I. The Road to Canterlot (is Paved with Sorrow)

The morning rays of the sun poured through the upstairs window of the Ponyville library, casting a radiant yellow light across the figure of a pony wrapped awkwardly in her blankets. Twilight Sparkle groggily pushed her head out of the tangled mess of cloth and blinked in defiance of the sunlight.

Shaking off the last remnants of slumber from her mind, she slowly untangled herself from the makeshift net that was her bedclothes. She had been very careful to not wake her assistant up to that point, but looking up to the window as she was stretching a sudden feeling of panic began to well up inside of her mind. If the sun is that far up in the sky, then that means… oh no.

"I'm late! Spike, get up!"

The purple dragon's eyes shot open at this exclamation and he quickly jumped out of his bed located against the wall opposite of Twilight's. "Wha—huh? I'm up! I-I'm up…" Spike's eyes glazed over, eyelids drooping, as he leaned back on his tail and fell asleep standing up.

"Spiiiiike," Twilight whined, "come on, I'm serious! We're probably an hour behind schedule by now." She glanced at the clock on the wall and it was, indeed, almost exactly one hour past the time she should have been out of bed. She poked her assistant in the side with her hoof in a futile attempt to elicit a response.

Spike snored.

"Nnnnggghh," Twilight growled as she lifted the purple dragon with telekinesis and made her way down the stairs with him in tow. She walked across the library floor and through the open doorway that led to the kitchen and unceremoniously dropped Spike onto a chair at the round dining table.

The short fall to the chair once again jolted Spike back to the waking world. He looked around trying to figure out how he managed to get to the kitchen, and then noticed Twilight frantically rushing to get something to eat. "Uh, Twilight?"

"Not right now, Spike, we need to hurry."

"But Twilight—"

"What!?"

"It's Sunday. I thought you were going to take a day off."

"Spike, don't be ridiculous, we have to…" Twilight's voice trailed off as she stared out the window, trying to assess what day this actually was.

Spike stood up and walked to Twilight, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking down into her eyes. "It's Sunday, Twilight. You need to relax, there's plenty of time before you need to meet Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa."

Twilight giggled. "You're right, Spike. I'm sorry; it's just that taking a day off is such a rare occurrence. I guess I forgot." She smiled sheepishly towards her assistant, hoping for forgiveness.

The dragon sighed, and then smirked as he turned away from the purple unicorn. "It's okay, Twi. After all these years you still haven't learned to relax." He began making his way towards the cupboards to find some breakfast. "You should really go brush your hair; it's reminding me of the 'Tardy Incident.'"

The lavender unicorn ran a hoof through her dishevelled mane and laughed. "Yeah, I'll go do that." She had barely made it through the doorway into the main library when the sound of an extremely loud belch echoed through the room and a green flash reflected off the wall opposite her.

Twilight spun around to find her assistant clutching his stomach, looking as though he was on the verge of vomiting. At his feet lay a parchment scroll with a red ribbon neatly tied around it and the wax seal of the Equestrian Royalty emblazoned on the side. She rushed over and used her magic to pick up the scroll and open it. Her eyes rapidly scanned back and forth. Twilight's smile dropped as a look of pure shock quickly took its place and the letter slowly fell to the floor like an autumn leaf.

Spike shifted nervously on the balls of his feet. "Well? What did it say?"

"The Princess… she wants me to come back to Canterlot," Twilight said quietly.

"Cool! We get to go visit Canterlot! We can go visit your parents after we see Princess Celestia, too! Oh! And we can go to Joe's and eat doughnuts!" Spike closed his eyes and rubbed his belly as he thought about the delicious confections.

"No, Spike, you don't understand. She wants me to go there to stay."

Twilight wandered back to her room in a daze. After closing the door behind her, the remainder of her morning was spent sitting quietly on her bed reading and rereading the letter until it was time to go meet Rarity and Fluttershy at the spa.

---

My Most Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,

I am writing to inform you of very exciting news. In the Equestrian Royal Court there is a position that has lain vacant for a very long time. I believe that you are uniquely qualified for this position and with several months of additional training would be more than apt at performing the duties necessary.

With that, I am pleased to offer you the position of Grand Magus of the Royal Equestrian Court of Canterlot and with it the title and privilege that said position would grant you.

Although I am anxious to receive your decision on this matter, I understand that this is a decision that should not be taken lightly, and as long as the position has been vacant there is no rush at this time. The position requires a dedication that most ponies lack and natural-born understanding of magic that even fewer possess.

Take as long as needed to think this over and feel free to ask anything of me regarding this offer. I will await your answer as long as need be.

Your Friend and Mentor,

Celestia

---

"Well, this is an unexpected surprise," Rarity said as she set the letter on the message table in front of Fluttershy to examine. A starry look filled the white unicorn's eyes as she sighed and looked longingly towards the ceiling. "Just think, one of my best friends, a ranking member of the Canterlot Court."

"I haven't said 'yes' yet, Rarity."

"Oh, right, darling. But you are going to, right? Think of—Oh! Lotus, please do be careful not to file my hoof back too far, dear—Just think of the opportunities this would open up for you."

"I don't know yet, I only got the letter this morning. I need to think about it. It's a lot of responsibility, you know." Twilight paused for a moment while scratching her chin before started again, "Actually, do you have any idea what the Court's Grand Magus is supposed to do?"

"The Royal Grand Magus oversees the training, placement, and welfare of all the unicorn members of the Royal Guard, the Night Guard and the Equestrian Military. Furthermore, he or she is immediately appointed as the chairpony of the Bureau of Magical Research and Development of the Equestrian Civilian Government. In times of conflict, the Grand Magus is given the military rank of Major General and is handed over command of the First Division of the Royal Equestrian Magical Defense Force, being wholly accountable for the defense of Canterlot. Although that particular covenant of Equestrian law hasn't been used since the civil war between Equestria and the New Lunar Republic. Also, the Grand Magus is usually considered to be the highest ranking advisor to the Princesses, being consulted in nearly all matters having to do with magic."

Rarity and Twilight looked towards the massage table and the source of this wealth of information dumbfounded and slack-jawed.

"Eep!" Fluttershy retreated behind her long mane. "I-I mean… at least, I think that's what it is," she said barely above a whisper.

"No… that's right, Fluttershy," Twilight said slowly.

The yellow pegasus simply peeked out from her mane and smiled.

Twilight turned to Rarity. "See? It's so much. I just… I don't think I can do it."

"Don't be silly, dear. You're one of the most amazing and resourceful ponies I know, if anypony can do that job, it would be you. Why do you think the Princess asked you?"

Fluttershy spoke up once more, "You might be the only one that can fill the position, Twilight."

"That's right," said Rarity. "Just listen to it: 'Grand Magus'. It sounds terribly important; I doubt the Princess left the position open so long because there's an overwhelming abundance of qualified applicants."

Twilight sighed while mindlessly splashing bubbles around the hot tub. "I suppose you might be right. I still want to talk it over with the rest of the girls first, though."

"Well, the letter did say that you could take all the time you needed to make a decision. There's no rush, Twilight." Rarity tilted her back against the chair and closed her eyes, ready to enjoy the rest of her hooficure.

---

The lavender unicorn stared out of the window of her library at the quickly darkening sky, completely lost in her thoughts. Eight years. It had been eight years since the fateful Summer Sun Celebration that brought the six ponies together under the maelstrom of Nightmare Moon. To Twilight the time had passed by like a blur.

She glanced down at Celestia's letter lying on the table, she had been reluctantly thinking about the upcoming decision for three days now. What if I go and fail? What if I don't go and the Princess is upset with me? I don't want to leave my friends behind, but this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

A knock at the door brought Twilight out of her thoughts and back to reality. She watched Spike as he walked over to the heavy wooden door and pulled it open. "Hey Pinkie Pie, hi Applejack!" Spike said happily, motioning for the two ponies to enter the library.

"Hey guys," Twilight stated half-heartedly.

"Hiya Twilight!" Pinkie Pie shouted and began bouncing across the floor of the library.

"Hey there sugarcube, why the long face?" Applejack asked, then realized the reason they were there was precisely the reason Twilight seemed so sad. "You're not still worrying about that whole Gran' Magey thing, are ya?"

Twilight only nodded in response.

Pinkie Pie bound over to Twilight and embraced her in a tight hug. "You know what I do when I'm worried about something?"

"Yes, Pinkie." Twilight had taken part in this particular conversation numerous times over the years, and the answer never changed.

"You do?" The pink mare tilted her head to the side and looked at Twilight quizzically.

"Yes, Pinkie, you throw a party."

Pinkie Pie gasped as though that was the very last thing she had expected to hear. "Twilight, that's a great idea!" She then proceeded to bounce in a circle around Twilight chanting, "We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party! We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party! We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!"

"Pinkie…" Twilight's left eye began to twitch as she watched her bubbly friend jump through the library.

"We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!"

"Pinkie," Twilight said a bit louder this time.

"We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!"

Applejack stepped in. "Uh, Pinkie Pie. I think that's probably enough fer now, sugar."

"We're going to throw a cheer-up Twilight party!"

Twilight could no longer maintain her composure. "Pinkie knock it off!" she yelled forcefully.

Pinkie stopped bouncing midair, hanging in between the floor and ceiling of the library for a few seconds before gravity took hold of her, pulling her back down to the hard wooden floor.

"I'm sorry Pinkie, but this is kind of serious. I asked you guys over here to discuss this… this decision I need to make and I need your help." Twilight sighed heavily, shaking her head with a hoof held up to her face.

"Well, I dunno what the—" Pinkie was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

"Come in!" Twilight shouted at the door.

The door slowly swung open and Fluttershy walked in, closely followed by Rarity. Just as Rarity turned to shut the door, a polychromatic streak flew through the entrance.

"Did I make it? I'm not late am I?" Rainbow Dash asked, hovering near the ceiling..

"No, Rainbow, you're not late. Everyone is right on time." Twilight was smiling now, seeing all her best friends in one place always gave her a feeling of great joy.

Rainbow Dash landed softly on the floor and looked around the room. All her friends seemed apprehensive and uneasy about something. The tension could almost be felt buzzing in the air of the library. Something was amiss, as though everyone knew something she didn't. "So is somepony gonna say something? What the hay is this all about, anyways?"

Twilight looked genuinely surprised. "You mean you haven't heard? I thought all of Ponyville knew by now." She quickly cast an accusatory glare to an obvlivious Rarity.

"Heard what? I haven't seen any of you guys since last week and you know I'm not much one to gossip around town."

Twilight pointed a hoof towards the large round wooden table in the middle of the library where the letter from Celestia was resting. Dash trotted over and began to read. Her eyes began to grow as she continued scanning the manuscript.

The colorful mare turned around with a huge smile on her face. "Oh my gosh! This is amazing Twilight! It's what you've wanted for so long, you'll get to work alongside the Princess at the castle! I can't believe it, con–grat… ulations?" Rainbow Dash suddenly realized that her friend didn't seem to be nearly as excited about this prospect as she was. "What's the matter?"

"The matter is that I would have to move to Canterlot permanently and I'm not even sure if I can do the things the job requires. I don't have experience directing or supervising ponies, let alone orchestrating the top-level magical research of the Equestrian government."

Applejack quickly jumped into the conversation, "Ya sure as heck do 'ave experience supervising. Why, you've been handlin' the Winter Wrap-up for years now, and ever since y'all started, Ponyville has been on time every year."

"I guess, but this is on a whole other scale."

"Scale-schmale, I still don't see what the problem is. This is like if I got accepted to the Wonderbolts and turned them down because I didn't think I could cut it. Celestia chose you, because she knows you can do it," Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight opened her mouth to argue her point further, but couldn't find the words to dispute Rainbow's rebuttal.

Pinkie sighed, exasperated. "That's what I was trying to say when you got here!"

"Rainbow is right dear, this is something you've worked hard for for so long." Rarity walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof over her back, slowly stroking it back and forth in a comforting manner.

"But I would have to live in Canterlot… I don't want to leave all of you behind; I would miss you all so much." Tears were beginning to form in the corners of Twilight's eyes.

Pinkie Pie chose this point to chime in. "Of course you would, silly! And we would miss you too, but you can come back to visit and we can have a 'Twilight Came to Visit' party, and we can go visit you and then we can have a 'We're Visiting Twilight' party… Oh! And we can all write letters, and use smoke signals or Morse code or e-mail or—"

Twilight was quick to cut-off the pink mare's rambling. "E-what?" She then sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes as a weak smile began to grace her lips.

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about, Twilight," Pinkie replied.

Rarity stepped in and spoke in a soft motherly tone, "I believe what Pinkie is trying to say, darling, is that just because there's distance between us does not mean we stop being friends." She looked over to Pinkie Pie and the pink pony nodded quickly to agree.

"You'll always be my friend, Twilight," Fluttershy said quietly, breaking the silence that had surrounded her since arriving. "No matter what."

"Yeah, I mean Canterlot isn't that far away. Heck, it only takes me a couple hours to fly there," said Rainbow Dash with only a hint of her ego echoing through the words.

"I don't know Twilight; I don't think living in Canterlot again would be that bad." The six ponies looked to the dragon that had just arrived from the stairwell.

Everyone present seemed to be in agreement, with the exception of Twilight Sparkle. She bit her lip and nervously shifted her weight back and forth between her legs. She was still very unsure of herself and if she was going to be truthful to herself, maybe even a little scared. It was a huge decision; even the Princess said that it was not to be taken lightly. Then a terrifying thought pushed itself to the forefront of her mind. "What if they get mad at me?"

"Who?" Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Spike asked in unison.

"Who? The unicorns of course!" Twilight couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of it before. "There are several dozen unicorn magi serving Celestia's Court. Some of them have probably been there since before I was even born. Then, here I come, appointed by the Princess herself, and step over who knows how many ponies that have been working their entire lives for a chance at that position. And who am I? What right do I have to be there? I'm just a librarian from Ponyville cutting in line in front of all of them!"

Although she didn't mean to, Twilight was shouting by the end of her long winded explanation and Fluttershy was backing towards a wall in response to the outburst. The rest of her friends just stood there watching as the tears began to darken the fur in vertical lines across the purple unicorn's cheeks. "I can't do it, I'm just a librarian."

Applejack began to laugh. Now everyone turned their attention to the orange farmpony.

Rainbow cocked her head to one side and spoke. "Uh, Applejack… you think that's really… uhm, appropriate right now?"

"'I'm just a librarian'… heh… Oh, Twilight, yer so much more than that and ya know it." Applejack wiped a tear from her eye and continued, now speaking very deliberately with almost no hint of her usual accent, "You are also the bearer of the Element of Magic, savior of Equestria on more than one occasion, a very accomplished mage in your own right, learning most of it on your own, I might add, and you're also one of the most caring, helpful, and loving ponies I have had the pleasure of ever meeting. Heck, even Celestia has said that you could easily be the most powerful unicorn to be born in the past hundred years."

Fluttershy recovered from the shock of Twilight's shouting and moved towards the weeping unicorn. "Applejack's right you know."

Twilight nodded slowly, wiping her nose with the back of her fetlock.

"You're so much more than a librarian, and if those mean ol' unicorns at the castle can't look past their jealousy of you to see it, then they don't deserve to be there anyway," Fluttershy said in the soothingly pouty manner that only Fluttershy could achieve.

"And besides, if you don't like it, it's not like you have to stay there," Pinkie Pie interjected.

The distraught unicorn shuddered at the thought of quitting anything after starting it. Trying and failing would be far better than quitting. "Thank you Fluttershy… and Applejack… and everyone. I think…" Twilight paused to sniff her nose and wipe her eyes. "I think I'm going to do it." Her mood seemed to lighten and it looked as though a weight was literally lifted from her shoulders at this revelation.

Twilight smiled as her friends all simultaneously moved in for a group hug.

They moved away from each other and Twilight looked to her number one assistant. "Spike, take a letter."

---

Three Days to Canterlot:

"Come on, Twilight, why are are we in such a hurry?"

"Because Spike, we only have three days left before we have to report to the Princess."

"But she said in her letter 'at your earliest convenience,' I don't think she meant one week. We could be taking our time and maybe even relax a bit before we go."

Twilight was quickly packing what was left of her belongings that weren't already sequestered in large cardboard boxes. "Well, I already told her that we would be there. So just help me pack, please. The movers will be here shortly and I want to have everything ready for them."

"When's the new librarian going to be here?" Spike wondered out loud.

Twilight growled to herself as she shoved a small snow globe into the box she was currently loading. "Shoot, I forgot all about her! I'm supposed to meet her at Sugarcube Corner today." She checked the time and tossed her clock into the box. "I was supposed to meet her forty minutes ago! All this moving to Canterlot business has me all flustered; I can't even keep my to-do list straight."

The frustrated unicorn started down the stairs calling behind her as she descended towards the front door of the library. "Spike, keep packing, the movers will be here in an hour."

"Sure thing—" The slamming door shook the entire tree. "…Twilight."

The unicorn started towards Sugarcube Corner in a full run. She made it all of a dozen steps when she stopped. "What am I doing?"

She closed her eyes, concentrating on a point near her destination where no ponies would be. Her eyes opened just in time to see her current surroundings quickly pull away from her and blink out of existence as the familiar sensation of her body being pulled in every direction at the same time enveloped her. Reality then fell in around her again and she stumbled, trying to find her hooves under her.

The aroma of baked goods greeted her as she walked out of the stand of trees behind Sugarcube Corner that she had teleported into. "Almost there," she said to herself as she trotted around to the front of the bakery.

A moment later Twilight was finally approaching the bakery's entrance nearly an hour late for the appointment. She was slightly nervous about meeting the new librarian. Twilight always had a way of making a mess of first impression and hoped that that wouldn't be the case today. Well, here goes…

As she walked through the doorway her senses were immediately assaulted with the sickeningly sweet smell of the numerous colorful baked confections that the establishment was famous for. Twilight loved sweets on occasion, but the smell of the four industrial ovens in the back room churning out cookies, cupcakes and other confectionary delights was something that her stomach never really got the hang of.

The lavender unicorn's violet eyes began to dart around the room, searching for her quarry.

At a table in the far corner sat the pony that she had come to see. Seated alone was a stunning young pegasus mare with a dark-blue coat and a long, sky blue mane which hung down straight as though it were draped over her head and neck rather than growing there. Twilight approached her from a somewhat awkward angle in order to see her cutie mark; a stack of three books with a quill laid across them. At least her special talent appears to match the job.

"Quillfeather?" The blue pegasus stood up at the sound of her name. "Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle," said the lavender pony, extending a hoof.

Quillfeather quickly reached out and touched hooves with Twilight. "Oh, Quill is fine. It's very nice to finally meet you. I've heard so many amazing things about you."

"I'm so sorry that I'm late, it's just the whole moving thing has got me kind of frazzled at the moment. Should we order some food?"

"I actually just finished eating. I was starting to think that you weren't going to show up, so I was about to head over to the library."

"Oh, well that's alright, we can go over there right now. Or maybe you would like me to show you around Ponyville a bit?" Twilight hadn't eaten lunch yet, but didn't think it would be fair to Quill to keep her waiting because she forgot the appointment.

Quill perked up at the suggestion. "That sounds great!" The pair walked out of the bakery and began to walk down the gravel path towards the town square.

The sun was just beginning to set when the red door hanging in the entrance of library swung open and two ponies walked through. ". . . and I'm not sure about Mr. Whooves, he comes in every week and he's nice enough, but he has a very strange taste in literature."

Quillfeather giggled. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

Twilight stopped walking just as they got inside the tree. "So here we are, your new home, I guess. I imagine that you'll want to move in right away."

Quillfeather wandered further into the library taking in her new surroundings. She looked down to the floor closely inspecting the intricate pattern of hundreds of years' worth of growth rings. She then moved on to the large table in the middle of the room. In the center of it rose a large carved wooden bust that appeared to be fashioned from the same piece of wood as the table. She quickly ducked below the table to find that the base was indeed still attached to the tree's stump. "It's all a single piece. That's amazing… I've never seen a building like this in my entire life." Quill was obviously awestruck by the old tree that had been converted to serve as a library.

"It sure is amazing, and it's been a wonderful home for me… soooo?"

"Huh? Oh, yes… moving in. That would be great if I could. I spent last night at a local hostel and the bed they gave me was less than comfortable." She was still continuing to go over every detail, now moving over to the bookshelves that were masterfully carved directly into the walls.

"No problem," Twilight said, smiling. She turned towards the stairs and suddenly yelled, "Spike! Come down and meet Ponyville's new librarian!"

Spike appeared at the doorway leading to the basement. "Twilight, you still have a bunch of your sciencey research equipment downstairs. And the movers already took everything else… you were gone for an awfully long time you know."

"I know Spike. I was showing Quillfeather around Ponyville and explaining her role as the town librarian."

Spike eyed Twilight suspiciously, then walked over to the blue pegasus and held out a hand. "Hi there! I'm Spike."

Quill held out her hoof for Spike to shake. "Hello Spike, my name is Quillfeather. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Now, what about your equipment in the basement, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"The Princess said that she would send a team that is experienced in moving delicate equipment, they won't make it until after we've left though. So we'll just let them take care of it."

"Suit yourself. Less work for me at least." Spike stretched his arms as far above his head as he could and yawned. "I'm going to bed. It was nice to meet you Quillfeather."

"Likewise. Goodnight, Spike."

Twilight also said goodnight to her dragon assistant before turning to the other librarian in the room. "I think I'm going to hit the hay too. I'm drained. Your new room is at the top of the stairs and I'll sleep on the extra bed downstairs. Let me know if you need anything."

"Okay, thanks for everything Twilight. You know, I was bit worried about moving to Ponyville, but you've made it a lot easier than I had expected."

"Hey, no problem. What are friends for?" Twilight smiled at the pegasus then turned towards the stairs to the basement. "Goodnight."

---

One day to Canterlot:

"Come on, Spike! We're going to be late for our own party!"

"I know, I know. Just hold on a minute," Spike yelled from upstairs.

Soon enough, a purple dragon was stepping carefully down the stairs wearing the same suit that he had for the Grand Galloping Gala three years prior.

Twilight looked up at him as he was descending the stairs and chuckled.

Spike stopped midway down the stairs. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." Twilight was making a poor attempt at holding back the laughter. "You… heh- You look very dapper. It's uhm… it's a little snug though, don't you think."

Spike looked down to his belly peeking out from under the shirt, and then blushingly looked back to Twilight. "Maybe a bit, but it's all I have."

"Come over here."

Spike came down the remainder of the stairs and stopped in front of Twilight. The lavender unicorn looked him over closely then pointed her horn towards the dragon.

Spike was enveloped in a soft purple glow and his snug suit grew to a more appropriate size.

"Thanks Twilight!" Spike held his arms out and looked himself over, inspecting the suit.

Twilight smiled up at him. "Don't mention it. When did you get so big, anyway?" Over the past eight years Spike had grown to stand two hands taller than Twilight and had lost most of the pudgy awkwardness that had been present when he was a baby.

"I dunno. Just kinda happened I guess."

She was now looking through Spike, lost deep in her thoughts of the years passed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Well, I'm ready to go now. Shall we?"

"Yes, I believe we shall."

Spike walked to the door and opened it, making a bowing gesture for Twilight to go ahead of him.

"Why thank you, good sir." Twilight giggled at the young dragon's show of chivalry.

It was an unusually warm night, even considering that it was summer. The wind lay dead calm as millions of stars shone like gems hanging in the clear indigo night sky. Twilight and Spike walked lazily towards Sugarcube Corner, enjoying the beauty of the night as they continued towards their destination.

They were still quite a distance from the bakery where the going-away party was to be held when they first heard it. A deep bass thud sounding off at a monotonous tempo with a pitch so low that it could be felt reverberating through their chests more than it could be heard.

"What's that noise?" Spike asked as he looked to Twilight.

"I don't know. It kind of sounds like…" Twilight turned her head in an attempt to hear the sounds better. "Like music?"

The path in front of them soon opened to the town square, where along with many other storefronts was Sugarcube Corner. The sound of the music continued to get louder and louder as they approached and other noises were soon discernible amongst the beats of the songs; the sounds of laughter and ponies trying to talk over the music and hooves stomping on the ground as ponies danced to the rhythmic sounds.

As the guest of honor and her assistant came around the corner of one of the buildings that lined the edge of the town square and turned towards Sugarcube Corner, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth hung agape as her mind frantically attempted to process what she was seeing.

It looked as though the going-away party had literally exploded from the front of the bakery that was hosting. In front of the building and to the left a small stage was set up, on it was Vinyl Scratch—who was likely going by her stage name tonight—with a small table in front of her holding three turntables, a mixing board and a crate full of records. Also on the stage, situated to either side of DJ Pon-3, were two stacks of very large speakers and on the ground next to the stage were four more stacks of speakers, two on each side. Hanging from the stage out to numerous poles that had been set up were strings of small colored lights flashing in time to the beats of the music.

On the opposite side of the bakery, across from the stage were several large tables. Each one arranged with a large assortment of food and drinks, and although it was far out of season, three large cider kegs from the Apple Family's private stash even stood at the end of one of the tables. Twilight turned her attention up to the side of the building where a massive banner was hung.

GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK TWILIGHT SPARKLE! PONYVILLE WILL MISS YOU!

"I don't believe it," Twilight said to herself out loud.

Twilight quickly tried to gauge how many ponies were actually there, she estimated that nearly the whole of Ponyville was in that one area right now and more ponies were still wandering in from all directions. It was stunning and it was everything Twilight could do to keep herself from crying at the sight of the entire community turning out to wish her well and say goodbye. She knew there was going to be a going-away party, but this… this was completely unexpected.

"Wow… this is something else!" Spike exclaimed as he started to run towards the party. "Come on Twilight, this is your party, after all!"

"Huh? Oh, right…" Twilight began to move slowly towards the massive event unfolding in front of her, speaking to herself once again, "You've really outdone yourself this time Pinkie Pie."

As Twilight walked towards the crowd, the DJ on stage took notice and lifted her glasses revealing crimson eyes; she made eye contact with the lavender unicorn and winked while a mischievous smile grew across her face. With the near deafening high-pitch screech of the needle being pulled carelessly across the record used to direct the attention of the crowd, her voice boomed over the sound system, "Ladies and gentlecolts, our guest of honor has arrived! Give it up for Twilight Sparkle!"

Everyone quickly turned to the direction the DJ's hoof was pointing and obliged her instruction. A deafening roar of hoofstomps, cheering and whistling filled the air in an instant. Twilight was completely taken aback, totally unprepared for this onslaught of attention. Almost immediately a huge smile was beaming from the unicorn's features.

Out of the exuberant crowd came five mares running towards the dumbstruck unicorn and suddenly she was deep within the embrace of her five best friends. As her compatriots pulled away, Twilight was openly crying, but looked as though this was the happiest day of her life.

Pinkie Pie came forward, putting her face mere inches from Twilight's. She was closely inspecting the unicorn's wet cheeks with a foalish curiosity as she brought up a hoof and wiped the moisture from one side of Twilight's face. She looked at her hoof then looked back to her unicorn friend and whispered, "Twilight, this party's for you. You're not supposed to cry, you're supposed to be super-duper happy."

"Oh, I am super-duper happy, Pinkie!" Twilight sniffed and rubbed the tears off of the other side of her face. "In fact, this could be the happiest I've ever been. I don't think I've ever felt so loved and wanted and cared for in my life. Thank you! Thank you so much!" Twilight leaned in and gave the pink mare a huge hug.

"Hey! Don't thank me. I mean, just look at this place. Do you really think I could have done this all by myself? Everypony pitched in!"

Twilight backed away from Pinkie and looked to all her friends standing there. As the roaring noise from the crowd began to die down Twilight said, "Thanks girls, thank you so very very much." She looked up to the stage where a brilliant white unicorn with a bright blue mane was motioning for her to come up. "I'll be right back."

As she made her way through the crowd all of the friendly faces parted away from each other, giving Twilight a clear path to follow to the stage. She was quickly thinking of what she could possibly say that would be appropriate for such an occasion. Time was up, she was now standing next to Vinyl Scratch and the DJ passed her the microphone.

Twilight looked over the crowd, she couldn't think of a time that she had seen so many ponies assembled in the town square. "Um!" Twilight jumped a bit, startled by the sound of her amplified voice. She moved the microphone a bit further from her mouth and giggled as she started again. "Uh, thank you everypony for showing up tonight." She paused still trying to find the right words. "This all very overwhelming." She paused one more time as several ponies in the crowd chuckled at the obviousness of her statement.

Twilight took one more deep breath as she collected her thoughts. She smiled and began to speak, "My time in Ponyville has been the greatest time of my life. I've met many ponies who I consider life-long friends and I hope that they would consider me in the same light. Everypony has been so caring an-and…" The lavender unicorn was once again beginning to choke up at the thought of leaving Ponyville and her vision became blurred with tears. "…so caring and helpful d-during my eight years here… And I…" Twilight paused one more time to wipe the tears from her eyes. The only sound was the soft chirp of a cricket in the distance as the crowd stood, fixated on the lavender unicorn standing on the dais. "And I j-just hope that I was able to repay even a fraction of th-th-that hospitality and f-friendship that I was shown. I-It makes me so very happy and honored to see all these friendly and familiar ponies here tonight just to wish me well and say goodbye…" The tears were now streaming down Twilight's cheeks, discoloring and matting the fur down under the tiny waterfalls. "I-I… I love you all, and I will m-m-miss you all so very much." Twilight attempted to regain her composure, wiping her tears once again with her hoof. She smiled broadly to the audience of her friends and neighbors and made one last statement. "Now enough of this sentimental stuff…" Her smile grew even larger as she looked to the small group of her closest friends. "…let's PARTY!"

With that declaration, the entire crowd once again began cheering for Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch deftly moved her forehooves over the mixer controls restarting the music almost instantaneously. Once the current record was running again, Vinyl turned and gave Twilight a hug. Yelling over the music into Twilight's ear she said, "Hey, I play gigs in Canterlot from time to time, we'll have to get together!"

Twilight pulled away from the hug and nodded her approval of the suggestion.

The party was four and a half hours of well wishing ponies, dancing, eating and drinking. Twilight spent the majority of that time with her five best friends and Spike, but she did take leave of them several times throughout the night to say goodbye to some specific ponies that she felt more than deserved a more personal farewell.

Once the party had ended, all that remained were the six friends, a purple dragon, a white unicorn packing up sound equipment and a few ponies helping clean up.

"Well done Pinkie Pie, I believe your party was a resounding success," Rarity remarked.

Rainbow peeked out from the top of a low lying cloud. "Are you kidding? It. Was. Awesome! Did you see how many ponies showed up? I've never seen anything like it!"

"No no no no nononono… I just organized it, everyone else did all the real work," Pinkie explained.

All the girls laughed, knowing well that that was not the case. While she did have a lot of help, Pinkie Pie had worked exhaustingly for nearly a week to put this party together.

Twilight sighed deeply as she sat in the company of her friends. The party was amazing and she got to see all her friends and she even had a ridiculous amount of fun, but it didn't make the feelings go away. It merely pushed them aside for awhile. Now though, now they were all returning. The feeling of abandoning her friends for her own selfish needs, the sorrow and pain of not having her best friends only a short walk away, the dread of the impending loneliness that living in the castle was sure to bring.

Fluttershy put a hoof around the lavender unicorn's back. "What's the matter Twilight? You're crying again."

Twilight reached a hoof to her face; she hadn't realized she was producing more tears. She looked up just in time to see Rainbow Dash gliding down from her cloud to join the group looking just a worried as the rest of them.

"I don't know… It's just that this is such a big change in my life and I guess I'm kinda sad that I'm leaving. I mean, all my friends are here." She paused for moment, taking time to look up to the starry sky. "Everything that I've known for the past eight years is in this place."

"Well heck, sugarcube. Movin' on to new and different things can be a kinda scary thing. Heh... I'm purdy sure I'd be scared stiff if I was in yer shoes," stated Applejack.

"But just remember darling, we're all still your friends and we always will be. If you need anything at all, you just send a letter and let us know," Rarity added.

"Yeah! If you need something, you can bet I'll be there for you lickity-split! You know… Element of Loyalty and all," said Rainbow as she hovered a few feet of the ground.

"We can throw you another party if you're feeling sad!" Pinkie energetically added, bouncing in place.

"And we all love you very much, Twilight… and we'll come visit you," Fluttershy added quietly.

The five mares moved in on Twilight for one last group hug for the night. They all stepped away from each other and said their goodnights before they went their separate ways for the night.

---

To Canterlot:

Considering how unusually warm it was the previous night, the cool morning air bit with a surprising sting. The fresh smell of the air present in the rest of Ponyville was tainted by the smell of burning coal as the locomotive engineers worked at stoking the fire that would eventually power the train up the mountainside to Canterlot.

A somber atmosphere surrounded the platform at the rail station. There were several small bunches of balloons floating up from the wood decking and some streamers hanging from the ticket office. A group of seven ponies and one baby dragon stood chatting. The five Elements of Harmony and even Quillfeather showed up to see Twilight and Spike off. The rest of the ponies of Ponyville apparently had decided that the party the previous night was enough of a goodbye.

The locomotive hissed then a very loud low pitch whistle howled, signaling that the engine was now ready for the journey. Other ponies that had been on the platform waiting for the train to Canterlot began to file into the cars.

"Well… I guess this is it," Twilight stated flatly.

"We'll miss you, Twilight. Be sure to write to us as soon as you're settled in." Rarity gave her good friend a hug and then moved aside to allow the procession to continue.

Pinkie Pie was next. Although she was still trying her hardest to be her usual bouncy self, Twilight could see the sadness in her blue eyes. "I'm going to throw you the bestest party when you come back to visit." A single tear trickled down her cheek as she hugged Twilight.

Applejack then moved forward. "Hey Twi, it's been fun. And we will see each other again," she said with a quick wink and a hug.

Rainbow Dash landed on the platform right in front of Twilight. "I dunno about all this mushy stuff, but I'll see ya around Twi!" Dash then gave Twilight a quick hug.

Fluttershy was standing a few feet away with her head down, face hidden behind her flowing pink mane. She slowly shuffled towards her soon to be gone friend and whimpered an incoherent sentence.

"I'm sorry Fluttershy, I didn't hear that," Twilight said softly.

"I don… … … g… way."

"Fluttershy, I can't hear you dear," Twilight patiently said again.

Fluttershy quickly looked up and met Twilight's eyes. "I don't want you to go away!" She quickly threw her front legs around Twilight and began sobbing into the unicorn's shoulder.

"Oh… it's okay Fluttershy, I'll come back to visit really soon."

"You promise?" Fluttershy squeaked.

Twilight gently pushed the timid pegasus back so she could look her in the eyes. "Pinkie promise."

Fluttershy smiled, then backed away as Quillfeather walked forward. "I know we just met and all, but I feel like we've already made a connection as friends. And I just want to wish you luck in everything that you do."

"Thank you, Quill. I feel the same, and take care of my library, okay?" Twilight said chuckling a bit.

"Will do."

Just then the whistle blew again, much longer this time as a brown earth pony stallion in a dark blue conductor's uniform began walking up the platform. "All aboard!"

Twililght looked to her assistant. "We better go Spike."

"Bye everypony!" Spike shouted happily.

"Bye Spike!" the group said in unison, eliciting a laugh from the dragon.

"We'll miss you," added Rarity, smiling to the dragon.

The friends then moved in for what would possibly be their last group hug.

"All aboard!" The train's whistle sounded with two quick short bursts as the engine began hissing.

"Come on, they're gonna leave without us if we don't get on," Twilight said to Spike.

The lavender unicorn and her dragon assistant jumped onto the nearest carriage and found a pair of seats next to each other seconds before the engine roared to life and began to slowly accelerate towards Canterlot. Twilight waved to her friends through the window as they waved back from the station platform. She watched them and Ponyville as they disappeared into the distance.

Once they were out of sight she sat back in her seat and turned her head to Spike. "You ready?"

"Yep! How about you?"

Twilight sighed. "Yeah… I think so."

II. Onwards and Upwards

The scenery whipped by as Twilight watched impassively through the window. With the side of her face pressed against the glass, she listlessly tapped out a beat with her horn. Spike had fallen asleep almost as soon as the train left Ponyville, leaving Twilight with plenty of time to dwell on the lingering thoughts of the friends and life she had left behind.

It shouldn't be this hard. It's not like I'm going to be gone forever. I mean, the train ride between Canterlot and Ponyville only takes half a day.

Twilight was completely lost in her thoughts, staring at the blurred landscape passing by when a pony walked up to the seats her and Spike were occupying. "Tickets please."

She continued to stare out the window while her assistant snored quietly. Lush green prairies of gently rolling hills were quickly giving way to the rocky ground and pine forests of the foothills of Canterlot Mountain.

The train's conductor loudly cleared his throat. "Tickets please."

The contemplative unicorn quickly turned to face the aisle. The same earth pony stallion from the platform in Ponyville stood there waiting.

"Oh, sorry." Twilight smiled and levitated two small pieces of colored paper from the saddlebag lying on the seat across from her, passing them towards the conductor.

As she held them in front of him, using his mouth he quickly took the punch that was hanging from a chain around his neck and used it to put a small hole in each of the tickets. "Thank you," he said in a very friendly manner, and then continued his journey towards the rear of the train.

The carriage jolted suddenly as the train began its trek up the mountain and the slack in the couplers between the cars was quickly taken up. Canterlot could be seen looming on the side of the mountain far above the rails that the locomotive was now struggling to navigate. The sun was at such an angle that the glass of nearly every visible window of the city and castle were sparkling in a brilliant show of colorful light. It was an inspiring sight that no matter how many times she had seen it, left Twilight awestruck on every occasion.

---

Several small groups of ponies were mulling about on the gleaming white stone pavers that made up Platform Three of Canterlot Central Station. Some of the ponies on the platform were quietly conversing, others checking the time every few minutes, and some were quietly sitting on benches, waiting patiently for the arrival of their trains.

A fast clicking noise was heard across the platform as the split-flap message board showing arrival times of the various inbound trains sprang to life. On the line for the train from Ponyville, the status changed from 'on-time' to 'arrived.' Most of the ponies waiting on the platform all moved around to find a good spot to wait for the ones they were there to meet.

Several minutes had passed when a locomotive pulling six passenger carriages slowly pulled into the station alongside Platform Three. The engine disappeared behind a cloak of white water vapor as the remaining steam pressure was exhausted to the outside air. Two engineers then jumped to the ground beginning their hurried task of greasing the locomotive and replenishing the boiler's water supply for the next leg of their journey.

As the engineers began making their rounds, the doors on the carriages opened with the quiet hiss of pneumatic-powered cylinders. Ponies began filing out of the train cars; some of the ponies getting off went to meet with their friends and families that were waiting, although many ponies simply walked off the train and straight out of the station. The last to debark were Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Almost everypony was gone by the time they stepped onto the stone platform. Twilight's eyebrows furrowed as she looked all around.

"What's wrong?"

"Well…" Twilight looked towards the end of the train one more time before she turned to Spike with a frown. "I thought Princess Celestia would have sent someone to escort us to the castle."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Twi. You're a big girl, and besides, you got your big tough dragon bodyguard here to make sure nothing happens along the way. It probably just slipped her mind."

Twilight's face became devoid of emotion as she listened to Spike's rationalization. "Yeah I suppose. She is quite busy… Should we get going then? It's quite a walk from here to get up to the castle."

"Can we stop and eat? I'm starving."

"We ate lunch on the train, Spike. Come on, it's almost four miles from here and we only have two hours before our scheduled audience with the Princess. You can eat at the castle after we see her."

"Okay okay, let's get going then. It's just that the 'pony portions' they served on the train aren't quite enough for me."

Twilight and Spike stepped out of the station and onto the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. Far above in the distance the massive figure of Canterlot Castle clung to the mountainside. Twilight looked up to the castle, and then looked to the dragon next to her. "We should've asked the Princess for a chariot."

Spike laughed. "A little late for that. Come on, it's not getting any closer."

The two began their journey from Canterlot Central up the winding labyrinth of stone roadways to the castle. They made their way through the Lower District where much of the city's industry was centered.

Spike coughed slightly. "I don't remember it being so dirty." He then inhaled through his nostrils before cringing. "Ugh, or smelly."

His unicorn companion looked to the sky as she continued to walk. Through the haze of dark grey smoke, the sun was nothing more than a faded effigy of its usual glory. "It wasn't. Just look at how many new factories there are. It's been a long time since we've been to the Lower District."

Soon the road led them between two factories. Twilight's eyes darted all around, attempting to absorb the new look of this part of the city. Muffled rhythmic clanks and screeches could be heard through the wall of one of the titanic brick factories as they walked by on the street. Each one of the many factories here was manufacturing goods to be exported to the rest of Equestria and most of the world. "I don't like this place. The buildings are so tall and close together; you can't even see the sun from here."

Spike had nothing to add to this statement and simply shrugged.

Eventually they came out of the manufacturing sector and moved into the residential area of the Lower District. Very old but well maintained apartment buildings overran the area, many of which were owned and subsidized by the Equestrian Government and rented at discounted prices to ponies with little to no means to support themselves. Many of the factory workers lived here with their families, rarely leaving the Canterlot Lower District.

Twilight and Spike continued walking up the steep road where a group of colts and fillies played in front of one of the large apartment buildings. The purple dragon quickly ducked as an errant baseball barely missed the top of his head. Three young ponies went running by after their ball, laughing the entire way.

Rounding a corner that put them onto the much wider main road leading to the Mid District the two travelers spotted the Lower District Market. Lining the road on both sides were various ponies standing at vendor stalls selling fruits, vegetables and the occasional shiny trinket.

"Look Twilight, a market. Can I get some food now?" Spike pleaded.

"I told you, you can eat after we meet with the Princess."

Spike stopped walking. "But Twi, I'm hungry."

"Nope." She continued trotting towards a nearby granite archway which led to a seemingly endless stone staircase tunneled into the cliff face at the end of the road which led to the next level of the city.

Spike stood looking longingly at a stall with a large sign above it:

APPLE FAMILY APPLES: BEST IN EQUESTRIA

imported weekly from Appleloosa

"It would only take a minute," Spike grumbled to himself when he noticed that Twilight was nearly to the stairs. "Hey! Wait for me!"

Twilight squinted her eyes as they exited the stairway. Coming to the crest of the stairs was akin to stepping into an entirely different world. The sun shone here much like it did in Ponyville, the pollution of the factories left behind in the Lower District and the bright blue sky easily visible. Twilight's eyes had adjusted to the change of lighting when she looked up to the castle ahead. It wasn't nearly as foreboding as it had looked from the Lower District. With the thick haze gone, the gleaming white marble clad walls and the gold gilded spires of Canterlot Castle glimmered with a magnificence unmatched anywhere in the world.

"Halfway there, Spike, and we're actually making pretty good time."

Unlike the Lower District where apartment buildings and factories crowded each other, competing for every inch of ground they could take, the houses and shops of the Mid were spaced at a more comfortable distance with trees and grass filling the gaps between the roads and buildings. The Mid District was very similar to Ponyville in many respects. Sure, a lot more ponies lived here, but everyone was quite friendly and happily going about their business. Ponies moved to and fro; making deliveries, purchasing items, or just out for an afternoon walk to enjoy the warm sun.

Twilight smiled, just being in the industrial sector of the city had her feeling rather uneasy. Now though, walking in the warm sun and in the company of surrogate friends that didn't know her, her heart fluttered as a new rush of excitement overtook her mind. "I can't believe I'm doing this, Spike."

"Yes you can."

"What?"

Spike stopped walking and Twilight followed his cue. He looked over to his friend. "I said, 'Yes you can.' Of course you can believe you're doing this. This is what you wanted. Twilight, I don't think you've ever wanted anything more than to come back to Canterlot and work with the Princess on a daily basis."

Twilight twisted the side of her mouth, thinking about what Spike said. "Well, yeah. It's just that I was so comfortable with life in Ponyville and all my friends are there. It seems strange that over the course of two weeks, I went from town librarian dabbling in my own research on magic and friendship to this—on my way to start my new life as a mage of Celestia's Court and soon to be Grand Magus overseeing the highest level magical research in the world. It's kind of overwhelming, you know?"

"I'll say; it's like that time you tried dating," Spike said with mischievous grin.

"What?" Twilight blushed with a strong hue of red. "No, it's nothing like that. Also, shut up Spike."

The two friends laughed together and started walking through the upper area of the Mid District. Approaching the Upper District a dull grey stone parapet came into view, although currently unmanned, guard turrets positioned every two hundred feet towered another thirty feet above the massive wall. This acted as the second line of defense for Canterlot Castle, the first being its location high on the mountainside.

Making their way through the perpetually open swinging gates at the entrance to the Upper District, it became clear that this structure was built for the eventuality of a war. Above the two travelers three heavy steel drop gates were tucked into slots at the ceiling of the tunnel, positioned every twenty feet apart from one another with massive spikes clinging to the bottom bars. They hung in waiting for an invading army to attempt to step through the protective wall. Twilight looked up as they walked through the fortification; between each of the gates—two on either side of the pathway—were holes positioned in the ceiling just large enough to possibly fit a head through. "Those spikes are awful."

"Yeah." Spike looked up at the holes as well. "And just imagine what sort of terrible things they would drop through those holes once all the gates were shut."

Twilight shuddered at the thought of ponies hurting one another. "Let's just get out of here." Her steps began coming a bit faster.

The new landscape that greeted them on the uphill side of the wall was very similar to what they had just left. The vast contrast between the Lower and Mid Districts was nonexistent between the Mid and Upper.

Exiting the wall, Spike looked side to side at two large unremarkable buildings that didn't fit with the brightly colored homes, shops, and government offices of the Upper District. Each two stories and built with insipid grey stone. "What are those buildings?"

"They're the barracks for the guardponies that staff the castle wall."

The dragon continued to inspect the barracks as they walked. Every window in the building on the left was shuttered and a large chain with a padlock secured the main doors. The rightmost building was in similar condition, save for a few open windows on the main floor and the absence of the chain. "Pretty big barracks for the number of guards around here."

"Spike, we haven't taken part in a military confrontation since the Pazyryk Empire attempted to annex Equestria almost three hundred years ago. These building were probably overflowing with soldiers when the Gryphons besieged the castle for three months."

"Huh… you read too much."

"History is important, Spike. If we don't learn from past mistakes, we are destined to live them again," she said with the same tone a schoolteacher would use with a young student.

Several minutes passed without the interruption of conversation as they crossed the main square of the small town within the walls of Canterlot Castle. Once on the other side of the square they were a mere several hundred yards from the extremely busy main entrance to the castle.

"Here we are, and we even have time to spare," Twilight said as though she was victorious in a game that no one else was playing.

"That means I could've eaten," her assistant whimpered under his breath.

"What was that, Spike."

"Nothing… let's just get this over with so I can eat."

They began making their way up the colossal white stone stairway to the main door. Being the center of all Equestrian government, the castle was always bustling with activity. Ponies were hurriedly going up and down the stairs; paying no attention to the four pegasi guards that flanked the huge open wooden doors, two on either side. Dressed in resplendent golden armor, the guards silently watched as the day passed.

Passing through the doors, they walked across the cavernous reception area to the desk positioned at the far side of the room from the door where a mauve colored unicorn mare with a light green mane busily shuffled papers around. Twilight had her mouth opened to speak when, without looking up, the receptionist asked the obvious question. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, uh, yes. My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is—"

The receptionist quickly looked up. "Twilight! My goodness it's been a long time. How have you been?"

Twilight's eyes grew wide as she realized who the receptionist was. "I've been… good, Star Dancer. How abou—"

Star Dancer interrupted for a second time. "And Spike, my goodness you've grown up!"

Spike grinned sheepishly, not remembering who this pony was.

"Yes, well I'm sorry, but maybe we could catch up later. We have an appointment with Princess Celestia that I can't be late for."

"Oh… yes, of course. The Princess will be expecting you." The unicorn floated a clipboard in front of her face and examined it closely. "My schedule shows that you will be meeting her, Arcana, and Fireshade in the throne room, I assume you remember how to get there?"

"I sure do, thank you Star. I'm going to be staying in Canterlot, so maybe we can get together sometime."

"I would like that. Bye Twilight."

Spike and Twilight turned and walked to the grand staircase that connected the reception area to the third floor. They reached the top and began down a long hallway large enough that twenty ponies could comfortably stand side-by-side. Decorating the walls for the entire length were colorful tapestries depicting scenes from Equestrian history; the founding of the nation, the golden age of learning, and the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon, among many others.

"Who was that?" Spike asked in a soft voice.

"Just someone that I know from Celestia's school. I'm actually surprised she remembered me; I wasn't really one for having friends back then."

"And who are Arcana and Fireshade?"

"That I don't know. I assume we'll find out shortly, though."

At the end of the hall stood a very large gilded double door, with intricate carvings depicting the sun and moon, the Sister Princesses and the Elements of Harmony. On either side of the doors, a unicorn of the Royal Guard stood watch. As Twilight and Spike neared the end of their journey, the unicorn on the left shrouded the doors in a blue glow and they effortlessly swung into the room.

Immediately, the ex-librarian saw her mentor, Princess Celestia. Seated on her throne, the alicorn goddess of the sun looked as beautiful as she ever had. Her prismatically-hued mane and tail perpetually billowed to her side in an unfelt wind; her regal white coat and cutie mark of a stylized golden sun were things truly befitting of royalty. Across her chest lay a decorative gold cuirass with a large violet sapphire set in the center.

To the left of Celestia sat her sister, Princess Luna. The indigo alicorn was the polar opposite of her elder sister. Her dark-blue mane and tail waved in the same restless manner with points of glittering star-like light. A piece of chest armor similar to her sister's hung around her neck, a lustrous piece of black metal with a white crescent moon emblazoned in the middle to match her cutie mark.

The moment the newly appointed court mage and her assistant were clear of the doors they glided shut, the sound of the latching mechanism echoed through the room. The sound alerted the occupants of the throne room to the presence of the pony they had been waiting for. Celestia looked up and smiled gracefully at her student, while a huge smile covered Luna's face as she waved a hoof at Twilight.

Two ponies at the foot of the dais that the Princess' thrones sat atop turned around to see the newcomers. An older unicorn stallion with a coat the color of ash and a stark white mane wearing the standard dark maroon robes of the Court Magi stood to the left of the throne dais. Twilight could have sworn he was glaring at her, but it was hard to tell at that distance.

Standing next to the stallion was a unicorn mare about Twilight's age with a pale yellow coat similar to Fluttershy's and a slightly disheveled bright orange mane. The yellow unicorn turned in a way that her cutie mark became visible; an orange ring of fire surrounding a coal black circle.

Although no one living now besides the Princesses had ever seen an eclipse, for Twilight, the cutie mark brought forth memories of the disturbing written accounts of the Nightmare Moon insurrection and the resulting civil war. According to the historical records, during the six year war, the New Lunar Republic would often use solar eclipses as a form of psychological warfare in an attempt to wear down the morale of their enemies.

Twilight stopped short of the group and bowed deeply towards the floor, with Spike mimicking her movements. Celestia stood with her sparkling colorful mane and tail billowing to her side, and began stepping down towards the bowing pair. "Twilight Sparkle and Spike, please stand"

The two bowing figures quickly stood up

"Now allow me to introduce you to Head Mage Arcana, your new mentor who will be instructing you on your duties as a Court Mage, and eventually Grand Magus." Celestia nodded to the grey unicorn.

Arcana took a small step forward and lowered his head. "A pleasure, Mage Sparkle… Master Spike."

The Princess of the Sun continued, "And this is Mage Fireshade, Arcana's apprentice. She will be helping you readjust to life back at the castle."

With wide eyes and a silly grin, the yellow unicorn stepped up directly in front of Twilight and held out a hoof. "It's great to finally meet you, Miss Sparkle. I've heard so many amazing things abou—"

"A-hem." Fireshade spun around to find the source of the interruption. Arcana was scowling while slowly shaking his head.

"Oh, uh." She looked back to Twilight with a half-hearted smile as she moved back to her place beside her charge. "Sorry."

Luna stood from her throne and began making her way to the floor. "Well, now that the pleasantries have been dealt with. How have you been, Twilight?" She walked past her sister and gave Twilight a hug.

"I've been very well, Princess Luna."

The dark alicorn waved a hoof dismissively. "Pfft, Luna is fine, you know we're better friends than all those formalities allow."

"Yes, we are all among friends here, Twilight. Formalities are not necessary." Celestia added.

Twilight released a deep sigh. "Thank you, speaking formally always made me nervous for some reason."

"Me too!" Fireshade interjected.

Arcana glared at his apprentice. "Yes, well perhaps we can get on with this, then. I have important matters to attend to."

"And I'm still hungry," Spike stated.

Celestia laughed quietly. "I don't believe it is necessary for you to stay, Spike. You remember how to find the kitchens, correct?

Spike nodded quickly.

"Then you should go and ask the cooks to make you something. We will be done shortly; then we will send somepony to fetch you."

He was out the door at the side of the room before she could finish her sentence.

Twilight silently put a hoof to her face and shook her head as the Princess continued speaking. "Now then, as I mentioned before, Arcana will be teaching you all about your new duties as a mage of my Court. Perhaps you could give her a quick overview, Arcana?"

"Yes, milady." Luna rolled her eyes at the Head Mage's response. "As a mage of the Court you will be working primarily in our research facility behind the castle within Canterlot Mountain. You will assist the senior staff and perhaps be assigned a couple of projects of your own. More importantly, apart from working in the facility, you will be training directly under myself to prepare you for your duties as Grand Magus.

"I expect you in my office tomorrow morning at eight o'clock for the facility tour."

The newest court mage smiled. "That won't be necessary, I've been there many times."

Arcana smirked, his voice turning to a low menacing tone while he looked at Twilight through narrowed eyes. "Not this part." The Head Mage turned to the Princesses and bowed. "Now then, if I am no longer needed here, I will be on my way."

"Yes, that will do. Thank you, Arcana."

"Thank you, milady." He raised his head and looked to Fireshade. "You're assigned to Mage Sparkle for the rest of the evening." He then turned and walked the full length of the throne room to the main door.

The second the door closed, Luna began giggling. "Blah, Arcana's always so stuffy. I swear that pony needs to learn to relax."

"Well, he's not always that bad," Fireshade said defending her master.

Twilight was staring at the floor. "I don't think he likes me."

"Don't be silly, of course he does. It just takes him awhile to warm up to new ponies."

"Regardless of his feelings towards you, he has his assignment and he is a very trustworthy servant of the Court," Celestia said softly in an attempt to calm the lavender unicorn. "As for his vague comment about the labs, all I will say right now is that I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by what's in store for the tour."

Twilight's right eye squinted down slightly as she tried to make sense of the secrecy of what this 'tour' actually was going to be. "Okay…"

"We should take our evening meal. Twilight, won't you please join us?" Luna said, attempting to divert the conversation.

"I would love to, but I'm pretty tired from the trip. I think I would just like to go to my room now, if that's okay."

Luna's gleeful demeanor immediately deflated. As she opened her mouth to object, her sister spoke to interrupt the attempt. "Of course that's okay. Fireshade, please show Twilight to her new quarters."

The pale yellow unicorn quickly stood at attention and made a fast salute. "Yes, ma'am!" She put her hoof back to the ground, and moved towards her new friend. "C'mon Twilight, let's go—oops, is it okay if I call you Twilight?"

"Yes, that would be just fine." Before turning to leave, she looked to the Princesses. "Perhaps we could have dinner together tomorrow evening?"

Luna's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "Yes! That sounds excellent. We shall see thou tomorrow night." As soon as she realized her slip in speech, the alicorn threw a hoof to her mouth and blushed crimson. It had taken several years of tutoring after her return from the thousand year exile as Nightmare Moon to become comfortable with the modern Equestrian language.

"Yes, I would enjoy that as well," said the white alicorn while watching her sister and stifling a giggle. "Goodnight Twilight, if you need anything let one of the castle staff know and they will take care of it."

"Thank you, Princesses. Goodnight."

Twilight and Fireshade began walking the length of the red carpet that stretched from the thrones to the main entrance of the room. Twilight's escort was already rambling about the stories she had heard about the Elements of Harmony by the time they had made it halfway to the door.

They made their way up to the fifth floor of the castle, the yellow unicorn continuing to tell Twilight all about Twilight's life.

"You know, Fireshade… I already know about me, and obviously you do too. What about you? What's your story? Where do you come from?"

"Oh, well I was born in Manehatten, but I've lived in Canterlot most of my life."

The only sound in the hallway was the hoofsteps of the two unicorns slowly meandering towards the wing that housed the quarters of the Court officials. Twilight waited a moment before pressing for more information about her companion. "Soooo… You moved here with your parents?"

"Nope, I was sent here for school to develop my special talent."

Silence again. It was becoming obvious that this unicorn was much more comfortable with talking about other ponies lives than her own. "So you went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns too?"

"Uh… not exactly. I was sent to a—a special school…" Fireshade's face began to blush as she mumbled the last two words at a barely audible volume. She quickly composed herself and her face perked up with a fake smile as she exclaimed, "For my special talent!"

This time Twilight didn't wait to ask the next question. "Which is?"

The yellow unicorn stopped walking. "Pyromancy. You know, fire magic," she said pointing back to her solar cutie mark.

"Why were you sent to a 'special school' for that? I didn't even know there was a school that specialized in pyromancy alone, it's such a rare talent," Twilight said, completely oblivious to the gravity of the conversation she had been steering.

Fireshade tried hard to hold back the tears brought on by the memories of her youth. "There isn't a pyromancy school." A single tear rolled down her face. She took a very deep breath and continued. "My fire magic isn't like most unicorns. They can start fires on a fuel source like a pile of wood or a candle wick; maybe direct the flames to a degree. My abilities…" The tears were now coming freely.

Twilight was horrified at what she had done to her new friend. She put a hoof across the crying ponies shoulders and decided that she had heard enough. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, it's okay."

"No, we're going to be working together and I think you should probably hear it from me before you find out through some stupid exaggerated rumor." She sniffled and wiped her eyes with her foreleg. Squirming out from under Twilight's leg she turned to look the unicorn in the eye. "Like I said, all unicorns have a very limited ability to use pyromancy. My use of fire magic is far beyond that; I can create fire without anything to use as fuel and I can control the fire completely, I'm able to make it do whatever I want."

Fireshade's horn began to glow orange as a spark ignited between her and Twilight. Soon the spark turned into a flame, which in turn became a writhing ball of fire the size of a pony's head. She closed her eyes to concentrate and several seconds later, the ball suddenly condensed down to the size of a marble, burning with white hot intensity. As Twilight observed this demonstration with her mouth hanging open in wonder, the heat emanating from the intensely glowing object became almost unbearable. Then, just as fast as the flames had come into existence, they again disappeared.

Darkness quickly took the place of the searing white light as Twilight's pupils struggled to readjust to the dimly lit hallway. The latent heat of the fireball hung in the air as a bead of perspiration trickled down her forehead. "That. Was. Amazing! Why is that something to be ashamed of? I've never seen anything like that. Heck, I've never even heard of anything like that!"

"Because the school I was sent to isn't really a school. It's an institutional facility for ponies that are a danger to themselves and those around them. I-I lived there for ten years. Then I was sent here."

The purple unicorn looked apprehensively at her companion. "How did you end up in a place like that? For that matter; places like that exist?"

"Yes they exist, and I ended up there because of what got me this—" She turned to look at her cutie mark, "—this thing. What I just showed you took me over a decade to master, when I was young I couldn't control it." The tears were forming tiny rivulets down her cheeks now. "It was an accident. I-I d-d-didn't mean to hurt anypony, I didn't know what I was doing. It... it was. An accident..."

Fireshade was breathing heavily, trying her best to not completely break down. "I was five, practicing my levitation. I was lifting rocks in my backyard. I don't know what happened, they told me it was a tornado made of fire. I don't remember any of it... I-I razed three houses to the ground in less than a minute. I seriously injured one pony and... four died." She finished, merely breathing out the last few words.

Twilight couldn't even think at this point, let alone speak. She understood why Fireshade would want to have this out in the open, rather than allow the rumors to run rampant. "I'm so sorry, Fireshade. I... I don't even know what to say. I'm sorry I pushed you to talk about your past."

The yellow unicorn wiped the last of the tears off her face and smiled, her earlier happy-go-lucky attitude quickly returning. Returning uncomfortably fast for Twilight. "It's okay. You shouldn't be sorry, and you certainly shouldn't feel sorry for me. What happened happened, and there's nothing to be done about it now. So, I got my cutie mark for killing and two days later two unicorns from Equestrian Social Services picked me up from the orphanage I was placed at and now I'm here."

"Wait... Orphanage? What happened to your parents?"

"Oh, well, they died in the accident," she stated in a cold matter-of-fact manner.

Twilight's mouth fell open again. She was having a hard time deciding how to react to the wild mood swings that were presenting themselves in her new friend. "I see. Maybe we should get going to my room." Attempting to defuse the situation seemed to be the best option.

"Sure thing!" Fireshade exclaimed and started trotting up the hall. "Come on!"

The lavender unicorn followed, keeping more distance between the two than before.

After several minutes of wandering the labyrinthine hallways of Canterlot Castle, they turned the last corner that led to Twilight's new home. As they were walking along the final stretch of the stone floor, Fireshade sighed loudly. "Ah, shit."

Trotting towards them from the opposite end of the hallway was Arcana. The three ponies met directly in front of the door to Twilight's room.

"Well, here you are, Twilight." Fireshade smiled to the purple unicorn.

"Fireshade, please excuse us. I need to have a word with Miss Sparkle."

"Yes, sir. See ya later Twilight!" She then began moving back the way they had come, nearly at a run.

Arcana waited, glaring at the unicorn left standing in front of him. The moment Fireshade rounded the corner at the end of the hall, he moved so that his face was inches from Twilight's.

"I trust the Princess's judgment with my life, and I understand that you are her personal student and extremely talented." The old unicorn paused for a moment as though trying to find the right words. "I was ordered to train you and help you grow into your role as Grand Magus and I will follow those orders, but I. Do. Not. have to like it. I have been working in the service of our Princess since before you were born, child, and the second you screw up or step out of line in any way, I will be right there, ready to take your place."

He took a step back, turned and began walking down the hall. "Goodnight, Twilight. Better get some sleep, big day tomorrow."

Twilight stood watching him walk away, unsure of what just happened. She sighed, and opened the door to her room. Sitting at a table in the middle of the main room was a familiar purple dragon.

"Hey Twi! Look at this place, it's like a house inside the castle!"

Twilight walked into the massive suite and backed up into the door until it latched. Letting her rear slide down the door until she was resting on her haunches, she looked at Spike with a tear rolling down her face. "I think I want to go home."

III: Unto the Breach

Twilight slowly opened her eyes to the blaring sound of the alarm clock's harsh rattling ring. The morning came all too quickly for the exhausted lavender unicorn. Thoughts of Arcana's monologue the evening prior, dreams of herself not being able to handle her new job, and the pressure of making Celestia proud all contributed to creating a night of tossing and turning between bouts of restless sleep.

She walked out of her bedroom to be greeted by a wonderful smell. Twilight breathed deeply through her nose, taking in the aroma of cooking food. She shuffled through the main room, still trying to shake off the haze from her restless night. Walking through the doorway to a modest kitchenette, she found Spike, busily fashioning a home-style breakfast.

"Spike, what are you doing up so early?"

"Well, you said we were going to take a tour today, and after your little 'discussion' with Arcana, I thought it would be nice to have breakfast ready when you got up."

"Thanks, Spike. That really means a lot to me."

"We can't have you going hungry on your official first day as a court mage. Now get out of here and go sit down. I got this covered."

Twilight laughed quietly. "Okay, okay." She backed out of the kitchen and found her place at the large round table in the main room.

After waiting several minutes, the purple dragon came walking out of the kitchen with a large tray. He carefully set the tray on the table near Twilight. As Spike began removing dishes and placing them on the table, the unicorn carefully eyed the contents of each dish. Piping hot oatmeal, a bowl of fresh fruit and a plate of hash browns. As soon as Twilight's meal had been placed in front of her, Spike took hold of the last bowl on the tray and set it in front of a chair at the table as he sat down.

The dragon took a handful of gemstones out of his bowl and tossed them into his mouth. He attempted to speak through the crunching, "Sho watre oo arowt Awkana?"

"Ugh, Spike. Don't talk with your mouth full. I swear, you still act like a baby sometimes."

He quickly gulped down the colorful rocks and smiled. "Heh, sorry. So what are you gonna do about Arcana?"

"What can I do? I'll just do as is expected of me, and try not to get any further on his bad side."

"Why don't you tell Celestia? She could do something about it, right?"

Twilight's left eye narrowed slightly as she looked at the dragon incredulously. "You're kidding, right? You think what I told you about last night was bad? Just imagine if he found out that I tattled on him to the Princess." She looked down at her oatmeal bowl. "They would probably never find the body."

"Pfft, Arcana may be a jerk, but I doubt he's a murderer."

The unicorn shrugged as she continued to eat her breakfast.

"Oh, come on, Twilight. You're going to be the Grand Magus; once that happens he won't be able to touch you. Heck, you could just fire him at that point."

She smiled at the thought of having the power to dismiss Arcana on a whim. "Yeah, I could… but I wouldn't. I can't just fire him from what he's been doing for his entire life purely out of spite."

"Boy, I sure would." Spike chuckled a bit as he threw another handful of gems into his mouth.

"Well, that's because you're a spiteful little dragon." Twilight smirked and looked over her bowl at the purple dragon, expecting to get a rise out of him.

"Yeah, I guess so." He finished off the last of his breakfast and stood, taking his bowl to the kitchen.

She pursed her lips, pouting and disappointed that Spike hadn't taken the bait. The unicorn finished off her breakfast and levitated the dishes back to the kitchen. "Let's go, Spike, we don't want to be late."

---

Two unicorns and an alicorn waited in the large and luxuriously comfortable office of the Court Head Mage. Princess Celestia stared out the picture window overlooking the vast room that housed the main force of the Equestrian Bureau of Research and Development. One floor below the window, under the bright glow of the artificial lighting, dozens of ponies of all types were busily working on various projects in their pursuit to better the lives of the general population. The acrid smell of various chemicals floated through the air of the office, still detectable after passing through the massive filtration system in the lab. Every few minutes a discharge of magical energy from a far corner of the laboratory forced her to squint.

Arcana looked up to a clock on the wall as he lazily pushed a pencil around on his desk. "She's going to be late."

Without turning the white alicorn answered, "It's not eight o'clock yet."

Less than a minute before the hands of the clock ticked over to eight, the heavy oak door flew open. It hit the wall with enough force that one of the pictures hanging on the wall fell to the floor with the loud shatter of broken glass. All eyes in the room were immediately focused on the doorway as Twilight Sparkle stumbled in. She took several labored steps into the room, panting heavily and a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. Several seconds ticked by and the clock began to chime when Spike came through the doorway.

"We... made it. I didn't remember—" Twilight stopped speaking just long enough to take two deep breaths. "—the labs being so far away."

"Yes, you certainly did make it, Twilight." Celestia smiled as she shot a smug look at the unicorn behind the desk.

"Please try to be a bit more prompt in the future, Miss Sparkle," said Arcana, while eyeing the broken picture frame on the floor.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I'll pay to have it fixed." Twilight was blushing now. She quickly took the fragments of glass in a telekinetic field and moved it to the wastebasket next to the desk.

"Yes. Yes you will… Anyways, the two of you come over here please. We have some documents for you to sign." The grey unicorn gestured to a small stack of papers in front of him.

Twilight moved towards the desk and began to look through the documents. "What are these?"

"You need to sign them before you are allowed access to the Section Five laboratory. Simply a formality," Celestia said, smiling at her student.

"A necessity," Arcana corrected. He began placing the papers in front of the two newest employees of the bureau, describing each as he set them down. "These are required for your new security clearances: A non-disclosure agreement, an agreement stating that you understand the penalties for sharing any top-secret information with anypony that does not have the proper clearance, and an affidavit confirming that to the best of your knowledge the background information we've gathered on you is correct and complete."

Spike picked up a quill, ready to start signing the papers when he suddenly stopped. "Wait… what is the penalty for telling somepony about the stuff here?" Spike asked while nervously fidgeting with the quill in his claw.

"You would be tried for high treason against Equestria and, at the very least, spend the rest of your life imprisoned."

The Princess decided to step in when she heard the Head Mage's statement. "Arcana, you're going to scare them off before they ever get started." She turned to the two standing in front of the desk and continued, "While the penalties are indeed steep, I am quite confident that neither of you will ever have to worry about that."

"Yeah, Spike, it's like a Pinkie Promise," Twilight said as she quickly scanned the papers and scratched her name at the bottom of each one.

The dragon hesitantly began signing the papers. Just as he finished, a voice sounded off from the corner of the office near the door. "Can we go now? This is boring."

Fireshade was lounging on the couch near the door with her head back, staring at the ceiling. She lifted her head and, with pleading eyes, gestured toward the door with her nose.

"What have I told you about patience, Apprentice?" Arcana again glared at his assistant.

"Um…" The yellow unicorn furrowed her brow and looked towards the floor as she struggled to come up with the correct answer. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she smiled and answered, nodding to each word as she spoke. "A pony who is a master of patience is master of everything else."

Standing up, the grey unicorn nodded sagely. "That's correct, now if you would only think about that when you're in situations that warrant patience. Now then, shall we begin the tour?"

That is when Twilight noticed Arcana did not have the cloak he wore the previous day. The Eye of Providence? What kind of special talent could that possibly represent? she questioned in her mind.

"If we could take just a moment, first, I have something for Twilight Sparkle." Celestia's horn glowed a brilliant white, and then the crackling sound of magical energy filled the room as a book appeared seemingly from nowhere, floating in front of the lavender unicorn. "Something to help you on your new journey."

Twilight took the book in her own magical aura and flipped through the pages. "Thank you, Princess, but there's nothing in it."

The white alicorn chuckled softly. "It wouldn't be much of a journal if it was already written. This book is for you to write your own personal thoughts and notes on the research you will be conducting here, the thoughts that may be better left out of the technical reports of that research."

"That's great! I hadn't even thought of something like that. Thank you so much." Twilight's face was barely big enough to contain the smile. She rushed to her mentor and hugged her tightly.

"You are very welcome, Twilight. Shall I teleport it to your room and we can get started with the tour?"

"Yes, please. Thank you, again."

Celestia's horn once again glowed as the book snapped from existence to be instantaneously rematerialized in Twilight's room. "Now, I believe we can begin the tour."

The four ponies filed out of the room turning left to a stairwell, followed closely by Spike. While Twilight had spent quite a lot of time in the labs in the past, it was a whole new experience for her assistant.

As they exited the stairs onto the main floor of the facility, it was immediately obvious to him that this place was like no other in the entire castle, Equestria or maybe even the world. The walls were not adorned with the large windows present in the rest of the compound; instead large electric lights clung to the ceiling bathing the room in a harsh white light. He glanced casually around his surroundings, attempting to soak in the strange sights and sounds. The entire room was as big as the Ponyville town square, and divided into separate work areas by short portable walls, about as tall as Celestia. The floor felt strangely smooth under his feet and he looked down to find the entirety of it covered in an unfamiliar material; much like a still pond on a dark night, it was seamless, perfectly flat and glossy black.

Walking through the main lab, Spike wasn't paying any attention to the rest of his group when he ran into something.

"Hey!" Fireshade spun around and looked Spike in the eye. "Watch it buddy, we're not that good of friends yet."

"Geez, Spike, pay attention," Twilight said sternly to the dragon.

"Sorry, I was just looking at… I don't know. What is all this?" Spike pointed to a bank of buzzing and whirring equipment, similar to the machines Twilight had kept in the basement of the library. He then turned to see ponies working with various glass flasks and vials filled with various colored liquids.

"Well, the machines there are mostly measurement devices for collecting data; magical energy fields, electrical energies, temperatures, and pressures among other things." Twilight looked to Arcana. "That is correct, isn't it?"

A ghost of a smile broke across the lips of the old mage. "Mostly, yes. Some of them are actually storage devices for energy, and those ponies over there are working on biochemical research, attempting to find ways to cure diseases and repair injuries that magic cannot heal."

Twilight was intrigued. "Energy storage? You can store energy and use it later?"

"Yep, the models here are early prototypes of electrical energy storage devices and aren't really used anymore. The newer ones and the magic energy models are in the other lab," Fireshade said excitedly.

"Wait, magi—"

"I understand that you are both excited, but not everyone in this section has clearance for the things you are discussing," Arcana interjected.

"Sorry." The two young unicorns said in unison.

"How about we move on to Section 5, and we can discuss whatever you please," Celestia suggested.

Arcana huffed and began leading the group through the maze of partitions and equipment towards the wall on the opposite side of the room from where they had started.

Spike was still taking up the rear, gawking at the sites around him. They passed an opening in the wall next to them and Spike peeked in. The work area was almost completely filled by a large metallic cylinder with a rainbow of colored wires hanging from it. Several ponies were quickly unplugging wires, then plugging others in their place. Suddenly a bright flash filled his vision and a noise like thunder erupted from behind him. He jumped, spinning around in mid air trying to find the source of the ruckus.

"What was that!?" Twilight exclaimed.

"An experiment to determine the effects of different types of magical discharges on living tissue samples," Arcana explained. "The hope is that by better understanding the damage on a cellular level, we can better treat ponies involved in accidents with magic."

"You experiment on live subjects?" Twilight's eyes were wide with horror with the thought of this prospect.

"No! Well… yes, but not for destructive testing like this. Live testing is only done in the final stages of the research. The live testing trials for this research will be done in the field, at hospitals, where ponies are already injured and we will test the treatments we've developed here. There's also plenty of non-destructive early stage research we do with ponies, such as psychological and behavioral studies."

"Oh." Twilight was still unsure about using live ponies as test subjects for any research, but decided it best to drop the matter for now.

They approached an average nondescript grey door set in the cloud-white wall of the lab. Fireshade wrapped the door in the amber glow of her magic, but it did not immediately open. She lowered her head and squinted at the door in concentration. Nearly ten seconds later the door finally moved, opening inward to another room. "Could we do something about the locking spell on the door? It's too hard to open."

"It's supposed to be hard to open, Fireshade," Celstia answered, smiling to the young unicorn. "If it was easy to open, anypony could simply walk into Section 5, and we can't have that, can we?"

The yellow unicorn looked down to her front hooves. "No, ma'am," she replied, slightly dejected.

Twilight Sparkle entered the small room with the rest of her group. As the last of them made their way through the door, it quickly snapped shut without a sound. The only thing besides the ponies and dragon in the room was a second door opposite of the one they had just walked through. They were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder in the small white box that was barely tall enough for Celestia's horn to not drag the ceiling.

"I always thought this was just a supply closet," Twilight mused.

"Nope!" Hopping with excitement, Fireshade continued, "It's the 'secret entrance' to The Cave. But I guess the entrance isn't really a secret, just the stuff inside."

"The Cave?"

"You'll see when we get there."

After looking to make sure the door behind them had shut as it was supposed to, Arcana opened the next one. It easily swung towards him, making Twilight wonder if he was that much more powerful than his apprentice or if this door simply was not locked in the same manner as the first.

The grey mage stepped to the side. "After you, Mage Sparkle."

"Um… thank you?" The unicorn made her way to the front of the group, and looked through the doorway. It didn't look like a clandestine research operation. The doorway opened to a wide hallway with silver metallic walls sloping down like a ramp for what appeared to be an eternity. Far ahead in the distance she could see where the hall began a spiraling descent.

She took five steps into the hall and stopped near one of the strange columns that lined the walls on both sides. Candy-striped black and yellow tubes standing from floor to ceiling with words in red printed vertically in large letters:

CAUTION STAY CLEAR

"What are these?" she asked timidly.

Arcana stepped up next to her and stopped. "These are part of the 'Worst Case Scenario Contingency'. The columns are filled with powerful chemical explosives. If an invading force is ever able to breach the castle this far, we have the ability to destroy Section 5 and everything in it, in its entirety, within a moment's notice."

"Is the work here really that important that you would destroy it all and everypony inside just to keep someone else from getting to it?" Spike asked.

The grey unicorn began walking again as the rest of the group followed. "Yes."

Eventually, after several minutes of silently walking deeper into the heart of Canterlot Mountain another door came into view. It appeared to be rather small at this distance, but it was immediately obvious that this was just an illusion caused by the length of the hall. Two unicorn guards stood on either side of the door and an earth pony sat at a desk well in front of the egress; the massive square of steel at the end of the hall dwarfed them all.

As they neared it, the seal emblazoned on the door became distinguishable. A long alabaster unicorn horn flanked by pegasus wings filled a large sky blue circle. Three red lightning bolts resided in front of the right wing and an olive branch in front of the left. Within the circle beneath the stylized drawings was the motto of Equestria's Ministry of Defense, "Pacem per Vires". Surrounding the seal in large white block letters were the words: EQUESTRIA MINISTRY OF DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Ministry of Defense? The purple unicorn made a mental note to ask the Princess about it later.

Spike whispered to Twilight as they approached the behemoth blast door, "That thing looks like it could handle months of constant cannon-fire."

Twilight only nodded in response.

They were noticed by the earth pony before they made it to the desk. The portly green desk clerk quickly got up and walked around the desk, just in time to bow low to the ground as the tour group arrived. "Welcome to Section 5. A pleasure, as always, your Highness."

Celestia smiled, "Thank you, Thunder Hoof. We would like to sign-in and access the labs, please."

"Of course, Princess. Allow me." He moved back to his place at the desk and picked up a pencil in his mouth while he flipped through a large red leather bound book to a mostly empty page. Thunder Hoof then began scrawling the names of the guests to the lab. "Would I be correct to assume this is Twilight Sparkle and Spike?"

"You would."

He looked down to the page once more and added the last two names. "All set, your Highness. Just give me a moment to get the door open."

Twilight's eyes narrowed slightly as she gave the earth pony a quizzical look, pondering how exactly this pony was going to open such a heavy door without magic. Her jaw fell as she witnessed what came next.

The doorkeeper of Section 5 pressed a button on the top of a small grey box located on his desk. "Checkpoint One, Gate Control."

The box crackled to life with a voice that sounded like a pony. "Gate Control, go ahead."

"Hey, I need the door opened, we have five requesting access: one Celestia, alicorn; one Arcana, unicorn; one Fireshade, unicorn; one Twilight Sparkle, unicorn; and one Spike, dragon."

"Checkpoint One, please confirm; did you say dragon?"

"Yes, dragon. He has the proper security clearances."

A moment passed while Spike looked nervously to his friends. Thunder Hoof noticed Spike fidgeting and spoke, "Hey, don't worry, they're just checking the paperwork."

The box began to speak again, "Checkpoint One, please have our guests line up for visual confirmation."

The green earth pony stood up and, with a hoof, directed the group to a yellow line that was drawn on the floor the entire width of the hall. "Well, here we go. If everypony could please stand on that line, side-by-side and facing the door." As soon as they were all satisfactorily in place, he pointed to another box above the door, larger than the one on the desk. "Now if you would all look towards the camera, please."

Twilight was very confused by what was happening now. She had seen cameras before, but the thing hanging from the wall above the steel door didn't look anything like any camera she had ever come across. It was nothing more than a rectangular metallic box with a piece of glass on the end pointed towards them. Twilight also noticed a colorful mess of spaghetti-like wires connected to the back of the box as it buzzed to life and began panning across the line of ponies and dragon.

When the box was pointing directly at Spike, it stopped. The purple dragon was beginning to sweat with anxiousness and swallowed hard enough that it was audible to the ponies next to him.

The yellow unicorn next to him giggled at his obvious worried demeanor. "It's okay, Spike. It was like this the first couple times I went through the door, too."

The camera continued its path along the rest of the line. When it was done, it quickly returned to its original position looking straight up the hallway.

"Alright, it looks like they got what they need. You can all relax now." The earth pony sat back down at his desk to wait.

Twilight looked around at the others. "Now what?"

"Now we wait," Arcana answered without turning his head to the lavender unicorn.

She decided to sit for the time being, it had been a much longer walk to get here than she had expected. Just as her rear touched the smooth black floor, Celestia moved into view directly in front of her.

"So what do you think so far, my student?"

Twilight thought for a moment before answering. "I don't… I mean, that is to say, I'm a little overwhelmed, I think. I already have so many questions; I don't know where to start."

"That's understandable, but just remember you are not expected to know or need to know everything immediately. It is a lot to take in at once, but you will need to keep an open mind to the things in this place."

The unicorn glanced over to the desk where Fireshade was idly chatting with the doorkeeper. "What's that talking box thing on the desk?"

"It is a communication device. It allows ponies to speak to each other across distances."

"Why is it here? Something like that would change the entire world."

"I don't believe tha—"

The princess was interrupted by the device on the desk. "Gate Control, Checkpoint One."

Thunder Hoof pressed the button once again. "Checkpoint One."

"Security check complete. Door opening sequence proceeding, please move clear and stand-by until the blast door is fully open."

The two guards immediately walked forward until they were just behind the desk.

"All clear, whenever you're ready, Gate Control."

A high-pitch mechanical hum filled the chamber as the sound of the many bolts that locked the door to the wall clacked off in quick succession. A thunderous boom echoed through the hall and Twilight quickly jumped up to her hooves as the floor began to vibrate under her.

The door and its hinges began to push out of the wall with the same mechanical hum. Twilight watched it closely as it slowly crept towards her. She was expecting it to begin swinging into the hall, but the seconds ticked by and the door continued its trek, attempting to escape the wall.

The unicorn began counting off the distance to herself as the metal monstrosity continued. One foot… two feet… three… four feet. Just how thick is this thing?

Finally, a miniscule gap appeared between the door and the wall; the door stopped moving and for a moment silence filled the corridor. Another mechanical whir, quieter this time, sounded as the door effortlessly swung towards the waiting ponies and showed its true girth. A manticore would not have been able to reach across the door from front to back.

"It's huge." Spike said to himself under his breath as the door slowly came to a stop.

"Yay! Let's go!" Fireshade ran for the doorway. Stopping short of the threshold, she stopped and turned around. "Come on!" She turned back and continued into the doorway.

Twilight and Spike looked at each other, unsure of the situation that the young mage had gotten them both into.

"Shall we, Twilight?" asked the white alicorn.

"Uh, yeah…"

Celestia began walking towards the door, followed by Twilight Sparkle, Arcana, and Spike.

As soon as she made it through the door, Twilight realized why Fireshade had referred to it as 'The Cave'. The institutional, sterile white walls and ceiling were now replaced by cold dark grey stone that arched high above from one edge of the floor to the other. This part of Section 5 was obviously excavated in the mountain without any concern for giving it a finished look. She looked up to the ceiling where a dozen large bright yellow pipes ran parallel with the tunnel, hugging the peak of the ceiling above the hanging lights.

The tunnel through the mountain curved out of sight ahead, where an extremely bright source of artificial light could be seen filtering to the portion of the excavation they were currently walking through. Their hoofsteps echoed hollowly through the empty corridor as they approached the corner.

Rounding the bend, a small building hugged to the side of the tunnel came into view. Being built on short stilts to keep it off of the damp ground, the off-white shack sat much like an insect. The light from further up the tunnel reflected off of the many large windows like a kaleidoscope. Fireshade waved to the guards inside and one particularly attractive guard smiled and waved back. Twilight kept walking without looking at the guards, following her Princess and mentor closely.

"Watch your step, Twilight," the Princess said, continuing to look forward. She climbed three steps up to a metal platform that now covered the entire floor. The elevated walkway soon opened into the largest single room that Twilight had ever seen. The sprawling expanse was large enough that three or four of the massive factories of the Lower District of Canterlot would have fit comfortably within its walls.

Ponies hurriedly walked through the lab. Some pushed carts of equipment and others were levitating clipboards stopping every so often to scratch a note about whatever experiment they happened to stop at to check on.

"Here we are," Arcana declared. "Shall we go up to the offices? We can get a good view of most of the facility from there."

The stairs clanged with every step the ponies and dragon made. Twilight could feel the vibration of the others' steps echoing through the cold metal into her hooves. This coupled with the occasional creak and groan of the staircase struggling to remain attached to the unfinished stone wall made for a very harrowing experience for the lavender unicorn.

As she looked up the stairs, past the ponies in front of her, the ceiling was barely visible. Large lights hung just above the level of the offices, and far beyond, the bare rock of the room's roof was shrouded in darkness.

Clinging to the wall high above the main floor of Section 5, the offices were precariously set atop several large steel buttresses that jutted from the wall at a steep angle. There was no door, merely an opening welcoming them to a narrow hall. Rough damp cold grey stone on one side and seven wooden doors occupied the other. With every step, the entirety of the small building hanging on the wall shook slightly.

"I don't really feel comfortable with this place," Twilight said softly.

Fireshade turned around to the unicorn behind her. "Don't worry; this thing's been up here for ages. I don't think it'll fall down."

"That doesn't help at all, Fire. Thanks, though."

The group made its way to the last door and walked into the empty office. There were no lights on, but it wasn't necessary to have them on. The entire back wall of the room was covered in glass, allowing the room to be bathed in the soft glow of the lighting outside.

Twilight moved in very short, deliberate steps, pushing heavily into each one to test the soundness of the structure beneath her. She approached the glass in front of her and only one word escaped her breath. "Wow."

The size of the facility was impressive when looking from the main floor, but from above, the entirety of it could be taken in in a single glance. Twilight began closely examining the scene before her. Save for the size, the layout was very similar to the main lab far above them, completely open with portable dividers separating experiments and research projects.

After the initial shock of the immensity wore off, she began to notice exactly what was on the floor below them. There were not nearly as many ponies or experiments as she had initially expected; instead, occupying the majority of the lab was nothing but empty floor space.

"Welcome to your new Section 5 office, Twilight," Celestia said as she approached the unicorn from behind.

"My office?" Twilight gasped.

"Of course, you can't expect to lead a research team without an office near the facility that's doing the research."

"I don't know if I can lead anything right now," the unicorn said while she continued to stare at the open expanse of Section 5 ahead of her.

Arcana stepped next to her. "And we don't expect you to… yet. You will have plenty of opportunity to become comfortable with your new role here before we set you loose on your own projects."

"What kind of projects are going on here now?" She couldn't pull her gaze away from researchers, machines and equipment below.

"Let's start with the basics and we'll get to that." The grey unicorn moved away from the window and cleared his throat. "Section 5 is separated into eight divisions: Four scientific research divisions; magical energy, magic spells, chemistry and medical. Three engineering research divisions; electrical, mechanical, and bio-chemical. Those seven divisions feed their results into the eighth, weapons research."

"Weapons?" This word was enough to finally pull Twilight's attention from the lab. She turned around quickly with her face slackened and her brow furrowed—eyes darting about to the two unicorns and alicorn standing before her. "Why—what for?"

"To protect Equestria and her citizens from enemy threats," Arcana explained.

"What enemies? We haven't been in a conflict with another nation for 300 years!" Twilight exclaimed.

"As you may know, our relationship with the Kingdom of Gryphos is shaky at best, and as you may not know, the United Races of D'Larame are constantly looking for opportunities to expand their territory and have recently gone as far as to test our borders with them for weak points. Although we are not in an official state of war, we do indeed have enemies. And yes, weaponry and destructive offensive magic research are part of what we do here, however, it is not the only part. Much of the military technology is adaptable to help the general population."

"Like the communication devices you hide from the general population?"

The Princess interjected, "The communication device gives us a great tactical advantage, and until the nations that pose a threat to us are able to develop the same technology, the best course of action is to keep it secret. We are not at war, but I decided long ago that the best way to avoid a full military conflict is to adopt the concept of 'peace through superior strength'. It was decided that if we build our standing defenses powerful enough, no nation would dare attack. So far it has worked quite well."

"But how can you keep it a secret, then? If you're hoping the technology here will stop a war from starting, our enemies wouldn't have any incentive if they don't know what we're capable of," Twilight argued.

"We leak information!" Fireshade shouted.

Arcana fired off a terrifying look at the yellow unicorn as she lowered her head and shrunk back in an attempt to make herself appear as small as possible. "Yes…" He turned back to Twilight and continued, "There are known spies in Equestria, and we feed them just enough information that our enemies know of our capability, but not enough to be of any real help to them."

"This is insane," Spike pointed out. "Twilight, we should just go back to Ponyville and forget about all this."

"No. Twilight, please give it a chance. There are truly amazing things happening here, and you have the rare opportunity to be part of it," Celestia pleaded.

"What kind of things could outweigh the fact that I would be helping create things with the sole purpose of killing?" Twilight's vision was beginning to become blurred with the tears welling up in her eyes.

"How about a magical energy generator? Or perhaps a spell that has the capability to move large amounts of mass over incredible distances? Maybe medical research that has the potential to save the lives of millions would be more your speed? Because that is exactly what the majority of the research here aims to do. We are here to help ponies, not kill them. However, you would be naive to think that we live in anything other than a dangerous world where not all have quite as noble intentions." Silence filled the room with the end of Arcana's statement.

The seconds ticked by quietly while Twilight processed what her new instructor had said. She drew in a large breath and slowly breathed out. "Millions?"

"Yes, millions of ponies for generations to come will benefit from the studies here."

"Okay." She sniffled and wiped the moisture from her eye. "We'll stay. For now."

Celestia smiled widely as a great relief washed over her entire being. "Excellent. Now I believe there is going to be a demonstration of a new technology soon. Is that correct, Arcana?"

"Yes, milady. They will be commencing with the first full power run of the magical energy generator prototype."

"Twilight, would you like to go observe the test?" the alicorn asked in a motherly tone.

The lavender unicorn's glossy eyes widened and a smile grew across her face. "I think I would. It sounds fascinating."

---

Twilight walked next to Fireshade down a tunnel towards the room where the test was to be conducted. "So what does this thing do?"

"It does exactly what its name is, silly." Fireshade responded.

"Of course it does, but to what end?"

"Remember the energy storage devices I told you about before?"

"Yes."

"Right now we have to charge them manually with unicorn magic about once a week, sometimes more often. It takes two skilled mages almost three hours to fully charge one, and it is absolutely exhausting. If this generator works the way it's supposed to we won't have to do that anymore. We will be able to run our magic-based experiments on the artificially generated magic."

"That's amazing, how does it work?"

"I don't know."

Twilight looked over to the yellow unicorn. "What?"

"What? It's not my project. Heck, it's not even part of my division and I certainly don't have time to read through every research document that's produced in this place. I bet Arcana knows, he knows about everything that goes on here."

"Oh, okay." The lavender unicorn quickly ran ahead to where Arcana and the Princess were walking. "Um, excuse me. I was wondering how the generator works."

Arcana smiled ever so slightly. The new mage's inquisitive nature impressed him, but he didn't want her to know that. "Oh? Well, the concept is very simple. A magically imbued gem is placed into a chamber where it is exposed to an extreme pressure. As the stone contracts under the pressure, it releases a great amount of energy. We capture that energy and channel it to the storage devices. The concept is simple, but the application is actually extremely complex."

"So it's not really generating magic, just moving it."

"Of course. There are certain physical laws that we cannot break, conservation of energy being one of them. By channeling the planet's natural leylines, it takes about thirty minutes for a single unicorn to enchant a gem with enough energy to charge ten of our storage devices, but we have to have a way to pull the energy out of the gem." He stopped walking and pulled open the metal door with his magic.

"That's amazing," Twilight whispered to herself as she walked through the door. As soon as she was into the testing room, her senses were under assault from all directions. A shrill alarm was sounding. A large control panel with a multitude of buttons, switches, and flashing red lights rested below a window across from the doorway, where three ponies were loudly arguing about something. Twilight looked up to the walls to see a line of four glass panels, but instead of being clear like windows, these were displaying amazing amounts of data on a black background.

She quickly moved to the panels. "What are these!?"

"Those are the result of one of our recent electrical engineering endeavors. They are data monitors. I told you we don't only make weapons here."

She closely inspected the data monitors. One was displaying line after line of dates, times, and seemingly random numbers, the second had a variety of pictorial representations of gauges and sensor read-outs, and on the third, a group of large, red words, flashing against the jet black background:

CONTAINMENT ERROR

SAFETY LOCK-OUT ENGAGED

CHECK CONTAINMENT FIELD

The last one in the line of monitors showed a dark picture of a bright blue gemstone set on a metallic pedestal.

While the lavender unicorn stood, entranced by the monitors, Arcana walked to the scientists at the control panel. "What seems to be the problem here?"

"We checked the containment field three times. It's online and holding at nominal power output." The lab coat wearing unicorn pointed over to his coworker next to him. "Mr. Optimism here thinks we should bypass the lock-out and proceed with the test. I completely disagree."

"Buck you, Fleet," said 'Mr. Optimism' as he turned to Arcana. "Sir, we've operated the generator time and time again, and haven't had a single problem. The containment is holding; like Fleet said, we've inspected it three times now and there is nothing wrong with it. The safety lock-out is a sensor error, but it could take a week to find the problem. I say we run, Fleet says we don't and Kimono doesn't want to take sides."

"Dammit, Starshine, we were only running it up to 60% capacity. This is a full power test we're talking about here. We have no idea how it's is going to react when we reach 100% of the theoretical capacity."

The grey unicorn stepped to the control panel and quickly glanced over the gauges and multiple data monitors, the flashing red lights highlighting the features of his old face. His gaze paused at a spot on the panel where there was nothing but a metal cover for accessing the inner workings of the controls. Quickly, he raised a hoof and brought it down on the panel with enough force to leave a small dent. The ponies in the room jumped at the sound of the resulting bang.

The alarm stopped sounding and the red lights on the panel immediately extinguished as green lights began to glow one-by-one across the controls. The data monitor that Twilight was watching changed from its previous ominous warning to show a new message in white letters:

ALL SYSTEMS CHECKS COMPLETE

CONTAINMENT WITHIN OPERATING PARAMETERS

Starshine laughed at this turn of events. "Told you it was just a loose wire, Fleet."

"Whatever, let's just get started." Fleet began flipping switches on the control panel. With each switch another small green light lit.

Arcana turned around. "Twilight, I think you're going to want to see this."

"Oh. Yes, of course." She turned away from the monitors and walked towards the window.

On the far side of the window was a large, bronze-colored, metallic sphere, split into two halves by a tall, riveted ridge. On the front, a window similar to the portal on a ship offered a view of a faint blue glow. Dozens of tubes and wires hung from the sphere, snaking their way into the wall below the window of the control room.

"Get the checklist, Kimono," Starshine ordered his subordinate.

"Yes sir." Kimono picked up a clipboard with her magic and began making her way down the list. "Start system self-diagnostic."

Fleet pressed several buttons in quick succession. "Check."

"Inspect containment sphere for cracks and structural stresses."

"Already did that one. Twice."

"Confirm automatic safety override functional."

Starshine pressed a yellow button on the control panel and all the green lights went out simultaneously and the red lights began flashing once again as the alarm sounded. As soon as he let up on the button, all the lights went back to green and the alarm went silent. "Check"

"Confirm containment field power."

Starshine glanced at a gauge on the panel. "Field on, power holding at 34%."

"Clear containment area of all personnel."

"Check," Fleet chimed as one of the monitors began flashing.

Fleet pressed a button and checked the monitor. "Self-diagnostic complete, all systems check good."

"The checklist is complete, sir."

"Good, I think we're ready, then," Starshine responded.

"Go ahead, Starshine, this is your baby," Fleet said as he stepped away from the controls.

The unicorn smiled at his partner, then turned to the panel, pressing the button that initiated the start of the generator device. A loud low-pitched rumbling hum filled the room immediately; quickly lowering in volume as it gained in frequency. Several seconds passed and the noise stabilized into a quiet high-pitched whine.

Kimono was staring at one of the monitors on the control panel and began speak. "Generator has achieved stable output, 20% and holding. Containment field remains at 34% and holding."

"Good. Now let's see what this thing can do." Starshine slowly turned a knob.

"Generator output 35% and climbing. Field power 38% and climbing."

The unicorn at the controls stopped turning the knob.

"Generator output 53% and climbing. Field power 43% and climbing."

Each second that passed by felt like an eternity for the lavender unicorn. Only a couple of weeks earlier she had been a librarian living in Ponyville and now was witnessing cutting-edge technology, the likes of which the world had never seen. To actully be there to see it happen first-hoof was difficult for her to believe, to say the least.

"Generator output 63% and holding. Field power 55% and holding."

"Alright, here's where we left off with the last test. Here goes nothing," said Starshine as he reached for the knob and began to turn it once again.

"Generator output 74% and climbing. Field power 72% and climbing—fast."

"What do you mean, 'fast'?" Fleet asked as he pushed his way to the monitors on the wall.

"Generator output 83% and climbing. Field power 91% and climbing."

"Something's wrong, Star."

"Yeah yeah, I got it." Star Shine flipped a switch and began turning the control knob the opposite direction.

The dim glow that had been emanating from the portal on the sphere was now extremely bright and flickering violently. Twilight looked up to the monitors where Fleet was standing. The piece of glass that was originally showing a perfectly formed bright blue gem now showed a picture of a gem with a crack in its surface that appeared to be ablaze with magical energy. Blue fire whipped through the containment vessel as it began to vibrate.

"Generator output 94% and climbing. Field power 103% and climbing."

"What!? That's not right." The unicorn at the controls quickly glanced across the gauges and sensor readouts. "Shitshitshitshit—" Star Shine swore under his breath as he began flipping switches and mashing buttons.

The alarm began its pulsing buzz again as several of the red lights on the board began flashing.

"The containment field is destabilizing," Kimono said calmly with a lack of any emotion. "Generator output 98% and climbing. Field power 113% and fluctuating rapidly. It appears we've reached the limit of the containment field."

"I can't shut it down, I'm gonna use the kill switch." The unicorn at the controls pressed on a large red button in the middle of the panel.

"Generator output 112% and holding. Field power 98% and falling."

"The emergency kill isn't responding, I got every imaginable failure starting to pop up on the monitor over here!" Fleet yelled over his shoulder.

"Generator output 113% and holding. Field power 83% and falling. The containment field isn't going to hold much longer."

"Dammit… Alright, everypony out! Now!"

Entranced by the lightshow escaping from the sphere's portal, Twilight was frozen to the spot she was standing. She was too frightened to move, even if it was to save herself.

Everyone had gotten out of the room when Spike noticed that she wasn't with them. "Twilight!" He turned to the door and started to run.

At the same time, Celestia's horn began to glow as she attempted to construct a barrier spell in front of the petrified unicorn. Just before the barrier coalesced her concentration was broken by a blinding white light.

---

". . . plosion . . . gem . . . her head."

"What . . . mean . . . in . . . head?"

". . . that. It . . . of course . . . permanent damage there . . . all."

Twilight could hear the voices. They sounded distant, like someone was yelling to her from across Sweet Apple Acres. She couldn't see the ponies that were talking, though. She tried to touch her face in an attempt to find the source of her vision problems, but her legs would not respond to the commands.

"Permanent damage!? What kind of damage are you talking about?"

Rainbow Dash. Twilight would have recognized the voice of her brash friend anywhere.

"Now settle down, Rainbow. He just said there's a chance of permanent damage. I'm sure the doctors are doing everything they can for her."

Applejack. Why are my friends here? And did she say doctors?

"Miss Dash, I'm sorry, but we just don't know. The brain is a very delicate thing and our understanding of how it works is vague. At this point we just have to wait and see what happens."

Who was that? A doctor, maybe?

"Well, I'm just frustrated. They said she got hurt two weeks ago and we just heard about it two days ago. Two weeks, Applejack, and they told us she hasn't so much as flinched in that time. I-I'm scared for her."

Twilight attempted to speak, but her mouth barely moved and the only noise to escape her lips was a quiet raspy growl.

The three other ponies in the room immediately looked to the bed where the sound came from. Beneath the blanket lay a small unicorn. Bulky bandages covered most of her head, making it look as though the top of it had been replaced by a large marshmallow with a lavender horn. The unicorn's jaw was slowly moving up and down as she continued to try to talk.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash bolted to her bedside, while the doctor ran out to the hall. "Nurse! Send a message to the castle. Inform Princess Celestia that Twilight Sparkle may be waking up."

Her mouth and throat were drier than the Appleloosan Desert, making it exceedingly difficult to create the necessary vibrations in her vocal cords to speak. All she could manage was to move her mouth and make barely audible grunts and groans.

"Is she tryin' to say something?" Applejack whispered.

"I don't know, it just sounds like growling," Rainbow Dash replied.

Twilight decided now would be a good time to try her eyes again. Her mouth stopped moving as her eyelids fluttered slightly and the two mares beside her bed leaned in closer to her face.

"Is she going to wake up?" the orange mare breathed.

"I don't know! Why do you keep asking me stuff like that?"

The doctor came back into the room. A nurse followed behind him with a tray holding a large plastic cup and straw balanced on her back. She set the tray down on the small table at the foot of the bed and pushed her way past the blue pegasus. The doctor approached the other side of the bed. "Excuse me, Miss Apple, I need to check on her."

"Oh, sorry 'bout that." Applejack moved away from the bed to make room for the doctor.

He approached the bed and leaned in close to Twilight. He carefully lifted one of her fluttering eyelids with a hoof and quickly shined a bright light in and out of her eye. "Her pupils are responding again, that's a good sign."

He moved his mouth just a few inches from her ear and spoke in a very soft tone. "Twilight? Can you hear me?"

Yes! I can hear you! she screamed in her mind, but the only thing that came forth from her mouth was another guttural moan.

"I would call that a response. I think she's waking up. Be patient, ladies, this may take a while." He turned to the nurse. "Would you please help me get her sat up?"

The nurse and doctor lifted the head of the bed, so that Twilight was sitting up most of the way.

A loud pop and a white flash announced the arrival of Celestia in the hallway outside of Twilight's hospital room. She looked less like a living goddess and more like a tired, disheveled shell of her usual self. Her normally flowing mane hung limp to her side and the bags under her eyes were accentuated by the hospital lighting. She walked into Twilight's room and everyone stopped what they were doing to bow.

"Stop that. Please, continue whatever it is you were doing. Has she awoken yet?"

Princess! You can help me. Twilight again tried to speak, making another growl.

"Not quite. I believe she is trying to speak, as you can hear," answered the doctor.

She decided that perhaps opening her eyes would be easier. Putting every ounce of concentration into the simple task she tried as hard as she could to raise her eyelids. They fluttered once again and this time slowly opened. She had her eyes about half open when she snapped them shut, the utilitarian lights of the hospital nearly blinding her.

The doctor noticed this and quickly moved to turn the lights down. "Sorry, Twilight. If you can hear me, please try to open your eyes again."

She did as she was asked, this time with a little more ease. Her vision was blurry at first, but the scene in front of her quickly came into focus. Celestia was standing at the foot of her bed, two of her best friends from Ponyville were standing to the side of her, and a doctor and nurse on the other side. Celestia and the girls were tearing up and everyone was smiling like Twilight had done something wonderful.

I woke up. It's really not that big of a deal. Wait, can I move my legs yet? Her right foreleg twitched as she concentrated on moving it. She was only able to bring it up across her stomach before it fell. She let out a disappointed sounding moan. Buck this, I'm thirsty.

Putting all her force of will into speaking now, she attempted to communicate her desire for something to drink. "Waa… aaah." She huffed and narrowed her eyes towards the cup at the end of her bed. "Waaaah…"

"I think she's thirsty," Rainbow Dash stated flatly.

"Oh, right." The doctor smiled sheepishly and brought the cup over to the bedridden unicorn with his magic and directed the straw into her mouth.

Twilight began to suck on the straw. The cool water that cascaded over her tongue was easily the most refreshing thing she had ever experienced. It cooled her throat and moistened everything to the point that she felt like she might be able to talk again.

"WhaaaatammIdoinnnhere." A look of shock filled the lavender unicorns face when she heard her run-together and terribly slurred speech.

Celestia came to the side of her bed and gave her a hug, with tears streaming down her face. "Oh, thank goodness you're awake, Twilight. I thought we were going to lose you."

"Whaat haappennnd?" the lavender unicorn asked barely above a whisper.

"There was an accident, dear."

She tried to think back. The last thing she could remember was going through the massive doorway that led to Section 5.

The Princess looked to the other ponies in the room. "Would you all excuse us for a moment, I need to speak with Twilight in private."

Rainbow Dash perked up at this request. "What!? But we didn't even get to talk to—"

Applejack stuck a hoof into the pegasus's mouth and began to guide her out the door. "Come on, sugarcube, there'll be plenty time later for that. Heh, sorry Princess."

As soon as everyone was out and the door shut, the alicorn looked back towards the lame pony laying on the bed. "Twilight, there was an accident at the Section 5 lab. Do you remember it?"

Twilight shook her head.

"Do you remember Section 5?"

She nodded. Then a terrifying thought crossed her mind and her eyes grew wide with terror. "Shpiike?"

"Spike is fine. He got bruised up a bit, but you took the brunt of the explosion. He's at the castle right now."

Relieved, the unicorn just stared at Celestia with tired eyes, waiting for the rest of the story.

"Yes, well… the lab personnel were testing a new technology—a magical energy generator. It was the first time they had done a full power test with it. Something went terribly wrong and there was an explosion. You." A tear rolled down her cheek. "You were standing nearly in front of it when it happened. I am so sorry, Twilight, I tried to put a barrier in front of you, but I wasn't fast enough."

"Why cann't I taalk riight?"

"I'm sorry, Twilight. The gem that powered the generator shattered. A piece of it was propelled into your head, it broke through your skull just above your right eye." She wiped the tears off her face and continued. "The surgeons in the Section 5 medical wing removed the shard, and you stayed there for twelve days before you were moved here to Canterlot General."

"Whaat went wrawng?"

"They are still investigating the accident. They are unsure at this point. Much of the equipment was destroyed, so it's difficult to piece together what happened exactly."

Twilight tried to move her front leg again. This time it came easier, she willed it to her forehead and touched her hoof to a spot just above her right eye. She touched soft bandages long before her hoof made it to where she knew her head should be.

"Would you like me to bring your friends back in?"

Twilight shook her head. "Tired."

Celestia chuckled. "You know, you've been sleeping for two weeks."

The injured unicorn nodded. "Tired."

"A little later, perhaps, and I will send for Spike as well."

"I would liiike that. Where arrre the resht of my frieeends?"

"I believe Rarity is in Manehatten, Pinkie Pie had to stay in Ponyville but sent a letter saying that she would be here in a couple of days and Fluttershy is on her way as we speak."

Twilight gave a weak smile.

"Get better, Twilight. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come back to us." With that Celestia made her way to the door and exited the room.

Twilight laid in the bed, completely still and staring at the ceiling, thinking back to what happened two weeks ago. It seemed like there were things she needed to remember, but they just wouldn't come forward. Maybe I can check the research notes on the generator project later.

She closed her eyes in order to try to get some rest.

Weapons.

Her eyes snapped open to the voice in her mind. But what about weapons?

You know it's not about the weapons; there's so much more than that. All of it hidden away from the world.

The secrets! They're hiding things from me—no, from everypony.

She's lying to you, Twilight. She's lying and you know it. Now you just have to do something about it.