen for her personality.”
“Well, yes, I suppose I have,” said Rarity, “But really, spend five minutes around her and it’s impossible to ignore it. It’s projected outwards constantly. And I wonder if she could ever like me like I like her.”
“Such is the bittersweet song of love,” sighed Cadance. For a moment, there was silence, the only sound being Rarity’s hooves and magic at work on Cadance’s mane.
“Rarity? Why haven’t you confessed to this pony? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”
“Well,” said Rarity, “part of it is, of course, the fear of rejection.” Cadance nodded in understanding as Rarity continued on. “The other parts, well. One is that I’m not even sure that she likes mares, and the other part, oh, you’ll think I’m ridiculous.”
“I promise I won’t,” said Cadance, “on my word as a Princess.”
“Well, I’m afraid of heights. I got that fear of heights from an incident involving her.”
“You and...?”
“Yes, Princess,” said Rarity, a blush beginning to creep across her face.
“Well, that certainly is interesting, to say the least, but by far not the strangest pair I have ever heard of.”
****Time****
“Oh, you must think that I’m silly, Princess Cadance,” said Rarity.
“Not really,” said Cadance, “I felt much the same before I confessed to Shining Armor. I cannot say for sure if the object of your affections returns your feelings, but I do have a bit of advice, if you would care for it?”
“Yes, of course, Princess!”
“Love is a powerful thing; it lifts us up, carries us on its wings. Let your love carry you for a while, Rarity. Stop thinking about the consequences, and be foolish. Be indulgent, and silly, for what good is love otherwise?”
Rarity was silent for a while, though her hooves remained working on Princess Cadance’s mane.
“I think,” she said, at length, “that when we get back to Ponyville, I shall have to have a special lunch with her. And a talk.”
Cadance smiled. Sometimes, love just needed a little push to get going.
Twilight Sparkle trotted down the streets of Ponyville. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and over at Carousel Boutique, she could hear Rarity wailing about how the fabric she had ordered was the wrong shade of blue. Satisfied that everything was not perfectly fine (Twilight had learned the lesson of tempting fate too many times, and nice days in Ponyville had a habit of going wrong), Twilight headed for Sweet Apple Acres.
Both Applejack and Big Macintosh had asked Twilight to go over their financial books as a favour, to confirm Big Mac’s numbers, as tax time was coming up. Twilight had wanted to do tedious math for a while anyway, as a way to get her mind off her new station as Princess of Friendship.
As Twilight crossed into Apple farmland, the scent of fresh apple pie drifted on the wind, mixed with the undeniable smell of hard work. Twilight wasn’t sure that hard work had a smell, but it certainly seemed to fit. As Twilight approached the Apple’s home, she ran across Applejack hauling several carts of apple to the barn.
“Well, howdy there Twilight!” said Applejack, “What brings y’all out here today?”
“I finished your books. Just came to return them,” said Twilight, levitating the hefty tomes that detailed the finances of Sweet Apple Acres out of her saddlebags.
“Mighty fine of you, Twilight. I was just gonna pick ‘em up the next time I dropped by.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It was the least I could do, and I was going out anyway,” smiled Twilight.
“Well, thanks for checkin’ them anyway. Find anything in them?”asked Applejack, as she unhooked herself from the carts.
“Nothing major. A few minor errors, but your brother’s bang on with his numbers.”
“Heh,” smiled Applejack, “Big Macintosh has always been the better of the two of us with numbers and fancy mathematics. Maybe you’d like him to be ‘bang on’ you, sometime? ‘Cause I got no problem if he don’t. All ya gotta do is say the word, Twi.”
Twilight groaned, and buried her face in her hooves, and then added her wings to the mix.
“Stop trying to set me up with your brother, Applejack,” she said.
“I’m just messin’ with you, sugarcube. I’ll stop if it bothers you that much.” Said Applejack, rubbing Twilight’s back.
“No, no, it’s alright. Just tone it down for a while.”
“Alright,” said Applejack, “I can lay off for a while.”
Twilight uncovered her face, and smiled up at Applejack. Clambering back onto her hooves, Twilight passed the books to Applejack, bade her farewells, and then headed back towards Ponyville. She couldn’t be happier, aside from the whole Princess of Friendship deal. She lived in a great place, had wonderful friends, and she was learning more and more about magic everyday. Really, what more could a mare ask for?
Quickly, Twilight checked the sky, but aside from a few scattered clouds and the tell-tale signs of Rainbow Dash practicing, nothing ominous was happening, like, for instance, the moon falling on Equestria. Twilight let out a sigh of relief.
Truly, Ponyville had taught her well.
******
Queen Chrysalis smiled as she approached the pod in which Twilight Sparkle lay, trapped and helpless, the illusion that the pod contained keeping her happy. Chrysalis couldn’t care less about what the pod was showing her. All she knew was that the illusion would adjust, latch onto the things that Twilight found the happiest, and tailor itself to keep Twilight in a state of perpetual bliss.
For all Chrysalis knew, she could be surrounded by puppies, or with a loved one, and Chrysalis didn’t really care. All Chrysalis cared about was that she was happy, and could thus feed her hive. Soon, she’d have enough love to take Canterlot. Taking Ponyville had been a smart move – with the entire town trapped in pods, and her swarms gorging themselves on the love the cocooned ponies produced, while pretending that nothing was wrong, she’d soon be able to take Equestria for herself.
And that thought brought a wickedly happy smile to Chrysalis’s mouth.
Fluff McFluff-Fluff Fluff Fluff Fluff. Fluffy Fluffy Fluff. With an Fluff-Fluff here and an Fluff-Fluff there, here an Fluff, there an Fluff, everywhere an Fluff-angst.
“Ah! Princess Celestia, I didn’t see you there!” said Sunset, as she attempted to extract herself out of the pile of paperwork on her desk.
“Please, there is no need for that. This is just an informal visit,” said Princess Celestia, a gentle smile growing on her face. “How are you finding your new position?”
“When I told you that I wanted something more practical, this wasn’t what I had in mind, Princess,” grumbled Sunset.
“But you took to it so well. Sunset Shimmer, Practical Magic tutor. I do see the reports from the other teachers, you know. They’ve been saying wonderful things about you,” said Celestia. Despite herself, Sunset couldn’t entirely hid the blush that came with the Princess complimenting you.
“And perhaps it was for the best,” sighed Celestia, “you were more than ready to make your own way in the world. But how are you doing? How is your class?”
Sunset sighed, knowing what Celestia was here for.
“I’m taking to this teaching thing pretty well. As for my class, it’s a little weird being on the other side of the teacher’s desk. And Twilight Sparkle is doing just fine.”
“Now, Sunset,” admonished Celestia.
“I’m sorry, Princess,” said Sunset, “it’s just that I used to be your student, and now she is, and I know that she deserves it, but,”
“I understand, Sunset,” said Celestia, “as long as it doesn’t affect your teaching of her.”
Sunset shook her head. “Of course not, Princess. I can see why she’s your student.”
“Tell me, how do the other teachers get along with her?” asked Celestia.
“She’s a great student. She’s smart, talented, has a natural grasp of magic theory, though she’s often prone to asking questions beyond the course. A few teachers have had problems with that,” said Sunset. Celestia nodded.
“Well, thank you for your time, Sunset. And please, remember that if you ever want to talk, I’m always available for you. You may not be my student anymore, but I do hope that we can be friends.”
“I’ll...think about it, Princess.”
“That’s all that I ask, Sunset,” smiled Celestia.
******
Sunset Shimmer woke up in a sweat, and looked out her open window in the direction of Canterlot High School, and its closed portal in the base of the statue. Not for the first time, she wondered if she had made the right choice by running into the mirror world.
Of course she had. Celestia was holding her back, keeping her from her full power. And Twilight Sparkle being Celestia’s student? Like that would ever happen. Sunset remembered the young unicorn, and she was smart, but not much else. She didn’t have the power that Sunset did.
Still, there wasn’t much she could do now. She just had to settle down and wait for thirty moons, and start her domination of the silly school.
One of the first things that Rarity had done once she and Rainbow Dash had started dating was go to Twilight and learn the cloud-walking spell. It was only common sense, she had said. Rainbow was a pegasus. She would undoubtedly want to show Rarity things that only other pegasi could see, and whatever she may have claimed in public, Rarity did enjoy the occasional Wonderbolts airshow. Rainbow Dash claiming that they were twenty percent cooler when they didn’t have to worry about things like the ground had nothing to do with it. And the upcoming show in the cloud stadium in Las Pegasus had been completely unrelated.
Still, though Twilight had said it was simple, and certainly easier than giving her wings again, the spell still caused an ache in Rarity’s horn the first few times she had cast it successfully. But Rarity had persisted, and was quite adept at casting the spell, only needing a few moments before Rainbow whisked her off to wherever as she was prone to do sometimes.
It was this proficiency that allowed Rarity to sit comfortably on a particularly fluffy cloud as Rainbow Dash pushed it upwards. Oddly, when Rainbow had asked that she sit on the cloud that morning, she’d been unusually silent. Just asked, and when Rarity tried to press for a reason, Rainbow had clammed up.
So Rarity sat on the cloud, and not asked further. She assumed that maybe they were going to Cloudsdale, but when Rainbow simply blew past it, Rarity tossed that assumption away. Indeed, Rainbow didn’t stop the climb until Rarity actually had to call out to Rainbow that it was getting difficult for her to breathe.
Rarity looked down. ‘Okay,’ she thought, ‘that was a bad idea.’ She instead fixed her eyes on Rainbow, who had fluffed out the cloud a bit more, and was sitting on the side, twitching every few seconds.
“Rainbow,” said Rarity, her voice sounding oddly tinny to her ears, “is there a reason that you brought me up here for?”
“Yeah,” muttered Rainbow, “I guess there is. But it’s kinda a pegasus thing, and,” Rainbow trailed off. On her face, Rarity could see a whole host of emotions and desires battling for dominance. Rarity decided to help her out.
“Rainbow Dash,” she said, “you have brought me up here for a reason. Would you please tell me what that reason is? I promise that I won’t laugh.”
“Okay, look,” began Rainbow, “I asked my dad and Spitfire about this. There’s kind of a tradition with pegasi.”
Rarity nodded. She had expected as much.
“When two pegasi start dating, or whatever, one of the first things they do to really proclaim that they love each other is fly up to the cirrus layer,” here, Rainbow pointed upwards at the wispy clouds that still floated far above Rarity, “and they run a scarf or blanket through the clouds. Sort of a bravery, mutual love thing.”
Rarity sighed. That did sound romantic, and she was delighted that Rainbow wanted to do that with her, but she could still tell that Rainbow was holding something back.
“Rainbow,” asked Rarity, “what happens after that?”
Rainbow swallowed. “Well, after that, one of them stops flapping their wings, and falls. It’s up to the other to save them. Once one’s safe, they repeat. Trust thing,” finished Rainbow.
“Rainbow, you are aware that I can’t fly, aren’t you?” said Rarity, and Rainbow nodded.
“It was a stupid idea. Come on, I’ll take you back down.”
Rarity had always been good at impulse ideas-it was what helped ensure her success as a dressmaker. So, just as Rainbow circled around and was about to begin pushing the cloud back down, Rarity spoke.
“I have a better idea,” said Rarity, trying not to think too much about what she was about to do, “why don’t you catch me again, Rainbow? I trust you.”
And with that, Rarity cancelled her cloud-walking spell.
****Time****
Rarity was deeply regretting her impulse decision. Fortunately, the rapidly approaching multi-coloured dot above her was her saviour, and as long as she didn’t flail, Rainbow would catch her pretty quickly.
Rainbow pulled along side Rarity, fixing the unicorn with a glare that was half concern, half amused, and then, without warning, swiped sideways.
“You’re an idiot, Rarity,” said Rainbow Dash, bringing herself to a stop.
“What can I say, Rainbow? You bring out the worst in me,” said Rarity, as Rainbow hovered, Rarity in her forehooves.
“The worst, huh? Then I guess I shouldn’t disappoint,” grinned Rainbow.
“Rainbow Dash, don’t you dare -”
Rainbow Dash dropped Rarity. Despite herself, Rarity laughed as she fell, and Rainbow pulled alongside her, her mouth turned up.
It was pure idiocy. One mistake on Rainbow’s part, one panic from Rarity, and there was a high chance that neither of them would walk away.
Rarity loved it. This was how she wanted to feel every day.
Twilight Sparkle stared out of the window, into the black void of space. Stars glittered and shone in the distance, and Twilight was trapped inside a cage of steel and plastic. Her hooves made a hollow, ringing impact, as opposed to the hard sound that she was used to from walking on Equestria’s surface, or any solid earth, to be honest.
The thought of Equestria brought a wave of melancholy to Twilight. She couldn’t have known what was going to happen. Couldn’t have prevented it, but that never stopped Twilight from wondering, or missing her many, many friends that she had made on her now absent planet. Even Celestia and Luna were gone, and Twilight had to assume that Cadance was missing to, though that was unlikely, given her old foalsitter’s nature.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. Now she was on a space ship, having been ‘rescued’ from inside an asteroid belt, and she had all kinds of new things to study.
Or she would, if that mechanism on the wall would stop buzzing commands at her. Ever since she’d been taken aboard the ship, it had been barking commands almost non-stop. Of course, Twilight had cast the ‘Babel’ spell on her own ears, so she could understand what it, and her captors were saying, and the reactions had not been good.
They’d been trying to get her to go to the ‘Med Bay’ for some time, which Twilight could assume was the ships’ medical facility, presumably to understand how she was able to survive out in the cold black of space without suffering any damage. Twilight didn’t think these aliens were going to be able to understand magic, or the concept of a self-fulfilling immortal. Truth be told, Twilight wasn’t sure that the aliens who had found her were nice ones, but she was reserving judgement.
“Look, will one of you stupid idiots get into that room and get that purple horse into the med bay? She’ll fetch a high price, and...”
Twilight didn’t need to hear anymore. If her translation was correct, and she was ninety eight percent sure that it was, then these aliens were intending to sell her, and probably other things too. She fired up her horn, and scanned the ship. Sure enough, her magic returned that there were several captive life-forms held in the floors of the ship below her. Slavery was not a new concept to Twilight-several of the cultures that she had run into had practiced it.
And every time, Twilight found it abhorrent. And this time, there was no standing culture or watchful government to make sure that Twilight didn’t interfere. Rearing back, Twilight thrust her horn at the outer wall of the ship, and blew a hole, opening it to the absolute emptiness of space.
The first time that Twilight had discovered that she didn’t need to breath had been on a practice teleport to the Moon. Twilight had stayed up there for a full half-hour before she realized that she hadn’t taken a single breath. In her defence, she’d found some really interesting rock formations and craters. Still, as an immortal, Twilight was more or less immune to harsh conditions of space, and thus simply teleported up to where she guessed the aliens flew the ship. There, she floated outside the window, and waved hello to the aliens. She watched as they scrambled about, yelling to each other. Or so Twilight guessed. She couldn’t actually hear them. But judging by the way that they were running about, Twilight guessed that they were yelling.
****Time****
Now sure that her captors were convinced that she was some kind of space monster, Twilight teleported inside the ship again, and by levitating the aliens into a room, and then using her magic to seal the door shut, she took control of the space ship. After all, it was a far better mode of transport than an endless chain of teleports.
“Well,” said Twilight, as she arrived back in the control centre of the ship, “maybe I can find something interesting to do out here. Maybe even new friends.”
With that, Twilight set about studying the controls of her new ship. She didn’t want to accidentally steer into the heart of a star, and she wanted to see if these aliens had gotten around the faster-than-light problem.
“Oh yes,” grumbled Twilight Sparkle, as she vaporized another eldritch abomination, “this was clearly a fantastic idea, Trixie. I don’t even know how you keep talking me into these things.”
Trixie ducked under a swinging tentacle, before severing the offending appendage with a quick swipe of magic.
“It is not Trixie’s fault that the portal was already open, Sparkle,” grumbled Trixie.
“You stopped to rehearse your entry line five times! And you didn’t even get to say it because by the time we got in here, we were immediately attacked by these things!”
“...still not Trixie’s fault.”
Twilight sighed as her magic levitated and threw another indescribable creature back through the hole in the fabric of space and time.
“Would you at least get me the tome on the pedestal so I can close the portal before-,” Twilight was cut off by something growling behind the portal. If it truly could be called a growl. In truth, it was closer to a yelling octopus mixed with the sound of what lurked in the spaces between stars.
“So you wanted the book on the pedestal with all the glowing runes?” asked Trixie, as she directed one of her firework spells at what she thought was a monsters face.
“Please, Trixie,” said Twilight, spinning around and blasting a path to the pedestal with a flurry of purple bolts. Trixie dashed along the temporary corridor, around and over the occasional tentacle, or claw, or a few other things that Trixie didn’t want to think about too hard. As she reached the thick book’s resting place, Trixie grabbed it with her magic, and sent it flying across the room with the accuracy that could only come from years of practicing card-flinging tricks with her magic.
Twilight caught the tome with all the accuracy that being friends with Pinkie Pie demanded. She turned back to face the still growing hole in the room. As she flicked through the book, she could feel something big stirring and moving on the other side.
“Ah ha!” said Twilight, “here it is. Now, just give me a moment,”
“We do not have forever, Sparkle,” called Trixie from across the room, as she fought her way back through the tentacled abominations back to Twilight.
“I don’t see you trying to translate a summoning tome of eldritch creatures in your head, Trixie.”
“Sparkle,” said Trixie, as she finally rejoined Twilight, knocking back a group that had gotten too close to the alicorn.
“Nearly there, Trixie. Just a few more moments.”
“Sparkle...”
“One more second, Trixie!”
“Sparkle!” said Trixie, and Twilight finally looked up from the tome.
“Oh,” said Twilight, staring up into the many eyes and slimy indescribable form of the one known only as ‘That Which Heralds Insanity’.
“Sparkle, a banishing ritual might help now,” muttered Trixie.
“Right,” muttered Twilight, beginning to recite the complex sentences that would ensure that ‘That Which Heralds Insanity’ would remain in its own universe.
****
“And that’s basically what happened when Trixie dragged me off,” groaned Twilight, as Aloe’s hooves worked into the space between her wings and spine.
“Ooh, neato!” said Pinkie Pie, from the bubble bath-the only thing in the spa that she was allowed to use. “I would have really liked to come along. I haven’t seen him for a while. I think he’s avoiding me,” finished Pinkie Pie, in a stage whisper.
Twilight just raised an eyebrow.
“Hey,” said Pinkie, “you should totally come when I do his next birthday party! Gosh, I haven’t held one for him since he got his name, you know. I used to chase him around so much.” With that, Pinkie produced a photo from her mane of her chasing what was distinctly a smaller version of ‘That Which Heralds Insanity’ with a birthday cake.
And suddenly, the name of the eldritch abomination made a whole lot more sense to Twilight. After all, Pinkie was probably the only thing that could appear to be insane to an ancient space monster. But like most citizens of Ponyville, Twilight had developed a reflex of ‘It’s Pinkie Pie,’ in regards to many unexplained questions about the pink party pony, and as such, she was able to dismiss the important question of how Pinkie Pie knew eldritch abominations, and concentrate on the important things-such as the massage she was getting.
Somehow, the stars seemed clearer, here. Luna stared up through the destroyed roof of what used to be her and Celestia’s home. It seemed like an age ago now. In many respects, it was, though at times, Luna would half-expect to wake up, and she’d still be in her bed in the palace as it was in the old times, and the whole business with the Nightmare would be just that, a nightmare.
But Luna knew that such a thing wasn’t true. It had happened, and she was largely responsible for the destruction of her own home. Coming here had reminded her of that. Celestia had protested. She didn’t want Luna coming here, to the site of her betrayal, but Luna had slipped out when Celestia wasn’t looking. She needed to know, to see what had happened. As Luna wandered around the ruins, lost in her memories, she failed to notice the clop of hooves on stone until it was almost too late.
Whirling around, Luna found her horn pointed at a zebra mare.
“State your business,” said Luna, her horn charging up with a spell, “you are intruding upon what was our home.”
“It was not my intention to disturb you in your home,” said the zebra, “though you need not worry, for I am on my own. I sensed something in the ruin was amiss, though I could leave, should you wish to reminisce.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed as she pulled the meaning from the zebra’s rhyme. She had obviously seen or felt the burst of magic from Luna’s teleport here, and assumed that something was happening.
“Forgive me,” said Luna, deactivating her horn, “I am still adjusting, as it were. This place holds many memories for me, and I needed to relive them.”
“I shall then take my leave,” said the zebra, bowing her head, “though perhaps when you are done, you would wish for some tea? I have many a brew, and I would be honoured to share one with you.”
Luna stared for a moment, unsure of how to respond to the offer. Not even the nobles of Canterlot would ever want to have the Princess of the Night in their home, as fearful as they were of her. That this zebra would freely offer was a strange thing.
“I do not normally drink tea,” said Luna, “but you are different. At the very least, I would like to know you. Where do you live?”
“I reside here, in the forest. It is here that my abilities are at their strongest. Should you wish, I would wait for you, as the paths through the Everfree are hard to view.”
Luna paused, considering the offer. Though she was familiar with the Everfree from her day, it was likely that things had changed in the time between now and when she was last here-such was the nature of the forest.
“That would be...helpful,” said Luna. As the zebra turned to leave, Luna called out once more. “I realised that I did not get your name.”
“Zecora is my name, though I feel I do not need to ask you the same. You are Princess of the Night, Luna, who rules the stars and moon with all her might.”
With that, Zecora trotted out to the entrance of the castle ruins, and Luna returned to her memories. The zebra was interesting, certainly. It had been aeons since Luna had visited the old Zebra lands, even before her episode. From what she could remember, they had a strangely alluring culture. Perhaps she could ask this Zecora to explain some of it, though to find a zebra outside of their lands was a rare thing, and there was something that deeply intrigued Luna about Zecora.
Perhaps she would have to make her visits here a regular event.
Applejack was, as always, working when Pinkie Pie came to visit. Applejack never seemed to really stop working. Oh, there had been times when she’d taken breaks to visit, or attend one of Pinkie’s parties, but then it was straight back to work for Applejack.
This irritated Pinkie Pie. There was a time for work and a time for play, and Pinkie Pie knew that, despite all appearances that said otherwise. She simply got paid to do what she loved most-party, and eat, so to her, they were simply the same thing. But when Twilight Sparkle, the pony who never stopped studying said that Applejack was pushing herself a bit hard, Pinkie knew it was a sign of trouble. And that meant it was time for drastic measures.
“Uh, Pinkie? What in tarnation are ya doin?”
Pinkie Pie was super-duper determined that she was going to make sure that Applejack had a day off. After all, her middle name was determination. Well, it was actually Diane, but Pinkie had never let that stop her before. Pinkie wondered if she could get her name legally changed.
“Pinkie Pie, you’re actin’ a mite weirder than usual. You been eating liquid rainbow lately?”
Pinkie Pie had drank some of Twilight Sparkle’s coffee that morning, and she had so many ideas, even more than usual, and she just wanted to share them with Applejack, because Applejack was one of Pinkie Pie’s friends. Also, Pinkie Pie totally had a crush on Applejack, and she felt that her fellow earth pony was super cute and adorable, and Pinkie wanted to make out with Applejack literally all the time, and then ponies would call them ‘Apple Pie’ when they were out together and portmanteau was a funny word.
Portmanteau. Hee.
“Hoo boy. Mac? I gotta deal with Pinkie. Ain’t gettin’ any work done around here with her like this. Be back once she’s back t’ normal.”
“Eeyup.”
******
“I’m so sorry, Applejack. I hadn’t even noticed when Pinkie Pie came in. Before I could stop her, she’d drained the pot.”
“It’s just coffee, Twilight. How could it turn her into this?”
Pinkie Pie was now in the Golden Oaks Library with Applejack and Twilight. And being here had given Pinkie even more ideas about what she could do with Applejack, though a few would require Twilight to get involved. Applejack tying Pinkie Pie up with her rope had also given Pinkie ideas.
“It’s not just coffee, Applejack. It’s a special blend, mixed with a few slightly illegal energy supplements. I call it my Wake Up Juice!”
“Twilight...”
“Sorry. Anyway, I guess all you can do is wait for it to wear off. Her body will process it out. Eventually. Maybe.”
“Maybe, Twi?”
“It’s Pinkie Pie, Applejack.”
“Point taken.”
Pinkie Pie didn’t understand what was taking so long. She just wanted to make sure that Applejack had a good time, and Pinkie Pie knew a lot of fun ways to have a good time. Most of them involved makeouts at some point. Pinkie just wanted to make her friend happy and smiley and look up from beneath Pinkie and then-
“Okay that’s enough outta you. How long will this take to get out of her, Twi?”
“I have no idea. Maybe a couple of hours? I’ve been drinking this stuff for years, Applejack. I have a tolerance. I kind of forget how strong it is sometimes.”
“Great. So now I have a crazier than usual Pinkie Pie who’s determined to make me go cross-eyed and red.”
While Twilight and Applejack were talking, Pinkie Pie had finally managed to get out of the rope, and pull the tape off her mouth, letting her talk again. And while they were talking, Pinkie Pie decided that she should sneak out of the Golden Oaks Library and go and get some things for her fun time with Applejack. She’d need her special chest, her Fun chest and whipped cream for a snack. And maybe some chocolate, too.
“She don’t realise she’s sayin’ everything out loud, does she?”
“I doubt it. Her brain’s so overwhelmed on energy and caffeine right now that she’s got no mental filter. Everything she thinks is just coming straight out of her mouth.”
“Okay. Now will you help me catch her, Twi?”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
****Time****
Pinkie Pie blinked as she woke up. Hovering over her were Applejack’s and Twilight’s faces, each with anxious look.
“Hey girls!” said Pinkie, “what are you doing?” For some reason, the moment Pinkie Pie spoke, both of them let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s worked itself out. Guess we tired her out enough,” said Twilight, continuing on, “now Pinkie, from now on, I want you to promise that you won’t ever drink my coffee without asking me first.”
“Okie-dokie-loki!” chirped Pinkie.
“And I think that you and Applejack should probably have a talk. Sounds like you did some pretty fun stuff while we were waiting.”
“Gosh darn it, Twilight!” grumbled Applejack, as Twilight teleported away, though Pinkie could see that Applejack was blushing.
The dress was not perfect. Then again, it was also unfinished, but there was still a small detail tugging at Rarity’s thoughts as she stepped back. A sensation that this dress wasn’t quite up to her usual standards, even though her friends had all said it looked wonderful. Well, all of her friends minus Rainbow, of course. This dress was supposed to be a surprise for her.
“Perhaps,” muttered Rarity, “it will look better in the morning.” It was already well into the night, but Rarity wanted to get the dress perfect. With a sigh, Rarity extinguished the candle in her workroom, and trotted up to bed.
******
Things didn’t look much better in the morning. In fact, the moment that Rarity had entered the room, she immediately decided that she hated the dress. With a sigh, she pulled it off the dressmaker’s stand, and tossed it to the side. As she sat, idly sketching out a few other ideas for the dress, she watched as Rainbow worked the weather, kicking clouds into place with a brutish elegance. There was no real way that Rarity could describe how much effort Rainbow put in to put in the least effort at her job. But such was the occasional dichotomy of Rainbow Dash.
Rarity’s eyes snapped open. Yes, she could see it now. The perfect dress for Rainbow. It would have to try and capture everything that Rarity loved about Rainbow, everything that was unique about her. Any other fashionista would have crumbled at the task, but Rarity was no ordinary fashionista. She had done harder things, such as make Applejack actually look presentable to the Canterlot nobility. Rarity mentally offered an apology to Applejack.
Fabric flew around Rarity. She was a whirlwind of colour and magic and song. Her needle and thread flowed through cloth, stitching everything together in a pattern that only existed in her mind. This was why she loved dressmaking-Rarity loved seeing a thing in her mind, and then making it into something that actually existed so that other people could share in her ideas. Rarity liked making the world beautiful.
******
The dress was, quite possibly, the ugliest thing that she had ever created. Such were Rarity’s thoughts the next morning as she levitated the dress from the mannequin. Why had she thought that this was a good idea? Such a monstrosity deserved to be relegated to her fireplace, because she wouldn’t even want Rainbow to wear that. Rarity frowned. She had so wanted Rainbow to look wonderful for their wedding, and she wanted to be the one who let the world know that yes, Rainbow Dash was, when she wanted to be, an absolutely stunning mare.
She sighed. Rarity knew that the wedding was quite likely, one of the only times when she would actually be able to convince Rainbow to wear a dress, or even submit herself to a spa treatment at all. But unless she could create the dress that would bring out the beauty in Rainbow, the dress that would let the rest of the world see what Rarity saw every time she saw Rainbow Dash, she was stumped.
It didn’t help that Rainbow Dash was, well, Rainbow Dash.
****Time****
An idea formed in Rarity’s mind. She found it appropriate. Bolts of coth started to fly around the workroom. Needle and thread flew into action in the surety of Rarity’s magical grip. And this time, Rarity knew exactly what she was doing.
******
“I now pronounce you mare and wife,” said Princess Cadance, “you may kiss the bride.”
Rainbow Dash grinned as she turned to face Rarity, who was dressed in a beautiful dress of her own design. The only thing that Rainbow had done was to have a spa session, and she didn’t even complain that much, really. But Rainbow had expected Rarity to use their wedding as an excuse to get Rainbow in a dress for once, and Rainbow would have agreed. Without complaining, even. But she had been surprised when Rarity had said that she’d be wearing the dress, and Rainbow could turn up au natural.
As the two walked out of the hall where they’d held the wedding, Rainbow leant over to Rarity.
“So, why’d you not make a dress for me?” she asked, “I would have thought you would’ve jumped at the chance.” Rarity just smiled.
“I was going to, but then I realised something. You are beautiful, Rainbow, but because you are always, unabashedly, you. Putting you in a dress would only spoil that.”
“So what you’re saying is that I’m too awesome for dresses?” asked Rainbow.
“Maybe, maybe not,” smirked Rarity, “but right now, all I want you to do is tear this one off me, Miss Best-Flyer-In-Equestria.”
“Now that is an idea I can get behind,” said Rainbow, sweeping Rarity off her hooves and dashing for the Boutique.
Rarity sighed as Aloe’s hooves worked into her back. On the next table over, she could hear Lotus gently rubbing Fluttershy’s back, working her hooves into the muscles that came with having wings with soft grunts. However, Fluttershy’s usual coos of satisfaction were suspiciously absent today.
Rotating her head while Aloe shifted further down her back, Rarity turned to look at Fluttershy. Her dear friend certainly looked relaxed, her wings falling loosely over the sides of the massage table, there was an inexplicable tightness about Fluttershy.
“Ahh,” sighed Rarity, “there is certainly nothing better than spending quality time with a friend, is there?” There was a pause before Fluttershy replied. A pause much too long for it to be for Fluttershy’s usual ‘be frightened at everything’ pause.
“No, there isn’t,” said Fluttershy, the same tightness in her voice. Anypony else would have missed it, but Rarity had known Fluttershy for years. Something was bothering her friend. The only question that remained was what. Rarity let silence fill the space between them for a while, until it was time for the two to head for the mud baths.
“Oh, you will simply not believe some of the clients that I had this week, Fluttershy. I fear I will be up to my ears in red ribbon for months,” said Rarity. As she complained about her clients, who had all decided that every dress needed ribbon accents. It wasn’t until Rarity reached the usual point where she was complaining about what silly thing that Rainbow Dash had done that week that Rarity caught any sign of change from Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy?” asked Rarity, “is there something about my dating Rainbow that bothers you? You have avoided the topic for a while now.”
“I think it’s fine,” said Fluttershy, “I mean, you can date whoever you want, Rarity.”
“Fluttershy,” said Rarity, levitating the slices of cucumber off her eyes, “You know that you can tell me anything. If you want to say anything, I promise that I will not hold it against you.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m happy for you.”
“Forgive me if I have a hard time believing that, dear,” said Rarity, “You can tell me.”
“You’ll think I’m just being silly, I know it.”
“I promise that I won’t, Fluttershy.” Rarity kept pushing. She knew that it was cruel, and she didn’t want to do this to Fluttershy, not to one of her oldest friends, but Fluttershy would never do it on her own. Eventually, though,
“Why are you dating Rainbow? She’s not a prince. She’s not romantic, she’s not cultured, she thinks dressmaking is a waste of time, she’s more interested in flying than you, and you have to know that you’ll always be the second thing in her mind after the Wonderbolts, so why? Why couldn’t you pick someone that would understand you, support you, who could be nice and let you work and...” Fluttershy trailed off, pausing for a minute, before leaping forward, planting a kiss on Rarity’s lips.
“Oh, my,” murmured Rarity, watching in a mild shock as Fluttershy realised what she had done, and fled the spa.
******
“Fluttershy, come out!” cried Rarity, as she pounded on Fluttershy’s door.
“No!” wailed Fluttershy, “I’m a horrid pony, and no one should ever see me again!”
“Fluttershy, I promise to you that I’m not mad. A little upset, perhaps, but certainly not mad,” said Rarity. Slowly, the door inched open.
“Fluttershy?” asked Rarity, peeking her head through the small gap, “where are you?”
“In the closet,” murmured Fluttershy. Rarity sighed, and opened to door to the front closet.
“Dear,” she began, “I know what you must feel like right now. But I do love Rainbow, and while she does have her faults, she,” Rarity never got any further in her planned speech than that, because Fluttershy leapt out of the closet, wrapped her hooves around Rarity, slammed the unicorn into the ground in what Rarity could only assume was a perfect wrestling suplex. Rarity didn’t even have time to react.
“Leave me alone!” cried Fluttershy, as she fled to the window of her cottage.
****Time****
Rarity winced as Twilight held a pack of ice against her head. Across the room, Fluttershy was cowering into a ball as much as possible while still remaining standing.
“I’m so sorry, Rarity,” said Fluttershy, “I just don’t know what came over me. I just couldn’t bear to hear about you and Rainbow any more without you knowing how I felt that I just, oh, I just had to get it out.”
“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” said Rarity, “but you do understand that I do love Rainbow Dash, and for all her faults, she does love me back.”
“But she’s Rainbow Dash,” said Fluttershy, as if that explained everything, and to an extent, it did.
“Fluttershy, you of all ponies should know that Rainbow isn’t what she appears to be at first glance.” Fluttershy blushed.
Pinkie Pie gasped as she attempted to put weight on her leg. Not good. Like most runners, she had a good sense of how injured she was, and right now, everything was telling her that she probably wasn’t going to make it.
“Tell me where the entrance to Tartarus is, Pinkamena,” said Twilight Sparkle, her voice flat and emotionless, “tell me, and I promise to end it quickly.”
“You’re just a big meany pants,” said Pinkie, backing up against the wall, “no way I’m telling you anything.”
“Empress Celestia will not be moved from her throne. It’s for the best if everypony just accepts that.” Pinkie Pie gritted her teeth as a wave of pain shot through her.
“I saved your life, Twilight. Remember that first run? I stopped you frying your brain,” said Pinkie.
“Yes, and you helped me get information that’s going to help me make sure that the Empress’s rule goes unchallenged. As a way to repay that, I’ll make your demise painless if you cooperate.”
“You-you lied to me,” murmured Pinkie, “you said that information was going to help ponies.”
“It will,” said Twilight, “just not the ponies you want it to. You cannot possibly be this naive, Pinkamena.”
Pinkie’s sight was getting blurry. She didn’t have long now. But perhaps, she’d have long enough to make sure that everypony possible lived. She wasn’t even really part of the rebels-Pinkie was just a runner. She raided buildings and got paid and tried to keep everypony alive. She wasn’t as invested in deposing Empress Celestia from her fancy throne, but apparently, being a runner was enough for Twilight.
“I don’t know where the entrance is,” she said. Twilight giggled. It was a fake, high laugh that grated against Pinkie’s ears in the worst possible way.
“Oh, Pinkamena, I can tell when you’re lying,” said Twilight, an odd smile creeping across her face as she began to trot towards Pinkie, “though it really doesn’t matter. Several units of the Empresses’ best are poised to search the sewers. They’re not going to stop until they’ve routed out all of your friends down there.”
Behind her back, Pinkie’s hooves were frantically working on a small portable deck, typing a message into the net, in the runner-only channels. She had to get word back to the rebels, she had to make sure that as many ponies as possible survived. Nopony died on Pinkie Pie’s watch if she could help it.
As Twilight Sparkle came within physical reach of Pinkie, Pinkie finished her message, sending it out into the net. Her strength was failing her, but Pinkie still had one last trick up the sleeves she wasn’t wearing.
With a final burst of energy, Pinkie charged forward, grabbing onto the unicorn that had betrayed her, and threw herself and Twilight out of the nearby window in a single, last ditch effort.
“The Empress, our Undying Sun, will not be moved from her throne by your petty efforts, runner. Your rebel friends will fare no better than you did,” said Twilight Sparkle, her horn glowing. With a spark and a bang, she vanished, and Pinkie was left to fall to the streets below, alone.
Twilight and Applejack stood just outside the iron archway to Sweet Apple acres. The buzz of the evening fireflies was already filling the air, and both ponies’ tails flicked occasionally to discourage an adventurous mosquito or fly.
“That was a wonderful dinner, Applejack. Thanks for letting me stay,”
“’Taint no problem, Twi. One question, though,” said Applejack, “not that I don’t mind you comin’ round for dinner, but you’ve been over here three times this week, an’ Rarity tells me that you spent more than a few evenings round at hers last week. There somethin’ we should be knowing about?”
“I’m sorry, it’ll be over next month,” said Twilight.
“Twilight?” asked Applejack, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, “you havin’ money problems?”
Twilight nodded.
“Well, shoot,” said Applejack, “why didn’t ya say so?”
“Because I was stupid, and it was all my fault!” said Twilight, letting out a sigh. “As Princess Celestia’s student, I get a bi-yearly payment that’s supposed to help pay for equipment, materials and food, because as Princess Celestia’s student, the treasury pays for my lodging.”
“So you get a place paid for, and money to help you buy your fancy science stuff. Sounds like an alright deal,” said Applejack. Twilight nodded.
“Princess Celestia has always seen the advantages of funding the best and brightest, many of which have been her students,” said Twilight, “anyway, I bought a new telescope a few months back, and it was a bit more expensive than I had planned, so I accidentally ran out of money a month early, so now I’m relying on my wage as Ponyville’s librarian.”
Applejack winced. It was something of an open secret in Ponyville that the library, while having an especially esoteric collection, was not well funded. There was a reason that before Twilight arrived, it was largely run on shifts of volunteer work. Twilight was likely just scraping by.
“You say this’ll be done by next month?” asked Applejack. Twilight nodded again.
“Next month is when I get my next stipend from Celestia. I just need to eat a little more sparsely until then.” Applejack stared at Twilight for a second.
“Twilight, you know you don’t have to hide that sort of stuff from us, right? We’re your friends. We’ll help you.”
“But-”
“But nothing, Twi,” said Applejack, “ain’t saying you ain’t gonna make it up to me later, but I can make sure you get a decent meal while you wait for your next payment. That’s what friends do, Twilight.”
“Thanks, Applejack,” smiled Twilight, hugging her friend.
“You won’t be in a minute. We’re going to go see Rarity, and then you’re goin’ to explain why you were round her place a whole lot last week, and you know she’ll go all dramatic-like.”
“Stop!” cried the Royal Guard as she dashed past, her saddlebags filled to near-bursting with books. She was glad that her status as Celestia’s Personal Student still granted her a semblance of respect from the palace staff. Aside from the occasional verbal command, they rarely physically intervened with her. As she rounded the next corner, she could see the Guard Captain enter the corridor she had just left. He was pointing and calling orders, getting the guards to intercept her. Probably on Celestia’s orders.
Sunset Shimmer grinned. She liked a challenge. Swinging around another corner, she jerked to the side to avoid crashing into another guard, and with a flash of her horn, teleported past a second who was bringing his spear to bear against her. It wasn’t a question of if she got caught. Sunset could avoid these guards all day. The issue here was time. Sooner or later, they’d figure out where she was going, and seal off her destination. She had to get there before Celestia ordered it blocked. Luckily, she’d memorized several paths through the castle that would take her to where she needed to go. The second, despite being the most direct, was out-it went right past the throne room, and Sunset didn’t trust her ability to be faster than Celestia’s magic was.
Swinging left, Sunset decided on the slightly longer route. It ran further away from the throne room, and it usually had fewer guards on it. She’d just have to run faster.
True to her previous experiences walking the corridors, the route that she had chosen was largely free of guards, but word of what she was doing was spreading. Each guard she encountered was more ready for her than the last. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be catching on to where she was running to just yet. Sunset dropped to the polished marble floor, sliding under a pair of barred spears. The moment she was clear, she teleported herself several meters further down the corridor and a meter in the air. She hit the ground running, the cries of the guards echoing in her ears.
Perhaps she had been a bit brash or foolish to announce her retirement from the position of Celestia’s Student the way she had, but Sunset had always had a flare for the dramatic, and she was nothing if not confidant in her abilities.
Two more corners, and then the home stretch was in sight. She knew that Celestia wouldn’t dare move it, not while it was active. Celestia might be afraid to go through the portal, or send one of her guards through, but Sunset wasn’t. As she rounded the penultimate corner, she caught the end of a conversation.
“She’s headed for the artifacts room. What does she expect to find in there?”
“I dunno. Maybe it’s got something to do with that weird mirror that’s down there.”
“Maybe. Hey, there she is! Sunset Shimmer!” cried the guard. Behind her, Sunset heard the impact of steel on marble begin to pick up pace. A quick charm on the floor behind her, and the already smooth marble may as well have been sheet ice.
“Whoa!”
“What the hell!”
Sunset smirked to herself. They never saw that one coming. Honestly, it was like they just got stuck in their routines. Sunset rounded the last corner, and was nearly blinded by the fading light of a teleport. There was only one other pony that Sunset knew left an afterglow when they teleported.
Celestia. Sunset could see the mirror, and her escape from Celestia several meters behind the Princess, and several other Royal Guards. She’d only have one shot at this. Sunset’s horn lit up, and she leapt toward Celestia. Sunset’s horn sparked bright enough to blind everypony in the room who wasn’t Celestia.
Celestia blinked twice, not finding Sunset anywhere in her field of vision. Turning around, she just managed to catch the end of a red and yellow tail vanishing through the rippling surface of the mirror.
“Captain?” called Celestia. She reached out, touching a hoof to the surface of the mirror, only to find that it, once more, was nothing more than an ordinary mirror. Celestia sighed. An older unicorn, clad in the gold-plated armour of the Royal Guard stood up, and bowed to Celestia.
“Your Highness?”
“Head to the library. Sunset was carrying books. Find out what she took. If she got her hooves on the dark magic tomes,” Celestia paused for a moment. “Well, I hope that she hasn’t, but we had best check to make sure.”
As the guard captain left, he gathered up the other ponies from the floor, leaving Celestia alone with the now inert mirror.
“Why, Sunset?” she muttered, “what happened to make you resort to this? Was it me, or something else?”
“Rainbow Dash, you got a minute?” called Spitfire, sticking her head out of her temporary office in Canterlot, just beside the derby track. Rainbow, who had been there as a reserve to help out, shrugged, and headed back down the corridor to Spitfire.
“What did you need, ma’am?” asked Rainbow, once the door closed.
“Just going over your paperwork. Making sure everything’s in order for when we register you for a full try-out. Just got a couple of questions for you.”
“Sure thing. Uh, ma’am,” said Rainbow. Spitfire smiled.
“Don’t sweat it, kid. Most of us aren’t big on the whole ‘ma’am/sir’ thing. As long as you say it first up, we don’t care. Anyway,” said Spitfire, shifting through a few peices of paper, “says here that you were weather manager for Ponyville for two years?”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow, “well, it was really closer to two years and six months. There was a while when I was out doing the cloud-pushing, and the older guy was doing the paperwork. Thing is, I was getting paid weather manager rates but was only listed as weather worker, so...”
“I get it,” said Spitfire, waving off Rainbow’s explanation, “two years is fine. Now, I can’t see a weather certification number here. Couldn’t you find your certificate?”
“Uh, I sort of don’t have one,” mumbled Rainbow. Spitfire froze. Slowly, she looked up from her desk at Rainbow, who was looking everywhere but at Spitfire.
“You don’t have one. Care to explain, Reserve Dash?” said Spitfire, dropping into drill instructor mode, which Rainbow immediately picked up on.
“Yes ma’am! I dropped out, ma’am! Moved to Ponyville, who didn’t know to ask for one, ma’am! I was trained on the job, ma’am!”
Spitfire sighed. “Well, I guess it can’t be helped. At ease, Dash,” finished Spitfire, glancing back at Rainbow, who immediately relaxed.
“Is this going to get me kicked out, ma’am?” asked Rainbow.
“No, it’s not,” said Spitfire, “but you can’t join the Wonderbolts without a weather certificate. Quite honestly, this is why we have the reserves-so ponies we like can have a bit of time to get themselves up to our full standard. I think you’re the first we need to send to school, though.” Spitfire rummaged through one of the drawers on her desk, finally emerging with a single sheaf of paper.
“Here we go,” she said, “Cloudsdale College offers a one-month accelerated course for weather certifications. You complete that, get your certificate, and we’re good to go.”
“Aw man, I have to go back to school?” grumbled Rainbow.
“Do you want to get into the Wonderbolts or not, Reserve Dash?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Look, I’ll make you a deal because I know you know your stuff,” said Spitfire, “if you can convince the teacher to give you the final exam early, say, after a week of classes, and you pass the course, I’ll accept that.”
“Sweet. I mean, thank you, ma’am,” said Rainbow Dash, “was that all?”
“Yes. Now go and get yourself signed up for that course, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes ma’am!”
****Time****
Spitfire barely had time to say ‘Come in’ before Rainbow Dash was slapping a certificate down on her desk.
“Who’s awesome? I mean, I have my weather certification, ma’am,” said Rainbow Dash. Spitfire looked over the certificate, verifying that yes, Rainbow Dash was now allowed to work weather in Equestria.
“I see you managed to convince your teacher to give you the test. And only after a week in the course, too.”
“Well, I don’t like school. Don’t learn well in a classroom, ma’am,” grinned Rainbow Dash.
“Why do I sense that there’s a story behind that, Rainbow?” said Spitfire, filling in the remaining spaces on the forms for Rainbow’s paperwork.
“There is,” said Rainbow, “I’ll tell you about it after my try-out. Whenever that is, ma’am.”
Twilight Sparkle stood outside the room. Through the door, she could hear Pinkie Pie talking about the many, many parties that she was going to throw, and how each would be more fantastical and wilder than the last, but even she was fading into the background to Twilight’s ears.
“I am surprised to find you out here, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, as she trotted up beside Twilight. “I would have thought that you would be in there, with your friends.”
“I will, in a minute. There were just some things I needed to get my head around,” said Twilight, glancing at the door. She knew, sooner or later, she would go in. Right now, she was firmly in the ‘later’ camp.
“You are wondering how many more times you will have to suffer through the loss of a friend, now that you are an alicorn,” said Princess Celestia. It wasn’t a question. The princess had always been good at reading Twilight’s moods and unspoken thoughts.
“Unfortunately,” continued Princess Celestia, “I cannot tell you. Not because I do not want you to suffer, but because I truly, honestly, do not know.”
Twilight blinked. In the background, she could hear Rainbow Dash yelling something at the doctor in the room. Mixed in with the insults to the poor pony’s person was the occasional crash of something hitting the wall.
“But how? How do you go on, when you know that you’ll lose more friends, and that you’ll simply keep living on and on?” asked Twilight, not tearing her eyes away from the door.
“But you do not, Twilight. You do not know that you are immortal,” said Celestia, “you may fall dead tomorrow, but then again, you may not.”
“That isn’t helpful,” grumbled Twilight.
“Very well,” said Princess Celestia, “I am afraid that I have no answer for that question, Twilight. I have my own reasons for living, but I dare say that they will be different to yours, once you find them. When you figure them out, I would love to hear them.”
Twilight pondered this for a moment. Through the door, she could hear Rarity bemoaning the fact that she didn’t notice the symptoms earlier, that they should have sought other opinions, that there was surely something they could have done.
“Princess,” said Twilight, her voice catching in her throat in ways that it hadn’t for a very, very long time, “have you ever tried to stop death? Is it even possible?”
For a moment, there was silence in the hallway.
“You are talking about necromancy,” said Celestia, her voice wooden and hollow.
“Not that I intend to try, but it is something I’ve read about and,” Twilight was cut off by Princess Celestia raising a hoof, and pressing it to Twilight’s muzzle.
“I...entertained the thought, once. A long time ago, now. A dear friend passed on. He was precious to me.”
Twilight said nothing, simply waiting for Celestia to finish. She could hear Applejack crying. It wasn’t a stretch for Twilight to imagine that Applejack was hugging anyone she could, seeking any comfort that she could. Quiet whispers of assurance that everything would be fine slipping out of her mouth, intended as much for the others as they were for her.
“I decided to not bring him back,” said Celestia, “because my sister reminded me that everything must end, sooner or later. Even us.”
“But what about trading? Can I not trade my magic or anything for her life?” asked Twilight.
“The rules of such things are clear, Twilight. One life for one life. Would you truly give up your life to save hers? Would you take another’s to save hers?”
“I’d like to say yes,” said Twilight, after a moment’s thought, “but I don’t think I could. Does that make me a bad friend?”
“No, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, leaning down and nuzzling Twilight, “it does not. It simply means that you are a normal pony.”
****Time****
Twilight took a deep breath, and began to trot towards the door, and what she knew lay beyond.
“Twilight, I have one more thing that may help you,” said Celestia, “a very wise pony once told me this: ‘We are born, and then we die. We work, we sleep, we eat, and we pay bills. The rest of it is called ‘Life’, and it’s worth dying for.’”
Twilight nodded, and opened the door. She trotted past Pinkie, who was making plans for the next birthday party; past Rainbow Dash, who was punching a wall; past Rarity, who was talking with the doctor about countless ‘what ifs’ and past Applejack, who she simply offered a hug to.
And there, lying on the bed, was Fluttershy. The pegasus had always been thin, but now she looked like skin draped over a skeleton.
Twilight said nothing. No pleas to stay, to get better. She offered no comforting words, or platitudes.
She simply hugged her friend, and in her ear, whispered while her tears slowly dripped onto Fluttershy’s chest.
Twilight Sparkle walked beside Rarity at the conference centre in Canterlot.
“Really, darling, I don’t see why you had to drag me along for this,” Rarity said, glancing around at the multitude of posters, all depicting aspects of magical and scientific research, several of which Rarity had never even heard of before.
“I wanted to share my interests with one of you girls, and can you honestly imagine Rainbow Dash or Applejack here?” asked Twilight.
“A fair point,” agreed Rarity, “but what about Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy?”
“Fluttershy is, well, Fluttershy,” said Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity had to agree with Twilight on the point. “And Pinkie Pie? Do you really think she’d fit in here? At a gathering of very logic-minded ponies?”
“Pinkie is smarter than she seems, you know,” said Rarity, fixing Twilight with something that approached a reproachful look.
“I wasn’t saying that she couldn’t understand this stuff,” grumbled Twilight, “I’m saying that the other ponies here don’t have the tolerance that you or I do for her. She’d have driven half the ponies in here crazy inside an hour.” Rarity opened her mouth. Then she closed it, looked around carefully, and nodded her agreement.
“Still, I don’t understand why you picked me, darling. I’m no good with the sciences, you know that,”
“Think of this like your fashion shows, Rarity,” said Twilight, her eyes lighting up with an idea, “the clothes are secondary. These are about networking, socialising. These conferences are the fashion shows of the scientific community, about advertising yourself to future co-researchers.”
“How long did you practice that speech, Twilight?” asked Rarity, a smile flitting onto her face. Twilight mumbled something that sounded like ‘eighteen and a half minutes’.
“Dear, I’m just poking fun. I’m happy that you wanted me to be a part of this side of your life, truly.” Twilight briefly hugged Rarity.
“If you want, after lunch we can go over and see Fancy Pants or whoever you need to see,” said Twilight, “the conference does last all weekend, but I don’t have to be here for all of it.”
“Oh. My. Gosh,” said a voice off to the side. Twilight and Rarity turned to face the speaker, a blue pegasus, carrying a large roll of papers under his wing.
“You’re Doctor Sparkle,” the pegasus breathed, “THE Doctor Sparkle.”
“Twilight,” said Rarity, a smile working its way across her face, “it appears that you have some fame of your own.” Twilight groaned.
“So I may have written a few papers in my later days in Canterlot. And Princess Celestia kept making the requirements longer and longer, and more and more stringent, and then one day I got a letter from the School for Gifted Unicorns, awarding me an honorary Doctorate.”
“The Doctor Sparkle!” enthused the pegasus.
“I must admit, I do not see how that lead to this,” said Rarity, guesturing to the pegasus, who was now on the verge of fainting.
“The final research paper Celestia got published in a fairly major journal. It included a picture of me, and toted me as ‘The Youngest to ever receive an honorary Doctorate from the School for Gifted Unicorns’. Naturally, ponies in the scientific community at least, started seeing me as a bit of an inspiration.”
“Oh my gosh Doctor Sparkle,”
“More than a bit, I’d say, Doctor Sparkle,” said Rarity, nodding at the pegasus.
“Rarity,” said Twilight, fixing her friend with the fiercest glare she could, “we will go to a dress shop right now and I will try on anything you want if you promise to never mention this again.”
“Doctor Sparkle! The Doctor Sparkle!”
“Very well, Twilight,” sighed Rarity, pretending to be disappointed, “we shall leave. This certainly was an interesting experience, though.”
The throne room in Canterlot Castle was largely empty. Only Celestia, Shining Armor and Cadance stood by the currently unoccupied throne. The whole room was bathed in the oranges and blues of a long, gentle twilight, and this was not without purpose.
In Celestia’s telekinetic grip were two weapons. The first was a gold-plated spear, the head of which was nearly the length of a normal pony’s leg by itself, as it curved back along the shaft of the weapon, forming two bladed edges. The second was a scythe, of sorts. The shaft of the weapon connected to the center of a crescent of steel. Both the outer and the inner curve of the weapon had been brought to almost absurdly sharp edges, and the castle armourer had spent the entire day polishing it.
At Celestia’s nod, Shining Armor and Cadance’s horns lit up, and they pulled open the doors of the throne room. On the other side, Princess Luna stood, her starry mane and tail shifting in the same unseen breeze that carried Celestia’s. Luna strode towards Celestia, the giant doors swinging shut behind her. Her hooves beat out a regular cadence on the marble floor, and once she was half way across the room, Luna stopped.
Celestia then started to walk towards Luna, the two weapons held firm in her magic, and Cadance and Shining Armor following half a pace behind. The two sisters met in the centre of the throne room, and once more, Celestia nodded to Shining Armor.
“Luna, are you prepared to once more take up the mantle of Princess of The Night?” he said.
“We are prepared,” said Luna.
“And are you ready to once more take command of Selene, and all the responsibility that it entails?” asked Shining Armor.
“We are,” replied Luna.
“And will you take up Umbra, should the need to defend Equestria yourself arise?”
“We will,” said Luna. Shining Armor looked up at Celestia, and he nodded. Celestia moved the scythe Umbra forward, until it hung between her and Luna. Luna reached out and grabbed the weapon with her own magic, Celestia’s golden glow giving way to a deep blue shimmer. Luna moved the weapon, her weapon until it hovered just behind her.
“We are the Princess of The Night, The Guide of A Thousand Stars, She Who Walks With Phobos and Deimos,” declared Luna, “the night is once more, ours.”
Luna’s magic reached out, beyond Equestria, and grasped Selene. Outside, oranges and yellows began to give way to darker and darker shades of blue. With a final heave, Luna brought the moon into the sky. The stars glittered and glimmered as the last of the sun’s light was chased from the sky by the encroaching night.
Inside the throne room, Shining Armor, Cadance and Celestia bowed before Luna, each saying the same thing.
“All Hail Princess Luna, Ruler of Equestria, and Princess of the Night.”
Once Luna had given the command to rise, Cadance and Shining Armor excused themselves, leaving just Celestia and Luna alone.
“We found that rather pointless,” grumbled Luna, giving her scythe a few test swings, “we have been raising the moon for the past week.”
“It’s about the ceremony, Luna. It’s a good way to re-introduce yourself to the ponies of Equestria, and you’ll be seeing a fair bit of Captain Armor and Cadance. It is best they get used to you and the idea that your voice holds as much weight as mine does sooner, rather than later.”
“Still,” said Luna, letting Umbra rest on her back.
“Don’t worry, Luna. I’ll keep your official appearances to the minimum for a while. But you should begin introducing yourself to the palace staff, at least.”
“We shall,” said Luna, walking up to the throne, and looking back at Celestia for permission. Celestia nodded, and Luna sat down.
“And sister,” said Luna, “it is good to be together again.”
“Yes, it is. Goodnight, Luna,” said Celestia, exiting the throne room.
“Good night, Celestia,” said Luna, as the doors closed.
“Is she still out there?” asked Octavia. Vinyl chanced a look above the open window. She ducked back down just as a blue magical arrow shot through the space her head had occupied previously.
“Yep, she is,” muttered Vinyl, “got any threes?”
“Go fish,” said Octavia, and Vinyl grumbled and picked up a card.
Ffwt!
“I’m sorry to do this today, but I don’t feel the same way about you. I can only hope that you get the stallion that you deserve.”
“Oh. I see. Well, we certainly have had some good times, but now I need to go and drown my heartbreak in a lot of alcohol.”
“Of course.”
“Any princesses, Vinyl?” asked Octavia.
“So,” said Vinyl, as she flicked one of her cards at Octavia, “how long do you reckon it will be until she gives up this time?”
“Four hours,” said Octavia, sorting through her cards, “give or take about ten minutes.”
“Weeks worth of dishes says it’s six?” asked Vinyl. Octavia considered this for a moment.
“You’re on, Vinyl.” The two would have shook hooves on it, but that required them to move into the line of fire.
Ffwt!
“Well, maybe if you stopped using those stupid hooffiles, my hooves wouldn’t hurt so much...I mean, I like it that you do those things for me, but maybe you could remember that my hooves are more delicate than yours.”
“Honey, I’m sorry. I just wanted to do something nice for you. I’ll see if I can find one that doesn’t hurt your hooves so much.”
Octavia picked up a card, and her face instantly brightened. She laid down a pair of knights, and Vinyl groaned.
“Oh, come on, that’s like the fourth match you’ve made in the last five minutes,” she said levitating a card to her collection. “Ooh, pair of wizards!” Vinyl laid down her matching pair of cards.
Meanwhile, Octavia pulled out a circle of stiff card, painted with a facsimile of Vinyl on it, and she tossed it toward the window. A second later, it was pierced through with another arrow made of blue magic.
“Darn it!” was the exclamation from the opposite rooftop.
“Shouldn’t you be doing, you know, Princess stuff?” called Vinyl.
“I am! As the Princess of Love, it is my duty to make sure that everypony is happy on Hearts and Hooves Day! And you two have so much unrequited love!”
“No we don’t!” bellowed Vinyl.
“Denial is the first step on the road to acceptance!” called back Princess Cadance.
Vinyl magically slammed the shutters shut, but they were obliterated a second later by a localized storm of magic arrows. Vinyl and Octavia both inched a bit further away from the window.
“Come on, I know you two will be perfectly happy together!” called Princess Cadance. Vinyl tuned the slightly-delusional Crystal Empress out, and turned back to Octavia.
“So, got any fives?”
“Go fish.”
Ffwt!
“Oh, come here, my love.”
“Baaa.”
“Whoops I missed I didn’t mean to make you fall in love with a goat and let me reverse that real quick for you!”
That laugh. Rarity hated that laugh. That laugh was everything she hated about the social aspect of her career. It was a laugh that said ‘I do not find you funny, or consider you a friend. I am making fun of you.’ She glanced around the table at the various nobleponies, each smiling at some terrible joke that the host had told. She plastered a fake smile on her face, a smile that told the dinner party ‘yes, I agree with you’. Rarity hated her career for forcing her to do this, sometimes. She’d much rather be back in Ponyville, with ponies who told jokes that were actually funny, who pranked you in good nature and everypony laughed honestly. But such was the fashion industry.
Rarity looked down at her meal. Like all of the fare in Canterlot, it was exquisitely prepared and not at all filling. She picked at her food, half-listening to the conversations around her.
“...Duke said he’d be very interested in acquiring more of the paintings...”
“...but the Philharmonic is wonderfully on form this year. Their recent concert got wonderful reviews and...”
Rarity sighed. Same old gossip, same old power-mongering, but such was the game.
“...dating a Wonderbolt, don’t you know?” Rarity’s ears perked up.
“Yes, but it’s that new one from Ponyville, of all places. Ugh.”
“Isn’t she from Ponyville herself? Probably how they met, you know.”
Rarity knew of only one new Wonderbolt from Ponyville. And she knew only one pony that was dating said Wonderbolt, but she kept quiet.
“The Wonderbolts standards must be slipping if ponies from towns like Ponyville are getting in. You know, I heard that after she got in, they had to redefine the minimum standards. Must be lowering them so that anypony can get in.”
“They most certainly did NOT!” Rarity didn’t even realise she’d spoken until she noticed everypony staring at her. After a moment contemplating what she had done, Rarity decided that she didn’t care anymore.
“Rainbow Dash is the most talented pegasus that the Wonderbolts have seen in over a decade. She raised their standards, not lowered them.”
“Well, of course you would say that,” said one of the nobles, “but you are biased.” The nobles tittered, and Rarity found herself grinding her teeth at that laugh.
“So then, duchess,” began Rarity, attempting to control her temper somewhat, “your attempted bribery of Rainbow Dash just before the last Wonderbolt Derby had absolutely nothing to do with her recent shattering of every single speed record that the Wonderbolts hold?”
Gasps rippled around the table.
“Well,” stammered the duchess, “she’s clearly cheating somehow.”
“The Equestrian Games,” said Rarity, “before she joined the Wonderbolts. Rainbow went from dead last to second in under ten seconds. She was magically scanned, and as you well know, duchess, no unicorn in the crowd could be influencing her. But your problem isn’t with her, is it?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the duchess.
“No, your problem is with me. You see me as a threat to you. You want me to leave Canterlot, to stop climbing the social ladder and be less popular than you. And quite frankly, I would love nothing more. I am a dressmaker, a fashionista of the highest class, but unless I sit here and listen to all of you make fun of ponies like Rainbow Dash, who, I might add, is worth a hundred of you, I will cease to have a clientele,” said Rarity, her innermost thoughts spilling out, unable to be stopped or contained. “You are all sad, sad ponies, trapped in this game of your own making. A game that has no end, and no point.”
Rarity chuckled. “Perhaps I should have let Rainbow come good on her offer to punch you in the face, duchess. Celestia knows she wanted to when you tried to bribe her.”
Rarity turned to the host of the dinner party.
“I am not sorry for my behaviour, and nor will I apologise. However, I do believe that I shall take my leave.” Rarity strode toward the door. She paused by the door to pick up her hat, and turned back to the hostess once more.
“Dear, I would strongly suggest finding another chef. The one you have cannot make a decent salad to save his life.” With that, Rarity walked out of the door, letting it swing shut behind her.
At the back of Fluttershy’s property, right on the border of the Everfree Forest, there was a graveyard. Nopony in town ever really talked about it, but everypony knew it was there. This graveyard, however, was not for ponies, but rather for their pets. It was not by coincidence that ‘Taking the pet to Fluttershy’ had become something of a euphemism in Ponyville for when they needed to be put to sleep since the pegasus had moved to Ponyville, as the local vet didn’t do euthanasia.
Many ponies looked at Fluttershy, and asked how she could do that, while the vet in town couldn’t. And Fluttershy would always, in hushed tones that sounded like she was on the brink of tears, give the same answer.
“Sometimes, the greatest kindness that I can do is to make it quick and painless. They deserve that, at least.” After that, most ponies would go quiet, and Fluttershy would back off, apologising the whole way.
Whenever Fluttershy had to deliver the final kindness to a pony’s beloved pet, she always asked them to leave the room. She wanted the ponies to remember their pet at their best, not lying down, sick and frail. But afterwards, as she and her other animal friends buried the much loved animal in the ground, the ponies wept and cried. Sometimes. Fluttershy knew that some ponies didn’t like to cry in front of others, but she didn’t judge. Everypony mourned in their own way, and Fluttershy let them, letting the ponies come to terms with what had happened on their own.
But after the ponies had left, after the other animals had crept back to their homes and hidey-holes and the sun dipped below the horizon, Fluttershy wandered out into the cemetery, knelt down by the most recent grave, and closed her eyes.
Her spirit would reach out, transcending the boundaries of the physical and leaving her body behind. Here, in the spirit world, she could find the soul of the beloved pet that had passed on, but had, more often than not, not completely moved on yet. Often, she would trek through the cold and empty spirit version of Ponyville. She would glide through the unnaturally still air, searching through the greyed-out buildings for the spirit of the pet.
Fortunately, tonight she didn’t have to search for long. Fluttershy found the spirit of the cat she was looking for scratching at the door to the version of its old home, her keen ears picking out the sound of it mewling out for somepony to let it in as she soared over the rooftops.
“It’s okay,” said Fluttershy, scooping up the cat, and cuddling it to her chest, “I know you want to look out for your family. But both of you have to move on, I’m sorry.”
The cat purred into Fluttershy’s chest, and settled down to sleep. The second it fell asleep in Fluttershy’s forehooves, it dissolved into smoke, drifting upwards. Fluttershy sighed. Taking care of animals’ souls was tiring. She would always do what she could for their physical bodies, but she was glad that she didn’t have to deal with their spirits that often.
Still, there were some benefits to having such a connection to the spirit world. The animals around Ponyville respected her for it, and even the Everfree seemed to be able to sense it, and mostly left her alone, despite her living right on its edge.
And there was one more benefit. Fluttershy was scared of a lot of things. But here, in the spirit world that most ponies and animals feared to tread, Fluttershy was perfectly at home. And though she would never admit to it, sometimes she came here when she was feeling overwhelmed, even if there were no animals that she needed to find. This was her refuge, this was where she found solace from the physical world.
And as she always did, she took a few moments to pray before she came back to the physical world. A prayer for spirits to find happiness, though not intended for the soul of the cat that she had just sent on its way-Fluttershy prayed for the spirits of the family of ponies who were missing their companion, and hoped that they would find their own comfort. She could look after animals, but ponies were beyond her.
It had been a busy weekend for Twilight Sparkle and Spike. With her moving into the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville, there had been a lot of things to do. Or so Twilight Sparkle had thought, until Celestia had sent her a letter telling her that all of the relevant paperwork would be dealt with.
Still, that left Twilight to physically move her belongings, and of course, say goodbye to her parents. That had required a trip up to Canterlot. While she had been living away from her parents for years, she could still go over anytime she wanted, as it was only a ten minute trot.
Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle didn’t have many personal belongings. Just a few telescopes, some books, and a few dresses for formal occasions, though Twilight was doubtful that she would need them. Nopony in Ponyville seemed to ever wear clothes. Not that that was a bad thing.
But still, it had required her to spend a weekend in Canterlot, organizing. At Rainbow Dash’s curious insistence, Twilight had chosen to send her goods by Ponyville Freight, and had drawn a muffin of all things on the bottom of the form. When Twilight had asked about this detail to Rainbow, the pegasus had just chuckled, and muttered something about favours to friends.
With her belongings on the way, and familial obligations out of the way, Twilight had visited her favourite place in Canterlot one last time: The Royal Library, where Twilight had immediately thrown herself into a study of the founding of Ponyville. Just so that if anypony ever asked her if she knew about the history of the town, Twilight could confidantely say that yes, she did.
It wasn’t until late Sunday that Twilight Sparkle realised that she had to go home.
And it wasn’t until she realised she was looking at the train times and ticket prices that she realised that she didn’t think of Canterlot as her home anymore.
Twilight paused. Spike bumped into the back of her.
“Geez, Twilight,” grumbled the dragon, walking around her, “if you don’t hurry up, we’re going to miss the train.”
“The train,” murmured Twilight, “right. The train. Spike, why don’t you go on ahead. Get our tickets, and get yourself a snack.” Twilight levitated a small bit purse over to the young dragon. The moment it landed in his claws, he dashed off to the train station.
Twilight simply stood in the square. It was getting late in the day, so the main rush of ponies coming home from their jobs was finished. She could see lamps lighting up, both the ones in ponies homes and the bigger ones that lit up the streets. She had studied the spell, once, and the mechanism by which they were kept lit and-no. She was trying to distract herself.
In the air, the cool breeze that always started around dusk (Twilight if she was being facetious and a little narcissistic) had started up, washing over her coat. With it, it brought the smells of Donut Joes, book pages and burning candles. Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes, and she was back in her tower, hunched over a book on a research bender. A box of donuts rested beside her, along with a mug of coffee. She could almost hear the soft impact of wax on the brass holder, hear Spike’s gentle snores.
She knew that at any time, she could wander into the Royal Library, and look up any subject that she wanted. Well, except the Dark Magic, but that was because Princess Celestia had said that she wasn’t ready. And because Twilight didn’t want to have her soul eaten by a monster.
Twilight opened her eyes, staring at the white stone of Canterlot, tinged with oranges and blues form the setting sun and she had a realisation.
She was going to miss Canterlot. She was going to miss having unlimited access to the biggest library in Equestria, she was going to miss going on a midnight run to Donut Joes’, or walking down the road to visit her parents. And that was odd, because Twilight had more or less left home before her brother had. She’d been overjoyed at leaving her parent’s house, to live in her tower full of books and equipment and with Spike.
And it wasn’t like she was going far, either. Ponyville was only a few hours away by train. She could see Canterlot from her window in the Golden Oaks Library. But suddenly confronted with what she was losing, it seemed much further. They were trivial things, Twilight knew. She was trading Donut Joes’ for what had amounted to an offer of a lifetime supply of apple-related foods, switching out her parents for a library full of books that it was her job to manage; exchanging 24 hour access to the Royal Canterlot Library for the most extraordinary group of ponies she had met.
Twilight was broken from her internal reverie by Spike tugging on her forehoof.
“Twilight, I’ve got the tickets. What were you doing?”
“Just saying goodbye,” said Twilight, “now come on, number one assistant. Let’s go home.”
And somehow, mused Twilight, saying those words felt right when it was about Ponyville.
The moon was rising gently over the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens as Celestia walked from statue to statue. As was usual for the guards watching over the Gardens, they saw no hint of what the Princess was looking for, or what she was thinking. It was only once the gentle oranges and purples of twilight had given way to the darker blues of pure night that the guards saw Princess Luna, restored to her throne, exit the castle and walk straight to the central statue: Victory.
At a subtle motion from the Solar Princess, the guards left the two sisters alone, vanishing back into the castle.
“You kept them,” were Luna’s first words, the moment that the guards were out of earshot. Her eyes never left the statue of the caped pony, waving its flag.
“How could I not?” said Celestia, striding up beside her sister, “I never did figure out what they were for. The only thing I found in your notes was a reference to this piece-Luna’s Victory.”
“They were supposed to be a surprise,” muttered Luna, “we spent hours learning all the spells required, not to mention carving and shaping.”
“No wonder your telekinetic fine control improved, if you were carving things like these. They are works of art, Luna. You should feel proud of them.” Celestia nuzzled her reformed sister.
“If you wish, sister, we can show you what they are.”
Celestia paused for a moment. She could see, in her sister’s eyes that Luna wanted, or needed to do this. Celestia nodded, and Luna’s magic, though still a shadow of its former self, sprung to life. Sparks of dark blue magic flitted off Luna’s horn, embedding themselves into the statues around the gardens. A second passed, and Luna’s eyes scrunched closed, and the glow from her magic intensified. There was a bright flash, and then Luna stood panting from the extertion.
“Are you all right, Luna? If you feel uneasy, I can-,” Celestia paused, as the grinding sound of stone on stone made itself known to her ears. She faced Victory, and watched in equal parts horror and fascination as the statue stepped off its platform, wrenching what Celestia had thought to be a flag pole from the stone, revealing it to be a spear. She watched silently as it plodded over to Luna, cracks in the stone forming around where legs bent and joined the torso. And Celestia watched as one by one, each of the statues in the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens climbed off its base and came to life. Each one treading over to Luna, and lowering their heads in submission.
“Golems,” breathed Celestia, “you made golems. How many?”
“Sister?” asked Luna, looking up at Celestia
“How many, Luna?” demanded Celestia.
“How many times did you leave a pony’s sentence to us to determine? How many times did you turn away when the truly abhorrent were brought before us? How many times have you shied away from administering the only viable punishment? That many,” said Luna, staring directly into her sister’s eyes.
“No, it-it must have been the Nightmare’s influence on you, twisting your thoughts to think that-,” began Celestia, but she was cut off by Luna pressing a steel-shod hoof onto her mouth.
“No Nightmare,” whispered Luna, “just me.”
Celestia stared at Luna for a while longer, then gently pressed down on Luna’s hoof, pushing it back down to the ground.
“Victory was the final one,” said Luna, “she was actually a volunteer. Our old Guard Commander, White Knight. She said that she would give anything for an eternity of service under us. Sister, the ponies would have died anyway. I simply put them to use. No personality, no rebellion possible. Their final redemption, reparation to our country.” Luna looked up at Celestia, searching for some hint as to what her sister was thinking.
“No Nightmare,” reiterated Luna, “just me.”
“That doesn’t make it better, Luna,” whispered Celestia.
“I was just trying to help,” said Luna, switching her gaze back to her golem forces, and with a twitch of her horn and magic, sent them back to their statues. As the grinding of stone on stone once more filled the gardens, neither sister spoke until Victory herself had resumed her pose, the golems repairing themselves until once more they looked like harmless statues.
“They were different times, sister. More dangerous times. You know this as well as I,” said Luna.
“That doesn’t make it right, Luna. There was a reason that kind of magic was restricted.”
“After my banishment,” stated Luna. “these were created well before that, and you know it. I was just trying to help.”
“I-I need to think, Luna. I will talk to you about this tomorrow,” said Celestia, walking back to the castle, leaving Luna to stare up at the statue of Victory.
“No Nightmare,” she muttered to herself, “just me.”
And then Luna strode back into the castle, and up her bedroom. She knew that Celestia knew that she believed she was in the right. Whether or not that translated into keeping the golems would be another matter entirely.
*****
“You’re making golems, Princess.”
“Yes. We suppose that thou are going to tell our sister now. Go. We shall accept whatever punishment she sees fit. We know that she does not approve of these magics.”
“I’m not going to tell Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. As your military advisor and the commander of your guard, I can see the advantage of a force like this-a force that never tires, never needs sleep or food. I just have one request.”
“What is it, White Knight?”
“Make me into one. My body is failing, and I’d hate to leave the Princesses without a good protector, especially with the situation with the Griffons getting worse.”
“You understand the price of this, correct? There is no reversing it, nor will your personality make it through. Only your lifeforce will fuel the spell.”
“I understand. Do it. Because I want Equestria to have victory, and it’s better to have these and not need them.”
“Oh my gosh, Twilight, Rarity is doing carnival!” cried Pinkie Pie, “this is huge!”
“She’s doing A carnival, Pinkie,” said Twilight, not looking up from her book. “I had heard that a travelling company would be in town. Maybe we should go and see it. It would make for a nice day out.”
“No, Twilight, Rarity is working for carnival! She’s doing some of the outfits!”
“Pinkie,” sighed Twilight, looking up from her book and straight at Pinkie, “it should be ‘Rarity is working for A carnival. Using the correct grammar is important. It prevents misunderstandings. In fact, Mister Cake wanted me to talk to you about your hoof-writing on the order forms.”
“Well,” said Pinkie, her eyes darting from side to side, “Oh my gosh, an obvious distraction!”
Despite herself, Twilight turned to face the direction that Pinkie had pointed to. Pinkie took advantage of the opportunity and dashed out of the Library.
*****
Twilight stared at the extravaganza that was displayed before her eyes.
“Pinkie,” asked Twilight, “when you said that Rarity was working for carnival, did you actually mean she was working for Carnivale?”
“Oooh, is that how you say it?” said Pinkie, “I’ve always just said it was carnival.”
“Pinkie,” said Twilight, “Carnivale is one of the biggest parties all around the world. Its pronunciation is kind of important.”
“Whatever,” said Pinkie, having somehow acquired a full costume and a cream pie. She slammed the pie into Twilight’s face, and then danced off to join the parade.
“Party Senator Pinkie Pie from Ponyville is here!” she sang. By the time that Twilight had somewhat cleared her face of the whipped cream, Pinkie had managed to climb to the top of a float.
“The Party recognises Party Senator Pinkie Pie,” came a cry from a few floats ahead, “may your Party be blessed with Balloons and noise.”
Twilight shook her head, and decided that she was going to go and find Fluttershy. The poor pegasus was probably freaking out around all the other ponies.
“You have eighteen pairs of those in your room, Vinyl. Breaking one set is hardly my concern tonight.”
“Yeah, you should totally be worrying about your concert. You know, the whole ‘performing for royalty’ thing can put ponies off sometimes. Maybe you should go and tune your cello again.”
“My cello is in near-perfect condition, thank you, and even if you have detuned it, Vinyl, it is nothing that a quick retune at the concert hall won’t fix. Now hold still!”
“You’re my best friend, Octy. Would you really do this to me?”
“Yes. Hold still so I can catch you.”
“Like I’m gonna do that-gah!”
“Serves you right, Vinyl.”
“Tavi, you’re –cough- choking me!”
“Hush.”
“Tavi, no. Octy, please don’t do this to me. Octavia, please, no no nonono!”
“Oh, do shut up, Vinyl.”
“I’m melting!”
“It’s just water, Vinyl.”
“Meeelting!”
“Is it so bad that I would want you to look better than your usual club attire, Vinyl?”
“It is when you get soap in my eyes!”
“Vinyl, there is nothing that the soap can do to your eyes.”
“It’s the principle of the thing. OW! Octy, don’t pull so hard!”
“Honestly, Vinyl, when was the last time you brushed your mane?”
“Um...”
“I thought so.”
“OW!”
“Vinyl, your club-goers may like to smell your sweat, but the opera house does demand a certain level of cleanliness. We go through this every time you come to a performance.”
“It’s ‘cause you’re doing serious damage to my reputation, Octy!”
“Honestly, your ‘rep’ would actually improve if you took a bath every now and again.”
“But I’m blind!”
“Not an excuse, Vinyl. You’ve lived here since we left the orphanage. You know where the bath is.”
“You could at least be a little gentler with the soap.”
“You have what appears to be eight weeks of grime and sweat and...is that glow paint? In your coat. Scrubbing is required.”
“oh yeah, that was a wild party. How’s my dye looking?”
“Still strong, Vinyl. I’ll redo it next week.”
“Well, I guess we’re done, so I can get out now right? Cool.”
“Vinyl, get back here! I was nowhere near done!”
“But look at the time!”
“You’re blind! That doesn’t even work with you! We’ve still got two hours before we even have to leave here!”
“Well, uh, your mom!”
“Quite mature, Vinyl. Get back into the bathroom.”
“Make me. Oh, horseapples.”
“You asked for this, Vinyl.”
“Help.”
****Time****
“There, now isn’t that much better?”
“Did you have to use the fruit-scented stuff?”
“Would you prefer that I dyed your mane pink?”
“Fruit’s good. I like fruit.”
“That’s what I thought. You know where your seat is?”
“Usual place, right?”
“Yes. Just try not to annoy every single noble near you this time, please?”
It would be so easy. Just drop the information out the window. She knew that one of their lackeys would be waiting, watching. And then she would never have to fear for her career, or her family ever again. Jet Set and Upper Crust were truly among the worst of the worst when it came to Canterlot nobles.
Fleur was just a model. A very successful one, thanks to her alicorn-like structure, but ultimately just a model. But she had to play the terrible social game, and somehow, she’d been pressed into helping Jet Set and Upper Crust. And were she doing this to anypony else, she probably wouldn’t have hesitated.
But this was Fancy Pants she was doing it to. Her coltfriend, her special somepony, as cliché and terrible as that sounded. Maybe even her fiancée, if she had been reading his mood right, and she dearly hoped that she had, because she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him. It wasn’t right. Fleur knew that the information that they had asked for wouldn’t destroy Fancy. But he would owe them a favour, and Fleur de Lis knew that they would collect eventually.
Fleur’s eyes tightened, and her horn lit up with a pink glow, snapping the window shut, and shoving the documents into a set of saddlebags that were laying by the door. Slipping them on, she exited her Canterlot apartment, and began the trek through the snow-laden streets toward the train station. Fancy was in Manehatten this week, and Jet and Upper knew it.
They thought that because she was unable to contact him that she would fold beneath their demands. But Fleur de Lis had not become the most successful model by being a pushover. And Jet Set and Upper Crust would soon learn what it was like to be on the receiving end of the unpleasant kind of social manipulation.
********
Fancy glanced up from his novel at the knock on his door. He hadn’t ordered anything, and it was far too late for housekeeping. Slipping his monocle in, he strode over to the door, and opened it.
“How may I help-Fleur?” he asked, staring at the model, who appeared ready to collapse, “what in the blazing devil are you doing here? You look like you ran from Canterlot through the snow to get here. No, never mind. Come inside, dear, you must be freezing.”
“Th-thank you, F-Fancy,” chattered Fleur, following after the stallion. It was only once she was seated in front of the fireplace in the room and had a warm cup of cocoa held in her magic that Fancy asked her what she was doing here.
“It’s about Jet Set and Upper Crust,” she said, watching as Fancy’s face crinkled up in disgust, “they are blackmailing me into giving them some compromising information on you.”
“And so what are you doing here, dear?”
“Not giving it to them. I have it with me. And Fancy?”
“Yes, dear?”
“I am terribly sorry if this is inappropriate, but I do want to say it. I want to wake up next to you every day. I want you to be mine, and if that is selfish, then let me be selfish.” Fancy was silent for a while, before his horn lit up, and a small package floated out of a side room.
“I had intended to give this to you when I returned, but given what you just said, I doubt that you’ll object to having it a little early,” said Fancy, passing the box to Fleur’s magical grip. She pulled open the box, and found a single, unadorned ring.
“Fleur de Lis, would you do me the great honor of letting me be your stallion, for now and for the future?”
“Of course, Fancy,” cried Fleur, tossing herself into Fancy’s embrace. In the morning, they would work out how to deal with the horrid ponies in Canterlot, but for now, it was just them.
There were three Rainbow Dashes, Rarity had decided. It was the only way that she could reconcile all the conflicting aspects of Rainbow’s personality.
The first Rainbow Dash was the red one. All speed, all the time. The outside persona that she unconsciously and constantly projected to the world. That Rainbow Dash was the one that charged at dragons to protect her friends, who threw herself into impossible stunts to save her, the Rainbow Dash who was the self-proclaimed Best Flyer in Equestria, and who could actually make a decent case for that to be official. Red Rainbow Dash was unquestionably loud. She made sure that everyone in the room was aware that she was here, and that whenever possible, all eyes were on her and her alone.
The yellow Rainbow Dash Rarity saw whenever Rainbow and Pinkie got together to go pranking. She was playful, and a little childish, but Rarity didn’t mind so much. She carried a laugh in her eyes and a smile in her heart. She flittered about and acted innocent, though Rarity knew who had really come up with the idea to put green dye in her shampoo that one time. Yellow Rainbow Dash was a child, mischevious, but not malicious, and she often left trails of laughs in her wake.
The last Rainbow Dash was the blue one. Nopony except those close to Rainbow saw her this way if she could help it. This was the Rainbow Dash that snuggled up to Rarity in the dark nights and whispered her fears about the next day, or what would happen when she was finally forced to move away. The blue Rainbow was no less loyal or courageous than the red one, but she was certainly less open. This was where Rainbow put her fears and doubts. And every time that Rarity felt Rainbow’s wings wrap around her during the night, Rarity could only hug her back and whisper small nothings and reassurances that everything would be alright.
And it was these three Rainbow Dashes that made designing a dress for Rainbow Dash such a challenge for Rarity, because she never knew what colour to use for the dress. There was only so much that she could do with a rainbow scheme, after all. And Rainbow Dash also had a habit of looking utterly fantastic in anything that Rarity put on her, which did not help.
Though that may have been because Rarity couldn’t ever entirely stop thinking about the body that lay under the clothes she put on it.
Once, there was a dragon. A young thing, a hatchling by most dragon standards. This dragon claimed a mountain for himself. The mountain was nowhere near any contested territories, and nor was it part of another’s. He simply flew in and claimed it.
For years, the dragon amassed a horde, impressive in size and scope. Jewels the likes of which have never been seen since, mountains of tinier gemstones and trinkets that were ultimately worthless, but they were his. In time, and once he was older and more established, the dragon sought out a mate. He found a dragoness that was to his liking, and in the traditional manner, took her as his prize. But yet, the dragon was still young and foolish, and he had taken a dragoness to which another had laid claim to.
Battle ensued. The heavens were filled with fire and noise as the two competing dragons, both young and idiotic, fought over a female. Eventually, the dragon from the mountain won, strangling the life from his opponent. And once more taking the dragoness, he left, returning to his mountain peak to tend his wounds.
In time, the dragoness found her way to his peak, and there, in the depths of mountain winter, she gave birth to a clutch. And in the depth of winter, the dragon laid down for the Long Sleep, his tail trailing out from the cave and down the mountainside. And he slept, and slept, and when he awoke again, there was no sign of the dragoness, nor his potential offspring.
He took to the air, but was pulled back when he discovered that his tail had been frozen to the side of his mountain. It took three days to melt the ice, but even then, chunks of it remained frozen into his tail.
He flew off into the world, marvelling at his new size and strength. His wings obscured the sun. He searched the world for the one who bore his seed, and he found her, deep in the southlands. His offspring were there, too. And for a time, the dragon from the mountain lived with them. He taught his young the things that dragons needed to know; how to fly and hunt, how to exhale flame. And though he spent many years with them, each winter, the ice in his tail grew thicker, though no snow fell.
But the dragoness was in hostile, and contested territory. The older dragons that lived in the area were willing to tolerate a single dragoness and three young drakes. They took umbrage with a full-grown dragon. And thrice, they attacked the Mountain Dragon. Thrice they were thwarted, sent spiralling to the earth below as corpses. The ones that remained were content for a while, but then they too, wanted the mountain dragon gone.
And so, they attacked the dragoness while the Mountain Dragon was hunting. They killed her, fed her body to their own young, and did the same to the Mountain dragon’s offspring. And when the Mountain Dragon returned from his hunt, the dragons of the region ganged up on him, and forced him to fly north once more.
The Mountain Dragon, upon reaching his mountain peak, found that in his absence it had been invaded by a lesser drake. The Mountain Dragon engaged the young drake, and whether by accident or intent, caused the winds around the peak of the mountain to whip into a freezing blizzard to aid in his struggle, for the Mountain Dragon was large, and strong, but lacked the speed and agility that he once possessed. And the ice in the Mountain Dragon’s tail grew larger in the cold winds.
The drake escaped with his life, and the Mountain Dragon found that he had grown too large for his old cave, and so dug his claws into the stone of the mountain, wrapped his wings around himself and the peak, draped his tail around the mountain, and laid his head upon the peak of the mountain itself for his sleep. It was profoundly uncomfortable, but the dragon slept.
And the ice upon the dragon’s tail grew thicker and thicker as the dragon slept, freezing it to the mountainside. Snow built up on his wings and back. And the world moved on.
When the dragon next awakened, he felt distinctly different. There was no pull for a horde, nor to hunt for food. Despite the dragon’s tail having frozen to the mountain once more, there was no desire for him to pull it free. And when his eyes spotted the dragons making their way for the Migration, there was no pull for him to join it.
And yet, there was no pull to go back to sleep, either.
Once, there was a dragon who was cursed to move through time, and be unaffected by it, but doomed to watch everything else fall to its rigours. He saw his kin become little more than mindless beasts, losing everything that had made them dragonkin, and saw his world overtaken by brightly coloured ponies.
Once, a dragon made his nest upon a mountain, and dared to claim the world as his horde, and I was cursed for my arrogance, but the world is mine.
“She’s. An. Idiot,” grumbled Rainbow Dash, thunking her head into the trunk of the apple tree she was resting in with each word. “Seriously, how could Twilight Sparkle, the princess of eggheads, be this stupid?” Rainbow thunked her head against the apple tree a few more times for good measure.
Rainbow Dash was no genius, but she was observant. Heck, she was nothing if not observant. That was why she was the first one to know that Pinkie Pie had serious hots for Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. And it was why Rainbow knew that Fluttershy also loved Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle. Before even Rarity knew, even. Flutters might have been able to hide her feelings from everypony else, but Rainbow had known Fluttershy for a long time.
And sure, with a little nudge on her part, she had managed to get Pinkie and Flutters to try out a relationship. A relationship that the two were pretty happy in, and had lasted a few years now. Rainbow paused in her head-thunking for a second.
“I’m more like Rares than I thought. Dammit,” she muttered, thudding her head back into the tree. But even though Pinkie and Fluttershy were both together now, Rainbow could tell from how Pinkie Pie still went out of her way to visit Twilight every day, or the way that Fluttershy listened a little more closely when Twilight started to talk about magic that her friends feelings for the egghead hadn’t gone away.
So, with a little help from Rarity, (okay, the entire thing had been Rarity’s idea) she’d managed to get the two of them to confess their mutual attraction to Twilight to each other, at least. But then came the problem of Twilight Sparkle herself.
After much coaxing on Rarity’s part, Fluttershy had agreed to give a threesome a try, provided Twilight was willing. Pinkie had needed no convincing. And for the last month, Rainbow had been dropping hints left, right and center.
“Say, Twilight, I think I remember hearing Pinkie and Flutters needed some help out at Fluttershy’s. Maybe you could go and help satisfy them?”
“Hey, Twi, you have any wild stories from Canterlot?”
“Twilight, Pinkie was telling me about this weird thing yesterday called a ‘triple layer’ that she wanted to try out. She really wanted you to help her out, and she’s already got Fluttershy in for it.”
“Hey, egghead, Pinkie and Fluttershy were wondering if you’d like to play some three-way chess with them in Flutters’ cottage.”
That last one was what had Rainbow banging her head into one of Applejack’s trees, because Twilight had gone over to Fluttershy’s. And. Played. Chess.
Rainbow slumped down with a sigh, her back against the trunk of the tree. It wasn’t like Twilight didn’t have any feelings for Pinkie or Fluttershy, either. That, Rainbow could have understood. No, Twilight Sparkle was being an idiot because Rainbow could tell that Twilight felt something for both Pinkie and Fluttershy. Seriously, the way Twilight always spoke a little softer around Fluttershy, or that grin and roll of the eyes whenever Pinkie Pie decided to invade the library with noisemakers? Totally like-beyond-friendship. Even Applejack thought so, and Applejack was the least romantic pony that Rainbow knew.
Rainbow was running out of ideas. Right now, she was down to flying up to Twilight and straight up telling her that ‘Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are both in love with you,’, or getting Twilight drunk and throwing her through Fluttershy’s window on a Thursday night. Because really, what normal pony couldn’t pick up on the signals that Rainbow was sending, and who would seriously pass on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy? Especially when they were willing?
Rainbow sighed.
“I’ll give that egghead idiot one more chance, then it’s ‘throw her through a window’ time,” she muttered to herself, flying off towards Ponyville proper.
*******
She found Twilight Sparkle reading, naturally. Using her keen observation skills, Rainbow could pick out that the book was ‘Fluctuations in the Quantum Magic Field and You.’ Total egghead stuff.
“Hey, Twilight!” said Rainbow, swooping down for a landing, and barely kicking up any dust in the process.
“Hi there Rainbow,” said Twilight, looking up from her book, “I was just doing some leisure reading. Is there anything you wanted?”
Rainbow thought for a second, before deciding that she’d try the direct approach first.
“Look, Pinkie and Fluttershy wanted me to tell you something.”
“Oh? What is it, Rainbow?” asked Twilight, snapping her book closed.
“They’re kind of both in love with you. They want to, if you want to, try out a three-way relationship.”
Pegasus stared at alicorn. Twilight Sparkle broke the brief silence by smiling and shaking her head.
“Nice prank, Rainbow. Where’s Pinkie Pie? Seriously, how could either of them be in love with me? I’m just a pony, and not all that special.”
Rainbow sighed.
“For somepony so smart, you’re such an idiot, Twilight,” said Rainbow, deciding on a course of action, because that was what Rainbow Dash did. She got stuff done. Screw getting Twilight drunk. Rainbow launched forward, her hooves wrapping around Twilight’s barrel, and taking wing in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. On the way, she spotted Pinkie Pie on her way there. With a swoop, Rainbow scooped Pinkie off her hooves, and flew as fast as she could towards Fluttershy’s.
Luckily, Rainbow knew that Fluttershy’s window was almost always open. Pinkie went first, tossed through the opening as she whooped with joy. Twilight Sparkle followed soon after.
“Talk!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the occupants, “or have sex, whichever! Just do something!”
The Invasion Of Cult Of The Sun? You want that story? Very well.
We’d heard rumours. Some fanatical, ancient cult had managed to sway or entirely replace the leadership of a distant country. Convinced that they and they alone deserved to rule the world. Of course, we dismissed them as rumours, fear mongering. It would hardly be the first time.
Then they invaded Griffhala. I remember seeing the reports. Chaos in the streets, the royal lines extinguished, panic and destruction on a scale like we had never seen before. She had wanted to go to war, right then and there. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and we held off.
It did not mean we did nothing. We called upon our ponies, at first only asking for volunteers, and the response was impressive. We trained them the best we could in preparation for what we knew was coming. The next logical leap from Griffhala was Equestria, after all. And when they came, we were ready for them.
They attacked in the middle of summer, when the ground was dry and ripe for the burning, and it was only then that we got our first look at our aggressors. They looked like ponies, but stripes patterned their bodies. They threw fire at us, at the ground, hoping to scare us, and proclaimed that the Sun’s Flame would cleanse the earth of us. And for a while, it worked. Our ponies had never before seen these kind of fanatical devotees, and their forms were both familiar and alien, and if there is one truly great weapon, it is fear. They cut a burning path right towards where my sister and I were camped, as if they knew us to be the leaders of Equestria.
They tore down my tent, demanded that we surrender to them, to be subservient to the glory of the Cult Of The Sun, that as long as the sun was in the sky, they would be unbeatable. And of course, they spouted the usual platitudes of not fearing me, or Equestria, and that their conquest was simply a matter of time. Honestly, it gets old after the first time you hear it.
“Is that so?” I remember saying, with a glance at my sister who rolled her eyes at me, “and what does your cult say about the night?”
They had been confused for a while, but eventually answered my question.
“The night is only necessary for the Sun to refuel her Glorious Fire. However, our shamans have forseen that with the taking of Equestria, the Sun shall no longer need this time, and can spread Her Glorious Fire all over the planet!”
I remember the next part very clearly, because it remains one of the few times that I have subverted the natural cycle-I was much more impulsive back in those days.
I lowered the sun. As I did so, I could see the slow looks of horror grow on their faces.
“The sun brings light,” I had said, “the night holds terror. You should not fear me.”
As the sun set behind the hills in the west, I finished the sentence.
“You should fear my sister.”
Yes, I did have a rather dramatic streak, but I learned quickly that a correctly applied piece of dramatism could avert wars far more easily than any treaty.
For her part, Luna performed admirably. She always was the more violent of the two of us. It only took her eighteen hours of night, under a full moon, to completely sever the invader’s supply chains and chase down their leaders.
Alone.
I have never seen her scythe look more disturbing than that night, when it dripped with blood with every step that she took.
And when the sun rose the next morning, I found Luna with the sharp edge of her scythe pressed up against the leader of the whole cult, the initiator of the whole invasion, stopping her from running any further.
“As I said,” I remember saying to her, “do not fear me. Fear my sister. I believe that you can change, that we can become allies. Luna disagrees. It is your choice which of us you deal with.”
To her credit, the cultist looked thoughtful for a while, before spouting some doctrine about how I was not the true guider of her Fire Spirit of The Sun, and then Luna cut her head off.
Yes, I think that war, as short-lived as it was, was the point at which the other countries started taking Equestria seriously. Well, it was certainly the tipping point, at any rate. That was when the others saw us less as ‘accidental guiders of the Sun and Moon’ and more ‘competent rulers and warriors.’
“Sincerely, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” muttered Cadance, signing her name with a flourish at the bottom of the scroll. With a glow of magic, she rolled it up, sealed it with a ribbon and her own personal seal, and levitated it to a growing stack on the table. She sighed, and levitated another peice of parchment over to start the next letter. As she did so, she winced as she felt the slight burning sensation in her horn that signified she was overdoing it a bit. Still, she had to get these letters done, even though Aunt Luna’s moon was high in the sky by this point.
“Cadence? Are you still up?” said Shining Armor, as he trotted into the room.
“I need to get these invitations done. I’m nearly done, Shining,” she muttered.
“Cadence,” said Shining, “you’re getting tired. I can barely read your writing.”
“I won’t be long.”
“Cadence,” said Shining Armor, pulling his wife-to-be out of the chair, “go to bed. You can worry about the wedding tomorrow. We still have months. Besides, you still have Twilight’s invitation to do, and if your writing is sloppy, she may not come to spite you.”
Despite her exhaustion, Cadence managed to muster up a smile. “She would not. She’ll come. The only way she wouldn’t come is if she was physically immobile, and even then, she’d probably teleport herself here.”
Shining Armor smiled, “Still, you know she’d want your writing to be perfect. She’s odd like that. Just this week, I heard how she made an entire town fall in love with a doll, so maybe she’ll not come to the wedding if your writing is sub-par.”
“Alright, you convinced me,” sighed Cadence, “these can wait until tomorrow. You go to bed. I’ll check everything’s locked up, and then I’ll join you up there.”
“Are you sure I don’t need to stay down here to make sure you don’t try and finish the invitations?”
“Promise, Shining. I’ll be right up,” said Cadence, a tired smile slipping back onto her face.
“All right,” said Shining, nuzzling Cadence, then trotting back up to bed.
Cadence sighed, and started going around to make sure that everything was locked up tight. With the threat against Canterlot, security had been heavily reinforced, and the whole thing was only being added to Cadence’s stress about the wedding.
Though she knew that Shining Armor was the pony that she wanted to marry, she wanted the whole affair to come off without a hitch. She wanted her storybook wedding, where the knight marries the princess and they live happily ever after.
As Cadence finished locking up the windows of her house, there was a knock at the door.
Cadence paused. Who, in the wide world of Equestria would be calling at this hour? At the second knock, Cadence let out another sigh, and tried to not make herself look so tired.
“I’m coming. Hang on a minute,” she called, crossing to the door, and unbolting it. Upon opening it, she was confronted with one of the Royal Guard.
“What is it?”
“Your Highness, I just came to tell you that there’s been a bit of a problem with the plans for your wedding. Princess Celestia sent me straight over as soon as she found out. First though, I must verify. Your full name, please.”
Princess Cadence sighed.
“I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, domain of Love, country in absentia. What’s the issue, sir?”
“Just that you won’t be there.”
There was a flash of green, and Cadence found herself staring at an exact doppelganger of herself.
“You’re a changeling,” hissed Cadence, her horn already firing up for a spell to expel the shapeshifter from the city. However, due to her sleep-deprived state, all she managed to do was give herself a terrible hornache, and collapsed on the ground in pain.
“Really, don’t make it too easy for me,” said the thing that was wearing her skin, “Oh well, off with you,” it said as green flames surrounded Princess Cadence and pulled her down, and somewhere out of sight, and out of mind. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza trotted upstairs, and settled in next to Shining Armor.
“Did I hear the door, just now?”
“Of course not, Shining. Let’s just get to sleep. I’m sure that our love will see us through whatever is coming up.”
“You bet,” murmured Shining Armor, drifing off to sleep. Mi Amore Cadenza followed, a devious smile on her face.
Octavia sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“As I’ve said, Vinyl, I am simply not interested in going. I don’t mind walking you to the door, or coming to get you at the end of the night, but I have no desire to try it out for myself,” she said.
“Please, Octy?” whimpered Vinyl Scratch, her lower lip wobbling, and her uncovered eyes bright and shining, and generally making herself look as adorable as possible.
“How are you even doing that?” grumbled Octavia, “you have no possible reference for it.”
“Practice,” said Vinyl, letting her face go back to normal. “So, will you?”
“The answer is still no, Vinyl.”
“Okay,” said Vinyl, shrugging, “cool. I can respect your choice. Still meeting me at midnight for the walk home?”
“Of course, Vinyl,” said Octavia, opening the door for Vinyl, “just please try not to get too drunk this time. Just because you can legally drink now doesn’t mean you should, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll dial it back a bit. Now come on, I wanna get there before the floor fills up. The DJ promised to tell me about his setup before the club got fully going,” said Vinyl as she basically ran out of the door, and Octavia sighed once more before closing the door, and following after her best friend.
*****
“Not even once, Octy?” asked Vinyl, “not even just one night?”
“Vinyl, it is classless, almost tasteless, music. It is music for the masses. There’s no real beauty to it like there is in classical music. I cannot imagine spending a night listening to it,” said Octavia, as she unpacked her cello, getting ready for her day’s practice.
“Well, yeah, I know that,” said Vinyl, “that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have worth, though.” Octavia glanced at Vinyl.
“Explain yourself, then,” she said.
“Kay, it’s like this, and I’m twisting it up a bit, but,” said Vinyl, sitting down on the couch, “we go to the Philharmonic to be wowed. We go because it reminds us that there are beautiful things in the world, that music is and always will be an artform in and of itself.”
Octavia nodded her agreement, waiting for the next part of Vinyl’s argument.
“Ponies go to clubs and stuff for release, is the best way I can put it,” said Vinyl, “it’s not meant to inspire heavy thinking or grand ideas. It’s about dancing until your hooves can’t hold you up, and then dancing some more. It’s about forgetting the world for a while, and all that exists is you and the beat and that’s something that ponies need, sometimes,” Vinyl Scratch shook her head, as if clearing her thoughts.
“That’s just my opinion, anyway. Could be wrong,” she said, getting off the couch and stretching her self out. “Well, I’m gonna go do some reading. Have fun with your practice, Tavi.”
“Vinyl, wait,” said Octavia, “perhaps I have been judging prematurely. I will concede to try out a club for one night.”
“Really?” said Vinyl, spinning around, “Oh, this is gonna be so awesome.”
“I do have a few conditions, however,” said Octavia, shoving her hoof into Vinyl’s mouth and Vinyl nodded. “Firstly, you will agree that if I do this, and still don’t like it, you are to never bother me about it again. Understood?”
Vinyl nodded.
“Secondly,” continued Octavia, extracting her hoof from Vinyls mouth, “I will concede that there is a certain attire that is associated with this activity. You have my permission to go wild, this and only this time.” Vinyl’s eyes shone, and before Octavia could register what had happened, her cello was safely on the ground, and she was being pulled toward the bathroom attached to their room.
Octavia could only wonder what she had agreed to subject herself to.
****Time****
“Well, that was interesting,” said Octavia, her mane streaked with red and blue and several glowsticks wrapped around her as she and Vinyl exited the club.
“Soo...?” asked Vinyl as they headed for home, the moon high in the sky. Octavia said nothing, simply staying on course. It was only when they finally reached the orphanage and were just about to go to sleep that Octavia answered Vinyl’s question.
“It was pleasureable, in its own way. I can understand the appeal, at least, and who knows? Maybe I will make the occasional trip there,” said Octavia, turning over so that Vinyl couldn’t see the exhausted, yet satisfied smile that formed on her face at the memory of the night of strenuous dancing.
The chair was uncomfortable, not at all like the one in her castle, Twilight had decided. That chair she could sink down into and read for hours in. Not that she would, because sitting in that chair carried with it all sorts of connotations, and despite it being the most comfortable thing in existence, Twilight didn’t like sitting in it unless she had to.
But this chair was uncomfortable, almost on purpose. Probably on purpose, actually. And the room was equally uncomfortable, even now, before anything had really happened in it. She looked to her left, and there were sitting the other three princesses. Celestia was to her immediate left, followed by Luna and finally Cadence. With a mild satisfaction, Twilight noted that all the chairs that she and the other princesses were sitting in were all of the same height and construction.
Twilight was brought out of her study of the chairs by Celestia quietly coughing and nudging her. She started, and saw the last of the ponies filing in. A gavel was banged, and the low hum of talk in the room died down. The elderly pony who had banged the gavel spoke up.
“We will now commence the session of Parliament, on this Tuesday, the first week of March, in the 1004th year A.B. The floor recognises Princess Celestia for her opening remarks.”
Twilight watched as Princess Celestia stood up and strode down to the open space in the centre of the room.
“Thank you. Today, members, I would like to draw your attentions to our relations with our neighbours, the Zebras.” As Princess Celestia talked, Twilight partly tuned her out. Celestia and Luna had explained this the night before-before Parliament began, each princess in attendance was given five minutes for an opening statement. These had two purposes. One was to make sure that the Princesses could push forward issues they felt strongly about, and the other was to remind the members of Parliament didn’t forget that the princesses actually ruled the country. Parliament was just there to debate things and make sure that all the regions had a chance to speak about the laws.
“Thank you, Princess Celestia. The floor now recognises Princess Luna for her opening remarks,” said the officiator, once Celestia had finished her speech.
“We thank you. Members, we would like to put forward that the state of training required by the Royal Guard is in dire need of review,” said Princess Luna. Twilight had also been assured that she did not have to attend every single Parliament meeting for as long as she was a Princess. Officially, she only needed to attend one per month-she had simply been asked to attend this one because, for the first time since her coronation, all four princesses of Equestria would be there.
“The floor recognises Princess Cadence for her opening remarks,” droned the officiator, and Cadence walked to the open space.
“Thank you. Members, I would like to bring your attentions to the planned expansions to the railway network, specifically the line which connects the Crystal Empire to the rest of Equestria.”
As Cadence talked, Twilight noted that each princess was remaining down on the speaking floor, and this too had been explained. Because none of the Princesses really wanted to sit through an entire Parliament session, they would exit for a while after Twilight’s opening speech, and decide who was going to stay for the duration of the session.
“Thank you, Princess Cadence,” said the officiator, “the floor now recognises Princess Twilight for her opening remarks.” Twilight stood up from her chair, and trotted down to the speaking area, and turned to face the officiator. She took a deep breath in, exhaled slowly, and then spoke.
“Thank you. Members, I would like to direct your attention to the funding of our magical research institutes, as they are barely receiving the funds to continue their work,” said Twilight, the steadiness of her voice surprising even her. Once she finished her short speech, Princess Celestia stepped forward once more.
“We, the four Princesses of Equestria, request permission from the floor to temporarily adjourn to decide the Princess-In-Attendance for the day.” At the sound of the gavel, Twilight followed the others to a side room, where Princess Celestia produced a coin.
“Flip for it?” she asked the room.
******
Outside, the ponies of Parliament waited with bated breath to see which princess would be taking up the seat of Princess-In-Attendance. While not having any official say in the descisions of Parliament, the Princess-in-Attendance could sway what decisions were made by purely being there, and was treated as the voice of all the princesses in highly disputed matters.
After several minutes, the Princesses exited, retook their positions on the floor, and Princess Celestia spoke.
“The Princess-in-Attendance shall be Princess Luna.” Several ponies sighed, others looked on the verge of panic, and Twilight Sparkle and the other Princesses smiled as Luna took her seat at the head of the room, glad that they didn’t have to all stay.
I could always tell when Fluttershy’s house burned down, ‘cause she’d come up to the farm an’ ask to stay while her animal friends helped rebuild the darn thing. And lookin’ at her, still half-covered in soot and with that wide-eyed look on her face, I could hardly say no, no matter how many times it happened.
I suppose that’s where we learned to like each other. Sure, we were friends, and it ain’t in my nature to turn away a friend in need, but we weren’t exactly close, if you get my meanin’. But we got to know each other a little better, and before I even knew it, she was just droppin’ round the farm, asking the darn beavers to move their dams further away from the apple trees. Without me askin’ and all.
And then, ‘fore I even knew what was happenin’, she somehow managed to muster up the courage to say that she liked me, and wanted to try being more than friends. Well, I thought about it long and hard, and told her that I’d give it a try. I was gettin’ pretty fond of her, and when she wasn’t being scared of everything, she was pretty nice. Didn’t hurt that she was downright pretty, either.
So we tried it, went real slow because it had been years since I had anything like this, and I was pretty darn sure she’d never done it before, but we tried it. Found out that we liked it, and kept going. Before I knew it, we were spendin’ every spare moment we could together. Didn’t matter if she was just watchin’ me buck apples, or if she asked me for help with the bunny counting, we just liked to spend time together.
Now, that ain’t to say we didn’t have our troubles. She was still frightened of darn near everythin’, and I’ll admit, I got frustrated with her. More than once. Said some things I’m gonna regret forever, ‘cause it darn near broke my heart to see her tear up and vanish back to her house. And everytime that happened, I’d have to suck up my darn pride an’ go and ask Rarity for help to get Fluttershy out of her darn house.
Turns out my mouth is really good at gettin’ me into trouble but ain’t so good at gettin’ me out of it. I don’t even remember what we were arguin’ about this time-probably some of her animal friends sneakin’ onto the farm and stealing the apples.
I remember saying that ‘if she couldn’t keep those darn varmints under control and off my trees, then we’re done,’. Like I said, my mouth’s good at getting me in trouble. And Fluttershy, she just teared right up and flew off like she always does. And like always, the minute I couldn’t see her, I realised what an idiot I was for saying stuff like that. But at the time, it was gettin’ late, and I thought that I’d wait for the night, give us, but mostly me, time to calm down, and then in the morning, I’d go see Rarity and get her help to wheedle Fluttershy out of her cottage so I could apologise for bein’ a boneheaded idiot again.
Of course, that night there was a darn lightning storm over the Everfree. Don’t know what really started the fire, if it was a lighting strike or some fool pony messing around with stuff they shouldn’t have. The next morning, I could smell the smoke, but the thought of Fluttershy didn’t even cross my mind until I was halfway into town. But when it did, I musta broken a record or two. I’d never run so darn fast in my life, prayin’ that Fluttershy was alright.
She never made it out.
I never got the chance to say this one last time, because a stupid darn fight.
“And with Fleetfoot rounding out the final group, that concludes our line up for the Wonderbolts Derby season. Any questions?” said Spitefire, looking out over the room of assembled Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash’s hoof was hovering in the air, and Spitfire ignored it.
“Right, dismissed. Have a good weekend, we start prep on Monday. Rainbow Dash, walk with me.” As the pegasi filed out, Rainbow followed after Spitfire as they walked down the corridors of the Wonderbolt headquarters.
“You want to know why you aren’t assigned to any of the derby teams, right Dash?” asked Spitfire.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m awesome at short distance sprints,” said Rainbow.
“And medium distance sprints, and with a little practice, long distance sprints and probably marathons with time. That’s exactly the problem, Rainbow. You’re too good,” said Spitfire.
“Too good?” asked Rainbow, her face scrunching up as she processed the statement.
“Look, Rainbow, flying the derby is a little different than our normal performances. The Derbies aren’t choreographed. They’re straight races, and we have to make them exciting for the ponies watching. And as amazing as your flight skills are,” explained Spitfire, “they’re much more suited to either solo performances or fully planned ones. If it makes you feel any better, it’s the same reason I don’t compete in the Derby. My special talent is sprint racing, so any short race I enter, I’m guaranteed podium finish at the least.”
Rainbow preened for a minute at Spitfire’s praise of her skills, but then she settled down and thought about what the captain had said.
“Yeah, okay,” said Rainbow, “I guess I can kinda see your point.”
“Don’t look so down, Dash. It’s not like you’re going to completely sit it out,” said Spitfire, a smile spreading over her face, “as a matter of fact, I have a very important job for you on Derby Day, so you’ll still get to wear the suit.”
“Seriously?” asked Dash, “I’m just a new recruit, and I get an important job?”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t be fair for you to be left out of all the action and have nothing to show for it,” grinned Spitfire, “when I joined, I got the same thing from the captain at the time.”
“Sweet!” grinned Rainbow Dash. She couldn’t wait.
******
“Please, for the love of Celestia, can this be over already?” grumbled Rainbow Dash to Spitfire as the announcer called out the competitors for the next race. “I’m pretty sure my hooves are going to fall off from so many hoofshakes.”
“Everypony does this at least once, Dash. I have to do it basically every time,” said Spitfire, snacking on the selection of food she’d swiped from the VIP area. Meanwhile, Rainbow tossed a few bits to a nearby vendor and picked up a bag of horseshoe fries and some chilli sauce.
“It still bites,” muttered Rainbow, tossing some fries into her mouth.
“Well, unless you can figure out a way to get the entire Canterlot Nobility to fund us every year without question, we’re stuck gladhoofing.”
“I thought you guys were funded by the treasury?” asked Rainbow
“Yes, but the real money comes from donations from the wealthy. You know, pay us to perform at stuff,” said Spitfire, “it’s that money that lets us run the Wonderbolt Academy more than once a year, among other things.”
****time****
“This still bites,” said Rainbow, scarfing down the rest of her horseshoe fries before crossing the rope that lead to the VIP area.
“It does, but every Wonderbolt does it at some point. Just happens that you’re probably going to get saddled with it during Derbies because you’re so awesome,” said Spitfire, flicking the last of the snacks into her mouth. “Now come on, I want to see if I can get Prince Blueblood to cry.”
“Is that why you’ve been eating everything onion and garlic based for the last ten minutes?”
“It’s the little things in this game, Dash. Take what you can get with regards to enjoyment,” said Spitfire.
The flight back down from Cloudsdale was largely silent. Of course, that was relative, as Pinkie Pie had never really stopped talking, but then again, Pinkie Pie never really stopped talking ever anyway. But Rarity was quiet, Twilight was deep in thought, and even the usually conversational Applejack was silent, and Rarity didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what the side-long glances she was getting meant.
She would need to apologise. Properly. She had been so supportive of Rainbow Dash, right up until her vanity had taken over her, and then she had turned into the worst kind of friend that she could imagine. Because, really, what other than a horrible friend went to support a dear friend in their home city at a competition that they had explicitly trained for and then tried to upstage them?
Rarity was still a whirl of thoughts when Twilight’s balloon touched down just on the outskirts of Ponyville. She bid her farewells to the others out of pure habit, and ingrained habit took her back home.
With a sigh, Rarity laid down on the couch in her showroom.
“My, what a mess I have made of myself,” she muttered, looking at the half-smeared makeup and torn dress that still draped off her. Rarity let herself wallow in her feelings for a while longer, then slid off the couch, and pulled the dress off her body.
She would likely never wear it again, and she would have loved to burn the terrible thing, but there were some interesting patterns in the dress that she would like to replicate at a later date, so it was safe for now. Dumping the dress on the floor, Rarity made her way upstairs to her bathroom so that she could wash off the excess makeup that she had applied for the Best Young Flier competition.
‘Tomorrow,’ thought Rarity, ‘I shall find Rainbow Dash tomorrow, and I shall apologise to her properly.’ With her mind made up on her course of action, Rarity settled down to sleep. The day had been long, after all, and she was tired, and she was sure that Rainbow Dash would be tired too, once she got back to Ponyville after spending a day with her idols. Yes, tomorrow would be good.
*****
As it turned out, tomorrow had not been a good day. Rarity could not find Rainbow Dash anywhere. She had checked with Fluttershy, but the poor dear hadn’t seen Rainbow since last night. Applejack hadn’t found Rainbow in any of her trees, Twilight Sparkle hadn’t seen her at all, and Rarity had even resorted to asking Pinkie Pie about Rainbow’s favourite training spots. That was what Rarity was currently checking, though only after dropping off the two kilograms of fudge that her friend had managed to sell her. How, in Celestia’s name, was Pinkie so persuasive when she was behind the counter?
Regardless, Rarity had checked most of Rainbow’s common training spots, and was now heading for the last, and most remote of them. And sure enough, Rarity could see a rainbow tail drooping out of a cloud that was hovering slightly higher than a pony could jump.
Rarity reached out with her magic, and gave the tail a sharp tug.
“Ow,” grumbled Rainbow Dash, sitting up on the cloud, “What gives? It’s my day off, and,” Rainbow trailed off when she saw who it was.
“Rainbow,” said Rarity, trying to phrase it as delicately as possible, “We should talk about yesterday.”
“Nah,” said Rainbow after a moment, “There’s nothing to talk about. You were being a prissy unicorn, I was awesome and saved you, you said sorry, and so we’re all good.”
“It is not that simple, Rainbow Dash,” said Rarity, as Rainbow went to lie back down on her cloud, “I nearly ruined your routine. I came into an event that you had worked so hard for, and I ruined it for you.”
“Rarity,” said Rainbow, glaring at the unicorn from her cloud, “I won the competition. I saved you. Far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it. You were being a bit of an idiot, but so was I, so we’re square.”
“You can’t just forgive ponies that easily! It’s not possible, not with something like this!” said Rarity.
“Sure I can,” said Rainbow, “I forgive you. I forgave you the second you were off my back in Cloudsdale, because I’m loyal to my friends. That means I stand by you, even if you’re being a prissy drama queen. The end.” Rainbow laid back down on her cloud, and in a few seconds, Rarity heard the rumbling and snorting of Rainbow Dash’s snores.
Rarity sighed, and began to make her way back to Ponyville. She may as well make a start on that fudge, even though she just knew it was going to ruin her figure. She missed how Rainbow Dash’s hoof slipped off the cloud in exactly the right way to break a piece of it and knock it towards Rarity.
She didn’t miss it when the piece of cloud hit her and discharged just enough lightning into her to make her mane frizz up, but when Rarity looked back, Rainbow was still fast asleep. Or at least, seemed to be. Rarity straightened her mane out to the best of her ability, and continued to walk back to Ponyville with a smile forming on her face.
Pinkie Pie wasn’t as silly as she seemed. She knew that not everything in the world could be fixed with the power of friendship, or by careful application of parties and far too much sugar. But she tried to not think about that, because she was still having a wonderful time in Ponyville with all of her friends.
Then Rarity moved away. It was only to Canterlot, and Pinkie and the rest of the elements made the effort to visit her at least once every two weeks. And for a while, that was fine. They were still friends, but Rarity had just had to move to help her business grow. She wasn’t really going to get a whole heap of clients living in Ponyville. Canterlot was much more centrally located, and Rarity had a much more expansive and expensive clientele on hoof, and Pinkie could hardly fault her for making a good business descision.
But then, as happened every year, Applebuck season rolled around, and with the workload, Applejack simply couldn’t spare the time to visit Rarity anymore. And once the rush of harvesting season died down, Applejack had simply not seen a whole lot of point in going up to Canterlot as often. Wasn’t her kind of town, she’d said at the time. And then, of course, Granny Smith had passed on, and Pinkie had given the Apples their space. And because Granny Smith had really been holding the farm together, Applejack had to pick up those reins. And that didn’t leave a whole lot of spare time for visiting friends.
Pinkie and the others tried to visit when they could, and Applejack always made sure that they were welcome at Sweet Apple Acres, but it wasn’t the same as all of them meeting in Twilight’s library for a sleepover, like they used to. Her friends, her dearest, bestest friends were drifting apart, and Pinkie knew that despite all the visits and trips that she was just putting a bandage over the things that were tearing them apart.
Pinkie knew that it would only be a matter of time. Rainbow Dash was getting ready to join the Wonderbolts any day now-really, she was just waiting on the final letter. Then she’d be gone, to places Pinkie Pie couldn’t always follow her, to places and skies far off and over the horizon.
Twilight, too. She was getting more and more work as she got more comfortable in her role as Princess, and while Pinkie really doubted she’d move out of Ponyville, she was staying in her shiny new crystal castle a whole lot more.
And Pinkie Pie knew that without her friends, Fluttershy would go back into her cottage, back to only conversing with animals most of the time, and only interacting with other ponies unless she absolutely had to.
Pinkie Pie wasn’t stupid. She could see the gaps forming in them, in their friendship, and she knew that no party, or cake, or ludicrous amount of sugar would fix this.
All she could do was hold on as tightly to those who remained as she could for as long as she could. They’d been together for a while, and now they wouldn’t be. It was just the way things were, as much as Pinkie wished otherwise. Rarity would become a famous designer, Dash would join the Wonderbolts, Applejack would work on the farm until she couldn’t walk anymore, Twilight would probably write a whole bunch about magic and be a fantastic Princess, and Fluttershy would just retreat quietly back into herself again.
And Pinkie, Pinkie was just a baker and party planner in Ponyville. Nopony special, not compared to some of the others. And maybe that was the way it was supposed to be.
“Oh, they do look so adorable together!” cried Rarity, though not too loudly. She had learned that lesson many times before. Across the table, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
“I told you, they aren’t dating,” grumbled Rainbow. She didn’t have lunch with Rarity often-they just didn’t have a whole lot in common. That said, Rainbow Dash knew everything that went on in Ponyville because she was always flying above it, and as such, Rarity liked to tap Rainbow Dash for gossip. Rainbow didn’t really care, but Rarity always paid for lunch, and Rainbow wasn’t going to pass up free food. She could think of worse ways to spend her lunch hour, and it wasn’t like she hated Rarity’s company.
“You’re simply missing the signs, dear. The way they try to ignore each other, how Fluttershy pretends that Pinkie annoys her sometimes, how Pinkie always tries to help her come out of her shell. It’s pure love, just bubbling under the surface, waiting for the right moment to burst forth!”
“First, ew,” said Rainbow Dash, taking a bite from her daisy sandwich, “second, ew, and third, I’m pretty sure that Pinks does actually annoy Fluttershy.”
“But how Pinkie refuses to play any form of prank on Fluttershy must surely be a sign of their secret relationship that they will not reveal to the world until Fluttershy feels they are ready, and it must surely be killing Pinkie inside that she cannot tell anypony about it,” wailed Rarity, drawing some unwanted attention from the tables nearby. As she apologised, Rainbow rubbed her nose into the crook of her forehoof.
“Trust me, Rare,” she said, “if Pinkie and Fluttershy were dating, I’d have noticed.”
“You may not have, Rainbow,” said Rarity, “after all, it is not as if you are the purest expert on romance. You may be interpreting the signs differently.”
“Like you’re any better,” snorted Rainbow,” Remember that time when you were convinced that I was in love with Applejack? Remember how that turned out?”
Rarity blushed. “In fairness, darling, you spent a lot of time around Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Yeah, because I was getting it on with Big Mac, not because I was staring at Applejack’s flank like you claimed.”
“I will concede that I was wrong about that instance,” ceded Rarity, “but I am not wrong about this. I can feel it.”
“You said that last time, too,” grumbled Rainbow.
“No, I am sure of it. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are simply hiding behind a veil of secrecy until it is torn back and reveals their beautiful relationship to the world! Oh, it will be so beautiful,” murmured Rarity. Rainbow Dash mimed being sick.
“You are such a boor, Rainbow Dash. Completely unable to appreciate the more subtle things in life. Why, I’d bet it would take a blow to the head for you to notice anypony in love with you.”
“Hey,” said Rainbow, “that is totally not true. I can always tell when somepony loves me! It just happens to be everypony, all the time.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “So you say.”
“I do say so! You know, I’ll bet you that I can name at least one mare who is totally in love with the Dash right now!”
“I’ll bet that you can’t!” said Rarity, and Rainbow smirked, leaned across the table, and whispered in Rarity’s ear. Rarity went bright red, coughed and then looked at everywhere except at Rainbow Dash for the rest of lunch, while Rainbow smirked in victory.
****Time****
Shortly after Rarity had departed in a rush, claiming that she had to attend to a dress, and Rainbow was just about to resume her afternoon practice, followed by her afternoon nap, she spotted Pinkie Pie.
“Hey, Pinkie!” cried Rainbow.
“Ooh, hey Dashie!”
“You going to Twilight’s again?” asked Rainbow, noting the direction that Pinkie was heading in.
“Yepperooni! She’s got some really neato books that she wants my help to unpack, and then we’re going to have sex!” said Pinkie. Rainbow, along with the rest of Ponyville minus Rarity, had determined a long time ago that Pinkie Pie basically had no shame when it came to intimacy.
“Well, have fun!”
“You know we always do!” cried Pinkie, as she dashed off towards the library.
“It is a statistical truth that thirty three percent of all ponies who are given access to world-changing abilities are actually evil.”
Twilight snorted, nearly sending her mouthful of water out of her nose. The dissertation she was reading, entitled ‘The Corruption and Temptations of Power’ was already pretty ridiculous, but this was just the icing on the cake. That said, she wasn’t quite sure if she was laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, or if because she knew it was true. Well, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but Twilight had experience with ponies being given huge amounts of power.
Trixie could hardly be called ‘evil’, after all. The most she’d ever done in her normal state was be a pony who made statements that her horn couldn’t back up. She definitely wasn’t evil. And even when she’d upgraded to the Alicorn Amulet, Twilight wasn’t sure that that counted-the Amulet was designed to corrupt, to twist the wielder’s mind. Even then, she’d been more of a nuisance. An all-powerful one, but hardly what Twilight would call ‘evil’. The whole time, Trixie had simply been content with proving her dominance over Twilight. Her taking Ponyville was her idea of baiting Twilight. No, Trixie, even at her worst, wasn’t really evil.
Sunset Shimmer, on the other hoof, might be an actual contender, mused Twilight. She’d definitely had a plan, no matter how horrible it was, to conquer Equestria. And turning into a she-demon had pushed her towards the evil side, but Twilight knew that there was a good, but misguided heart under Sunset’s attitude, and Twilight couldn’t help but see shades of herself in Sunset. Celestia had told her about Sunset’s time as the Princess’s former student, and Twilight recognised more than a few similarities with her own time under Celestia. As such, it was difficult for Twilight to entirely distance herself from Sunset, because it was like looking into the proverbial (and sometimes literal) mirror and seeing herself if she decided to rebel, if Celestia kept her from things that she wanted to learn without good reason.
But Twilight’s mind, for better or worse, was made up. Sunset wasn’t evil. Misguided, maybe. A little bad, sure. But nopony truly evil would ever seek redemption with the ferocity that Sunset had. The poor girl was clinging to any hope she had of anyone treating her normally one day, and Twilight could see that same, deep-seated fear of disappointing the Princess that came with being a student of Celestia.
Twilight let out another giggle as she thought about her other friends and foes. The very idea of her friends, the Elements of Harmony being evil was ludicrous. They were helping to bring the world back into balance. And most of the trials she’d faced in the time since that Summer Sun Celebration had not been truly evil.
Tirek was definitely evil, there was no question about that. But now, he was locked away in Tartarus, and Discord had certainly been evil, but again, he had switched his ways so many times that Twilight was utterly unsure of how to treat the draconequus.
With a final laugh, Twilight levitated the ridiculous dissertation back onto her shelf in her castle, and headed out to meet her friends. They’d been very busy for the last few months, making sure that everything was nice and balanced.
After all, harmony was important. So very, very important.
Everything had to be harmonious and ordered. Ever since her ascension and subsequent coronation to princess, Twilight felt like she could just reach out and touch the universe and tell it to all be nice and ordered and in perfect harmony, but life was chaotic by nature. It would be so much easier if she could just cast a spell and stop the universe, and force it to be ordered. Twilight made a mental note to look to see if there was such a spell. She could probably cast it-she was an alicorn now. If she wanted, she could probably move the sun , and eventually the moon, with a little practice.
It wasn’t evil to want the universe to be ordered. The universe could do with a bit more order. Though she probably wouldn’t bring this idea to order the universe up to her friends. They might take it the wrong way.
Still, she had a lunch to get to. Twilight trotted down the streets of Ponyville, smiling at those she passed.
The griffon panted. He’d been running since the height of the day, and the moon was rising into the sky. He’d been pursued by the guards in the golden armour for most of that, but there was a reason that he had been chosen for this mission. He’d known that it would come to this. Fortunately, griffons were far more suited to long distance flight than the ponies, and that had been his saving grace thus far.
Ever so carefully, he allowed himself a moment of celebration, slipping the cloth off the artefact that he’d stolen from the Canterlot vaults. Perhaps, with this, the Great King would finally be able to make the ponies bow down and recognise the superiority of the Griffon Empire. He was just a soldier who dabbled in thievery-he didn’t know what the thing was, and he didn’t need to know. He had been surprised that both of the Princesses had been in the castle-his contact had said that they would both be away, dealing with some local lord. Still, it would only add to his reputation, stealing this thing from under their very noses.
He’d have to leave at first light in order to outrun the ponies chasing him, but for now, they were resting, and he would need to do the same. A moment later, he was curled up in a fork of a branch, breathing light. Above him, the full moon spread its soft light over the earth.
******
“You cannot escape.” The voice was imperious, commanding. The griffon looked around. He certainly wasn’t in the same forest that he had laid down in. Perhaps some unicorn trickery was at work. As mist swirled around his talons and paws, he heard the beating of wings.
“Show yourself, cowardly pony! I am not afraid of your magic tricks!”
“As you wish, thief,” said the voice, and out of the mists stepped the blue princess. Somehow, she looked bigger than he remembered here. “Relinquish the artefact, and you will be given leave to return to your home. Keep it, and we shall be forced to take measures.”
“You can come and take it from my cold, dead talons, princess,” spat the griffon. The blue alicorn sighed, and turned to trot back into the mists surrounding them.
“We warned you,” she said, just before she vanished. Then the ground under the griffon’s mismatched feet vanished. He fell, his wings suddenly useless, and then he was drowning in a pool of water. Sharks began to close in, and as the first one took a bite, he closed his eyes and screamed.
When he dared open his eyes again, he was back in the forest. Obviously, some fancy magic was at work here. The moon still shone bright overhead, and with what stars he could see, he could navigate his way home.
Except that there was not a single constellation that he could recognise. Nothing in the sky was the same twice. He would blink, and the patterns would change.
“You cannot escape,” whispered the blue alicorn, into his ear. He hadn’t even heard her approach, but with reflexes born of a lifetime of training, he lashed out, catching only air.
“You cannot run,” she whispered again, her breath hot on the back of his feathered neck. Again, he whipped around, finding only mist.
“We offered a chance to survive. Now, you will be hunted in the day by our guards, and during the night,” another swipe with his talons, and another miss.
“You will be hunted by us, in our domain. We have exhausted our capacity for mercy,” whispered the alicorn, and he swung one last time, and grinned when he felt his talons dig into flesh. Then the mists cleared, and he saw that his talons were dug deep into a perfect replica of himself.
And from behind, he felt the alicorn’s breath whisper over his feathers.
“Struggle, and run. It pleases us to see your futile attempts fail.”
The griffon ran, the alicorn’s laughter echoing through the forest on his tail.
****Time****
The next morning, the pursuing royal guards found a shivering wreck of a griffon, curled into a ball, muttering ‘can’t sleep, she’ll find me. Can’t sleep, she’ll find me,’ Over and over again. The artefact was resting by his side, so the guards took it and the griffon back to the Palace of the Two Sisters.
Meanwhile, Princess Luna walked around the castle with an odd smile on her face, and only her sister knew what it meant.
Applejack sighed as she pulled the sales cart to a stop in the central market. There was always a commotion over at Sugarcube Corner. She could hear the noise from where she was going to set up the cart. While Applejack was as fond of Pinkie Pie as much as the next pony, there were times when she went a little overboard. As nopony seemed to be in the market, Applejack decided that she may as well make sure that Pinkie wasn’t being a complete fool.
The sweet smell of fresh-baked cupcakes and cakes wafted through the half-open door of Sugarcube Corner as Applejack approached, along with the muted noise of polka, Pinkie’s usual party music. However, the usual hubbub that surrounded a Pinkie Pie event was absent. There was no sounds of conversation, no laughter, nothing.
This had Applejack worried. The last time that Pinkie Pie had been this quiet, Rainbow would not stop talking about piles of rock and a bucket of turnips.
Applejack pushed open the door.
“Pinkie Pie, you mind tellin’ me what in tarnation is,” began Applejack. She never got any further because at that point, a pie tin filled with cream slapped into her face.
Silence pervaded the entire bakery, despite the ongoing polka music. Slowly, ever so slowly, the pie tin slid off Applejack’s face. It clattered to the floor, and with just as slowly, Applejack reached up with a foreleg and wiped some of the cream off. Then, with the same, deliberate slowness, she pulled her hat off and tossed it onto a nearby table.
Applejack looked around at the gathering of ponies, what seemed like nearly the entire town, and they stared back.
In a gap between tracks on Pinkie’s record of Polka music, Applejack heard it. A giggle, and a snort.
That was all she needed. Applejack pounced, grabbing the pie tin filled with cream from the table where she’d put her hat. She barrelled through the throng, and slapped her own cream pie into Pinkie’s face.
Pinkie just giggled. And as if that was the signal, everypony threw their own cream pies at other ponies.
It wasn’t until the end of the day, that the pie war stopped. It ended with Twilight Sparkle, of all ponies, simultaneously slapping five pies into the faces of her fellow Elements of Harmony. Across the town of Ponyville, everypony collapsed into laughter. Laughter without any real reason, or cause beyond spending a day of fun. For a moment, nopony remembered that nopony had sold anything, or made anything, or that later, they would have to clean up the town, but for the moment, nopony cared.
“Pinkie Pie,” said Applejack, once she managed to stop laughing so much, “you are a darn fool sometimes, you know that?”
“Everypony loves good pie in the face sometimes!” said Pinkie, in between snorts of laughter.
“I know there’s another pie I’d like to have in my face,” muttered Rainbow Dash. Or at least, Applejack thought it was Rainbow Dash. It was difficult to tell under the cream.
“Ooh, Dashie, are you proposing what I think you’re proposing?” asked Pinkie. Meaningful looks were exchanged around the immediate area of all who had heard Rainbow Dash’s quip. Shrugs happened, and even Fluttershy nodded, though she went bright red.
“Alright,” grumbled Applejack, “I think we can all agree that me bringin’ the last barrel of the proper-fermented cider was not my best idea.” Four of the five other ponies in Pinkie Pie’s room nodded.
“May need to use an eighteen-fold four dimensional matrix for the resonant frequency of the construct,” mumbled Twilight Sparkle, who remained asleep and drooling on Pinkie’s floor.
“...anyway,” said Rainbow Dash, “what exactly happened? Last thing I remember is totally out-drinking AJ.”
“You passed out less than a minute after me!” objected Applejack. Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at the farmer.
“Could you please not be so boorishly loud?” said Rarity, “The light is making this hard enough.” While Applejack and Rainbow Dash lowered their voices, and went back into their argument about which of them had won their drinking contest, Rarity closed her eyes, and searched her throbbing head for any memory of what had happened last night. She clearly remembered Applejack turning up with the barrel, but everything after that was a complete blur. Only flashes of colour really remained, and the most prominent was...
“Oh dear,” said Rarity, getting the attention of everypony conscious upon her, “I seem to remember kissing something blue.” As one, everypony turned to Rainbow.
“I do not remember that. At all.”
“Cannot use Lapony’s Expansion. Must have physical result,” drooled Twilight. For a moment, everypony stared at their friend.
“Well, um, I kind of remember Pinkie Pie leaning out the window and yelling to ponies on the street,” said Fluttershy, “with, um, her record player as loud as it could go.”
“I thought we’d moved to a bar by that point!” said Pinkie Pie, by far the least hung-over of the group. Not that she could remember much either, but she wasn’t hung-over, to the immense annoyance of everypony conscious.
“We never left Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy.
“Well, that explains why Mister Cake slipped a notice for ‘disturbing the peace’ under my door earlier,” said Pinkie Pie, completely unrepentant.
Eventually, the group came to a consensus that what happened the previous night was to never be spoken of again. Not that they knew what had actually happened beyond vague guesses.
This settled, they got to work on more productive and useful things-like making sure that Twilight woke up before noon and could walk home.
It was a lovely morning in Ponyville. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and it was generally looking like it was going to be a nice day.
Twilight Sparkle was walking with Rarity through the Ponyville market when Fluttershy arrived in town. Twilight Sparkle knew this because Fluttershy was riding a giant scorpion.
“Fluttershy,” called Twilight, “why are you on a giant scorpion? Don’t you know how dangerous they can be?”
“Oh, he’s just the biggest sweetie! He’s not dangerous at all!” enthused Fluttershy, lying flat on the scorpion’s back and attempting to give it a hug. The giant scorpion made deep and imposing scorpion noises, and one of its claws took out a stand selling cherries.
“Why is it that Fluttershy is scared of leaving her house but she has no problem riding a giant scorpion?” asked Twilight Sparkle, while Fluttershy continued to coo over the giant scorpion. Rarity didn’t answer, because she’d already fainted.
Twilight Sparkle sighed. And it had looked like it was going to be such a peaceful day, too. Now she had to try to convince Fluttershy that Ponyville town square was not the appropriate place for her to leave a giant scorpion. This would not end well.
******
It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle was talking with Applejack in the market area of Ponyville, having already bought a bushel of apples from her friend.
It was in the middle of Applejack making a casual joke about Twilight’s book obsession that Twilight noticed the first spider staring up at her from Applejack’s stand.
Then Fluttershy arrived on a living wave of spiders, and Twilight slapped a hoof across her forehead.
“Fluttershy, ponies usually don’t like finding a spider, let alone seeing that many of them,” said Twilight, as the spiders deposited her right beside Twilight and Applejack.
“But they’re just so adorable!” said Fluttershy. One of the spiders nuzzled her, and made spider noises.
“Sugarcube,” said Applejack, “you gotta tell the spiders to go back to where you found ‘em, or this ain’t gonna end well for anypony.”
******
“And so I said to him, ‘Soufflés are pure evil, because you never know if they’re going to stay up long enough. Kind of like stallions,’” said Pinkie Pie, as she floated beside Twilight Sparkle. The pink pony was kept a few inches off the ground by a small number of balloons. “He went all red after that, and then he didn’t speak to me again.”
“Pinkie! That’s not exactly the sort of thing you should probably say in public!” cried Twilight Sparkle. It was another brilliant morning in Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle was heading through Ponyville after a rare breakfast at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie. Overhead, the weather patrol was clearing the clouds.
All of a sudden, Pinkie twitched and spasmed.
“OoOh! Pinkie sense!”
“What does this one mean?” asked Twilight.
“I have no idea!” said Pinkie, but as Twilight opened her mouth to reply, Pinkie continued, “but I think it means you should probably give me a push that way and then run.”
Twilight looked in the direction that Pinkie had pointed, and heard only a constant hiss. Then she realised what the hissing was, and shoved Pinkie towards it, and took off in the other direction.
“Hi Fluttershy!” said Pinkie Pie, once she got close enough to the pegasus, “you should probably take your snakes around the outside of Ponyville. One of them might get stepped on or something, and nopony wants that. It could end badly.”
“But they’re just sweet little things!” protested Fluttershy, as an anaconda that weighed more than she did wrapped around her in a playful nuzzle.
****Time****
Twilight Sparkle woke up in her new castle, and glanced out the window.
It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. Certainly, the morning was almost shimmering. It was the kind of morning that almost invited musical numbers.
Twilight Sparkle grumbled something about correlation and causation, and went back to bed.
Beautiful mornings in Ponyville never ended well for her.
“No, there’s five seasons here, Twilight. Not four,” said Sunset Shimmer, as the two trudged through the ankle-high snow around Canterlot High.
“Really, what’s the fifth?” asked Twilight.
“It doesn’t really have a formal name, but it does go by the name ‘F***ing Winter’. It’s like winter, just worse,” explained Sunset, as she opened the door to Canterlot High.
“Really,” deadpanned Twilight.
“Yeah. Turns out that our bodies here aren’t as adapted to dealing with cold as well as they are in Equestria.”
“And what are the signs of this mysterious fifth season?” said Twilight, still not believing it.
“Oh, that’s easy,” said Rainbow Dash, rushing up from behind and wrapping her arms around Twilight and Sunset,
“Applejack puts on pants and a jacket.”
“I hardly think that a season can be described by one person’s attire.”
“Trust me,” said Sunset, “it can.”
*****
Two days later, while everyone else was rugged up with scarves and jumpers galore, Applejack was still wearing a t-shirt and denim skirt, and laughing at everyone else.
Twilight swore under her breath, though nobody could tell, as he mouth was muffled by three scarves (only one was from Rarity).
The next night, the temperature dropped even lower, and more snow was predicted, and the next morning, Applejack arrived at Canterlot High wearing pants for once, and a jacket. As Twilight and Sunset watched, she swept into the main hall of Canterlot High, all the while muttering ‘F***ing winter.’
“Told you,” said Sunset Shimmer.
That night, Twilight went back through the portal to Equestria and blissful, blissful summer.
Sit down. Lemme tell ya a story, kid. I grew up in Ponyville, right? You already knew that, I know, but it’s kinda important, ‘cause you know who else was in Ponyville the same time I was?
Rainbow-freaking-Dash.
Yeah, I was pretty much the same around her. Heck, most of the fillies and colts treated her like that. She even had a fanclub. She was just awesome. She’d pull turns that would make every other pegasus in town look slow, and I ain’t gonna lie-she was a big thing for me. There’s a lot of her early style in my stuff, kid. To me, she was the ultimate, what every pegasus should be measured against.
But for a sec, I want you to picture yourself in my horseshoes. Dash is this fantastic, amazingly confident pegasus, who even to a filly like me, is clearly the best flyer in the entire town. Okay, got that? Now imagine that you can’t fly.
Yeah, I was late coming into my growth. Docs explained it-something about my bones and muscles means I can’t take off or really fly. Give me a high enough point and I can glide just enough to make it look like I’m just falling gracefully, and thermals help some, but I can’t fly like most. Point is, there was nothing more I wanted than to be like Rainbow. Or even just to have her notice my practice and say ‘hey, good job’ or something. Or she’d come by and give me flying lessons until I was soaring up there beside her. Basic stuff, you know, but when you’re not getting anything, even that seems like everything.
Point is, what I wanted was attention from her. I’d gotten this image of her as a cool older sister, and she sort of acted like that to most of the fillies and colts in Ponyville anyways. Thing was, once she actually started paying attention to me, I started not caring so much that I couldn’t fly. And that lead me to discover my real talent, instead of trying to be like Rainbow Dash. But let me tell you, coming as a voice of somepony who’s been where you are right now, there are two things you should know.
One, it’s great to have role models, and I’m flattered that I’m yours, but I ain’t the greatest thing since ever. I screw up, you know. Most of the time it’s my own stupid fault, too. I’ve lost just as many competitions as I’ve won from me forgetting the darn rules.
And two, I know you’ve got parents, kid. Talk to them. You said that they didn’t get you, and sure, they may not get everything, but you can bet they can understand a whole lot of stuff you didn’t think they could. I can see you’re kind of like I was-nopony pays attention to you, so you act out, see me as this awesome pegasus who overcame difficulty, and while that’s true, most of that came after I pulled my head out of the sand about what I could and could not do.
Basically, stop wishing your talent is something like your idols’. I’m me, and you’re you. If it turns out that you have a talent in the kind of stuff I do, then hey, we might see each other out there one day. But you shouldn’t force yourself to do stuff that you want a cutie mark in, and just do what you actually like.
Take it from a pegasus who spent too many afternoons washing tree sap out of her feathers, it’s only worth it about half the time.
Now go on, kid. I think that’s your parents over there, and have a think about what I told you.
The morning air was still, and the chill of winter was still hanging around in the air. Mornings like these were some of Applejack’s favourites. There were a few ponies up and about already, but that wasn’t too surprising. Ponyville, as Granny Smith liked to say, had started as a farming town. In many ways, it still was. As such, a number of ponies got up with the sun, Applejack being one of them.
With Winter Wrap-up being only a few weeks behind them, Applejack didn’t have the sales cart with her this morning. Instead, she was heading for Barnyard Bargains, to pick up some supplies for some basic repairs to both their homestead and one of their barns.
That was when the shriek shattered the illusion of Ponyville being a nice, peaceful community, and Applejack sighed, and headed for Carousel Boutique.
“Gosh darn it, Rarity,” said Applejack, as she pushed open the door to Rarity’s home and shop, “what’s happened now?”
“Oh, Applejack, it’s simply terrible! It’s awful! It’s...why, I don’t even think I have the words to describe how terrible this is!” cried Rarity, while Applejack rolled her eyes. “The monstrosity is through there, if you must absolutely look upon it!”
Applejack sighed, and trotted through to the main floor of Rarity’s workroom. Sitting in the center of the floor was a newly-delivered crate of cloth. Applejack couldn’t see what was wrong with it, personally, but she headed back to Rarity, who had managed to get onto her fainting couch by this point.
“Do you see my distress, Applejack? Isn’t it terrible?”
“It’s just cloth,” said Applejack.
“It’s plaid! I can’t do anything with plaid! And yet, Sapphire Shores wants four costumes out of this...horrid material! Oh, Applejack, this is quite positively the worst possible thing!”
As Rarity collapsed back onto her fainting couch with another wail, Applejack rolled her eyes again, and Rainbow Dash poked her head through the window.
“What’s up, AJ?” she asked, and then she got a look at Rarity. “She overreacting again?”
“Eeyup,” said Applejack, “you mind shuttin’ her up so’s the rest of us can go about our business without her shrieking every five minutes?”
“Sure thing,” said Rainbow Dash, slipping into the kitchen, trotting over to Rarity, grabbing the sides of the unicorn’s head, and kissing her. Applejack took that moment to leave.
“Rainbow Dash, you utter boor! How dare you kiss me while I was having a moment of personal crisis!”
There was a pause, while Rainbow replied, but Applejack couldn’t hear what she said.
“I didn’t say stop!” cried Rarity, and Applejack got back on track for her errands with a badly disguised snicker.
The line had been there since early that morning, each pony hoping to get a glimpse of her. However, on this day, the curtains were drawn, the windows and doors were locked and nopony had seen her since the previous night.
Yet she had clearly shown enough forethought to place a bag beside her mailbox, along with a beautifully decorated sign proclaiming what the bag was for, knowing what would happen today. The bag was steadily filling up with pink envelopes of all shapes and sizes. Some were decorated with hoof-made hearts, more carried the label of a popular card maker, but all went into the sack.
And with each pony that placed their letter in the bag, they departed with a hopeful sigh, praying that this year, she would return their affections. It was not difficult to see why she attracted so much admiration, from stallions and mares alike. She was beautiful. Perhaps not in the classical sense of her kind, but she had been admired for years by a number of ponies, even when it was not her intention to do so.
Halfway through the morning, while the sun was nearing its full height in the sky, the mailmare arrived, carefully wound her way around the line and avoid stepping on any tails, and dumped the entire contents of both her saddlebags into the sack beside the letterbox.
She returned thirty minutes later and repeated the process. Only on the third trip did she empty only half of her bag into the sack outside the house, and then quietly slip two normal letters into the actual mailbox before taking her leave.
The sun had gone down before the line finished. It was only once the last pony was completely out of sight of the house that a mare slinked out of the forest behind the house. Fluttershy looked around, making absolutely sure that nopony was in sight. She didn’t like going into the Everfree Forest, but it was the only way to absolutely avoid everypony on Hearts and Hooves day, and going into the forest was certainly easier than dealing with ponies. With another sigh to herself, she untied the bag from her mailbox, and hauled it inside her cottage, before going back out and collecting the actual mail.
He was a perfect gentlecolt. He held open doors, he treated her to the absolute finest things, and he was mostly understanding when she asked that he not disturb her for days on end while she was working on a client’s commission. If she was perfectly honest with herself, Rarity would admit that she was really only dating the stallion to improve her standing in the social scene of Canterlot, and she had explained this to him.
He had taken it well. Much better than most, Rarity thought. He almost took it as a challenge to woo her. It helped that he was, like many, infatuated with her. When they were together, Rarity could almost forget about that one night in Ponyville. She had mostly convinced herself that it was simply because she was drunk. Everypony had been in high spirits that night, as they celebrated Rarity’s purchase of the shop in Canterlot, the first real step to her dream.
She was putting the finishing touches on a dress for a duchess when her wonderful knight knocked on the door, presenting her with two VIP tickets to the next Wonderbolt derby. Out of kindness, she neglected to mention that Fancy Pants had a standing invitation for her at any and every Wonderbolt air show in Canterlot, instead pecking him on the cheek and fitting him for a suit and tie.
******
‘Of course she would be here,’ thought Rarity, ‘why wouldn’t she be? This is the Wonderbolts, and she was a member in all but name when I left Ponyville.’
Her date had wandered off, talking races and bets with some other noble stallion, but Rarity’s eyes never left Rainbow Dash. She looked good. Rarity forced herself to swallow and take another sip of her drink.
No. Rainbow Dash did not look ‘good’. She was, if Rarity borrowed a more colloquial term, downright hot. Seeing her in full Wonderbolt colours only enhanced the effect. Rainbow had always been aware of her ‘hotness,’ as the pegasus had put it, and given her sheer confidence, it was not hard to see why she was so attractive.
“Hey, what’s up, Rarity?” said Rainbow, draping a wing around Rarity, who could only think about when Rainbow had crossed the room, because she certainly didn’t remember seeing Rainbow move.
“Oh, Rainbow,” said Rarity, collecting herself, “It is good to see you again. I presume you’re enjoying your life as a Wonderbolt?”
“You know it!” grinned Rainbow, “I told you girls I was gonna write my name across Equestria! And hey,” she continued, leaning in closer to Rarity, “if you wanna have another go at that night, but sober, I am totally down for that.”
Rarity blinked, unsure what to think for a moment. On the one hoof, her date, her actual, Canterlot-socially approved date, was a perfect stallion and a perfect gentlecolt. And Rarity liked things being perfect.
On the other hoof, Rainbow Dash, who was Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t perfect. She was crass, had no filter between her brain and her mouth ninety percent of the time if her interviews were anything to go by and there had been a reason why Rarity had picked Rainbow on that night, so long ago.
“Meet me at my shop,” whispered Rarity, “8 pm on the dot. Though I guess you’ll be late, and I’ll just have to get started without you.”
“That a challenge, Rarity? You’re on.”
*****
The bell above the door tinkled. Rarity wasn’t quite sure how her biggest hat had gotten up there, but given what Rainbow Dash was doing with her tongue, she wasn’t sure she cared.
The bell tinkled again, and this time, there was a gasp. Any moment now, and her months of secret rendezvous with Rainbow would pay off. Having a perfect stallion was well and good, but he was boring. The stallion never took risks, and while Rarity would never admit to being an adrenaline junkie like Rainbow, she enjoyed taking the occasional risk and having it pay off.
She hadn’t realised how much she missed that feeling.
There was gentle cough, and Rarity realised that she had never heard her gentlecolt run off.
“You know, if you had wanted someone else, you could have simply said so,” he said.
Rarity blushed.
“Give me a moment to freshen up, and we shall talk this over. I appear to have let me get away from myself again.”
Appleoosa didn’t have a proper church. There had simply never been the need for one, and the small town hall sufficed for most of their needs. It also functioned as their courtroom when they needed one.
But today, it was a place of celebration, as Braeburn and Strongheart finally said their respective ‘I dos’. Chief Thunderhooves had even managed to make it inside, and such was the mood of the day that Sheriff Silverstar wasn’t even going to comment on the hole the buffalo chief had left in the wall, as he thought he could see a tear of pride leaking from the cheif’s eye.
The next morning, Braeburn was woken up by a booming bellow from outside, and Strongheart bounding over the top of him.
“Father!” she cried.
“Strongheart! It is time,” boomed the buffalo chieftain.
“Whassat?” mumbled Braeburn, leaning out of the window.
“When you asked to marry my daughter, you promised to honour our traditions, and I would honour yours. It is our tradition, set down and followed by my father, and his father before him, and his father before him, and...”
“I think he gets it, father!” called Strongheart, cutting off Cheif Thunderhooves before he could get going.
“Ahem. Yes,” coughed Thunderhooves, “anyway, it is our tradition that the newly married go on a run, to visit all of your new relatives. And I do mean all of them, Strongheart,” Thunderhooves added, just when Strongheart looked like she was about to object.
Strongheart sighed, and turned to Braeburn.
“Well, I guess we’re going for a run with the rest of the family, then,” she said.
Braeburn shrugged, “Ain’t no sweat off my back. Said I’d honour your tribes’ customs, and us Apples always keep our promises. How long is this run gonna take us, anyways?”
“Oh, nothing huge. About a month.”
Braeburn’s jaw dropped, and Strongheart shrugged.
“We have a lot of family.”
Braeburn sighed, and smiled at his wife.
“Well, guess I’d best get used to the taste of dust in my mouth.”
******
A month later, Braeburn was carried back into town on Strongheart’s back.
“You stupid, loveable Apple,” she muttered, “told you that you were going to pass out.”
“Pinkie, are you sure that you want to do this? I mean, it is her house.”
“Yeah, but she keeps the encyclopaedia in there.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a little different. I’m in. Should just be relyin’ on her memory.”
“Quite so, darling.”
“I don’t know, what if she really is just going to check on the snacks?”
“Haven’t you noticed that she always does that right when she gets a difficult question though?”
“Well, I’m sure that, um, I don’t know. It seems kind of wrong.”
“It ain’t wrong to make sure we’re on a level playin’ field, sugarcube.”
“Come on, Fluttershy! We’re only using our memory. She shouldn’t be allowed to use a book!”
“Okay then.”
“Shh! Here she comes!”
*******
Twilight Sparkle trotted back from the kitchen, holding the box for the game they were going to play that night. Predictably, it was the same trivia game that they always played.
“Ready for game night, girls?” she asked, “the snacks are in the oven, so we’re all ready.”
“Yeah, about that,” said Rainbow Dash, “we don’t think that you should be allowed in there alone anymore. Or at all.”
“What? Why?” asked Twilight, placing the game board down, and facing her friends.
“No offense, but you sort of take a while in there,” mumbled Fluttershy, “and, um, we think you’re looking up the answers in the encyclopaedia in there.”
“What? I’d never do that!” said Twilight.
“So why is the Book of Everything lying open with marked tabs, Twilight?” said Pinkie Pie, climbing out from a bookshelf.
“I was looking up temperatures for the snacks!”
“But the tabs are for things like music and art and stuff,” said Pinkie, and Twilight managed a nervous giggle. She got flat stares in response.
“Fine, then. Let’s have a vote!” said Twilight, “all in favour of me being able to check on the snacks in the most efficient manner?”
Twilight rose her hoof. She looked around, and caught sight of Fluttershy’s half-raised hoof.
“There, two votes! Now, all in favour of me not being able to check on the snacks?”
Every pony other than Twilight raised their hoof.
“Fluttershy, you voted for me!”
“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want you to feel left out.”
“Ugh, fine. Have it your way,” grumbled Twilight, “Now they’ll probably burn.”
“Darling, you do know that you can get Spike to bring them out when they’re ready?” said Rarity. Twilight raised a hoof in objection, and then lowered it without saying anything.
“Now that that business is settled, shall we play?” said Rarity, and they settled down to play, Twilight pouting the entire time.
Dear Princess Luna, Guider of a Thousand Stars, blah blah blah,
I’m still here, you know. You’re not getting rid of me that quickly. I’ve had a thousand years to foster everything I need in you. My hooks are deep in you, Luna, and they don’t come out fast.
Honestly, acting as if one rainbow blast to the face (that hurt, by the way) would get rid of me. It didn’t work the first time, whatever made you think it would work the second time? All it did was make me take the back seat. Unpleasant, to be sure, but I suppose that this is the price I have to pay.
So really, go on. Play the good little princess. Really, I don’t mind. It might even be entertaining for a while.
Because you and I both know that you are not a good princess. Oh no, you’re not.
Don’t even act like I was responsible for the name ‘Nightmare Moon’. They were already calling you some variation of that in four separate countries years before you had your little fit of jealousy. Because really, you were just so effective. What was it they used to call you and that trumped-up donkey that you call a sister?
Oh yes, the Negotiator and the Warrior. She offered the hoof of friendship and peace, and you were the one who made sure that the alternative was significantly worse, that war with Equestria would be the truly horrendous option. Good times, those.
Oh, and that delicious title that the dragons gave you: She Who Walks With Phobos and Deimos. I always liked that one. Very apt, given your usual tactic in wartime.
Remember that minotaur general you drove insane? Or the entire invasion you dismantled? Because I do. You were a master, Luna. An artist, almost. You wielded psychological weapons so effectively they might have been physical things. And yet, what do the history books say about all of your greatest achievements? You are relegated to footnotes, to ancient tomes that no pony ever reads.
You used to be respected. Admired. Feared. Under the light of the moon, you were untouchable. In its shadows, you were invisible. And in the dreamscape, my my. I am in awe of what you accomplished there. Five minutes, and you could have the hardest griffon in the army bawling his eyes out and telling you how he stole a fish from his sibling when he was three.
Oh, that’s right, you did that once.
In fairness, I do think I pushed you a little hard, Luna. I can see that now. But you were just so full of jealousy and envy that I had to push you over the edge.
I’ll be more careful next time. Not so drastic. Say what you like about me, but I will say that I never make the same mistake twice.
Because you don’t make the same mistake twice.
Because there never was a ‘Nightmare’ spirit, but that was easier to face than the truth.
Because deep down, you know the truth, that I’m really just you, albeit with a few...differences.
The moon has many faces, Luna. I’m just the darkest of them. The metaphorical and literal new moon to your full moon.
Give my regards to Celestia for me, will you? And tell her that next time, I won’t miss.
She hadn’t cried at Big Macintosh’s. She’d wished only the best for her brother and his new wife, and grinned and said she was looking forward to being Auntie Applejack to a few more Apples in a few years. She’d laughed out loud when she finally managed to make the stoic wall of a brother blush hard enough to be seen against his coat. Nopony really noticed during the following party, Applejack more or less planted herself by the drinks table and got quiet for the rest of the day.
She hadn’t cried at Rarity’s wedding, either. Despite the fact that Rarity and her beau were both from Canterlot, and they’d be living there together, Rarity had insisted on holding the ceremony in Ponyville. And Applejack would renounce apples if Pinkie Pie didn’t take that as a challenge to throw the best party she ever had. And darn it, the girl had delivered. Applejack couldn’t remember the last party that Pinkie had thrown that had been this extravagant.
But deep down, Applejack knew why Pinkie had pulled out all the stops on her party cannon. It felt like a goodbye. Rarity was moving to Canterlot, and that was a definite sign that they were all moving on. Applejack wasn’t stupid-they’d still see each other. It would just involve more train rides, but it was the beginning of the end.
She definitely hadn’t cried at Rainbow’s ‘Congratulations on Joining The Wonderbolts!’ party, either. It was only partly because Rainbow most definitely hadn’t cried, either, and Applejack was not letting one of her friends, least of all Rainbow Dash, win the last challenge in their ongoing contest.
When Fluttershy, of all ponies, proclaimed that she was getting married, Applejack had to fight back a sniffle. But she didn’t cry. Nor did she cry when the pegasus was offered, and accepted, a job in Vanhoover, as chief caretaker on an animal sanctuary. She only smiled, and wished her all the best.
When Pinkie Pie crowed out from the rooftops of Ponyville that she was getting married, Applejack insisted that the sun was getting in her eyes, and then went to offer her catering services and condolences to the poor stallion who was marrying Pinkie. She smiled the whole day of the ceremony.
It was only when Twilight Sparkle, Princess Twilight Sparkle, announced that she was going to be in Zebrica with Zecora for the next five years that Applejack cried. She sat in Granny Smith’s old rocking chair in the family’s living room, and quietly sobbed.
All of her friends were moving on, to bigger and better things. They were off, fulfilling their dreams, and yet year after year, with each departure, Applejack remained. Still bucking apples. She knew it would happen eventually-Applejack was a realist-they couldn’t have remained together forever, no matter how much she would have liked them to.
But that didn’t make it hurt any less, so she cried, because she knew they would never have another night in Twilight’s castle, convincing Rainbow Dash that flying in category Five Wild Storms was a terrible idea. They’d never spend another day ‘sampling’ Pinkie Pie’s newest creation of sugar and flour, or pretending to hate going to the spa with Rarity. Nor would they ever spend hours wheedling and pleading Fluttershy out of her cottage because she hadn’t done anything wrong and Rainbow Dash just had no filter between her brain and her mouth ninety percent of the time.
She cried because she could remember that these things had happened, and they never would again.
“So, Twilight said that this will last until the end of the day. Is there anything that you want to do, Gummy?” said Pinkie Pie, a wide smile on her face.
The green earth pony blinked and stood there, completely impassive.
“Well, how about I show you around Sugarcube Corner! You’ve never really seen it from a pony’s perspective before! Ooh, I can show you how to make my favourite hotsauce cake!” said Pinkie Pie, wrapping her hooves around the ponified alligator, and yanked him out the door.
“Hi Mrs Cake! I’m just taking Gummy to the kitchen!” said Pinkie as she barrelled down the stairs, past her employer.
“That’s nice, Pinkie dear,” said Cup Cake, as the pink blur towed a green blur past her.
Pinkie Pie shot through the doorway, depositing Gummy just in front of the counter. Pinkie herself continued around, whirling around the kitchen, collecting ingredients. She eventually skidded to a halt once the counter held all the required ingredients to bake a cake.
Gummy blinked.
“Right, so the first step for making a hotsauce cake is to start with the dry stuff.”
Gummy blinked again.
********
“...and that’s how you make a hotsauce double surprise!” said Pinkie Pie. The sun was going down outside, and Pinkie Pie had had a full day of baking and being excited to be able to teach Gummy everything she knew about baking.
Gummy remained his stoic self, and blinked.
“And now, I think I’m a little tired,” yawned Pinkie Pie, “so I think I’ll just crash here,” she finally trailed off, and collapsed forward, and over Gummy’s back. The alligator-turned-pony began a slow, measured plod back from the kitchen and up the stairs, the pink pony sleeping soundly on his back. Finally, as the sun was just dipping below the horizon, he pushed Pinkie into her bed, and pulled the covers over her.
Twilight teleported in at that moment, and Gummy blinked.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just here to make sure that the spell reverses itself.”
As Celestia finished setting the sun, Gummy spoke for the first time.
“She’s beautiful. Thank you,” he said.
Twilight turned away from the window, just as there was a flash, and all that was left was a small, toothless alligator. Twilight picked up Gummy, and placed him next to Pinkie Pie, and then left.
Unconsciously, Pinkie Pie wrapped one gentle hoof around Gummy, and hugged him to her chest, a soft smile crossing her face.
Rarity seethed as the duchess left the Boutique in Canterlot. How many times did Rarity have to make it clear that she would really rather not play the social games? In a perfect world, her dresses would attract clients and fame without her having to subject herself to the pit that was the Canterlot social scene, but Rarity was all too aware that it was not what a pony was wearing, it was who they were wearing, and Rarity wanted the answer to that question to be her.
Thus, she had to subject herself to playing the social games required. Taking one, two, three deep breaths, Rarity composed herself, bottling up her anger until she could release it safely. The bell above the door tinkled, and Rarity turned, ready to begin her usual pre-sales pitch greeting, and was tackled off her hooves, lips closing over her own. Rarity briefly noted that they tasted like clouds and sweat.
“Must you, Rainbow Dash?” Rarity sighed, once the pegasus had finished demonstrating her quite remarkable breath control.
“Like you don’t like it, Rarity,” said Rainbow Dash, settling back into a hover.
“That is utterly beside the point, and you know it, Rainbow Dash! And what did I tell you about flying in the boutique?”
“Okay, what’s wrong?” said Rainbow, “you only get this snippy when something’s bothering you.”
Rarity sighed again, “It’s the duchess again. She is somehow convinced that I stand as a threat to her, and I quote, ‘unassailable rule over the nobles of Canterlot’. To that end, she is no doubt working as hard as she can to drive me out of business.”
“You want me to punch her in the face?” asked Rainbow, wrapping Rarity in a hug, “Cause she tried to bribe me, you know. I kind of want to punch her.”
“The thought is appreciated, but that will hardly help the situation,” said Rarity, “no, I just need to forget about her for a while. Perhaps some dashing pony will help me by taking me out to dinner?” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes at Rainbow.
“Where are we going, and what time are the reservations that you’ve already made?” sighed Rainbow Dash.
*****
“You have no idea how much stress I have been under this week, Rainbow. With the Manehatten Fashion week coming up soon, I need to present my absolute best work, and then there’s all the other ponies who want me to make my own brand of haute coture for them, well, let us simply say that there have been a few long nights for me. And that’s not even counting the trouble the duchess has been causing,” said Rarity, sipping at her glass of wine, across from Rainbow Dash, who was contenting herself with water.’
“I still think you should let me punch her in the face, Rares. Nopony screws with Rarity on my watch. Unless it’s me,” grinned Rainbow. Rarity rolled her eyes at the innuendo, and Rainbow’s accompanying eyebrow waggle.
“Really, Rainbow. Must you be so uncouth? You might consider using your tongue for things other than speaking, you know,” said Rarity, a similar grin on her face. Rainbow’s smile only got wider.
“Oh my, If it isn’t Miss Rarity and the Wonderbolt from Ponyville,” came an unpleasant voice, from an even more unpleasant pony, “you are aware that this is supposed to be a high-class restaurant, yes?”
“Duchess,” said Rarity, gritting her teeth, “how pleasant to see you again.”
“Do hush, I wasn’t talking to you. You, Wonderbolt. This is a high-class restaurant, not meant for somepony of your standing.”
“That’s funny,” said Rainbow Dash, “because last I checked, I’m better liked than you are. You know, me being awesome and everything. Also, Spitfire would like to have a word with you at some point about you trying to bribe me. Now go away.”
“You know nothing of me, you silly little pegasus. Go back to the backwater town that you,” the duchess never got a chance to finish her insult, because Rainbow Dash had vaulted over the table, and punched the duchess in the face.
“Leave us alone,” growled Rainbow Dash, as the duchess staggered back, unused to physical violence, “or you’re gonna get a lot worse than that. Let’s go, Rarity. I’m feeling a little cramped in here.”
****Time****
“Really, Rainbow, that was hardly necessary,” said Rarity, as the two sat on a rooftop a few streets over from the restaurant, “appreciated, and terribly heroic, but not necessary.”
“She was annoying me,” said Rainbow, “it was supposed to just be the two of us tonight, and she shoves her nose in.” Rarity sighed, and leant up against Rainbow. Tomorrow, she would have to do damage control, and probably explain to the guard that Rainbow had been provoked, as well as apologise to the restaurant, if she was even allowed back inside. But all that could wait.
For now, it was just the two of them, watching the moon rise over Canterlot’s rooftops.
I will never know you. I carried you, I birthed you, and yet, I shall never know you as my daughter. Your father, bless his heart, has agreed to raise you himself. I hope that he can find somepony that will truly appreciate him, for I fear that my intentions, though transparent and clear to him, are not entirely honourable. Necessary, yes, and I was clear with him on this, and he said that he understood, but the nuances of social relationships such as this are still not clear to me. I am still a student in such things, and it is a terribly embarrassing feeling.
Hopefully, by the time that you are given, or find this letter, you are old enough to perhaps understand what I have done, but I doubt it. Perhaps he has told you that I am possessed of some degree of foresight, that I have a knowledge of future events that nopony save the Princess can equal. I do not have much time, my daughter. From all of my calculations, I should barely have long enough to name you and hold you once. However, I have time enough for a few more predictions.
You shall grow up happy. You will enter Canterlot University in a degree of your own desire, graduate with the highest honours, and while there, you will likely find a stallion that you want to spend the rest of your life with. Trust your heart in these matters, and you shall never go wrong.
Eventually, you will have two children, one male, one female. One will have a talent for shields, the other a deep-seated need to know everything about magic. Allow your children to fully explore their talents, and they will go on to do great things. I will not say anything further, because I do not want you to feel that you are pressured by my ‘predictions’. Know that sooner or later, things will come to pass, and that things will work themselves out the way they should, in time.
Everything will happen as it should, so don’t worry or panic. I just happen to get glimpses at the script from time to time.
And please, if my words hold any meaning for you, please consider naming one of your children after me. You shall know which one, I suspect. And when the time is right, pass this letter onto the child that you named after me. He or she will know what to do from there. Trust me when I say that it is important, for reasons that I cannot explain here and now, but this must happen.
Writing this letter has given me inspiration for your name. Twilight Velvet. May Celestia smile upon you, Twilight Velvet, and all of your future endeavours.
Your Mother,
Twilight Amethyst Sparkle the Second.
P.S. When the child you named after me gives you this letter back, be prepared for a very awkward conversation.
“Come in!” rang out Princess Celestia’s voice through the closed door after she knocked.
“You asked for me, Princess Celestia?” she said, as she opened the door.
“Ah, Sunset Shimmer. I’m glad that you could make it,” said Princess Celestia, her smile kind and inviting, as usual. “Do you want anything to drink? Juice, perhaps?”
Sunset’s mind raced. Offering a drink that wasn’t tea, that smile...Sunset sighed.
“Where are you sending me?” she said. Princess Celestia sat down, and motioned for Sunset to join her. Sunset remained standing.
“You never cease to amaze me with your perceptiveness, Sunset Shimmer,” sighed Celestia, “I am sending you to Ponyville. The mayor there is in need of an advisor, a representative of Canterlot, and you always did particularly well in your law classes.”
“Wait, I’m going to be the representative for Canterlot? Don’t you think that’s a little high for somepony like me?”
“I doubt you will have too many duties, Sunset. Ponyville is within sight of Canterlot, and from what I hear, their laws are rather similar to that of Canterlot’s. In short, it is an excellent training ground for you. As a matter of fact,” said Celestia, pulling out a scroll from a neat pile on a nearby desk, “I have your first task here. You are to act as supervisor for the Summer Sun Celebration there. I shall be making an appearance.”
“Princess, wouldn’t this sort of thing be better suited to, perhaps, your other student?”
“Twilight Sparkle?” asked Celestia, “Perhaps. She is more organized, certainly, but she lacks the personality, or the social skills to deal with ponies all day. She may be devilishly smart, with an aptitude for magic that I have not seen since ages gone past, but she is reclusive, to put it kindly.”
“Then why me? I’m not the shining example of a student that she is,” said Sunset.
“And that is exactly why I am sending you. If I may be frank with you, Sunset,” said Celestia.
“I really wish you would,” interrupted Sunset. Celestia acknowledged the interruption with the slightest of inclines to her head.
“Both you and Twilight are going to do great things, and I am not sure what they are. In truth, I could send either of you, and I will not use such words as ‘destiny’, but something tells me that both of you will go on to accomplish great things. Do you remember what I told you of Nightmare Moon?”
Sunset blinked at the apparent non-sequiter, but answered. “Evil spirit, tried to take over Equestria ages ago, banished to the moon by you with the Elements of Harmony.”
“In as many words, yes,” said Celestia, “I fear that she may be returning. If she is allowed to proceed unchallenged, she will inflict another endless night on Equestria.”
“And you want me to find the Elements of Harmony to make sure that doesn’t happen, right?” asked Sunset.
“Yes. And perhaps it would do you some good to get out of Canterlot for a while, Sunset,” said Celestia, “it might do you some good to be around ponies who are unaware of your undeserved reputation,” Sunset winced, but Celestia plowed on, “make some friends, enjoy life, not stay stuck behind that desk for all of your life. The Representative position in Ponyville is largely a trivial thing, and I hear they have a rather excellent library, too.”
Sunset sighed. Princess Celestia might not have liked to order her ponies around, but she did have a way of asking that made it difficult to refuse.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” she said, plucking the scroll out of the air with her magic, and slotting it into her saddlebag.
“Very good, my student,” said Celestia, and Sunset felt a quick pang at those words. She was just ‘my student’, while Twilight was ‘my faithful student’. It felt like a demotion, to know that she had once been the faithful student.
But Celestia hadn’t finished yet, and was still speaking. “I trust that you still have the book I gave you?”
“Yes, Princess,” said Sunset, “I’ll write if anything comes up.”
“And do try and have some fun there, Sunset Shimmer,” said Celestia, climbing back onto her hooves, “you may even find that the town grows on you. A chariot will take you down when you’re ready.”
“Okay. I guess I’ll see you during the Summer Sun Celebration, Princess.”
****Time****
Princess Celestia watched as Sunset Shimmer walked off, praying that she had made the right choice. But between Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, for once, Princess Celestia had no idea what the correct choice was, and her dreams were not being helpful. All she knew was that they would both do great things, in time.
It was certainly true that Sunset was a little more jaded than Twilight, a little less trusting. But at the same time, she was much more sociable than Twilight, much more likely to form the connections needed to truly defeat Nightmare Moon and return her sister. All she could do now was wait, and hope that she had made the right choice.
A ball of green smoke chose that moment to coalesce into a scroll right in front of Celestia’s nose just then, and Celestia smiled. Letters from Twilight always had a way of brightening up her day.
The scythe chopped through the air, and several changelings fell to the ground, and yet not once did Princess Luna pause in her advance. She never stopped moving until she reached a room from an older time. It was in direct contrast to the white stone all around her. It was grey, blocky and Luna was all too familiar with what the discoloured marks on the stone were. Still, if they were to have any chance of defeating the Changeling Combine, she would need what lay within. Despite all of her sister’s warnings, they both knew that it was the only way.
‘Am I finally going to get to come out and play?’ whispered a voice in her head.
“No,” said Luna, “I know I can control it this time.”
‘Funny,’ hissed the voice, ‘that’s what you said last time, too.’
Luna narrowed her eyes. Behind her, her scythe Umbra flicked around and decapitated an ambitious changeling.
“I’m not the same as I was last time,” stated Luna, staring at the sealed door.
‘That’s what you said last time too,’ said the voice in her head. A low hiss brought Luna out of her mental conversation to face three of the newer changelings, big, burly brawler-types.
“You never learn, do you?” asked Luna, pushing forwards. Umbra whipped around, driving point first into the first changeling brawler. With a burst of magic, the blade then pushed forward, bisecting the changeling, and slicing straight through the second brawler. The third was a little more intelligent, but the changelings didn’t have the required knowledge to combat a weapon like Luna’s.
Another gentle flick from Luna’s magic, and the scythe slipped a curved point behind the chain securing the door, and sliced through it. Luna’s magic pulled open the doors, and she stepped through, into a room of almost pure darkness.
‘You honestly think that you can control it?’ said the voice in Luna’s head. It was louder now. Like there was another pony in the room.
“I have to. My country is in need.”
‘You said that last time, too,’ it hissed. Luna could make out the shape of a set of armour. Unlike the one resting in the castle, this one was dark in a way that nothing else was. It was like it was sucking all the light out of the area. It may as well have been forged from darkness. She was still recovering. Were she at full power, this invasion would not have been a problem, but her full power would take decades to recover. Decades that she, or Equestria, didn’t have.
“You will not have my body or my mind again, Nightmare. The Nights are my domain. I am just as powerful as you are.”
There was still one final gate between Luna and the armour, but it wasn’t a physical one. And such was the true genius of the Nightmare’s Armour-it would grant nigh-on impossible powers and physical prowess, but you had to want it. Luna had spent years learning how to shut out its taunts and offers, because even if you got the Armour off, the presence in your mind remained there forever, always whispering.
You had to let it into your mind. That was how it took hold, and she could feel the Armour and its power pushing against her mind
‘So you claim,’ hissed Nightmare, ‘but you’ve said that before. Just remember that I can make sure that the ponies really, truly respect you.’
Luna sighed, and relaxed her final mental barrier. The armour dissolved into shadow, and reformed on Luna. Already she could feel the power flooding her, and she slammed her mental barriers back into place.
‘One slip up, Luna,’ whispered Nightmare, ‘I only need to be lucky once. I’ll be waiting.’
Octavia was never quite so glad to see somepony leave her sight as she was the day that Vinyl Scratch departed the Royal Canterlot Conservatory. She had suspected that the workload would be too much for the aspiring DJ. Though, Octavia did have to give some credit to Vinyl; the mare was not untalented, and it was clear that she had the skill to justify her being at the Conservatory, but her chosen genre of music was hardly to Octavia’s taste.
Really, it was all drums and bass. No real melody, nor subtleties. And the way that she would blast it out so that it was audible even two floors below her room, was hardly appropriate, but Octavia would never say that she hated Vinyl Scratch. No, those thoughts would be reserved for Octavia and Octavia only.
Still, Octavia was polite, and her parents had raised her to help ponies if they asked, and Vinyl Scratch had asked for Octavia’s help that day in getting her equipment and furniture out of the room she had been assigned. And, like a good, polite pony, Octavia had helped her, if only to personally make sure that Vinyl had left. She remembered feeling the slightest sense of satisfaction when Vinyl had finally left the campus, towing a cart full of her belongings.
And even though she knew it was wrong, she remembered thinking that only ‘real’ musicians would succeed at the Conservatory, and that Vinyl’s departure was only proof of this. That was another thought that Octavia had decided would remain only for Octavia. But Octavia couldn’t deny that a return to the blessed silence of the nights that Vinyl Scratch’s practice habits had denied everypony would be welcome. So it was with a smile on her face that that night, after completing her weekly assignments in good time, as always, that Octavia settled down to sleep.
She tossed and turned a few times to get comfortable, closed her eyes, and waited to be whisked off to the world of dreams, away from the cares of the physical world for a time.
Two hours later, Octavia remained firmly awake. It only took her another half an hour to figure out why.
She couldn’t hear the usual thump of the bass that she had evidently become used to. It was an odd feeling for Octavia, that she missed the music that she disliked so much while Vinyl had been there. But there was little that she could do now. Vinyl Scratch was likely off somewhere, seeking her fame and fortune in her own way.
Still, perhaps a trip to the record store would be in order. The music that Vinyl had played, the music that Octavia admitted was not her particular taste, did have an oddly appealing draw to it.
Ditzy Doo loved her job. Most of the time, anyways. She didn’t like how it kept her from seeing her daughter off to school in the mornings, and money was always a little tight, but it wasn’t the end of the world. It was one of the only professions that Ditzy could think of where her incredible memory was a real advantage. And sure, she might have been a little clumsy, or slower than the other mailponies thanks to her eyes, but she still loved her job.
But that didn’t stop ponies from talking. And because Ditzy went over many parts of Ponyville every day, she heard them. Another thing that she didn’t particularly like about her job. She could hear them saying how it was a wonder that she hadn’t been fired yet, the half-hearted objections from other ponies that she was just trying her best to provide for Dinky and that it surely wasn’t her fault about her eyes (which was true. Ditzy couldn’t remember how her eyes had gotten misaligned. All she could remember was anger and something blue moving very fast. And lots of yelling). She’d only dropped that load with the piano and anvil that one time, and that job had been a favour to a friend. And she hadn’t misdelivered the mail in months-she could name at least four other mailponies who regularly mixed up some of their mail.
But gossip was a fickle thing, and ponies had a habit of remembering the bad things a little easier than the good. And Ditzy had made more than a few mistakes. She’d always apologised, and done her best to clean up after her mess, but sometimes that didn’t help. It was another clear morning in Ponyville, and Ditzy was on her usual round when she heard them. It was the usual joking (and entirely unoriginal) set of insults regarding her and her flying ability, and how they should all duck before she went out of control again. Her flying style might have been a little unsteady, but she hadn’t crashed into anything for the last seven months, which was a new personal record. Rainbow Dash crashed more often than Ditzy did, but nopony mocked her for it these days.
But as Ditzy flew over the ponies insulting and making fun of her, she heard a scratchy voice start yelling at them. With some difficulty, she glanced down, and saw Rainbow Dash glaring at two pegasi and pointing at the sky, telling them to get back to their actual weather duties. Ditzy refocused her eyes on the horizon with a smile, knowing that Rainbow Dash was standing up for her. But then again, Rainbow Dash had always been super-supportive to Ditzy, the incident with the town hall that one time being the sole exception.
As Ditzy flew on, over the market place, she saw and heard Carrot Top defending her from a pair of bullies, tossing the week-old carrots at them like darts. She saw the occasional pony glance up at her, and give her a wave. Pinkie Pie tossed a muffin up so that all Ditzy had to do was open her mouth at the right time and bite down on it. She knew that ponies would talk about her, and her sometimes lacklustre and shaky flying, or her eyes, but most days, it didn’t bother her.
Because Ditzy had the most wonderful daughter she could ever ask for, and she knew that her boss liked her work more than most ponies with perfectly aligned eyes and perfectly coordinated limbs, and she knew that she had friends who would stand up for her.
And so Ditzy smiled, and sailed over the top of the ponies talking below her.
Twilight sighed as she stepped off the train from Canterlot. Ponyville had felt like home for a long time for her, and she always felt a sense of relief whenever she came back into the town. Even when she’d only been away for a week or so. Or that was what Twilight thought-she had lost track of time in the Archives, as most of the inner rooms were kept illuminated by light spells.
As Twilight walked from the train station, heading back toward her castle, there was sensation that something was wrong about Ponyville. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but Twilight shrugged, and moved on. She was looking forward to seeing her friends again, but first, she really needed a shower.
Refreshed, her bags deposited in the empty castle, Twilight headed back towards Ponyville. It was a little odd that Spike hadn’t been in the castle, but Twilight supposed she would find him at Rarity’s. And Rarity did sound like a good first visit, especially if she was going to find Spike. As she walked through town, Twilight was struck once more by how different the citizens of Ponyville treated their resident Princess. In Canterlot, Twilight couldn’t walk five meters without some noble trying to accost her. The Ponyville ponies seemed to be content with wilful ignorance, ignoring the fact that Twilight Sparkle was an alicorn until they absolutely had to remember. And Twilight was glad for that.
As she approached the boutique, Twilight cocked her head to one side. Had Rarity repainted or changed the design? The Boutique wasn’t quite matching up with her memory of it. With a shrug, Twilight knocked on the door, and only opened it once Rarity’s voice sang out the invitation to come inside.
“Hello Rarity,” said Twilight, striding into the Boutique. From behind her sewing machine, Rarity blinked.
“Twilight!” said Rarity, practically leaping out from behind her worktable, and embracing the alicorn. “Oh, it’s so good to see you at last! We all feared you had left us behind for Canterlot!”
“Rarity, I only said I was going to be gone a week,” said Twilight, her face scrunching up in confusion, trying to remember how many times she’d seen the sun rise since departing Ponyville.
“Oh, I know the feeling, Twilight. You just get so wrapped up in a project that it’s all that you can think about, and we understand that. But you might have at least sent us a letter telling us that you were going to be there longer than you expected,” said Rarity.
“I was only there for a week, Rarity. Maybe two at the outside,” said Twilight. Rarity wrapped a hoof around Twilight.
“Twilight, dear, you were gone for three months,” said Rarity, as Twilight’s mouth dropped open. “Things have changed around here since you left.” To emphasise her point, Rarity guestured around the Boutique. Before, it had been filled with elegant dresses, and a smattering of suits for the stallions, but now, every article of clothing was made out of plaid.
Before Rarity could explain why, Twilight Sparkle vanished in a burst of purple. Rarity guessed that she was going to go and check on the rest of their friends, and decided that she could use a break anyway, and headed out.
The closest thing to Rarity’s boutique was Rainbow Dash’s house, but Twilight knew that it was unlikely that she’d find Rainbow there. So instead, Twilight teleported straight up. Over Ponyville, it would be easier to spot the pegasus, and sure enough, Twilight soon caught sight of the familiar rainbow contrail, and angled herself toward it, calling out to Rainbow.
Twilight soon found herself swept up by the pegasus, who was wearing the uniform of a delivery company.
“Yeah,” sighed Rainbow, once Twilight questioned her on it, “turns out, doing a ground-level sonic rainboom was not my best idea. Every bit that I earn goes to paying for the repairs. Gotta go, Twi. Deliveries to make, and all.”
As Rainbow raced off, Twilight vanished in another flash of purple. She reappeared outside of Fluttershy’s cottage, which was completely empty. Several of the windows were broken, the door was unlocked, and only animals remained.
Another teleport deposited Twilight in Pinkie Pie’s room, where she found a note.
‘Dear Twilight,’ it read, ‘I have gone back to the rock farm so that I can be with Rocky. He wants a traditional wedding, and only my Dad can speak rock. Won’t be back for a really long time-rock weddings take ages. Your friend, Pinkie Pie.’ Twilight vanished one last time.
She burst into existence again at Sweet Apple Acres, and headed for the house. However, before she could reach it, she ran into Big Macintosh by the barn near the house.
“Oh, Big Mac!” said Twilight, “is Applejack around?”
“Nnope,” rumbled the stallion.
“Do you know where she is?”
“Eeyup.”
“And where is she?” asked Twilight. Big Macintosh paused for a moment.
“Manehatten,” he eventually rumbled, “gone t’ talk with the Oranges.”
“Oh,” said Twilight, “Alright. Thanks anyway, Big Mac.”
“Eeyup.”
****Time****
Twilight Sparkle took flight, heading back over toward Ponyville. Big Mac walked into the barn, and closed the door.
“Is she gone?” hissed a voice.
“Eeyup,” said Big Mac.
“Hoo-ee!” said Applejack, poking her head out of the bale of hay that she’d been hiding in, “Ain’t never had to hide in the hay for a right long time like that before!”
“I dunno, I thought it was super-fun!” said Pinkie Pie. Applejack chuckled, and pulled her hat off Pinkie’s head.
“Are you sure that this is alright?” said Fluttershy, floating down from the upstairs loft, “I mean, I don’t want this to upset Twilight.”
“Nah, she’ll be fine once we tell her. But seriously, this was the best idea ever,” grinned Rainbow Dash, having come through the open window. There was a knock at the door of the barn, and after checking who it was, Big Macintosh let Rarity inside.
“Right, Twilight is heading back to the castle. Shall we go and put her mind at ease?” said Rarity. “After all, she was only gone ten days.” With that, the five friends headed off towards Ponyville.
Professor Daring Do strolled back to her office at Manehatten university, her lengthy mane blowing in the wind. As she walked, her mind wandered over all the things that she had to do this week. Her students were still waiting on their mid-term exam results, she had to visit the curator of the Manehatten Museum of Natural History to examine some pottery, and the Dean wanted to meet with her to justify why she was asking for more money for the History department. Again. She let out a sigh, wondering why she couldn’t be more like the fictional Daring Do, written by her friend Ink Blot. That Daring Do didn’t have to worry about budget meetings or marking exams.
“Professor?” said a voice from behind her, and Daring turned. She’d already reached her building, and the pony calling her was the receptionist.
“Yes, what is it?” asked Daring.
“There’s somepony to see you in your office. I tried to tell her you were out, but she said she could wait, and I know you want ponies to have an appointment, but she insisted, and she’s,” the receptionist got no further than that, because Daring Do held up a hoof.
“It’s alright, Time Clock. I can manage one deviation every now and again. I suppose that it’s the Dean, isn’t it? She wanted to talk to me about the budget anyway,” said Daring Do, heading into her office. Her mouth dropped open when she was who was waiting for her.
“P-Princess Twilight Sparkle?” asked Daring Do, instantly dropping into a bow. She was no cab driver, she’d read the article in four different newspapers about the newest Princess of Equestria. And to her mind, there was no logical reason for the Princess of Equestria to be in her office. Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled and motioned for Daring to rise, which did little to put her, nearsighted Professor of History that she was, at ease.
“Professor,” began Twilight, “I was wondering if you had any experience with translating ancient writings?”
Daring Do blinked. “Yes,” she eventually eked out, “I have some experience with multiple forms of pony scripture, though my Pre-Diarch Unicorn is a little shaky. Do you have a sample of the writing?”
“I’m afraid I don’t,” said Twilight, “but I can take you to see it.”
“I see,” said Daring, “can you describe the writing for me?”
“Yes, it’s rather angular-mostly composed of simple shapes and lines. Squares, dots and lines. No curves.”
Daring Do wandered over to a haphazard pile of books by her already overflowing bookshelf, and pulled a book out of the middle of the stack with her teeth. Dropping the book on the table, she flicked through it, oblivious to the fidgeting Princess of Equestria standing in her office.
“Ah-ha!” cried Daring Do, “It’s early Earth Pony script, from your description. Not exactly common, but not rare. It shouldn’t take me more than a few days to translate. I would very much like to see this writing. Just let me grab a few books, and we can be on our way.”
“Yes. Of course,” said Twilight, her smile twisting with nerves as Daring Do picked up three well-worn books, and slipped them into her saddlebag, before turning to face Twilight.
****Time****
Twilight’s horn lit up, and with a flash and a bang that blew out Daring’s windows, both of them vanished.
Daring Do staggered a few steps away from Princess Twilight Sparkle, so that the Princess would be spared the indignity of having to watch her throw up. Being a pegasus, she had never travelled by teleport before. She found the entire experience thoroughly unpleasant. It was only then, once she had managed to stop retching, that she took note of her surrounds. Gone was the dim bustle of the city, the yells of the carriage drivers and the cool stone of her office. Taking their place was thousands of insect and animal noises, the oppressive heat that already had Daring beginning to sweat, and under her hooves was raw granite.
“Princess? Where are we?”
“A temple in the south of Equestria. Please, Professor, my friend Rainbow Dash is being held in here. Her life may be in danger, and I need to know what these say,” Twilight Sparkle guestured at a wall, covered in the old earth pony script that she had described.
Daring Do sighed, and adjusted her glasses. She could always have that budget meeting with the dean later.
Maud Pie shut the door to the room, and stared down at her three younger sisters. Limestone, hanging off the edge of the bed, making a sound that reminded Maud of her father cutting wood. Marble, curled tight up against the wall, needing to have something solid on one side, a physical barrier on one side at all times, making no sound at all. And in the middle, Pinkie. Precious, sweet, joyful, Pinkie. She was buried under the covers, only the top of her absurdly fluffy mane poking out of the thin sheets and blanket, but Maud could hear her soft snoring.
For a moment, Maud considered if she was really doing the right thing. But then Pinkie whimpered something inaudible into her pillow and curled up tighter, but Maud had never needed words to understand her sisters. Limestone and Marble would cope-they were just as stubborn as the rocks they farmed. But Maud could see what her mother refused to acknowledge. Pinkie Pie was different. ‘Too much like that crazy mother on your father’s side,’ her mother was fond of saying. Maud wondered if that was really a bad thing.
Because though she, Marble and Limestone were just as hard and unbreakable as the rocks they studied and farmed, it was common for them to joke among themselves when their mother wasn’t looking that Pinkie Pie got all of their feelings. It wasn’t that far from the truth. Maud had seen what Pinkie was like before that first party-she had been miserable, and only part of it was coming from her surroundings and lack of a cutie mark. And Maud knew that Pinkie wouldn’t, couldn’t grow into the mare she could be on the rock farm. It was not a good place for her, as difficult as that may have been to admit for her, as it still was Maud’s home. It was still her family.
So Maud gently wrapped her smallest sister up in her blanket cocoon, and lifted her onto her back. A single rope made sure that Pinkie wouldn’t fall off, and then, just as softly as she’d entered, Maud Pie left the room, leaving only a letter to her remaining sisters to explain. She crept past her parents’ bedroom, dodged the creaky floorboards, and was nearly out the front door when her father spoke.
“You leavin’ for your studies?” said Igneous Rock.
“Yes,” said Maud.
“Were you planning on saying goodbye?” he asked.
“No,” replied Maud, “it’s easier this way.”
“That it is. That it is,” mumbled Igneous, his eyes flicking to the youngest Pie, sleeping soundly on Maud’s back.
“You know she isn’t going to be happy,” said Igneous.
“Her happiness is not my concern. Pinkie’s is. This place is not right for her, father. She would not last under mother’s hoof.”
“I know,” sighed her father, before hoofing over a letter to Maud, “There’s an old family friend in Ponyville. They’ve agreed to take Pinkie in, let her explore the world outside this place. Just make sure she’s happy, Maud.”
Maud Pie nodded. It may have been a little underhoofed to go behind her mother’s back like this, but Pinkie deserved better. She didn’t deserve to be treated as something different, unnatural, like she knew her mother would treat Pinkie.
In Maud’s opinion, the quicker Pinkie Pie was away from the rock farm, the better it would be for everypony. She nodded once at her father, and strode off into the night.
*****
Igneous Rock stared at his eldest daughter as she vanished into the darkness. Since the day that his youngest had been born a bright pink, he knew that this day would come. There was something about Pinkamena Diane Pie that was different. She would never have the talent or the temperament for rock farming, no matter how much his wife insisted otherwise.
It was better if Pinkie was not on the rock farm. It would be best if she never came back for any long period of time, or at all.
A light tickle made itself known on Princess Luna’s foreleg, and she glanced down. There, crawling over her leg was an almost abnormally large black spider, a blue star patterned on its back. Luna tilted her head to the side.
“What are you, little creature? A spider, certainly, but not one we have seen before.” Luna watched as the spider worked its way up her leg, toward her barrel, tentatively testing each step of its spindly legs. She watched as it climbed up her neck and tried to dive into her mane, attempting to catch the fake stars. Luna remained perfectly still as the spider dangled off the end of her muzzle, lowering itself to the floor. The spider crawled back over to Luna’s leg, and bit down.
Liquid fire injected itself into Luna’s veins, and her horn lit up, a glow surrounding the area where the spider had bitten her. Now that she was containing the venom, she could analyse it more thoroughly. There was something familiar about the spider’s venom. Indeed, Luna had felt that same sensation of cold fire that the venom brought before. It was very much like the feeling she had experienced with the Nightmare. Luna levitated the spider up to her eye level for a closer inspection, even as she pushed the magic-rich venom out of her body.
Now that she had a clear look at the spider, it was clear that it was no natural spider. The body’s underside was twisted and warped, and the spider as a whole was too large to be anything but magical. Luna looked up, out of the hole in the roof of the ruined castle. As she expected, it was a new moon this night. The spider hissed at her, and a gentle skittering reached Luna’s ears.
She looked around to find hundreds of the star-backed spiders crawling out of every single hole and crack in the walls, and crawling towards her. With a single powerful sweep of her wings, Luna took to the air and left the castle.
****Time****
“Tis true what you say,” said Zecora, as Luna sipped at a mug of tea, “The star-backed spiders emerge in the castle every thirteth day. Though their greatest numbers are always in the winter months, I have seen an increase beyond that in recent months.”
“It would be because of our...return,” said Luna, “the spiders are partially born of dark magic. Our magic, specifically. They are attracted to any source of it. They crave it. With our return to Equestria, we brought that same magic back before our purification. To an extent, it still lives on in us.”
“Do not fret, Princess of the Night,” said Zecora, “the spiders have yet to harm anypony, despite their numbers, for they are easily discouraged by fire and light.”
Princess Luna sighed, and drained her tea. “Let me know if they start to become more aggressive. I will take care of them.”
“I have culled their numbers before,” said Zecora, “but I will call upon you, should their ranks swell more.”
On the days when Rarity was feeling particularly uninspired, she liked to go through her old designs-after all, one never knew where inspiration might come from. Rarity also liked to look at where she’d been, creatively. This served as both inspiration, for what wonder she would unleash upon the fashion world next, and as warning in some cases.
Today was one of those days, and Rarity was much farther back in her attic than she had been in a while.
“Oh dear,” she muttered to herself, “I shall need such a bath after this.” However, no matter how she complained, she kept moving around her dusty attic, occasionally pulling out what she would deem a travesty of design, to look at them, and try and figure out where she went wrong, or in the rare few cases that passed Rarity’s discerning eye, what she had done so right.
Eventually, she came across an unlabelled box, unusual for her normally meticulous system. It was packed away, right near the outer wall, behind several boxes of dresses that she had made to practice a lace pattern with. The box was light, much lighter than most of the others. Perhaps she had forgotten to fill it up before putting it away. It also lacked the standard moth-repelling spell that Rarity placed on all of her storage.
Now fully curious, she extracted the box from its pile, and levitated it towards the light. Placing it on the floor, she pulled open the top.
“Oh my,” tittered Rarity, as she pulled out the tight purple fabric, “I had almost forgotten about these things.” She twisted the costume around, her critical eye floating over the seams. The costumes were in remarkable shape, much more so than Rarity’s usual dresses. A minute later, Rarity found out why; the entire costume had been made for durability. She remembered talking the design of the costume over with Twilight, how the unicorn had been so adamant about the look of the costume. The hat, though, had been entirely Rarity’s idea.
After that whole debacle with Rainbow Dash had been sorted out, and some semblance of normal life had gotten back into their lives, Rarity had been only mildly surprised when Fluttershy returned hers. Poor Fluttershy had never really been entirely on board with the whole plan to take Rainbow’s head down a notch or seven, so to Rarity, it was no real surprise that Fluttershy had passed her costume back to Rarity.
A little surprising was Applejack passing hers back. Though she had not given a real reason to Rarity beyond ‘just don’t see any point in keepin’ it’, Rarity suspected it was to stop Apple Bloom from pestering her about it. More surprising still was Pinkie Pie giving her costume to Rarity, though from the caked-on flour and encrusted drool, Rarity suspected that Pinkie Pie had been using it to entertain the Cake’s twins, and simply got tired of having it around.
But Rarity had never expected Twilight Sparkle to return hers. Given how adamant the then-unicorn had been about her plan, Rarity was sure that she would never get Twilight’s costume back. But get it back she had, and a confession that though she still didn’t think she was wrong, she admitted that it hadn’t been the best way to go about it.
****Time****
But that had still left Rarity with four costumes, sitting up in her attic. So evidently, she had boxed them up, and forgotten about them. She considered for a moment, taking the costumes out and burning them-the others clearly never wanted to see them again, and Rarity knew that Rainbow Dash would never want to see them. But Rarity was loath to throw anything away, so she simply boxed them back up, and put them back in her attic, this time right at the very back, underneath some of her earliest creations, and there they could stay.
The cloud hall was filled with the subdued muttering of nervous pegasi. Several minutes earlier, they had seen the examiners head into the adjacent room, boxes tucked under their forelegs. The younger pegsai milled about, waiting for the fateful announcement that would call them in for the next two hours of what most would deem cruel and unusual punishment. But shortly before that, a figure that most of the pegasi in the room recognised swept into the room, and landed in the suddenly clear spot right in the centre. The muttering changed from how horrible the next few hours would be to ‘what is she doing here?’ and ‘I thought she already had done this,’ or even ‘I thought she was a Wonderbolt? Don’t they have to have this?’
None of them, however dared to speak too loud. Unfortunately for them, Rainbow Dash had always had excellent hearing; how else would she have ever heard Fluttershy’s cheering otherwise? Looking around, Rainbow recognised a few ponies from the Best Young Flyer’s competition, and a few from her semi-regular visits to CLoudsdale. Still, the knowledge that she was taking the same exam as ponies that were nearly half a decade younger than her was not helping Rainbow’s own nerves.
She’d never thought that she would have to come back here, but Spitfire had said that despite Rainbow’s experience as weather manager of Ponyville, and her learning everything in practice, she had to have the stupid bit of parchment that said she was legally allowed to work weather in Equestria. And Rainbow Dash had said that she would do it, because that little scroll was now just about the only thing standing between her and her dream.
A bell tolled. To most, it was a symbolic death knell. But Rainbow Dash held her head up, and dashed away from the doors.
Two seconds later, she floated through into the main hall, surrounded by a purple glow. She was followed by Princess Twilight Sparkle, who deposited her in a seat near the front. Twilight then smiled at the rest of the hall, waved, and trotted back through the door. The elderly pegasus who was conducting the exam coughed to clear her throat as the doors swung shut.
“Welcome to the Weather Certification Exam,” she croaked, “you will have two hours for this exam, with ten minutes reading time. Nopony may leave in the first hour. Are there any questions?” No hooves went up.
The elderly pegasus coughed again. “Your reading time starts now. Good luck.”
There was the flurry of turning pages, and Rainbow Dash, along with all the recent class of Flight School, began the test that would grant them the ability to work weather in Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle, Dream Diary, Day 14 Post Coronation.
Beginning this log for posterity, as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have both reported that occasionally, they receive prophetic dreams. Princess Cadence cannot recall ever having similar ones, but she has not lived as long. Age of the alicorn may be a factor in the frequency of such dreams. Regardless, it may be interesting to receive an insight into my own dreams, even if they prove not to be prophetic.
-----
Dream Diary, Day 18 Post Coronation.
Subject of dream: unclear. Heavily featured pink and purple. Also featured an odd taste of butter in mouth. Possible meanings: Uncertain.
-----
Dream Diary, Day 24 Post Coronation.
Subject: Pinkie Pie, Rarity and myself. Surroundings appeared to be train carriage, a replay of the events leading up to the National Dessert competition. I had just finished exposing Rarity to Pinkie Pie, but before I could say anything further, Pinkie Pie said that I was such a smarty-pants, but she still loved me. Rarity asserted her agreement. Confused, as neither Pinkie nor Rarity has never indicated strong feelings other than friendship toward myself. Meanings: Perhaps my friends see my intellect as annoying? Will make discreet inquiries.
------
Dream Diary, Day 42, Post Coronation.
Subject: Uncertain. Recall Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being present. Orange, white, pink also featured. Can clearly recall Fluttershy saying ‘Keep doing that, Twilight.’ Meanings: Likely nothing more than recognising that friends are attractive combined with onset of summer.
-------
Dream Diary, Day 66, Post Coronation.
Subject: My friends standing between myself and Tirek. Magicless, forming a barrier as we rise into the air, the power of friendship running through us. Clearly remember a voice whispering that no matter what, we would always be together. Curious, as this was not how the events happened. Meaning: It seems obvious, stating that my friends and I would be together for as long as possible, but there was an undertone in the dream that implied that we would be more than friends.
------
Dream Diary, Day 67 Post Coronation.
Same dream as previous night. Ended with everypony saying ‘I do’. Woke up to Pinkie Pie saying ‘I do I do I do!’ to Spike’s offer of waffles. Coincidence.
-----
Dream Diary, Day 104 Post Coronation.
Subject: I am dressed, in white. The dress is made by Rarity, obviously. I hear mutterings in the background, things which seem to remind me of my Brother’s wedding. I can see my brother, shaking his head and pretending not to laugh. I look at the other five mares around me, and somehow, I feel a sense of completion. As if nothing better than them will ever happen to me. Meaning: Unsure. Have been feeling oddly giddy around friends for the last few months. Requires investigation.
********
Twilight Sparkle watched as a montage of her previous dreams paraded in front of her, blushing at a few.
“Do you not see what this means, Twilight Sparkle?” said Princess Luna.
“I don’t know! I just know that when I’m around them, I feel happier than anything I have ever felt in my life,” said Twilight. Luna sighed.
“I forget, sometimes, the stories my sister has told me about you before you were sent to Ponyville. And perhaps, I am not the princess that you need to talk to.”
“What does that mean?” asked Twilight.
“You are in love, Twilight Sparkle. With all of your friends. It is elementary, when one examines the evidence,” said Luna, “You feel happy, complete, around them. You think of them all the time. Even your dreams are centred on them.”
“But I’m just, well, me!” said Twilight.
“Twilight Sparkle, you are not doing yourself justice. There is something special about you that, with time, ponies come to see. Five ponies, in particular.”
There was a knock on her office door. Sunset Shimmer glanced up, her horn lighting up and levitating the stack of laws that she had to review for the Mayor to one side, and took a second to straighten out her desk. Though she had initially feared the worst about her appointment as official Representative of Canterlot to Ponyville, it had turned out to be a mostly relaxing position. Even her house was paid for.
“Come in!” she called. Applejack strode in and tossed a peice of paper on Sunset’s desk.
“You mind explainin’ what in tarnation your signature is doin’ on this form?” she asked. Sunset levitated the form over for a closer inspection. As she had expected, it was a request for the Apples to expand their farmland. And, as she expected, her signature, along with Mayor Mare’s, was on it, denying the Apples permission. Sunset sighed.
“Look, Applejack,” began Sunset, before she was cut off.
“I don’t know if y’all know this, but we’re not doin’ too fancy. You know how many barns we’ve had to rebuild since the Summer Sun Celebration? Three. Now, I know that you’re from Canterlot an’ all, and you don’t know what it’s like scraping by or how much it costs to run an orchard our size, but we need that expansion or we ain’t turnin’ a profit no more. Granny’s hip ain’t getting any better, Sunset. I thought that you could help me out here, Sunset.”
Sunset blinked, and silence fell between the two ponies for a short time.
“Applejack, you’re requesting to expand into the Everfree,” said Sunset.
“Yeah?” said Applejack. Sunset rubbed the bridge of her muzzle.
“Applejack, the Everfree is protected ground. Neither I, or Mayor Mare can allow anypony to expand their land into the Everfree until it’s been rezoned by Canterlot. Also, you can’t be granted anymore land because there are limits on how much you can have depending on your income,” said Sunset, “and also? Big Macintosh showed me the account books. You are nowhere near not turning a profit, Applejack. You should try listening to him when he talks about that stuff.”
“Oh,” said Applejack, “well, I just made a right fool of myself, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” grumbled Sunset, “was that all?”
“Just about,” said Applejack, “You gonna be at Princess Celestia’s visit later?”
“That’s today?” shrieked Sunset, yanking the calender off her wall, her eyes scanning over dates and attached notes. “Um, sorry, no, many laws to review. Much work. So intense. Bye!”
And with that, Sunset Shimmer levitated Applejack and tossed her out of the door, bolting it shut behind her.
Outside, Applejack picked herself up, and decided that she’d head on over to Sugarcube Corner.
“Wonder if all of Princess Celestia’s students are that twitchy about the Princess?” she mused to herself. “Nah, it’s probably just her,” concluded Applejack.
******
Sunset finally managed to get her breathing back under control, and was about to sit back down and spend a morning (and afternoon) going over Ponyville’s laws when a gilded birdcage knocked her in the side of the head. This was swiftly followed by Fluttershy darting through the open window.
“Oh, um, Sunset Shimmer?” she asked, picking the birdcage and the dilapidated bird within.
“Oww,” groaned Celestia’s student.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you could maybe help me with this?” Fluttershy thrust the birdcage towards Sunset.
“Philomena?” groaned Sunset, rising to her hooves, and searching the small freezer in her office for something cold. “Why do you have Philomena?”
“I just saw this poor little birdy in his cage, and he looked so sick so I just had to help him,” cooed Fluttershy, “but no matter what I try, he never seems to get better. I just thought that since you were Celestia’s student up in Canterlot, you might know more about him.”
“Well, there’s not really much you can do,” said Sunset, finding a tray of ice, and placing it against her head with a sigh. “He’s dying, but,” Fluttershy grabbed the cage, and fled Sunset’s office, sobbing about how she was going to make the bird’s last moments as peaceful as possible. Sunset’s eye twitched.
“But he’s a phoenix, and this is a perfectly normal part of their lifecycle,” finished Sunset with a sigh. She settled back into her chair, holding the ice tray against her head, wincing as she went back to looking over Ponyville’s older laws.
****Time****
“Keeping yourself so busy that you don’t have to see me, Sunset? You did the same thing up in Canterlot,” said Celestia, as she teleported into the office. Sunset fell backwards out of her chair with a scream.
“My, I didn’t know you were that terrified of seeing me, Sunset Shimmer,” giggled Celestia. However, Sunset was too busy being unconscious to reply.
“Sunset Shimmer?” asked Celestia, leaning over the desk, “Oh dear.”
“First we take Canterlot, and then, all of Equestria!” cackled the Changeling Queen
“No,” said Princess Celestia, “you won’t. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self,” Princess Celestia charged forward, locking horns with the Changeling, before retreating and taking to the air, “I can protect my subjects from you!”
Celestia fired a beam of magic from her horn, intercepted at the last minute by the changeling’s own twisted green magic. For a moment, the two were equal, and then Celestia began to push, forcing the collision point of the two beams of magic towards the changeling. But then, somehow, the changeling managed to get the will to begin to fight back, and Celestia could feel the power that she had drained from Shining Armor. Truly, that stallion did love his wife, or the changeling would have never been able to match Celestia.
Unfortunately, her momentary rumination of the Changeling’s power was enough to cost Celestia, and the green beam impacted her horn, forcing her out of the air.
“Princess Celestia!” gasped Twilight Sparkle, rushing to her side.
“Twilight,” hissed Celestia, “point my horn at the observatory. I need to cast one last spell.” Though confused, Twilight had always been a faithful student, and did as Celestia asked. While the Changeling Queen gloated about how she was more powerful than an alicorn, Celestia let off a pulse of magic, attuned so that one pony in particular would feel it.
*****
In the observatory, that pony felt it, and went to perform the most dangerous of dangerous tasks: waking up Princess Luna without coffee present.
*****
Princess Celestia watched the Observatory tower, as the changeling continued to exposit her plan to every pony in the room. In the streets below, she could hear the screams of her beloved ponies, and only hoped that Luna would awaken in time, and would be sufficiently grumpy.
As some of the changelings hoisted Celestia up to be bound in a green cocoon, she saw the side of the tower explode, and smiled.
A streak of blue shot across Canterlot, and four hooves, clad in polished steel, shattered the marble.
The changeling turned to find the younger of the two alicorn sisters glaring at her.
“I have already bested your elder sister,” she said, “I should not need to fight you.” With a wave of her hoof, several changelings piled onto the Princess of the Night. There were several cracks and screams, and when the Changeling Queen turned to face the younger princess again, every single one of her changelings had been torn in half.
“That is funny,” said Princess Luna, levitating a glob of green goo off her back, “because I too, have bested my sister before. You say that like it is difficult to accomplish.”
Inside her green, goopy prison, Celestia would have objected, but she couldn’t speak, because the goop was inside her mouth. She’d be tasting it for weeks.
“My sister is not a warrior, changeling,” said Luna, “she is a diplomat. Likely, she is horribly out of practice and shape from eating too much cake. I, on the other hoof,” continued Luna, casually ripping a ten-meter long stone column from its mount with her magic, “am the warrior of the two of us, and I remain very much in practice. You have five seconds.”
“Huh?” was all the Changeling Queen managed to get out before Princess Luna started swinging the stone column at her.
And, unfortunately, no matter what delusions of grandeur the Changeling Queen had about her magical ability, she was smart enough to recognise that she was not tough enough to survive that column smashing into her.
Fortunately for Luna, however, the Changeling Queen was also not nearly fast enough to get away from Luna, and she ended up as a green smear on the end of the column.
After that, the changelings, now devoid of a queen, fled the city.
“And do not come back!” bellowed Luna, deafening everypony in the room, before dropping her column, and flying back to her tower and her bed.
Celestia stared, impassive. She knew that she should do it, but that didn’t make it any less palatable. Of course, Celestia had a long life. She had done many things that were distasteful, but remained the correct course of action.
She had overseen the beginnings of wars, struck down generals, and signed countless treaties, some of which had been vastly unfavourable to Equestria, just so that her little ponies could enjoy the life they had now. And with every battle started, every life taken and sacrificed, she reminded herself that it was all worth it, to look out of her window into the rising sun and see her ponies waking up in a world in which they did not have to worry about invading griffons, or rampaging chaos beasts most of the time. Ponyville, as it often was, was the exception. The Princess of the Sun narrowed her eyes at the table before her. If she truly wanted, it would take a mere thought, and the offending object would be forever banished from her sight, incinerated in a blaze of celestial fire. If she wanted to.
However, it would not solve her problem. If she burnt the problem away, she would find another replacing it just as quickly, and she would be back in the same position. She could burn that one, but the cycle would keep repeating itself. Celestia amused herself for a moment by attempting to calculate the number of repetitions it would take before she or the other party gave up.
“Hurry up, Celestia,” said Luna, from the other side of the table, “we must change the courts over soon.”
Celestia sighed, and glared at the offending object once more. She levitated her fork, and stabbed it into her salad with all the viciousness that she had once stabbed minotaurs. Luna managed to suppress a sigh, as Celestia chewed and swallowed her salad as quickly as she could.
“One would think that you were still a child, Celestia, given your table manners,” said Luna.
“As if you are in a position to critique,” said Celestia. Seemingly to illustrate her point, Luna took a long, loud slurp of her water.
500 days, and she finally felt that she was ready. Twilight had asked everypony that she knew to help her with this. From Rarity, she had learned patience and forethought. With Spike, she had come to appreciate the value of the simpler things.
Rainbow Dash had taught her that speed had its place, and that there was value in being cautious. Pinkie Pie had given Twilight unpredictability and knowing when to subvert expectations. Applejack had given her the value of a good poker face, and Fluttershy had given her economy of motion. She had read countless books, too, but that was hardly unusual for Twilight, but she would need all the help that she could get.
But her search had not ended with just her best friends. She had asked anypony who was willing, and it had become something of a tradition now in Ponyville to sit with the Princess of Friendship if she wanted to see you for something. Establishing a whole new tradition in 500 days took a little doing, and absolute commitment, but Twilight Sparkle was nothing if not commited to whatever she set her mind to.
Her own brother had taught Twilight that having a strong offense was just as important as defense, Princess Cadence gave Twilight practice at hiding traps within traps, and what they looked like. And finally, Princess Celestia taught Twilight to keep her options open.
But she was ready. Finally, after over a year of practice and study, Twilight Sparkle was ready. She took a breath to steel herself, and sat down opposite Princess Luna, and asked her question.
“Would you like to play chess?”
Princess Luna considered the question. She, of course, had not been blind to Twilight’s efforts over the past year. It was difficult to not be, given Twilight’s close attachement to Celestia.
“Very well, Twilight,” said Princess Luna, a smile flitting across her face, “I shall play you, though I fear I may be slightly rusty.”
Twilight Sparkle smiled, and pulled out her chess set, laying out the peices. Luna requested to be black, and so Twilight Sparkle obliged her. After all, she had spent just as much time perfecting her strategies for either set. She made her first move with all the knowledge that the past 500 days had given her.
****
“Check, and mate, we believe.” said Princess Luna, four moves later. “HUZZAH!”
Twilight Sparkle stared at the board. Either she had made a grave miscalculation at Luna’s skill at chess, or Princess Celestia really had been telling the truth when she said that she wasn’t that good at chess, and Twilight had been using Princess Celestia’s skill to judge Princess Luna’s skill.
Twilight thought for a minute, decided that those two things were, in fact, one and the same, and fell off her cushion and started frothing at the mouth.
Princess Cadence dashed through the trees, swerving around the trees. Branches snapped out at her skin, leaving welts and cuts in their wake. But that didn’t matter. What did matter was getting away from the things that were chasing her. What they were, she didn’t know, though they resembled ponies in shape. But they were very clearly not ponies to Cadence’s senses. She had always been able to get some degree of insight into everything she encountered, thanks to her natural abilities, and these things had been absolutely devoid of everything that made a pony a pony.
And then, the big one had showed up. She had felt closer to a pony than the rest, and for a moment, Cadence had trusted her, but then she had claimed that she could ‘taste’ Cadence’s love, and that such love would feed her hive for generation. That was when Cadence had started running, but that had been hours ago.
Now, she was sore and nearing the verge of exhaustion. Her once frantic gallop had slowed, and in the distance, she could hear the buzz of wings and the pounding of hooves coming closer. It would be here, then, that she made her final gambit. Cadence was no powerhouse like her Aunt Celestia. She couldn’t simply overwhelm the black ponies with sheer magical force. She would have to be cleverer than that, and Cadence’s horn lit up, illuminating the area around her as she prepared to confront her pursuers.
As Cadence looked around, she saw the silhouettes of the pony-like monsters encircling her, though not moving to capture her directly. They looked like they were waiting for something. A moment later, the big female landed, and strolled towards Cadence. The blue glow emitting from her horn intensified, causing the bug-like pony to stop for a moment.
“Don’t you dare come any closer,” panted Cadence.
“Do you honestly think that you can defeat us, little pony?” laughed the big female, “you, against a dozen of the hive’s best trackers and a queen? Oh, but you will be a delicious meal.”
Cadence reeled backwards as the queen resumed her advance, and the two eventually were pressed up against a tree.
“Yes, you will be a fine meal. Tell me your name, and I might remember it when I let the young feast upon you when you no longer have any love left to give us,” hissed the queen.
Instead of answering, Cadence lowered her horn, and blasted the queen in the chest. It was the queen’s turn to take a step back, and she glanced down at her singed chest.
“Perhaps you do have some fight, little pony. But you are still, however, just a pony,” The queen lowered her own horn, and a green blast of magic slammed into Cadence, and slammed her through the tree. The queen trotted over, and glanced down at Cadence’s broken and bleeding body.
“Not so tough, pony. Any normal changeling could have survived that,” said the queen, rubbing a hoof over Cadence’s face. Cadence spat in the queen’s face, and attempted to muster her magic for a final spell. However, all she got off were a few feeble sparks. The queen laughed at Cadence’s attempt, and turned away.
She turned just in time to see two of her drones have their heads slammed into neighbouring trees, and a flash of pink, purple and yellow vanish into the shadows. As another drone was disposed of, the queen reached out with her own magic, gripping the one responsible. An exact mirror of the pony she had been chasing, her horn still glowing and pulsing with magic. The queen glanced back to see the broken body still lying there.
“What are you?” murmured the queen, “you have now piqued my interest.”
“My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and you have made a very terrible mistake,” smiled Cadence.
“I doubt it,” said the queen. With a pulse of magic, she snapped Cadence’s neck, and let the body fall limp to the ground. She was then forced to duck as one, two, three of her drones were thrown at her.
****Time****
“You don’t understand,” said Cadence, waltzing out of a gap between two trees, “each time you kill me,”
“I get better,” smirked Cadence, swooping in to an ungainly landing.
“I get smarter,” said a chorus of Cadences, emerging from the shadows between the trees.
“I am legion,” said Cadence, alighting in a tree above the queen’s head. The queen of the changelings screamed.
********
Princess Cadence sat up from where she had been blasted through the tree from the queen’s very first blast. It had been a simple matter to disguise herself with an illusion, make the queen believe that she had died, though she was far from unhurt. She would be feeling the impact for days. After that, it had all been downhill for the queen of the changelings, whatever a changeling was.
As Aunt Celestia’s magic was inclined to the school of Alteration, Cadence’s was inclined to the school of Illusion. It wasn’t something that Cadence liked to think about, or draw attention to, but the fact remained that she was very effective with illusions. But for now, she had a changeling queen to deal with.
Cadence reached out with her magic, and twisted the illusion she had set up, and the queen screamed and then magically overloaded herself to death. Cadence sighed, and decided that she would have to have another talk with Aunt Celestia when she got back to Canterlot.
“Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine and fifty!” said Twilight Sparkle, dropping her bits into her saddlebag one by one. She had spent the morning counting them out one by one while she waited for her Big Brother Best Friend Forever Shining Armor to wake up, making sure that she had enough. She didn’t want to go to the book store and be left without enough money. That would be silly, and embarrassing. Especially in front of Cadence, who was looking after her today. Her parents were away, and it was just her and Shiny and Smarty Pants and Cadence.
“Oh, Smarty Pants, I can’t wait!” she exclaimed to the little doll, swinging it around, “I’ll have pur-, purch-, bought a book, all by myself! And Mom and Dad will see that I can totally have a bigger allowance so I can by more books.”
“Alright, alright,” grinned Shining Armor, as he trotted down the stairs, “Don’t get ahead of yourself, bookworm. We still have to wait for Cadence.”
Just as he said that, there was a knock at the door.
“We’ll get it!” cried Twilight, dragging Smarty Pants off in her magical grip, racing to the front door. A short moment later, Shining heard the inevitable chant of ‘Sunshine, Sunshine’ begin.
******
Twilight Sparkle skipped down the street, her saddlebag tight against her side. It had been a present from Mom and Dad, as an early birthday present, because Twilight’s birthday would happen while they were away. Twilight had been wearing it whenever she had to go out, as it was embroidered with her brand-new cutie mark.
Unheeding of both Cadence’s and Shining’s calls for her to stay close, Twilight Sparkle skipped on, having memorized the path to the bookstore. A left, then two rights, and another left, and halfway down the street, there it was. Twilight’s third most favourite place in all of Canterlot-Canterlot Books.
The bell tinkled as she pushed the door open, and began walking the stacks of books. There had to be every book in the world here, there were so many. The only time that Twilight had seen more was when Princess Celestia had taken Twilight on a tour of the castle’s library.
But Twilight didn’t know if that library had the book she wanted-the book store did. She knew this because she had been coming here every day for the last ten days, looking at it, and the fifty-bit price tag. She had been carefully saving her money, waiting for the day that she could finally pick up the book, take it to the counter, and with her own money, pay for it.
The bell tingled twice more, as she heard Shining Armor and Cadence enter the store, but Twilight was only after her book. She rounded the last corner to where she knew it would be, looked up at the third shelf and...
It wasn’t there.
Her book wasn’t there. Twilight thought about crying, but she couldn’t, because she was a big girl, as her parents told her, and she wanted to be mature about this, and she was going to be Princess Celestia’s personal student, and she didn’t think that Princess Celestia would want a pony who cried over everything. So instead, she trotted up to the salespony.
“Excuse me,” said Twilight, in her best grown-up, mature voice, “but do you have any more copies of ‘The Schools of Magic’? I would like to purc- buy one, please.” Twilight levitated her fifty hard-saved bits up to the salespony.
“Hang on, little one. Let me check out back,” said the sales pony. He returned a few moments later.
“Sorry, kiddo,” he said, “all sold out. Sold the last one yesterday. I’ll have some more in next week.”
“But-it was supposed to be my book,” murmured Twilight, sitting down.
“And I’m real sorry to tell you this, but you don’t have enough money. The book costs fifty-five bits. You only had fifty.”
“My book,” whimpered Twilight, tears beginning to leak from her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. Not in public. She was going to be mature about this-she was going to be Princess Celestia’s personal student. She didn’t notice when Shining Armor’s magic eveloped her, lifted her onto his back, and they began the trek home. All she could think about was her book. It was going to be a present for herself, a real sign that she was more responsible. She had to get the book today, because tomorrow was her birthday, and the book store was closed.
****Time****
The next day, Twilight was woken up by Shining Armor shaking her.
“Happy Birthday, Twilight!” sang Cadence and Shining, as Cadence bore a cake at the end of Twilight’s bed. Twilight glared at the cake. She rolled over, and pulled the covers up over her head.
“G’way,” grumbled Twilight. Shining Armor sighed, and levitated a wrapped package up.
“Don’t you want your presents?” asked Shining. Twilight poked her head out of her blanket cocoon, and reached out with her magic to grab Shining’s present. Carefully, and maintaining what she thought was a proper grumpy-face, she pulled the wrapping paper off, to find a book.
Pulling the paper down more revealed the name of the book: The Schools of Magic.
Twilight leapt out of bed, crashing into Shining Armor with a hug and a giggle, and all was right in her world.
“Twilight!” cried Fluttershy, as she burst into the central room of Twilight’s new castle, on the verge of tears. “I can’t find Angel Bunny anywhere!”
“Perhaps he’s just visiting some of his relatives?” suggested Twilight, looking up from the book she was pouring over. Fluttershy shook her head.
“No, I’ve already asked all the bunnies around Ponyville. None of them have seen him.”
“Well, where was the last time you saw him?” asked Twilight as she wiped Fluttershy’s face off with a cloth.
“I remember feeding him last night, and then putting him to bed, and he wasn’t there when I woke up to feed the birds this morning,” said Fluttershy, “oh, Twilight, what if he’s hurt, or sick, or even,”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” said Twilight, wrapping a wing around Fluttershy, cutting her short before she could finish the sentence. “He’s probably just curled up somewhere with a big fat carrot.”
“Oh, I hope so, Twilight. I hope so.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get our friends to help. Maybe Rainbow Dash has seen him, while she was flying around.”
“Oh, um, Rainbow Dash isn’t here, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “she said that she had to go to Cloudsdale to sort something out for her Wonderbolt application.”
“Oh, well,” said Twilight, as she lead Fluttershy out of the castle and towards Ponyville proper, “I suppose maybe one of the other pegasi has seen Angel. It wouldn’t hurt to check with them.”
“I really hope we find him soon,” said Fluttershy, “I just get so worried about him when he’s out there on his own.”
********
“You gonna be good?” asked Rainbow Dash, as she lay on a cloud half-way between Ponyville and Canterlot.
Angel stuck his tongue out between the bars of the cage that Rainbow Dash had trapped him in.
In response, Rainbow kicked the spindle of the fishing rod that suspended Angel’s cage, letting him drop several meters with a squeal, before stopping the reel dead with her hoof.
“I can do this all day,” called Rainbow Dash, leaning off the cloud, “and it’s not like I’m gonna run out of line.”
Angel made several rude guestures with his paws, and Rainbow kicked the spindle again. Angel plummeted for ten heart-wrenching seconds before Rainbow’s hoof stopped the line again.
“Really,” said Rainbow, projecting her voice down to Angel, “all day.”
Angel let go of the bars, trying to get his breathing back to normal.
“Cause all you have to do is be a nice to Flutters,” said Rainbow, “and then we never have to do this again. You know,” continued Rainbow after a moment, “there’s plenty of eagles around this part of Equestria. They might appreciate a snack.”
Angel glared up at the cloud where Rainbow Dash rested. He weighed up his options, and then stuck his tongue out again.
Rainbow Dash kicked the spindle again, and Angel screamed as his cage entered free fall for the third time in as many minutes. Then, he felt himself climbing upwards. The rainbow pony was winding in the line.
“You gonna be good?” asked Rainbow Dash, as Angel came level with her eyes.
Angel harrumphed, and crossed his arms. He didn’t have to take orders from this pony.
“Suit yourself,” grinned Rainbow Dash, and she let go of the reel.
Twilight Sparkle trotted out of homestead on the Rock Farm where Pinkie had grown up. She was followed a second later by a burst of streamers and then Pinkie Pie herself.
“I had no idea that getting your father’s blessing would be such an ordeal,” sighed Twilight.
“My dad’s not so bad,” said Pinkie, “mom’s the super-traditional one. But distracting her is hard, so all of us little Pies need to be there.” Twilight nuzzled up against her girlfriend.
“Still, at least that’s all done now. I guess I’m officially part of your family now.”
“Gaaasp!” Pinkie Pie gasped, “Oh my gosh Twilight I totally forgot to introduce you to Granny Pie we can’t get married until you meet Granny Pie!”
Twilight Sparkle blinked, and then shrugged. Dating Pinkie had been weird enough, learning to put up with all of Pinkie Pie’s numerous oddities had been tough, but Twilight Sparkle had gotten through it.
“It’s fine, Pinkie. I’ll meet your Granny Pie. Just tell me the time and place.”
“I’ll take you to her right away!” said Pinkie, bouncing forward and out into the fields. Only once she and Twilight were out of sight of the house did Pinkie stop, sit down, and put the most intense expression of concentration on her face.
Two seconds later, a glowing orange portal ripped itself into existence just in front of Pinkie Pie. And while Twilight Sparkle was sputtering about magic and impossibilities, tentacles composed of negative space and black light yanked her and her marefriend through the portal.
But it was at that point that Twilight Sparkle’s brain gave up on thinking for a while. At least until it decided that it could make sense of what the senses were telling it.
Pinkie let out an exultation of joy as the impossible tentacles pulled her and Twi through impossible existences.
******
“Oh, she’s waking up!” Twilight heard Pinkie say. “Sorry, Twilight. I forgot that the trip here is kinda rough, but it’s the only place where I can meet Granny Pie.”
Twilight opened her eyes. She appeared to be in a void that was entirely composed of alternating parts pink fluffy cotton candy and writhing, twisting, so-black-they’re-bending-light tentacles. Pinkie Pie was standing upside down on a patch of pink cloud.
“Where exactly are we?” asked Twilight. Pinkie replied with a spurt of unpronounceable consonants and clicks.
“Whoops,” said Pinkie with a sheepish grin, “It’s a sub-dimension where I can meet Granny Pie when she’s not slaying eldritch abominations! That’s really all you need to know, Twilight. And speaking of, here comes Granny Pie now!”
Space, if such a thing even existed here, twisted in impossible ways, and with a pop, there was a mare who bore a distinct resemblance to Pinkie Pie, except that she was white, and a pegasus. Twilight fought to surpress a shudder at the thought of a permanently airborne Pinkie. And it was immediately apparent that this was the real matriarch of the Pie family, not Pinkie’s mother. This was the mare who called the shots.
“So,” said the mare, “my granddaughter says that you want to marry her?”
Twilight blinked. Well, she certainly was direct.
“Yes,” said Twilight Sparkle, picking herself up off the floor, “Pinkie is the love of my life, Miss Pie. She makes me,”
“I don’t need to be convinced, Twilight,” said Granny Pie, a smile creeping onto her face, “I’ve heard much about you from Pinkie.” Pinkie nuzzled up against Granny Pie. “Certainly enough to understand how you make her feel. I have only one question, Miss Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship.”
“Yes?” asked Twilight, her breath catching in her throat.
“Will you be good to her?”
“Yes,” said Twilight.
“Excellent!” said Granny Pie, “Now, do you drink tea? It really has been too long since I caught up with my little cosmic horror here, and you should probably meet your future wife’s grandfather.”
As Pinkie Pie waved a hoof that was suddenly a tentacle, space twisted and popped again, and a much larger mass of tentacles made itself known.
“GrEEtINgs, TWilIgHT SParKle,” warbled the eldritch abomination, bypassing Twilight’s ears entirely and going straight into her brain, “I aM PiNKie PiE’s gRAndFATher, He WhO AbHOrs PhYSics.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked. That...explained a whole lot, actually. She sat down, and swirled her tea around her cup.
“Welcome to the Pie Family, Twilight Sparkle,” said Granny Pie, clinking her cup against Twilight’s.
After a moment’s pause, Twilight Sparkle drank her tea in the company of her girlfriend, a slayer of eldritch abominations, and one and a quarter eldritch abominations.
Fluttershy, like most ponies, was afraid of the Everfree Forest. However, Fluttershy, unlike most ponies, regularly made trips inside the wild forest. Almost nopony knew what these trips were for.
Fluttershy crept around a twisted and gnarled tree, slipped under an outstretched branch, and hopped across a small stream. Overhead, the dense canopy rustled with the sounds of wildlife. Birds screeched out from time to time, and the noise of the forest was occasionally punctuated with the sound of something large, angry and with far too many sharp teeth and claws for Fluttershy’s taste. So she kept her steps soft, her voice quiet and her body as small as possible.
It wasn’t until she reached a small clearing with a pond that she relaxed even a little. As she crossed the tree-line, she straightened up, looking around the clearing, and sighed. She always hated coming here, but she knew that she had to. For scattered around the clearing were a number of traps, designed to catch animals. Small, cute, fluffy animals, mostly.
And unfortunately for Fluttershy, today they were mostly full. Each snare held a bunny, who had only come here for food and water. As Fluttershy neared the nearest trap, the bunny began squealing, but its cries for freedom fell on deaf ears.
“I’m sorry, little friend,” whimpered Fluttershy, before placing a hoof on the bunny’s head. With a quick burst of pressure, she snapped its neck, killing it. Fluttershy moved around the clearing, first killing anything that had been caught by the traps, then removing the corpse, and re-setting the snares. It was only after all this work was done did Fluttershy exit the clearing.
The trek back to her forest-edge cottage was a little more fraught with danger. After all, Fluttershy now had to make the trip with a load of bunnies on her back. Fortunately, Fluttershy knew the forest well enough, and managed to make it back without much incident.
Once she had arrived at her cottage, she went straight to the back yard, where her bear friend was resting. He couldn’t hunt by himself right now, thanks to a broken leg, so Fluttershy was taking care of him. And that also included feeding him. Fluttershy wasn’t fond of when she had to host carnivores, but she understood that some animals fed on others. That was just the way the world worked. It seemed cruel to think that she was only killing the bunnies so that she could feed her other friend, but there was really no other way.
So, while her bear friend was sick, it was her job to go and get meat for him. She tried to make it as painless as possible for the poor little bunnies, but sometimes they suffered in the traps before she could get there. She had seen some with broken legs, and a few had even attempted to escape by chewing on themselves.
But the only way that her bear friend would get better was with plenty of food. So to be kind to one friend, she had to be a little cruel to others. And after the bear was better, she would go and apologise to all of the bunny families.
Fluttershy sometimes hated her ability to understand animals.
With regards to your previous letter, here follows my observations on the Elements with regards to recruitment:
Of the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, I can only recommend two for transition to active agents of the Crown. Loyalty is unsuitable in both temperament and skills; In addition, she has made great strides towards joining the Wonderbolts, and is unlikely to be open to offers from us in the future. Honesty has strong ties to her family and her land. It would cause much suspicion if she were to leave for long periods of time. She is also incapable of keeping a secret. Laughter, despite her demonstrated ‘sneaking’ abilities, is also not of the temperament that is required by our work. If necessary, she could be employed as a provisional, one-time agent, though under strict instruction and restrictions.
Kindness would be a good fit for certain operations. From my observations, she is an accomplished veterinarian, and though she may not realize it, also possesses a thorough knowledge of pony anatomy. Were she not so pacifistic, she would be a great asset to the assassination team. As she currently is, however, I would recommend her for the scouting and reconnaissance area. She is already reclusive enough that long absences could be explained away.
Generosity is the other that I would recommend for active recruitment. She is well-versed in the art of social manipulation, and has demonstrated a degree of martial skill. With training, she would be an excellent fit for diplomatic envoys and other, more social operations. Again, she comes with a built-in excuse to explain potentially long absences, by way of her rising fashion career.
I will leave the final decision to you, as always.
Yours, Agent D
******
To Princess Luna,
Regarding your response, I would have thought that Magic would be unavailable for recruitment. It is clear that Sun has her own ideas for Magic’s future.
However, here are my observations: Magic would not be suited for active deployment in any operation. She would be more useful in a support role, most likely in the analytic department, provided she is not allowed to know the full details of what she is looking at.
Magic has more than once demonstrated that she is not mentally ready for high-stress work. She breaks under pressure with disturbing ease-the latest incident (reports 201 A through H, currently being referred to as ‘The Smarty Pants’ incident) show how fragile her mental state can be.
And with regards to your suggestion that she only be brought on if we are dealing with abnormal levels of magical opposition, I will say that there is a reason we recruit Null Mages, and that we have never encountered such things before.
I will invite you to visit Ponyville on Nightmare Night, such that you may observe the bearers for yourself.
Yours, Agent D
****Time****
To Princess Luna,
In the wake of the wedding, and under your orders, we have conducted a full sweep of Ponyville. No changelings have been discovered, though we shall maintain a closer watch in the months to come. Both Agent F and I suspect that the Changeling queen (Temporary codename: Chrysalis) will take multiple moons to recover her strength and swarm size.
However, reports from Los Pegasus and Dodge Junction have both confirmed sightings of black, bug-like ponies skulking around the outskirts in the badlands. An increase in Royal Guard postings to that region may discourage the Changelings for a while longer.
And once more, I must remind you that Magic is not suitable for field operation recruitment. I will concede that on occasion, all of the Bearers may be employed as specialist operatives, but only Kindness and Generosity have shown the right combination of personality and skills to be full operatives.
As one final note, I am beginning to fear that my cover may be compromised. Several of my co-workers at the post office may suspect that I am not exactly who I say I am. It may just be post-invasion paranoia, and it may not. I will keep you informed of developments, though I may need a new cover job soon.
Iron Will, famed motivational speaker and motivator of ponies all across Equestria, currently had a problem. He’d been visiting a friend in Canterlot, and in the process of picking up a gift for said friend, because Iron Will did not visit friends without some form of appreciation, he had encountered a difficulty.
Due to Iron Will’s size and shape, it was a bit of a process for him to get into most pony doors. After all, they were built for ponies, not someone of his magnificent stature. And Iron Will had gotten stuck. And unfortunately, as Iron Will’s first few flexes had proven, the door frame was made of metal. Usually, when this happened, the door was made of wood, so he could flex his way out of the doorframe. Afterwards, he would apologise, and pay for the repair.
“If you are blocked, show them that you ROCK!” roared Iron Will, flexing his muscles again. Several seconds of the minotaur grunting and straining followed. Muscle fought against metal. Muscle lost.
“Buddy, that didn’t work the last four times you tried, it ain’t gonna work this time,” called the shopkeeper, as Iron Will sagged down, his muscles un-flexing.
“Iron Will will not be late for his meeting,” said Iron Will, “Iron Will always keeps his appointments, and cannot miss this one.”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, the fireponies are on their way, probably with a bucket of grease. Just hang tight. Not like you have a choice, though.”
“What?” said Iron Will, “were you making fun of Iron Will? Because if you try to poke fun, Iron Will will send you to the sun!”
The shopkeeper lapsed into silence for a while, and Iron Will resigned himself to the fact that he was not going to be on time. At least he had managed to pick up the gift before he’d gotten stuck on leaving the shop.
Four hours, two sawblades and three exhausted ponies later, Iron Will was free. After his usual apologies, and leaving his details for the shopkeeper to charge for the replacement of his door, he headed off to meet his friend at last.
Iron Will walked through Canterlot, taking great care to avoid any low-hanging objects, and eventually arrived at his friend’s house. Bending down, he knocked on the door.
“My word!” exclaimed Fancy Pants once he opened the door, “What in Equestria happened to you, Iron Will?”
“Iron Will got into a fight with a door. Iron Will did not win.”
“Ah, I see,” said Fancy, “Well, don’t just stand there, do come in. I am afraid that we don’t have lunch ready, for obvious reasons, of course, but I can get something whipped up for you in a jiffy.”
“That would be good. Iron Will has not eaten since this morning.”
And so, Iron Will began the process of getting through the door. However, perhaps because he was not paying attention, he twisted the wrong way, and soon found himself wedged in another doorway. An experimental flex of his muscles told Iron Will that he was not going to flex his way out of this doorway, either. When Fancy Pants came back, he simply sighed, and went to get a pony to go and get the fireponies.
“Rainbow, we are not naming our foal ‘Sonic Rainboom’.”
“But if it wasn’t for me doing a Sonic Rainboom, you would have never realized that you totally had the hots for me.”
“The truth of that aside, Rainbow Dash, my word on this is final. You are not naming our foal after any one of your tricks.”
“Fiine. What about Bolt?”
“Now you are just assuming that we are having a pegasus. Personally, I rather like Amethyst.”
“Isn’t that Twilight’s middle name?”
“Your point is made, dear. How about ‘Gentle Rose’?”
“Bleh. I would honestly change my name to Amethyst rather than call my foal that and that wasn’t a challenge, Rare.”
“Spoil my fun, why don’t you. What would you say to ‘Sweetwater’?”
“Why does that name sound...you want to name the foal after the place we first had sex?”
“It was just a suggestion!”
“What about ‘Speedy Stitches’? So, if it takes after you, our foal can use ‘Stitches’, and if it takes after me, which it will because I’m just that awesome, it can use ‘Speedy’.”
“Sometimes, I do wonder how there is ever room in your heart for me, given how much you love yourself, Rainbow.”
“Hey, I love myself so much that I gave it all to you. This morning, in your bed. And the shower. And the kitchen. Over, and over, and over again.”
“Ahem, well, yes. What about ‘Morning Surprise’?”
“That’s what I did to you this morning. I’m sticking with Speedy Stitches, but only ‘cause you won’t let me name them after a Wonderbolt or one of my awesome moves.”
“Excuse me, miss Rarity, miss Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes, doctor?”
“I have the results of your test with me.”
“Oh, excellent! Do carry on, dear sir.”
“After analysing your scans, I can confirm that you will be the mother of a pegasus filly...”
“Yesss!”
“Rainbow, be quiet!”
“...and a unicorn colt.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
“Twins? What the heck are we supposed to do with twins?”
“Love them, care for them, be good parents.”
“You know what I meant, Rare. We only ever planned for one kid. Great, now we have to name two kids!”
“I suppose that this is what you get for being so awesome, Rainbow.”
“Har de har, Rare. Hey, since one of our kids is a pegasus, does that mean...”
“No, Rainbow, you cannot name her after a Wonderbolt.”
“Don’t you think you’re taking this a bit far, Rarity?” asked Twilight Sparkle, as the rain pelted down outside.
“Do you not think I haven’t tried, Twilight? She simply refuses to listen to me!” said Rarity, catching her tail in her magic, and twisting it, wringing all the water out of it and into the kitchen sink. “Everypony else, she talks to normally, but me, she ignores!”
“Maybe she’s just waiting for the right words,” said Twilight. As if to punctuate her point, a bolt of lightning lanced out from the clouds above, and struck Rarity’s mailbox, reducing it to a pile of smouldering ash.
“Be that as it may, Twilight, she is driving away my clients. Nopony wants to have to walk through a storm to reach my boutique.”
Twilight sighed. Beyond the haze of rain, she could see what was plainly a normal day in Ponyville going on. On her way here, it had been a pleasant enough morning, with a few scattered clouds. It was only just around the Boutique that the storm raged.
“Rarity, you know what she wants to hear,” said Twilight, with another sigh, “just tell her, she’ll yell at you for a minute, and she’ll disperse the storm.”
Most of the ponies who knew Rainbow Dash could tell you two things about her: One, she was obsessed with the Wonderbolts, and two, she had a heck of a temper. Annoy Rainbow Dash, and you could find yourself being maliciously pranked for anywhere between a week and a month. The localised thunderstorms, however, were reserved for the ponies who had done something almost unforgivable.
Counting this one, Twilight had seen two. The other one had hovered over Filthy Rich’s house for a week after Diamond Tiara had said something to Scootaloo.
“She’ll know it isn’t genuine, dear,” said Rarity, towelling off her tail in a futile attempt to get it back to its usual state, “and I suspect that that’s half the problem. She knows that I think I did the right thing, so she’ll know that any apology I offer her is not going to be totally sincere.”
Rarity collapsed back onto her fainting couch.
“But the absolute worst part, darling, is how quickly she’ll forgive me. Ten seconds flat. The minute I say the right words, all will be forgiven, and then she’ll kiss me and then I, in my stupid generous nature, will do something just as stupid as this again, and we shall be right back here again. I think, sometimes, that she’s too good for me, Twilight.”
Twilight blinked, attempting to process the new information.
“But Rainbow, she just makes my heart soar, if I may use a tired cliché,” said Rarity, “and I want nothing but the best for her, but I forget that she has her own way of doing things, and they don’t always mesh with my ideas, and we’ll end up back here again.”
“Perhaps,” said Twilight, “you should tell her that.”
“You know what, I think I shall,” said Rarity. She picked herself up off the couch, strode out the door. For a few minutes, Twilight heard muffled conversation, and the rain momentarily stopped.
Thirty seconds later, the rain started up again even harder than before, there was the crack of lightning, and Rarity raced back inside with her tail on fire.
“I seem to have found the exact wrong words,” said Rarity, as she dumped her tail in the kitchen sink and twisted the faucet on, “but, it is progress!”
Rarity held her breath as the changeling guard trotted down the corridor. It had been a mere stroke of the purest luck that had allowed her to evade being put into one of those horrid green pods. Who knew what the muck would have done to her mane. How she had been captured in the first place, however, was still a mystery. All she could remember was putting Sweetie Belle to bed, then heading to bed herself. She supposed that the changelings must have broken into her house, and kidnapped her then. However, that was not the important thing right now.
She had to find Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends. She had to get out of here, and Twilight would have a plan. As Rarity peeked around another corner, she could hear voices carrying on the stale air contained in the tunnels. It sounded like Twilight and Rainbow Dash, at least, were already free. Rarity sighed with relief. If Twilight was free, then it would be all right. They could find the rest of their friends, and get help from the Princesses to clear out the changelings from these caves.
Rarity pulled her head back behind the outcrop of rock that she had been peeking around, and found herself face to face with a changeling. For a moment, neither Rarity nor the changeling knew what to do. Then they charged at each other.
******
Twilight Sparkle sighed.
“Rainbow Dash, you shouldn’t go charging off like that. Who knows what’s in these tunnels?”
“There’s nothing around here, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash, “besides, Applejack should be back with Flutters and Pinkie soon. Then we just have to find Rarity, and get the heck outta here!”
“I’m with Rainbow on this one, Twilight,” said Applejack, emerging out of a side tunnel. Fluttershy slunk close behind her, and Pinkie bounced just behind the both of them. “The sooner we’re out of this place, the better I’ll feel.”
Just as Twilight was about to reply, a noise from another tunnel caught her attention. She held up a hoof, and the other four instantly quietened. They waited, and at length Rarity became visible to the group. Once she caught sight of them, she rushed the last few steps into the dim light of the open space. Her normally immaculate coat was scuffed and stained with dirt and a few bruises.
“Oh, girls,” said Rarity, wrapping Twilight in a hug, “I was so worried for you! Who knows what these terrible beasts are up to, but never mind that. We need to find a way out of this absolutely dreadful place. I simply cannot wait to get to a spa.”
“Rarity,” said Twilight, “are you feeling alright?”
“Oh, I am most assuredly, dear. A little worse for wear cosmetically, naturally, but nothing that a nice soak won’t fix. But I will say, that this little event has made me realize something. I love all of you. I love all of you with all of my heart, and I know it does seem a little cliché, but I really do think that if any group could manage a six-way relationship, it is us.”
Rarity paced in front of the group, her eyes flicking to each of the ponies in front of her.
“I cannot put a specific time on when I began to like all of you as more than friends, but I know that I would rather be put into one of those terrible, icky pods than live the rest of my life without you girls.”
“Rarity,” said Applejack, “That’s real sweet of ya, but we’re friends. Nothin’ more. You sure you’re feelin’ okay?”
“Girls, I think Rarity’s been replaced by a changeling,” said Twilight Sparkle, her horn sparking to life, “don’t let it fool you.”
“Au contraire,” said Rarity, a smile spreading across her lips, and her own magic flickering to life, “I think that it is you who are changelings.”
******
“As it turned out, I had stumbled into a group that was setting out to replace us. My best guess is that they would use a changeling disguised as me to lure all of you girls to a party at Carousel Boutique, and replace you then,” said Rarity, as she relaxed in the tub at the Ponyville Spa. “It was pure luck that I encountered them before their version of me arrived.
The rest of her friends sat around Rarity, listening to her tell them about her kidnapping.
“But how did you know they were changelings?” asked Twilight.
“It was difficult. They had studied each of you extensively, had most of your mannerisms down, but they were unaware that I had confessed my love for all of you a week earlier, and Rainbow Dash hasn’t quite been able to keep her hooves off me since.”
Rainbow, who had been edging closer and closer to Rarity throughout her story, had the decency to look half-ashamed and shrug. Then her hoof vanished back under the water, and Rarity had to fight back a blush.
“They assumed that because I was telling them that I loved them, that I was a changeling and wanted to feed off their love. I have no idea why they didn’t break character and tell me if they assumed me to be a changeling. Perhaps they had been instructed not to, no matter what. Still,” said Rarity, leaning fowards to wrap her friends in a hug, “It doesn’t really matter now. I am just glad to be back to civilisation.”
Welcome, all of you. I’m sorry if you were expecting Princess Celestia to give you your welcome speech, given that this is her school, but she traditionally gives the graduation speech. In addition, she has been detained by a baking contest.
However, I stand before all of you today not as an Element of Harmony, nor as the Princess of Friendship, and not even as an alicorn. I stand before you as a graduate of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I suppose that it’s common knowledge that I was Princess Celestia’s personal student, but what most ponies don’t know is that that position also requires a very greatly accelerated progression through the standard coursework of the School for Gifted Unicorns. I graduated in three and a half years what takes most other ponies five. With first-class honours, even.
However, today is not about me. Today is about you. The School for Gifted Unicorns accepts only the highest quality of applicants, and each of you here must have demonstrated something truly exceptional to be accepted. Whether that’s pure academic and theoretical knowledge, or exceptional control, or even pure raw power beyond your years, you should feel proud that you have made it here. And I can promise, that no matter what your skill, within these walls, you will find something that will challenge you. Perhaps, in this very group, is Princess Celestia’s next personal student.
But no matter what your differences, no matter how you earned your admission, I can instantly tell you all have one thing in common: a love for magic. A desire to learn about magic for magic’s sake, and this is a good thing. Many of the graduates of the School for Gifted Unicorns have gone on to pen revolutionary theories. Others still reach the lofty height of ‘Arch-Mage’, the trusted advisors to both Solar and Lunar courts. For those among us with a more practical bent, many graduates have gone on to serve with the Royal Equestrian Battlemage Division.
I look around this room, and I see potential. There could be another Meadowsong, or Clover the Clever among this group. Or, to borrow a phrase from Professor Thought Experiment, there could be another Twilight Sparkle in here. If you ever take Theoretical Magic, ask him about it.
Now, I have a few words for the parents here. The next few years will be difficult, for everypony. The School has demanding standards. Support your child as best as you can, and do not let them give up. To be selected means that the teachers think you have what it takes to complete the School’s rigorous curriculum, and they are not often wrong. But do not let magic and studying consume their lives; it is a lesson I myself was nearly too late in learning. With proper focus, I am confident that all of your children can go onto great things.
And now, a few words to the students. Again, the school has demanding standards. Your knowledge will be tested like it never has been before. You will be forced to think on your hooves, adapt and change and use magic in ways that you never even thought possible before. But remember, the teachers are here to help you, but they will not feed you the answers, for the best mages are the ones who can reason themselves out of any situation. And know that no topic of magic is ever off-limits for discussion. The School, Princess Celestia and I all believe that magic is not meant to be feared, and that the only way to remove that fear is to understand it completely.
For my closing statement, I would like to offer a piece of wisdom from a very good friend of mine. ‘It’s the young generations’ job to learn everything they can from the older ponies; both from their successes, that they might stand upon the shoulders of giants and see farther than ever before; but also from their mistakes, such that they might never make the same error.’
The field of magic will never progress without young minds to think the thoughts that the established would never dare to. They are the metaphorical fresh blood, needed to renew and refresh our understanding of one of the fundamental forces of our world.
I wish all of you all the best for the coming years. I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, and maybe in a few years, we can sit down and have a cup of tea and talk magic together.
One thousand years. The number rang in her head constantly. One thousand years. Of course, it was really just a drop in the bucket that was her lifespan. She wouldn’t fade out until the very last moment, before the absolute final end.
But a thousand years alone, without her sister, had been torture. No other pony could truly comprehend the sheer enormity of time the way they did. Well, perhaps Discord could, but there was a good reason why they had never asked him about such things, even in the before times. Also, that would mean setting him free. One thousand years of being the static ruler of Equestria. One thousand years of the same adornments, one thousand years of the same problems with neighbouring nations, the same uppity nobles, the same political manoeuvring.
Celestia, like her sun, was unchanging and constant. Oh, there had been experiments. In the early two hundreds, she’d managed to wrangle her hair into a style so impossible that two architects had gone mad trying to figure out its geometry. In the five hundreds, she had attempted to shave her mane entirely; it had grown back the next day, and she’d decided it was far too much work to keep doing. And in the late seven hundreds, she’d dyed her entire body pink for a year, just to see if the nobles would follow suit. They had. But despite these, Celestia never changed. Underneath the golden crown and shoes, behind the floating mane, Princess Celestia was still the same mare she had been when she turned on her sister and banished her. She felt locked in time, a piece of ancient history preserved and still walking around.
She had been standing on the observatory’s balcony when the moon flashed, and then everything went black for her.
When she recovered her sight, the very first thing she did was raise the sun. She could feel, for the first time in a thousand years, the familiar signature of her sister’s magic.
With a flash, and a teleport, she appeared in the old castle in the Everfree Forest. Celestia had been locked into the same patterns since the banishment of her sister, fearing that if she changed, her sister would not recognise her when she got back.
But now, Luna was back, and as her younger sister nuzzled into her chest, Celestia felt that maybe, just maybe, she could start to not be the immortal, eternal and unchanging ruler that the history books always talked about.
Queen Chrysalis stared at the slowly pulsing green pod. No expression crossed her face. Not even when the pod began to splinter and crack did she make even the slightest change to her face.
It had been the Canterlot debacle that had forced her to do this. Chrysalis, for all of her ambition, planning and shapeshifting talent, had neglected to consider one very important question: what if she was defeated? What if she was killed?
Above all else, Chrysalis was a survivor. She had survived the blast at the end of the wedding, and while her forces were not yet back up their former numbers, she was no stranger to the concept of laying low. Her hive, with the reduced numbers, could subsist on what food they had for a while yet, but her defeat at Canterlot had forced Chrysalis to consider the questions that she never had to before. Inside the green pod, something scratched and pushed at the membrane. With a mental flex, she directed two of the nearby birthing chamber assistants to begin stripping away the outer layers.
Chrysalis was a survivor, but she was queen. That meant that she had to think about the future of the hive. And that meant doing something that she had refused to for a long time: producing a changeling Princess. They existed for one sole purpose: to take over the hive when the previous queen died. Prior to this, Chrysalis had always preffered breeding more drones, because drones couldn’t think. They couldn’t question, and a princess could. A princess could reason, and argue. Of course, they couldn’t simply take control of the hive, but they couldn’t be issued orders through the collective mind either.
And more to Chrysalis’s sensebilities, they were largely useless for most of the time. Chrysalis was not fond of things that didn’t have a use. Some of the other queens in the past had had multiple princesses, but Chrysalis only wanted the one. It had been a long and arduous process, getting the mix of chemicals in the pod just right to produce this single changeling.
As the drones finally burst through to the semi-liquid centre of the pod, the new born changeling Princess spilled out onto the floor. Still uncaring and impassive, Queen Chrysalis stepped forward, until the princess lay at her hooves.
“Mother?” hissed the changeling princess. Chrysalis sneered. It looked weak, but she was not going to go through the whole process again to get a better one. It would have to do. Besides, it was not like Chrysalis would ever need it, but it was good to have a weak princess as opposed to no princess.
“No,” said Chrysalis, “I am your Queen. You are Cocoon, since you were so reluctant to be removed from yours. Now, don’t bother me. I have an invasion to plan.”
It was harsh, perhaps, to simply leave the princess there, she mused, as she stalked off, heading back to her throne room, but Chrysalis believed that experience was the best teacher. She didn’t have time to raise a weak, silly little princess, and once she conquered the world, she would have it killed.
To be a little more precise, Twilight Sparkle stopped breathing at a quarter past eleven on a Tuesday morning. It was, if she dared say so herself, a fine day in Ponyville. She had been having lunch with two of her friends, when her rather over-enthusiastic bite of her daisy sandwich had travelled down her throat the wrong way, blocking her airway.
“Damn it!” said Twilight Sparkle. “Hold on a minute, girls.”
With that, Twilight Sparkle pulled her head off, and magicked the offending piece of sandwich out of her throat. She then placed her head back on her neck, and a quick healing spell reattached it to the somewhat decaying flesh of her neck. Then she popped the sandwich bite back in her mouth, and made sure to chew more thoroughly this time, before swallowing.
“So, Posey, how’s your sewing coming along?” said Twilight Sparkle, taking a sip of water that spilled out of the hole in her cheek. Twilight frowned. She really had to fix that one of these days.
“Oh, it’s coming along pretty nice,” muttered the young earth pony, who took after her grandfather far more than her grandmother in terms of colour, her red coat contrasting sharply with her light pink mane, “I’ve really been getting the hang of the cross-stitch, so Granny Bloom reckons I c’n help out with the next patch on the Apple Family quilt.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” said Twilight, “Do you have a design in mind?”
“I was thinkin’ about something about my grandparents,” said Posey, who was deliberately not looking at Twilight, “there’s nothing on the quilt about them yet, so I wanted to be the first, cause grandma Fluttershy was part o’ the family too.”
Twilight Sparkle tilted her head. It nearly fell off for a minute, but a hit from Twilight’s hoof knocked it back into place.
“Posey, are you okay? Is something bothering you?”
“It’s you,” said the pegasus sitting next to Twilight, her rainbow mane tied back into a slick ponytail, “and no offense, but she hasn’t had as long as us to get used to your...nature, Twilight. It’s a little unnerving seeing you take your head off like that.”
“Oh my gosh, Posey, I had no idea!” said Twilight Sparkle, “I’m terribly sorry, I do occasionally forget that not everypony is as used to my situation as I am.”
“Hey, I think it’s totally wicked!” grinned the pegasus.
“Speedy Stitch, you are not helping,” said Twilight Sparkle, hissing out the side of her mouth.
“I’m fine, really,” said Posey, still not looking directly at Twilight, “I just need a little more time to get used to it.”
Twilight smiled as kindly as she could manage.
“Well, in that case, lunch is on me. You two enjoy yourselves, I have to go reorganise the fiction section again. I’ll see you two later!” said Twilight, vanishing in a blast of purple sparks.
She arrived in her castle’s library, and her wings promptly fell off.
“I really need a better preservation spell,” she muttered, her magic snagging her wings, and reattaching them to her sides. In the same motion, she grabbed a biscuit from a nearby jar for her to chew on while she researched.
But as she pulled ‘So You’re A Lich, A Guide For Dummies’ down from its spot on the shelf, Twilight noticed that her quills were out of alignment, and she gasped in shock.
Unfortunately, she was still chewing on her biscuit, and it lodged in her throat, and Twilight Sparkle stopped breathing again.
The door to Moon Dancer’s house slammed into Minuette’s face, and she reeled back, nursing her injured nose. Behind her, Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts steadied their friend.
“I told you to leave me alone!” yelled Moon Dancer, “Just give up. I don’t need friends anyway. Just let me study.”
“Okay,” said Twinkleshine, “if you’re sure that’s what you want, Moon Dancer.”
“I’m sure!” said Moon Dancer, “now stop bothering me!”
With that, the three plodded away from the door.
“She’s been really down since that party,” said Minuette, “I thought she’d bounce back, but I guess not.”
“Well, what do you expect? Moon Dancer put everything into that party, and Twilight blows her off? She was devastated when Twilight didn’t turn up,” said Lemon Heart, pulling open the door to Donut Joe’s. They were all in need of the comfort of sugar and fried dough.
“Yeah, but it’s not like that’s unusual, though. She’s been doing that since we’ve known each other. It’s just how Twilight is. Give her a few more weeks, and she’ll remember us again,” said Twinkleshine, dabbing her mouth with a napkin to get rid of the chocolate sauce from her donut.
The three collectively sighed, and sat in silence for a while.
“Moon Dancer’s feeling down, And Twilight’s left the town, It was just a small party, but now it’s a catastrophe.” sang Minuette, taking a breath before continuing,
“Oh Twi, Oh Twilight,” chorused the three mares.
“Twilight now lives in Ponyville, and Moon Dancer’s looking ill. She’ll study her days away, We’ll never have another picnic day,” warbled Lemon Hearts, dabbing at her eyes.
“Oh Twi, Oh Twilight,” chorused the three mares again, and Lemon Heart and Minuette turned to face Twinkleshine.
“Losing friendships, it’s kind of hard to do. But Twilight Sparkle, she hasn’t got a clue what she meant to Moon,” sung Twinkleshine.
“To Moon, Moon Dancer,” chorused the three friends. “To Moon, Moon Dancer.”
The three mares sighed again.
“Twilight’s not coming back, is she?” asked Twinkleshine, as she bit into another chocolate-frosted donut.
“I doubt it,” said Lemon Hearts, “all the palace staff have been saying that Twilight’s taken up permanent residence in Ponyville. Still communicates with Princess Celestia, so I guess she’s on an assignment or something.”
“Probably to make friends, is my guess,” grunted Minuette, “I remember her complaining about Princess Celestia saying something similar before. And let’s be honest; Twilight’s not exactly the best friend in the world.”
Both Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts nodded.
“Still, it was nice while it lasted, I guess,” said Lemon, “But I think we all knew that this day would come.”
“Yeah. Right now, I kinda dislike Twilight Sparkle, and I just want to drown my soul in donuts and coffee,” said Twinkleshine. The other two nodded their agreement, and they proceeded to eat most of the display stock.
“And so then Luna, at the top of her lungs, yelled ‘For Equestria! Buck Yeah!’, and then pierced a hole in a nearby barrel with her horn, and proceeded to drink the entire contents. As I discovered later, the barrel had been filled with an extremely strong drink distilled from potatoes,” said Princess Celestia, taking a chug of her cider. Twilight alternated between looking at Princess Celestia, her own drink untouched, and staring at Princess Luna, who was engaged in a game of darts with Cadence.
“She then proceeded to commit all number of social and diplomatic faux pas. Fortunately, I was able to talk them out of going to war, but their borders remained closed to us for a very long time. And that is the story of the last time we directly interacted with the Yaks,” finished Celestia, draining her mug. “She didn’t really actually say ‘buck’ either, but a word that rhymes with it, but I am a pretty, pretty princess and cannot swear in public spaces.”
And just like that, Celestia toppled forwards, her head only just saved from slamming into the table by Twilight’s magic catching it.
“Huzzah!” said Luna, from over by the dartboard, “I have won!” Cadence grumbled something under her breath, and both made their way back to the table that they were sharing with Twilight and Celestia.
“It would appear that Celestia has passed out again,” said Luna, “she never did have a high tolerance for alcohol. Do you know what this calls for?”
Twilight and Cadence shared a look for a moment.
“Does it call for us taking Princess Celestia home and calling it a night?” asked Twilight.
“No! It calls for us to drink more!” said Luna, “Barkeep, bring out your strongest drink!”
“No!” yelled both Cadence and Twilight.
For a moment, everything paused. The bartender, not sure which of the princesses he was supposed to listen to, ducked beneath the counter. Then Luna magically picked up Twilight, Cadence, and the sleeping Celestia, and shoved them out of the door.
“F**k yeah!” yelled Luna, as the bartender delivered her the strongest drinks he had available.
Outside, Twilight sighed.
“Well, that’s another bar we can’t go back to again,” she said, levitating Celestia onto her and Cadence’s backs. “Let’s at least get Princess Celestia back to the castle.”
It was a fine day in Ponyville, though it stopped just short of shimmering. So, naturally, Twilight Sparkle was outside, experimenting with her magic. Now that she was an alicorn, a whole new class of spells were available to her for experimentation and study. She couldn’t wait to get started, and so decided on something simple to start with, just to make sure that she still had a handle on her magic. Something to burn off a bit of magic, giving her a bit more control over whatever she cast next.
*******
Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo flitted around town, delivering various small packages and letters. Not that she blamed them; the incident a while back with a piano and an anvil falling on Twilight Sparkle had not cast her in a positive light for most of Ponyville for a while, and ponies were still a little nervous about giving her heavy objects to shift.
Gliding into a slightly awkward landing, Ditzy slipped her muzzle into her bag, and extracted a couple of letters, and shoved them into the letterbox. Just as she was about to turn around, there was an impossibly loud hum, and for a couple of seconds, Ditzy felt really warm. But it faded quickly, and Ditzy turned around to take off, but her mouth dropped open instead.
In place of the street, there was now a several meter deep channel, a perfect semicircle, which was still smoking. All along the sides, Ditzy could see ponies hovering at the edge of the new crater, some still shaking from their mad dash to get out of the way of whatever this had been.
Instantly, Ditzy spoke up.
“It wasn’t me! At least, I don’t think it was.”
********
Rainbow Dash was giving her standard ‘here’s your job in five minutes’ speech to a few new members of the Ponyville weather patrol when the hum caught her ears. It passed below her soon enough, and she shrugged, and moved on.
It was only when she noticed the new ponies were staring at her with open mouths that Rainbow Dash looked down. Directly below her was a new street-wide channel, and whatever had caused it had also singed off most of her tail. Rainbow traced the channel back to its source, and slapped a hoof over her face.
“You lot, start clearing the clouds over town hall. I have to go talk to Twilight. Again,” grumbled Rainbow, flying towards the crystal castle at the edge of town.
By the time that Rainbow Dash had arrived, Twilight Sparkle had retreated into her castle, most likely because of the small mob that was already forming outside the main doors. Fortunately, Rainbow knew that Twilight never locked the top window.
“Twilight, you mind telling me what the heck that was?” called Rainbow Dash, floating down into the central chamber.
“It was supposed to just be a little something to burn off some magic!” said Twilight, her voice echoing around the corridors.
“A little magic?” asked Rainbow, “Twi, you burnt a hole from here to the Everfree forest. Straight down Main street.”
“I don’t know how it happened, okay?” said Twilight, her voice getting less and less echo as Rainbow made her way to Twilight’s bedroom. “It was like my magic got into a positive feedback loop, and then I couldn’t contain it anymore.”
“And what’s that mean for the rest of us non-eggheads?”
“I was using more magic than I could safely control. I just don’t get how that happened. Did I cast the spell wrong?” asked Twilight, as Rainbow opened the door to Twilight’s bedroom.
“I don’t know about that, but right now you have a whole load of ponies out there who need to know what happened. And Twi? I suggest you keep it to small words.”
“But what do I say?” asked Twilight.
“Just say that you were experimenting with some ancient spell or something, and you got something a bit wrong. And then you’re going to go and get Applejack and the rest of us, and we’ll fill in the new hole that was the street,” said Rainbow Dash, “and promise that the next time you do something like this that you’re pointing your horn in the other direction.”
“Alright Wondercolts,” said Rainbow Dash, giving her shirt a shake to dislodge the countless flies that had landed on her back in the moment that she’d been still, “That’s all for today. A few more practices like that and we’re definitely going to take the championship this year! Cloud Chaser, you mind taking the equipment back to the storage shed and locking up? You know where to return the key.”
“Sure thing, Rainbow,” called Cloud Chaser, heading off to a shed near the soccer field, hauling an equipment bag behind her. As she did so, Rainbow pulled her own soccer ball from her bag, and began to dribble it up and down the field, before stopping at the mid-field line. She hadn’t gotten a chance to practice her long kicks this session, and if she could score the occasional goal from the mid-field line, that would be another advantage.
“Stupid flies,” grumbled Rainbow, waving her hand over her face. It wasn’t even that far into summer, and already she was getting swarmed with flies. She reminded herself to ask Applejack if there was a season or something for flies once she was done.
Two kicks later, and Rainbow had given up. She could barely hear herself think with all the stupid flies buzzing around her head. In frustration, she slapped her hand against her cheek, hoping to catch one.
“Ow!” That had not felt like a fly. Flies didn’t cause stabs of pain when Rainbow normally slapped them. Pulling her hand off her cheek, Rainbow looked down to see, instead of the usual specks of red and black, what looked like tiny peices of metal.
“What the heck?” muttered Rainbow Dash. As she was inspecting the tiny metal bug, the buzzing of the flies intensified, and another girl walked onto the soccer field, and headed for Rainbow.
“Oh hey,” called Rainbow, looking up from her hand, “You know what’s up with all these flies? They’re made out of metal and weird stuff, too.”
“You will be useful,” said the girl, who looked like she had pitch-black skin. Green hair draped over her face.
“Uh, what?” asked Rainbow, taking a step back.
“Drones report that you possess above-average to exceptional physical capabilities. You will be assimilated into the Swarm,” said the girl, taking another step forward, and reaching up and parting her hair with her hand. Solid green eyes glared out at Rainbow, and the buzzing intensified, though Rainbow found that she didn’t mind it so much. It was almost comforting, somehow.
“Surrender to the Swarm,” said the girl, and Rainbow noticed that the girls’ skin was crawling with more of the strange metal flies, though they didn’t seem that weird anymore. Almost pretty, in a weird way.
‘I should just give in,’ thought Rainbow, before shaking her head, and realising what was happening.
“Screw you!” yelled Rainbow, bolting for the main doors of the school. If she could just get inside, find the others, maybe they could defeat this weird bug-robot girl.
*****
“You will all surrender to the Swarm,” stated the girl who was controlling the robot bugs from the other side of the door.
“Like heck we will!” grumbled Applejack, as she and Rainbow Dash shoved another table against the cafeteria door, “y’can take your swarm thing elsewhere, you hear?”
“The Swarm will control you eventually. The Swarm will control all.”
“Sunset, I really hope you’re writing to Princess Twilight as fast as you can,” said Rainbow Dash.
“No,” said Sunset Shimmer, snapping the book shut, “but I do have an idea. It may not work, so if we all end up in this swarm thing, I apologise in advance.”
“Well gee, thanks,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Just open the doors when I say,” said Sunset Shimmer, her face locking into a mask of concentration.
“Okay, I don’t like where this is going,” said Applejack, “but if you reckon you can get rid of this thing...”
“Now!” yelled Sunset Shimmer, and Applejack and Rainbow yanked open the doors. A blast of flame licked past them and filled the hallway. The sound of a thousand metal bugs melting and popping apart almost overshadowed the roar of the fire.
“Since when could Sunset Shimmer make fire out of nothing?” asked Applejack.
“Don’t question it, AJ. It’s freaking awesome, and it’s working,” said Rainbow Dash.
Eventually, the flames petered out, and all that was left was a girl about their age coughing and weezing on the floor.
“It’s so quiet now. The swarm’s gone,” she whispered, before she collapsed, her green hair pooling around her head, and her dark skin clearly visible through her ragged clothes.
“Well, she’s alive,” said Applejack as she bent down, and placed two fingers on the girl’s neck, “probably just needs some rest in a hospital for a while. Now, since when could you summon fire, Sunset?”
Twilight raced through the streets of Ponyville, a trail of books and parchment trailing after her, encased in her magical field.
“No no no,” she cried to herself, “how could it be here already? I thought that I’d have a few more hours. I must have gotten wrapped up in the research.”
Twilight skidded to a stop just in front of Sugarcube Corner. She knew that Pinkie Pie would be there now. Pinkie Pie was always there around now.
“Oh hi Twilight!” chirped Pinkie, from her position behind the sales counter as Twilight opened the door quickly enough to rip it from the hinges.
“Pinkie, no time to explain. I need an eyepatch and two, no three bowling balls and a balloon. Pink, preferably.”
“Okie dokie loki!” said Pinkie Pie, produing the requested items, and pushing them towards Twilight. Twilight grabbed them in her magic, and slid the eyepatch over one eye. The balloon, she tied around her tail.
“Twilight, is this about the encroaching evil that at this very moment is coming ever closer to destroying Equestria?” asked Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle paused for a second.
“Yes, Pinkie,” said Twilight, “yes it is. And one more thing, Pinkie?”
“Yes?”
Without saying anything more, Twilight Sparkle darted forwards, and pressed her lips against Pinkie’s. She tasted like cotton candy and rum. Twilight decided that it was a good taste, and then teleported out of the bakery.
******
Forty-two minutes. Forty-two minutes to save the world. She had to be precise about this, but precision had always been a strong suit of Twilight’s. Her plan, such as it was, was ready.
She took to the air, flying straight up, and her magic shot the first bowling ball forwards, using it to absorb the first of the falling fireballs. She dodged left, then left again, and teleported past a chunk of rock the size of Ponyville Town Hall.
The second bowling ball, she imbued with an almost ridiculous amount of magical energy, turning it into a crude bomb, before she launched it straight up. The ball shattered a second chunk of rock, and with unnering accuracy, Twilight wove through both the fading explosion and the scattering fragments of rock.
Her foe was in sight now, a giant monster from the depths of space. It had far too many tentacles and teeth for Twilight’s liking. She didn’t know why it was coming to Equestria, but she knew that it would destroy it in less than twenty minutes if she didn’t succeed.
She had one bowling ball left, and manoeuvred so that the creature was between her and the sun, casting her into shade. Twilight slipped the eyepatch over to her other eye, and pushed herself to fly faster. She had to be close for this.
Ten minutes left, and Twilight was almost in range. The creature was turning as quickly as its bulk would allow it to.
Five minutes, and Twilight began charging her last bowling ball with magic, the same way that she had done for her second.
At two minutes left, Twilight launched her third bowling ball, aiming straight for the creature’s opening mouth. She watched as the ball appeared to soar straight past the majority of the incoming debris and exploded.
Prematurely.
Twilight, however, did not have time to ponder this, because shortly after that, something knocked her unconscious, and her horn flared up, and she vanished.
*****
Twilight Sparkle woke up with the cold floor of her castle under her body and looked up at the clock.
“Right,” she said, “twenty-four hours to save Equestria starting now. Again.”
She had been so close that time, she was sure of it, and was just lucky that whatever had gone wrong the first time she’d tried to give herself more time had somehow trapped her inside a stable time-loop. Now she effectively had all the time that she needed to research and learn how this creature behaved.
She just wished it didn’t involve dying so often, sometimes.
Pinkie Pie loved karaoke night. It wasn’t because she was a bad singer, no. Pinkie was normally a very good singer. The thing that she loved about karaoke night was that there was inherent expectation that everypony who did it was bad, but it didn’t matter because you were being a bad singer with your friends. And to Pinkie, that was half the fun about karaoke nights, especially with her five bestest friends in the whole world.
By the time that Pinkie Pie arrived at the karaoke bar, Twilight Sparkle was already there. But Twilight had always been the first pony to arrive at anything, and Pinkie Pie knew this.
“Hello Pinkie!” said Twilight, “No pony else is here apart from you and me. I wonder where they all are?”
“Applejack is helping Big Mac out with their cider press-it broke suddenly earlier today. Rarity was ‘caught in a fit of divine inspiration’,” said Pinkie Pie, “but it just looked like a giant mess to me. Oh, Rainbow Dash was suddenly called up by the Wonderbolts, and Fluttershy is tending to a very sick platypus.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded at each reason that Pinkie gave for their friend’s absences. She wouldn’t know that Pinkie Pie hadn’t actually invited them this week, though Pinkie suspected that they all knew why.
“So, should we cancel? I mean, it is just you and me.”
“Are you kidding?” asked Pinkie Pie, “it will totally be just as fun with just the two of us. Now come on, last one up the stairs has to sing first!”
Pinkie Pie was a very loving pony by her nature. She couldn’t help but see the joy and life in everything, it was just part of who she was. But when she looked at Twilight Sparkle, or more specifically, the pony that Twilight Sparkle had become, she couldn’t help but be overcome by a sense of purest euphoria that she had helped shaped the newest Princess of Equestria.
And somewhere in that mess of feelings and laughter and far too much sugar that Pinkie called her heart, she fell in love with Twilight Sparkle. She had watched Twilight Sparkle grow from awkward, friendless party-pooper to a joyous pony.
As such, Pinkie Pie was intentionally last up the stairs, and pretended to be disappointed when Twilight enforced Pinkie’s own rule back at her.
She had rehearsed this for hours, at least. Carefully choosing the song so that Twilight would know how she felt about her. She had made sure that her voice was ready for what she was about to do, because tonight was not going to be about bad singing with friends. It was going to be about singing her metaphorical heart to the one she loved, and Pinkie Pie didn’t want to do that badly.
She chose her song, and grasped the microphone in her hoof. The opening strains of the song floated through the air, and Pinkie watched as Twilight tilted her head to the side in that impossibly cute way she did when she was thinking really hard about something.
Pinkie Pie took a deep breath. She could do this. She was Pinkie Pie, she wasn’t scared, no sirree. But her heart was pounding in her chest, hard enough that she was scared that it might just jump straight out, and her eyes darted from side to side, almost uncontrollably.
Pinkie opened her mouth to sing.
What came out was a mess of clicks, rumbles and consonants, and too late Pinkie realised that her mouth had been replaced with a mass of pink tentacles. As had her mane. And Twilight Sparkle had left a hole in the door.
“Lvhtfp’qutgka!” said Pinkie, as one of her mouth-tentacles dragged the microphone into her mouth. Honed through years of baking, Pinkie instinctively began to chew as she contemplated exactly where she had gone wrong. Strictly speaking, Twilight had not said no, but she hadn’t said yes, either.
Microphones, like rejection, did not taste very nice.
Pinkie sighed, and tried to will herself back to looking more equine than ‘infernal space horror’.
Celestia eyed her office clock. Six hours until dinner. Six hours of approving bills, of signing laws, and the dreaded afternoon session of the Royal Court. While her clock was a little loud this afternoon, she could agree with the sentiment. Each tick of the clock was pure torture for Celestia, taunting her with how far away dinner, and the all-important dessert was.
She had snuck in a quick snack out of her emergency cake supply, which would give her the energy to last until dinner, but until then, she had to make her way and deal with the nobles, who had somehow managed to get the idea that they actually ran Equestria. As far as Celestia was concerned, they could have it, but she was convinced that none of them actually had any idea as to what went into simply keeping the country from exploding every other day.
With a sigh, and a mental note to herself to get a clock maker to have a look at her suddenly loud clock, she strode off towards the throne rooms.
*****
Tick. Tick. Tick.
“And, furthermore, we feel that we should put into place some measures on who is invited to the Grand Galloping Gala. After the catastrophe that took place last year,” said Blueblood, pausing to appropriately shudder. In mock or actual horror, Celestia wasn’t sure, because all she could concentrate on right now was that Blueblood was the last pony for this court session. There were now only three hours between her and dessert.
“We feel that the quality of attendees should be raised, so as not to overly tarnish the Gala’s, and by extension, Canterlot’s reputation,” finished Blueblood, tossing his mane back in what he probably believed was an attractive move.
“I understand your concerns, nephew,” said Celestia, “Both myself and Princess Luna will carefully consider who we choose to invite to this year’s Gala, and we shall keep the Gala’s reputation in mind while we do so.”
“Thank you, Princess Celestia. It pleases me to hear that both you and your sister are considerate of the regular attendees of the Gala,” said Blueblood, dipping his horn, and backing up. Celestia smiled. She would indeed keep in mind the types of pony who usually went to the Gala, and then invite Twilight and her friends anyway. Maybe even she’d invite Discord this year. He’d be sure to shake things up. It may have been petty, but Princess Celestia had started the Grand Galloping Gala to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. It was supposed to be a party, not the stately and quite frankly, boring affair that it was these days.
Celestia sighed, and glanced up at a clock on the wall as the Royal Guards cleared the hall. Two hours, and fifty-eight minutes left.
****Time****
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Celestia’s quill scratched along the peice of paper, adding her signature to yet another trade agreement. Oddly enough, her clock seemed even louder now, and Celestia renewed her mental note to get a clock maker to look at it. However, Celestia was quite capable of tuning such background noises out when she had to. She was also pointedly not looking at her clock, because every time she did, she was reminded of how far away her delicious, delicious dessert was.
There was a knock at the door, and Celestia sighed. She could have used a quick break about now, anyway. With luck, it was her secretary, coming to tell her that it was time for dinner.
“Come in!” called Celestia. Luna strode into Celestia’s office, and curious smile fixed upon her mouth.
“Sister,” said Luna, “Do you know what time it is? My clock appears to be broken.”
“It’s,” began Celestia, glancing at her clock. That was odd. The clock was showing a time that Celestia knew was about five hours ago.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
“Luna,” growled Celestia.
“We wondered how long it would take you to notice” the Princess of the Night giggled.
“Not funny, Luna,” said Celestia, but a smile was twitching at the edges of her frown.
Tick. Tick.
A thought occurred to Celestia. If her clock had been stopped, then what could she hear ticking? The ticking had started just after she had raided her cake stash, and had been following her around all day.
“Luna, did you do anything to my snack fridge?” asked Celestia.
“No, why?” said Luna.
Tick. Tick.
“Because I think somepony put a timed explosive in there. I may have eaten it,” said Celestia. Luna’s eyes widened, and she immediately dashed off, yelling for the castle physician. Celestia gently prodded her stomach.
“I really should learn to chew my food properly,” sighed Celestia.
Tick.
*********
There was a muffled boom just as Princess Luna returned with the castle doctor. The two pushed open the door, just in time to see Princess Celestia let out an almighty burp, which included a burst of flame, and thump her chest. She glanced at the doctor and Luna, and smiled.
“I’ll be fine, doctor. It was just a little heartburn. Is it time for dinner yet?”
They call it the one true inevitability. Or at least, they used to. They can’t now, of course, for perhaps obvious reasons.
I used to be somepony, you know? I, and my sister, we built Equestria up from Discord’s rule. We dodged the inevitable fate so many times. We travelled the length and breadth of the world four times over, adventuring.
I cannot help but laugh at how idealistic we once were. So confident, so assured that nothing would ever kill us, the twin Alicorn Sisters. As long as we had each other’s backs, we were unstoppable, unassailable titans. We righted wrongs, we fought dragons, and at times, almost meter by meter, we carved Equestria out and into the world.
And then Luna became Nightmare Moon. I am ashamed to say that I did not see it developing. But it was something else. It was the closest that I have come to death since the day of my birth. And of course, you likely know the reason why. She was still my sister. She knew how I fought, she knew where the holes were. The holes that she normally covered. And despite the fact that I knew she was being possessed by some evil spirit, it was still her inside. I could barely bring myself to strike her down.
The Elements were a last-ditch effort. They protested every inch of the way, but I was eventually able to seal Nightmare Moon into the moon. But no more would the elements answer my calls. I had to re-evaluate how things worked. No longer could I be the mare who solved everything on her own. I would have to step back, let my little ponies handle things. And you know, they did so well. I barely had to do anything, just keep the country running, the moon and the sun cycling, and wait and guide.
“It’s been so long since I’ve had a proper adventure, now,” said Celestia, the red of her expanding star shining off her, and reflected in her flowing mane, “but when you’re as long-lived as I am, even defying death becomes boring after a while.”
‘I SUPPOSE,’ said her companion, wreathed in a cloak that was black enough that it could have been woven out of the spaces between stars. ‘I WOULDN’T KNOW.’
Unlike Celestia, her companion stood on two legs and upright, a scythe resting against his shoulder. His voice seemed to go straight into Celestia’s head without bothering to go through the trouble of entering her ears first.
“I suppose you wouldn’t,” smiled Celestia, “still, it is rather nice of you to indulge me a last monologue. I don’t get many chances these days. I don’t suppose that you can tell me what happens after, can you?”
‘I CANNOT,’ said Death, inspecting an exceptionally large hourglass, ‘AND RELIGION IS FUZZY ON THE SUBJECT.’
“Well then,” said Celestia, “I shall just have to wait and see for myself. I will miss this world, though.”
There was silence between the two for a while. In the sky, the star grew angrier and redder. An age could have passed, as it consumed the sky. Celestia simply watched as eventually, it swallowed the planet that Equestria rested on.
And finally, when the final grain of sand dropped from the upper bulb of the hourglass, the star that Celestia had guided across the sky for untold years exploded, and Celestia’s physical form gave up its hold on her spirit.
“Well,” said Celestia, standing in the space where the planet had once been, “that was slightly unpleasant. But I do believe that I am ready for one last adventure. Shall we?”
Fluttershy was feeding her squirrel friends when Rainbow Dash flew through her open window and planted herself on Fluttershy’s couch. She didn’t even give Fluttershy her usual hello or ‘what’s up?’. She had just landed on the couch and curled herself up into a tight ball. Fluttershy sighed.
“Rainbow, what happened?” she asked, placing a hoof on Rainbow’s back.
Rainbow muttered something into the cushions that could have been ‘stupid prissy Rarity’. It could have also just been insdicriminate swearing.
“Rainbow, what did Rarity say this time?” asked Fluttershy. Fluttershy was no stranger to the troubles of Rainbow’s relationship with Rarity, because whenever Rainbow got upset, Fluttershy was often Rainbow’s first call.
“It‘s not what she said,” Rainbow murmured into the couch, “it‘s what she did.”
“What did she do?” asked Fluttershy.
Rainbow told her. Fluttershy gasped from shock.
“Fluttershy? Fluttershy, are you in there?”
Fluttershy’s head jerked up. Rarity was walking up the path to her house, probably looking for advice on how to deal with Rainbow. Again, she was used to this. As Rainbow Dash’s oldest friend in Ponyville, it was only natural that Rarity had sought Fluttershy’s advice when she had began to date Rainbow. And whenever the two had hit a roadbump, it was Fluttershy that Rarity sought out on how to fix things.
Fluttershy darted over to her door, and slammed it shut, sliding the locks into place. If she let Rarity in now, with Rainbow Dash still inside, she would be lucky to escape with intact furniture.
“I’m here, Rarity,” said Fluttershy, “I wasn’t expecting you today, though.”
“Fluttershy?” called Rarity, through the door, “can I come in?”
“No!” yelled Fluttershy, “I just don’t think that’s a very good idea right now, Rarity. I’m, um, dealing with a very ill friend. A very ill animal friend. Vomit everywhere.”
“All the more reason for you to come and join me at the spa!” said Rarity, from the other side of the door, “I also need your advice on something, if I may.”
Fluttershy looked between Rainbow Dash, still curled up on her couch, and Rarity, who was no doubt standing on the other side of the door, waiting for Fluttershy’s response.
“Oh, um, okay. You go ahead, Rarity. I’ll catch up,” said Fluttershy. She waited until she couldn’t hear Rarity’s hoofsteps anymore, and then draped a blanket over Rainbow Dash and sighed.
******
“And then, she simply yells that I don’t understand how important these things are to her, and races off! Honestly, Rainbow can be such a child at times,” said Rarity, as she lay in the tub at the Ponyville Spa.
“Um, Rarity?” said Fluttershy.
“I just cannot believe that she’s being so, so, stubborn about this! Can she not just see that I want to help her?”
“Rarity?”
“And I know that she’s never been much into fashion, but she could at least show a little interest in what I do from time to time.”
“Rarity!” yelled Fluttershy, before glancing around to see if her raised voice had disturbed anyone.
“Yes, dear?”
“Rarity,” said Fluttershy, at a much more normal volume, “what was the very first thing I told you about Rainbow Dash?”
“That she’s often more sensitive than she seems?”
“And?” prompted Fluttershy.
“And that she wants to be famous on her own terms and in her own way,” sighed Rarity.
“Yes,” said Fluttershy, “She wants to be famous for what she’s done, not who she knows. Or who her girlfriend knows. And she wants to get into the Wonderbolts on her own merit, not because you’ve socially engineered it.”
Rarity was quiet for a minute.
“I’ve been a terrible idiot, haven’t I? I’ve been so enamoured with the idea of Rainbow flying with the Wonderbolts that I forgot that it is her dream, not mine.”
“Yes, you have,” said Fluttershy, “But I think that I know how you can make it up to her, and you have to remember that the Wonderbolts is her dream from now on.”
Rainbow Dash strode down the corridor formed by all of the current active Wonderbolts on the main flight path of the Wonderbolt Academy for Advanced Flight, dressed in the full official dress uniform. At some point or another, each of them had been her wingmate, and she could feel their eyes on her. Yet Rainbow kept her head up and eyes forward, only coming to a stop when she was beside Spitfire, the current Captain.
“At ease, Wonderbolts!” called Spitfire, and in perfect unison, all of them relaxed.
“We are here today to nominate a new captain. As much as I would like to, I can’t keep leading the Wonderbolts forever,” said Spitfire, “so, we stand here to greet our new captain, the one who will see us through the next few decades, Celestia willing. Rainbow Dash, you have been nominated and approved by the majority of the Wonderbolts as our next Captain. Do you accept this position, and all the responsibility that it entails?”
Rainbow Dash swallowed, wetting her throat.
“I will accept the position of Captain of the Wonderbolts,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Will you be the first off the line, and the last to land?”
“Always,” said Rainbow Dash, not quite able to stop the grin from crossing her face. Spitfire glowered at Rainbow Dash for deviating from the script.
“And will you promise to always push both yourself and your wingmates higher and faster?”
“I so promise,” said Rainbow.
“Then, I name you as Captain Rainbow Dash,” said Spitfire, as Soarin’ stepped fowards, bearing a cap and a pin for Rainbow’s shirt. With a quick flick, the cap landed on Rainbow’s head, and Spitfire pinned the badge stating Rainbow’s new rank to her shirt. The last thing was now down to Rainbow.
“Captain Spitfire, I am your replacement,” said Rainbow Dash.
“You can only replace me if you can catch me,” Spitfire said, and this time it was her that was unable to keep the smile off her face, “challenge accepted, rookie.”
Soarin’ stepped forwards again.
“The challenge is from here to the Captain’s office. Contenders to go on the count of three,” said Soarin’, pausing for a moment.
“Three!” he yelled, and both Rainbow Dash and Spitfire launched forwards, blasting towards the main building.
*******
Rainbow had, naturally, won the race. She was a speed queen, the fastest pony that Spitfire or even the Wonderbolts had ever seen. Spitfire looked back at Rainbow Dash, who was already settling in to her new office. The office that until moments ago, had been Spitfire’s. Still, she knew that the Wonderbolts would be in good hooves.
However, for a moment, all Spitfire could see was a pink pegasus with the same energy as Rainbow, flitting around the office, declaring the whole thing as ‘totally uncool’.
“Firefly,” murmured Spitfire, “guess you were right after all, sis. Your little Rainbow did knock me off my high seat. And you know,” she continued, as a few tears began to trickle down her face, “I was going to tell Rainbow about you but now? I don’t think she really needs to know. I think she’ll do just fine without having to live up to you. Heh, she’s probably going to pass you within a year.”
“Spitfire, you okay?” asked Rainbow, poking her head out of the office.
“Yeah,” said Spitfire, wiping her tears away with a foreleg, “just remembering an old friend. She’d have approved of what you’ve done.” Rainbow shrugged, and went back to moving things around, and Spitfire smiled.
Yes, Firefly would be proud of what her daughter had done.
“Don’t you think that this painting is divine?” asked Upper Crust. Fancy Pants frowned and almost tilted his head to try and make sense of the mindless swirls and whorls of colour on the canvas.
“It’s supposed to represent our own mortality and the futility of life,” said Upper Crust, sidling closer to Fancy Pants as the two stood in the art gallery. He was well aware of what the mare was attempting. If she could get him to agree with her, she would be seen as somepony, and thus she would move up in the social ladder. Out of the corner of his monocle, Fancy could see Rarity, who he considered something of a friend, also looking at the painting.
He watched as Rarity’s eyes narrowed, and then she tilted her head to her left. With a frown, she tilted it to the right, as if that would make it make sense.
To his other side, he could feel Upper Crust waiting for his response. He could probably bluff something non-commital. He wasn’t a big painting aficionado, and he didn’t really like Upper Crust that much anyway.
“I must confess,” said Rarity, derailing Fancy’s train of thought, “I do not care for this style. It’s far too abstract for my tastes.”
Fancy could practically hear Upper Crust grinding her teeth. For some reason, she had fixated on Rarity, and had been attempting to beat her at everything since practically the first day that Rarity had begun to market her wares to the Canterlot elite.
Truth be told, Fancy was inclined to agree with Rarity. He generally disliked things such as this, that required in-depth analysis to be understood, or that ponies tried to impose meaning where there was none. Fancy made up his mind.
“I agree with miss Rarity, my dear,” said Fancy Pants, as Upper Crust appeared to swallow an entire lemon, “It is not quite to my tastes. You, however, are welcome to enjoy whatever you wish.”
With his piece said, Fancy Pants trotted over to where Rarity was admiring a set of landscapes.
“I do hope that I managed to save you from the horrors of Upper Crust’s attempt at cozing up to you,” said Rarity, “and really, that painting was rather awful.”
“Oh, you didn’t have to, miss Rarity. I would have extracted myself sooner or later. Really, behaviour like Upper Crust’s is the sort that I personally find rather distasteful, and her personality leaves much to be desired too.”
“Not so loud,” hissed Rarity, drawing a look from Fancy Pants, “she may hear you, and then her ego will deflate to merely half the size of the Canterhorn.”
Fancy Pants smiled, and Rarity pulled ahead in the race of popularity.
Twilight Sparkle yawned as she trotted into the library of her new castle, a mug of coffee floating alongside her. She had nothing scheduled for today except a nice day of research and reviewing a few papers for Princess Celestia later.
She settled down into her favourite cushion, and was just about to start reading when an impossibly loud voice began to speak.
“Bow down before your overlord, puny ponies! Until you all accept my rule, I won’t let any of you rest.”
Twilight sighed, and put her book down, drained her mug of coffee, and headed for the door.
“Until my demands are met,” continued the amplified voice, “you will not see an ounce of fun. I will watch you all the time to make sure that you are complying with the approved way of life.”
Once she was outside, Twilight pushed through the small crowd of ponies that was forming.
“Don’t worry, everypony. I’ll get this taken care of as soon as I can. Just go home, and stay safe in the mean time. There’s no telling how difficult this may be.”
As soon as Twilight cleared the main body of the crowd, Rainbow Dash swooped down, hovering just behind Twilight.
“Rainbow, can you do a sweep of the town? Make sure that nothing unpleasant has been set up?”
“Got it!” said Rainbow, rushing off. As Twilight continued to trot through the town, she occasionally paused and covered her ears to protect her hearing from the amplified voice, as well as to reassure a few ponies that everything would be fixed as soon as possible.
Eventually, she came to her destination, and pushed open the door to Sugarcube Corner.
“Oh, Twilight,” said Cup Cake, breathing a sigh of relief, “I’m so glad that you’re here. I presume that you’re here to deal with her?”
“Yes, Mrs Cake,” said Twilight, “she’s in her room?”
At Cup Cake’s nod, Twilight Sparkle headed through to the back area, and from there, upstairs to Pinkie Pie’s room.
Twilight didn’t knock. She simply pushed the door open, and found Pinkie Pie pacing around her room, muttering to herself, and her giant megaphone sticking out of the window.
“Pinkie, you can’t hold the town hostage,” said Twilight
“Can’t I? Can’t I, Twilight?” said Pinkie, her eyes wide and red from lack of sleep, and her mane more unruly than it usually was. “I think I can, Twilight. I am! And until I get what I want, I’ll keep doing it!”
Twilight sighed.
“Pinkie, you’re on a diet for a reason. The doctors told you this. You can’t just live on sugar, Pinkie.”
“I can feel the blood in my veins, Twilight! There’s blood in my sugar veins! This is a terrible thing! And the only way to fix it is more sugar!”
Twilight stuck her head out of Pinkie’s window, and whistled down Rainbow Dash and a few other pegasi, who carried off Pinkie’s giant megaphone. Twilight then shut and locked the window, carried Pinkie Pie up to bed. With a quick relaxation spell, Pinkie was soon snoring, and Twilight took her leave.
“Is she going to be okay?” asked Cup Cake, as Twilight entered the main shop floor of Sugarcube Corner.
“She’ll be fine, Mrs Cake. She’s just detoxing right now. Don’t let her near anything that makes noise for a while, though. Or let her eat the day-old cupcakes. Or anything with significant amounts of sugar.”
Cup Cake nodded, and Twilight stepped back outside.
“Don’t worry, it’s all over,” she called, as she headed back to her castle. Ponyville breathed a sigh of relief.
Sweetie Belle was bored. It wasn’t that she didn’t like when school was out, but she really had nothing to do. Her parents, and Rarity, had offered a number of distractions, but none of them really sounded that exciting. Sweetie wanted something really fun and nice to do over the break, and there really wasn’t a whole lot for a young filly to do in Ponyville. She had wanted to start learning magic, but her mother kept telling her that she was too young to learn just yet.
So she sat, sighing at her window and looking out at the streets below her window. She had a nice view of the main street of Ponyville, and the accompanying market. But right now, all that was going on was that the vendors were gradually closing up their stands, and clearing up the streets. With another sigh, Sweetie decided that she may as well go and have a bath and maybe read for a while.
But just as she was walking out of her room, there was a crash from downstairs. Sweetie immediately abandonded her plans for a bath and dashed downstairs. If Rarity thought that Sweetie had destroyed a window in her house, she’s never see the sun again.
Lying on the floor of Rarity’s main showroom was a young pegasus, probably not too older than Sweetie herself. And she was a blank flank as well, so that was a double bonus.
“Are you okay?” asked Sweetie, leaning down to the filly.
“Urgh,” groaned the pegasus, “am I bleeding?”
Sweetie looked over the orange-coated pegasus. She couldn’t see any major injuries.
“Nope, you look okay to me.”
“Then I’ll be fine,” she said, crawling back onto her hooves, and looking around the room. The pegasus eventually found what she was looking for; a bent and mangled scooter, lying on the floor not too far from where she had been.
“Aw man,” groaned the pegasus, “not another one. Mom said she wasn’t going to buy me a new scooter if I broke this one.”
“You also broke a window,” pointed out Sweetie Belle.
“That’s not helping, whatever your name is,” grumbled the pegasus, “what is your name, anyway?”
“I’m Sweetie Belle,” said Sweetie.
“Scootaloo,” said the pegasus, “so, you live here?”
Sweetie Belle nodded.
“Great. You mind if I stick around? I’ve gotta apologize for breaking the window, anyway.”
“Sure,” said Sweetie, “Rarity, that’s my sister, will be back in a couple of hours. She owns this place. But hey, while you wait, you wanna go up to my room? I think I’ve got a couple of board games or something we can play, and I am so bored.”
Scootaloo stared at Sweetie for a while, as if trying to decide something.
“Yeah, sure,” said Scootaloo, once she caught sight of Sweetie’s own unmarked rump. “Why not?”
********
“So wait,” said Apple Bloom, “you two became friends because Scootaloo broke Rarity’s window? Just like that?”
“Well, there was a couple more weeks where we were just sort of occasional playmates, or something, and then Sweetie Belle decided that she wanted to run away because of something about Rarity. I talked her out of it. She ended up staying with me for a while,” said Scootaloo, “but basically, yeah. I broke a window, and we met.”
“I’m still a little surprised that Rarity accepted you so quick. Whenever I mess up big, she never lets me forget about it,” said Sweetie, “She still doesn’t let me in the kitchen.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shared a look.
“That’s ‘cause you’re a fire hazard, Sweetie,” said Apple Bloom.
“Yeah,” added Scootaloo, “you are really not going to get a cooking cutie mark.”
Sweetie Belle pouted, and the three went back to planning their next crusade ideas.
Trixie sighed as she rubbed her hooves and stoked her fire with a stick. Somehow, after the disaster that had been Ponyville, she was still having trouble with her reception in other towns. She hadn’t been completely run out, but the story about her embellishing her magical talent had apparently gotten around. Trixie snorted to herself. Couldn’t ponies understand a stage persona? Every magician talked themselves up – it was simply part of the job.
Then again, Trixie mused that perhaps, just perhaps, that she could at least tone down the persona she used when she wasn’t performing. She was a skilled magician, no matter what that stupid, overpowered, adorable know-it-all Twilight Sparkle said. Trixie had earned her place in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and she had a right to be proud of her skill. That she had also been requested to leave had no bearing on the matter.
Still, even if she was such a good performer and magician, she was still a travelling magician, and was stuck out here, in the snow, with only her own thoughts for company. Trixie was not far from the main road, but she had not seen another pony for hours. Just as she was about to let the fire die down and bed down for the night, she heard a voice, approaching her camp.
“Guards! Where are you? I cannot be walking around in this blasted snow without proper escort.”
Trixie frowned. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it to a pony. Regardless, it wasn’t snowing that hard. Perhaps the stallion had gotten separated from his group somehow. Still, if he was wandering around in the snow, he’d be getting cold, and perhaps this would be a good time to practice this ‘helping ponies’ thing that stupid sexy Twilight Sparkle kept going on about, and stoked her fire higher, so as to attract the pony that was still complaining on the road.
She immediately decided that this was a terrible idea the moment that Prince Blueblood trotted into her camp. Blueblood blinked for a minute. Trixie debated making a head start on her trip to the next town.
“Hello, Trixie, was it? I would very much like to share your fire, as my incompetent guards seem to have deserted me.”
Trixie sighed, and nodded her agreement. Without much more invitation, Blueblood sat down on the opposite side of the fire.
“It has been some time since we last encountered each other, you know. I seem to keep missing your shows since the one in Canterlot.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie finds this a complete shame,” muttered Trixie. Unfortunately, Blueblood heard it. He also missed all of the sarcasm loaded into the sentence.
“Yes, it is. It is a wonder, you know, how your shows are not more famous. You clearly do have a great deal of talent, far more than your audience gives you credit for.”
Trixie blinked. She had not expected that. She looked at Blueblood a little closer. She could see the way that he looked at her. It was not a look that was unfamiliar to her. Trixie was aware that she looked good. She was not unused to ponies finding her attractive. But this seemed different. Deeper, somehow, and that was a thing that Trixie was not entirely sure how to react to.
Trixie lit up her horn, and from her pack, extracted a blanket, and draped it around the shivering Blueblood.
“The great and powerful Trixie does not want you to freeze to death, seeing as you can actually appreciate Trixie’s talents,” said Trixie, glancing away, “do not read into it over much, or you may strain your brain.”
“...and that’s how Big Mac ended up trotting down Mane Street with a wedding veil on,” said Apple Bloom, “and that’s my truth. My turn.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were gathered in the main room of the Apple family’s home. With Rarity out of town, and her parents on yet another cruise, Rarity had allowed Sweetie to stay with the Apples until she got back. Thus, the obvious thing to do had been Cutie Mark Crusader Sleepover. Scootaloo was just staying for the night. Spike was also there as well. Though both Twilight and Spike knew that Spike could take care of himself, Twilight had forced him to come as she was going out of town for a few days-this was as much for his relaxation as the trip was for hers.
“Right, I pick Spike,” said Apple Bloom, “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” said Spike, almost immediately. To the side, Scootaloo pouted. The dragon had been picking truth all the time. She’d been hoping to prank him if he ever picked dare.
“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen Twilight do?” asked Apple Bloom, “you’ve gotta have something, right?”
“Weirdest thing?” said Spike, “okay, I got one, but you can’t tell anypony, okay? Twilight would kill me if she found out I told anypony else about this.”
The three Crusaders nodded.
“Alright, so it was a while ago. You know that Twilight has an apartment in Canterlot, right?”
Again, the three girls nodded. They’d all heard second-hoofed about Twilight reconciling with her friends from Canterlot, mostly from their sisters or Rainbow Dash.
“Well, Twilight got that as a present from Princess Celestia when she finished at the School for Gifted Unicorns, and Twilight moved in as soon as she could. Thing is, though, that Twilight missed living with her parents, but she didn’t want to let anypony know about it. And while she was completing her first degree, she sort of found a different group of ponies for a while.”
“So, what did she do?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Well,” snickered Spike, “She dyed her coat black, renamed herself ‘Dark Eclipse’ and wrote terrible poetry about the eternity of the universe and the futility of life. But it was scientifically accurate terrible poetry. She used to read it out loud in the middle of the night, with as few lights on as possible. I used to get real hungry around midnight, so I’d come down and find her standing in the middle of the room, lamenting about the heat death of the universe, or the inevitable fate of the sun.”
There was silence for a while, as the Crusaders attempted to picture Twilight Sparkle reading poetry with a black coat. Then, as one, they all burst into giggles.
“Oh my gosh,” said Sweetie Belle, “Twilight had a goth phase?”
“It was utterly ridiculous, because no matter how hard she tried to act depressed,” said Spike, “If you put a new spell in front of her, she’d get all giddy over it exactly like she does now.”
The image of Goth Twilight getting excited over a new spell immediately brought a fresh round of giggles to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“But seriously, you can’t ever let her know I told you about that. She’d ground me forever. So it’s my turn now, right?” said Spike, continuing at Apple Bloom’s nod, “Scootaloo, truth or dare?”
Rarity was not a pony given to heroics often. Certainly, they did not come to her as easily as they did to a pony such as Rainbow Dash, but Rarity was certainly not complaining. However, there were times when Rarity did have to play the hero, so that she could save other ponies from dreadful, dreadful mistakes.
That was why she was treading as gently as she could through Twilight Sparkle’s new castle in the depths of night. There was a wrong that hap to be righted, and preferably before Twilight Sparkle herself realised that it had happened. Though Rarity was no expert at magic, she knew enough to deaden the sound of her hooves on the crystal floors of the castle. All she could do was to hope that it would be enough to not wake Twilight or Spike.
Slowly, she made her way to one of the rooms that Twilight was using for storage while she sorted everything out in one her fits of organizational madness. Her goal was now in sight. After a quick check to make sure that she had the right bag, she crept back the way she came, her prize in tow.
*********
“And then, she had the absolute nerve to suggest that the Wonderbolts lowered their standards in order to accommodate you!” said Rarity, taking a delicate sip of her tea.
“Pfft, as if,” snorted Rainbow Dash, before planting her face into the sandwich platter, “remind me why I haven’t punched her in the face yet?”
“Because, as I keep telling you,” sighed Rarity, “not all of your problems can be solved by punching it or going faster. And would you please at least use your hooves, Rainbow Dash?”
The bell above the main door to the Carousel Boutique tinkled, just as Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at Rarity.
“Oh, hello Twilight!” said Rarity, “how has your day been so far? Is there something that I can help you with?”
“Yes, there is, actually,” said Twilight, “I was actually looking for my coronation dress, as I have an event coming up, and both myself and Princess Cadence are required to be in formal attire. However, it seems to have mysteriously gone missing.”
“Oh my word!” gasped Rarity, “I wonder what fiendish ruffian would ever want to make off with such an interesting dress!”
“Yes. I wonder.” said Twilight, looking directly at Rarity. “However, unless it mysteriously turns up, I will need a new one. You can consider it an official Royal Commission, if you want, Rarity.”
“Pish posh, darling. It will be no trouble at all. My schedule is actually rather bare this time of year. Designing you a new dress will be a treat. Drop by later this afternoon, and I’ll retake your measurements,” said Rarity, with another sip of her tea. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to plant her face into the sandwiches again.
“Honestly, Rainbow Dash, must you be such a boor?”
“Only ‘cause it annoys you,” said Rainbow Dash, “you look hot when you’re mad.”
Twilight smiled, and headed back out the door, the bell tingling in her wake.
“You burnt it, didn’t you?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Of course I did,” said Rarity, “did you expect anything less? Somepony needs to save our dear Twilight from making a terrible fashion faux-pas, let alone the same one again.”
Twilight Sparkle shifted on her hooves, her wings twitching by her side. Cadence stood beside her, outwardly calm, though Twilight could tell that her favourite foalsitter ever was just as nervous as she was. It was unusual that both of them had been called to Canterlot for something other than the usual meeting every two months.
The doors to the throne room opened, and Princess Luna strode in.
“Mi Amore Cadenza, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna, giving each a nod in greeting, “Tis good that you came as quickly as you did. Fear not, there is no emergency, but it is a time-critical matter that we need to discuss.”
“Then what did you call us here for?” asked Cadence.
It was at exactly that moment that Princess Celestia teleported into the throne room, a floral patterned shirt draped over her and sunglasses set atop her head.
“We are going on vacation. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in three months or so. Hoofwrestle over which one of you wants to raise the sun and moon, or something. Okay, thanks, try not to blow up the country, and bye!” said Celestia, vanishing with another brilliant flash of light. A moment later, Luna shrugged, and vanished in her own teleport.
“What.” said Twilight Sparkle. Cadence simply planted her hooves in her face.
*******
The next morning, Luna bounced into Celestia’s bedroom in the hotel they were staying at. The two sisters had taken on alternate forms to avoid getting mobbed by ponies, and that was largely the reason for the vacation the two were taking. To have a chance to relax without ponies bowing down and worshipping them for a while.
“Sister, it is time to get up!” said Luna, magicking the covers back.
“Leave me here to die,” groaned Celestia, “I knew I shouldn’t have tried to out-drink you.”
“We have to leave in the morning, you said, or we’re not going to get on the airship in time.”
“I’m the goddess of the sun,” mumbled Celestia, “morning happens when I say it does, and I say it’s not morning yet.”
In response, Luna yanked open the curtain, to reveal a beautifully bright sunrise, and flooded the room with light. Celestia hissed and shoved her face underneath her pillow.
“Come on, sister,” said Luna, “this round the world trip was your idea. ‘We should go and see the world’ you said. I was content to simply stay within Equestria for a month and rest.”
A pillow slammed into Luna’s face. Celestia groaned as she realized that she had now lost her main protection against the light that was making her head hurt.
*******
“Princess, we have received a damage bill from a hotel in Manehatten. Apparently one unicorn threw another out of a thirtieth floor wall of a hotel. Nopony was hurt, but the hotel wants that wall fixed.”
Twilight and Cadence looked at each other, and sighed. This would be a long, and expensive vacation for them.
The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy came to a juddering halt as both Flim and Flam yanked on every brake they could find. The front end of the brothers’ magitech machine stopped a bare hoofwidth from the mare standing in the road.
“Hello, dunderheads,” said the Great and Powerful Trixie, pushing her hat up.
“Give us one good reason why we shouldn’t just run you over for taking our belongings the last time we met, Trixie,” said Flim.
“Trixie felt it necessary to make the point,” said Trixie, “also, Trixie has something that you may be interested in. A way to make money. A lot of money.”
“It’s not illegal, is it?” asked Flam, the more pragmatic of the two. After their last encounter, the two had done some research on the mare who had robbed them. The name ‘Trixie’ was often uttered as a curse word in unsavoury circles. Though whether it was a curse of hate or of admiration, Flim and Flam had never been able to discover.
“No,” said Trixie, polishing a hoof with a file, “It requires nothing more than a little flash, and some razzle-dazzle, and an unsuspecting town. Trixie can do these things, but the plan requires ponies who are more experienced in certain areas than she is. She is reluctant to ask this, but the Great and Powerful Trixie is willing to put aside past differences for a common goal.”
The unicorn brothers looked at each other, silently coming to a decision.
“Alright, we’re in. But you explain your idea right now.”
“Excellent,” said Trixie.
********
The plan had been rather simple. The three would enter a town, and thanks to a machine that Trixie had somehow acquired, they could make and sell fake tonics. Trixie had the equipment, and the natural showmareship to attract customers, but she didn’t quite have the ability to make the sell. That was where Flim and Flam came in. They could close the deal.
Trixie was willing to give the brothers the press, and they would split the money evenly.
And, in a small town, they managed to convince everypony that their miracle tonic would improve and fix everything that the drinker wanted it to. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, until one morning, the two brothers awoke to discover three things.
Firstly, Trixie was gone.
Secondly, so was everything they owned, including all of the money, though Trixie had left them the press.
And thirdly, and perhaps the most pressing for the two unicorns, there was an angry mob heading for their tent.
“Flim?”
“Yes, Flam?”
“How did we not see this coming?”
“I have no idea. Run?”
“Run.”
And so the two brothers picked up the small juicing press, and bolted out of the town.
Fluttershy didn’t know what was wrong, especially with Twilight. Twilight had gathered all of them together, something about a monster or something from the Everfree. Fluttershy had tried to lighten the situation with a joke, but it had fallen flat. Most of her attempts at cheering ponies up had been doing that today, and it was worrying Fluttershy. She was failing at her special talent, and wondering what she was doing wrong. Still, they had a problem to solve, and FLuttershy couldn’t let Twilight or her friends down, especially if they needed the Element of Laughter.
She could figure out what was wrong with her special talent later. She always remembered having this cutie mark, she could always remember making ponies laugh and have a good time, but for some reason, it simply wasn’t working like it did in her mind.
Fluttershy watched as Twilight assigned jobs to their friend as they made camp, constantly retracting her words. Perhaps Twilight had messed up a spell, something that was screwing up her own memories. Otherwise she would know that Rarity had always been a weather mage, if a little prone to out-of-season weather on occasion. The very idea of Rainbow Dash being a weather pony was almost ridiculous to Fluttershy. She marked it down mentally. There might be some good joke material there.
With a sigh, Twilight settled down by the fire that Pinkie was attempting to construct, while Applejack seemed to be attempting to make a hat out of leaves. Rainbow Dash was probably off somewhere, trying to befriend an animal or something. Fluttershy decided that perhaps she could try and cheer up Twilight. But with each attempt, Twilight would only look at Fluttershy, and sigh.
“You don’t have to do that, Fluttershy,” said Twilight, after a number of failed jokes.
“But you’re sad, and I don’t like to let anypony be sad,” said Fluttershy, “it’s right there in my cutie mark. I’ve always cheered ponies up, ever since I can remember.”
“That’s the problem,” said Twilight, turning back to the fire, “I remember things differently, Fluttershy, and it’s all my fault.”
Fluttershy thought about this for a minute. She’d definitely have to talk to Rarity. Unicorns understood magic things better than Fluttershy. Maybe Rarity would understand what Twilight had done, and be able to fix it.
It would have to wait until after they’d finished this errand, of course. And maybe once Twilight managed to fix her memories, Fluttershy could work out why her jokes weren’t cheering ponies up anymore.
“Alright,” said Spitfire, “you have proven your skills and talents. The Wonderbolts are glad to have you.” Spitfire paused for a minute to let the cheers die out. “But as the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. It is now my job to break those eggs, and teach you how to fly not just solo, but as a complete unit, with your team. Most of you will be assigned to the Rookie team. If you are good enough, you may go straight to the B-team.”
The assembled pegasi murmured for a minute at that. Rainbow Dash paid it no mind. Yeah, it would be nice to go straight into the B-team of the Wonderbolts, but Rainbow Dash had no issues with starting at the bottom rung. It was still the Wonderbolts.
“So, with that in mind, it’s time to get to the egg-breaking,” said Spitfire. Most of the active roster of the Wonderbolts then slipped out of their hiding places around the practice stadium just beside the Wonderbolts HQ. Rainbow’s eyes flicked around. Each Wonderbolt was carrying a bag. A bag that was filled with eggs.
Rainbow Dash groaned as she realised what was going to happen, and watched as Soarin’ flapped over to Spitfire, and handed her her own bag.
“Right,” said Spitfire, taking to the air, “The pony with the most egg on them is on breakfast duty for the next week.” And with that, Spitfire fished an egg out of her bag, and tossed it straight at Rainbow Dash. Or, at least, where Rainbow Dash had been. The egg impacted on the ground instead, and the rest of the recent recruits took off, chased by the active Wonderbolts and the raw eggs.
*******
Rainbow twisted around, her wings flaring up and bringing her to an almost complete stop, just in time to blink as an egg passed her nose. By this point, most of the other recent recruits were covered with egg, and most of the Wonderbolts were out of eggs. However, it seemed as though some of the Wonderbolts had taken a special interest in getting Rainbow egged, Spitfire in particular. So far, she had evaded everything, and remained the only recruit un-egged.
Folding her wings together, Rainbow dropped as three eggs whipped over her head, and she could hear two more Wonderbolts curse that they were out of eggs. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow could see that only Spitfire had any eggs left, and only two at that. She swooped back down towards the ground, hearing two eggs impact on the surface behind her, and Spitfire’s call that she was now out of eggs.
“Well then,” said Spitfire, surveying the recruits, “looks like Swift Winds is going to be making our omelettes for the next week. Good work everypony! And Rainbow Dash?”
“Yes, Spitfire?” asked Rainbow Dash, turning to face Spitfire. Something cracked in her face, and Rainbow could feel it dripping down, and saw Spitfire’s grin.
“Nice moves, Dash,” said Spitfire. Rainbow grinned, and wiped the egg off her face with a wing.
One thing that Twilight Sparkle had really missed about Canterlot when she had moved down to Ponyville was the food. She’d never disparage Applejack’s or Pinkie Pie’s cooking, but for the most part, restaurants in Ponyville were never open too late. Ponyville, in many ways, was still a farming town, and the ponies that lived there tended to rise and set with the sun. Twilight, being a pony who often had a highly unusual and variable schedule, often found herself missing the open-at-all-hours shops and diners of Canterlot.
Especially Donut Joe’s. And Twilight was glad that she had to spend a decent amount of time up in Canterlot for the moment, as Celestia and Luna were going over the basics of being a princess with her. As she had discovered, while Celestia and Luna did, in theory, rule Equestria, Twilight could override them when it came to Ponyville. Thus, she had to know all the laws and protocols. Twilight had never thought that she would ever hate studying so much. And that was the reason that she was currently standing outside Donut Joe’s, wrapped in a cloak to hide her wings. She was still uncomfortable with the amount of attention that she received in Canterlot because of those wings. Ponyville, on the other hoof, practically ignored them until there was a problem to fix.
Bracing herself, Twilight headed into Donut Joe’s, and straight for the counter.
“Well, howdy there, Twilight,” said Joe, the same easy grin on his face as Twilight remembered from many late-night runs while she was still Celestia’s student, “what can I get you?”
Twilight blinked at Joe’s complete and utter non-reaction to her new status.
“I’ll have an extra-large coffee, black, and six donuts, half chocolate,” said Twilight.
“And half filled with raspberry. The usual Study Snack Pack,” finished Joe, “will you be eating here, or heading out with it?”
“Oh, I’ll be having it here, if you don’t mind,” said Twilight. Donut Joe just nodded, and served up Twilight’s donuts on a plate.
“That’ll be eight bits,” said Joe, while he began making Twilight’s coffee. Again, Twilight blinked. That was the exact same price that she used to pay for this while she was studying under Celestia. Twilight took her coffee a few moments later, and headed over to a table so that she could sit and relax for a while.
A few moments later, a pony with a camera hung around his neck burst into the donut shop, glancing around. Twilight had dived under the table the minute she had spotted him. The very last thing that she needed right now was to be seen by the press.
“Hey,” said the photographer, striding up to the counter, “I heard that Princess Sparkle came in here. You know anything about that?”
“Princess Sparkle? Nope, can’t say I know a Princess Sparkle,” said Donut Joe, “got an old friend called Twilight Sparkle, but I don’t think that she’d want to talk to you right now. She doesn’t get a whole lot of time off, see, and she’s very busy.”
“But...” began the photographer. However, he was cut off by Donut Joe lifting him up with his magic and pushing him out of the door.
“Like I said,” said Donut Joe, “there’s no princesses in here. And you’re disturbing a friend of mine.”
Twilight emerged from underneath the table just as Joe finished shoving the pony out of the door, and began to pull the blinds down, preventing any other ponies from taking pictures of Twilight.
“Joe,” began Twilight, but she was cut off by Donut Joe.
“Twilight, you heard me. I don’t know a ‘Princess Sparkle’. I know a lovely mare called Twilight Sparkle. Devilishly smart mare, has done some extraordinary things, saved Equestria twice. But she’s also the messiest eater I know, and sometimes uses her food as a napkin.”
With that, Joe headed back to behind the counter, and began to work on some more dough. Twilight smiled, and then shoved two raspberry donuts into her face at once, before washing the whole mouthful down with a completely uncultured slurp of coffee.
Those were the very first words out of Sunset Shimmer’s mouth the moment that Twilight emerged from the base of Canterlot High School’s statue. No greetings, no hug, just a statement. The full moon hung overhead, and Sunset herself was in a dress that Twilight was positive was a Rarity original, and much more fancy than her usual attire.
“Sunset? What’s wrong?” asked Twilight.
“I’m not getting older, Twilight, and I should be,” said Sunset, beginning to pace, “I’ve been here for I don’t know how long, but I look exactly the same as the day I first dived through the mirror. When I was back in Equestria, I had the exact same body as I did before I quit being Celestia’s student. I’m stuck like this, Twilight, and it’s bothering me.”
“Before,” continued Sunset, “It wasn’t such a big issue. Just meant that I had to change schools every few years, fake looking younger or older for a while, because I was just biding my time until I could take over Equestria. But now, all of my friends are asking what I’ll be doing now that I’ve finished school, and it’s worrying me that I haven’t aged at all.”
“I asked Princess Celestia about your departure after the first time I came here,” said Twilight, “you left shortly before she found me, so you’ve been gone from Equestria for ten years. I don’t know of many spells that prevent aging, but I can have a look through the Canterlot Archives for something that can help.”
Sunset shuffled on her feet, before reaching around the side of the statue, and pulling out a bag.
“Here,” she said, as Twilight took hold of the bag, “this is everything that I could find on the mirror and anything like it. I took it from the castle library when I left. I’ve already looked through everything there, but I couldn’t find anything. Book study was never my strongest suit, anyway.”
“I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Sunset,” said Twilight, heading back through the portal.
*******
Twilight, true to her word, immediately threw herself into her study the minute she got back through the mirror. She started with the books that Sunset had given her. They were mostly generic discussions upon the mirror, with no in-depth examinations upon how it worked.
Two trips to the Canterlot Archives, one conversation with Moon Dancer and a chess game with both Celestia and Luna, and Twilight was still no closer to understanding what the source of Sunset’s problem might be. She had learned of several methods of delaying the aging process, but most of them involved sacrificing other ponies.
Then she had an idea.
“No,” murmured Twilight, “it can’t be that simple, can it?”
To confirm her suspicions, Twilight cast the most basic analysis spell that she knew on the mirror itself. The gems around the outer edge of the mirror lit up, and Twilight had her answer.
******
“You’re familiar with the concept of a phylactery, right?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“Yes,” said Sunset, “dark magic, keeps your soul alive despite harm to your physical form and so on.”
“Well, the mirror is effectively one,” said Twilight.
Sunset Shimmer blinked.
“My best guess is that the mirror was designed to be a prison for really dangerous beings from Equestria, a one-way portal that strips all of your magic and a piece of your soul, and stores it in one of the gems around the edge of it,” said Twilight, “basically, a piece of your soul is still connected to Equestria, preventing you from aging, and it would be returned to you upon your return through the mirror. But from what I can tell, this only happens when an Equestrian goes through.”
“Huh,” said Sunset, “that sort of makes sense.”
“Now, it’s not quite enough to fully prevent death,” said Twilight, “but functionally, you are immune to aging. Immortal, not invulnerable, if you will. Unless you’d like me to purge the gem of your soul, of course.”
Pinkie Pie once visited a fortune teller. It was during the time between when she left her family’s rock farm, and found residence and a surrogate family in Ponyville. They had met on the road, while Pinkie was still trying to work out how maps worked, and Pinkie had asked for directions. This fortune teller told Pinkie that she would only be able to bake only one good, edible pie in her life. She could not tell when, or for what purpose that Pinkie would bake said pie, but the fact remained that Pinkie would be unable to make an actually edible pie, no matter how hard she tried.
Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, snorted, called the fortune teller a silly filly, and attempted to make a pie in the kitchen of the travelling wagon. Pinkie managed to burn the wagon down, and was then forced to spend two years apprenticed to a fortune teller to repay the damage.
But this is the story of The Pie. The one Pie that Pinkie Pie would make that would not be burnt, inedible or explode upon removal from the oven. The singular Pie that Pinkie would make that would be edible and presumably delicious.
*******
It was a Wednesday morning, and Pinkie Pie was stuck alone in Sugarcube Corner. Mister and Missus Cake were on a trip to Baltimare to visit a family friend, and had left Pinkie Pie in charge of the shop for the duration.
Outside, Pinkie Pie could see that Rainbow Dash was clearing up the remnants of the previous night’s spring storm. From her position at the counter, Pinkie could see many, Many mud puddles that needed to be jumped in, but Pinkie’s middle name was ‘Responsibility’, and she couldn’t let the Cakes down. So instead, Pinkie decided that she was going to try and bake a pie. It was a quiet day, after all, as the weather patrol had scheduled intermittent showers for today, so most ponies were staying indoors today.
And just to prove her point, Rainbow Dash kicked a small group of clouds into dumping their contents right over the main market square of Ponyville, and that included Sugarcube Corner.
In the kitchen, Pinkie gathered ingredients for a blueberry pie. Blueberries, check. Sugar (not too much), check. Pastry, check. Today was the day, Pinkie could feel it. Today was the day that she finally made The Pie. The pie that would be edible and delicious, and then Pinkie would make another one that was also edible and delicious.
Because Pinkie Pie really wanted to bake delicious pies for her friends, not just have pie tins filled with cream to smack into each other’s faces.
The oven dinged, and Pinkie Pie leaned down, and with the aid of a towel, pulled the pie out and placed it on the counter top. It looked perfect. The crust was golden, it smelled delicious and it had yet to explode. It was The Pie.
Pinkie sliced in ever so delicately. The smell of the berries and all of the filling wafted up, bringing an instant flood of saliva to her mouth, more than any amount of frosting ever had.
Just as Pinkie was about to taste her singularly perfect creation, Rarity slammed open the door, soaked to the bone, her mane dyed every colour of the rainbow, and grumbling something about Rainbow Dash.
“Pinkie, my dear, would you terribly mind if I borrowed that pie? I need to teach Rainbow Dash that ruining a lady’s looks is an utterly abhorrent thing to do. Even if it is amusing.”
Pinkie sighed, and pushed The Pie towards Rarity, who smiled a beautifully wicked smile, and snagged a can of whipped cream on her way out, beginning to squirt the contents liberally over the pie.
“Oh Rainbow Dash,” sung Rarity, as she trotted out of the bakery, “I have a present for you.”
Moments later, Pinkie Pie heard the signature sound of a pie slamming into a pony’s face. Then there was some arguing, and the Pinkie couldn’t hear anything for a while.
Poking her head out and around the door of Sugarcube Corner, she caught sight of a rainbow and a purple tail vanishing around a corner, and an empty pie tin lying in the street.
Pinkie sighed, and went back into the kitchen, to see if she could replicate what she had done.
Her next pie exploded the minute she pulled it out of the oven.
Rainbow Dash’s wings beat in perfect sychronicity with the rest of the Wonderbolts as the seven of them soared through the air. At the twitch of a wing, Rainbow and the others pulled in close to Spitfire, letting their momentum peter out, their wings tucked tight against their bodies.
Just as they were about to collectively stall out, wings snapped open and with a single synchronised movement, they all pushed away, forming a perfect starburst pattern.
As they all dropped back down and rejoined into formation, Spitfire called out.
“Nice work, everypony. Now, let’s practice formation 37, variant A. Dash, Soarin’, you’re on top and bottom.”
With wordless nods, the ponies took their positions, following Spitfire’s course. This was heaven to Rainbow Dash. She was being pushed to her limit every single time she practiced with the Wonderbolts. Not from a speed or agility point, but from a sheer technical standpoint. As she had come to learn, solo flying was vastly different to what the Wonderbolts did. There was a certain skill to flying in tight formation like this, and Rainbow was enjoying the challenge.
From her vantage point on the top of the whole formation, Rainbow caught sight of something pink gently rising through the clouds.
“Captain, I have unknown object in sight. One o’clock, rising,” she called down to Spitfire.
Below her, Spitfire turned her head to the indicated direction.
“Break formation,” said Spitfire, and instantly every pegasus slipped out of the formation, and came to a stop around Spitfire.
“Alright, Dash,” said Spitfire, “You saw it, you go check it out. It probably isn’t hostile, but just be careful.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, and flew towards the mass of pink. As she got closer, she saw that rather than a single mass of pink, the object was made up of balloons. Lots and lots of balloons.
“Hiya, Dashie!”
“Hey, Pinkie,” sighed Rainbow Dash, as Pinkie floated out of the bank of cloud, still rising, “You wanna explain what you’re doing?”
“Well,” began Pinkie Pie, “it was totally Pumpkin Cakes’ fault. She said something about physical impossibility and string tension when she saw me floating around Ponyville on a few balloons, and then she dared me to tie one hundred balloons to myself, but I only had ninety nine.”
“Pinkie, Pumpkin Cake is still a baby. She’s still chewing on stuffed animals.”
Pinkie Pie had the grace to look embarrassed.
“Okay, so Cheese Sandwich was in town again, and he had this awesome machine that could, like, inflate a bunch of balloons at once and it sort of got out of hoof. Last I saw him, he was going south.”
Rainbow Dash sighed.
“Pinkie, you know that you’re in restricted airspace, right?”
Pinkie Pie nodded. “It wasn’t my fault! I can’t steer! Look, just pop some of the balloons, please Dashie? It’s getting cold up here.”
Rainbow Dash stared up at the mass of balloons attached to Pinkie Pie.
“Hold on, Pinkie. Gotta go tell Captain Spitfire about this,” said Rainbow.
“Okie dokie! Be quick, I can’t really feel my hoofsies,” said Pinkie, twitching her hooves.
Rainbow flew back to Spitfire.
“It’s one of my friends from Ponyville. She had the bright idea to attach a whole load of balloons to herself, and she accidentally got blown here.”
Spitfire sighed.
“Okay, what does she want us to do?”
“Pop some of the balloons so she starts descending. She can get home after that. We aren’t that far from Ponyville,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Alright,” said Spitfire, after a moment’s thought, “we’ll go and help out.”
A few moments later, Pinkie Pie was descending back through the clouds rather more rapidly than she’s ascended, waving goodbye to Rainbow Dash the whole way.
'Twas the night before Hearthswarming, and all throughout Twilight’s castle, nothing was stirring. Except, of course, for Twilight herself who had gotten locked into a study cycle researching the unicorn mage Meadowbrook and was completely unaware of the passage of time.
Thus, she failed to notice that two rooms over, in a spare room just off the main hall of the castle, the mirror portal to Canterlot High awoke with a gentle glitter.
A few moments later, Sunset Shimmer slipped out of the glass, and checked herself over. Hooves, yes. Horn, yes. Usual yellow coat and her usual mane and tail, check. Satisfied that she was still herself in Equestria, Sunset walked as quietly as she could out of the room, down the corridor and out of the door.
Back in the library, Twilight looked up from her book to wonder if somepony had left a door open. She looked around, but couldn’t hear anypony walking around the castle, and went back to her book.
Sunset Shimmer found the Ponyville train station reasonably quickly, only to realise that she had no bits for a ticket, and slapped a hoof to her face at her lack of foresight.
“Train to Canterlot!” called the conductor, “leaving Ponyville in five minutes!”
Sunset sighed, put on her best ‘innocent girl’ face, and trotted up to the conductor.
“Please, can I get a lift to Canterlot? I promised that I’d get back to see my parents for Hearthswarming, but I spent all my bits earlier,” said Sunset, sniffling just a little. For a moment, the conductor’s face was stern, and he looked like he was about to say no, but then he relented.
“Alright, miss,” he said, “come on, get on board. It’s Hearthswarming, after all.”
Sunset Shimmer suppressed the desire to smile. She may be good now, but she couldn’t help but manipulate people, or ponies. It was in her blood by this point, and she’d had ten years to practice while in the human world. She was just applying her talent in a slightly more constructive way these days.
******
The train ride to Canterlot was long and quiet, leaving Sunset Shimmer with nothing to do but sit and listen to the sound of the wheels clacking over the joins in the rails, and the gentle, rhythmic pulse of the engine. Out of the window, she could see that Equestria was fully into winter, with snow covering every available surface, and the soft glimmer of moonlight bouncing off the falling powder, lending a mystical air to Sunset’s world of origin.
A mere two hours after she’d set off from Ponyville, the train weaved through the final tunnel and pulled into sight of Canterlot. The city looked exactly the same as Sunset remembered it, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
Even the train station was exactly the same as Sunset’s memories, and she half-expected to see Celestia waiting for her, to hear what Sunset had learned on her latest trip out to witness whatever magic had caught her interest that month.
But there was no Celestia, only a thin layer of snow dusting the streets, and Sunset allowed her hooves to carry her through the white streets of Canterlot. Past a park, under an arch, and bringing her to a stop outside a house.
A house, that Sunset noted, was not empty. She could see a fire, in the final stages of dying, flickering through the windows. A quick peek showed a number of family photos decorating the mantlepeice, though Sunset didn’t look too hard. It felt wrong, that a new family had moved into this house, what was once her home, but Sunset was a smart mare. She didn’t know the exact specifics, but she supposed that after she had dived through the mirror all those years ago, and then obviously ceased to keep paying for upkeep, that the house had reverted back to the Crown, and had been sold on.
Sunset sighed, and moved on. She couldn’t go inside somepony else’s home, and went back to wandering the streets. A gentle wind chilled Sunset, but she paid it no mind. Her pony body was a little better suited to dealing with cold than her human one, and it really wasn’t that cold just yet.
Eventually, Sunset Shimmer found herself in Canterlot’s graveyard, standing in front of two long-neglected graves. She stood there for a while, words freezing in her throat, unable to articulate her thoughts.
“Dad,” Sunset eventually choked out, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t save you. I tried, and when I failed, I ran. I’m so sorry.”
And then Sunset bolted from the graveyard, heading back to the train station, the wind wiping her tracks in the snow clean.
Sun Shade trotted through the Everfree forest, heading towards the town she had visited a few days ago with Rock Slide and Apple Blossom. She knew now, after re-reading the ‘Crowned Princess’ novels that the Old Witch of the forest wasn’t as unnatural as she first seemed, and certainly not as unnatural as the stories from other foals claimed she was. Sun Shade was certain that the novels, which everypony else dismissed as simply fiction for young foals, were actually true. There had once been more than just earth ponies, and Sun Shade only knew of one pony who could tell her: The Old Witch of the Forest, as everypony else who she had told had simply dismissed it as just her imagination.
As she finally entered the clearing that held the Everfree Town, Sun Shade shivered. She felt like she was being watched.
“Hello?” she called out, “is anypony there?”
For a moment, Sun could hear nothing but the wind blowing through the trees. Just as Sun Shade was about to give up and go back home, a ball of purple light burst into existence right in front of Sun Shade’s nose.
“Follow,” said the ball, its voice ethereal and full of echo. With that, it began to float down and into the overgrown town, and Sun Shade trotted after it.
The ball lead Sun Shade past the building where she, Rock Slide and Apple Blossom had taken their photo earlier that week, and continued on down the street, leading her toward an exceptionally large tree. The tree’s limbs were twisted, intertwining with each other in a pattern that Sun Shade couldn’t recognise. The ball floated through the door, leaving Sun Shade standing outside.
She took a breath, raised a hoof, and knocked on the door. Or at least, tried to, because it was yanked open by an unseen force before her hoof could contact the wood.
“Come in!” called a voice, and Sun Shade walked inside, looking around for anything that might eat her. In the central room of the tree-house, Sun Shade saw the Old Witch. She certainly didn’t look old. In fact, she looked like she was younger than Sun’s own parents. If it weren’t for the horn-thing sticking out of her head, and the two wings on her sides, Sun would have thought her just a normal pony.
“Hello there!” said the Witch, “what’s your name?”
“I’m Sun Shade,” said Sun, still looking around as though she was about to be eaten.
“And what brings you out to my town, Sun Shade?” asked the Witch.
Instead of relpying verbally, Sun dug into her saddlebags, and pulled out the first of the ‘Crowned Princess’ books, and offered it to the Witch.
“I was here a few days ago, and then I saw your horny-thing, and your wings, and...” Sun Shade trailed off, as the Witch was staring at the inside of the book.
“Sun Shade,” said the Witch, her eyes not leaving the book that was now floating at her eye level, “what do you know me as?”
“The, um, Old Witch of the Forest,” said Sun, “please don’t eat me!”
For a moment, silence reigned in the tree-house. Then the Witch started laughing. It was slow, at first, but it built into a crescendo, and ended with her rolling around and wiping tears from her eyes.
“In all my years, I had not expected this to happen. I thought that nopony would ever make the connection between myself and the books, and come and seek me out, not after so long,” said the Witch. She clambered back onto her hooves, and then placed the first book open to the first page in front of Sun Shade.
“I believe that some re-introductions are in order. Sun Shade, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I was once a unicorn, and the supposedly normal librarian of a sleepy little town at the base of a mountain.”
Sun Shade looked between the book and the Witch, and noted the similarities between the drawing and the pony in front of her. Faced with almost an exact depiction in the book, she realised that the Witch was the pony from the ‘Crowned Princess’ books, and fainted.
The dress was beautiful. Everypony had told her so. And as she looked in the mirror, she could certainly see what they were talking about. But to her, there was something missing from it. She shook her head. Now was not the time to be dwelling on the past. She was stepping into a bright new future. Sweetie Belle’s horn lit up, and lifted her veil up and over her head, and stepped out into the hall.
As she trotted down the aisle, she could see her friends, smiling and crying for her, though Scootaloo would deny it later. At the head of the room, Princess Twilight Sparkle was waiting for her, along with her future partner. Sweetie could even see her parents in the front row, as well as a distinct empty space next to them. The dress itched and scratched against Sweetie Belle’s side as she continued her walk up the strangely long carpet, and all she could think of was that if Rarity had made her dress, this wouldn’t have happened. Sweetie pushed that thought down. Rarity was probably busy, anyway. And then she would have just shown up in some fabulous dress and looked better than Sweetie Belle at her own wedding.
No, Sweetie Belle was better off without Rarity being at her wedding. She felt a little bad, but then she remembered all of the times that Rarity had said that she would be there to help Sweetie, and then not followed through.
“Oh dear,” said a voice right next to Sweetie Belle’s ear, “We thought that you were mostly over this, Sweetie Belle.” Sweetie Belle turned, and there, walking along side her, was Princess Luna.
“Princess Luna?” The wedding scene dissolved around the two of them.
“I understand what it is to be in the shadow of your sister,” said Luna, “I have talked to you about this before.”
Sweetie Belle blushed.
“But this isn’t just about her outshining you, is it?” asked Princess Luna.
“It’s just,” began Sweetie Belle, “she always says that she’s going to help me, or that she’ll be there, and then half the time, she never is.”
“Your sister is a busy pony, Sweetie. She is running two shops, and moves between Canterlot and Ponyville often. But she is not the only pony at fault, here,” said Princess Luna.
“What do you mean?”
“Sweetie, have you ever considered your own part in your relationship with Rarity? It is not wrong to ask that she show interest in what you do and like, but Rarity is a very different pony than you. You need to take that into account.”
“So what are you saying?” asked Sweetie.
“You are pushing your sister away from you. It is not completely intentional yet, but it is happening. I have seen this happen before, Sweetie Belle. Learn to listen when she tells you why she missed an event of yours. The answer may surprise you.”
“In fairness, Mayor, I had been awake for the last two days, and it really seemed like a good idea at the time.”
When Princess Celestia told Twilight Sparkle to move down to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration and her sister’s return, she had arranged for her to stay in the local library for the night. It was, of course, a complete coincidence that that library also housed one of only two copies of ‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.’ When Twilight decided to stay in Ponyville, it was part of her agreement that she would keep mostly normal operating hours for the library.
It took all of two and a half days for Twilight to approach Mayor Mare and officially employ herself as Head Librarian of the Golden Oaks Library.
“I am really sorry about that, Mayor, but it really seemed like the best option at the time. Pinkie Pie suggested firing her Party Artillery at it. Yes, the one with eleven barrels.”
And in fairness, Twilight had turned out to be a competent librarian, if a little obsessed with order, and prone to unexplained absences. But mostly, Mayor Mare couldn’t help but keep employing Twilight because she was so enthusiastic about her work, and every few months, had a chat with Twilight to remind her that though in many respects, the Golden Oaks was her home, it was also a library, and it was expected to behave as such.
Twilight becoming an alicorn had complicated matters, of course, but as Mayor Mare stared at Twilight Sparkle over her desk in the town hall, she never imagined it would be like this.
“Okay, just run that by me again, Twilight,” sighed Mayor Mare, wishing that she could pull out her emergency bottle of brandy.
“It’s all Discord’s fault, really,” said Twilight, “he did something to a Tatzlwurm, and it followed him back to Ponyville.”
Mayor Mare was well aware of the town’s semi-occasional resident of the Spirit of Chaos, given how he professed to like having tea with Fluttershy every Tuesday. She had never heard of a Tatzlwurm, but Ponyville was next to the Everfree Forest, so she could take strange new creatures in stride.
“And so how did that lead to you, quote ‘levitating the whole of the Golden Oak Library and start beating the monster over the head with it until it started crying,’ end quote?” said Mayor Mare, levelling her best deadpan stare at Ponyville’s local alicorn.
Another day in Griffonstone. The place was totally lame, nowhere near as cool as Cloudsdale, but I came here cause I didn’t want to be around those lame ponies. I came here because the one pony I thought was sort of not lame moved on without me.
So she can go and have all of her fun times with all of her lame pony friends. If she really cared about me, she’d come and find me. It’s not like it’s hard- there’s exactly one griffon city in Equestria, and the dump isn’t even that big. I never even made a huge secret of where I was from, anyway.
Hell, I went to Cloudsdale to get away from this dump in the first place. Seriously, no one wants to be here, but we stay here because finding somewhere in Equestria proper is difficult. Oh sure, there’s a few giffons who’ve done it, but most of us stay here, like total lameos. Too much pride or whatever to move away, and the ponies look at us weird.
But Cloudsdale was great. Once I teamed up with Dash, no one cared that I was a griffon. We were the toughest kids around. Anyone messed with either of us, and we’d get them back good. Didn’t matter where we were, all that mattered was that we were flying together. Just us, and the open skies. Those days were great.
But they’re gone, and the only thing I’ve got left is a stinking pile of straw and feathers that is Griffonstone, and a stupid cart and Grandpa Gruff’s old recipie.
So screw you, Rainbow Dash. You have all the parties you want with your weird little pony friends. And one day, I’ll make it out of this heap, and get all the way across the ocean, and somewhere where the skies are nice and clear and open. And maybe, one day, you’ll remember what a great thing that we had.
I once told you that the only home I needed was the open sky. Well, that’s the truth now, and I definitely don’t need you. All I need is a nice sky, and I’ll be just fine without you, you’ll see.
Princess Luna stalked through the corridors of Canterlot Castle. Every pony that she met immediately stepped to the side. Not just because she was a Princess, and the Princess had right of way (excepting cakes taller than the average pony), but because the castle staff were still wary of Princess Luna. No pony wanted to risk accidentally offending the sister of Princess Celestia. A sister, who a few short months ago, had still wanted to rule Equestria alone and plunge it into eternal darkness.
Luna, however, did not take notice of the staff as she prowled the corridors. She was restless, and not from lack of sleep. Upon her return and very brief re-education on what Equestria was like, Luna felt more and more out of place. She did not want to fall back into the pattern she had before. That way laid madness and rainbows. But it was clear to Luna, if not Celestia, that she was a living relic.
She looked out upon the expanse of Canterlot and saw not a thriving metropolis, or a symbol of peace. She saw a city that was defensible, though not against anything with wings. She looked at the Royal guards, and saw a commendable amount of training and dedication, but no combat experience.
She saw things that had no bearing on what Equestria was now. When Luna had been banished, the world was still in much disarray from Discord’s reign, and there were still many dangerous beasts to be fought and slain. Attacks from both mindless beasts and other races had been common. The Equestria that Luna knew was only two steps away from if not war, then battle. And Luna knew that the instincts that she had cultivated, back when Celestia and her had been very much warrior princesses, would not go away so easily.
A sound brought Luna back out of her thoughts. She had wandered out of the main, public face of the castle, and ended up near the guard quarters. Polished marble had given way to hard granite, and the change in the sound of her steel-shod hooves had caught her attentions. And if Luna believed in fate or destiny, she might have claimed that her arrival here was preordained.
She was standing outside of the castle’s forge. It was not often used, only to maintain the guard’s armour. Luna had memories of a forge such as this, spending hours with nothing but the heat of the coals and the song of hammering metal to keep her company as she forged the armour and weapons that would carry both sister and many of their allies thought countless battles with Discord, Sombra, and later, herself.
But if there was one way that Luna knew she could begin to work out some of the bigger impulses, perhaps the solace of the forge would be a perfect place to do it. A spell breathed life back into the coals, and Luna flicked through the various pieces of metal available.
******
And that was how Celestia found her sister, many hours later, when it came time to lower the sun and change over for the night. The younger alicorn was covered in sweat, soot and several brand new spears were lining the walls of the smithy. The actual blacksmith employed by the castle was standing by with what could have been an impressed look, but the stallion was just as stoic as the guards he forged for.
“Luna?” asked Celestia, “I would not have expected to find you here.”
“’Tis where we felt most comfortable, sister. We are not used to a peaceful Equestria. This shall help us adapt. ‘Tis what we feel we need to do, while we come to terms with this new Equestria that you have made.”
“Ah,” said Celestia, as she realised what Luna was saying. “Well, I’m sure that Steel Mould will be of assistance to you. Take as long as you wish, though I do need you to raise the moon.”
Princess Luna nodded. “Of course, sister. Lead on.”
And that was the problem. It was also why she was hiding inside a cupboard in Twilight’s tree-castle.
“Please tell me you’re done with that counter-spell, Twi.”
“I think I’m nearly there,” said Twilight, her voice muffled by the locked cupboard door, “just a few more tweaks to the rune structure, and it should be,”
There was an abrupt explosion. It was a testament to Applejack’s general unflappable demeanour that she didn’t even react with anything but a sigh. It could have also been a testament to how often things exploded in Ponyville, and around Twilight Sparkle in particular.
“I’m fine! Ow.” called Twilight, her voice suddenly much fainter, and with a lot more echo. If Applejack had to guess, Twilight was now embedded in the opposite wall.
“Sugarcube, as much as I like hangin’ out with y’all, would you mind hurrying this up? I told Big Mac this’d be done by the end of the day.”
“I’m nearly there, AJ. Just a few more runes.”
“You ever think of asking Discord for help? You could probably get Fluttershy to get him to do it, you know.”
“That would defeat the entire point of the exercise! I need to see if I can counter his magic directly!” said Twilight. She continued after a brief pause. “Also, I may have accidentally on purpose blasted him in the face so he’ll refuse to cancel the spell just to gloat at me.”
If she could move inside the cupboard, Applejack would have dropped her face into her hooves. As it was, she just sighed. She could hear the faint sounds of the crowd outside, trying to get in just so that they could see Applejack and love her. Fortunately, Applejack had already figured out that it worked on sight by that point, and had gotten in the cupboard before Twilight or Spike had seen her, so they were currently unaffected by the magic that Discord had put on her. That had still meant that a large portion of Ponyville had more or less ground to a halt in their effort to love Applejack.
For a moment, there was only the soft shimmer of magic, and the thumping of the crowd on the doors.
“Oh, horseapp-,” was all Applejack heard Twilight say, before there was another bang, and this time Applejack actually heard Twilight’s body hit the far wall. And go through it, too.
“I am okay!” Twilight’s voice echoed back to Applejack, “Totally okay! Progress is happening! Once my ears stop ringing, I’ll get back to work!”
From inside the cupboard, Applejack groaned, and wished she could talk to animals like Fluttershy could. Then she could maybe get Fluttershy to get Discord to reverse what he’d done, already.
“Won’t take more than an afternoon,” grumbled Applejack, mimicking Twilight’s tone, “Just get Discord to put his version of a Want-It-Need-It on me, Twilight.”
The sound of flapping wings was a very familiar sound to Rarity. Three of her closest friends had wings, after all, and Rainbow Dash, the avid flyer that she was, insisted on never touching the ground unless she absolutely had to. It was a rather shocking thing to realise that Rarity herself was one of the few things that could actually inspire Rainbow to put her hooves on the ground.
So, while she was working on a very special dress, Rarity was not surprised to hear the sound of wings beating just outside. She simply smiled, and made sure that the door was unlocked, before returning to her work.
A moment later, the bell above her door tinkled.
“Miss Rarity?”
Rarity paused. That wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s voice. She turned, and standing just inside her doorway was a Wonderbolt. Spitfire, if she remembered correctly.
“Can I help you, Captain Spitfire?” asked Rarity, pausing her work with her needle and thread for a moment.
“Actually, yes. I have news about Rainbow Dash.”
“Oh?” said Rarity, her voice suddenly choking.
“She wanted this letter delivered to you, Miss Rarity,” said Spitfire, shifting on her hooves, and handing an envelope to Rarity. As Rarity’s magic ensconsed the letter, she caught sight of the writing on the face, in the usual near-indecipherable scratch that Rainbow Dash called hoofwriting.
‘To Rarity, deliver in case of supreme awesomeness,’ it read, and the welcoming smile dropped from Rarity’s face. Something about the wording was ominous, and Rarity preferred to trust her instincts.
‘Heya Rares. Figured I should write this down, while I still have a chance to. If you’re reading this, it means I was so awesome that the world decided there needed to be a little less awesome in it. You know, to balance it out, or something. If you hadn’t figured it out, that means I’m dead. Now, I know what you’re saying to yourself. You’re going, “Rainbow Dash, you sexy beast, cease this dreadful prank, come out of your hiding spot and come and ravish me.” Sorry, Rares, but this isn’t a prank, as much as I wish it was. I’m not planning on going any time soon, but with me starting to fly as a Wonderbolt Reserve these days-’
Rarity reeled back. Rainbow had had this letter written since that affair with Wind Rider? Rarity shook her head to clear it. Rainbow was often smarter than she let on, and this was just another example of that, to recognise that it was possible that one day, she wouldn’t come back. With another shake of her head, Rarity focused back on the letter.
‘-I know it’s a dangerous gig, and the Wonderbolts wouldn’t have picked me if I weren’t totally up to it, but things can go wrong. So this is just in case. Anyway, that’s pretty much it. I know that one of the Wonderbolts will have delivered this, so you can ask them about how I went. I don’t know, obviously. I just hope it was awesome.
Your friend, Rainbow Dash.
P.S. Don’t worry about Fluttershy. She can take the news. Just tell her the truth.”
For a moment, the only sound was a steady sniffle, and the occasional drip as tears rolled down Rarity’s face, causing her makeup to run, though Rarity was past caring. Spitfire stood there, shuffling on her hooves, trying not to look at Rarity.
“How?” asked Rarity, with a sniff, “how did she?”
“She broke the sound barrier saving a pair of young ponies whose cloudwalking enchantment failed at the wrong time. She couldn’t pull up in time, or wash off speed fast enough. The foals are safe,” said Spitfire, edging towards the door of the Boutique.
****Time****
“Thank you, Spitfire,” said Rarity, “I shall not keep you any longer. No doubt you have things to arrange.”
Spitfire nodded, and vanished out of the door of the boutique quickly enough that the bell above to door didn’t stop ringing for a full thirty seconds. Rarity, however, didn’t notice, because she was staring at the half-finished dress that would now never, ever be finished. The dress that she was going to wear when Rainbow Dash returned from her latest excursion with the Wonderbolts, and Rarity asked for Rainbow’s hoof in marriage.
“Eight multiplied by four?” asked Twilight Sparkle, her eyes focused on the book hovering at her eye level.
“Thirty-two,” grumbled Pumpkin Cake, her pencil wandering around one of a thousand worksheets splayed around the table in front of her.
“Twelve multiplied by twelve?”
“One hundred and forty-four.”
“Five multiplied by three?”
Pumpkin Cake groaned the kind of groan that things make when they die, and let her head thunk into the table.
“Five multiplied by three?” repeated Twilight Sparkle, lowering her book just enough to look over the edge with what Pumpkin had come to term the ‘Dissapointed Princess’ glare.
“Fifteen,” Pumpkin mumbled into the desk, “like it helps me learn magic.”
A snap. A thunk. The sound of a horn firing into action, and Pumpkin Cake found herself being dragged from her seat and levitated over to Twilight Sparkle.
“This was your idea, Pumpkin Cake,” said Twilight, “you said that you wanted to learn from me. I told you that I would teach my way. You said that you didn’t mind, that you just wanted to learn. Or did you lie to me?”
Pumpkin Cake winced. Most of Ponyville, herself included, happily ignored the wings on Twilight Sparkle until one of two things happened: either a mess needed cleaning up, or Twilight somehow turned on that invisible aura that said ‘I am a Princess of Equestria, and you should listen to me or I will be disappointed in you’. It was this second one that Pumpkin was experiencing, and she had to resist the urge to apologise until she ran out of breath.
“I just thought that we’d be doing actual spells, not stupid math,” said Pumpkin, “everypony in town knows that you’re the best at magic around, so I was expecting to be taught actual magic.”
Twilight sighed, and let her horn fizzle out, dropping Pumpkin back to the floor of her castle. Her horn lit up a second time, and a giant projection flickered into life above Pumpkin’s head.
“Do you know what this is, Pumpkin?” asked Twilight. Pumpkin studied the complicated structure, and shook her head.
“This is the spell pattern, that is, the underlying structure of a spell. It is what your magic unconsciously forms into when you cast that particular spell. Take a guess at what spell you think this particular pattern is for,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Probably an amazing super-complex spell,” said Pumpkin, after a minute.
Twilight Sparkle shook her head, a smile growing on her face.
“No, Pumpkin. This is the spell structure for levitation, the most basic upon basic of spells,” said Twilight. Pumpkin blinked, and Twilight continued on, “It is a seventeen point rotating matrix with three degrees of freedom and evolves with time at a rate of four points per second.”
“But how is math related to that?” asked Pumpkin.
“Everything is math, Pumpkin Cake. Though you can cast most spells with only a little practice, the true value in magic is not just fancy spells. It is understanding a fundamental force of our world, and math lets us take apart our spells at the most basic level. The better you can do math, the better you can understand what your spells are doing when you cast.” At some point in her speech, Twilight had climbed onto a discarded soap box. However, when she looked down, Pumpkin Cake was gone, leaving only scattered worksheets.
******
In Sugarcube Corner, Pumpkin Cake bit into a cupcake.
“Hiya Pumpkin!” said Pinkie Pie, “aren’t you supposed to be at Twilights’ now?”
“I have decided that learning magic can wait until I find a teacher who will actually teach me magic.”
Pinkie Pie slid into the seat next to Pumpkin, and wrapped a hoof around her.
“She pulled the ‘Magic is a Fundamental force’ speech on you, didn’t she?” asked Pinkie
Pumpkin nodded, and took another bit of her cupcake.
“Hey, look of the bright side,” said Pinkie Pie, “now I get to make hotsauce cakes with my bestest neice in the world! Wanna taste the batter?”
Pumpkin was out the door in under five seconds. One numb tongue was enough to swear Pumpkin Cake off Pinkie’s special cakes for life.
Twilight Sparkle woke up to a world bathed in white outside of her bedroom window in her new castle. Dark clouds floated overhead, but the whole scene that she saw seemed quite tranquil. But there was something tingling at the edge of Twilight’s senses, a lingering sense that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
What that was became apparent soon enough. Normally, Twilight could see straight down the main street of Ponyville from her window. And technically, she still could, but half of the building were in various states of disrepair, and most of those had fallen down. Not a single pony was out in the streets. Given that Ponyville still more or less rose with the sun, it being primarily an Earth Pony town, this only enhanced the feeling currently sending shivers down to the tips of Twilight’s wings.
Twilight didn’t even bother with her usual morning routine. She hurried downstairs, and out of the front door of her castle, and out into the white-coated ground. Her first stop was, quite naturally, Sugarcube Corner. If anypony had any idea of where everypony was, or what had happened, it would be Pinkie Pie.
But Sugarcube Corner was no longer there. The only thing that remained of the ginger-bread style shop was a blackened crater and few standing struts, also blackened. It was then that Twilight became aware of the smells in the air. Normally, Ponyville smelt like dirt, fresh grass and the ever so subtle scent of burning sugar, though that was mostly around Sugarcube corner. Btu today, those smells were all overpowered by a single, very familiar smell.
The smoky scent of things that had been burning, and burning long and hard. Twilight Sparkle looked around with new eyes. The buildings weren’t crumbling from age, their structure had been damaged by a blast of some kind. There was still small spot fires here and there, still chewing on what fuel they had left. And Twilight realized that it wasn’t snow she was standing on; it was ash. A lot of ash. She took to the air to survey the damage.
Up high above her home town, Twilight could see the blast pattern more clearly. Sugarcube Corner had been the origin of whatever the blast had been.
Suddenly a burst of movement caught Twilight’s eye, and she dove down, hoping to get some answers for what had happened here. And, as luck would have it, it was the exact pony who she needed to talk to: Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie?” asked Twilight Sparkle, her hooves carving grooves in the ash drifts as she landed, “What in Equestria happened here?”
Pinkie blushed, and looked down.
“Well, you know I was trying to bake the ultimate hotsauce cake, right?”
Twilight nodded, and then her mind leapt to a conclusion.
“Pinkie Pie, please don’t tell me that you mixed liquid rainbow into a hotsauce cake, and it blew up Ponyville.”
Pinkie Pie smiled a bashful smile, and Twilight dropped her face into her hooves with a groan.
There was absolutely nothing around her. Nothing but an great expanse of black and more black.
“So, uh, what am I supposed to do here, Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“As I said, Rainbow,” said Twilight Sparkle, her voice seemingly omnipresent, “It is is an experiment to determine the viability of self-generated illusions, as the changelings have demonstrated. Queen Cocoon was kind enough to explain the principles to me as part of the treaty, to see if they can be improved, but first I need to make sure the basic concept works first.”
“Won’t this drain my love or something, though?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“No, Rainbow. That’s a separate spell entirely, and is unique to changelings. Changelings design these illusions to keep the ponies happy and with something that they love, but it is possible to cast it without any specific bias, so that’s what I have done. Just think of something, and the illusion should make it real.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, but in her mind, thought of the best possible thing she could: an open sky, with a few clouds scattered around for practice.
And no sooner than she had finished thinking about that, than she found herself floating, and falling, through a completely clear sky. It was a little disconcerting to look down and see that there was no ground below her, but this was completely awesome.
Rainbow opened her wings, and transitioned from a free-fall and into a long swoop. Rings of cloud appeared as her mind came up with increasingly more intricate courses, pushing her agility to the absolute limit. With no ground to worry about hitting, she could dive forever, building up speed, and getting to experience the joy of total free-fall for minutes at a time.
It was an adrenaline rush like she had never experienced before. Another flare of her wings brought her back to level flight, pushing her downward momentum into forward momentum. Rainbow reached into the deepest place inside of her that she knew. Memories of the Best Young Flyer’s competition came rushing back to her. Rarity falling, and Rainbow being the only one that could save her in time.
And just like that, a falling figure in the distance materialized, clad in way too much clothing and fancy stuff. Rainbow pushed forwards. The cone started forming around her, the air resisting her attempts to be as awesome as she knew that she could be. But just as the barrier was about the fully break, the image around her shattered, and she was lying on Twilight’s basement science lab’s table, her wings having broken the restraints, and Twilight gripping onto her with her magic field.
“Rainbow!” said Twilight, “stop, Rainbow!” Rainbow Dash stopped flapping her wings, realising that she was trying to propel herself into the opposite wall.
“It’s cool, egghead,” said Rainbow, as Twilight’s magical hold on her relaxed, and let Rainbow down onto the ground. “You get everything you wanted?”
Twilight nodded, “before you started trying to do a Sonic Rainboom underground, I got a lot of useful information about how the illusion interacts with your mind. It’s subtle, but it seems there’s a slight addictive element to it, which would make sense. And that addictive element can be tuned to specific emotive states”
“English, egghead,” said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Basically, the illusion makes you want to stay in there. Over the course of years, it would eventually ruin a pony’s mind completely beyond repair, turning them into simple love factories for the changelings to feast on. “
“Yeesh,” said Rainbow, a wince scrunching her face up.
“Nopony ever said that the changelings were pleasant, Rainbow.”
“I know, but still,” said Rainbow, shrugging, “It still seems wrong that we’re allied with them now, you know? They tried to kill us once, Twi.”
“Hive mind, Rainbow. Only the Queen actually has intelligence. The rest of them only really have basic instinct and a few bits of knowledge specific to their role in the hive.” Said Twilight.
“Still seems weird, though. Just use that spell of yours to figure out how we can stop them from eating our love, okay, Twilight?”
It was a Saturday night at the Friendship Castle, and that meant one thing, and one thing alone; Twilight Sparkle had dancing lessons with Rarity. It was an ongoing project for the fashionista, to somehow get some degree of grace and elegance into the newest Princess of Equestria. Twilight’s usual dancing could make even Applejack, who thought that square dancing was the height of dancing, look graceful and elegant.
“Step, step and turn,” said Rarity, walking Twilight through a two-pony waltz. Twilight completed the turn, and promptly fell backwards onto her rump. Rarity sighed.
“Twilight, you must use your partner to steady yourself, as I have explained.” Twilight blushed, and climbed back up onto her hooves.
“Back to the beginning, Twilight,” sighed Rarity, as the two reset to their positions. Beside them, Spike lifted the needle off the record, and placed it back on the outermost groove. The two friends began to step in unison, with Rarity leading Twilight around one of the larger rooms in the Friendship Castle. And as both ponies were up on their hind legs, they were relying on the other for balance and stability. The tricky thing about dances such as these was that they often incorportated many twists and turns. In turn, that mean the each pony had to know exactly what they were doing, and when to brace their hooves against the floor to counteract the other pony’s motion.
Rarity was an expert, her sense of balance forged through many, many dance lessons with professional instructors. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, was not used to dance, and was still coming to grips with her balance, and the fact that she had started growing again. The wings didn’t help either, as Twilight still had trouble controlling them, too. They liked to flare out on occasion, out of Twilight’s control, and throwing off her balance. It was difficult enough when she was on four hooves. On two, and with only Rarity to counterbalance her, Twilight had no hope of staying upright.
“Whoa!” cried Twilight, as her wings sprung out, and threw her off her timing and balance as she went for one of the more complex turns in the dance. Rarity attempted to brace herself, and correct for Twilight’s movement, momentarily forgot that the new alicorn was rather heavier than herself, and instead of letting go and allowing Twilight to fall down, as she had in the past, held on tighter, and went head over hooves with Twilight.
“Sorry, Rarity,” said Twilight, getting back up onto four hooves.
Rarity sighed, and climbed back onto her hooves.
“A lady never admits defeat,” she said, “but I fear you are beyond my ability to help. Just promise me that you will not dance in public ever again, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded, and Rarity headed out of the castle, shaking her head the entire way about Twilight’s terrible sense of rhythm.
Twilight herself, however, was barely holding herself back at celebrating the fact that she didn’t have to take anymore of Rarity’s dance lessons.
Twilight Sparkle wished that she could simply not be a princess right now. The wings were nice, once she had some time to get used to them, and the added magical power from a complete harmonization of Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn magic was great whenever she didn’t set herself on fire by accidentally overcharging a spell, but Twilight Sparkle really didn’t like the fact that at least to the residents of Canterlot, she was little more than a symbol, something to be used and exploited in their attempts to be more famous than their next-door neighbour. She knew that Rarity hadn’t meant to manipulate Twilight like that. Well, not completely.
Twilight knew Rarity. Rarity would have come up with the idea to get Twilight to wear a dress from her shop and call it advertising, but she never would have taken it to the levels that Sassy Saddles had. It would have been a one-time thing to attract attention, and then Rarity would have sold the rest of her stock on the merits of the clothing alone.
Still, Twilight had managed to extract a promise from both Rarity and Sassy that they would not use her like that again, because she really didn’t like being chased by reporters. Which was why Twilight had currently reversed gravity and was sitting on the ceiling of the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Celestia seemed to be immensely amused by this.
“Princess Celestia,” said the fourth journalist in the last ten minutes, “can you give us any information on Princess Twilight’s current location?”
“Princess Twilight is currently resting up,” said Princess Celestia, a smile playing across her face, “I am sure that once she is no longer sure she’ll blow her roof from frustration, she will answer your questions about the new height of fashion, my little ponies.”
On the ceiling, Twilight rubbed a hoof across her nose. Celestia had been doing that for the last twenty minutes. As the journalists exited the hall, Princess Celstia called for a temporary recess to the Day Court, and the minute the hall cleared, she let out the groan that she had been holding in since the reporters started chasing her.
“How do you deal with it, Celestia?” asked Twilight, as she allowed gravity to reassert itself on her, “How do you deal with all of the ponies who want your opinion on the most basic of things, who treat you as something to be copied and used to advance?”
“Well, Princess Twilight, the press will eventually lose interest in you, and move onto the next thing.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” mumbled Twilight, “You are the Once and Future Princess of Equestria. Not all of us have had a thousand years to get used to it.”
“Why Twilight, that almost sounded like a criticism!” said Celestia
Twilight blinked, and opened her mouth to apologise, but Celestia beat her to it.
“It is, of course, entirely correct. I have had much longer to get used to the attention that ponies give to their princesses. Cadence, Luna and yourself have not had as much time as I,” said Celestia, “And Twilight, you need not fear criticising me. You are a Princess of Equestria as well. You hold as much weight as I or Luna does. If you do not tell me when I am wrong, then nopony will. This is why Luna and I decided on a diarchy- we provide a check against each other. For all it’s ability to debate, parliament will never tell me if I am wrong. Should I decide to outlaw trimming fetlocks tomorrow, they will likely rationalize it and pass the bill. I am not infallible, Twilight, though my body of experience may suggest otherwise.”
Twilight smiled up at Celestia, and the two shared a moment of understanding.
“Your body of experience is also why you obviously had this place built with exceptionally large doors, too,” said Luna, sticking her head in an open window, “for thy flanks needed the extra space from all that cake. We recall you being able to actually fit into that suit of armour you have rusting away in a room somewhere.”
Celestia’s throne was ripped from its mounting point and smacked Luna in the face.
“You and Luna are my peers, Twilight,” said Celestia, her horn glowing as she levitated the throne back onto the dais, “Though Luna is somewhat more critical of me, given that she is my sister.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie would like to invite Twilight Sparkle on a date!”
“No.”
Slam
******
“The Humble and Contrite Trixie would be honoured if-”
“No.”
Slam
******
“Trixie would very much appreciate it if Twilight-”
“No.”
Slam
******
Trixie steeled herself. This was not going to be like the other times. Trixie reached forward and knocked.
Twilight Sparkle opened the door to find Trixie standing there, no hat, no cape, and no fireworks.
“Trixie thinks that Twilight Sparkle is far too attractive for her own good, and that while Trixie recognises that her own magical talent is a mere pittance compared to that of Twilight Sparkles’, she would very much to request that Twilight Sparkle and Trixie go out for dinner sometime, as Trixie has attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and has not had a chance to talk serious magic with anypony in a long time. Trixie also recognises that her own magical education is technically incomplete, and would appreciate The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle’s help in filling in the gaps in Trixie’s knowledge in the future, if the Amazing and Smart Twilight Sparkle is agreeable to this idea.” Twilight Sparkle blinked as she processed the statement.
“Hold on for a minute,” said Twilight, gently shutting the door, and trotting over to check her calender. Outside, Trixie was holding herself back from activating her firework spell out of sheer joy.
The door opened again.
“Next Wednesday,” said Twilight Sparkle, “eight o’clock, at the Bit and Bridle, and we’ll se what happens from there.”
Trixie couldn’t contain it anymore, and the air around her filled with explosions in every colour of the rainbow.
“Trixie thanks the Amazing and Sexy Twilight Sparkle! She will not regret this!”
“I think I already do,” muttered Twilight, moving back inside, and leaving Trixie to her explosion of joy.
Rarity loved Spring. With Winter Wrap-Up behind her, she could now concentrate on her new lines, and spring was such an inspiring time. The flowers were in full bloom and their fragrance filled the air in a way that Rarity had trouble describing. It was, in every way for Rarity, a time for fresh new starts, and it was not uncommon for the residents of Ponyville to see her out and about more than usual, taking in the sounds, sights and smells of the new season.
Of course, there was one thing that she wasn’t particularly fond of about spring. It was the rain. Rarity hated getting wet under the best of circumstances, unless it was entirely by her design. But no matter when she went out, it always seemed like the weather patrol was always just setting up for a small rainshower.
But today was just perfect. Only a few scattered clouds in the sky, a wonderfully warm sun to bask in, and Sweetie Belle was off playing with her friends. It was the perfect day for Rarity to get a number of errands done. She had few orders of cloth that she needed to pick up from the delivery office, and some things to pick up from the market for the night’s dinner, but it was such a nice day that she could afford to take her time with it.
It was while she was on her way from the delivery office that she noticed the number of clouds increasing. Noting the direction, Rarity assumed that it was simply the wild magic of the Everfree Forest at work again. Rainbow had bemoaned that forest enough times to the rest of them that they understood her frustration with the forest. However, Rarity was not overly concerned. She was confident that she could still get to the market and then back home before the clouds opened up and drenched her with water.
But as she neared the main market area of Ponyville, and incidentally Sugarcube Corner, which had some absolutely delightful smells coming out of it today, the clouds decided to drop their contents. Within seconds, Rarity was soaked.
And that was when she heard it. The snort of laughter coming from directly above her.
“Rainbow Dash!” said Rarity, “Did no pony tell you that it is exceedingly impolite to ruin a lady’s appearance?”
“Nope!” cackled Rainbow, presumably rolling around on the top of the cloud that had drenched Rarity moments ago. Rarity considered her options for a moment. She strolled into Sugarcube Corner. A moment later, she exited, holding a pie, and spraying a liberal amount of whipped cream on the crust.
“Oh Rainbow Dash,” sang Rarity. The minute that Rainbow turned around, Rarity’s magic slammed the pie directly into Rainbow’s face. Rainbow licked the remains of the pie off her face, and shot a delightfully wicked grin at Rarity in a way that sent the most wonderful shivers down Rarity’s spine.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Rarity thought, maybe the sudden rainstorms weren’t all bad.
“We don’t need a foalsitter, Mom!” cried Pound Cake
“We can totally look after ourselves for two nights!” Said Pumpkin Cake.
“The last time you two said that, you set the kitchen on fire,” said Cup Cake, as she dragged her two young foals towards the crystal castle at the edge of Ponyville.
“You are at the very least going to be watched over by Pinkie while your father and I are out of town for the Great Bake-off.” The twins quietened down. At least Pinkie Pie would be fun.
*****
“Did you say that you’re unavailable?” asked Cup Cake, and Pinkie offered an apologetic smile.
“I was just about come and find you, Mrs. Cake. Important friendship business in Canterlot. Seriously serious business, can’t put it off.”
The matriarch of the Cake family looked over Pinkie, and let out a sigh.
“All right, I suppose that it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to find somepony else. Good luck with your friendship problem, Pinkie.”
“Okie dokie loki!” said Pinkie, snapping up a hoof into a salute. The minute Mrs Cake left, Pinkie pulled out a thick folder, and flipped it open.
“Now, Princess Celestia’s surprise party has to go perfectly, or Twilight’s never going to let me throw another one ever again...”
*****
“So I guess that means that we don’t need to have a foalsitter, right mom?” said the Cake twins in near perfect unison, several hours later, and a few fruitless requests to the rest of Pinkie Pie’s friends.
“Well, I guess since no one else is...Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Cup Cake, spotting the colourful tail of Ponyville’s resident Wonderbolt.
“Yeah?” asked Rainbow, gliding down to hover just above the baker, as the twins groaned.
“Could you look after the twins here for a few nights?”
“I dunno. How many nights is ‘a few’?”
“Two nights. Myself and Carrot are heading out to Manehatten. We’ll be back for Monday morning.” Cup cake waited with bated breath as Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky, thinking.
“Yeah, I can watch ‘em,” said Rainbow, “Basic stuff, right? Make sure they go to bed on time, don’t burn down the building, yeah?”
Cup Cake nodded, letting out a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure how good a foalsitter Rainbow Dash was, but surely she couldn’t be that terrible?
******
Early Monday morning, the train rolled back into Ponyville station with a hiss of steam, and the squeal of metal on metal. The minute that the doors opened, Cup and Carrot Cake hurried out of the carriage and looked down the main street of Ponyville to see that Sugarcube Corner was still standing, and in no way on fire.
Once they got back to their bakery, they were confronted with Rainbow Dash hovering in mid-air, in the middle of some elaborate tale about flying with the Wonderbolts, with both twins completely enraptured.
“...and then Soarin’ makes a dive for this pie, right, and oh hey Mr and Mrs. Cake.”
After the twins had greeted their parents again, Cup Cake leaned into Rainbow Dash.
“I didn’t expect you to be so good at foalsitting, Rainbow.”
“It’s not really my thing, but knowing how to put my hoof down so they can’t argue is something I’m kinda good at. They just got a little taste of Drill Sergeant Dash, is all. They were pretty chill the whole time, though.”
She stared down at her drink, trying to forget the memories, the good times. Thinking about them always reminded her that she wasn’t there anymore, and it hurt. It hurt when she thought about her smile, her constant fussing over the books. But Twilight was a pony that was, for better or worse, not entirely one to deny when her dream job had come up. And true, Canterlot wasn’t that far away, but to Rainbow Dash, it still felt like something of a betrayal. Like Twilight had abandoned Ponyville, and Rainbow was smart enough to know that it wasn’t too different from what she was planning on doing with the Wonderbolts, but Rainbow didn’t want to think about that right now. All she wanted was to stop thinking about Twilight Sparkle for a little while.
Rainbow picked up her drink, and chugged the entire thing down. Once she had finished, she slammed the empty mug onto the counter top, and called for another.
“Sure you should be drinkin’ that much, Dash?” said Applejack, sliding into the seat next to Rainbow.
“Shut up, Applejack,” grumbled Rainbow, as her mug was refilled, and placed back in reach of her hoof, “you’ve barely left the farm since she left. You work when you want to avoid something.”
“At least you can’t smell the cider on my breath from twenty paces!”
“And you don’t get to sit there and pretend that everything’s alright, Applejack! Fluttershy’s barely left her cottage since Twilight left, Pinkie Pie’s been throwing less parties than I can remember, and Rarity switches between overwork and drinking. But at least we’re all being honest about it!” said Rainbow, her voice rising by degrees until she was nearly shouting.
“Now, Rainbow Dash,” started Applejack. She never finished the sentence, because Rainbow Dash slammed her head into Applejack’s face.
“What in tarnation was that for?” said Applejack, stumbling backwards, one hoof across her nose, as Rainbow Dash picked herself up from the floor.
“Don’t think I haven’t heard what the others have been saying,” said Rainbow, “you’re not even admitting there’s a problem here. You work, you eat, and you sleep. You haven’t even challenged me to a game of horseshoes in months. It’s you trying to tell yourself that life goes on, and sure, I get that, but you don’t get to act like she didn’t matter, AJ!”
Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash over a rapidly reddening nose.
“And your way is any better?”
“No, it’s not,” said Rainbow Dash, “but at least I’m doing something. At least I’m being honest with myself. Thought that was usually your gig, Applejack.”
It was the briefest of glances. For a split second, their eyes connected, and then the yellow unicorn recovered from her teleport and bolted down the hallway, Twilight’s crown sticking out of her saddlebag. Twilight gave chase, and eventually the two tumbled into the room holding a mirror that Twilight had not seen before. Her crown bounced ouf of the intruder’s bags, and fell through the liquid-like surface of the mirror. The yellow and red unicorn paused to send a smirk at Twilight, and then stepped through herself.
******
Sunset Shimmer stared down at Twilight Sparkle. In Equestria, she may have been an alicorn princess, but here, in Sunset’s new world, she was little more than an awkward teenager.
“You don’t stand a chance, Twilight Sparkle,” said Sunset, “you don’t even know what happens when someone from this world wears an Element of Harmony, so why don’t you just hurry on back to Equestria. You don’t belong here, Twilight.”
For a moment, the two teenagers stared into each other’s eyes. One full of confidence, and already celebrating her victory, and the others hard with determination.
With a laugh, Sunset flicked her hair into Twilight’s face, and walked off and out of the gym.
For a moment, she thought that Twilight Sparkle looked rather cute when she was determined like that, but she quickly shoved that thought aside. She had things to set in motion, after all. All of her waiting would pay off in the next few days, so she was going to leave nothing to chance.
******
Sunset screamed as the rainbow collided with her new and improved demonic form. Her eyes slammed shut as Harmony shoved its way through her body. As this happened, her eyes reopened by reflex, and she found herself staring into the eyes of Twilight Sparkle. Her eyes reminded Sunset of Celestia. Stern, but forgiving, in a way. Less angry, and more simply disappointed that whoever she was looking at had failed to live up to their fullest potential.
And then the pain returned in full force, and Sunset was driven down into a crater in the front court of Canterlot High School with another scream.
*****
Sunset’s old notebook glowed and vibrated, and she flipped it open to the latest page, hoping to find an answer from Princess Celestia.
“Dear Sunset Shimmer,” she muttered to herself, reading what was written there, “This is Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
And somehow, for some reason, Sunset’s heart leapt up into her mouth. She paused for a moment, then shrugged. There were worse people to be attracted to: Flash Sentry, for example. Sunset had always been a practical sort. Her new feelings could wait until they had dealt with the Dazzlings.
Rarity strode into an upscale restaurant in the heart of Canterlot wearing nothing but a modest hat, though only Rarity herself would have described it as such. She threaded her way through the maze of tables, and joined Rainbow Dash at one of the more private tables near the back of the restaurant.
“So, finally realized that I don’t care what you dress up in, hey Rare?”
“Absolute nonsense!” declared Rarity, “I am simply using this delightful dinner with you to show off my newest line: Vintage Casual!”
Rainbow blinked.
“Rarity, you’re not wearing anything apart from that silly hat.”
“Vintage Casual!” insisted Rarity, with a wink at Rainbow.
Rainbow just rolled her eyes.
“Sure, Vintage casual. Whatever you say, Rare,” said Rainbow, turning back to her menu.
The meal progressed, and Rarity alternated between listening to Rainbow talk about the Wonderbolts and her training regimen and its distinct lack of pizza, and keeping one ear out on the aspiring social climbers around her. In the background chatter, she could hear ponies occasionally mention her name, and her self-proclaimed new style, and she smiled.
Later, as Rainbow and Rarity were heading back to the Canterlot Boutique, Rainbow turned to Rarity.
“So, you mind explaining what the heck ‘vintage casual’ is, Rare?”
“Think of it as an experiment, Rainbow. I hold a not inconsiderable weight in the fashion world, though most ponies, especially here in Canterlot, will deny that I do. So on occasion, I see what I can convice the ponies of Canterot is fashionable.”
Rainbow Dash thought for a moment, and Rarity waited. She knew that Rainbow wasn’t stupid, but it did sometimes take her a while to grasp concepts that she wasn’t intimately familiar with. As Rarity waited, a smile spread across Rainbow’s face.
“So basically,” said Rainbow, “you’re pranking them. It’s just a really high-class prank.”
It was the last step, the only way to absolutely ensure that there was no way that the portal could ever open again. The statue had to be destroyed. Twilight Sparkle had already deactivated the mirror, and unravelled the spell linking the two worlds from her end, so all that remained was for Sunset Shimmer to destroy the statue.
And despite Principal Celestia’s offer to get a proper demolition crew in to do it, Sunset had insisted. The whole mess was her fault, and she would clean it up, and that included the destruction of the portal.
When Twilight had told Sunset that the bridge between Equestria and Canterlot High School was becoming unstable, Sunset had asked about reinforcing the portal. There are really only two options when confronted with a dangerous bridge, after all: make it stronger, or destroy it before it does any damage. Sunset had immediately gone to the first option. She wasn’t quite ready to let go of her final link to Equestria just yet, the last thing that reminded her that she was not originally from the world that she inhabited.
But Sunset was sitting on the steps of CHS, a heavy-duty sledgehammer resting by her side, and a hard hat on top of her head. She knew that it was nothing more than stone now. Twilight had already diffused the inter-dimensional spell, closed the tunnel, and probably destroyed the mirror by now. Sunset’s book would buzz no more, completely cut off from its twin in Equestria.
Beside her book, her phone vibrated. With a swipe of her finger, Sunset looked at the message.
‘Whats taking you so long? – RD,’ read Sunset.
“I’d like to see you completely cut yourself off from your home forever, Rainbow Dash,” grumbled Sunset, switching her phone off, and picking up the hammer and hard hat. She walked up the the statue, and ran her hand over the face one more time. Usually, she could feel the faint tingle of waiting magic just under the stone, waiting for the right time to activate, but this time there was nothing. It was just stone to Sunset’s senses now.
“Well, I guess this is it,” said Sunset, sliding the hard hat onto her head, “no more statue, no more portal, no more magic. No more visiting Equestria ever again.”
Sunset gripped the handle of the hammer, and pulled it back and over her shoulder. She looked at the statue one last time. Memories of Celestia, her Celestia, teaching her magic. Those would be things that would now only ever exist in her memories. She was already alone in this world since Twilight had cut off the portal. This was just a formality for Sunset.
With one final sigh, Sunset set her footing, and swung the hammer as hard as she could. Despite its appearance, the base of the statue wasn’t a single solid block. A large part of it was actually hollow, and Sunset’s first strike drove the head of the hammer straight through the face and into the cavity behind it.
Sunset pulled back, and took another swing. The head of the hammer punched another hole into the stonework. Peices of stone flew out when the hammer impacted against the stone. Again and again hammer struck against stone, until eventually only rubble remained. Sunset’s shoulders heaved as her breathing began to calm back down from the exertion. She was covered in dust and debris, but she was now forever free from Equestria, and magic, and all that came with it.
Unable to do anything else, Sunset dropped the hammer and hard hat, walked back over to the main steps of CHS, and sobbed to herself. That had felt like she’d permanently cut off her own horn. As much as she had grown to love CHS, and the friends that she had made here, with the help of Princess Twilight, she had still liked going back to Equestria ever now and again, just to remember what having real, actual magic felt like.
There was no chance of that now. Likely, all of the powers she had developed would be gone now, with the portal being closed and no longer able to provide some of Equestria’s magic to fuel their own ‘magic’.
Sunset switched her phone on, and sent a text to her friends that she was done. She gathered everything up, and walked away from the shattered statue, and to her new, permanent life.
Princess Celestia, for many ponies, was an easy pony to fall in love with. It wasn’t really difficult to see why. She was seen as kind, forgiving and many other things. She was what many ponies aspired to be, and thus it was not unexpected that she would receive a great many confessions of love, usually through form of letter.
However, winning the princesses’ heart was a little more difficult than simply falling in love with her, as most ponies would tell you. In fact, most ponies would say that it was impossible, that Celestia, for whatever reason they imagined, would respectfully reject all advances of love from her dear little ponies. And for the most part, they were correct. However, Celestia’s heart did not always listen to her mind, which told her that she would outlive every single pony that she ever fell in love with, but that did not stop her from doing so. But the primary thing that Celestia looked for in a pony was an earnest desire to be with her, a desire not born from trying to advance a social agenda, or standing in society, but simply to be with Celestia, not the Princess of Equestria.
And that, understandably, was much more rare than the other kinds of ponies. But every now and again, Celestia found one who did only want to be with Celestia, and not the princess. And when she did, she could not help but return their love.
And it was one of these rare ponies that she was currently on her way to see. They had met, as perhaps was common, at the Grand Galloping Gala, and Celestia had been immediately taken with the earth pony’s attitude towards life. And clearly, social standing meant very little to her. There was even a muted beauty to her, a subtlety that most other ponies would dismiss as simply being plain or even boring. But after talking to her for a while at the Gala, Princess Celestia had found herself rather taken with the earth pony, and had invited her up to one of the castle’s many private dining rooms for a pleasant lunch, so that they could get to know one another a little better, without the trappings of the Gala between them.
“Princess Celestia!” cried her secretary, running up behind her.
“Yes, Sunny Day?” asked Princess Celestia, “what seems to be the matter?”
“The griffon delegation is causing trouble. They’re claiming that the restaurants will not cater to their tastes. If they decide that...” Celestia held up a hoof, silencing Sunny Day.
“They won’t do anything. Garand simply likes to remind me that he exists, sometimes. He likes having all of the attention on him. It makes him feel important, when all he is is a glorified accountant. He does this every time he’s in town for trade negotiations. Ensure that the kitchens are well-stocked with his favourite wine and some of the delicacies from his home, and he will bemoan the fact that there are no good places to eat in Canterlot, review the agreements, and then leave without fuss,” said Celestia. Sunny Day nodded.
“Now, if there was anything else?” asked Celestia. Sunny Day began to look through her saddlebags.
“Well, I’m sure it can wait until after my lunch anyway. I shall see you in a short while, Sunny Day,” said Celestia, striding off towards her awaiting companion. She opened the door, and greeted the occupant with a smile.
“I do hope that I haven’t kept you waiting long. The affairs of state never seem to cease, and occasionally I am the only one who can deal with them. Our food should be brought up soon enough.”
“That’s fine,” said Maud Pie, nudging a pebble on the table with a hoof, “Boulder was getting hungry anyway.”
Celestia smiled, and took her seat opposite the earth pony.
“Yes!” interrupted Pinkie, as she bounced in place, a giant grin on her face.
“Pinkie, this is Princess Celestia that you’re talking about,” said Twilight, “you can’t just do those things to her.”
“Why not?” Pinkie cocked her head to the side.
“Because she’s Princess Celestia!” said Twilight Sparkle
“And you’re Princess Twilight Sparkle, and that doesn’t stop me from doing it to you.”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head.
“We’re friends, Pinkie. That’s a little different.”
“No it’s not! The first time I did it to you you didn’t even know my name. Or I told you and you forgot. Anyway! Not important!” said Pinkie, pulling out a large sheet of paper. “I have everything laid out perfectly!”
Twilight Sparkle studied the complex diagram, the heading of which read ‘Princess Celestia Ultimate Perfect Surprise Party version 3’
“Pinkie, what is that on step six?”
Pinkie craned her neck around, stared at the offending substance for a moment, and then smiled.
“Ooh, that might be frosting,” she said, and stuck her tongue out, licking the paper, “Yep, definitely frosting.”
Now that Twilight could read the full plan, she considered it. It wasn’t a bad plan, in any sense of the word, but Pinkie Pie had come up with it, which meant that the leaps of logic were a little odd sometimes.
“Pinkie, why does step twelve show you and Princess Celestia kissing?”
“Oh, because once I’m done with the surprise birthday party, then I can move into the big proposal and ask Princess Celestia to be my very special somepony then me and Celestia can make out forever and ever!”
“Celestia and I,” corrected Twilight by sheer force of habit, before she registered what Pinkie Pie had said.
“okay thanks Twilight I have a train to catch bye!” said Pinkie, dashing out of the castle. It was only after everything had settled back down that Twilight’s brain registered what Pinkie Pie had said.
“Pinkie,” started Twilight, but realised that her friend was no longer in the building, or probably in Ponyville, and sighed.
“But I was going to make out with Princess Celestia,” grumbled Twilight, magically pulling a thick folder entitled ‘How to Make out With Princess Celestia’ out of her desk, and dumping it in the bin.
Relax. You make less mistakes if you’re relaxed. Keep you task in mind, and tailor everything you do towards it, but stay relaxed. Such were the words of the pony’s trainer, once upon a time. They floated constantly at the forefront of her mind, along with the constant warning that if she was ever caught, nothing good would happen.
All around her, she could hear ponies talking, and she half-listened to all of them. The continued safety of her country rested on what information she could gather. Even small things, like which of the griffons were pushing for more land, could prove useful in the long run.
Rarity sighed, as she sipped her wine. The most annoying thing was that while she was effectively being paid to socialize, the shadowy figure that had asked for her assistance in this had more or less forbade her from explicitly pitching her fashion business. Still, she would be coming away with likely a few new ideas for her next line, though she had to admit that the idea of being involved in a ‘cladestine operation’ was immensely exciting.
“Miss Rarity!” came a voice, and Rarity turned to find a stallion approaching her, a monocole over one eye, and his mane well-groomed.
“Fancy Pants,” said Rarity, placing her wine glass down, “I did not expect to find you here.”
“Nor I you,” agreed the stallion, “last I heard from you, you were going up to the Crystal Empire to watch Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts.”
“I was indeed, but it appears that the show was cancelled. A wild storm rolled in from the north, and the Wonderbolts are basically dispersing it by themselves, keeping it at bay until more pegasi can arrive to help out.”
“Ah, I see,” said Fancy, “Still, it is good to see you. Your Canterlot Boutique is doing rather well for itself lately, no doubt in part to Miss Saddles.”
Rarity nodded. “She is no true designer. She is good at replicating a design well enough, but she doesn’t just have the same creative spark that could make her truly great. Still, she is an excellent salespony and manager, and I am glad to have found her.”
Fancy Pants nodded, and Rarity picked up her wine, taking another sip. For a few moments, the two enjoyed a companionable silence. After a while, Fancy Pants appeared to remember something, and he turned to Rarity.
“I was wondering if I may borrow a bit of your time, Rarity. In private. I have a rather sensitive matter that I would appreciate your advice on.”
Rarity thought for a moment. Surely it wouldn’t be that bad if she stepped away for a moment. It was still early in the night, after all.
“Of course,” said Rarity, smiling at Fancy Pants. The stallion lead the two of them into a side room, where Fancy Pants shut the door, and turned to face Rarity.
“Right,” he said, “who are you, and what have you done with Rarity?”
Rarity raised one delicate eyebrow.
“Darling, I have no idea what you are talking about,” said Rarity, her eyes flicking from side to side, examining the room.
“My monocle has a ‘See Truth’ enchantment on it, but of course, if you were Rarity, you would know this. She was the one who created it, as a birthday present two years ago.”
Rarity froze, and her disguise flickered out, revealing a changeling. The changeling that had been Rarity dove through a nearby window, and Fancy Pants sighed. Now he had to go and talk to the mare who ran the Intelligence division and tell her about the infiltration, and she would be insufferably smug at him the whole time.
The planet burned as the great Alicorn walked upon its surface. Her mane and tail both dragged upon the ground, leaving trails of liquid fire in their wake. Her hooves left pools of fire in the places where she had stepped, and her breath warmed the air such that no other life could exist. Every blast of her magic gouged great scars upon the landscape, and left fire in its wake. So great was the Alicorn of Fire’s power that she glowed, illuminating half of the world she walked upon.
On the other side of the planet, things froze, coated in ice of such an intensity that it was blue, not white, and to a great thickness, enough that entire buildings could reside underneath, and not yet emerge from the surface of the ice. A second great Alicorn walked here, bringing cold stasis to everything that she touched. Snow trailed out of her mane and flecked on her black body, and each breath brought crystals of ice forming on the air. Her own magic froze solid everything in its wake, radiating cold, often leaving great pillars of ice to mark the passage of her magic, and her own power exuded cold, freezing her side of the planet.
Between these two great beings, a thin line, scarcely meters wide, existed. A balance point between two different forms of destruction, and it was in this line that a creature of impossibility and madness existed. But one day, as the creature walked down this thin region between warring destruction, it found a pool of water, where the heat from the Alicorn of Fire’s had melted the Alicorn of Cold’s ice into a small hole. And around this hole, the creature found neither ice nor fire, but something green. It was delicate, and would be obliterated when either the Alicorn of Fire or Cold took a few steps in its direction. The creature found this occurrence immensely pleasing, that this form of life could exist in such a narrow band of conditions. So many things had to have lined up exactly right that the situation was almost chaotically random.
The creature decided that it wanted to see more of it, and so it approached the Alicorn of Fire with a plan.
“O Alicorn of Fire,” it began, “I am in awe of your power, but you are bound by this earth. I can make it so that your fire hangs in the sky, and then your dominance of this place will be unable to be stopped by the Alicorn of Cold.”
And the Alicorn of Fire was a prideful being, and could not turn down a chance for truly unlimited domination of the planet, and so she spoke her agreement with the creature’s proposal.
And the Creature reached out, draining the fire from the Alicorn of Fire into a giant ball. And as the fire drained from the Great Alicorn of Fire, her form decreased in stature, leaving her no bigger than the Creature itself. And as the Creature flung the ball of fire into the sky, the Alicorn of fire found that she could no longer control the fire with the same precision as before. Instead, she could merely move it around the sky, for the Creature had done something to prevent her from retaking her fire again, and she could only make minor adjustments to its intensity. In addition, instead of the all-consuming heat, at this distance the flames from her fire only produced a gentle warmth. Realising that she had been tricked, the Alicorn of Fire tried to strike down the Creature, but found that it was already gone.
The Creature slithered and writhed to the other side of the planet, and approached the Alicorn of Cold with honey on his voice.
“O Alicorn of Cold,” began the creature, “The Alicorn of Fire has finally bested you, for she has claimed even the sky for her own. Her own flames rule the heavens above our heads, and will warm the entire planet unless you can stop her.”
And the Alicorn of Cold, jealous and unable to accept the Alicorn of Fire’s domination of the sky, pulled all of her magic, pouring it into a giant ball. So dense did she make the ice that it became more and more solid than any other she had made, and was left with a smooth ball. But as she poured her magic into this ball, she became smaller and smaller, until she too was only as tall as the Creature. As a final touch, the Alicorn of Cold marked the surface of the moon with a pattern depicting her own face, for she wanted the Alicorn of Fire to know that she had made such a thing, and the Creature cast it up into the sky.
But cold does not spread as easily as heat, and so after her creation had been cast into the sky, she could feel no effect from its presence. Indeed, her side of the earth seemed to warm, as the heat and light of the Alicorn of Fire’s ball reflected off her own creation, lighting up the sphere, and the Alicorn of Cold cursed the creature, for it had tricked her.
And with both great Alicorns having the bulk of their power contained far away, the Creature returned to the pool where he had found the green, and wondered what new chaos this would bring to the world.
“I wanna show you something,” Rainbow Dash had said when she’d shaken Rarity awake in the early hours of the morning. Rarity had grumbled about missing out on her beauty sleep, but had complied. Rainbow Dash was rarely up before ten in the morning, so for her to be waking Rarity up before the sun was even in the sky had to be important to her. With long practiced motions, it was the work of a moment for Rarity to apply her usual layer of makeup and quickly recurl her mane and tail.
She exited the Boutique a few moments later to be met by Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.
“Okay Twi. Do it.”
Twilight nodded, and turned to face Rarity.
“This will tingle a little bit, Rarity. Just hold still.” With that, Twilight’s horn lit up, and a wave of magic washed over Rarity. Pins and needles flooded her body for a moment, and then faded away as Twilight’s spell completed itself. Rainbow Dash nodded her thanks to Twilight, and then landed in a crouch beside Rarity as Twilight trotted away, and probably back to bed.
“Well, aren’t you going to hop on?” asked Rainbow. Rarity stepped over Rainbow’s crouched form, wrapping her forelegs around Rainbow’s neck, and keeping her hind legs below Rainbow’s wings. Once she was sure that Rarity had a good grip, Rainbow’s wings flared out to the side, and she launched herself straight up.
Rarity found herself pressed against Rainbow’s back with the sudden acceleration. Underneath her chest, she could feel the powerful muscles pumping Rainbow’s wings as the two ponies soared skywards. Below her, Ponyville was rapidly becoming little more than a small dot. Rarity watched as Rainbow powered straight past Cloudsdale’s level, still going straight up. There were a few more pegasi-only cities higher than Cloudsdale, but Rainbow never levelled off her ascent, continuing straight up.
It was only once Rainbow blew through the thin layer of wild cloud up above all the normal weather that Rarity began to worry. The last time that Rainbow had attempted to take her this high, she’d had to stop before Rarity ran out of oxygen, and well before they hit said clouds. That was probably what Twilight’s spell had been-something that would allow Rarity to keep breathing at higher altitudes, along with something to help Rarity resist the cold.
And speaking of the cold, Rarity could feel little bits of ice forming on her, and see some forming on Rainbow as well. She tapped Rainbow’s chest.
“Just shake a little, Rarity. That’ll get rid of the ice. Not long now,” said Rainbow, her sentences short and clipped. Clearly she had to concentrate on her own breathing this high as well. Rarity gave a full-body shiver, and felt the ice fall off her.
Eventually, Rainbow’s flight path levelled off and into a horizontal path, and Rarity chanced a look down. Below her, she could see most of Equestria laid out.
“Rainbow,” began Rarity, struggling for breath even with Twilight’s spell, “While I do appreciate this I...”
Rarity trailed off as Rainbow Dash pointed one hoof out, and looked in that direction. And there, she saw the Sun rising. Rarity could see the land below her gradually begin to get lighter, the light from Celestia’s sun spreading across the land. It was a whole new way of looking at the world, and it took Rarity’s breath away.
And then Rainbow Dash tapped both of Rarity’s forelegs twice at the same time. It was one of a few common signals that Rarity and Rainbow had worked out for when they went flying together. Two taps like that meant descent. More specifically, ‘hold on tight we’re going to go really fast straight down’, so Rarity tightened her hold on Rainbow Dash as Rainbow banked over and angled her nose straight down.
******
Minutes later, Rainbow Dash swooped into a gentle landing just outside Carousel Boutique, and allowed Rarity to climb off her back. For a moment, Rarity simply stood there, trying to engrave every single thing that she had seen permanently into her memory.
Then she grabbed Rainbow Dash and pulled her into an almost savagely passionate kiss.
It was all gone. Everything that Spike had ever known. Canterlot, Ponyville, the Friendship Castle, and everypony that he had ever met. He’d only survived because of his innate resistance to heat. He trudged through the ashes of what little remained of the world, resigning himself to a life of being alone.
That was when he came across someone that he never thought he’d see again, but in retrospect, was pretty obvious that he would. Discord still lived. The god of Chaos was standing on the small hill where Fluttershy’s house had once rested, staring with an almost lifeless gaze out into the wasteland.
Spike’s claws grabbed onto Discord’s shoulders.
“You,” growled Spike, through his more reptilian face, “you can fix this, Discord. You can bring everypony back, put everything back the way it was, right?”
A grin spread across Discords’ face.
“Well, of course I can, but I don’t see why I should, little drake. After all, I’m free now. No more nagging from Celestia to be good, no one to stop me from doing whatever I want to. Completely free! The perfect kind of chaos,” said Discord, “So I don’t see why I need to help you. Begone, Spike.”
“No more Fluttershy,” said Spike, “No more friends. Ever, Discord.”
Discord paused for a moment, before blowing a raspberry. It floated off on the winds.
“I got along just fine without friends before, I can do it again,” said Discord, “granted, it may take some time to adjust, but I have all of eternity in front of me. Time is the least thing I have to worry about.”
“No Fluttershy ever again, Discord,” said Spike. It was no secret that the god of chaos had been fond of the pegasus. “No more tea parties on Tuesday, no more tormenting Twilight, no more,”
“Stop!” cried Discord, “I get it. My time with you and your little pony friends has changed me in ways that I didn’t think I could be. I’ll bring them back.” Discord lifted his paw, and was about to snap it, but Spike grabbed it first.
“I want your word, Discord. No funny business with this. Set everything back the way it was a couple of days before this whole thing started,” growled Spike, looking Discord straight in the eyes.
Discord grinned. “Of course. I, Discord, Give my unimpeachable word that I will do exactly as Spike the Dragon has asked, and revert everything in the world to an earlier state, and prevent this from occurring again.”
Satisfied, Spike let go of Discord’s lion paw, and Discord snapped two of the digits. A flash of light engulfed the world.
When Spike managed to clear his eyes again, he almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was Equestria again, but as he knew it. Ponies walked the streets of Ponyville. Overhead, Spike could see a few pegasi clearing the clouds and setting up the weather for the day.
“It’s back,” murmured Spike, “they’re all back.”
“You see?” said Discord, “exactly as I said I would.”
Spike reached down and tried to pick up a flower, only to find that his claws passed right through it.
“Discord, what have you done?”
“Well, you said exactly as it was. So there’s already a Spike running around. So you’re now just a ghost. I’d say that you have, ooh, maybe an hour to look around before the world recognises that you’re not a part of it anymore,” said Discord, a grin fixed on his face, “I may have to keep the letter of my word, but almost never the spirit of it, and don’t you ever forget, I’m the god of Chaos, Spike.”
Discord chuckled as Spike ran off to see his friends. He didn’t think it would be nice to say that absolutely none of the ponies could see or hear or even interact with him in anyway whatsoever.
Well, the kid would figure it out soon enough, anyway. Discord smiled, and opened a door in mid air and walked through to Fluttershy’s house.
Fluttershy knew what was happening. Though she was no bookworm like Twilight, Fluttershy had read her fair share of fiction. After all, books meant that she didn’t have to go outside where everything was scary, and if she got scared from what was in the book, she could always close it. And that may have been at the heart of what was happening. Fluttershy couldn’t really remember a whole lot about the time she had been a vampire batpony, but what little she could remember was alluring, in its own way.
She had, for the first time, felt truly confidant. Yes, such confidence had come at the expense of wanting to suck the juice out of every apple she saw, but she had not hesitated to get what she wanted. It was the kind of confidence that Fluttershy wished she had in her normal life.
Fluttershy ran her tongue over her two protruding canines as the sun set behind the hills to the west of Ponyville. She knew what Twilight would say if she knew about this transformation of Fluttershy’s but Fluttershy just couldn’t bring herself to tel Twilight about it. Firstly because it had been a great help to Fluttershy-she could stay awake for much longer at night, and that let her visit all of her nocturnal animal friends, who had more-or-less accepted the slightly improved Fluttershy. And the second reason was that with this slight transformation, Fluttershy had been growing more and more confidant, almost by the day. She knew that with very few exceptions, she was the toughest thing in the night, nigh-on invulnerable at times. And knowing that was a great confidence booster.
Still, Fluttershy couldn’t deny that she had a new need, a new desire that she had to feed. And no matter how vampiric she looked once the sun passed the horizon, she was still Fluttershy, and just couldn’t bring herself to feed on unwilling ponies. But she had a solution for that.
********
“We’ve been noticing a drop in our blood reserves recently, Twilight,” said Nurse Redheart, “Nothing major, but enough that we are getting concerned. If somepony is stealing blood, then it could have serious repercussions.”
“I promise I’ll take a good long look at this, Nurse Redheart,” said Twilight Sparkle, as Redheart pulled open the door to Ponyville General’s blood storage vault, “and if I can find out who’s doing this I’ll...”
Twilight trailed off as she locked eyes with Fluttershy, whose fangs had been just on the edge of biting into a fresh bag of blood. Nurse Redheart peeked around the corner, and slapped a hoof across her face.
“You know what?” asked Nurse Redheart, “Fluttershy, you just go ahead. Just please leave a note telling us how many bags you’ve drunk each time you visit, okay?”
Fluttershy nodded, and bit into the bag blood. Twilight shook her head, and realised that the situation was taken care of.
“Fluttershy, if it’s okay, I’d like to have a talk to you tomorrow about this whole thing, alright?”
“Okay, Twilight,” said Fluttershy, pausing in her consumption for a moment. Once Twilight moved around the back of the door, Fluttershy dug in to the bag again, pausing only to spit out the occasional peice of plastic.
Pinkie Pie double checked her room for the fourth time. Just because it was a party for her didn’t mean that Pinkie Pie got to take it easy. No, she had to hold all of her parties up to the same standard, or nopony would ever come to one of Pinkie’s parties ever again.
Games? Check.
Accessories for said games? Check.
Snacks? Check.
Refreshments? Check.
Music, decorations and other? Check, check and check. The only thing left for Pinkie to do now was wait for her guests to show up. Contrary to popular belief, Pinkie Pie rarely made a big deal out of her own birthday. She found that throwing parties for other ponies was much more of a big deal than the ones she threw for herself. Of course, like any Pinkie Pie party, there was still an excess of balloons, but if you asked Pinkie, that was never a bad thing. She had cleared the party with Mr and Mrs Cake, so they knew what to expect, and to not worry. They had told her that they were going out for most of the night, so Pinkie would have Sugarcube Corner all to herself.
Pinkie glanced up at the clock. It was nearly time. A few moments before, there was a heavy knock on the door, and Pinkie bounced downstairs. She pulled open the door to find both Big Macintosh and Ditzy Doo standing there. Pinkie had expected them to arrive first, though. Ditzy was always punctual thanks to her job as a mailmare, and Big Mac was almost as punctual as Ditzy.
“Hi guys! Come on in and up. Shouldn’t be long before the others get here.”
“Eeyup,” said Big Mac, with Ditzy bobbing and weaving in flight behind him as they headed up the stairs. Pinkie barely had time to see the two up and into her room before she heard Lyra’s voice echoing up from below.
“You up there, Pinkie Pie?”
“Come on up, Lyra!” called back Pinkie. A moment later, and Lyra had joined Big Mac and Ditzy in Pinkie Pie’s room. Minutes ticked by as Pinkie waited for the last pony she had invited to her birthday party. Eventually, Fluttershy poked her head into Pinkie’s room, and Pinkie grabbed Fluttershy in a big hug.
“You made it!”
“Of course, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, as she gasped for breath.
“Now,” began Pinkie Pie, “If you’ll all just give me a moment, we can get this party started!” Pinkie Pie pulled a changing screen out of nowhere, and fiddled around behind it for a moment. When she shoved the screen out of the way, Pinkie Pie was wearing nothing but a cake, and was positively covered in a mix of chocolate and whipped cream.
“So,” purred Pinkie, “there’s plenty of me to go around tonight, but who wants first bite?”
And so they all celebrated Pinkie Pie’s birthday by having sex. Glorious, messy, loud sex.
“So, I guess the Cutie Mark Crusaders are done for, then.”
It was Apple Bloom who broke the silence in the Crusader’s clubhouse.
“What?” said Scootaloo, “You mean we have to stop hanging out and...”
“No, I think she means the name, dummy,” said Sweetie Belle, “We can’t crusade for our cutie marks anymore, can we?” Sweetie twisted to show off the tri-coloured shield that had appeared earlier that day.
“I guess not,” grumbled Scootaloo, “but it kinda felt good to be working towards it, even if we weren’t really getting anywhere.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” chirped Sweetie, before a frown crossed her face, “I don’t know what that means. But Rarity says it when she’s looking at her old designs, so maybe something about the past?”
“Girls,” said Apple Bloom, “I think Scoots mighta been onto something. It always felt like we were working towards something while we were crusadin’ for our cutie marks, no matter how many times we failed. And that’s something that I can get behind.”
“Yeah, but what do we do now? I mean, we got Diamond Tiara turning over a new leaf,” said Sweetie, as Apple Bloom grimaced, “we got our cutie marks, so we can’t crusade for our normal stuff.”
“Okay, but we know all about cutie marks, right?” said Scootaloo. At the other’s nods, she continued. “We helped that Troubleshoes guy figure out the meaning of his mark, and we’ve helped a couple of other ponies find theirs. So what if we started helping other ponies with their cutie marks?”
“You mean like Cutie Mark Detectives?” asked Sweetie.
“Sort of, but more awesome,” said Scootaloo.
“That’s your answer for everything,” sighed both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. For a while, the three sat in silence, thinking.
“So, like, maybe we could,” began Scootaloo, “I dunno, help out other ponies who don’t have their cutie marks yet? I remember what it was like being bullied by Diamond Tiara, and I don’t want another pony to have to go that alone if they don’t have to.”
“So what, like some kind of friend service or something?” asked Apple Bloom, “that ain’t a half-bad idea. I could get behind that.”
“Yeah, me too. And maybe we could help those ponies find their cutie marks too!” added Sweetie.
“Sounds good,” said Scootaloo, “but man, am I beat from today. I just want to sleep for, like, a week.”
The bell of the Ponyville Schoolhouse clanged out its final chorus for the day, telling the young ponies, and their teacher, that school was finished both for the day and the week. Among the last to leave were the Cutie Mark Crusaders, two of the three making plans for the weekend.
“And so I was thinkin’ we could all go to Sugarcube Corner. They’re having a baking contest, anypony welcome, and five bits gets you all the cake you can eat once the thing is done, and you know that Pinkie’s gonna bring her A-game this time,” said Apple Bloom, “So I was thinkin that I’d tried baking, but neither of you have, so maybe one of your cutie marks might be in cooking.”
“I dunno Apple Bloom,” said Sweetie Belle, “The last time I went into the kitchen at Rarity’s, she told me that I was to never go in there again. What about you, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo, however, was grumbling something about her parents. Apple Bloom poked the pegasus in the side.
“What? Oh, the baking contest. Yeah, I don’t think I can get in,” said Scootaloo, shaking her bit pouch upside down for affect. “No bits.”
“What about your allowance?” asked Sweetie Belle, “couldn’t you ask your parents for it early?”
“Nah,” sighed Scootaloo, “after I wrecked my last scooter, my mom told me I couldn’t have my allowance until it had paid for the replacement. It’s gonna be a while before I get it back. Don’t think baking’s my thing anyway. You two have fun at the baking contest, though.”
Shrugging, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both waved Scootaloo goodbye, and bolted off in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. Scootaloo sighed again, and hopped on her scooter, and began to roll home.
If only she had another source of bits, instead of being completely reliant on her parents. She knew that Sweetie Belle had a part-time job at a small theatre in town. Maybe she could look into something like that to earn a bit more spending money.
“Hey there,” said a voice from above Scootaloo. She looked up.
“Gah!” Two bright yellow eyes were staring at her, completely upside down and less than half a meter from her face.
“Whoops, my bad,” said the voice behind the eyes, “lemme just, hang on, I had this a minute ago, come on work internal sense of direction, WHOOP!” At the last cry, Scootaloo dove out of the way as a grey shape smacked into the ground where she had just been. A minute later, the shape stood up and dusted itself off.
“Ditzy Doo is my actual legal name, but yes, a lot of ponies call me ‘Derpy’,” said Ditzy, blinking her eyes into something resembling level.
“You deliver our mail. I’ve seen you flying around town,” said Scootaloo.
“Yep!” said Ditzy, one hoof fumbling in her saddlebag, “So I sort of heard what you were saying to yourself about your friend having a part-time job and all...”
“What?” said Scootaloo.
“Yeah, you were talking to yourself. First sign of going crazy, that,” said Ditzy, her eyes drifting to opposite corners of her skull, “anyway, I overheard, and I think I might be able to help. I’ve seen you on that scooter of yours, zipping around town. You’re pretty fast on that thing.”
“Heh, thanks!” said Scootaloo. Just as she was about to start on how awesome she was on the scooter, a piece of paper was shoved in her face.
“You have an hour to follow that route,” said Ditzy, from behind the paper, as Scootaloo pulled it off her face, “No wandering, no shortcuts, and you have to stop and check every mailbox along the way, both sides of the street. I’ll see you at the end.” Ditzy smiled, and pushed herself back into the air.
“Depth perception, do not fail me now!” cried Ditzy, as she flew off down the street. Seconds later, she smacked into a tree. “...dang.” Scootaloo grinned. This would be easy.
********
Forty-seven and a half minutes later, Scootaloo slid her scooter to a stop right outside Fluttershy’s cottage, panting and puffing. Ditzy Doo, by contrast, looked just as fresh as she had at the start, and was finishing off an apple as she clicked stop on her timer.
“Not bad, for doing it on a route you’d never seen before,” said Ditzy.
“Not bad?” panted Scootaloo, almost falling off her scooter, “that was the fastest I’ve ever gotten here.”
“As I said,” said Ditzy, “not bad. You still didn’t beat me here. I’ve been here for seven minutes. Anyway.” Ditzy pulled Scootaloo off her scooter, and sat her on the ground. “Here’s the deal, Scootaloo. The post office needs a few ponies to help run express mail. You’d be great for it, I think. I can get you a part time position, but it’s going to involve a few really early mornings, especially while you’re still in school.”
“How early?” groaned Scootaloo.
“The kind where you leave your house while it’s still dark,” said Ditzy.
Scootaloo groaned again, and then considered what she was being offered.
“Fine,” she said, “just have to clear this with my parents.”
“Already done,” chirped Ditzy, “I’ll come and get you tomorrow morning.”
Scootaloo groaned again, but comforted herself with the fact that this was for money.
“Gangway, pegasus out of control, a hex on the pony who thought a pegasus with no spacial awareness would be funnnyyyyoohshi-!”
That was sort of the point.
“I hope you are going to clean that up, miss! Hang on a minute...”
No pony would ever imagine that she could ever quite manage anything with something approaching competence.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, is everypony alright? I just get so disoriented sometimes while I’m flying that I can’t help but crash. I tried to warn everypony to get out of the way.”
And if even competence was too difficult to imagine, then nopony would ever suspect her of being able to socially manipulate anyone.
“It’s quite alright miss. The Crown will settle everything here, and fix any damage that you may have caused. I must get this letter to Captain Shining Armor immediately. He needs to know about this. It may put the city in great danger.”
And nopony would ever expect her to be able to instigate a series of events almost specifically designed for one particular unicorn to learn something.
“Going down, out of control, all stop all stop dammit wings!”
“Big Mac! Y’all okay?”
“Nnope.”
“Just great. And with Applebuck Season right around the corner, too.”
“Sorry, Applejack, Big Mac.”
Not that it was entirely an act. The best covers never were. She did genuinely have problems with spatial awareness and orientation, and even coordination at times. They just weren’t nearly as bad as she said they were.
“Incoming, mayday mayday mayday, that’s a thundercloud that’s a thundercloud I’m hitting a thunder-clghck.”
“Town Hall! Town Hall is ruined. Applejack competes in rodeos, right?”
“Yes, Mayor Mare, she does.”
But the important thing was keeping that ‘no suspicion’ thing going. If Twilight and friends ever found out, she probably wouldn’t have to fake her next accident. And as long as most of the ponies only knew her as Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo, the mare who had once legally changed her name to ‘Muffins’ for a season, only the one or two ponies in the know would ever be able to connect her with ‘Agent D’. Agent D was the exceedingly competent mare who had made sure, every single time, that the tools to defeat whatever monster were available to those who needed them. The mare who had given every single advantage possible to Equestria wherever possible.
The thing with Twilight Sparkle had been a long-standing contingency of Princess Celestia’s. There was always a chance that whoever the Element of Magic was would seek out the other bearers on their own. And the smaller incidents that she incited for Twilight’s friendship reports had been another one of Celestia’s ideas.
Ditzy Doo was not fond of meddling in other ponies’ lives like that. Agent D, however, got no say in the matter. But perhaps with the handing over of the Equestrian Intelligence Service to Princess Luna, perhaps she would be asked to do less of that, but time would tell.
And Ditzy had to admit, being the silent hero, knowing that all of Twilight’s current accomplishments were in part due to her, she couldn’t help but feel proud of what she had done. And it was kind of fun, too.
Twilight took a deep breath, and pushed her worries away like Cadence had shown her. This was nothing. She had faced down Tirek at his most powerful, and forced him into a stalemate. She had, on occasion, outsmarted Discord, and she was mostly sure that Princess Celestia was going to name a wing of a library after her sometime. She had this. She could do this.
There was a knock on her door. Twilight glanced around the room one last time, just to make sure that everything was still set up correctly. She had researched and researched, but there was no one way to do things like this, so Twilight had approximated her best guess.
“Come in!” called Twilight.
“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” began Princess Luna, as she stepped into the crystal castle of friendship. The princess of the night trailed off as she saw the banners and decorations strewn around the room.
“Twilight,” grumbled Luna.
“Luna, we need to have a talk about this problem of yours,” said Twilight, putting on her best serious face.
“I do not have a problem,” said Luna, “and you are sounding like Celestia.”
“The ponies in the coastal cities would beg to differ, Luna,” said Twilight, “One moon was fine, Luna. Having two moons was even beautiful for a while. But six, Luna? Six moons is getting ridiculous. The tides are getting out of control. I don’t want to call this an intervention, Luna, but it needs to stop.”
Luna blinked.
“Is it just you here, Twilight?”
“Well, um, technically yes. But everypony that cares about you is here in spirit!” said Twilight, “and I’m sure they’re wishing you all the best, and that’s what’s important. The scheduling for this was the most awful thing I had to deal with. But this is about you and your moon habit.”
Luna’s horn had lit up, her eyes closed as she concentrated on something. Twilight reached out with her own magic, just to feel where Luna was directing her magic. Then Twilight looked up, and sighed.
“Really, Luna?” asked Twilight, “another moon? And are you,” Twilight trailed off, as she watched the new, and smaller moon move into position. Twilight reached out with her magic again, just to get a sense of what was happening up above Equestria.
“You put the moon into orbit around another moon,” sighed Twilight.
“We found the mechanics to be interesting,” said Luna.
“Of course you did,” grumbled Twilight. “and seeing as I can’t actually stop you, just go ahead and fill the sky with moons. Just don’t crash one into Equestria, please.”
“I am sorry, Twilight. I did not realised that this upset you so,” said Luna, “I promise, no more new moons.”
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, I suppose that that was the best outcome I could have hope for. Thank you, Luna,” said Twilight, hugging the elder princess.
*****
Two months later, a letter arrived in Canterlot Castle with a flash of purple sparkles just as Princess Luna was about to start her Night Court.
Written on it were two words.
‘Seriously, rings?’
Princess Luna smiled, and stared up into the night sky, and at Equestria’s brand new ring system.
Every now and again, we are presented with choices. Most of the time, these choices are small, and insignificant. Other times, they are not. And sometimes, we are not given a choice at all, but are instead called forth, to do great things, and then the only choice you have is how to react to such things happening.
Most ponies, when presented with such an opportunity, immediately latch upon it and ride it to wherever it may take them. When this kind of opportunity happened to Fluttershy, she did the following: Screamed, hyperventilated herself into near unconsciousness, screamed some more, punched it in the face, and then suplexed it into her mailbox. Then she rushed back inside her house, nailed her door shut and hid in the closet. She would have nailed that shut too, but the bats were inside it, and they needed to get out once the sun went down.
“Oh, come on Fluttershy,” said Rarity, after she extricated herself from the mailbox and rearranged her mane, “It’s just a few photos. I promise that if you want, your name won’t even come up!
“No! The last time you said that I ended up a national star and couldn’t even look after Angel properly and had ponies watching me all the time and it was just awful. I’m not doing that again!”
Overhead, Rainbow Dash sniggered on her cloud. Rarity ignored her.
“But who else could I possibly get to help me with my new ‘Elegent Strata’ line, dear? I need a flier’s eye, and a pegasus to help with the overall design.”
“So ask Rainbow!” called Fluttershy.
“As easy as that may seem, Fluttershy, dear, Rainbow is not the pony I need looking at these dresses. She’ll want to put armour on them again. No, it must be you, dear. You must be my proverbial hero in this situation. I promise that not a single word about you will make it into the final product, darling.”
Rainbow stuck her tongue out at Rarity from up on her cloud.
“I’m not doing it! You’ll get all excited and tell everypony that your ‘good friend Fluttershy’ helped you and then it will be Photo Finish all over again!” cried Fluttershy.
“What’s going on?” asked Twilight, as she flopped down onto Rainbow’s cloud.
“Well, Rarity needs some help with her ‘Elegance Stratus’ dresses,” said Rainbow, ignoring Rarity’s automatic interjecton of ‘Elegant Strata!’ , “and so she wants Fluttershy’s help with it. And then, Rarity being Rarity, immediately got ‘inspired’, and decided that Fluttershy had to be the one wearing the dresses when she advertised them.”
“Does Rarity remember what happened the last time that Fluttershy was in front of a camera for a long period of time?” asked Twilight.
“Course she does,” said Rainbow, tossing her hoof around in a casual gesture, “but it’s Rarity. What happened last time doesn’t mean anything to her, ‘cause this is different and new and you get the picture.”
Twilight let out a thoughtful hum. Below her, Rarity had started to pry at the door. Just because Fluttershy’s door was open and unlocked most of the time didn’t mean it was never closed. When Fluttershy didn’t want to see anypony, her door could be closed very tightly indeed.
“So,” said Rainbow, “how long until Rarity gives up? Five bits says she’ll give up by night time.”
“It’s Rarity with a new fashion line,” said Twilight Sparkle, “She’s not giving up until at least tomorrow evening. Ten bits.”
“You’re on, Sparkle,” grinned Rainbow, spitting in her hoof, and bumping it against Twilight’s.
“Fluttershy, it is your destiny to help me with my fashion career! I would be forever grateful for your kindness!”
Flame licked at her hooves as she passed, but her mind was set upon her goal, so she barely even noticed it. Her hooves clicked on the hard black stone, the sound echoing around her. Creatures of all shapes and forms turned to watch her pass, but none yet acted, wating to see what happened to her. None of them were willing to take the first move, to inevitably be the first one defeated, and so they waited.
She came to a stop in front of a cage, and rapped a hoof on the bars.
“Hey. Tirek,” said Rainbow Dash, “wake the heck up.”
Inside the cage, a form stirred and shifted, and eventually barely managed to stand up, his head hitting the top of the cage.
“Ah, one of the Elements of Harmony,” he said, “come to gloat, I assume? Well, get it over with quickly. I have a hard steel floor that I would like to get back to sleeping on. Not that there’s much else I can do around here, anyway. Unless, of course, you want to loosen these bonds a little. No? Didn’t think so.”
“I wanna offer you a deal. You get your freedom, but you’ve gotta do two things for me once I let you out.”
“Oh, this should be interesting. Does Princess Twilight think that she can ‘reform’ me the way she did Discord? Because I fear she will be sorely disappointed if she tries.”
“Twilight doesn’t know I’m here,” said Rainbow, “but trust me, I can change that quickly.”
“Very well then, let me hear your offer. At the very least, it should be more entertaining than watching that stupid dog fight over a bone,” said Tirek, rolling his hand, motioning for Rainbow to get on with it.
“First thing I want you to do if I let you out is drain my magic, as much as you can.”
Tirek perked up.
“You do realise that you are a pegasus, correct? It would be easier if you had a horn.”
“So deal with it,” said Rainbow, “harder doesn’t mean impossible. The second thing I need you to do is kill me. After you drain my magic.”
Tirek blinked.
“A strange request from one of you ponies. I honestly thought that you believed that instead of ponies dying, they just moved far, far away.”
“Trust me; we know about death, Tirek,” grumbled Rainbow, “we’re not that stupid.”
“And why would a pony like you want to die?” asked Tirek, “What do you get out of this? Or perhaps you are trying to trick me, and the rest of your stupid little pony friends are waiting for us, and will hit me with the Elements of Harmony the minute you can.”
“I get release,” murmured Rainbow Dash. She continued on at a more normal volume, “you know how long a pegasus usually lives, Tirek? Eighty years. We get eighty years give or take a bit, to burn as bright as we can. I’m nearly one hundred, and look at me. I look like a mare half my age.”
Tirek rolled his eyes, but Rainbow Dash pushed on.
“Magic can cease. Laughter has to stop eventually. Kindness can be merciful if it has to, Honesty is honest and Generosity can give everything of itself. Loyalty has got no out, not until it’s got no one left to be loyal to. I’m Loyalty,” said Rainbow.
“The Elements of Harmony are keeping me alive when I shouldn’t be, Tirek, and because Twilight’s an alicorn, she could just not die ever. So I need you to drain me of every single bit of magic that you can, anything that can connect me to the Elements, and then end me. And in return, I free you, and you can eat all of the magic in the world. Until somepony else stops you, probably,” said Rainbow, finishing with a shrug. “I just don’t like the idea of living forever. I wanna burn bright and then burn out. I’ve burnt bright, but Loyalty’s not letting me burn out. You’re my best shot at changing that.”
Tirek thought for a few moments, though he had already made his mind up the minute that Rainbow Dash had said that she would let him free.
“I will do it,” Tirek said, “I doubt you could stop me the same way you did before, anyway.”
Rainbow shrugged, and shoved a key into the lock of Tirek’s cage. A few moments later, the centaur was walking out of Tartarus. The minute they were out, Tirek opened his mouth, and magic poured from Rainbow Dash and into the centaur, starting his growth. Tirek drained Rainbow Dash of every single piece of magic that he could, and then stomped his hoof on the pegasus’s head without even looking. There was a satisfying crunch, and he marched off towards Ponyville. He had a score to settle with Princess Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle could have kissed Princess Celestia right then and there. She could have launched herself forwards with still-awkward wings, wrapped her hooves around Princess Celestia’s neck and tested if that thing that Cadence had mentioned about alicorns not needing to breathe was actually true, or if that was just a Cadence thing.
She did not do any of this because her mind was still reeling from the initial announcement. Maybe later, once she got over the shock a bit more, she’d show Princess Celestia exactly how she felt about this whole thing. It was certainly unprecedented, though judging by Princess Luna’s smile, a long time coming. The shock finally caught up with Twilight, and she collapsed on the floor, her face locked in a rictus smile and foaming slightly at the corners.
“Sister,” said Luna, gently poking Twilight in the ribs, “I believe you have broken her.”
“Hush, Luna,” said Celestia, a smile flitting across her face.
**********
Twilight awoke as the sun was setting. She had been carried up to her old tower, from when she was still Celestia’s student, which made sense. Technically, and in all legal sense, that tower was hers, until she decided that she no longer needed it and gave it back to Celestia. She’d just forgotten about it and its collection of books and equipment until the whole fiasco with Moon Dancer.
And that brought back the memory of what had happened earlier that day in full force. Twilight Sparkle’s heart swelled with delight. She knew what ponies said, and it wasn’t like she had ever denied it, but it didn’t mean that it was true. If she believed half of what ponies said about her and the Elements of Harmony, they were all having sex parties every night in Twilight’s castle. Not that the sex parties didn’t happen, of course, but every night would be absolutely exhausting and leave absolutely no time for study and would just be utterly impractical. Twilight wrestled her mind back on track. Princess Celestia had- ooh, she couldn’t wait until she told the girls when she got back down to Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle bounced around her room, and was stopped by something bouncing against her forehead. She paused, and found that she had somehow missed a scroll dangling from her horn. With a flash of magic, she levitated it off and unrolled it.
“Twilight, as I was about to say before you passed out from what appeared to be, and what I am assuming was pure joy, you must keep this a secret. Invite your friends up here on the weekend detailed below, and you will get to see the looks on their faces as I issue the full public announcement. Until then, Twilight, I must ask that you keep this to yourself. Yours, Princess Celestia.”
Twilight frowned. She looked at the date below the letter. It was weeks away, and she had to pretend that she hadn’t heard the greatest news of her life until then.
Twilight glanced around. Her horn lit up, activating security and privacy spells. She couldn’t go for weeks without at least one unabashed expression of glee. For a few minutes, Twilight danced around the main floor of her old tower, singing out her joy, completely isolated from the rest of the world. It ended when she again, collapsed with sheer joy, and started frothing at the mouth again.
******
It was time. Twilight could barely contain her excitement. She had managed to convince Princess Celestia to do an early version for just her and her friends. Twilight suspected that she agreed just so Twilight could get all of her excitement done before the big, and truly public announcement. No speeches were needed at this one, as it was mostly informal, but Twilight didn’t think that she could contain her feelings for much longer.
“And I present to you, my little ponies,” said Princess Celestia, “In recognition of her many achievements and her dedication to higher learning, the Twilight Sparkle Wing of the Royal Canterlot Archives.”
Twilight cut the ribbon with the giant pair of scissors that Celestia passed to her, and pulled the cloth off the engraved nameplate. Then, without waiting for permission, she danced off through her wing of one of the most famous libraries in Equestria. She knew, logically, that it wasn’t really hers, but it was her name on the gold plate above the door, and ponies would be saying her name when they talked about it from now on. She danced over to the shelves that were in the process of being filled by the caretakers, and proceeded to make out with one for ten minutes.
Then she danced back to some very bemused and amused friends.
“I love this library,” she declared, and then fell backwards, her face locked in a grin.
“She does this sometimes,” sighed Princess Celestia, “I’m sorry.”
“Eh, don’t be,” said Rainbow Dash, “we’ve all made her make that face a few times.”
Celestia raised one delicate eyebrow.
“Sex parties,” said Pinkie Pie.
Celestia’s eyebrow remained raised, but a smile flickered across her face as she glanced down at Twilight.
“And to think, I once worried that she didn’t get enough contact with other ponies.”
Spike slipped into Sugarcube Corner early in the morning. Twilight was still asleep, and she’d stay that way for another few hours, and that was perfect for Spike.
“Heya Spike!” said Pinkie Pie, poking her head out from the door to the bakery’s kitchen. She was half-covered in flour, but her usual smile was fixed on her face.
“Hi Pinkie. Is it all ready?” asked Spike, moving around the side of the counter. Pinkie poked her tongue out to one side of her mouth as she thought, one hoof scratching her head.
“It should be ready. I’ll just go and check!” Pinkie ducked back into the kitchen. For a minute, Spike could hear the sounds of Pinkie checking various places in Sugarcube Corner.
“Huh, that’s weird,” said Pinkie, “I thought I put it on the counter, but,” Pinkie trailed off, and Spike went wide-eyed. If Pinkie had lost it...
“Oh wait, silly!” said Pinkie, shoving her hoof into her mane. A moment later, her hoof pulled back out of her mane, bringing a box along with it. “Here it is!”
Spike let out the breath that he had been holding, and took the box from Pinkie. He lifted up the lid to check that everything was all right. Satisfied that everything was in order, he smiled.
“Thanks, Pinkie,” said Spike.
“No problem, friendo! I’m sure that Twilight will love it!”
“I sure hope so,” muttered Spike, as he exited Sugarcube Corner.
It was a short walk back to the Friendship Castle, though a little slower for Spike as he tried not to get his present crushed. Once he was back inside, he called out.
“Twilight? Twilight, where are you?” Spike’s voice echoed around the corridors. Fortunately, Twilight was usually very predictable, so Spike headed for the library. But Twilight wasn’t in the library. Nor was she in bed, and she wasn’t anywhere in the castle. Heading into the kitchen, and after setting off two of Pinkie’s hidden confetti cannons, he found a note.
‘Spike, been called to Canterlot unexpectedly on Princess business. Be back tonight.’
Spike sighed. He’d had everything planned for today, for this Mother’s Day. He knew that Twilgiht wasn’t his birth mother, but she had actually been fairly involved in raising him, and on some deep, reptilian level, Spike knew that Twilight was the one that hatched him. And this year, he had wanted to celebrate that on Mother’s day. He’d saved up, ordered a special cake, and everything. And now Twilight was in Canterlot.
“Well, happy mother’s day, Mom,” sighed Spike, looking at one of the photos of him and Twilight on the wall. Then he put the cake in the fridge, and went to look for something to do.
******
The moon was high in the sky when there was a burst of purple sparkles in the kitchen of the Friendship Castle.
“Spike?” called Twilight Sparkle, “are you there?” Twilight looked around, and spotted Spike, who had fallen asleep at the table, with a box in front of him. A careful application of her magic opened the box, and revealed the cake inside. Elaborate frosting spelled out ‘Happy Mother’s Day Twilight’.
“Oh, Spike,” sighed Twilight, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She lifted Spike up with her magic, and carried him to her room.
“Just for tonight, you can sleep here,” said Twilight, tucking Spike into one side of her bed, before climbing into the other side herself.
As with a surprising number of things, it was all Twilight Sparkle’s fault. Probably. Rainbow Dash didn’t know, because she was not in Ponyville when the thing, whatever it was, happened. Rainbow sighed as she watched a part of Ponyville explode. And on the one day where she had promised to help Fluttershy out with a census of the various birds around Ponyville. Why Fluttershy needed Rainbow’s help for this, Rainbow didn’t know, but saying no to Fluttershy was like kicking a puppy. A puppy that had giant bear friends.
So Rainbow was stuck counting birds with Fluttershy, while Twilight and the rest were probably fighting off something awesome.
*******
“But why do they have to be green slimes, Pinkie? They’re getting slime everywhere.”
“Silly Twilight! Everypony knows that if you set off on an adventure, you need monsters, and green slimes are the perfect starters!”
“Pinkie, I will never understand you at all.”
“You’re still super in lesbians with me, right?”
*******
Fluttershy hummed as she made another little check mark on her list of birds. She didn’t really need Rainbow Dash here, but having another pair of eyes helped, and Fluttershy didn’t want a repeat of the last time that Applejack had helped her with an animal census. Still, she did have another reason for asking Rainbow to help her, besides the fact that Rainbow also had wings. Fluttershy had always felt close to Rainbow, ever since the fateful day where both of them had received their cutie marks. At first, Fluttershy thought that it was just friendship-after all, Rainbow had stood up for her when no pony else would. But the feeling had persisted, and it had only been at the greatest urging and more than a little meddling from Rarity that Fluttershy had finally admitted that maybe she felt a little more than friendship with regards to Rainbow Dash. And today was going to finally be the day, after many, many false starts and practices with her other friends, that Fluttershy told Rainbow.
“I’m really happy that you’re helping me out today, Rainbow,” began Fluttershy.
“Yeah, well, you know me,” said Rainbow, “I can never leave a friend hanging.”
*****
“Yes, Pinkie, I am still super in lesbians with you.”
“Yay! That means after we beat all of these slimes and the super-tough boss, we can go and make out! Unless you’re still annoyed at me?”
“We’ll see, Pinkie. But what was that about a super-tough boss?”
********
“A Friend?” asked Fluttershy.
“Well, sure, Flutters. You’re probably my best friend ever,” said Rainbow, as she corralled a few birds that were trying to get away.
“Oh, I see,” said Fluttershy. She was a friend. She couldn’t tell Rainbow now. Not after what Rainbow had just said. Not for the first time in her life, Fluttershy just wished something would happen so that she could not have to deal with the aftermath of a situation. Fortunately, the world blew up just then, because Twilight and Pinkie Pie couldn’t beat the boss that had spawned.
There was nothing left, no fight left in any of the ponies that she could see, as she trotted through the still-forming city. Months of siege and fighting had taken their toll upon the ponies around her, draining them of all hope and life. She could see how the veterans looked at her, as if she was a new recruit, unsullied by the battlefield, still believing that the fight was winnable. She knew she looked too clean, but it was too late for that now. Fortunately, she had always believed that results spoke louder than appearances, and she strode past the guards and straight into the command tent.
“We have to surrender by tomorrow, Commander Pansy,” said a pegasus clad in armour, “Our supplies are depleted, the morale is gone from our troops. There is no chance of victory against these brutes.”
“Thank you, Private. Dismissed,” said Commander Pansy, turning to face a unicorn across the table. “Well, Princess Platinum? Do we give up?”
The unicorn scrunched her face up. “The diplomat in me says that it is better to surrender and live, but yet I cannot fathom the thought of willingly giving our new nation over to those who did not work for it.”
“What if,” said the mare, walking straight up to the table that separated the two other ponies, “I told you that I could solve that problem.”
As if a spell was suddenly broken, the guards at the entrance to the tent suddenly noticed that the mare who had walked past them didn’t belong, and moved to tackle. They were stopped by a simple command from Princess Platinum, who studied the intruding mare.
“I would ask who you are, first,” said Platinum.
“Names are unimportant. All that matters is that I have a force of five hundred, well fed and in fighting shape. We can defeat this army that threatens you.”
“Five hundred doesn’t sound like a lot. By our count, the enemy will outnumber you four to one,” said Pansy, looking over some documents.
“Trust me, it will be more than enough,” said the mare.
“Then I suppose you will want payment for your services,” sighed Platinum, “We can set aside some gold once our mining starts up again, or...”
“We are not interested in your gold,” said the mare.
“Then what do you want?”
The mare walked up to the map table, and taking a pen in her magical grasp, drew a line across the map.
“Everything south of that line. We want freedom to settle anywhere south of there.”
“That’s a little extreme,” said Pansy.
“No, I find that quite reasonable, Pansy,” said Platinum, “You do realise that most of that region is hot and dry. Quite unable to support any agriculture.”
“Not an issue for us,” said the mare, a wicked smile spreading across her face, “do we have a deal?”
Princess Platinum thought for a moment.
“We have a deal, miss. When can we expect results?”
The smile got wider, and for a moment, Princess Platinum could have sworn the pony’s mouth was filled with fangs.
“By tomorrow,” said the mare, striding out of the tent. The minute that she reached the tree line, and was obscured from the ponies’ sight, she let out a breath, and green fire consumed her. Black chitin replaced soft fur, her horn became twisted and warped. Holes emerged in her legs, and gossamer wings flickered and buzzed with energy. The changeling licked her lips. Even as exhausted as the ponies had been, they had still had much love. With a mental command to the other five hundred changelings, she instructed them to hunt and kill the things that were going to kill their newest food source.
A soft chittering filled the forest, no different than the usual insects at night. It was all the warning that the enemy ever had.
“No, seriously, Rare, you don’t need to meet my parents. I’m sure they would be totally cool with you.”
“Rainbow Dash, these are two very important ponies, who were part of forming who you are, who helped, in their own way, shaped the mare I fell in love with.”
“They didn’t help that much.”
“What was that, dear?”
“Nothing! Just saying that meeting my parents will be totally boring for you. You won’t like it much.”
“I highly doubt that, Rainbow. Now, can I assume that your parents are up in Cloudsdale?”
“Uh, dad’s actually in Canterlot. No idea where my mom is, though.”
“Well, that makes things a little easier. I’ll be heading up to Canterlot to check on the Canterlot Carousel on the weekend. We can drop in and see your father, and you can organize a time when I can meet your mother while we’re there.”
“That’ll be difficult.”
“What was that, Rainbow?”
“You’ll find out on the weekend.”
*******
Rarity stared down at the gravestone engraved with the name of Rainbow Dash’s father.
“I was pretty young when he passed on. Spent most of my time after that bouncing around a few foster homes or orphanages and getting into a whole lot of trouble. Basically, he was working with some liquid rainbow, and something went wrong. Coulda been a bad batch or something, because it exploded, and he ended up falling all the way from Cloudsdale to the ground unconscious,” said Rainbow, staring at the headstone herself. “All I remember is that one day, he went off to work, and then one of the police ponies picked me up from school, saying something bad had happened to my dad.”
“Rainbow,” began Rarity, but Rainbow cut her off with a shake of the head.
“Don’t, Rare. I already did my grieving. Not like he was there a whole lot for me even before, anyways.”
“And what about your mother, Rainbow?” asked Rarity, placing one hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.
“Never knew her,” said Rainbow, her voice flat, “she died in childbirth. Docs say that she was already sick with something, and it basically came down to a choice between saving her life, or saving mine. Not a whole lot of records, either, so I don’t even know her name. The pegasus who was supposed to do a delivery of all that week’s records to Canterlot got caught in a wild storm over the Everfree. It’s actually a pretty common thing from around then. Lots of pegasi about my age don’t have records of birth or whatever.”
Rarity, who had barely managed to restrain her tears so far, pulled Rainbow Dash into a hug, her tears running down her face and ruining her mascara.
“Rarity?”
“I can’t help it, Rainbow!” cried Rarity, “I’m just so sad for you, that you grew up with such circumstances.”
“Seriously, Rare, I’ve had time to learn to live with it. And sure, it’s kinda depressing sometimes,” said Rainbow, prying Rarity off her, “like knowing that I’m never gonna get a hearthswarming card from them or whatever, but seriously, you girls, and all of my friends in Ponyville and from Flight Camp make up for it, like, a thousand times over.”
It wasn’t that she was doing it consciously. That was actually what was bothering Queen Cocoon of the changelings. She wasn’t actively trying to make Princess Twilight Sparkle fall in love with her, but she still was. The instinct was hardwired into the young queen, and she couldn’t quite stop the little voice at the back of her mind, urging her that if she just pushed a little harder, she could soon claim a Princess of Equestria as her own, and that she could then make sure that nopony would object if she decided to start bringing in more of her hive. That everyone would just assume that Twilight wanted them there for some reason.
But queen Cocoon was not her progenitor. Or was at least trying not to be Chrysalis. A proper alliance, built on trust between her hive and Equestria was the best bet for survival for the hive, not an organised infiltration and takeover, let alone a full-scale invasion.
And it was because of this desire to not be at all like the former Queen Chrysalis that Queen Cocoon brought Twilight Sparkle to the outskirts of Ponyville one night, and confessed her fears.
Twilight Sparkle giggled.
“Cocoon, this is exactly why I like you,” said Twilight, “You’re honest. Any other changeling queen would have just probably put me under their spell, and used me to take over Equestria.”
“You don’t understand, Twilight Sparkle. It would not take much. I could have you fawning over my every desire if I wanted, and it wouldn’t even be difficult. Even with my restraint, I have been influencing you, unconsciously. Sending out all the right signals for you to like me, even love me.”
“Cocoon,” said Twilight, wrapping one hoof around the changeling, “have you considered the possibility that I fell in love with you all by myself?”
“What?” asked Cocoon.
“I may not be the expert in love that Princess Cadence is, but I still know a couple of things,” said Twilight, a smile crossing her face, “And I know that love, real love, isn’t something that you can force. And I may not know exactly what you have or haven’t done, but I do like spending time with you, Cocoon, and that if you don’t mind, I’d like to spend a lot more with you.”
“We are taught in the cocoon,” began Cocoon at length, “that love is just a food for us. That we should use any and all means to get it. None of the changeling queens have ever had love directed at us, always at the pony that we were imitating, and we drained them of their love to fuel our own lives.”
Twilight began to speak, but Cocoon cut the princess off with a raised hoof.
“Changelings, especially changeling queens, are unaccustomed to how your pony relationships work. I enjoy your company, Twilight Sparkle. I would like to keep spending time with you, but I do not know how long I can restrain my natural instincts to make you mine, to use you to help me to take over Equestria.”
Twilight smiled.
“The fact that you’re worrying about it tells me that you’re a better person than the last Changeling Queen I encountered, Cocoon,” said Twilight, “I don’t know much about things like this, but maybe we could just stay here and look at the stars for a while?”
Cocoon looked up at the feild of stars arrayed above her and Twilight, and smiled.
It was done. Her sister was banished to the moon, and Nightmare Moon was contained. Princess Celestia allowed herself a minute to rest, the Elements of Harmony clinking to the ground around her. Dimly, she noticed that only five of them actually hit the ground. At the edge of her hearing, Celestia could tell that the guards were approaching at a gallop. They would need to be reassured. As would the rest of Equestria. They would need to know that the sun and moon were still under control.
Princess Celestia would have liked nothing more than to collapse upon her bed right then and there, but adrenaline was still buzzing through her system. She couldn’t have fallen asleep if she tried. With a sigh, she climbed back onto her hooves. There were things to be done. Sleep would have to wait.
********
Nightmare Moon hissed at the blue and green ball below her. How dare Celestia do this to her? It merely confirmed her suspicions; Celestia wanted all of the power for herself. She felt Celestia’s power grip the moon, pushing it below the horizon of Equestria, and Nightmare Moon tried to resist. The moon was hers, she should be able to control it, even here. But no matter how hard she pushed or pulled with her power, she couldn’t get the moon to resist Celestia’s power.
But perhaps she could do something else. She needed a way back to Equestria. If she pulled a few stars close enough, she should be able to break the binding keeping her on the moon. Nightmare Moon reached out with her magic, trying to feel out the extent of her cage. Yes, four stars should do it. It would be a long process, and it would require guidance. Constant guidance. She would be fine. She could be patient, and the waiting would just make the moment when she finally unleashed her rage upon Celestia all the sweeter. Then she could rest and slumber, when Celestia’s broken body laid at her hooves.
*********
Canterlot Castle was comfortable, Princess Cadence had to admit. But it wasn’t home. It wasn’t her castle, wherever it was. And no matter how comfortable the beds were, they always felt wrong, somehow. Or maybe it was just there was something wrong with her, because her country was missing, ripped from existence by Sombra. And while it was missing, she couldn’t ever stop searching for a way to bring it back, or what kind of a princess would she be?
So instead of sleeping, she stalked the halls of the Royal Canterlot Library, searching for anything that might help her restore her country. When the Crystal Empire came back, then she could rest. Assuming, of course, that Sombra didn’t come back with it. But her people, her country, had to be restored before she rested.
Twilight swirled the jewelled flask around in her magic. Inside, the remaining white liquid sloshed and glooped around. One drink was all that she would get out of it now. One more glimpse into the past.
“You really don’t have any left?” asked Rainbow Dash, a few meters away.
“Twilight holds the last of it, if the truth you wish me to tell,” said Zecora, “the original vendor, more of it he could not sell. And as to more being made or mixed, the recipe I could not fix.”
Rainbow Dash frowned, but turned on Twilight. Zecora, sensing that her input was finished, exited the library.
“Come on, Twilight,” said Rainbow, “you gotta let me have some of that. I wanna see if anypony else has done a sonic Rainboom before. Those legends had to come from somewhere, and I just want to see the ponies who did it first.”
“Rainbow, you are the eighteenth pony today that has asked me about this potion,” sighed Twilight Sparkle, “I wish news of this thing hadn’t gotten out. Everypony and their grandmother seems to want to use it to see family members ‘one last time’.”
“I said I was sorry!” cried Pinkie Pie, from inside the Golden Oaks’ closet, “I was just so excited about us winning that I couldn’t stop talking and then...”
“Pinkie!” cried Rainbow, “Not helping!”
“Right, sorry Dashie,” said Pinkie. There was a zipping sound from the closet. Rainbow Dash shrugged, and turned back to Twilight. Back to Twilight, who was still swirling the potion around the bottle.
Just as Rainbow was about to make her case for why she should get to drink the potion again, Applejack wandered into the room.
“Applejack?” asked Twilight, taking notice of her friend, “what brings you here today?”
“Listen, Twilight, I got something to ask you, an’ I know how it’s gonna sound, but...”
Twilight sighed.
“You want the memory potion, don’t you?”
Applejack simply nodded.
“Keeping this thing is way more trouble than it’s worth,” muttered Twilight, “but I don’t want to just pour it down the drain, either.”
“Yoo-hoo!” Rarity called as she opened the door, “Twilight, dear, I don’t suppose that...”
Rarity was interrupted by Twilight pulling out the stopper and glugging down the last mouthful of the potion. Both Rainbow and Applejack stared as Twilight’s eyes flashed white.
As Twilight experienced whatever it was that she was seeing, Applejack suddenly chuckled.
“Shoot, girls, this was probably just like that whole Grand Galloping Gala ticket shindig for her,” said Applejack, “’spose I can’t really blame her for doin’ that just to put a stop to it.”
Rainbow Dash considered this for a minute.
“Yeah, I guess we took it kinda overboard,” said Rainbow, rubbing the back of her head, “but hey, wanna go and play horseshoes, AJ? Five bits says I can beat you.”
“You’re dreamin’, Dash, but I’ll still take your money,”
Rarity blinked as Rainbow and Applejack raced off to Applejack’s farm, Twilight standing in the centre of the room, her eyes aglow with the magic of the potion.
“I was just going to ask if Twilight would model a dress for me,” murmured Rarity, turning around and exiting the Golden Oaks, “Oh well, perhaps another day. Oh, Fluttershy, I hope it wouldn’t be too much trouble if I asked a favour of you? I would be so very grateful...”
Lemon Song bolted down the long marble corridors. She’d been about to head home when the call for her to report to the throne room had come. If fact, she had nearly been outside Canterlot Castle when the messenger caught up with her. The princesses wanted to see her, the second-best speechwriter in the employ of the princesses, and the word ‘immediately’ had been stressed several times.
With the ease of long practice, she turned onto the last stretch and let herself slide, skidding past the throne room guards, and coming to a comfortable stop at the correct distance from the throne. However, the second-best speechwriter in Canterlot Castle was confronted not with just Princess Celestia, as she had expected, but also Princess Luna and Princess Cadence. A quick glance out of the window confirmed that the sun was still technically in the sky, so therefore;
“Princess Celestia,” said Lemon Song, bowing her head, before turning to Princess Luna and Princess Cadence in turn. “Princess Luna; Princess Cadence.”
“Rise, my little pony,” said Princess Celestia, “and do take a few breaths.”
Lemon Song took a deep breath to steady her breathing from her dash as she rose from her bow.
“Princess, why have you summoned me? Was there a problem with my last speech?”
“No, Lemon Song,” said Princess Celestia, “your work has always been exemplary in every possible way. We have recently been made aware of an issue that needs addressing, thanks to Princess Cadence.”
“Does Princess Cadence need her own speechwriter? I will happily-,”
“Hold, Lemon Song,” said Princess Luna, “It is not Princess Cadence who is in need of your skills. Rather, it is Princess Twilight. And ‘twas I who recommended you for this position.”
Lemon Song blinked.
“But I thought that Princess Twilight didn’t need a speechwriter. She denied selecting one,” said Lemon Song.
“Princess Twilight is still new to the world of being a Princess of Equestria. And while she has, on occasion, performed well with her own written speeches, she needs a more experienced hoof.”
“And quite honestly,” said Princess Cadence, “she can be very long-winded if given the chance. To an extent, she still believes that when it comes to public speaking, that more words and the most technical terms possible makes her appear more intelligent. It was adorable when she was eight, but now it annoys ponies and occasionally puts them to sleep. She needs somepony who can make her both get the point across and make her actually stick to a script when it is required. Princess Luna assured us that you are capable of these things.”
Both Princess Celestia and Luna looked over at Cadence, eyebrows raised.
“I foalsat her, Aunties. I can say these things.”
“I will accept the position as Princess Twilight’s speechwriter,” sighed Lemon Song.
“Excellent,” said Princess Celestia, “I have instructed my personal chariot to take you down to Ponyville when you are ready.”
*********
“A speechwriter?” cried Princess Twilight Sparkle, “But I’ve always done fine on my own!”
“Princess Twilight, I read your last speech,” said Lemon Song, “and I was yawning before the end of the first paragraph, and by eyewitness accounts, you put eighteen ponies to sleep in the first three minutes.”
“But I thought it was really interesting! I mean, I went into the history of the event and...”
“Allow me to stop you there, Princess,” said Lemon Song, holding up a hoof, “nopony, and I do mean nopony, wants fifteen pages of history in a commencement speech. Fortunately for you, I was the second-best speechwriter in Canterlot Castle. If anypony can get you really sounding like a princess, it’s me. And before you say anything more, Princess Celestia asked me to give you this,” continued Lemon Song, hoofing over a wrapped scroll to Twilight. Twilight snapped open the letter, and pouted as she read the contents, before letting out a sigh that seemed to completely deflate her.
“I suppose that it can’t hurt to try it your way for a while, Lemon Song,” said Twilight, “I’ll find an office for you, so come on inside.”
Twilight Sparkle was befuddled, bemused and quite baffled[1]. It had been a rather typical Thursday in Ponyville to begin with. And then, as was perhaps expected, Pinkie Pie happened. She’d breezed into the room in Twilight’s friendship castle that Twilight had claimed as a science room[2], and had deposited some strangely intricate plans in front of Twilight earlier in the week.
“They’re for a totally un-froody guy I know. Wait, forget I said that,” Pinkie had said, “He said that since there was nothing here that the plans would be safe, but I told him that we had you, and you could do anything, and he said that if you managed to make that work that he’d eat his degree and go annoy the Betelgeusians. Don’t think about pink elephants!” Pinkie had finished, and breezed out of the room again[3].
Still, the project had proven a nice distraction from her princess duties, and had given her an actual excuse to lock herself in her castle for a week. But once she had managed to charge up a magical engine to actually power the device, and had called Pinkie Pie over, Twilight’s mind had naturally turned to other questions. The one that she had uttered aloud, just as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, for some reason, entered the room, had been thus:
“I wonder what’s after the end of the universe?”
There had been a flash, an explosion, and when Spike came in to check in on Twilight, he’d only found three scorch marks on the floor, and a humming machine that appeared to be made out of gold.
Twilight, on the other hoof, was facing a much more interesting vista. Hundreds of things that she had never seen before were arrayed in front of her eyes. Something green glorbled at her. Pinkie Pie was climbing over Twilight, and attempting to shove something wet and wriggling into her ear. Fluttershy was trembling underneath Twilight. Pinkie finally managed to get the wriggling thing finally managed to get into Twilight’s ear, and the incomprehensible babble around her turned into comprehensible babble.
“If madams would care to order a drink at the bar, you shall be seated shortly,” said the green thing, offering a polite smile, “and then as you dine, the universe shall explode for your pleasure.”
Twilight Sparkle blinked.
“Twilight, Fluttershy, welcome to Milliways’,” said Pinkie Pie, pulling the two of them up towards the bar, “the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and the most impossible place to have dinner, like, ever.”
************
Twilight Sparkle watched as the shielded dome over the restaurant turned black, and her ears picked up the faint sound of the engines winding the whole restaurant back over the edge of the universe so that the whole thing could repeat again in a few hours.
“That was strangely...anticlimactic,” said Twilight Sparkle, looking down at her stolen waiter’s pad, filled with calculations. “I always thought it would be more dramatic.”
“Um, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy, swaying just enough to give away the fact that Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to get something alcoholic down the pegasus’ throat, “how do we get home?”
“That...” said Twilight, “is an excellent question. Pinkie Pie?”
The pink earth pony slipped a towel over her neck.
“How do you girls feel about hitchhiking?”
********
The Encylopaedia Galactica’s entry on ponies is this:
“A diminuitive form of horse, often brightly coloured to unnatural degrees and found in one of the Outer arms of the galaxy. They are divided into three subspecies; Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn. Each is capable of interacting with a force they call ‘magic’, but which may simply be some other undiscovered force. As they are not a space-faring species, contact with their planet is strictly forbidden.”
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has this to say about ponies:
“They are very cute, and cuddly, and amenable to hugs from just about anything, unlike the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal[4]. However, they also have an instinctive grasp on five-dimensional physics, and despite being just about the cutest thing in their sector of the galaxy, have become the dominant life-form of their planet by virtue of the fact that their rulers literally control the planet’s star and moon. Befriend a pony, and you have made a friend for life. However, anger one at your own risk. They are not space-faring, but are willing to help passing ships should the need arise and if you can land without squashing any of them.”
As has been noted, the Hitchhiker’s Guide sells rather better than the Encyclopaedia Galactica.
[1]: she was also thirsty, hungry and appeared to have the left side of her face paralyzed, but she’d had a nice alliteration going there and hadn’t wanted to ruin it.
[2]: She literally breezed. Pinkie was wearing a parachute, some balloons and was riding on a breeze. Twilight still wasn’t sure how that worked, beyond just ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’, but she suspected that Rainbow Dash was helping.
[3]: Breezing, while a relaxing method of travel, is not suited for dramatic or fast exits unless you can summon strong wings at will. Pinkie Pie could not do this. Thus, it was nearly a full minute before Pinkie actually exited the room, and another ten before she managed to leave the building.
[4]: Granted, this is not difficult, as the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal only likes hugs that use its mouth and many, many sharp teeth. It is, after all, quite ravenous.
“Only one of you may proceed,” it rumbled, “the Arcanix will only be bound to one pony, and only that pony may undergo the test of Truth.”
Behind her, Twilight’s companions muttered among themselves, trying to decide which of them would undergo whatever the test was. However, Twilight already had an inkling of what it would involve, and stepped fowards.
“I will submit myself to the test,” said Twilight. Five gasps came from behind her, but one by one, they all backed out of the chamber, leaving only Twilight, and the golem.
“That you willingly submit tells me much, alicorn. However, it is not me that you must impress,” said the golem, pulling a lever on the wall. A section of the stone slid down into the floor, revealing a pair of scales, built from the finest metal that Twilight had seen in a long while.
“The test of Truth. These scales will determine the truth of your heart, alicorn.”
“How do they do that?” asked Twilight.
“You may either cast your magic into one of these jars and revealing the truth of your heart that way,” said the golem, indicating the clay jars scattered around the chamber, “or you may use the water. This is done by taking the water into your mouth, holding for no less than thirty seconds while thinking upon your reasons, and spit into the jar. The truth will reveal itself. If you are lying, the scales will tip towards your side, and you will be denied entry. Your heart shall be tested against mine. If the scale tips to my side, your heart is less burdened and false than mine, and you may pass.”
“I see,” said Twilight, nodding to herself, “would you mind going first, so that I may observe?” The golem nodded, and selected a jar from among the many identical ones. Magic swirled from the golem, filling the jar nearly to the brim with a iridescent liquid that was not quite there. The golem thumped over to the scales, and placed the jar onto the rightmost pan of the scales, before stepping back to allow Twilight access to the scales.
Twilight selected her jar, one with a wide mouth, and presented her back to the golem. The golem watched as Twilight appeared to thump her chest, and then cast her magic into the jar. It stood perfectly still, as Twilight placed her own jar upon the scales. She nodded to the golem, and it reached up and removed the pin holding the scales level. Almost immediately, the scales tipped toward the golem’s side. Had the golem actually been able to emote, it would have expressed surprise in some form. Never before had it seen such a quick reaction on the scales, in its many years of watching over the Arcanix.
“Alicorn, you have passed the test of truth. Go forth, and claim your prize, and use it well.”
Twilight nodded, and her horn lit up again. The golem watched as an actual heart floated out of the jar. With a sickening crack, Twilight’s magic yanked on her chest, opening up her ribcage, and shoving her heart back inside. The golem moved to block Twilight’s path. Twilight simply smiled up at the golem.
“Well, you did say it was a test of the truth of our hearts,” said Twilight, in between thumping her chest to restart her heart, “and what is more truthful than weighing my heart against yours?”
Again, had the golem been able to emote, it would have probably glared at Twilight as it stepped aside.
“You are not incorrect,” said the golem, “and you shall be allowed the prize. However, return here, and you shall find only death, lich.”
Twilight smiled as she pranced down the corridor. There were times when she really liked being undead. Of course, there were other times when it wasn’t so great.
She experienced one of these mere moments later, as both of her wings and one of her legs fell off in the middle of her prancing.
“Ugh, it’s just so last year.” Rarity winced as she heard the fatal words once more. It was fast becoming a tradition that whenever she created a new line, that its inevitable premiere was in Canterlot. Not that she disliked Ponyville, of course, but there were some things that Canterlotians could certainly appreciate more, and her particular brand of high fashion was certainly one of them.
But this particular debut was not going well for Rarity. She had been so sure that she had this season’s look nailed down. But no matter where she went in Canterlot her design was not being received well. Occasional failure was not a new thing to Rarity, but almost never on such a grand a scale as she was currently experiencing. Deciding that she was not going to get any new or valuable feedback from her current dress anymore, she began to make her way back to the Canterlot Carousel. At the very least, Sassy Saddles should be there, and she could offer some insight into where Rarity had gone so wrong.
However, when she got back to her shop in Canterlot, the sign on the door read ‘Out to Lunch – back soon’, though Rarity slipped inside regardless. It was, after all, still her shop, and she did have a key. Sassy Saddles was nowhere to be seen, though Rarity suspected that her manager had slipped off to some cafe so that she could talk and be seen by more famous ponies. That was certainly an aspect to the business that Rarity herself was deeply familiar with. Slipping herself out of her dress and hanging it up with her magic, she slipped into the back room and pulled down her reference folders.
She immediately noticed the problem. The magazines that she used to gauge what trends were coming and going were completely out of order. And somehow, in her creative frenzy a day and a half ago, she had not noticed that the magazines that she was looking at were from the previous year. Her mind immediately cycled through the possibilities for who had commited such a depraved act. Applejack, uncultured though she may be, was not the type to maliciously sabotage her like that. Nor was Twilight – the poor mare couldn’t put anything out of order on purpose. Pinkie Pie, too, while being a prankster by nature, would never do anything to purposely sabotage Rarity’s career. Unintentionally, maybe. Provided that Pinkie had no idea that Rarity used the magazines for research, she was a possibility. Sassy Saddles, too, was probably out: her own success depended on Rarity’s, and Rarity had impressed upon Sassy that the workroom was Rarity’s own space, and that apart from the occasional tidy, she was not to touch anything in there. Fluttershy would never even think about doing such a thing, which only left Rarity’s last candidate: Rainbow Dash. Rarity inspected the pile of magazines.
It was rather haphazardly shoved back into a pile, in almost completely random order, another thing which spoke of Rainbow Dash’s involvement. Rarity was almost certain that Rainbow hadn’t meant to ruin the order, but it was not beyond the realm of possibility for Rarity to imagine that Rainbow had knocked the stack over by accident, fixed it in a rush, and then simply never told Rarity. Rarity inspected the room with the same level of detail that had saved her numerous times as a designer.
Yes, the slightly lopsided stack definitely looked like Rainbow’s work. One of the window latches was broken, again, because Rainbow Dash sometimes forgot that this was Canterlot, and not Ponyville. And, of course, the most telling thing was that Rainbow’s spare flight suit was resting on Rarity’s workbench, where it had been since Rarity arrived in Canterlot yesterday, a note saying that Rarity could study it, but that she had better not ruin it. And of course, Rarity couldn’t forget the multitude of rainbow hair and blue feathers scattered around the boutique that she had been cleaning up since yesterday. It was obviously Rainbow’s moulting season.
Rarity sighed. Fortunately, it had only been the one dress that she had created in that frenzy of creativity. It wouldn’t be much work to create something new, but it was still annoying that Rainbow hadn’t cleaned up properly, or at least told her.
*******
On the field at the Wonderbolt’s stadium in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash suddenly shivered.
Claws chipped and dug at the embedded stones. These stones, these gems, were more valuable than ten times their weight in gold. That was what the leader of the group told them, anyway. These were the gems that the ponies had used to bring their reign to the land. If they took them for their own country, they could use that as leverage for a larger slice of the land. And, their leader assured them, they would all receive their just rewards for helping the Griffons reclaim their lost glory.
That was why they worked day and night, carefully prising the precious stones loose from the crystal of the tree. It took them three days before they finally extracted the final gem, that of Magic, from the centre of the tree.
The gems were placed into a sack, which the leader of their group threw over his shoulder, and they left the cave, and the despoiled tree behind.
“Nearly home free, boys,” said the leader, his beak curling into a smirk, as they walked out into the sunlight of Equestria, “just the flight home, and to collect our rewards.”
“Oh, I doubt you will get anything,” said someone, from behind them. Almost as one, the flock of griffons turned, and found Princess Luna, leaning up against the rock wall, just beside the cave entrance. “But if you put those gems back where you found them, you will manage to escape unharmed,” continued Princess Luna.
“Equestria has gone on too long as the dominant power in the world, Princess. It is time that the griffons take their time in the spotlight,” said the leader, while Luna only smiled and shook her head. “But now that we have your greatest weapons, we shall manage to do what our ancestors failed to accomplish all those years ago, and strike you down, allowing griffon rulers to take their places.”
“You are aware that the Elements of Harmony are not weapons, I hope?” said Luna, “though they are indeed not bound to ponies, and are able to be used by anyone who demonstrates the qualities that they represent, I doubt that any in your group would be capable of using them even close to properly. So, one more time; put them back. You will not like the alternative.”
The other griffons looked around. They were all committed to the cause, yes, but that was a Princess of Equestria. None of them had expected or wanted to face such an opponent before they’d managed to get a grasp on how the Elements worked. However, before any of them could speak out, the leader passed out the gems to some of them, not caring who got which one.
“Attack!” he yelled, “down with the princess. Griffon glory begins now!”
Princess Luna sighed, and her horn lit up.
“You really do become more idiotic every time you try this,” grumbled Luna.
*********
“Luna? What was it?” asked Celestia, as Luna picked out a feather from her mane, back in Canterlot Castle.
“Some stupid griffons. Thought that they could steal the Elements of Harmony, and turn them against us. It’s that radical sect again. We must speak to their King about them again, Celestia.”
“I’ll set up a meeting when he’s in town next month,” sighed Celestia.
“I am not some silly, gullible fool like the other ponies,” said Lyra, “I will refuse to have the wool pulled over my eyes, I will not simply accept whatever our tyrannical alicorn overlords feed us in the so called ‘free press’, and I will not go quietly into the long dark night. And if I suddenly and mysteriously vanish one night, you will know that I was right all along!”
The other ponies with her were staring, but Lyra didn’t care right now.
“Everything that has happened has been organised by the Princesses, a plan over a thousand years in the making. And what, you may ask, is this all for? I will tell you, my friends. It is all so that when the Princesses bring forth the apocalypse, we shall accept it with a smile and a song!”
“Are you finished?” asked Twilight Sparkle, as she moved a chess piece on the board in front of her, before turning to the second chess board set off to her side and contemplating her options.
“Yeah, I’m finished,” said Lyra “It’s just I’ve lived in Ponyville longer than you, still send letters to Minuette and the old gang in Canterlot, and you didn’t invite me when you went to see them!”
“I said I was sorry,” said Twilight Sparkle, moving a chess piece on the second chess board.
“And besides,” said Minuette, shifting her queen to capture Twilight’s knight, “You were busy that week anyway. You couldn’t have come.”
“I still wanted to be invited,” grumbled Lyra, staring at her board for a moment. “And she’s playing both of us at once!”
“And now the real reason comes out,” giggled Minuette.
“Though, It would be better to say that I’m beating you both at chess simultaneously,” said Twilight, as Lyra shoved a peice into the path of a piece that was threatening her king.
“Check and mate,” said Twilight, her magic moving pieces on both boards, finishing both games. Minuette and Lyra both looked down, and groaned.
“Well, I suppose it’s to be expected,” said Lyra, “She does play chess with Princess Celestia.” Minuette nodded her agreement.
“Princess Celestia is actually a terrible chess player. Princess Luna, on the other hoof,” said Twilight, letting the thought hang in the air. Lyra and Minuette shared a look.
“Come on, Twilight,” said Lyra, “we’re not that gullible. Everypony knows Princess Celestia enjoys chess, and she’s had like, eight hundred years to learn it.”
“She enjoys it, yes,” said Twilight as she lead her two friends back through the castle, and out to lunch, “but she’s not good at it.”
Sunny Day, secretarial assistant to Princess Celestia, was no stranger to working under a strict time limit. Her day often began before the Princesses’ own, and frequently ended after the Princess of the Sun had gone to bed. There were many, many things that the princess had to be kept abreast of to keep the country running, and Sunny Day was proud to be the pony that performed this duty.
Most of the time, anyway.
“Princess Celestia!” cried Sunny, as she slid around a corner in Canterlot castle, after catching sight of the princesses’ signature tail disappearing round that corner. The princess turned to face Sunny Day with a smile.
“Ah, Sunny,” said Princess Celestia, “I was just looking for you.”
“Princess Celestia, you’ve been missing for several hours. Several nobles were suggesting that you abdicated your throne, you missed a state dinner, and Silver Tongue was supposed to go over your upcoming speech with you and Princess Luna, and,”
“It’s quite alright, Sunny,” said Princess Celestia, pressing one golden shoe up against her secretary’s mouth, “I just had to attend to something for a little while. Something that no pony else could deal with. But for the moment, I need your help.”
Sunny nodded frantically. It was not often that the Princess asked for help.
“Sunny Day, I need you to set up a full coronation ceremony for Princess Twilight Sparkle by the end of the week. I trust that this will not be too difficult?”
“Of course not, Princess Celestia,” said Sunny Day, still nodding.
“Excellent,” said Celestia, gracing Sunny with a smile, “I shall let you get to work then.”
Once Princess Celestia had rounded the next corner, Sunny Day realized exactly what she had agreed to. She blinked in confusion twice, took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly.
“Right,” Sunny Day said to herself, “Let’s go organize a coronation.”
*******
Step one had obviously been research. That had meant going to the Canterlot Archives, and delving into the records for the last time a princess had been coronated. That was obviously Princess Cadence. Luckily, Princess Cadence’s coronation wasn’t that long ago, and it was mostly in line with what Sunny expected. There were a few important details, of course, like the singing procession, and the exact length of the banners, but nothing complex. Step two was equally obvious: making sure that the castle had an appropriate room. The West Hall should suffice, but Sunny still wanted to check. And it was there that Sunny ran into a most unpleasant obstacle.
“It certainly is a lovely day, isn’t it, Miss Day?”
“Prince Blueblood. I do not have time for your so-called ‘socializations’. Either leave me alone so I may do my work, or tell me what I need to get the Public Relations office to bail you out of now.”
Blueblood stepped closer to Sunny Day.
“I was just going to remark on the fact that yesterday, our dear Princess Celestia vanished for several hours, and now she has you delving into records of ceremonies and inspecting rooms. One could only imagine the possibilities that would inspire such a chain of events.”
Sunny Day rolled her eyes. Though Blueblood was technically minor nobility, Sunny answered to the Princess, and only to the Princess, and while she had to be polite, she didn’t have to be nice, and headed for the door.
Blueblood’s horn lit up, and tugged on Sunny Day’s tail, pulling her back into the room.
“Now, it seems to me that the only reason that Auntie, I mean, Princess Celestia would be doing this is that she has decided that one of the members of nobility is to be elevated to join her in her rule.” Sunny glared at Blueblood, who seemed to be keeping his composure so far. That broke immediately when the stallion dropped to his knees, and looked at Sunny with what was probably supposed to be a pleading expression, but just made him look more pitiful than usual.
“Please tell me that it’s me?” said Blueblood.
“It’s not you,” said Sunny Day, walking out of the room.
*********
Sunny was sure that her dentist would frown at how much she was grinding her teeth, but Sunny really couldn’t help it. It wasn’t just Blueblood. Ever noble of repute had apparently noticed Celestia’s absence at the beginning of the week, and what Sunny was now organizing. And because they were so self-absorbed, they all assumed that the upcoming celebration which Sunny Day was trying to finish on time was for them. However, both because Princess Celestia had told her to, and because she wanted to see the looks on their faces when they found out, Sunny had not mentioned that the coronation was for Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight and her friends were now lodged in one of the towers of Canterlot Castle, and Sunny still had what felt like a million details to finalize before the actual coronation the next day. Sunny Day sighed, and moved onto the next detail in her list. She had managed to get a few extra days, once she realised the enormity of the task before her, but now she could say that she organized a full coronation in exactly seven days.
********
Sunny Day watched as Twilight Sparkle flew off from one of the many walkways of Canterlot castle. The entire thing had gone off without a hitch, the nobles were wonderfully and impotently angry and best of all, Sunny Day could now relax.
She let out a sigh of relief, and headed back to her own office, right next to Celestia’s.
Or she would have, had Princess Celestia not then slid down the corridor, and slapped a pie tin filled with cream into her face, and Sunny Day sighed, as the pie tin slid off her face.
Of course today was Tuesday.
“Princess Celestia!” called Sunny Day, chasing after the Princess of Equestria.
Six sets of hooves clacked on the stone, the sound echoing and bouncing around the rough walls. Breath came in short bursts, causing small clouds of steam to wash back over the runner's faces. Sweat flew off the six, droplets hitting the floor, the walls and even the ceiling. In the depths behind them, things chittered and scratched, the sound almost drowning out the echoes of the six's hoofbeats.
********
Six little ponies went out one day;
********
Twilight Sparkle's mind raced as she guided her friends through the labyrinthine tunnels that comprised the Changeling Queen's hive. One part of her mind was running through the layout of the hive, trying to remember the way out and keeping up a magical scanning spell, while the other parts were already planning backup plans of what they could do if they got caught. Her research had all indicated that the changelings were not pleasant to their captives. And so they ran, Twilight leading the desperate charge through the tunnels, only speaking when she had to call out directions, or to ask Applejack to crumble a tunnel on occasion, whenever the scratching and chittering got too loud.
********
Under the hills, so far away.
********
Twilight stopped running, though not because she had a choice. Somehow, the changelings had managed to block off the exit with their slime.
"We were so close," she panted, "the exit's not far beyond here."
"I can basically smell the open air," said Rainbow, "can't you or Rarity do something with magic?"
Rarity shook her head, her chest still heaving from the run. Twilight also gave a negative. Her magic was running low from the initial getaway from the bulk of the changeling horde, as well as using it for navigation through the tunnels. There was a wet thunk, as Applejack attempted to kick down the gooey barrier.
Twilight mentally cursed her lack of foresight. She hadn't considered that the changelings would block off their own tunnel entrance right after she and her friends had entered, but that was probably what they had done. Fluttershy had basically curled up of the floor, but Twilight could see that Rarity and Rainbow were trying to convince her that it would be okay in the end. Another wet smack told Twilight that Applejack hadn't given up trying to kick the semi-rigid goo into submission yet. And Pinkie was just sitting down, looking thoughtful.
The chittering and scratching grew louder, and over the countless echoes, Twilight could hear a shrill voice barking orders out. IT wouldn't be long before they were completely overrun.
"Hey, Twilight?" asked Pinkie, locking eyes with Twilight's. "I've got an idea. Do you trust me?"
********
The princess called out 'Please come back.'
********
Over the course of their time together, through many adventures and friendship lessons, Twilight had learnt a few things about Pinkie Pie. She would never understand the Pinkie sense, that was certain, but other things were more concrete, such as her unusual resistance to normally corrupting and/or sanity depriving tomes. Pinkie said that she got it from her father's side of her family.
Pinkie had rummaged around in her tail, and produced something that even Twilight, an alicorn, couldn't look at directly.
"Pinkie," asked Twilight, "what is that?"
Pinkie spewed out a long string of consonants and clicks and what sounded like a dolphin whistle.
"It's a really nasty book," she finished.
"And this will get us out of here?" asked Rainbow. Pinkie Pie nodded. "Do whatever," said Rainbow.
The changelings were getting closer, but were also moving slower now. The chittering wasn't so frantic, but it was still getting louder and closer, as was the Changeling Queen.
"Pinkie, you can't just summon an eldritch being," said Twilight, "they're completely unreliable, for one. And second, without anything to protect you, you could not survive the ritual."
"You once thought I was crazy, Twilight," said Pinkie, "I know what I'm doing. Once the goo dissolves, run." As Pinkie Pie finished, she wrenched the book open, and began reciting in a language that really sounded like it shouldn't have been coming from an equine mouth. Twilight began to feel something old, and unspeakable push against the fabric of the world. It wasn't something that she could readily describe. All she knew was that it felt completely and utterly wrong. As reality tried to bed to accommodate the new occupant, the slime covering the entrance fell away, and the five rushed through. Only Twilight spared a glance back, at a tunnel filled with tentacles, with the barest hint of pink flashing through the mass.
I hold her heart in my hooves, and I don't have the words to describe how I'm feeling right now. It's sort of grief, I guess, but also relief? I don't have to put up with her calling me 'blank flank' anymore, or picking on Scootaloo because she can barely fly, or incessantly mocking Apple Bloom for her family. I can't exactly say I'm sad about this whole situation, and I know that sounds kind of terrible.
This shouldn't have happened, and I really wish that it hadn't. It was supposed to be a simple trip-a few days to travel to Canterlot, a week there with Rarity so that Diamond Tiara could scout out which school she was going to bully into accepting her once she moved up there to get away from our 'manure-caked town', and so that I could deliver a few messages to sis from our little hamlet. But as we were about half-way to our destination, bandits had leapt out of the bushes and rocks around us. we'd had a few others with us, of course. The path to Canterlot has always been a little treacherous, and it gets quite isolated in some spots, so we were all taught that we should always go in groups. That's a large part of why none of us have really gotten out of Ponyville much, because it's just a huge hassle to get anywhere in Equestria, and not all of us can afford to hire bodyguards for the trip. So we did have some support, because Diamond does have the money to do that, but something happened, and then suddenly, Diamond Tiara, bitch supreme of Ponyville is lying on the ground, bleeding out, and I can see her heart.
Everything around me seems to have stopped. I can't hear the bodyguards fighting the bandits, but out of the corner of my eyes, I can still see movement, so it must be happening, but from what I can tell, it isn't going well. But all I can conentrate on the feeling of Diamond Tiara's heart on the base of my hoof. It's still warm, and wet from the blood. And there's something tingling at the edge of my senses, sort of like I feel when Miss Twilight is running one of her magic classes, and she starts going on about 'reaching out to the world'.
And almost just like that, a memory comes to me with almost absolute clarity. Miss Twilight's answering questions before we have a break, because she has her own work to do on the forest. Somepony's asked about other ways of casting spells.
"Well," I remember Miss Twilight saying, "having a horn is the most common, yes, but there are other ways. Earth Ponies, with sufficiant concentration, can produce similar effects as many spells. There's also using runes. They're less used, because they do take time, and you have to be extremely prescise to get the effect that you wanted. There is also blood." Miss Twilight has always had a wierd way with her instruction and thinking about magic. 'Better to know than to live in ignorance,' she had always said.
"Blood," Miss Twilight had said, "Can be used in place of magic. I don't reccomend it, because you need to take it out of either yourself or somepony else, and most ponies don't like that, and it feels wholly unpleasant." She had smiled then, but I always thought that it looked sad, like she knew from experience. "But if you find yourself absolutely desperate, then concentrate, and force your will into the blood, and you could find a final reserve."
*****Time*****
With my hooves more or less in Diamond Tiara's chest, I did the only thing that came to mind, and concentrated. The guards that Diamond Tiara somehow sensed what was happening, and hit the floor, as solid red spikes of Diamond Tiara's blood speared the bandits that had attacked us. Miss Twilight was right. It felt wrong to be doing this, like I was going against some ancient law or something, but it saved all of our lives.
I'm still shaking a little when one of the guards taps me on the shoulder.
"Sweetie Belle? Should we continue on to Canterlot, or head back to Ponyville?"
I consider for a moment. We're about halfway between the two cities, and Rarity did want to get these letters, but...
I glance down at the dry corpse of Diamond Tiara at my hooves. Even as horrible as she was to me, I can't just leave her to rot here. My magic picks her up, and she's surprisingly light.
"We go back. we'll have to tell the town what happened, and the letters can wait."
"I must say," said Celestia, as she rose to her hooves with an incomparable grace, "I had not anticipated you moving this early against me."
"I always was a quick study," said Twilight, her face locked in a frown, horn pointed straight at Celestia.
"I had expected a more nuanced response from you, Twilight, perhaps in a few years, once you had a chance to fully learn how to use the system to your advantages. But still, you have subverted my expectations. Well done, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia smiled, clapped her forehooves together and bowed her horn in respect.
"You have no way out of this situation, Celestia. At least, none that doesn't also end with Canterlot Castle coming down around us," said Twilight, her horn maintaining its glow, "but if you want to take it to that, I have no issue with that."
"No," said Celestia, "I shall relinquish the throne peacefully. Very well done, Twilight. Good luck."
Twilight gave Celestia a terse nod, and then a blast of magic blew Princess Celestia out a nearby window. Twilight watched until Princess Celestia was little more than a dot in the distance, and then lost to sight. With a sigh, Twilight trotted up to the throne, and sat down.
"Business as usual, gentlecolts," said Twilight, addressing the guardsponies in the room, "I will need some time to make the changes I desire in Equestrian law." The guards looked at each other and shrugged. Maybe Princess Twilight wouldn't be that bad.
Two minutes later, a blue and silver blur smashed through the stained-glass window depicting Twilight's defeat of Nightmare Moon, and slammed into Twilight. The impact sent the youngest Princess flying out the same window that she had sent Celestia through moments earlier.
"Huzzah!" cried Princess Luna, throwing one hoof out, "The throne is ours in totality! Guard, fetch us a barrel of mead, and schedule a grand feast for the eve!"
A guard shrugged, but before he could make a move to fulfil the Princess's request, Princess Cadence strode through the doors, accompanied by Shining Armor. The two shared a look, jointly picked up Princess Luna with their magic, and tossed her through the same window that both Celestia and Twilight had gone through.
"Equestria needs a more loving touch," said Cadence, "and sharing a ruler with the Crystal Empire will only improve our relationship and trade."
****Time****
A short while later, Cadence landed face first on a remote island. Once she'd pulled her head out of the white sand, she looked around. Twilight and Luna appeared to be playing a the most intense game of magical tag that Cadence had ever seen, and Celestia was standing next to her, offering her half a coconut with a straw in it.
"Drink?" said Princess Celestia. Cadence took the drink by sheer force of habit.
"So, who booted you?" asked Celestia.
"Shining," grumbled Cadence, "He proclaimed something about 'proper military discipline' before I left hearing range."
"I see," said Celestia, "For some reason, I suspect that Discord is behind this series of events, as when I arrived when Twilight ejected me from the throne, there was a cake taller than me waiting for me. But quite honestly, I did need a vacation, and this is better than most alternatives."
"So, what do we do?"
"There is a barrier around this place," said Celestia, slurping at her coconut drink, "It will dissolve in twenty-seven and a half hours."
"That's...an oddly specific amount of time," said Cadence, stepping to the side as her husband slammed into the beach.
"Another reason why I suspect Discord," said Celestia, "But this is honestly one of his more harmless diversions. I have a plan, but there is no point in doing anything now. The barrier is impenetrable from the inside, so we may as well enjoy ourselves."
Cadence shrugged as Celestia helped Shining Armour out of the sand, and took a sip of her coconut drink.
*******
Meanwhile, back in Equestria, what looked like Princess Celestia sat on the throne in Canterlot Castle. Under his illusion, Discord chuckled. There was no way that the Princesses could not know it was his doing, but he still had twenty seven hours and seventeen minutes before they escaped. And as long as he didn't do anything to drastic to Equestria, this would be a nice little bit of harmless chaos.
Celestia was much more fun when she was relaxed, anyway.
It was a favourite past time of Celestia's to walk int he gardens of Canterlot Castle, away from the nobles and petitioners. She did love her little ponies dearly, but there were more pressing matters on her mind.
Sunset Shimmer was gone, likely forever, and with her, one of the finest magical minds that Celestia had ever seen in Canterlot. And Celestia had a little under a decade to prepare for the second coming of Nightmare Moon. She had a deadline, one that was fast approaching, and one that she knew that she could not deal with personally. Nightmare Moon would have been frozen in the moon at the exact moment of her defeat, all of her power intact, and Celestia knew that she could not bring herself to harm her sister, even corrupted as she was. Celestia knew that she'd never entirely been able to take her sister on in a straight battle, and with her mind corrupted, not even Celestia could predict what Nightmare Moon would do.
And so, Celestia was, for once, left without a solid plan. Unless a clear bearer for one of the Elements of Harmony presented themselves, Celestia would have to face down her sister once more. Unnoticed by her guards, she let out a soft sigh.
That was when a blast of colour rocked across the sky, and Celestia blinked.
Then the head of a dragon punched through the roof of a nearby tower. The tower where the tests for admission to her school for Gifted Unicorns were being held, Celestia noted. She could also feel a simply massive outpouring of magical energy. It was the work of a moment for Celestia to make her way over to the tower in question, and find a young filly at the center of the commotion.
'Well,' Celestia mused to herself, 'There's a candidate for the Element of Magic if I ever saw one.' Sunset had been a candidate for both her level of talent, and her natural curiosity. This filly was very clearly outperforming Sunset in sheer raw power. And if Celestia could teach her to harness even a fraction of that power, and instill a proper sense of how to use it, correct the mistakes that she had made with Sunset Shimmer, she would be a very worthy candidate for the Element of Magic indeed.
Princess Celestia pressed a hoof into the young filly's side, causing the magical surge to cease, and Celestia offered her best kind smile to the young filly.
"What's your name, little one?"
"Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia," said Twilight.
It was a somewhat unknown fact that Fluttershy had a rather acute sense of smell, though she never did advertise this fact. Living on the border of the Everfree Forest as she did, Fluttershy could siometimes predict the forest's strange weather patterns almost by smell alone. And the constant cacophony of animal scents that surrounded her also fine-tuned her nose. It was not uncommon for Fluttershy to be able to find a specific animal by scent alone, even in the chaotic mess of fur and feathers that was her home.
Thus it was an oddity that one morning, Fluttershy woke up to smell nothing except the fading smells from the previous night. No birds were fluttering through the house, no mice were scampering, and Harry the Bear was not outside her window. Even Angel Bunny, who was normally stamping his foot on Fluttershy's head in the morning to get her up to feed her animal friends was absent.
Fluttershy hurried downstairs, calling out her friend's names. But every single one of them was gone. Even the bats, which would normally be settling down inside her front closet, were gone. As Fluttershy hurried outside, a new smell hit her nose. Not the ones that she was fearing, such as the smoky smell of fire, or the subtle sharp scent of an oncoming lightning storm, but something more pleasant. It was a heavy smell, almost sickly sweet, and something about it was deeply familiar to Fluttershy, but that thought could wait until she'd found out what happened to her animal friends. Still, the heady, sweet smell persisted, until it was all that she could smell, and so she followed the scent to its source, hoping that she would also find her friends at the end.
The scent lead Fluttershy through Ponyville, eventually ending at Sugarcube Corner, and that was odd, because Fluttershy knew that the Cakes were currently out of town, leaving only Pinkie Pie there. But still, the mysterious smell was definitely coming from the kitchen of the bakery, and Fluttershy's ears could pick up grunts and growls that definitely belonged to Harry the bear, along with Pinkie Pie's giggle. Fluttershy slipped inside as quietly as she could.
"Oh, there she is!" said Pinkie Pie the second that Fluttershy entered the kitchen, squeezing herself between a goat and Elizabeak the chicken. The next thing that Fluttershy knew, Harry the Bear picked her up and deposited her next to Pinkie Pie, and grunted something at Fluttershy.
"Huh?" said Fluttershy, "You said that she has something to tell me?" Fluttershy turned to Pinkie Pie, who was being almost quiet. And then Pinkie Pie leaned forward, her eyes darting left and right, as if she was being watched.
*****Time****
Fluttershy was dimly aware that the smell that drew her here was coming from Pinkie Pie. Another dim thought finally recognised the smell as one of Rarity's more fancy perfumes.
"I don't really know how to say this, so..." Pinkie Pie trailed off, looking like she was arguing with herself, before she burst into motion.
Then Fluttershy tasted pink and cotton candy and chocolate and pudding. Fluttershy pulled away, and saw Pinkie Pie, waiting, tears threatening to spill from her so very expressive eyes.
"If you don't mind, Fluttershy, I'd like to do that with you a whole lot more," said Pinkie Pie, "So, will you be my very extra-special super-duper special somepony?"
Fluttershy was not good with attention. Even from her animal friends. And everyone in the room was waiting for her response to Pinkie Pie's declaration. Every instinct, every fear that Fluttershy had was screaming at her to run, to fly back to her house and safe, lockable door and the closet that the bats lived in. But there was a smaller part of her that told Fluttershy to stay, to at least not run away to try and understand Pinkie Pie's feelings, and maybe her own about Pinkie Pie. Because Fluttershy didn't hate Pinkie Pie, but she couldn't say for sure that she felt the same way about Pinkie that she now knew Pinkie felt about her. Fluttershy made her choice.
*******
The scream warbled and pitch-shifted as Fluttershy fled back into the distance, and Pinkie Pie wiped her eyes, and then sniffed.
"Maybe I shouldn't have used so much of Rarity's perfume, Gummy," said Pinkie.
Pinkie Pie knocked on the door to the Golden Oak Library wearing a lab coat, with a pair of safety goggles perched on top of her head.
"Hi Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie once the door opened, "So, what fun experiments are we doing? I wasn't sure, so I came as prepared as I could."
Twilight blinked.
"Pinkie, when I said that I wanted to experiment," began Twilight, but Pinkie Pie cut her off.
"You were talking about probing the extent of ponies' knowledge, delving into the deepest depths of your understanding, right?"
"Well, you're not entirely wrong," murmured Twilight, as she fought back a blush.
"Ooh, I just can't wait. Twilight and Pinkie, pushing the bounds of science for knowledge and profit! Which way's the lab?"
"Pinkie," said Twilight.
"Oh right," said Pinkie, "I bet you have a science room. No, a science dungeon!"
"Pinkie Pie," sighed Twilight, her eye beginning to twitch.
"Oh wait, I know where the lab is. Right, that time when you tried to figure out Pinkie sense." Pinkie mostly seemed to be talking to herself at this point, almost oblivious to any of Twilight's attempts to get her attention.
"Pinkie!" called Twilight, magically holding Pinkie Pie's mouth closed, "When I said I wanted to experiment with you, I wasn't talking about my science room!"
Pinkie's eyes blinked, and her head cocked to the side.
"I...I want to figure something out about myself, and Rarity suggested that you could help me," said Twilight.
"Oh, you were talking about sex!" said Pinkie Pie, having her mouth freed from Twilight's magic. Twilight managed a full-body twitch at Pinkie's declaration. "So, did you have a specific fetish in mind, or just a more general 'Am I into mares or stallions?'"
"The-the second one," Twilight managed to stammer out.
"And you chose me? Twilight, I am honoured to be your first pick for casual exploratory sex escapades. Sexcapades?" said Pinkie.
****Time****
Seeing as Twilight was not being responsive, Pinkie Pie shrugged, and pulled off the safety goggles. She was about to wiggle out of the lab coat, but Twilight spoke up.
"Could you leave the coat on?" asked Twilight.
Pinkie smiled. "Does science excite you, Twilight?" The full face blush that bloomed on Twilight's face was all the answer Pinkie needed as she leaned forward and kissed Twilight full on the lips.
It was a number of hours later when the two finally broke apart, chests heaving.
"Sooo?" asked Pinkie "You think you're into mares?"
"I don't think so," said Twilight, after a moment, "It was fun, but it didn't feel..." Twilight trailed off, searching for the word that described how she felt.
"Like you were just along for the ride, not like it was something that you wanted to do over and over again until you go cross-eyed?" offered Pinkie.
"Yes, that's exactly it," said Twilight. Pinkie Pie smiled.
"Well, I'm glad that you figured that out," said Pinkie, as she rolled out of Twilight's bed.
"Um, Pinkie?" said Twilight, her voice halting.
"Yeah, Twilight?"
"Could you go to Rarity and tell her what I told you? And tell her...that I'm really sorry."
A soft smile that didn't quite reach Pinkie Pie's eyes found its way onto her face.
Once Twilight Sparkle earned her wings, it took Rainbow Dash all of about ten seconds to start scheduling flight lessons for the young princess. But eventually, after many, many crashes, Twilight managed to achieve something close to what Rainbow Dash would call competence. At the very least, Twilight had stopped crashing every time she landed. Confidant that her job was done, Rainbow Dash called Twilight's flying lessons complete.
But it was a fairly common sight in Ponyville to see Princess Twilight on a morning flight over the no longer quite so small town. Princess Twilight often said that she could hardly understand her pegasi friends from the ground, and the morning flights had been devised by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash as a way to get to know the airborne residents of Ponyville, as well as provide some much needed practice to the new alicorn, who was still getting used to the idea of having feathers. She leisurely flew along, calling out greetings to some of the members of the weather patrol that were setting up the minimal cloud cover for the day. Below, Twilight could see that Ponyville was well and truly up and about, and she swung about, beginning her flight back towards the centre of Ponyville, where she was due to meet with the mayor of the town, as Twilight much preffered to take a hooves-off approach to governance, though she technically was the sovereign ruler of Ponyville, but most ponies were a little unsettled when they discovered that the princess of the town could detach her head at will.
"What's up, Sparklebutt?" said a rainbow-maned pegasus, jabbing Twilight in the side with a hoof.
"Dusty Trails!" said Twilight, as she pulled Dusty's hoof out of the hole that it had punched in her side. Dusty was the child of Speedy Stitch, who was the result of a rather magically adventurous night between the Rarity and Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, and much to Twilight's distress, had inherited the attitude of Rainbow Dash.
"I thought that you would be in the hospital for another week after that incident with the bell tower," said Twilight.
"Yeah, well, doctors said that there's nothing physically wrong with me and let me go," said Dusty, "guess I'm just that great." Twilight rolled her eyes as she flew around a rising balloon.
"Still, I worry that you're going to hurt yourself if you keep trying to replicate Rainbow Dash's stunts," said Twilight.
"Pssh," said Dusty, "Like anything's ever kept me down for long."
"Just be a little more careful, okay?" asked Twilight, hovering in front of Dusty, "I don't like seeing my friends get hurt. At least get somepony to watch just in case you have another incident like with the bell tower."
"Okay, okay," said Dusty, winging off to talk to the weather manager. Twilight moved to wave goodbye to her.
And stopped dead, because her wings had fallen off.
"Horseapples," muttered Twilight, before she plummeted downwards.
****Time****
The mayor of Ponyville stared as Twilight pulled herself out of the crater that she had caused in the town square, magically reattching a leg as she did so.
"Are you alright, Princess Twilight?"
"I'm fine," said Twilight, "I just need to find my wings and put them back on. And then find something that stops them falling off again."
"You arrived in my world in a blast of colour and light, and I think that was when I fell in love with you. Of course, I didn't know your name, or anything about you at that time. I could only see the effect that you left in your wake. It wouldn't be until many years later that I finally found you, though I wasn't aware that I was ever looking until recently, though I may be reading too much into it.
"I should have told you how I felt before that fateful night when we all came together for the first time, when we bonded with the Elements of Harmony. I was still searching for a prince, then, and oh, how naive I look to myself now.
"I should have confessed my feelings when I arrived in Cloudsdale, wings of gossamer and dew on my back, before I so elegantly attempted to ruin your day. On second thoughts, perhaps I shouldn't have shown up with said wings.
"I should have confided my feelings in you nearly a hundred times, but each time, my mouth refused to utter the fateful words, even as my heart pulled me closer and closer to you. It refused to open even when Applejack, obtuse though she may be, noticed my infatuation with you.
"But no more, for today is the day that I bear my heart forth, offer it up to you with all the conviction that I can muster."
"Rainbow Dash, I love you."
"Well, duh," said Rainbow Dash, as she lay on a cloud above, "I mean, how could you not love me, Rare? I'm awesome."
"Rainbow Dash, you utter boor, here I am pouring my heart and soul out before you, and all you can say is 'well duh?' Have you no sense of tact or...I am not going to finish that sentence because the answer is obvious."
"Well, it's like you said, Rarity," said Rainbow, a grin creeping across her face, "If Applejack's noticed, then everypony in town already knows. That includes me, you know."
"Well then, the only question is if you are going to make me a very happy mare, or if you are going to leave my beared heart shattered on the cold ground while my tears freeze from the cold air as they roll down my grief-stricken face as I sob from your cruel rejection, but I shall still continue on, despite the gaping wounds in my soul."
"Rarity, it's the middle of summer." Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"That does not answer my question, or in any way respond to my declaration of my feelings for you, Rainbow Da-mmph!"
Rainbow Dash had swooped down, and pressed her lips to Rarity's. Rarity's eyes drifted closed as she lost herself in the kiss.
"Will that do, Rare?" said Rainbow, tossing a wink back at Rarity.
The first thing that Sun Shade was aware of was that something smelled really good. Her nose twitched, and she gradually opened her eyes. For a moment, she thought that she was back in her house back on the plains, and that her adventure into the Everfree forest had simply been a dream, but that was quickly proven false. The bed that she was lying in was not her own, and she was surrounded by wood. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast, whenever that had been., and so Sun tumbled out of the bed, and followed the smell downstairs. There she found the Old Witch in the kitchen of the strange house that she found herself in.
"Ah, Sun Shade," said the Old Witch, or Twilight, as Sun Shade now knew her to be, "I was wondering when you would wake up."
"How long has it been?" asked Sun
"Oh, I'd say a few hours. Must have been a big shock, finding out that the world isn't what you thought it was."
"I think it was more about finding out that one of my favourite books is real," said Sun Shade. To her surprise, Twilight giggled.
"It's a more common revelation than you think," she said. "But regardless, I'm sure that you have questions, Sun, so I'll do my best to answer them." A number of plates, laden high with food floated over to the table, and Sun Shade flinched as they hit the table.
"So are you actually a witch?" was the first question that blurted out of Sun Shade's mouth.
"I'm certainly a student of magic," said Twilight, "That much is carried into the Crowned Princess series, I should hope. I suppose by today's standards, I am a witch."
"So those books are...?" Sun Shade began, and Twilight nodded.
"I may have taken some liberty with names and a few other details, but on the whole, yes. They actually happened."
Sun Shade bit down into a sandwich while she thought. If the books were real, if Equestria had actually been like Twilight had described, then why wasn't it like that now? She had never seen anypony with a horn or wings before.
"Because I made a mistake," said Twilight, staring at Sun Shade, "You have a tendancy to mumble when you think." Twilight stood up and paced around the room for a moment, occasionally looking over at Sun Shade.
"Equestria was once a deeply magical place, Sun Shade. To a degree, it still is, but that magic is locked away. Unicorns like I once was could tap into magic at will, move things around and cast all manner of spells. Pegasi," said Twilight, ruffling her wings, "Soared through the sky, and managed the weather all year around, and even Earth ponies like yourself could once command impressive control over the earth and plants. But we had enemies. One of the worst of them, a centaur with the ability to consume magic, got loose. We stopped him once, but the second time he got loose, the same solution wouldn't work. Something had to be done."
****Time****
"I did something drastic, Sun Shade, and the rest of Equestria paid for my mistake," said Twilight, "And I've spent the last thousand years trying to fix it, trying to keep my promise to an old friend that I'd fix the problem that I caused."
Sun Shade was silent for a while. And then, after she finished the sandwich she had been munching on, she spoke.
"I'd like to help. I might not know anything about magic or things, but my mother always told us these stories about the Elements of harmony, and how they were able to fix any problem by working together, so maybe that's what you need. Someone to help you out." And Twilight, the Old Witch of the Everfree town, smiled.
It was a normal day. We were assigned to scout a number of regions of Equestria, our closest source of food. The other changelings in the brood had all split off earlier, leaving this one to scout a desolate path by itself. The brood had all disguised itself as unremarkable ponies, aiming to imitate travellers, or other folk that would not attract attention for being alone in unusual places.
This drone was proceeding along a path when it came upon a young pink pony beside the path, laying down. Despite the pony's weak physical condition, this one could feel a great outflow of positive emotion from the pony.
"H-Hi there," the pink pony said, breaths heavy and slow, "I don't suppose that you could help me out? Pretty please?"
"What is the problem?" this one asked.
"See, I wanted to go to Ponyville, so I sort of snuck out of home so mommy couldn't stop me and keep me on the rock farm forever and ever." The pink pony paused, gasping in what hive memory told this one could be physical distress. "But then I took a bad tumble, and I haven't had anything to eat or drink in ages, and I haven't seen anypony else on the road at all."
The pink pony's face twisted in what this one was sure was physical pain.
"And my hoofsies and legs are super-duper sore. I can't walk far at all. I just need to get to the next town, so will you please help me?"
This one reached out with its mind, attempting to contact its brood-folk, but got no reply. It did not know if its brood had been caught or killed, or were simply too far away to respond, but that meant it had to deal with the situation.
"Allow me to assess your condition," this one stated. Using the odd personal words felt strange to this one, but it was stressed to this one in the breeding pods that it was the correct way that would not alert the ponies to this one's true identity. This one placed its hooves on the pink pony, feeling with both magic and touch.
"Your legs are broken."
"Oh bummer," the pink pony said through clenched teeth. This one considered its options. It could leave the pink pony here, and continue with its assigned mission, and this was the most efficient option. From its senses, it could tell that the pink pony would not survive without urgent medical care as not only were the pony's legs broken, but a number of open wounds were infected. It could also help the pink pony to the next town, wherever that was, but that could raise questions about what this one was. The pink pony did not know this one as anything but a fellow pony, and it could use some nourishment. It could also drain the pink pony, leave no witnesses to its presence. The hive memory showed this one how such a thing could be done, but lacked much of the details. it was not a long-term feeding strategy, the hive memory told, but rather extracted everything from the pony, and allowed the drone to survive independently for long periods of time.
"I can help," this one said, "just close your eyes, and think of happy thoughts."
The pink pony nodded, and followed his one's directions. The positive emotions began to raidiate out from the pink pony, and this one shifted back to its natural form, and bit into the pink pony's neck, binding the pony's mouth shut to prevent the pink pony from crying out.
****Time****
So much emotion flowed into this one. So much happiness, so much joy, so much love, that this one felt like it would burst. And then the memories came. The hive memories had told this one nothing about this aspect of the feeding. It could remember both being born in a pod, deep underground, in a brood of similar changelings, and it could remember growing up with sisters, it could feel the love the pink pony had for her sisters, but deeper still this one drew on the pink pony's emotions and thoughts. And for the first time, I could feel the need to feed completely disappearing. For the first time, it-I felt full.
The body of the pink pony who had given her life to nourish me-this one lay on the ground. It was the work of a moment to shift this one's front hoofsies into something that was more suitable for digging, and a moment later to place the drained corpse of Pinkie Pie, her memories whispered to me, into the hole, and cover it back up.
And it was only once that was done did this one realise that I could no longer feel the connection with the brood. I could no longer even feel the distant connection between myself and the main hive. This one was then left with a problem, and a natural solution presented itself. The queen would not notice a single drone going missing, even if she noticed the drone at all, except to order them. There was a young pony that was recently deceased, and this one - I had her memories. I could take her place.
Magic flowed around me, shifting me into an exact replica of the pony that I had drained, and armed with her memories, I set out to make a new life for myself.
Clover's Comet, first observed and recorded by Clover the Clever approximately twelve years before The Exodus, is a periodical comet, on an orbit that takes 102 years to complete. Since its initial sighting, astronomers have been charting the comet's course, and have predicted that one day, thanks to the comet's highly eccentric orbit, that it may impact directly onto Equus' surface. Astropony Monthly, Issue 5, Year 654 AB.
*********
"I've always loved Clover's Comet," said Twilight, as she fiddled with the eyepiece on her telescope with the moon high overhead, "it's one of my favourite astronomical objects since I read about it when I was a child, and I've been looking forwards towards the day when I could see it for myself for actual years."
"Indeed," said Princess Luna, "It is good to see that ponies are still interested in what happens in the heavens. Though I too must admit a fascination with the comet, as it is one of few objects in the night sky that is not ours to control."
"Really?" said Twilight," I mean, I should have guessed, especially given your absence, but to know that you don't control everything in the sky..." Twilight trailed off as something new in the sky began to make itself known. A new star sputtered and spurted into existence, a faint trail blowing behind it, and Twilight trained her telescope on it. She flicked back and forth between her telescope and several reference guides and her own amateur astronomy journal, making notes. Princess Luna, on the other hand, had appeared to slip into a meditative trance, her senses slipping beyond her body and out to the space that was her domain, and only minute twitches of her face proved that she was not simply sleeping.
"Well, that's definitely Clover's Comet," said Twilight, at length, turning around to face Princess Luna, who had stood, and had a grim expression fixed on her face.
"That comet will be our doom," said Luna, "We have until the next passage of the comet to prepare."
"Princess Luna?"
"Clover's Comet will not pass by Equestria again, Twilight. On its next cycle, it will collide with the planet."
********
Princess Luna strode down the halls of Canterlot Castle, smiling broadly. Ever since that night so long ago, the Lunar Princess had been more absent and distant, even with the other alicorns, and that distance had only grown more and more pronounced as the years rolled on. Only Twilight had an inkling why: the return on Clover's Comet was approaching. This was the year it was due to arrive, and by her calculations, in just a few months the comet would be visible.
"Luna?" asked Twilight, forcing her stride to match Luna's, "What's happened?"
"Clover's comet is returning, Twilight," said Luna.
"But the comet will impact Equus, Luna. Nopony, nothing will survive. I did the calculations, remember?"
"Yes, Twilight, I remember. I am smiling because we are ready."
"Princess," said Twilight, "We are not ready. We have made no preparations for this. As far as I know, almost nopony, no one outside of a few astronomers know about this."
Luna paused by a window, and guestured out with a hoof. "Tell me, Twilight, what do you see in the sky?"
"The moon," sighed Twilight. Luna's smile grew wider, and her horn lit up. Twilight watched as the moon began to slowly revolve, and her eyes caught sight of something on the previously-hidden face of the moon. Artificial structures, and what looked like thrusters.
"That is not a moon, Twilight Sparkle," said Luna, "that is Equus' escape vessel."
"Stop." said Fluttershy, and the beast did. The pegasus Stared at the monstrous being, floating at its eye level. Twilight blinked, and turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash, who was picking herself out of her newest crater.
"Rainbow, why didn't you get Fluttershy from the beginning? I think I have bruises on my bruises from fighting that thing."
"Uhh, would you believe that I didn't want to disturb her?" said Rainbow, rubbing a hoof on the back of her head.
"No." said Twilight. Nearby, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were digging Rarity out of the ground. Twilight could hear Rarity complaining that she'd need at least four hours in the bath through the dirt.
"Okay, then I sort of forgot," said Rainbow, "Look, you girls were closer, and that thing was about to smash up the town! And then, you know, it smacked me into the ground and I couldn't exactly leave after that."
Twilight Sparkle sighed as Fluttershy continued to stare down the beast from the Everfree forest. The beast was visibly cowering under Fluttershy's gaze, and had begun to back up, being very careful to not step on anything.
"Let's just try and clean everything up," said Twilight as Pinkie pulled Rarity out of the earth, much to the unicorn's complaints about the dirt, "While Fluttershy makes sure that thing gets back to the forest and never bothers anypony ever again."
Rainbow Dash snapped of a salute, and flew off to help a group of pegasi put out a nearby fire, and Twilight turned her attention to helping other ponies.
And then Fluttershy, uncomfortable knowing that she had saved everypony and that they would want to have some kind of celebration for her, locked herself in her house for a week.
Funerals were difficult for Sunset. They had been even before she'd dived through the mirror for the first time. Watching her father decline to an incurable disease had been a large part of why she'd pushed so hard while she was still Celestia's student, and what had lead to her finding the mirror when her efforts to save him had failed.
The preist was droning about Applejack's life and family, and Sunset was desperately trying not to fidget, but the service had been going on for literal hours by this point. A frail hand rested on her shoulder, and Sunset knew without looking that it was Fluttershy. Sunset could imagine the expression on her friend's face; sympathetic, understanding, without any judgement, but a hint of reproach. Sunset gave a little shake, but managed to settle back down into her seat. After what felt like an age, the priest finished, closing his book, and the people gathered dispersed into smaller groups. Family, friends, business partners, all had gathered to mourn Applejack's passing.
Sunset walked up to the freshly filled grave, and stared at the headstone, emblazoned with Applejack's name and date for birth and death.
'Loving mother, sister and friend,' it read in bold script. No tears graced Sunset's cheeks - they hadn't since Pinkie Pie had departed. As always, Sunset wondered if she should feel bad about that. Out of the corner of her eye, Sunset could see Fluttershy hovering around, leaning heavily on the cane she had to use to compensate for her failing legs.
"Thanks for everything, Applejack," murmured Sunset, "Thanks for being my friend when no one else would. Thanks for being you, I guess. You taught me a lot, helped me not be such a manipulative bitch all of the time. Or at least, helped me be honest about being a manipulative bitch." Something that could have been a chuckle gurgled its way out of Sunset's mouth.
"Goodbye, Applejack," said Sunset, turning away from the grave, walking past Fluttershy and sitting on the stump of an apple tree nearby. She waited until Fluttershy had finished her own goodbyes and had shuffled her way to Sunset.
"Sunset?" asked Fluttershy, "Are you okay? You didn't have to come, if you didn't want to. I know that Applejack would have understood."
"No," said Sunset, fiddling with a peice of grass between her feet, "I wanted to come. You know, say goodbye to all of you girls. You all did so much for me, when I didn't really deserve it."
"That's not true, Sunset," said Fluttershy, "you just needed a friend."
There was a moment of silence between the two, the subtle murmur of the funeral humming in the background.
"Fluttershy, do you think I've changed?" asked Sunset.
"Of course I do, Sunset," said Fluttershy, "You used to be such a mean person, and over the years I've seen you become a much better person."
"Well, a different person anyway," said Sunset, "At least mentally."
****Time****
Sunset sighed, and stood up, her body locked into its early twenties, as it had been for the last eighty years. She hooked one arm around Fluttershy, taking her one still-living friend's weight off her failing legs.
"Come on Fluttershy, I'll help you to the car," said Sunset, "you must be tired."
"Thank you, Sunset," Fluttershy said, her head nodding and her eyes sliding closed. Gentle snores issued from her the minute Sunset put her in the passenger seat of Sunset's car.
While we appreciate your services to Equestria and Ponyville in particular, please try to refrain from excessive property damage within the bounds of Ponyville while on your adventures. Ponyville's budget only has so much room in it.
Regards, Mayor Mare.
*********
To The Elements of Harmony (minus Twilight Sparkle)
I write to you not as a mayor, but as a concerned pony. While I appreciate Miss Sparkle's studious nature, and her single-minded research habits have been a boon to Ponyville many times in the past, I would ask that all of you please make an effort to dissuade Twilight Sparkle from studying pyromancy.
She's set four houses on fire in the past month, and rare is the day when I do not see her with a singed mane these days. If it gets any worse, I may have to take legal measures.
Regards, Mayor Mare.
********
To The Elements of Harmony, c/o Golden Oaks Library
Will one of you please come and pick up Rarity Belle from Canterlot Gaol? She's been complaining about 'Crimes against fashion' again, and the more sensitive nobles have taken offence.
From the Desk of Captain Lucky Horseshoe. P.S. We had to pull her off Prince Blueblood this time. No charges have been pressed.
*******
Dear Elements of Harmony,
We, the concerned residents of Ponyville, have a simple request of you. Could you please work out a solution to your new castle's problem. It's far too shiny for most resident's tastes, and appears to be keeping ponies awake at night. We understand that the forces that have gifted you with such a castle are beyond our understanding, but it is clearly going to be a problem in the future if not dealt with in a prompt manner.
Yours, The Ponyville Community Club
*******
To The Esteemed Members of the Elements of Harmony,
Please ignore my sister. She is being ridiculous.
Ever thankful, Princess Luna.
*******
Dear Twilight and friends,
It is high time that Luna and myself toured Equestria. She has much to reacclimate to, after all, and so we will be taking a year sabbatical, during which you six will be responsible for keeping the country running. We will, of course, keep the sun and moon on their courses during our sabbatical, as it is highly unreasonable to consider the six of you ready for that duty just yet.
I thank you in advance for your great sacrifice for Equestria.
The air was electric. The back and forth between the two ponies had been coming to a head for the past few weeks. On the one hoof, Applejack, the owner-in-all-but-name of Sweet Apple Acres, and the heiress to the vast library of family recipes. Truly, she was skilled with baking dish and rolling pin and pastry equally.
But equally skilled was her opponent, glaring at her from the opposite side of the outdoor kitchen that had been set up in the town square; one Pinkie Pie. Mistress of flour and sugar and icing, purveyor of all things sweet.
It had all begun with a dinner around Twilight's table in her castle, and a few comments had been tossed around regarding which for the two was the better baker. Naturally, Applejack had thrown out that she had family recipes which had been perfected over generations, and the family love and care that went into every dish. Pinkie Pie had responded with the fact that she had an apprenticeship with not one but two professional chefs, and then hit Applejack with a bag of flour before cartwheeling out of the castle.
The verbal sniping had continued until Twilight had gone to the mayor, and gotten the current event set up. Both bakers would be allowed three hours to create the best dishes they could, and then they would be tasted by an independent panel of judges. One judge was Mayor Mare herself; another was Princess Celestia, who was wearing a floral print shirt, and the third was Lyra Heartstrings, who wasn't quite sure how she kept ending up on these things.
*****Time****
But as Twilight rung the bell to start the event, as Pinkie Pie and Applejack glared at each other over the eggs, Pinkie Pie suddenly broke out into a smile, yanked Applejack over the bench, and started making out with her.
Twilight cleared her throat.
"Nothing to see here, everypony," she called, as a number of the ponies in the crowd began to blush, and the three flower sisters wailed and fainted. And so, the contest was declared a draw.
"And here's the key to your new home," said Mayor Mare, hoofing over a key to a grey mare with a blue-grey mane.
"Thank you kindly, Miss Mayor," said Brush Stroke, levitating the key over to a nearby table, "though I must ask, why was this house so cheap? I was expecting something this nice to cost nearly twice as much."
"Well," said Mayor Mare, "This isn't Manehatten. We're just a small town, and we do believe in fair pricing. But there is one other thing, however. You are in what we have recently been calling the 'Twilight Zone'."
"Yes, after Princess Twilight Sparkle," said Brush, shifting a box of paints off the back of one of the delivery ponies that was unloading the cart outside her new home. "We are quite close to the castle, really."
"In a manner of speaking, yes," said Mayor Mare, "I shall leave you to unpack your belongings, Miss Stroke, and I do look forwards to seeing some of your artwork on the walls of homes around Ponyville in the near future."
Brush Stroke nodded, and returned to supervising the unpacking of her belongings, a task that lasted well into the night.
******
Dawn broke over Ponyville, the sunbeams filtering through the slightly threadbare curtains in Brush Stroke's new bedroom, and landing on her face. She slowly stretched out, and took in a deep breath of the fresh air of Ponyville, and a contented smile spread its way across her face. She had a lazy moorning, unpacking several more boxes, and rearranging furniture to her liking until her stomach growled out in protest, and Brush Stroke decided that she may as well head out and see some more of Ponyville.
Then her whole house shuddered. Brush headed for her front door, only to find that a pony was stuck halfway through it, only her head poking out on the inside of the door.
"Hello," said Princess Twilight Sparkle, "I normally don't barge in like this-" There was a groan from the other side of the door, "-but I'm still not entirely used to my wings, and I couldn't stop in time."
Brush Stroke's mouth worked open and closed as she tried to find the right combination of angry and not yelling at a princess of Equestria. Twilight jerked backwards as somepony on the other side of the door pulled.
"Not so hard, Rainbow Dash!" said Twilight. There was a muffled reply from somepony - probably Rainbow Dash- as Twilight jerked backwards again.
"Well, it was nice to meet you," said Twilight, as she jerked backwards again, frowning, "Though you must think me terribly rude. I've burst through your door, and I haven't even asked your name."
"Brush Stroke, your highness," said Brush, her mouth on autopilot.
"Pleased to meet you, Brush Stroke," said Twilight, "and I'll take care of the door, so don't worry about it. And welcome to Ponyville!" said Twilight, as with one final yank, she was pulled out of the hole in Brush's door with a shower of wooden splinters.
'Just another normal day in Ponyville,' Ditzy Doo, mailmare extrodinare thought as she strapped her bags to her sides with a sneeze. As she walked out into the cold autumn air, the sun just peeking over the horizon, another sneeze wracked her body, and a number of feathers fell off her already thin wings.
"Stupid Feather Flu," she grumbled, resigning herself to actually walking her route today. She thought that she'd been recovered enough to fly, but her first attempt at even flying to work had proven more disastrous than her normal flight habits.
At least her boss, also a pegasus, understood what Ditzy was going through, and had only given Ditzy half of her normal route to do until she could fly again. With another sneeze, Ditzy plodded off to her first destination on the north side of Ponyville. She slowly wound her way through the maze of side and back streets of Ponyville, alternating between sneezing and shaking off more feathers every few minutes.
It was mid morning before Ditzy reached the end of her route: Twilight Sparkle's new Castle of Friendship. Pausing once more to sneeze, Ditzy knocked on the giant crystal door.
"Mail call," she sniffled as loudly as she could.
"Coming," echoed a voice that sounded a whole lot like Rainbow Dash. The door swung open, and Ditzy held out the bundle of mail.
"Heya Ditz," said Rainbow Dash, taking the mail from Ditzy and tossing it back over her shoulder, "How are-you're sick?"
"Yeah," said Ditzy, "Feather flu." Ditzy gave one wing a half-hearted flap, and a whole bundle of feathers fell off.
"Okay, you are coming with me for a second," said Rainbow, swooping around Ditzy, and picking her up around her midsection, before darting off into the castle. Corridors and rooms blurred by, and Ditzy found herself dropped by Princess Twilight Sparkle's bed. Twilight herself was currently lying in bed, holding a thermometer in her mouth.
"Great news, Rainbow," Twilight Sparkle began taking the thermometer out of her mouth and looking at it for a moment, "My fever's all but gone, so I think I can officially say that I've had my first bout of Pegasus Pox!"
"Sure thing, Sparklebutt. Hey, Ditz, sneeze on her, will you?"
"What?" said Twilight
"What?" asked Ditzy, at the same time.
Completely ignoring both Twilight and Ditzy's cries of confusion, Rainbow Dash reached up with one of her wings, and began to tickle the end of Ditzy's nose. It wasn't long after that that she began to feel a sneeze building up.
"Ah...ah....ahtchoo!" sneezed Ditzy, showering Twilight Sparkle in snot. Twilight sat there, uncertain how to respond.
"I'm so sorry, Twilight but..." Ditzy never got a chance to finish her apology, because Rainbow once more gripped Ditzy, and darted out of the room, depositing Ditzy outside the castle.
"You've been a great help Ditz! I'll buy you some muffins later, ok?"
"Okay?"
----------
Rainbow Dash flew back upstairs to where Twilight Sparkle was still lying in bed.
"What the heck was that all about Rainbow?" said Twilight," Just getting Ditzy to sneeze on me like-" Twilight broke off, finishing her sentance in a sneeze, and sending purple feather spiralling up into the air.
"Congratulations, Twilight," said Rainbow, "Now you've got Feather Flu. More bedrest for you."
"When you said that I should get exposure to pegasus-only illnesses, this wasn't what I had in mind, Rainbow," grumbled Twilight.
"While I'm happy that you're not being such a scaredy-cat, Sun, did you really have to bring us this deep into the Everfree?" asked Apple Blossom, looking around at the rapidly darkening forest as the canopy became more and more dense.
"Yeah," added Rock Slide, "All you said was that you needed our help with something that you found in here."
"Well, it isn't actually me that needs help," said Sun Shade, "But I said that I would help her, and she said that if I had any friends that they could help as well."
Apple Blossom and Rock Slide exchanged glances as Sun Shade trotted ahead.
"You don't think...?"
"Who else lives in this forest, Rock? She's using Sun to lure us in and then she's gonna eat us!" Apple Blossom whispered
"Sun Shade is occasionally terrified to go out of her room, Blossom. If she's not scared of the Old Witch, then I don't see what you're worried about. Besides, have you ever actually known anyone who's been 'eaten' by the Witch?"
"Well, my granny said..."
"Screw your granny," said Rock Slide, "Who do you trust more, your granny or your best friends?"
"We're here!" called Sun Shade, as the three emerged into a more open space, and were confronted with a partially overgrown castle. As They were about to cross the bridge, the air sparkled and burst, and Twilight appeared.
Both Apple Blossom and Rock Slide broke out into a scream, but were prevented from bolting back the way they came because Sun Shade put a hoof on each of their tails.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet Twilight Sparkle, and she's really not as bad as the fairy tales make her out to be," said Sun Shade.
"You're not a witch?" asked Rock Slide
"Not as the stories say," said Twilight with a smile, "And I certainly don't eat ponies. But I am able to use magic. And though I dislike the name, the 'old' part of Old Witch of the Woods certainly applies."
"How old are you?" said Apple Blossom, "I mean, you really don't look much older than my sister."
"Blossom," hissed Sun Shade, "that's kind of rude."
Twilight, however, laughed.
"You remind me a lot of a friend of mine. Tell me, what do you know about the era of the Four Princesses?"
All three of the young ponies blinked.
"It was just after the Thousand-Year Monarchy, a golden age that lasted for a hundred years, and that's about it." said Rock Slide.
"I remember seeing something in a museum that had the names of the princesses on it, but I can't remember them." said Sun Shade.
Twilight Smiled, and there was a crack and a pop, and suddenly, the four of them were inside the castle, and in front of them was a giant stone relief, depicting four winged and horned ponies sitting on thrones.
"Celestia, Princess of the Sun," said Rock Slide, reading off the carving, "Luna, Princess of the Moon. Cadence, Princess of Love, and Twilight, Princess of Friendship."
"Hello there, my little ponies" said Twilight, with a smile.
"Did you hear?" said Sweetie Belle, as she tumbled into the Crusader Clubhouse, "The hospital's emergancy blood reserve has been weirdly short over the last month or two."
"I haven't heard about anything like that, Sweetie," said Apple Bloom, "Where did you hear about that?"
"Oh, Rarity was talking with Miss Redheart while sis was fixing us her nurse uniform, and Redheart was saying that the hospital would have to organise another big blood drive."
"Don't they do that every year, though?" said Scootaloo.
"Yeah, but they've already had this year's, remember?" said Apple Bloom.
"Oh yeah," muttered Scootaloo.
"Anyway, maybe we can get our Cutie Marks in something related to that," said Sweetie, to accompanying nods form the other two.
"Cutie Mark Crusader Medical Mystery Investigators, YAY!" All three shouted, rushing off.
**********
"...And then we read a book that said that one of the best ways for a vampire to survive in a town was to feed at a hospital, and because the hospital's blood reserve is short, there must be a vampire in town, feeding at the hospital!" said Scootaloo, as the three Cutie Mark Crusaders stood in Sugarcube Corner.
Pinkie Pie slurped her box of tomato juice dry, and tossed it over her shoulder and into the bin behind her.
"And so, because I know everypony in town, you want my help finding out this mysterious vampire pony?"
The Crusaders nodded fervently.
"Mrs. Cake, I'm going out! Gotta help stop a meanie vampire!" Pinkie called out, leaping over the counter.
"Cutie Mark Crusader Vampire Hunters, YAY!" shouted the Crusaders, as they following Pinkie.
Pinkie skipped down the street.
"So, the way I see it, with my incredible detective powers," said Pinkie, sliding a wide-brimmed fedora on, "is that the best ponies to investigate would be somepony who nopony would ever expect to be a vampire, so we should start with...Applejack!"
Apple Bloom gasped.
"Mah sister ain't a vampire!"
"Are you sure?" said Pinkie, and Apple Bloom looked confused for a moment, before Pinkie continued, "To Sweet Apple Acres!"
********
"Well, Applejack's not a vampire," said Pinkie, looking at the bent silver cross and empty bottle of holy water in her hooves as Applejack trotted away to help Big Mac repair the cider press.
"Ah told you so!" said Apple Bloom, "And she hates goin' to the hospital anyway!"
"So, we should change tactics: Who's the most likely pony to be a vampire?" said Pinkie, pausing for a moment.
"Fluttershy, of course!" said Pinkie, just as the Crusaders were about to answer, "She almost never comes into town when it's sunny, she's friends with bats, and some of those bats even drink blood! It's the perfect cover! To Fluttershy's!"
*******
"Okay then," said Pinkie, her voice muffled by Fluttershy's letterbox, "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are not vampires either."
"I said Rainbow Dash was too awesome to be a vampire!" said Scootaloo, as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom pulled on Pinkie's hind legs. With a pop, Pinkie came free from where Fluttershy had suplexed her into the letterbox.
"And Fluttershy can't even bring herself to hurt flies sometimes," said Pinkie, sliding her detective hat back on, and sipping on another box of tomato juice, "So there's only one real option left: Twilight. Sparkle."
The crusaders blinked.
"Think about it, girls: she stays inside all day, never seems to sleep, and nopony knew anything about her before she came to Ponyville. If there was ever the perfect candiate for a vampire, it would be her! To Golden Oaks!"
********
"Sorry girls, I thought for sure that Twilight would be a vampire," said Pinkie, as the Crusaders unstuck Pinkie from the ceiling of the main chamber of Golden Oaks Library, covering their noses to block out the smell of crushed garlic that Pinkie had covered herself in. "But at least we also know that Rarity's not a vampire either."
"Yeah," muttered Sweetie Belle.
"Hey, what's whooop!" said Pinkie, as she finally came unstuck, and bounced off the floor. "What's wrong, girls?"
"Nothin'," said Apple Bloom, "Just realising that it was a kinda stupid idea. Maybe there's just been a whole bunch of accidents or something, or the hospital had to use more blood than they thought they would."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded their agreement as Pinkie looked around.
"Besides, Twilight was right. Vampires are just stories," said Sweetie, "cool stories, but they're still just stories."
"Well, it was still fun, right?" she asked as she slurped on another box of tomato juice, "so maybe that's all that matters, girls. And maybe you'll get your cutie marks next time. And hey, go and tell Mrs. Cake that you can each have a cupcake on me."
"Yeah!" said Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, rushing off, Leaving Sweetie to stare at Pinkie for a moment.
****Time****
"Pinkie?" she asked.
"Yes, young grasshopper?" said Pinkie, with another slurp of her juice box.
"Why do you keep drinking tomato juice?"
Pinkie looked around furtively for a moment, motioning for Sweetie to come closer.
"It's because I'm actually a secret vampire, and this is a neato way to hide what I'm really drinking."
Sweetie Belle levelled her best stare at Pinkie Pie.
"Just kidding!" laughed Pinkie, "It's because my doctor said that I can't just live off sugar and cake and hot sauce. I need vitamins and stuff, and this is a super-easy way to get it."
Sweetie smiled, and dashed off after her friends, and Pinkie bounced home.
*****
The door to the blood bank at the hospital creaked open, and Pinkie Pie slipped in.
"Boy, did I wear myself out today," she muttered, picking up one of the blood bags, "going out in the sun is super tiring, even with my hat. Now, not too much, Count Pie, or else ponies will really start to suspect a vampire. No more than a pint."
Pinkie Pie bit into the bag, and smiled around her fangs as the viscous blood trickled down her throat.
"Why me?" said Ditzy Doo, as she stood in Ponyville's Royal Mail office.
"To be honest, Ditzy, because you are the only one available," said her boss, Timely Arrival, "All our fast delivery experts are out on deliveries already, and the rest of the staff is getting prepped for Hearthswarming. We're all pulling double shifts already, Ditzy, and Mayor Mare needs these budget reports up to the Royal Canterlot Treasury as soon as possible."
"But I'm-" began Ditzy
"I know you've had some difficulties with long distance before," said Timely, putting a wing on Ditzy's back, "But you do have good endurance, and Canterlot isn't that far away. You can literally see it from here." Timely gestured out of the window in her office, and indeed, Ditzy could make out the city clinging to the side of the mountain.
"Look, if it makes it better, you will be getting double time and a half for this, Ditzy. And you can take the overnight train back, on the company expense account."
"Give me ten minutes to have something to eat," sighed Ditzy, "And make sure everything's secure for me, will you? I don't want anything falling out while I'm flying. I'm not exactly stable sometimes."
"Ditzy, you are a lifesaver," said Timely, "I'll go and check everything now, you go eat."
**********
Several hours later, Ditzy Doo was winging in towards Canterlot as the sun was hanging low in the sky, the reports strapped into the very securely fastened bags at her sides. She'd had time to eat a muffin and down some orange juice before she left Ponyville, but she could hear her stomach growling out for more food.
"Not much further," Ditzy muttered as the streets of Canterlot came into view in one eye, while her other stared off at the sky, "Timely said it was the big grey building next to the castle..."
Ditzy angled her nose towards the castle for a little while, at least until she got close enough to make out the building in question. Naturally, that was when a sudden gust of wind threw her violently off balance.
"Ooohshiiii..!"
********
Inside Canterlot Castle, an important event was going on. It was time for the official Changing of The Throne. It was largely a theatrical thing, a ceremony to celebrate the changing of day to night and back again, thought up by somepony with a little too much time on their hooves, to symbolize the fact that Equestria was now a proper diarchy and the different princesses had precedence at different times of the day. Celestia and Luna didn't mind it so much, but they had requested that it be kept to one day per week.
Celestia lowered the sun below the horizon, and the Captain of her Solar Guard removed her crown.
"You are relieved of your duties, Princess," said the guard. Nearby, Luna waited, also crownless.
"I am relieved, Captain," said Celestia, not noting the rapidly growing shadow on one of the few non-stained glass windows as she stepped down from the throne. Behind her, attendants removed the red velvet cushion and replaced it with a navy blue one.
****Time****
Luna stepped up as the last of the few trappings on the throne were replaced with ones that had the moon as a focus. Her own captain of the Lunar Guard waited nearby with her crown on a cushion.
There was a crash.
"Ow ow ow danger danger pegasus out of control ow duck duck duck ow why do I have no spatial awareness THIS IS THE THRONE ROOM OH FAU-"
Ditzy Doo crashed into Princess Luna just as she was about to sit down on the throne, knocking the Lunar Princess off the raised dais, and falling straight onto the throne herself.
"The powers of the Night are now yours, Princess," said the captain of the Lunar Guard, lowering the crown onto Ditzy's head, having started his rehearsed statement before Ditzy's crash.
Ditzy Doo sat on the throne for a moment, and then her eyes glowed a brilliant white, and she exploded into a burst of bubbles.
Celestia stifled a giggle. It wasn't common knowledge, but the Royal Regalia was designed to be something of a focus for the Princess's magic, to help them control their vast power. Over the years that she was imprisoned on the moon, Luna's must have built up a bit of a store of power-an unfortunate side effect of the original version of the regalia. Celestia's had been refined since, removing the accidental storage part of the design.
A minute later, the bubbles that had been scattered around the throne room began to converge, and reformed into Ditzy Doo. A Ditzy Doo who was slightly taller than before, and now in possession of a horn.
"Behold," said Princess Celestia, desperately trying not to laugh, "A new Princess has been born!"
"Um, hi," said Ditzy, "I have the budget documents from Ponyville, Princess Celestia. And then, can somepony get me something to eat? I don't want to go back to Ponyville on an empty stomach."
"Celestia," hissed Twilight, in the dead of night, as she crept into the Solar Chambers in Canterlot Castle, "Celestia, are you awake?"
"Hmmm?" groaned Celestia, levering herself up in her bed and pulling her eyeshade off.
"Princess Celestia, can I talk to you?" asked Twilight, climbing up onto the bed.
"Twilight, You've known me for two hundred years. You've been a princess for most of those, you don't need to call me princess," said Celestia, her voice slurred by her half-awake brain. "Also, it's two thirty in the morning. Couldn't this have waited?"
Twilight did have the grace to look ashamed from what Celestia could make out in the darkness.
"While I'm grateful for everything, Princess, lately I've been feeling particularly morose and uninterested in everything."
"Go and read a book or something, then," said Celestia, as she tried to settle back down."That always cheered you up before."
"I can't. I've already read the entire contents of the Canterlot Archives. I think it's something deeper than just feeling down or sad," said Twilight, shifting closer to Celestia.
"You're probably just having a mid-century crisis, Twilight. Go and find a project that inspires you, and just let me sleep," said Celestia.
"A mid-century crisis?" asked Twilight "Yes, that's perfect. Celestia, I officially quit my job!" cried Twilight.
"I'll take you off the Solar and Lunar rosters then," mumbled Celestia from under her pillow, as Twilight bounced out of the room.
*********
"In complete fairness, Luna, I was half-asleep at the time," said Celestia, as she and Luna flew towards a quarry that had sprung up just outside Ponyville over the months since Twilight's midnight declaration to Celestia, "I thought that it was going to be like her other projects when she was younger, where she'd be done in a few months."
"And you brought me along, why, Celestia?" asked Luna
"Because I have no idea what she's been doing, and there are times when Twilight terrifies me, Luna. Because I do forget how driven she can be when she wants to be. If she has, as Cadence put it, 'dived head first into the deep end', then I want back up."
"Ah, so I'm your shield," said Luna, as the two sisters winged in for a landing.
"Defensive assistance," insisted Celestia, as her hooves touched down on rock and soil, and the two crossed the magical barrier that encompassed the quarry, and both sisters had their breath taken away.
Because they suddenly found themselves on the moon, and a short distance in front of them, they could see Twilight flying around a skeleton of a metal structure.
"Hello Celestia, hello Luna," said Twilight, magically projecting her voice into the elder alicorn's heads, but remaining focused on her work, magically fusing another piece of steel to her framework. Celestia turned to Luna, casting a quick spell of her own, projecting a small bubble of air around the two.
"Now do you see what I mean when I say I am occasionally scared of Twilight? That spell, or anything like it, has never existed before," said Celestia, as they walked towards Twilight's construct. Once the two sisters got close enough that Twilight was contained within the air bubble, Twilight flew down.
"You said to find a project that interested me, Celestia," said Twilight, "so that I could get over my mid-century crisis."
"Mid-century crisis?" whispered Luna, out of the corner of her mouth as she suppressed a laugh.
"It was two in the morning, Luna," Celestia whispered back, "It was the first thing I thought of."
"So," continued Twilight, unaware of the sister's commentary, "I decided that I was going to build a spaceship!"
Twilight struck a pose, and magicially summoned the chalkboard on which she'd drawn her plans. "I should be finished in about fifteen years if all goes well. Anyway, how's Cadence doing?"
Morning broke over ponyville, and streams of light fell into the bedroom of Pinkie Pie, and illuminated Gummy's sleeping bed. The diminutive alligator blinked awake, and his tongue flicked out and licked his eyeballs.
It was time for him to begin the sacred quest that he had known was coming. As was tradition, he would not be allowed any tools beyond what he already had: his ferocious mind, and powerful jaws. They would be all that he would need to see him through this great undertaking. With slow, ponderous steps, he crawled his way out of the half-cocoon of blankets that he had covered himself in during the night.
His steady, ponderous plod took him further and further away from the comfort of his blanket, and away from the warmth of the sun streaming in through the window. His journey took him further and further from his warm home, until he came to a great cliff face, extending out below him, and for a moment, he wondered if he would ever make it back from this journey, but he remembered why he was undertaking this quest, and pressed on.
With as much precision as he could muster, he began the long climb down the cliff, pausing on flat sections in order to recover his strength, and after what seemed like an age, he reached the bottom.
As he crossed the great plains, the sun shone on him, invigorating him, and hastening his journey until he reached the great mesa that was his destination.
Gummy craned his neck back as far as he could, and stared up at the distant flat top, knowing that he would have to climb the precarious surface if he was to ever achieve his ultimate goals. With a small croak of encouragement to himself, he began his climb.
****time****
With a final great exertation, Gummy pulled himself up onto the giant mesa, his feet sinking into the semi-soft surface. The final destination was within his sight, and with another lick of each of his eyeballs, he set off. He climbed over mounds and dips, eventually arriving at the highest point in the area.
Gummy summoned up all of his mighty resolve, opened his mouth, and bit down on the protrusion just next to him.
-----------
Pinkie Pie jerked awake, her eyes crossing as she looked at her nose.
"Hi Gummy!" chirped Pinkie Pie, "Thanks for waking me up. You're the best alligator a pony could ever ask for.
Gummy maintained his blank stare, and continued to gum Pinkie Pie's nose.
"Rainbow, I think we need to have a little talk," said Rarity, as Rainbow Dash settled herself onto the couch in Rarity's living room.
"This isn't about the duchess thing, is it? I swear I didn't punch her this time!" Rainbow said, looking around nervously. Rarity smiled.
"Nothing so trite, darling. Besides, the duchess has been...defanged, shall we say. All she can do is spout nonsense, anyway. No, Rainbow, this is about you. And me, and our future," said Rarity, settling on the couch next to Rainbow Dash.
"I know that soon you'll be going out more and more with the Wonderbolts, travelling across the country, and my own business is beginning to gain momentum as well. We will both be incredibly busy in the coming months and years, and I just think that if there was ever a time to do this, then it should be now. Rainbow," said Rarity, but Rainbow held up a hoof.
"I can already guess what you're gonna say, Rare. I'm sad that it's come to this, but if you think we should take a break while we sort our careers out first, then I'm totally down for that. I mean, I get where you're coming from, I really do. Training for the Wonderbolts is basically a full time job, and I know how hard you work to get your fashion noticed by the high society. I guess we were due for a change in our thing for a while now," said Rainbow, sliding off the couch.
"What?" said Rarity, "Rainbow, that is not what I was talking about!"
Rainbow Dash blinked.
"Rainbow, you are quite possibly the most womderful mare that I have had the pleasure of knowing. You are the blast of colour that my life needs, and while your reckless abandon may have me tearing my mane out on occasion, there is also no other pony like you, and aside from your positively atrocious table manners, I cannot imagine my life without you," said Rarity, standing up, "What I am saying, Rainbow Dash, is that I think that we should take the next step before things get too hectic in our lives, so that we can go through these trials without being alone. What I am asking, Rainbow Dash, is would you like to get married?"
Rainbow Dash blinked as a smile spread across her face.
"I mean, of course, Rarity," said Rainbow, "but doesn't that question usually come with a ring of some kind?"
Rarity smiled.
"Rainbow Dash, I am unquestionably a Lady, whereas you are somewhat more...butch, shall we say? Ladies do not propose."
"Pretty sure they can," said Rainbow, folding her forelegs while she hovered in the air.
"Rainbow, I know you don't care about these things, but please please please, just let me have the experience of being proposed to?" said Rarity, bending over backwards and giving Rainbow her best puppy eyes expression.
"Fine," said Rainbow Dash, with a sigh and a smile on her face.
It wasn't that she was a bad flier, exactly. Rainbow Dash, for instance, had a slightly worse crash rate than Ditzy. It was just that when Ditzy crashed, there was often collateral damage. Most other pegasi had the control to steer out of the way of buildings. And Ponyville, being founded by Earth ponies, was still a little biased against pegasi.
So it was completely natural that when the small town learnt that Ditzy 'Derpy Hooves' Doo had taken a job with the Royal Mail, a job that required extensive flight across town, that there was a little caution and skepticism amongst the ponies in town.
"No, really," said one earth pony, in hushed tones as the dawn broke over the small town, "she didn't look too good when I saw her this morning. Definitely more distracted than usual. She hit her mailbox when she left her house. Might be a good idea to keep a look out."
"You think? She's been getting better, though," said the other, also an earth pony. "She hasn't hit anything particularly dangerous in at least two months."
"Which means it's just about time that she did," said the first, "I'm just saying, keep an eye out, because you know, she's probably not going to be as attentive today. One good sudden breeze, and bang, she's through a window, or a wall..."
And because Ponyville has a rather vigorous gossip circle, the news that Ditzy Doo was not at her best quickly spread through the town. Everypony was looking up at the sky, watching for a careening grey and yellow pegasus. If the houses and market stalls had eyes, they would also probably be looking up. After all, Ditzy had crashed into a good number of them over the years since she'd moved to Ponyville.
The whole thing culminated at around lunchtime. Ponies were taking bites of their lunches, glancing up at the sky at every pegasus, or even at every sudden shift of the wind.
"What are we looking for?" asked one pony, as she sat down on the bench next to Lily.
"Ditzy Doo," said Lily, still looking up at the sky, "I've heard that she had a really bad night last night, so now she's all distracted, and I don't want to be in her way when she crashes today."
"Okay then," said Ditzy Doo, adjusting the bandages binding her left wing to her side. She'd misjudged a tree yesterday when completing her mail route, and broken her wing, and it was still healing. The doctor had cleared her to do her mail route, but she couldn't fly for a few days. Ditzy sat next to Lily for a few more moments while she finished her lunchtime muffin, courtesy of Pinkie Pie.
"You have a good day, Lily," said Ditzy, getting off the bench, tossing the paper wrapper in the bin.
"You too, Ditzy."
Ditzy grinned as she walked away from Lily while the flower seller realized what had just happened. The pegasus was rewarded with the earth pony bolting past her, screaming, not two seconds later.
Rainbow Dash dove, faster and harder than she ever had before, save once. A cone of weather magic surrounded her, squeezing her entire body tighter and tighter. She closed her eyes and pushed, desperate to save Rarity and the Wonderbolts. Something behind her cracked. The air, which had been pushing back against her, suddenly smoothed out, and everything seemed to be in slow motion. It was the work of two wingbeats to catch up to Rarity, and Rainbow scooped up the unconscious Wonderbolts along the way.
But as Rainbow rejoiced in her recreation of the stunt from her childhood, looping around the stadium, the rainbow shockwave rolled across the land. Ponies looked up as it passed over them, noting the curious phenomena, but otherwise continued about their days unaffected.
But while Rainbow Dash and her friends were celebrating in Cloudsdale, and apologies were given and accepted, the shockwave continued to roll over the land. And deep in the southern badlands, a figure striding through a roughly circular tunnel carved into a mountain paused to lick the air.
"Powerful magic," muttered the Changeling Queen Chrysalis as the shockwave rolled through the mountain, "magic infused with desire to save?" Her tongue flicked out again. "Definitely Philia undercurrents."
Chrysalis about-faced instantly, trotting through the tunnels until she came to an outside overlook. She could see and taste the faint remains of the magic's passage, and focused her eyes to the north.
"Equestria," she muttered.
********
It was deeper into Equestria than Chrysalis had been before, very nearly at the Great White City. The magic was nearly completely faded, now, but Chrysalis could still taste the faintest whispers of it. Not enough to feed on, but enough that she could get an idea of why the magic existed. To her great dismay, nothing about it suggested that it could be a reliable food source.
"Excuse me, miss?" asked a pony from behind her, and Chrysalis nearly dropped her disguise out of surprise as she turned around. She came face to face with one of the warriors of Equestria, a white stallion with a blue mane and tail, and a great wellspring of love practically pouring off him.
"Hello," smiled Chrysalis, her disguised horn lighting up green, "you are going to take me back to your home and the mare you love."
"Okay," said Shining Armor, his eyes reflecting the green magic as it wormed itself into his head. As he lead the disguised Changeling Queen back to Canterlot, he dropped the letter he'd been intending to deliver to his sister.
"It's the Chamber of...Shadows?" said Twilight, her horn lighting up the runes over the archway, as she consulted a book, "or maybe demons. The runes are a little fuzzy. Actually, on fourth read, it might even be demonic shadows."
"Okay," said Rainbow, "But what does that even mean, Twilight?"
"I think," said Twilight, flapping back down to floor level, "that it's a self-reflection thing. You know, face your own demons. That would make the most sense in context. Most of the other challenges have been something similar."
"So we go in, beat up ourselves, and we move on and get this weird codex thing away from those cultists," said Rainbow Dash, "Easy as pie."
"If it's all the same, I'd rather not face myself," said Fluttershy, "I can be scary sometimes."
"Don't worry, Fluttershy. From the looks of these runes, this is very much a 'only one pony enters' thing. Then, when whoever we send in defeats the shadow and/or demons, the rest of us can all move on."
"OK, I'll be right back!" said Rainbow Dash, darting towards the entrance, only to be caught at last minute by Twilight's magic.
"Aw, come on. I wanted to beat up an evil version of me!"
"We need to consider this carefully, Rainbow," said Twilight, "This kind of challenge isn't about brute force. It's about knowing and accepting your own faults."
"Pssh! What faults? I'm awesome," smirked Rainbow Dash.
"And that's why you're not going in there," said Twilight, "and since Fluttershy doesn't want to, I guess it's up to me. See you girls on the other side."
Twilight strode forward, entering into the passageway. The wall instantly closed behind her, and after a few twists and turns, she ended up in a wide chamber, with only a stone statue of a pony in the center. The minute her hoof touched the carved floor, the entire thing lit up, and the statue slowly shifted to match Twilight.
Statue-Twilight blinked a few times, before fixing her doppelganger with a smile that did not sit well with Twilight.
"Hello, me."
"So, let me guess," said Twilight, "You're what I would be if I went less friends, more magic?"
"In part," said the statue as it and Twilight began circling each other, "I'm you without your fear. I'm the version of you that you could have been if you weren't a wimp about your magic and a little more ambitious."
The statue launched a fireball from its horn that nearly filled the room, as Twilight encased herself in a shield.
"I'm the version of you that instead of hiding behind theory, took that magical power that we displayed when we got our cutie mark and mastered it to its fullest extent, not use it to make moustaches on baby dragons."
Twilight fired her own magic beam back at the statue, which casually deflected it.
"Because you are afraid, Twilight," hissed the statue, as dust exploded out from where Twilight's beam hit the wall, "You're afraid of your own power, you're afraid to push the limit on what you can do, but we both know that you've barely touched the depths of your magic since you got your cutie mark."
"Because," grunted Twilight, as she levitated a piece of rock to block the statue's next spell, "I turned my parents and half the examiners into plants! Celestia had to intervene to turn them back."
"And now look at you," said the statue, as it tossed another overwhelming blast of magic at Twilight, "You're terrified to use any spell of real power yourself. The closest you got was Tirek, and even then, you didn't go nearly as far as you could have."
"Any further, and I would have destroyed the entire countryside!" said Twilight, wracking her brain on how she could defeat a more magically competent version of herself. An idea formed in her mind, and she smiled.
"But at least," continued Twilight, "I'm happy with the decisions I've made. I bet that you can't say the same."
"Of course I can," said the statue "I'm still friends with the Elements of Harmony. I'm just better at magic than you."
"Of course," said Twilight, smashing the peice of rock that she'd been using as a shield against the floor, causing a cloud of dust to rise, "and I bet that your friends are totally not terrified of you at all. Because, you know, when you start slinging around the really big spells, nopony ever runs screaming from you."
"Shut up," grumbled statue-Twilight, firing another beam of magic out, while Twilight teleported away from her settling dust cloud.
"And I know that your family must be completely supportive of you and your ability, too," said Twilight, her grin getting wider.
"Shut up!" said statue-Twilight, as Twilight teleported away from another beam.
"And the Princessess must be completely on your side, too. I mean, how could they not be? They'd have something close to a real magical equal for the first time in-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" screamed statue-Twilight, firing off a multitude of spells, each one failing to connect with Twilight.
"I'll show you who's better," said the statue, once her magical storm had ceased, "I know what you're doing, me. Making me angry, disrupting my focus. Well, it won't work anymore."
*****Time*****
"That's fine, I don't need to do that anymore," said Twilight, from her position behind her doppelganger. The statue whirled around just as Twilight kicked a half-disintegrated column, which caused the whole thing to fall on the statue.
"First lesson of magical duelling," said Twilight, as the colour bled out of the statue, "Knowing when not to cast a spell is just as important as knowing when to cast. I didn't need to do anything, because you were destroying the chamber just fine by yourself. And that's why I don't use any of the really big spells, so I can have more control over what I'm doing."
The statue didn't reply as it fell apart into rubble, and the doors to the chamber slid open, and Twilight could see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash waiting for her.
"Come on, girls," said Twilight, "Not much further to the Codex now."
"Really, Twilight?" asked Rarity, "I was your only option for this?"
"I can't keep him at the castle, Rarity. He unnerves me in a very strange way," said Twilight, glancing around Rarity to the figure currently standing completely still in the centre of Carousel Boutique's shop floor."
"What about-," began Rarity, only for Twilights to cut her off.
"Rainbow Dash's house is made of clouds, Applejack's out of town on a family thing, and if he stayed with Fluttershy we'd never get her to come out of the closet for a year."
"What about Pinkie?"
"I'd rather keep this quiet. Nopony needs to know that he was ever here," said Twilight, "Look, it's only for a few hours until I can calibrate the mirror to lock onto his own dimension, and send him back to wherever he came from."
Rarity sighed, and glanced backwards to where the giant figure was standing.
"Alright, darling, but you are going to owe me a full spa session, and a full explanation once this is all sorted out."
"Thank you so much, Rarity!" said Twilight, quickly hugging Rarity, then flying off in the direction of the Crystal Castle of Friendship. Rarity gave another quick sigh, closed her door, and then turned around to inspect the figure currently standing in her house. He, she supposed, was tall, almost as tall as some of the teenage dragons that she'd encountered, and like them, stood on two legs.
But unlike the dragons, his feed ended not in claws, but blunt, almost hoof-like appendages, while his arms finished in not-quite claws. He was clad almost entirely in some kind of green armour, which completely obscured his natural form. And now that she was alone with this not-dragon, Rarity immediately picked up on what had unnerved Twilight so much.
He was a predator. This was a being that could, without a shadow of a doubt in Rarity's mind, end her. It was in the way that he stood, how he held himself, that even without moving told a tale of blood and violence, and that aeons of prey instincts had immediately picked up on.
"I am, as you have gathered, Rarity, a close friend of Twilight. She should have you back to your home as soon as possible."
The not-dragon predator stayed still and silent.
"Do you have a name, dear?"
Further silence. Rarity couldn't even tell if he was blinking behind the helmet.
"Are you a soldier, where you come from?"
There was a moment of silence, then the head of the not-dragon bobbed up and down once.
"Is that a yes?"
The not-dragon nodded again, and Rarity internally celebrated. It was non-verbal, but at least it was communication. She strode towards the figure, her designer's eyes flicking up and down the armour adorning the figure.
"Ugh, green," muttered Rarity, "hardly the most imposing colour for a soldier, don't you think?"
Despite meaning the question as a rhetorical one, the not-dragon shook it's head from side to side.
Rarity thought for a moment.
"Ah, so it's for camoflage, is it?"
Another negative. Rarity hummed to herself in thought.
"Still, it is rather damaged. I don't suppose that you would allow me to fix it, would you?"
Yet another negative, then a pause, and the not-dragon mimed a knife cutting.
"You want a knife?"
He nodded, and Rarity floated one of her chopping knives out of her kitchen and onto the table besides the not-dragon. He picked it up, and ran the edge over one of the sections of his armour, succeeding in just dulling the knife.
"Ah, it isn't that you won't allow it, it's that you do not believe that I can fix it?"
A nod.
*****Time****
"Can I feel it?" asked Rarity. After a moment, the not-dragon offered out on his arms, and Rarity gingerly ran his hooves over the scarred surface of the armour. It was far harder than anything she had ever felt before, possibly even harder than diamond.
"So, you are right in thinking that I cannot mend your armour, however," began Rarity, "I will not let you go unaccesorised! While your armour may be beyond my means, and your form is not the one I usually design for, never let it be said that Rarity shies away from a challenge!"
Rarity moved away from the not-dragon, her magic pulling out several bolts of cloth.
"Now, you are clearly fond of green, and I will admit, it does seem to work with you, so perhaps-," Rarity was abruptly stopped by a blunt claw pinching around her mouth as she turned to face the not-dragon, and she was abruptly reminded that he was a predator.
Gently, he released Rarity's mouth, and guestured to himself, and then with one of his claws, drew a line across what Rarity supposed would be his throat. Then, he shook he head, and pointed to a nearby half-finished dress.
"You...kill? No dress?" asked Rarity, trying to make sense of the limited communication that she had.
The predator nodded, and picked up the knife again, tapping the point on his arm, then using the knife to cut through a piece of fabric that Rarity had dropped. Once more, he tapped his armour, and nodded his head, then pointed at the dress, and shook his head.
"What do you mean you want me to compete in a duel tournament?" asked Twilight Sparkle.
"I think that it would be a good test of a number of your abilities, Twilight," said Princess Celestia, "it would be a good test of how well you can think on your hooves, as well as your overall speed, agility, and raw power."
"I don't want that kind of magic to be my focus, though," said Twilight, a slight whine creeping into her voice.
"Twilight, given the events at your brother's wedding, I would have thought that you would be eager to improve yourself," said Princess Celestia. Twilight looked away, and Princess Celestia sighed and walked down the steps of her throne.
"Twilight, you should not feel guilty for hurting those changelings. You were defending yourself. I am not asking you to enlist as a battle mage, I am asking you to compete in a sanctioned, well-regulated and civilian tournament. I know that your own brother would appreciate you knowing at least how to defend yourself."
Twilight sighed, and looked up at Princess Celestia.
"Alright," she said, "Where do I sign up?"
*************
And that was how Twilight Sparkle found herself staring across an open field at her first opponent, a young noble unicorn who Twilight vaguely recognised from her time around Canterlot. The other unicorn was being attended to by a pair of earth ponies while the referee announced the rules.
"Concussive blasts are the limit of force. Nothing cast to pierce or slice flesh. Do both of you understand?"
"I understand," said Twilight.
"Ugh, can we please just get on with this so I can get to my pedicure appointment?" moaned the other, shooing her attendants away, while taking up a ready position that looked incredibly uncomfortable to Twilight.
"Ready?" asked the referee, looking at both participants, "And go!"
The second the referee jumped backwards, a spell left both unicorn's horns. Twilight ducked under a blast of magical force and watched as her own spell suddenly erected a bubble around the other unicorn. Irritated by this, the other unicorn attempted to pop the bubble by blasting it again, only to have her own spell knock her unconcious.
"Winner, Twilight Sparkle," said the referee.
****Time****
The unicorn laughed as Twilight's spells bounced off his shield.
"This is my speciality! You'll never get a clear shot."
Twilight cocked her head in thought, and then cast three spells in quick succession. Each impacted on the front of her opponents shield, then ricocheted off as they had before. Then, instead of her magical missiles dissipating on the protective field around the duelling area, they rebounded again, too quickly for the gloating unicorn to readjust his shield to protect himself, and they stuck him from the back, knocking him out of the competition.
"Winner, Twilight Sparkle!"
**********
A wedge of earth drove up underneath the especially fancy unicorn, disrupting her next step and catapulting her into the air, even as Twilight teleported out of the way of the last spell. Twilight's horn lit up again, tearing the spur of earth she'd previously used from the ground, and shaping it into a cup which she used to catch the flying unicorn, and then trapped her inside.
"Winner, Twilight Sparkle. Please put the ground back how you found it."
**********
"And our grand champion is Twilight Sparkle," said the referee. There was a polite smattering of applause, as well as a few dirty looks from the noble ponies who had paid for countless duelling lessons, only to be defeated by what they believed was a peasant.
"Now, Miss Sparkle," said the referee, levitating a small bag of bits over to Twilight, "here is your prize, and I will respectfully have to ask that you not enter another Canterlot Duelling Tournament."
"I wasn't planning to, but can I ask why?"
"The judges and sponsors of the organisation, knowing that you are a student of Princess Celestia, watched your performance very closely, Miss Sparkle. What they saw, I am informed, scared the tails off them. None of your opponents were unskilled, Miss Sparkle. A number of them have won in previous meets. None of them ever hit you, even once."
Twilight blinked.
"So, I thank you for your participation, Miss Sparkle, and here are your winnings, and now I will request that you please never come back."
Celestia looked up at the top of the Student's Tower, at the light shining out of the windows. She watched as the light flickered and died, and her keen ears picked out the soft click of the door closing, and the equally soft clip-clop of hooves coming down the ramp.
"How is she, Star?" asked Princess Celestia, once the pony reached the bottom of the ramp.
"Princess Celestia!" exclaimed North Star, the pony who was in charge of Student Care and Admissions at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She threw herself into a bow before the ruling princess. Princess Celestia sighed to herself, and gestured for the unicorn to rise.
"I've told you before, Star, there is no need for you to bow to me every single time. This is an informal check up. I want to know how my student is doing, specifially outside of her classes."
"She's...driven," said Star, falling into step besides the princess as Celestia headed back towards the palace.
"You say that like it is not a good thing," said Celestia.
"Because I don't believe that it is in this case. She's pushing herself. Twice in the last month I've found her sleeping at her desk, nearly drooling on her books. Most of the time, her lamp burns late into the night, far later than tonight," said Star, "have you assigned her a specific task?"
"Not beyond the usual. She burns through the work I assign her with little trouble."
"She's been dipping further and further into the Archives, and into the more dangerous magics."
"Is she hurting anypony?" asked Celestia, "showing signs of a break?"
Star pondered for a moment, before shaking her head.
"No, Princess. But I am concerned. Sunset is young, powerful and very driven. She is clearly pushing herself in order to accomplish some task, perhaps hoping to impress you."
"How so, Star?"
"Sunset has, at least to me, expressed some dissatisfaction that you are not teaching her all that you know. Perhaps instruction in something more advanced will curb her behaviour somewhat," said Star
"And it may exacerbate it, " mused Celestia, "I have seen her type before - she wants to be the best, and while not strictly a bad motivator, it can lead to bad places."
"I did not mean to criticise you, Princess," began Star, but Princess Celestia cut her off as the two reached the gates of the School for Gifted Unicorns.
"It is quite alright, Star. I will consider your advice before my next lesson with Sunset, and I will try to discuss some of this with her. Now, I believe that it is past both of our bedtimes. Goodnight, North Star," said Princess Celestia, with a quick bow of her head.
"Goodnight, Princess Celestia," replied North Star. Princess Celestia took to wing, soaring back in the direction of her chambers in the castle, sparing a glance back at the dark windows of the Student's Tower, and seeing a faint glow through them. Clearly, Sunset had simply just switched to reading under the covers the minute North Star had left, and Princess Celestia made up her mind.
Perhaps Sunset Shimmer did need something more challenging to keep her occupied.
