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The Empire of the Moon on FIMFiction.net (not preffered: please read on Google Docs!)

When she awoke to the loud blow of a train’s whistle, Twilight yawned. “Are we there yet,” she asked, reaching up to rub at her eyes.

“Yep!” Pinkie Pie’s bright and cheerful voice was the first thing she heard, but when she opened her eyes, Twilight didn’t see the caboose of the train they had been travelling in. To her shock, strong enough that her heart almost skipped a beat, she saw the domed roof of a tower bedroom in Canterlot castle.

“Ohmygosh,” she yelped, rising with a start, looking around. The source of the train whistle she had heard was obvious: a wooden whistle that mimicked the sound and tone of a locomotive’s massive whistle. “It’s late. What happened?!” “Easy, easy-easy does it!” Pinkie reached up to prevent Twilight from catapulting herself from the bed, only letting her get as far as standing upright, knocking over her saddlebags in the process. “It’s only ten in the morning.”

“Ten? Ten!?” Twilight felt her breath catch in her throat, as doom and despair started to conjure themselves in her mind, but Pinkie smiled. “Just ten. We’ve got plenty of time! Applejack’s got her family and friends organized down in the castle’s kitchens, and I’ve been decorating! See? I even found the time to come wake you up.”

“I... I...” Twilight blinked to herself, and Pinkie smiled, stuffing the whistle back in her saddlebags. “How did I get up here,” Twilight asked, and the pink pony smiled. “Applejack carried you out of the train, and put you on top of Big Mac’s cart. When we got here, Princess Celestia wanted to know what was wrong with you. When AJ told her, she lifted you into the air and flew you right here.”

“She... She...” Twilight’s breath caught in her throat again, and she felt a tremble run through her. “Oh... Oh no, she must... She must think I’m... Think I...”

“Think you were exhausted, Twilight Sparkle?”

The voice sent a bolt of nerves through her, petrifying her to the spot; strong, powerful, commanding. She turned her head to look back, trembling; fantastically taller than any other pony she knew, Celestia walked slowly toward them, her pastel-hued mane and tail flowing around her as if a strong wind were blowing them. She looked tall and angry, and that made Twilight start to tremble, as Celestia spread her wings, drawing up in front of her. “I-I-I... I’m sorry, Princess, I’ve just been so busy, I-” “Haven’t slept for three days?” Celestia’s incredibly long horn glowed a soft golden color, and she produced a parchment tucked inside her mane, unfurling it - it was the letter Twilight wrote on the train.

Twilight felt herself shrinking under the accusatory glare, until Celestia’s face suddenly softened, and she leaned down, rubbing her head against the side of Twilight’s. The soft, intimate gesture immediately alleviated Twilight’s nerves, and she closed her eyes, releasing a sigh. “I... I’m sorry,” she murmured, and Celestia shook her head. “My dearest student, I gave you this responsibility because I knew you could handle it. But I never meant for you to run yourself until you dropped to the ground.”

Twilight nodded to herself, against Celestia’s head. “I know. I just... There was so much to oversee, and I was so afraid of disappointing you, or an error creeping in...”

Celestia chuckled softly, lifting her head. “Twilight Sparkle, the only time you have ever disappointed me, it was because you were the only pony who could see and speak the truth, when even my eyes were blinded. Now, do you feel up to getting up and finishing what you’ve started?”

Twilight nodded, and Celestia smiled warmly. Her horn glowed again, and Twilight’s vision was filled with gold as a gently force surrounded her, pressing into every inch of her and lifting her from where she sat on the floor, setting her gently on her hooves.

“Good. Now, you’ve got a party to prepare, haven’t you?” Celestia smiled at her, and Twilight grinned back. “You’re going to love it, Princess.” “I know. Get going.” Celestia lifted Twilight’s saddlebags and put them on her back, laughing softly as Twilight hurried out of the room, followed by Pinkie. She turned to head down the hall, but was immediately assaulted by a small-but-robust mass of baby dragon launching himself at her chest, wrapping his arms around her neck and nuzzling her. “Twilight! It’s so good to see you again,” Spike breathlessly gasped, and Twilight couldn’t help but laugh as she started to walk down the stairs with her dragon attached to her.

“It’s good to see you again, Spike,” she replied, as he scrambled for purchase on her saddlebags’ strap and pulled himself around to plonk down on her back. “I know! Hey, Pinkie,” Spike called back to Pinkie Pie, who smiled at him. “Hiya, Spike! Everything going good so far?” “Yeah!” Spike pulled a ledger - from where, Twilight didn’t know. The baby dragon seemed able to store objects somewhere about his person, but she could never figure out where.

“I had the palace staff organized, just like you and Applejack told me, into waiters and decorators. The waiters aren’t due for hours, but the decorators are already getting to work. Vinyl Scratch mentioned she wanted to see you in the ball-room, by the way.” “Okie-dokie-lokie! I’ll go there as soon as I can,” Pinkie responded, bouncing forward, past Twilight, then to the other side of the circular stairs they were descending, and then back.

“How are the Apples, Spike,” Twilight asked, and he nodded. “They’re doing great. Just like they asked, I had the kitchen staff prepare the kitchens to their requirements and then get out. They pulled all their carts up here and got right to work. Applejack said you can check in when you feel like it, but she has everything under control.”

Nodding to herself, Twilight stepped off the stairs, smiling as she exited the tower they were in, heading across the palace grounds. “And everypony else?”

“Lyra is organizing the musicians for Pinkie, so she can focus on the decorations. Rarity commandeered a dressing room for you and the others to get into your gowns just before the guests start arriving. She said she even figured out why the critters went antsy on Fluttershy last time, too.”

“Really? That’s good,” Twilight nodded to herself, as she walked to a high parapet, looking down over the gardens. The palace was terraced, giving her a good view; as expected, the gardens were full of critters, exotic and standoffish. Last year they had spurned Fluttershy, unwilling to have anything to do with her, which had just about driven the professional animal caretaker into a berserk rage, and then tears.

“What was it?” “Uh... She didn’t say, Twi,” her familiar admitted, with a shrug, and Twilight nodded. “Well, I’ll ask her later. So, where are Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash?” “Um... Fluttershy was with Rarity, the last I saw her. Rainbow Dash... I’m not sure. But there’s been a gaggle of Wonderbolts in the castle the last few days, so she’s probably with them.”

Twilight chuckled, as she reached the edge of the castle; from the overgrown, tree-strewn menagerie on the rear, she looked out to the side. Once there had been a hedge maze on this side of the castle, but after their battle with Discord had left a smoking crater where it had been, the field had been refilled as a green space, but there were no hedges, and the marble statuary had been removed.

Twilight pulled her binoculars from her backpack, and laughed as she saw a rainbow-striped blur zooming across the flat green-space. “Found her!”

Using the binoculars, she observed the field; upon closer inspection, it had clearly been laid out as a sporting field; she saw a tennis court nearer to the castle, but the field in use was a football pitch, with tall netted goals at the ends. She zoomed in on the action, telekinetically stabilizing her binoculars, just in time to see Rainbow Dash streaking above the field with wings spread, keeping the ball in the air by kicking it up and forward with her forehooves, forehead, and swipes with her wings. Rainbow kicked the ball, hard, but not towards the goal; she passed to her side, just as as a defender of the other team intercepted her too late; the ball sailed into possession of a tall, charcoal-coated stallion in the flight suit of the Wonderbolts, who headbutted the ball. It sailed into the goal, and somepony whistled, loud enough to make her ears ring.

Pulling the binoculars from her eyes, Twilight blinked as she looked to her side, seeing that the whistler was in fact Pinkie, who giggled. “What? I couldn’t resist.” Twilight couldn’t help but laugh, and raised the binoculars to her eyes to view the action again, as the two teams lined up. The two teams seemed to be Wonderbolts and Royal Guards; the Wonderbolts captain was the mare she recognized as Spitfire, wearing her uniform jacket instead of a flying suit, though Rainbow Dash, unadorned, had also lined up with their team. The other team, however, was a bit of a surprise; though it was full of armored Royal Guard Pegasi, she was surprised to see that Princess Luna herself had formed up on the Captain’s position on the Guard’s team, tall as Big Macintosh, though much more slender; an Alicorn, like her sister, with a very long unicorn horn on her forehead and a pair of massive Pegasus wings, her hooves clad in moonsilver shoes, mane like a midnight starry sky that absorbed light, even in broad daylight. Her tiara somehow remained on her head despite the vigorous game she was participating in, matched by her light-absorbing black collar, which itself matched the dappling of ink-black on her flanks, including her Cutie Mark, a bright white crescent moon.

Twilight was surprised to see Luna in the daytime, but there was a massive grin on her face. As the teams lined up, Rainbow Dash took up her position directly to the right of Spitfire, aggressively bending down and spreading her wings, while the left of Luna was joined by another Alicorn: bright, bubblegum pink coat with a vibrant, purple-and-cream tail and mane, there was no mistaking her old babysitter, Princess Cadance.

Twilight laughed, as she zoomed in on the referee. As she expected, where Cadance was to be found, there was her brother, Shining Armor; the unicorn stallion was evidently not playing, possibly because everypony on the field shared the feature of wings, which he lacked. Instead, the Captain of the Royal Guards had a whistle around his neck. He raised it to his muzzle and blew it, and the play progressed again, with Cadance and Luna approaching the ball, while the teams backed up, putting distance between themselves and the ball.

The moment Luna touched the ball, the two teams surged forward; Luna nudged it hard, to the side, with her hoof, towards Cadance. Twilight laughed as the play resumed, Cadance kicking the ball hard, back towards her team of guards as the Wonderbolts (and Rainbow Dash) charged at them, wings open.

Play quickly became three-dimensional, with Luna the first to launch from the surface of the pitch into the air, whistling at the Guard who had the ball. The armored Pegasus pony leapt in the air, kicking the ball to his side, into the air, away from a Wonderbolt who lunged at him to try to get the ball away from him. Another Guard lowered her head, letting the ball hit hard and ramp off her metal helmet, sailing into the air, and a third guard lifted from the ground on his wings, pulling a hard, tight loop to batter the ball with his rear hoof, sending it flying towards the Princess.

Luna lowered her head, as the ball flew towards her, checking it and redirecting its momentum up with her rear leg, letting it roll up from her hoof past her thigh, above her body. It arched up gently, and fell back towards her; she bumped it up with head again, and continued the motion, gracefully sailing up, clearly intent on wheeling all the way around and hammering it back towards the Wonderbolt’s goal.

A rainbow-patterned blur interrupted her, though, and Twilight couldn’t help but grin for her competitive friend; Rainbow Dash had simply put on a burst of her trademarked speed, arcing above the Princess and rolling hard, battering the ball away from her with her wing, leaving the princess to furiously kick nothing but air.

The ball seemed like it was going to instantly pass out of bounds, but the jacketed form of the Wonderbolts captain caught it just before it would have passed the sides of the pitch below, the ball rebounding from her side and falling towards the field, still in play, as Spitfire wheeled over herself and started to dive.

It was a straight dash to get the ball, Twilight supposed; none of the competitors were in a position to easily intercept it, which meant that wingpower was the only deciding factor, as the ball whirled and spun towards the field. And in any competition of sheer wingpower with all competitors having the same start, the conclusion could only be foregone: Rainbow Dash battered the ball like the impact of hammer at greater than terminal velocity, ramming it in a straight charge, pounding it towards the Guard’s goal.

Twilight thought that the goal was going to be good, with the goaltender on the wrong side of his goal from the incoming shot, but the candy-pink form of Princess Cadance rose, lunging into the air from the pitch to intercept the ball.

Twilight gasped as she watched Cadance rise, her head tilting forward just right. The ball met her horn, and instead of rebounding off the side, impacted directly onto the extra-sharp point of the Alicorn’s extra-long horn.

Her brother sounded the whistle as the ball punctured on Cadance’s horn, the action happening quickly as the play came to a halt, players hovering or standing where they were. The propelled ball had impacted quite firmly, deflating with an explosive pop, and stuck fast to the Alicorn’s horn, leaving her touching down on her rear legs, looking at the ball above her head with a goofy expression, shaking her head to try and dislodge it, fruitlessly.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. “Pinkie?” She looked back, but the pink mare was nowhere to be seen, and grinned. “Hold on, Spike.”

Her familiar dragon held on tight, leaning into her mane, and Twilight’s horn glowed, as she focused on the greenery beside the pitch, next to Shining Armor. She gathered magic to herself, her horn glowing strongly as she drew a mystical connection between the space next to her older brother and where she was occupying; an easy task, given that it was within her eyesight.

A loud, strong poof echoed from her vicinity as a cloud of purple smoke erupted around her. When she stepped clear of the smoke, she was at the side of the pitch, as the airborne players slowly hovered to the ground, while Cadance looked with crossed eyes at the ball on her horn. Armor blew the whistle again, and lowered it. “Everypony, off the field except Cadance! I need to figure out what just happened,” he said, looking to his side. He was looking for a rules-book at his side, but his eyes went wide as they met Twilight’s.

“Twi,” he cried out in delight, and she responded, “Armor!” Her big brother - resplendent in white coat, with blue hooves and mane, reared up, raising his front hooves, and Twilight reared in response, Spike leaping free of her back as Twilight took a step towards Armor, clapping her front hooves together with his with a resounding clonk, before they both fell back into the grass, laughing. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to organize the Gala,” she explained, with a grin, and nodded her head towards the pitch, as the Wonderbolts and Royal Guards walked off it together. “What are you doing?” “Refereeing,” he responded, and turned back to the field. Cadance looked like she was about to burst, and Armor’s horn glowed, surrounding the burst ball, and lifting it from her horn, hovering it in roughly the same place it had impacted her. “Cadance, you can leave the field, too,” he called.

It looked to be a tremendous relief to the pink Alicorn princess, who immediately turned and leapt off the field, sailing over the charcoal-gray thunderbolt who had scored the last goal, directly at Twilight, who murmured, “Excuse me a moment” to her brother, who nodded, as she reared up again and stepped back, giving Cadance room to land just front of her, wings spread.

Cadance and Twilight both began to dance in unison, hopping as they both sang, “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” They each dropped their chests to the ground, rear hips still in the air, and covered their eyes for a split second, before uncovering them to meet each other’s gaze, grinning, surging up to sit on their haunches, clapping their forehooves together. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” Returning to a standing position, they each half-turned, shaking their haunches at the other, before collapsing into a giggling fit on their backs; the song and shake routine had lasted only about six seconds, but the history behind it stretched back years.

Twilight closed her eyes for a brief moment, taking on a moment of introspection; last year, when Cadance and her big brother were married, she had been the only one to suspect that Cadance had been an imposter, because Queen Chrysalis (wearing a disguise of Cadance) hadn’t recognized the dance Twilight had started with her. Then, barely a fortnight later, when she and her friends had been sent to the crystal city in the frozen north, she had been enheartened that it really was Cadance - and she was still holding on, if barely - because Cadance had recognized it and joined her in it immediately. The little game they had done so long ago when Cadance had been her foalsitter had become, in effect, a challenge-and-response method of ensuring they were each who they were supposed to be.

She opened her eyes again, to find her brother grinning down at her, as she rolled back to her hooves and stood up. Though most of the Royal Guards and Wonderbolts were looking at her with a bemused, humoring expression, Luna had a warm smile at the dance she and Cadance had done, and Rainbow Dash seemed unfazed, sitting down. “So, ref,” Rainbow asked. “Was that a foul, or what?”

“Um.. I’m not sure,” Armor admitted, laying the ball down on the pitch and levitating the rulebook; a rather thick booklet. “I don’t think the rules exactly specify what it is if a ball gets lodged on someone’s horn.”

“Here, let me,” Twilight murmured, gently tugging the book from his telekinetic grasp; Armor let her take it, his blue glow surrounding it fading as her purple glow took over, and Twilight sat, looking at it. “What do you think it might be,” she asked, and Armor sat next to her, as did Cadance. “It got kind of stuck,” the pink mare admitted, with a resigned sigh. “I think that was a handling foul, right?”

“Page one-fifteen,” the charcoal-gray Wonderbolt supplied, sitting behind Twilight, and she flipped the booklet to the page specified, but one of the Guards shook her head. “The ball burst, though. Isn’t that a defective ball?” “That’s page fifteen,” the charcoal pegasus behind her murmured, and Twilight reflexively slipped a bookmark from the pouch of them on the side of her saddlebag, marking the first page and flipping back to the second.

“If the ball bursts or becomes defective during the course of a match,” she spoke aloud as she read off the book, looking up and scanning the next few headings. “That wasn’t a penalty kick or a kick-off, goal kick, corner kick, or-” “No,” Armor shook his head. “That was just the normal play,” he agreed, and she nodded, scanning back up to the bulleted directions.

“The match must be stopped, and then restarted by dropping a replacement ball where the original became defective... Unless it was inside the goal area.” She looked back to the pitch, but the ball was hovering well outside the markings for the goal, so Armor shook his head. “Nope. So, we get a new ball and start again from where it hit her horn.”

“But is it handling or not. I didn’t levitate it or pick it up with my hoof, but I did kind of become attached to it,” Cadance said, leaning over Twilight’s shoulder to read with her, as she flipped to the next section. “It might qualify,” Luna murmured, as Twilight scanned the page. “She had it on her horn more than six seconds.”

Twilight scanned the page, frowning. “I don’t see anything about seconds.” She flipped to the next page, and shook her head. “That’s referring to goalkeepers, Princess Luna. Cadance isn’t the goalkeeper, right?” “Yo!” The armored stallion who had been at the goal called out, and Twilight smiled. “Right, so that wasn’t her.” She flicked up, reading the rules regarding handling the ball, carefully. Cadance, to her side, looked guilty, as if ready to slink off, while Luna looked curious, more than anything. Twilight glanced at Armor; he didn’t look nervous, despite the fact that he might have to rule an infringement against his own wife, but she couldn’t find anything to support it, and said as much.

“It doesn’t look like it should be called handling,” Twilight said, levitating her quill from her pack, spinning it around to point to the page. “The rules define handling the ball as deliberate manipulation, but I saw the whole thing, and I don’t think there was anything deliberate about Cadance getting the ball stuck on her horn. From above, it looked like she she was trying to headbutt it away from the goal, and the angle lined up just right.”

Armor nodded at her. “That’s what I saw from down here, too. See, here,” he said, pointing with his hoof. “It says it’s not acceptable for anypony to pick up the ball with hoof, mouth, wing, or any other method, except for the goalkeeper, but that it’s not considered handling if, say, the ball moves towards somepony’s mouth, instead of somepony moving his mouth towards the ball. That seems like it should count for the ball impaling itself on somepony’s horn, versus somepony intentionally impaling the ball on her horn, too.”

Twilight nodded, firmly. “I agree. Does anypony disagree?” The only player present who looked like she might have a reservation was Cadance herself, and Twilight grinned, reaching up and laying her hoof on her shoulder. “It was an accident. No worries.”

The pink pony grinned. “Be happy.” Armor nodded. “Alright. Twi, would you go get another ball for us from the shed over there? Everypony, back onto the pitch! We have a drop-ball situation.” Twilight laughed and turned, dashing towards the massive, rising stone wall she had teleported from atop, galloping directly across the tennis court to reach the equipment shed, tugging it open. Inside was a surprisingly robust selection of sporting equipment, and she scanned the shed for a long moment before locating an identical ball to the one her brother had pulled off Cadance’s horn, stiffly inflated, made of bright white and blue hexagons.

Her horn’s glow sprang to life as she gripped the ball with telekinetic force, pulling it free and turning around and galloping back to the side of the pitch, pulling herself to a stop at her older brother’s side. “Here you go, Armor.” He looked to the side and took the ball from her, trotting out onto the field. The teams both moved back from the spot where Cadance had impacted the ball, as Shining Armor levitated the ball above his head, speaking loud and clear. “We have a dropped ball. Play restarts when the ball hits the ground.”

“Do we just all start from back here,” Rainbow Dash called out, and Twilight whipped the rulesbook to herself, flicking through the index to find the dropped ball definition, and flip to its page. She scanned it, but frowned, as Armor looked to her for advice, she could only shrug. “It just say play restarts when the ball hits the ground.”

The charcoal-gray Wonderbolt spoke up again. “Traditionally, both teams send one player to within a few lengths of the ball who go for it when it hits the ground,” he said, and Shining Armor looked to Spitfire and Princess Luna, who in turn looked to their teams. There were no objections, and they looked back, nodding to each other. “That’s acceptable,” Princess Luna prompted, and Spitfire confirmed, “Works for us!”

“Echo, forward,” Luna ordered, and a light gray pegasus in purple armor with a bat-like crest on his helmet and faux bat wings around his real wings stepped up, approaching to a pony’s length of the ball. Spitfire grinned, looking up and down her team. “Thunderlane, you’re up!”

The same charcoal gray pony who seemed to have the firmest working grasp of the rules - and the rulebook - squared off opposite of the royal guard. They both leaned forward, wings spread, grinning at one another as they hoofed the ground, heralding a charge, as Armor blew his whistle, releasing his telekinetic grasp on the ball and turning to gallop directly off the field. Twilight watched the ball as it picked up speed toward the ground, while the two stallions squared off over it.

The moment the ball hit the ground, Thunderlane and Echo charged towards one another, and Twilight sat, grinning to herself, as Spike appeared next to her, offering her a fresh Zap Apple. She took it from him without looking as the two ponies passed each other, somehow not contacting one another, the Royal Guardsman coming up in possession of the ball, bouncing it between his hooves and out in front of him as he galloped at the Wonderbolts line, bypassing Thunderlane, who turned around to give pursuit.

Echo seemed about to make a kamikaze charge through the Wonderbolts’ captain, but at seemingly the last second he kicked the ball, hard and behind him, taking flight and soaring up and over their team. The Wonderbolts all gave chase for the ball, which soared past Thunderlane’s head despite his lunge toward it, and Luna took possession of it as she rose into the air with a fantastic snap of air displaced by her enormous wings, arresting the ball’s forward momentum by turning her head to the side and deflecting it up; she followed it upward, even as Rainbow Dash took wing and shot straight at her, attempting to kick it from her, a move which Luna foiled by barrel rolling around the ball she kicked upwards with her hooves, keeping it inside her own turning circle.

Rainbow Dash’s charge foiled, she deflected around Luna, soaring for the goal end of the field and wheeling around, but too late; despite another Wonderbolt mare, with white mane and tail, attempting to interfere, Luna successfully cleared the ball and hammered it with her snout, sending it sailing towards the gaggle of players rising into the air. Though Spitfire went for it, Cadance’s longer wingspan allowed her to swat the ball away first, deflecting it below the Wonderbolts team captain, toward a gold-armored Guard who was wheeling around. The guard mare tucked her wings in, diving as the ball fell towards her rear, then past it; in a move worthy of any member of the Apple family, she lashed out with both of her rear hooves, bucking the ball hard and clear of Thunderlane’s attempt to rise up from below her and take possession of it.

The ball soared out, over, and clear of most of the Wonderbolts, and Twilight immediately saw their error; with everypony on the team watching where the ball was, none of them had figured in where it might go: Echo, the pony who had started the play by stealing it from Thunderlane, was deep on the Wonderbolts’ side of the pitch and completely free of interference. He wouldn’t have too long unchallenged, as Rainbow Dash had completed her tight turn around the time Cadance had knocked the ball away from Spitfire, and was now diving at him. He’d never outrun her; Rainbow Dash was unquestionably the fastest living pony in the air and probably in all of history, while Echo was burdened with heavy armor. Still, he didn’t need to outrun her forever, just long enough to take control of the ball and make his play, which would happen well before Dash could reach him.

He spun around in the air holding his rear legs up to arrest the ball’s trajectory to sail past him, rolling back over and diving atop it as the ball fell for the pitch’s surface. Twilight couldn’t quite decide whether he was galloping or flying in close proximity to the earth as he barreled towards the goal, the Wonderbolts goaltender lining up to attempt to intercept him as Rainbow Dash dove down towards him, Spitfire coming up on her wing, the pair of mares leaving brilliant streaks through the air as they accelerated, Rainbow Dash’s a vibrant, solid rainbow, Spitfire’s like a blaze of amber-and-gold flame in her wake.

Echo crossed the penalty arc like an airborne stampede, and lashed his whole body at the ball, skidding sideways and tucking his wings in. It was a dramatic, incredible and risky move, but it nearly worked; the ball soared clear of Rainbow Dash and Spitfire’s reach, toward the goalie who was moving to intercept it. The Wonderbolts goaltender, a white stallion with a midnight-blue mane, had to lunge hard toward the opposite end of his goal from where he had been, stretching his head out to try to block the ball.

The goaltender leapt towards the ball with a powerful flap of his wings, but he leapt too low to reflect the ball back at the field, and wasn’t able to grab it from the air with his hooves. It smacked into the side of his snout and rolled hard over his flight goggles and off the top of his head, through the air and hitting the heavy metal top of the goal next, bouncing up over it and flopping down into the backside of the net, rolling down and off the pitch.

Twilight realized she was holding her breath and levitating an untouched apple in front of her head, so transfixed on the play had she been. Her brother was blowing his whistle as he galloped down the field, Spike in hot pursuit, and Twilight turned, breaking into a gallop of her own, running down the length of the pitch, as her brother called out. “Saved! Guards have the corner kick!”

The teams landed, and the respective captains rallied their teams together, as Shining Armor levitated the ball, galloping to the corner of the pitch on the opposite side, where the ball had gone over. The teams lined up mostly in an arc away from the corner arc, wings spread; the ponies at the front of the arc ready to charge forward on hoof, while those at the back were ready to leap into the air on a moment’s notice.

Armor placed the ball on the white-marked corner of the pitch, and Princess Luna trotted straight out to him, declaring “I’ll take the kick” to the field. She trotted out of the bound markers, around the corner post, and lined up to face the ball, lowering her front shoulders and head, hoofing at the ground, telegraphing her charge at the ball, then looking toward the goal, where the goalie was sitting on his haunches, wings and forelegs spread, clearly ready to jump up and intercept the ball should she try a trick shot that some other member of his team failed to intercept.

Luna broke into her charge suddenly, reaching a full gallop in an instant thanks to a flap of her enormous wingspan, and then jumped into the air as she reached the ball. Going vertical, the midnight-blue alicorn pulled into a tight, wing-assisted backflip, using the momentum to snap her rear hooves at the ball, making solid contact with both at once.

It was a spectacular kick, but Twilight couldn’t understand why - the ball went nowhere towards the Wonderbolts goal, instead propelled over the lined up ponies towards the center of the pitch. It went so fast and far that Twilight wondered if even Rainbow Dash could have intercepted it in a vertical leap, but Dash was nowhere near it, and the Wonderbolt who did flap for it couldn’t reach the ball as it sailed over him.

She followed the ball with her head, and then the reasoning behind it became apparent: the Guards goaltender had abandoned his goal the moment Luna started her gallop and was himself galloping down the pitch like a freight train as the ball hit the turf and bounced, soaring toward him.

Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if Princess Luna’s intent hadn’t been to score a goal but create the most exciting, visually-and-physically dramatic play she could have, as it certainly worked. Utter chaos struck the Wonderbolts’ ranks as they broke from their expected defensive play to act, Spitfire desperately trying to whistle her team into order as they scattered, taking to the wing and hoof with little organization, Rainbow Dash taking flight and diving directly for the oncoming goaltender as he took control of the ball, batting it forward with his hooves.

Rainbow Dash stretched her hooves out, skimming over the ground at full wing and lower than she stood tall, clearly intent on battering the ball from the Guards goaltender’s possession, or at the very least spoiling his play, but he was evidently prepared for her exact maneuver, as he stamped hard on the back of the ball with his next hoof-fall, spinning the ball into the air and headbutting it high. Rainbow tried to pull up and intercept it, but it went too high, too fast, and she soared past him at speed, leaving the armored Pegasus to leap into the air and headbutt the ball again towards his team, as Rainbow Dash was left flying down the pitch, pulling up hard, belly to the skies, and rolling over furiously, reorienting her head to the action and her hooves to the pitch as she dove toward the ball, completing a full Immelmann in only twice her length and orienting again towards the ball.

The ball hit the ground hard between the oncoming goaltender and the crush of players stampeding and winging towards it. Luna had taken flight and was diving toward the ball, while Cadance and Spitfire were the two players nearest to it, both galloping towards the ball as it came toward them. Cadance spread her wings, flapping to gain height, and Spitfire responded by spreading her own, flapping to propel herself faster. The fire-maned Wonderbolt caught up to the ball first, and whistled loudly as she leapt directly into it, arresting the ball’s forward momentum and propelling it straight into the air. She tried to chase it into the air, but Cadance caught up first, checking it upwards as Luna had earlier, batting it farther up as she flapped parallel to its vertical direction of travel, attempting to arrest Rainbow Dash’s interception by rolling around the ball.

This time, though, it didn’t work, Rainbow Dash pulling into an immensely tight corkscrew, matching direction and rotation with Cadance, spiraling up towards her, as Spitfire dropped down, spreading her wings and going horizontal on her back, stalling. Cadance had a split second to be surprised at the rainbow-blurred streak rising into the sky with her, before Rainbow reached out with her rear hoof, batting the ball up higher, spoiling Cadance’s rhythm, then smacking it down toward the field with her snout when they caught up to it.

The ball’s momentum stolen, it fell through Cadance’s rear legs, towards the stalled-out Spitfire, who pitched herself down, completing a Split-S turn and kicking the ball directly to the nearby Thunderlane, with Echo hot on his tail. Thunderlane batted the ball between his legs as he dove, wheeling around on his center of travel to spoil Echo’s attempt to steal the ball, then touched down into a hard gallop, flapping for speed with what seemed the entire Guards team on his tail, charging directly at their unguarded goal.

Try as he might, Echo simply couldn’t catch Thunderlane, the Wonderbolt unburdened by armor and professionally swift. Even Echo’s desperate lunge brought him far short, the Royal Guardsman eating turf and falling by the wayside as Thunderlane charged the goal.

It seemed like a clear line, but one Guards player on the wing had the speed and momentum built up to challenge him. Princess Luna was airborne, speeding up along the pitch’s sides parallel to Thunderlane, pulling ahead, then veering hard towards him, wingtips to the pitch and sky as she barreled in towards the ball.

Luna tucked her wings in and impacted the pitch hard, ahead of Thunderlane and just to the side, skidding across his direction of travel, her head tucked down and trying to bat the ball away from him with the top of her long horn, but Thunderlane must have caught her out of the corner of his eyes. He hopped into the air, kicking the ball up with his forehoof and pulling into the same hard backflip-loop that Luna herself had used to kick off the play, battering the ball like Applejack bucking a tree with his rear hooves, blasting it over the Princess as she skidded along the grass. Luna’s hooves lashed out desperately, attempting to deflect the ball, but she barely grazed it, putting a slight horizontal spin on it as it skidded along the ground toward the unguarded goal.

The ball started to deflect of its own accord, the spin Luna’s grazing hoof-strike putting on it sending the ball curving towards the side of the pitch, but not quickly, and it was already close to the goal. The ball bounced once, twice, and then impacted the goalpost, leaving the metal frame ringing, but it somehow managed to deflect in, spinning like a top and hitting the back of the net, coming to a full stop.

Twilight couldn’t help herself, laughing and sitting back; the grass wasn’t hard enough for her to make a suitable applause by stamping on it, so she clapped her forehooves together to make the sound, as her brother blew his whistle loudly, the Thunderbolts team leaping into the air in a brief cheer, Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane sailing past one another trailing their mane colors, their hooves connecting with a loud, hollow clop, before Thunderlane pulled a loop and dove back to the pitch.

Twilight felt herself enthralled watching, and didn’t notice Spike tugging at her mane the first few pulls, but he got her attention eventually, and she looked down with a grin. “Isn’t this fun to watch, Spike?” “Uh-huh,” Spike answered. “I’ve been watching it the last few days. But, uh... Tonight’s the Gala, isn’t it?”

“Oh... Shoot,” Twilight said, with a chuckle. “Heh. I’m going to get hopelessly distracted if I keep watching, aren’t I?” Spike nodded, and she pulled him close with her hoof, hugging him loosely to her chest. “Though, I’m half-tempted to ask if we could just make the match one of the events.”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” Spike said, grinning, and Twilight nodded. “Maybe, but the Wonderbolts have an air show to put on, too. They’re going to need to rest after this.” “Oh, yeah,” the baby dragon said, with a sad sigh. “You’re right, Twi.” “So, let’s go check on the others.”

Spike nodded, and Twilight waved to her brother, though he was too busy to wave back, evidently, as the match had already resumed. She stared at the match for a few moments as the two teams soared and galloped and competed for control of the ball, which somehow wound up being kicked higher and higher as Luna, Cadance, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire circled one another in a complicated aerial ballet, jockeying for control of the ball, the Princesses’ reach and size giving them an advantage, but the smaller, professional aviators having much shorter turning circles and far greater maneuverability in the air.

“Hey! Equestria to Twilight,” Spike called out in a drawn-out, singsong voice, getting her attention, and Twilight looked back down at him, chuckling. “Right, right, sorry. Come on.” She turned around, and Spike hopped up on her back, then she started to leave, despite the exciting swoops of wings, snaps of air, and thud of hooves into the ball coming from behind her.

“Geeze, Twilight, you’re grinning harder than I’ve seen you grin in a while,” Spike said, as Twilight trotted around the castle green, towards the stairs that could lead back up or down another terrace level. Twilight smiled. “The last month has been kind of, you know, all work and no play. It was... It was nice to see my brother again, and Cadance, not to mention Princess Luna, and it was great to see Rainbow Dash enjoying herself again.

Spike chuckled. “Awh. You sound like you’d rather jump out there on the pitch yourself, Twilight.” She chuckled. “I guess... I would! But, you know...” She looked back, to her side, illustrating the stark lack of wings on her sides. “I’d be at a bit of a disadvantage.”

Spike laughed. “I guess. Hey, since when have you been into football, huh?” “I...” Twilight paused, shrugging her shoulders best she could without rearing up. “I don’t know. Never, really, but... It’s infectious, watching so many ponies have fun...” “Maybe Rainbow Dash isn’t the only pony around here who’s gone for too long without a break,” Spike shot back, and Twilight pouted as she turned around the corner, starting to climb back toward the castle.

“Are you saying I couldn’t play? You know, if I wasn’t trying to play against Pegasus ponies?” The baby dragon on her back shook his head, extending his hands toward her. “No, no, I’m not saying that! I just, you know... I don’t really think that sort of thing is really your speed? When was the last time you sat down and read something.”

“Um... Just now, when I helped my brother look up rules?” “Okay, and before that?” “I don’t know... My ledger, yesterday?” “Something not related to magic studies or organizing the Grand Galloping Gala,” Spike retorted, and Twilight frowned, because he was getting close to home; she had to think about it.

“Okay, okay. It was on the first, when the latest Daring-Do book arrived at the library,” Twilight conceded, and Spike shook his head. “You sure? How did it end?” “Um...”

Frowning, Twilight crested the stairs, and paused, her eyes narrowing as she focused on remembering the book. “I don’t... Okay, I don’t remember. But what has that got to do with it?” “Because you read the dust jacket and then Pinkie Pie turned up and you set it down and forgot about it,” Spike explained, and Twilight sighed.

“Okay, okay. You’re right. Since when did you become my psychiatrist, anyway?” “Uh... Since ever?” Spike leaned forward, onto her shoulders, hugging the back of her neck, and Twilight sighed; it was rather impossible to be angry with him when he was hugging her. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m so much of a nerd that the only time I’d take an interest in sports is when I’ve gone a month without any entertainment whatsoever?” “Uh...” “Because I did enter the Running of the Leaves, you recall?”

Spike sighed. “Twilight... You didn’t enter the Running of the Leaves this year,” he explained, as she started to walk again. “What do you mean? I distinctly remember the race, and passing other racers...” “Yeah, you went on the race course, and you passed ponies, but you didn’t enter the race, Twi. You were just at Sweet Apple Acres to check on Applejack, and then Scootaloo mentioned that Pinkie had been talking about hearing an amazing deal on streamers if she bought ten tons worth... Then you kind of just... Galloped straight back to Ponyville, which took you onto the racecourse for the end, but you didn’t actually run it.”

“Oh, no,” Twilight moaned. “I missed it? How did Applejack let me live that down?” “She, uh... She forgot the start, too, so I don’t think she wanted to bring it up.”

Twilight hung her head in shame, as she walked around the palace grounds, towards the kitchens. “You know what? We’re going to have fun tonight. Whether or not I get a chance to talk with the Princess, whether or not Rarity meets another Prince, whether or not the critters take to Fluttershy or the Wonderbolts can spare a word for Rainbow Dash, we’re going to have fun, because I am going to round up my friends and we’re going to make fun.”

“That sounds like a job for Pinkie Pie,” Spike laughed, and Twilight grinned. “Exactly! As soon as the decorations are done, I’m going to find Pinkie Pie and give her the mission... I think she’s up to it. Anyway...” She took a deep breath. “We need to check on AJ. Or at least, I do.” “Should we split up, Twi?” Spike hopped off her back. “Want me to go keep an eye on Pinkie?”

Twilight thought about it for a moment, looking down at Spike, and shaking her head. “Actually, no. Pinkie promised she’d handle this. We have to trust her.” She prodded her baby dragon in the back, and Spike looked up at her, nodding. “Okay! Let’s get to the kitchens, then.”

Spike darted out ahead of her, and Twilight chuckled, following him, heading into the kitchen, and immediately walking into the domain of the Apple clan. Banjo music assaulted her senses at the exact same moment the smell of cooking.

“Hey, Twi,” she heard Applejack yell for her, over the general din of the cooking, and she whistled for Twilight. Applejack was on a raised cooking platform, a place for the master chef to work whilst still overseeing and directing his or her assistants, cheerfully kneading a small mountain of dough to the beat of the song. “Come to help, or hear the music?”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh, grinning as she navigated through the crowd, mostly Apples - though she did pass Bon Bon who was joyfully drizzling something hot and sticky onto a plate of Zap Apples which had already been impaled with a stick. Twilight paused, looking at her. “Caramel Zap Apples?”

Bon Bon looked back, and laughed. “Sure. If you consider an exquisite blend of five flavors of exotic candy from as far away as the Zebra kingdoms to be ‘caramel.’” Twilight chuckled, and nodded. “Oookay. Sounds great.” “It will be,” Bon Bon said with a grin. “I just have to get it coated just right.”

Twilight passed the candy-maker and climbed up to Applejack’s platform. “What are you making, AJ?” “This side’s gonna be Zap Apple bread, this half’s gonna be pie crusts.” There was already a pie sitting on the indicated side, and Twilight grinned. “Got an example made, I see.” “Example? Heck no, that’s my lunch.” She grinned. “So, you seen what RD and the Wonderbolts are up to?” Twilight smiled, as Spike craned himself over the table Applejack was working on, watching her knead the dough.

“I sure have,” Twilight admitted. “Honestly, if Spike hadn’t pulled me away, I’d still be watching.” “Really? It’s that good, huh?” She shook her head. “It’s been a long time since I played a good ol’ game o’ hoofball, but when Big Mac told me what they were up to, I wanted to run right on out and join ‘em. ‘Course, then he mentioned they were all Pegasi, so...” Applejack shrugged.

Twilight nodded. “I know the feeling, and I’ve never played football before. So, uh...” She nodded her head towards the side, where two ponies sat, identical save for their cutie marks, both of them with light brown coats and silvery-blue mane and tail, one playing a shiny banjo, the other a heavy guitar. Applejack smiled. “That’s Applewood Banjo and his twin brother, Applewood Guitar. Banjo’s the one playing the guitar and vice versa, mind you.”

“Really? They’re taking a break?” “Naw,” Applejack replied, with a grin. “They’re about as lethal a chef as I am after a week without sleepin’.” Twilight cringed, in memory of the time Applejack had poisoned a significant fraction of a percentage of the population of Ponyville by helping Pinkie bake whilst sleep-deprived. “They’re here to support us, like Big Mac is.” “Ah... By pulling carts?” “Naw, by keepin’ the music goin’, silly filly.” Applejack gestured to them with her tail, flicking it slightly towards the two. “You didn’t hear ‘em your first day in Ponyville ‘cause we were takin’ a break when you showed up. Sooner or later they’ll get tired and then uncle Strudel will jump in with his squeezebox.”

Twilight shook her head, but smiled. “Our family scares me, AJ, but in a good way.” “Our?” Applejack looked back, then grinned as she got it, swaying her hips into Twilight’s side, giggling. “Good one, Twi. But don’t go claimin’ membership too loud in this crowd, or someone’s liable to shanghai you an’ put you to work!”

Twilight nodded, and sat back on the rear edge of Applejack’s platform, raising her nose, closing her eyes, and inhaling the smell of the cooking as she let the rapid-fire twang of the two string instruments go through her. It felt weird, but at the same time, it was nice; the sound of laughing and joking, of music and cooking instructions being called out. It made her smile, and she started to stand up, but her stomach chose that moment to let out a dramatic rumble, and Applejack looked at her. “You ain’t eat anythin’ in a while, Twi?” “Well, I had a Zap Apple that Spike brought me... But now that you mention it, I don’t remember eating it.”

She looked down at Spike. “Spiiiike... Did you steal my Zap Apple?” “Of course not, Twilight,” he protested. “Your brother did, while you weren’t looking.”

Applejack blinked, and laughed softly. “Yep. That’s what a big brother’s for, innit?” “Eeeeyup!” Big Mac’s loud voice caught both their attention, and Applejack looked to the side, where the mammoth stallion was grinning ferociously, and where there had been a pie was now just a single slice left sitting in the pie-plate, his lips stained with the evidence. He was drawing in another cart of goods, and Applejack narrowed her eyes. She swung her hips at him, smacking the shy stallion in the face with her bunched-up tail. “Ha-ha, very funny. Now you go an’ give those to whomever gets ‘em and split.”

Big Mac started to walk away, and Applejack sighed. “He gets a mite mischievous when th’ whole family’s ‘round. Don’t worry none, there’s plenty to go ‘round...” She looked around, and called out over the din, “Hey, y’all! Who’s got a batch ready fer taste-testin’!”

A pony wearing a brilliantly colorful sombrero in vertical stripes whistled back. “I’ve got some!” “Well, bring ‘em on up here, then!” The mare flipped her hat back, revealing a unicorn horn, and levitated two platters up to the empty table next to Applejack, walking around and up to the platform. Applejack smiled. “Twi, this is cousin’ Apple Tortilla. ‘Torty, this here is Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight extended her hoof, which the unicorn mare took, shaking it. Twilight smiled at her, swaying to the side of the wheat-white mare, seeing that her Cutie Mark was indeed a tortilla chip. “Well, what’ve you got, Torty,” AJ asked, and the mare lowered her sombrero over her horn again, sitting up and pointing. “Well, I’ve been turning Zap Apples into tortillas, like you asked, though I’m not really sure they’re fancy enough for this crowd.” Twilight looked at the offerings; one platter was full of tightly rolled tortillas, the other had a dish full of brown bean dip in the middle surrounded by a plate of fried tortilla chips, all of them striped like a Zap Apple. She grinned. “Don’t worry. None of the ponies in Canterlot have ever seen anything like this before. They’ll be too afraid of looking like they don’t know what they’re talking about to spurn them.” “Oh, good,” Tortilla said with a sigh of relief. “I was dreadfully afraid I was wasting Zap Apples by making this. I thought I should have stayed home, but Applejack insisted I come.” “That’s ‘cause your apple tortillas are the best, cousin’. Let’s see here...” Applejack lifted one of the chips, dipping it into the dip and raising it to her mouth, as Tortilla cautioned, “That’s very hot!”

Applejack bit into it anyway, eating the whole chip in one bite, chewing slowly. Her eyes started to water and color flooded through the thin coat on her face, as she swallowed, and sucked in breath, waving her flour-stained hoof in front of her open mouth. “Hooo! I’ll say! Sw-Sweet an’ hot. Who’da thunk they’d have gone together?”

Tortilla smiled at her, as Twilight lifted a chip telekinetically, while Spike clambored onto the table manually. They each dipped at the same time, and tried the chip.

An explosion of heat flooded Twilight’s mouth; the burning taste of some kind of pepper and the warm, savory taste of refried beans singed the roof of her mouth, while she could definitely tell the fruity, multi-flavored taste of the zap apples had withstood being turned into tortilla. The heat was intense, though thankfully not as terrifying as the time she had mistakenly drank from a bottle of hot sauce. She felt her own eyes watering and clenched them, hard, as she finished the chip, the remaining bits of which did not have any dip on it, before swallowing.

“Ah... Ahhh, th-that’s...” She sucked in air, as Applejack had, and Apple Tortilla smiled. “Habanero. It’s one of the hotter peppers in the world.” Twilight trembled, looking at the unicorn, who ate a chip with considerably more dip than either she or Applejack had eaten, seemingly without ill effect. Spike, naturally, seemed completely unaffected, but then, she had seen him cheerfully eat (and enjoy) those poisonous muffins Applejack had baked whilst out of her mind from sleep deprivation, so he was hardly an indicator. Applejack coughed. “Uh... I, um...” “Milk,” Tortilla said, levitating a pitcher and a few glasses over; she poured, and Applejack and Twilight both took the offered glass, gulping it down.

The milk immediately soothed the feeling of heat, but it also spread it much farther, coating her mouth and throat as she swallowed. It was more managable, though, and she breathed, heavily. “Oh... Wow.” She blinked a few times, looking back at Tortilla, who seemed not to be suffering. “I should probably cool it down by making it with jalapeños for the party, shouldn’t I,” she asked, and Twilight squeezed her eyes again. “I, um..” “Sugarcube, perhaps you’d best make a couple different batches,” Applejack admitted, and Tortilla smiled, brightly. “Perfect! I can make a batch of the beans with the habaneros, a batch with the jalapeños, and one with bell peppers.”

The tortilla chip and bean dip, though frighteningly spicy, had struck a chord in Twilight, who realized that she must not have eaten in quite a while. “S-So, um... What are these,” she asked, trying to steer her attention away from the bean dip, pointing at the tightly-rolled tortilla, and Tortilla levitated one. “These? Applejack suggested them.” “Actually, Pinkie Pie suggested ‘em to me, ages ago. In, uh, Dodge Junction.” Applejack’s ears sagged, and Twilight let the comment pass, not wanting to drag on Applejack’s memory of the time she had felt the need to exile herself out of shame for not bringing in first place in any rodeo competition.

“These are chimichangas, but I used fruit filling instead of the normal stuff one uses in a deep-fried chimichanga. See, these are filled with cherry,” she said, indicating three of them. “These are full of apple, and these have zap apples,” she said, with a pause. “Though I’m not honestly sure the zap apple filling will differentiate itself much from the zap apple tortilla. I think the zap apple filling might be a bit of a failure.”

Twilight levitated one of the zap-apple filled chimichangas, and brought it to her mouth, taking a bite and chewing. It was unquestionably sweet, and she smiled as the many tastes of zap apple filled her mouth, much moreso than the chip had produced, sitting down. “Well,” she said after she swallowed. “I like it.”

Tortilla smiled, as Twilight took another bite. “I’m glad. Here, AJ.” She gave the cherrychanga she was levitating to Applejack, and levitated one of the applechangas to herself. They each finished one, and Applejack grinned, rubbing her stomach with her forehoof. “Man, Pinkie Pie is going to bounce when she gets one of these.”

Twilight grinned, levitating one of the cherrychangas and taking a bite of it herself. The sweet, slightly tart flavor of black cherries flooded her mouth, with a hint of the other fruits from the zap apple tortilla, and Twilight grinned. “Yeah, I’m sure she’s gonna love this,” she said to Applejack, as her friend and Spike both tore into their second. Apple Tortilla smiled. “I see you like them,” she said with a pleased grin, and Twilight nodded. “I should make more, then?” “Oh, yeah, Torty. In all the flavors you can think of.”

Apple Tortilla grinned. “Splendid! I’m going to try citrus fruits next; lemon, orange, and grapefruit!” Applejack blinked, and smiled. “Sounds... Good.” “Oooh, I wanna try a grapefruit,” Twilight said, with a grin, and Applejack smiled, nudging her with a hoof. “I guess that’s one vote of confidence. “Get to it, cousin.” Apple Tortilla flipped her sombrero up and saluted Applejack with a forehoof, then grinned and headed back to her cooking station. Twilight smiled at Applejack. “You’ve got everything well in hoof here, AJ.” She levitated the platter of fruit-filled chimichangas. “I’ll take these and see what Pinkie and the others think, but I think they’re gonna go over well.” “Well... Well with y’all, anyway. I dunno about... You know, them fancified folk we’re expecting soon.” “They’ll love it. And if they don’t, well...” She shrugged. “We’ll deal with that when it happens. But here we are; it’s too late to back out now.”

Applejack nodded, and sighed. “Yeah. I keep tellin’ myself that. Sooner or later I’ll even believe it, too. Now you two, git. If’in I need ya, I’ll call ya.”

Twilight stood up, and headed toward the exit of the kitchens, Spike climbing up on her back, the tray levitating in front of her. “I’ll go check on Pinkie Pie, then take this tray to the Princess and see what she thinks, assuming Pinkie leaves any,” Twilight called to Applejack, looking behind her as she walked through the door into the castle.

“See what I think of what, my dear student?” The voice came from her other side, and Twilight spun around to look; the Princess herself was sitting in a doorless kitchenware storage-room, and Twilight squeaked. “Uh.... Princess, I...” She blinked, caught offguard, and Celestia laughed. “Relax, Twilight.” The enormous mare stood up, walking over to her, and leaned down, peering at the tray. “What are these?” “Fruit chimichangas,” Twilight answered, as Celestia turned and started to walk away, causing Twilight to follow her instinctively. “These are cherrychangas, these are applechangas, and these are zap applechangas.”

Celestia smiled, levitating three of the remaining chimichangas, one each of each type, beaming as she looked them over, rotating them in the air before her. “Oh, these look great! I wonder how they made this wonderful stripe effect.” She brought the three chimichangas together and took an enormous bite, taking off a little under half of all three of the chimichangas, chewing them and clearly savoring them.

Twilight stifled a giggle at the princess’ exuberant bite, a method of eating she would normally associate with Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie, not someone that one would expect to be even more refined than Rarity. She knew the princess had an impishly mischievous streak, though, and was just glad she nevertheless chewed with her mouth closed, before swallowing it. She looked back, her eyes bright, and smiled warmly. “These are incredible, Twilight! Who made them?”

Twilight looked back towards the kitchen, receding into the distance. “Apple Tortilla made them, Princess. It’s a tortilla made out of zap apples - somehow - and filled with fruit filling, then deep fried.

Celestia smiled at her, and took another enormous bite, finishing off all but about an inch of the three chimichangas, and swallowed, then looked back. “Spike?” She levitated them towards Twilight’s back, and Spike jumped off her, mouth open, capturing all three in his mouth and landing to walk with them, as he noisily enjoyed the three bite-sized fruit chimichangas.

“So, have you got the musicians practicing,” Celestia asked, and Twilight blinked, then shook her head, smiling. “Oh, the music back there? No, that’s just some of Applejack’s family, playing for the cooks.” “Really?” Celestia smiled. “They’re nice. I was going to the kitchens to get a snack, but I heard the music playing and stepped aside to listen to it. That’s not something I get to hear every day in Canterlot.”

Twilight could only smile, and nod, as the Princess continued. “Anyway, I do hope everything will be ready soon. I can’t wait to see the castle, before I have to welcome all those guests.” She sighed, and Twilight shrugged. “Why not get somepony else to welcome the guests, Princess?” “I suppose I could,” Celestia murmured, absently, looking back at Twilight as she walked through the castle. “But I’ve greeted all the guests at the Grand Galloping Gala since the very first one, thousands of years ago.”

Twilight frowned, looking down at the exquisite carpet she was stepping over, enchanted to never wear and repel soiling, such as the light coating of flour on her hooves, which simply vanished as she left it on the carpet, and Celestia stretched her wing out, laying it over Twilight’s back. “So, I suppose I could ask someone else to greet the guests for me. It would certainly make things easier, since I might actually get a chance to enjoy my own party for a change,” Celestia murmured, looking down at Twilight with a smile. “But it would necessitate breaking with what has become a tradition. Even when the Grand Galloping Gala started...” She fell silent for a moment, with a chuckle. “A long, long, long time before it was called that; several names before, in fact, I was always the one at the door, greeting the friends, the allies, those who had come together to get in out of the cold and enjoy the hospitality my sister and I could muster.”

Twilight blinked, looking up at Celestia, who had a wistful look in her face. It was very, very rare that Celestia talked about the ancient past, despite having lived it. “The castle wasn’t at Canterlot, then,” she murmured. “It wasn’t even the one you and your friends found in what is now the Everfree Forest. It was several castles before that, too... More of a lodge, really, on the frozen coast; a wooden great hall with a burgeoning town surrounding it, with a wooden palisade that was actually there because in those days, ponies needed protection from the wild things. Timber Wolves certainly weren’t restricted to Everfree then. The Grand Galloping Gala started when I called all the different pony lords and ladies from all around to a great feast in the dead of winter, to reassure ourselves that our ties were still strong, that we were still working for everypony’s mutual benefit. Those were... Very different days, when the rules of hospitality were very much matters of life or death, honor or dishonor. It behooved me to greet all of my guests personally, it was a rather important matter, to them and me.”

Celestia sighed, lifting her head and looking out a window, over the distance and past the horizon. “So, I suppose I could get someone else to greet my guests for me, or greet them in large lots, a little less personally. It would certainly save me a lot of time and trouble, and it’s certainly true that there are quite a few more guests these days than there were then... And don’t think it hasn’t occurred to me before. The Grand Galloping Gala has become... Quite a bit dull in recent years. But I have yet to see a reason to cancel the Gala, and I have yet to have a compelling enough reason not to greet my guests individually to have someone else do it, or to greet them in groups.”

Twilight nodded in understanding, feeling a little guilty for even having suggested it, but Celestia smiled at her, patting her back with her outstretched wing. “Not that I haven’t thought about it, believe me.” She grinned down at Twilight, who smiled lightly and looked back up. The Princess had guided them to the main hall of the castle. Currently, it had yet to be touched by the decorating team, though Twilight distinctly saw the form of Pinkie Pie marching her party cannon around outside, and Vinyl Scratch was setting her sound system up with the help of a few palace caretakers. The dance hall and throne room were farther back, and the entry hall was down below, where Pinkie Pie would have been. “Twilight, come with me,” the Princess said, and Twilight looked up at her. “Spike,” Celestia murmured. “Please, take these treats to dear Pinkie Pie, see how she likes them.” Celestia levitated the tray out of Twilight’s telekinetic grasp, handing them to the baby dragon, who blinked, and nodded, taking the tray with one hand and saluting with the other. Princess Celestia led Twilight up and back, towards the throne room, but detoured into the libraries, walking them right past the guard who was standing attention at the door - though closed off for the gala, he certainly didn’t object when Celestia levitated the velvet rope out of the way, simply sitting on his haunches and smartly saluting her, receiving a salute with Celestia’s wing in reply.

“Princess?” Twilight felt an eager, and nervous, hitch in her voice. “Are you going to give me a quiz? I haven’t had any time to study, but -” “No, Twilight,” Celestia said, with a laugh, laying her wing across Twilight’s back again. “I hardly need test you these days. Though, since you insist, show me a gravity spell.”

“A gravity spell? Okay, I can -” “Not one you’ve studied,” Celestia said. “Show me something of Twilight Sparkle’s.”

Twilight blinked, and bit her lip, thinking on the topic. She couldn’t just reverse gravity’s effect on her to fall to the ceiling as she had in the Crystal Empire, and redirecting gravity’s effect so she fell to the wall would be too derivative to satisfy herself, let alone the Princess. Twilight took a deep breath, closing her eyes, thinking about what she knew of gravity spells, formulas and descriptions flowing through her mind. Then she had an idea, and started to draw power to herself, her horn starting to vibrate as it glowed.

Opening her eyes, Twilight darted forward, feeling the weight on her hooves as they fell upon the hard floor, completing what she needed in the spell; levitation was using telekinetic force to oppose gravity, and spells to reverse gravity were tricky, but hardly impossible. This?

She felt gravity’s grip on her, took hold of it in return, and broke the grip, giving a laugh and kicking off from the floor. Without the inexorable downward draw of gravity, she soared, floating in the direction she had jumped, rolling over in the sky as she sailed languidly toward the ceiling, tucking her head in she hit it with her back and smoothly rolled, her movement arrested as she came to a sitting position on the ceiling, drifting back towards the floor, but slowly. Below her, Celestia laughed back, and raised her head. The Princess’ horn started to glow a brilliant yellow, and Twilight felt the telekinetic hold take grip over her again, and nudged her down, so she floated towards the white princess standing below her. “Gravity negation? I’m impressed,” Celestia said. “How’s your concentration? “It’s...” Twilight was focusing on the spell, but she was hardly sweating. “Stable. Not as bad as levitating myself.”

Celestia smiled, and Twilight felt the Princess’ telekinetic grip around her again. “Let go,” Celestia said, and Twilight relaxed, letting the spell end. With the gravity negation gone, she felt her weight return, sagging slightly, as the Princess lowered her back to the floor, and continued walking. Celestia led her into a sunlit reading room, a large, turreted room on the wall of the castle, glass-enclosed above and to the sides. Outside, she saw the distinctive trail of Rainbow Dash flying, and peered at the game, which was evidently still going. It brought a smile to her face, and she looked back as Celestia sat on the bench by the window, amidst a small stack of books. Twilight sat opposite her, on the floor. “It was Luna’s idea, not to rebuild the hedge maze, and install the sports field instead,” Celestia commented, turning her own head to view the game. Twilight pulled her binoculars out and looked through them; Rainbow Dash had intercepted the ball near the Wonderbolts’ goal and was heading it in the air as she arched up, towards the Guards’ goal. Luna was in the way, though, and while Rainbow tried to go around, Luna directed a hard flap of her wings at the smaller pegasus. It certainly didn’t phase Rainbow Dash, but the sharp gust of wind knocked the ball from her control, and one of the other Guards took possession of it. Celestia chuckled as she saw it. “Oooh, that looks like a foul.” “It is?” Twilight set her binoculars down, and Celestia smiled. “I think so. The rules stipulate Pegasi aren’t to engage in weather manipulation during the game to affect the ball or other players. I’m not sure if Shining Armor will call it or not, though.”

She turned back to Twilight, and smiled. “So, Twilight, you’ve had a lot of action recently, haven’t you?” “Action? Well... Things have been a little more complicated than I would have liked recently, I’ll admit,” Twilight said with a nod, and Celestia nodded herself. “A lot of bad things have been happening recently. Luna’s return was welcome; Nightmare Moon’s was not, but thankfully, you and your friends took care of that, and brought my little sister back to me.” Celestia smiled, wistfully, and sighed happily. “Then there was that dragon who sought to roost in Equestria. That would have been a nightmare. And Discord’s return... Well, you handled him quite nicely, and for that, everypony is grateful.”

Twilight nodded at the Princess, and smiled. “Well, everypony, though Pinkie Pie may be a little upset about the no more chocolate rain thing.” Her joke made the princess grin, and Celestia raised her hoof to her muzzle to muffle the soft titter that came out. Twilight sighed softly, closing her eyes, inclining her head toward the floor. “It has been crazy lately, hasn’t it? Cadance’s wedding, and those Changelings... Then there was the return of King Sombra with the Crystal Empire... How is it doing, anyway?”

Celestia smiled softly. “It’s doing well, actually, thanks to Cadance and Shining Armor. After I had to quash that ridiculous rumor that I’d emptied the royal treasury to build Cadance a city of crystal as a wedding present, everything went well.” She rolled her eyes, and Twilight smiled, nodding at her. “Um, Princess... If I may ask, why is it called an Empire? It’s just one city... And not even a very big city at that.”

“Cities were not what you would consider large, in ancient times, Twilight. At one time, Ponyville would have been considered a city, given its size and population. The city you saw was once the capital of an empire, worthy of its name. Equestria and the Crystal Empire were neighbors, friendly ones, for a very, very long time...” Celestia looked down, and Twilight nodded. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

Celestia opened her eyes, and nodded. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle. Something happened... King Sombra happened.” She took on a somber tone, sighing. “Sombra was... A very strong, a very charismatic unicorn, a very powerful unicorn, Twilight. He studied magic with me, he studied under Star Swirl the Bearded.” “Star Swirl? Wasn’t Star Swirl one of the mentors of Clover the Clever? But that was... Ages and ages ago.”

Celestia laughed softly, and nodded. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle, that is so. But remember, Star Swirl was the pioneer of time-altering magics. To say he was long-lived would be a gross injustice. When he died, Star Swirl was older than I am today.”

Twilight felt her jaw drop, as she stared up at the Princess. She had no idea how old Princess Celestia was, but she knew well that Celestia far predated Equestria as a unified kingdom, and the events around its founding were themselves lost in the mists of time. Even so, Princess Celestia had the advantage of being an Alicorn - ageless. Celestia nodded, seeing that sink into Twilight, and closed her eyes. “Star Swirl was an incredible teacher. He taught me many of the things I know, you know - and Luna, of course. Sometimes, he would vanish for centuries on end, and long after we’d decided he must have died and held a funeral for him, he’d wander back into Equestria, saddlebags and wagons full of trinkets and baubles and artifacts of his journeys or his forays into other vocations. Once he spent a century attempting to master the art of freestyle sculpture. He was never satisfied with anything he sculpted, and he smashed his finest work in a fit of anger at its failure to meet his expectations. The remains of that sculpture to this day are prized antiquities, some of which are in the possession of collectors. I think one piece is actually owned by somepony from Ponyville... But, I digress.”

Twilight sat, transfixed, by the Princess’ stories, as Celestia closed her eyes. “King Sombra was student of Star Swirl’s, too... His last student, actually.” “His... His last student?” “Sombra killed him, Twilight,” Celestia sadly explained. “He killed him because Star Swirl had reached the end of his usefulness to Sombra; Star Swirl had taught him all that he was willing to teach him.”

“That’s... That’s...” “Monstrous is the word you are looking for, Twilight. Star Swirl was never a great judge of character, but even he could see the unchecked, limitless ambition in Sombra’s heart. Sombra wanted to learn the secrets of temporal magic, and Star Swirl knew that if Sombra mastered such magic, he would use it, he would use it without compunction or compassion, he would use it again and again until he had either satisfied himself with the results, or ripped apart the flow of time in such a way as to bring an end to existence as we know it.”

Twilight felt her mouth dry, and she licked her lips, trying to wet them. “Is... Is such a thing possible, Princess Celestia?” “It is, Twilight. It is possible. Time is a resilient thing, but even the most resilient things will tear asunder when assaulted repeatedly. Had Star Swirl taught Sombra what he wished to know, I’ve no doubt that he would have freely altered history, again and again, pre-emptively shaping events, places, ponies, to his own liking. He could have murdered his strongest rivals and opponents when they were foals, caused the outcomes of wars to change - cause wars which never happened to occur, or preempted wars which did happen.”

“I... I thought that such things were impossible? When I-” “When you what, Twilight?” Celestia raised her eyebrow, and Twilight blushed. “Erm... When I-” “When you snuck into a library you could have walked into as gladly as welcome news and used a time travel spell to take yourself to the past...” “Yes,” Twilight admitted, sighing. “When I did that, I gave myself a half-way cryptic message that convinced me utter disaster was going to befall Equestria, only to have a lot of pointless things happen due to my worrying that made me look like a disaster had happened. Then when I use the spell to try and tell myself in the past that nothing bad would happen and not to worry, I wound up delivering the same cryptic message I received in the first place because I wouldn’t shut up about time travel long enough to hear the message. So I... I thought that changing the past was impossible.”

Celestia smiled, softly, and shook her head. “You’re the first pony in a thousand years to hear this, Twilight, but that is not the case. The spell you used, which let you appear in the past and deliver a short message, was one of Star Swirl’s later inventions, and it was designed specifically to give that impression, that false impression.”

Twilight couldn’t help but blink in confusion. “I... I don’t understand, Princess?” “You must understand, Twilight. that temporal magic is very, very dangerous, when one begins to meddle in history. After the Temporal Wars were over -” “Um... Temporal Wars, Princess?” Twilight blinked, and Celestia smiled, reaching across the table, patting Twilight’s head with her hoof. “You never had to worry about those, Twilight, and you never will. They’re not in the history books because technically, they never happened, and for that, you should be grateful. But, as I was saying, after the Temporal Wars concluded by never having happened in the first place, Star Swirl, Luna and I decided that temporal magic was too dangerous. So, Star Swirl devised a spell that was one part time travel, many parts divination and fate-alteration. He wove it into the very fabric of magic, so that any Unicorn attempting independent research on time travel would be almost unquestionably certain to develop that particular spell first. Then they would use it, again and again, and always with the same result of causing themselves a week’s worth of trivial, exhausting hassle and minor injuries, followed by the utter failure to avert anything if they tried to use the spell. It is not the case that time itself is predetermined, rather that the spell Star Swirl designed causes the predestination.”

“So... He... Sabotaged that spell, so that unicorn ponies who attempted to develop magic to travel through or alter time would find it first, completely fail to do anything useful, and come to the conclusion that any attempt to influence the past would result in creating a causal loop that resulted in your own actions bringing to pass everything you intended to avoid? Hopefully discouraging anypony from doing any further research into temporal magic?”

Celestia nodded, softly. “Yes, Twilight. That is exactly the case. The effect isn’t perfect, though. A disciplined mind, aware of the possibility that at any time they may receive a message from a future version of themselves, may be able to shake the predestination effect of the spell, and cause real change to occur. And with other, unfettered temporal spells, untold, terrible changes might be wrought.”

“I...” Twilight blinked, hard, swallowing, wondering how their conversations had gone to such a heavy place. “Why are you telling me this, Princess? Do you think I might need to use that spell again?” “No, Twilight, but... with all that has happened recently, I can’t discount the possibility of a situation so dire arising that it might be your only hope to salvage some terrible situation. Listen carefully: if, and only if, a situation that is more dire than anything you have faced before were to arise, here is what you must do should you decide that sending yourself a message in the past is the only hope. You must have a way to silence your past self, so that you may speak uninterrupted; whether through having a code-phrase established in your head to tell yourself to still your teeth, or by forcefully silencing yourself to make you listen. Then you must tell yourself exactly what you already have done. Telling yourself that something terrible has happened - such as, for instance, saying ‘the library burned to the ground’ will do no good, because that will only ensure that in your haste to prevent the burning of the library, the library will burn. You must specify how, when, and why, the terrible event occurred, and most importantly, what you did. But Twilight... You must fear this idea. It can be tempting, believe me, it can be very, very tempting, to use temporal magic to correct wrongs, correct mistakes... Believe me, for long nights I cried myself to sleep, cursing myself for swearing I would never again cast a temporal spell, after I was forced to banish Luna. I wanted nothing more than to go to the past, prevent her thoughts from turning down the path they did, or tell myself to restrain her here on Equestria, or even just to hold her.”

A tear glistened in Celestia’s eye, and she lifted her head, turning to look back out the window, and Twilight followed her gaze. The game seemed to be wrapping up on the grass below, the two teams jovially walking from the pitch.

“After the Temporal Wars, though, Star Swirl made us promise - vow, swear on everything, on the sun, the moon and the stars, on our horns and wings and hooves, by the earth and water and air and sea, by the mountains and the lakes, by crystal caverns and spires, that we would never, ever, use time magic again.” “Why?”

Celestia took a deep breath, and sighed. “We were too good at it, Twilight. That may seem like a good thing, but the better you are at temporal magic, the greater the effect, the strain, on time itself, and the risk became too great. Even Nightmare Moon, in her maddened rage and thirst for power, never sought to use Luna’s skill with temporal magic, though I don’t doubt that she could have. That should speak to the danger involved. Every time one of us uses temporal magic, the chance exists that we could cause a temporal rift.”

“I... I never knew...” “No, you never did, and I never wished you to, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia murmured, standing up and walking around the table, lowering her head to lay it beside Twilight’s. “But you always have had a way of making me talk and ramble on, even, especially, when there are other things I don’t wish to talk about.” “King Sombra,” Twilight murmured, and Celestia nodded, sitting beside her, spreading her wing and drawing Twilight close to her side. “Sombra, yes... Sombra. He was a ruthless pony, a unicorn with a cold, blackened heart, full of no friendship or laughter, only unlimited ambition. I do not know what could have caused a pony to go so bad. Certainly, he had a good life when he was young, he was nobility of the Crystal Kingdom - minor, but nobility. He was surrounded by plenty, good cheer, good ponies to befriend and unite with, good food, good drink, wealth enough to satisfy most. He wanted for nothing practical, physical, or emotional. What he wanted for was the one thing that in his greed he could never have enough of: power. Absolute, unchecked power. He sought for power in all parts of the world, his hunger for power led to him becoming an incredibly charismatic speaker, to attain power over other’s minds, to perfect the craft of artifice, to imbue power in objects. He dabbled in dark powers, terrible powers... Powers I hesitate to even mention to you, for fear that explaining them will scar your soul.”

“You mean like... That dark magic you showed me, when you explained his return?” “The power of magic fueled by dark emotions was one of his tricks. Sombra hardly invented it, but he raised it to an art form, reveled in it. I dearly regret showing you that power, Twilight Sparkle, even though I knew that you would need it to prevail over him. He would have certainly set it up so that no-one who couldn’t use his own powers could destroy him... But if I could cleanse that memory, that skill, from your head, I would.”

Celestia reared up, and tugged Twilight in front of her, between her hooves, hugging her tightly and laying her head around Twilight’s. “I’d scour it from your head, and then my own, if I could. It hurts us both, to know of it.” Twilight shivered softly, as Celestia embraced her, the incredibly tall alicorn hugging her warmly, her chest laying against Twilight’s back, and Twilight turned her head, to look at Celestia’s face. “Is it... That bad?” “It is, but it’s not the worst, Twilight Sparkle.” She sighed. “He delved into the ancient practices of terrible cultures, twisted himself so he could enact their abominable rites to empower himself.” “Rites such as,” Twilight prompted her, fearing the answer, but completely lost in her mentor’s tale.

Celestia sighed, unhappily. “Sombra had sharp teeth for a reason, Twilight. He had learned a ritual that let him consume other creatures - ponies and otherwise, their flesh, their still-beating hearts ripped from their chests. He could do that to absorb some measure of a quality from them, such as a minotaur’s unerring sense of direction, or a whale’s unconquerable stamina; the best singer’s vocal control, the strongest Earth Pony’s strength, a Pegasus’s wings. He used that power, and he used it without restraint.”

Twilight felt herself tremble, a greasy feeling running down her soul at just the thought of what the Princess was telling her, shivering as her vivid imagination conjured up images in her mind, half-composed of pastiches from her favorite Daring-Do novels and half from her personal experience battling Sombra months ago, of the maddened unicorn king ripping somepony’s heart from her chest with his sharpened teeth while they were strapped to a terrible altar, writhing and struggling.

“I... I... I wish I hadn’t asked you to tell me that,” she confessed, with a hard tremble, and Celestia lifted a hoof, using her wings to wrap around Twilight’s whole body, while she caressed Twilight’s mane with her hoof. “I wish I hadn’t, but... You’re getting older, Twilight, stronger, and you’re seeing many of the worst things the world has to offer. I just... I need you to know that it can get better, that no matter how bad things may seem now, they can, and have been, much worse, terrible ways that are gone, now.”

Twilight nodded, slowly, but still closed her eyes, laying her head into Celestia’s neck. “Princess?” “Yes, Twilight?” “I... I don’t remember Sombra having wings.” “He wouldn’t have, at the time you faced him. My sister and I didn’t know of the true depths of unspeakable, depraved madness that Sombra had descended to, for a long time. Even when he started a rebellion against the rightful Emperor, a rebellion with the goal of driving out or casting down the alicorns who ruled the Empire, we stayed our hooves. We felt that, though extreme, his views might have had merit to them; he certainly had enough of the Empire’s population backing him. Either way, though, it was not our kingdom; to intervene would have been a gross violation of the Empire’s sovereignty. And we desperately did not wish to lead the ponies of Equestria to war, especially to embroil them in a foreign civil war. Peace had existed in Equestria for a hundred and eighty years at that time, and we didn’t want to break that record.”

“But... You did.” Celestia nodded at her student’s murmur. “Yes, Twilight. In the end, when the rulers of the Empire were either dead or in exile, when we learned the terrible truth of what Sombra had done - broken the will, the hearts, the minds, of the Empire’s ponies, enslaved them wholesale despite that they willingly made him their king, just to have more control, more power, over them, we knew that we had to act. We had to act, for the ponies of the Empire, for Equestria, for it wouldn’t be long before he looked south and began to covet power over our ponies, for the world, for if we couldn’t stop him then nopony could. We believed the Crystal Heart could destroy him, of course - he had become a creature so anathema to the Heart, to the ways of the Empire, to the ways of love and light which were so akin to our own ways of friendship, that the concentrated energy of the Heart would be devastating if directed at him. But even if the Heart were in our possession, it would have done no good, unpowered, and with the people of the Empire too broken to power it... Well, it wasn’t an option.”

“But you had another option. The Elements of Harmony.” Celestia nodded. “Yes, Twilight, the Elements of Harmony. That was before the rift between my sister and I, before it... Before it stripped us both of the Elements. Together we embodied the elements of Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic, just as you and your friends do now. We attacked Sombra, suddenly, and without warning - no squadrons of Pegasi to strike from the skies with us, no inexorable column of Earth Ponies girded for war to march upon his lands, no teams of unicorn sorcerers to run magical interference. They wouldn’t have done any good, and would only have magnified the bloodshed. We teleported to the skies above his castle, forced him to take wing to face us, and then we used the Elements.”

“It... It didn’t work, though, did it?” “Not fully, no. I’m not convinced that at the time, the Heart would have, either, even fully powered. Perhaps if both had been used simultaneously... But, Sombra had grown so powerful, so... Twisted, into such a perverse thing of hatred and dominance, that he withstood the effect of the Elements of Harmony. He conjured up a cloud of raw, seething hatred, enough to buy him the time to speak the terrible curse he laid on the Empire, to curse our names, and to ensure his own survival. Even as the Elements burnt through his cloud, and he sacrificed the terrible powers and traits he had accumulated over years of hunting down and consuming other creatures to buy himself time, he wove himself into the fabric of cloud itself, granted himself the power to corrupt and make things whole once more, and spoke a curse that would banish the Empire and himself, for what I imagine was a period of time long enough that he hoped we would be gone or powerless by then. He had barely spoken the curse before the Elements burnt through the last of the powers he had sacrificed to buy himself time, barely enough time for it to affect much more than the capital city itself. Ultimately, the capital city was banished, and with it went the Empire’s government. It left behind an empire full of broken ponies, ponies who barely knew what to do with themselves with their constant tormentor gone from their world, but not from their minds. Equestria absorbed what was left of it, long, long ago.”

“And the city, now?” “Part of Equestria too, Twilight. Cadance and your brother reign over the city from the castle there, but a few hundred ponies from a thousand years ago no longer a kingdom make. Besides, neither of them very much wants to be a monarch. The Crystal Ponies decided to accept our proposal that they follow the example of their kin from long ago, and formally integrate into Equestria. Their traditions, their knowledge and ancient tomes, their lost arts of crystal-weaving and crystal-forging, their unique magics, heritages, and the Crystal Heart, will all serve to strengthen and enrich Equestria, while they will certainly benefit from our advances in the intervening years, and the infrastructure of the kingdom. It will take time, but we won’t let their city fall to ruin again.”

“Again, Princess? Sombra’s gone... But the city is still in the middle of a barren, icy wasteland,” Twilight said, reasoning it out on her own, and Princess Celestia nodded. “Yes, indeed, my brilliant little apprentice. Their position is untenable on its own, for entirely practical reasons, but we’d never let them starve, never let them freeze. Even if they weren’t our kin, we would owe it to them to make their home livable again.”

“I... I don’t understand, though. Did the city move, with Sombra’s curse?” “No, Twilight, the city didn’t actually move. But in ancient times, the power of the Crystal Heart, of their love and light, was used, as you saw, to turn the surrounding environs into lush, fertile green land. That lingered for quite some time after the city itself was banished, after Sombra extinguished love and light throughout the Empire, for terraforming on such a scale is slow to reverse, but the cold and the ice encroached eventually, and the remaining crystal ponies left what was once the Empire, forced to abandon their homes and head for warmer pastures farther south, as their crops started to fail. They were still afraid to think of what had come before, and Luna and I reasoned it was better to let them forget, to move into warmer, happier places, and live happier lives, than to attempt to recreate their terraforming with other magics.”

Twilight nodded, thinking on the Celestia’s story, and she shivered. “I feel cold, Princess.” “I know you do. So do I, Twilight. Any right-thinking, sane, loving, caring, friendly pony should feel cold, contemplating such things.” Celestia’s forelimbs and wings squeezed tighter around her, and Twilight trembled, pressing back into Celestia’s chest, toward the feeling of warmth and comfort. Celestia, in response, turned her head, softly kissing Twilight’s cheek, but remained silent, holding the far smaller unicorn.

“Princess... Why... Why did you tell me?” Celestia’s body shook with a deep, trembling sigh, and she nuzzled Twilight’s mane, above her head, for a long moment before answering. “Because, my dear, my sweet, my little pony, we have in the time since I sent you to Ponyville seen more threats to Equestria than we have in the five centuries prior. You have faced these threats with skill and courage, with the love and loyalty of your friends. You, Twilight... You may become Equestria’s protector.” “Protector? But isn’t that... You, Princess, and Princess Luna?”

Celestia sighed, again. “As long as my sister and I draw breath, we will protect Equestria with all our hearts, and all our power. But as you saw when Queen Chrysalis attacked us, we are not invincible... I dare say we’ve lost a great deal of the edge we once had, when we were at the peak of our fighting prime; a prime I never wished to need to attain again... And I never, never, wanted this for you.”

Celestia squeezed her again, and Twilight sighed, letting her breath out, turning to nuzzle her head into Celestia’s shoulder. “You trained me for it, though.” “Yes, Twilight. I taught you, and well. I see in you such potential, potential you yourself don’t yet recognize, potential which is beyond compare, without limit. Potential such as that is undeniably dangerous: Sombra had such potential in him. But such potential can also be a force for good.” “Star Swirl the Bearded,” Twilight murmured, and Celestia nodded. “That’s right. Star Swirl.”

“Are there... Others? With such potential, Princess?” Celestia nodded. “There are. I know of one, whom you met recently. She had a brush with one of King Sombra’s inventions, too.” Twilight blinked, and it clicked in her head. “The Alicorn Amulet?” “Yes, Sombra invented it. Before he decided to turn public opinion against the alicorn rulers of the Crystal Empire, he sought to become an alicorn himself. The amulet was his first means to achieve that goal.”

“It didn’t work, did it?” “No, Twilight, it did not, but the amulet nevertheless was a powerful, evil thing.” “Did it twist him?” “I would like to say that it did, but it is far more likely that he twisted it. He was wearing it, and it was one of the things he sacrificed to buy himself time, but that amulet cannot be destroyed. Not as it is now. It may be possible to disempower it, but Luna and I never managed to lay our hooves on it, and not for lack of trying, either. I believe he enchanted it to keep it out of the grasp of alicorns.”

“I... I see. So, I should have... Oh.” Twilight frowned. “I probably should have locked it up and given it to you, shouldn’t I?” “You couldn’t have, my student.” Celestia reached up, softly mussing Twilight’s mane with her hoof. “Like I said, he enchanted it to keep it out of our grasp. It never would have occurred to you... What did you do with that accursed thing, anyway?”

“I gave it to Zecora to keep it safe and locked up.” Celestia blinked, looking down, head craning down to look Twilight in the eyes. “You gave it... To a zebra?” “Um... Yes, I did,” Twilight admitted. “Was that... Wrong?” “Wrong? No, I can’t say that it was... Just surprising... Though it may be for the best, Twilight. Zebra magic is completely unlike Unicorn magic. The amulet would be incompatible, and likely hold no temptation for her. It’s entirely possible she may have some way of depowering it. I don’t know much about the way zebra magic works.”

Twilight frowned, but nodded. “I... I hope so.” “As do I. You’ve seen fit to place your faith in her, and I trust your judgement on the matter.” Celestia smiled, slowly unwrapping her wings from around Twilight, and Twilight nodded. “But... You said that the pony who had it had similar potential... Trixie?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, Twilight. The ‘Great and Powerful’ Trixie is, for all of her fraud and her failures, one of the unicorns with the most potential alive today. She’s two years older than you are, and she attended my school of magic, as you did. It was there that I saw her potential.”

“I... I guess I can see that. But if she had such potential and she came earlier, why didn’t you make her your apprentice, Princess?” “Trixie has potential as a magician, Twilight. If events in her life go the right way, she, like you, may even learn to forestall aging, to be as ageless as an Alicorn, to become as great as Star Swirl once was. Unlike you, though, Trixie didn’t share your fated nature. It was you who hatched Spike, not Trixie, and her class had the same opportunity to do so that you did.”

“But Princess, I didn’t hatch Spike... Not on my own. It was the rainbow I saw outside of the classroom, the sonic rainboom that Rainbow Dash made. Even then, I felt that there was some outside power giving me the strength to hatch his egg.”

Celestia smiled softly. “Yes, Twilight, that’s my point. You and Rainbow Dash - and, really, if you think about it, all of your friends, were fated to be connected. I think you’ll find that all of your cutie marks manifested simultaneously, concurrent with the rainbow that Rainbow Dash traced in the sky, leading all of you - eventually - to Ponyville. No foal on her own, no matter the raw potential she possessed, could have hatched Spike’s egg, but a unicorn foal empowered by the Elements of Harmony? That’s another matter.”

Celestia turned her head, and kissed Twilight’s cheek again. “Your raw talent and potential as a magician is incredible, Twilight Sparkle. Someday you may surpass Star Swirl, someday you may even surpass me. But that’s only one of the reasons I chose you as my apprentice. You were fated to harmonize with the Element of Magic in a way that even Trixie doesn’t, though it wouldn’t be true to say she doesn’t harmonize with it. More than that, though, I thanked every star in the sky, individually and by name, that you lacked certain qualities.” “Qualities? Like Trixie’s ambition?”

Celestia nodded. “Ambition is... Not Trixie’s greatest failing. It’s more of a by-product of it.” Celestia unwrapped her legs from around Twilight, and stepped back, from the table; Twilight stood with her, and turned to follow her. Celestia led her back into the library halls, as she continued speaking.

“Trixie is, at the very core of her self, insecure. She feels every failure infinitely more keenly than you or I do, so she wrapped herself in the mythos of an exemplary magician-heroine. The ironic thing is that she could indeed meet her own expectations of herself, be the heroine that she pretends to be, but there is cowardice in her heart.” Celestia paused, and looked back, spreading her wings, over Twilight’s body. “Not, that is, that fear is something to be shunned. Fear is intelligence, fear is what tells you there may be danger afoot. When you’re alone in the woods and feel a sense of unease, that’s your instincts recognizing that the sound of the critters has stopped long before you realize it in your head. That’s not paranoia, that’s instinct, and it’s sound more often than not. Trixie’s cowardice lies in the fact that she has failed to live up to her own potential so often that she fears she cannot, so she tries to avoid situations where she might have to mare up and do what she claims to be capable of doing. In doing so, she sabotages her own potential, far more thoroughly than anypony acting with malicious intent.”

“So she sought the Amulet... To get the extra strength to do the things she believes she should be capable of doing.” Celestia nodded to her, and sighed. “Yes, Twilight. She believed - in a twisted way, rightly - that with the amulet in her possession, she could be the heroine she wishes she were.” “Rightly?” Celestia sighed, and nodded. “Yes, Twilight. There are many sources of power in this world. The first source is that which comes from within, one’s own skill and ability. It’s not a truth fit for a nursery rhyme or an heroic fable, but one can use other sources of power to overcome their limitations: magical artifacts, the combined effort of one and one’s allies, wealth to hire or buy means or allies, the political power to effect change, the charismatic power to sway the course of politics. Not all sources of power are corruptive, not even all artifacts. After all, did you not employ the Crystal Heart to destroy King Sombra? Do you feel tainted for having done so?”

“I...” Twilight shook her head, vehemently, and Celestia nodded, with a sad smile on her face. “You lacked Trixie’s insecurities, though you’ve developed a few of your own. Such as your constant fear of disappointing me.” Celestia nudged Twilight, with her wing. “But you also have a keenly logical mind, and friends to double-check your findings with their own experiences. I don’t believe you would ever have put on the Alicorn Amulet, much less sought it out. If you had, even, I suspect that you might have done so only in a situation so dire that you might be considering temporal magic as a solution, and relinquished it the moment the problem was passed.”

“Is... Is that an option, Princess?” “Everything is an option, Twilight. Everything is possible, the limitations are those we choose to place on ourselves. King Sombra choose to heed no limitations; there was, I think, nothing he would not have done if it stood to gain him more power. You have those limitations; you have a heart which cares about other ponies. You have a logical mind that can override your needs and ambitions if the danger of your considered course of action too greatly outweighs the ramifications of not resorting to such measures.”

Twilight licked her lips, and bit her lower lip. “I... I see. So, if she were willing to resort to enough compromises, or if she sought hard and found enough more benign sources of power, Trixie could... Be as great as me?” “Anything is possible, Twilight Sparkle. I haven’t heard from Trixie since you brought her down from the Amulet. I believe she fled the kingdom in shame, to where, I don’t know. I hope that wherever she is, she can find some friends, find peace. I fear she may be so emotionally fragile as to fall into her old ways, though. There are other amulets and artifacts out there, should she choose to continue pursuing the power of artifice, others with similar power to the Alicorn Amulet. Some may even exceed it. Unfortunately, it is the case that often, those sources of power were fueled by the same rage and thirst for power overwhelming which fueled King Sombra.”

Twilight nodded, as Celestia led her into the library, her focus on the princess, not where they were going. “So, if she wanted recognition, why did she... Why did she conquer Ponyville?” “Because the Amulet brings out a pony’s darkest, strongest ambitions. Trixie sought recognition; what better recognition is there than to place oneself on a throne, to fly one’s banner and erect statues and monuments to oneself? It certainly wasn’t a well-thought out plan, of course, but possessing the Amulet doesn’t really lend itself to thinking things out carefully. Luna and I could certainly have defeated her, with or without the amulet.”

“But... I thought the amulet couldn’t be removed, except by the wearer.” “That is true, unfortunately.” Celestia looked up, to the ceiling, and sighed, deeply. “Even if we could have defeated her, restrained her, without killing her, we would have been forced to make her remove it under pain of death if she refused. Even exile to the moon would have been nothing to a unicorn of Trixie’s potential with the Amulet around her neck. It was only due to Luna’s affinity for the moon that I was able to bind Nightmare Moon to it for as long as I did; and even then, I needed to burn out my own ability to use the Elements of Harmony to do so. Trixie, with the Amulet? She would have been back in a month, and if she hadn’t been, it would only have been because she was scouring the moon for more power to come back with.”

Twilight felt her mouth dry again; the thought of Princess Celestia outright executing somepony, even Trixie, made her skin crawl and her hips shiver. It was completely unlike anything she could ever have imagined. As she was contemplating that, Celestia leaned down, nuzzling the side of her cheek with her own, her long, aurora-like mane falling over Twilight’s back. “That’s why I am so very, very glad that you and your friends succeeded in tricking Trixie into giving it up. You saved me from having to do something monstrous for the safety of my ponies and my kingdom. Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight gulped, and nodded. “I... I can’t even imagine you doing that.” “It almost feels like a nightmare to imagine myself doing that, Twilight, but in the past, such measures have been necessary. Luna and I attacked King Sombra with the full intention of killing him, as you were sadly forced to do following our failure to finish the job a thousand years ago. There have, sadly, been... Other incidents, since then, and certainly before then. Even after I decided that retributive application of death as a penalty for crimes was too abhorrent to consider and abolished it, following my choice to exile my sister instead of kill her, as would have been the traditional way of dealing with a traitor before then, it has at times been necessary to kill, though always because there was no feasible means of restraining and/or detaining the subject.”

Twilight sniffled, imagining Princess Celestia doing battle with a dragon, or another Unicorn with the Amulet, and felt her knees give out. She slid to the floor, placing her hooves over her eyes, and Celestia paused, turning back to lay in front of her, stroking her head. “Twilight,” she whispered, softly, and leaned up, alongside Twilight’s horn, kissing her forehead. “If you had been an orphan, I would have adopted you. Even before you distinguished yourself by hatching Spike’s egg, proving yourself to be fated, I knew you were special. You’re a sensitive soul, and that’s a good thing. The first time I was forced to kill, it horrified me, and I couldn’t sleep for days. How did you cope with it?”

“I...” Twilight’s mouth was dry, and she licked her lips. “I guess I just... It never really sunk in that we killed Sombra. We banished Discord, we banished Nightmare Moon and restored Princess Luna. We sealed Discord... I guess I just kind of assumed that Sombra had been... D-Dealt with.”

“You never wanted to say die, Twilight. That’s good. I hope, I pray, that you never, ever have to kill again. I fear you will. It would be very, very nice to say that with Sombra dead, with that troublesome amulet of his in the care of someone who cannot use it and will not be tempted to wear it, with Luna back and Nightmare Moon gone, with Discord sealed and Queen Chrysalis expunged from the land, that the kingdom will have another thousand years of peace. I want nothing more than for you and your friends to go back to Ponyville, to laugh and be happy, to live joyfully and free from worry.”

Celestia laid her hooves atop Twilight’s, moving them from over her face, laying them gently upon hers. “You deserve that life, Twilight. You deserve it, but I fear that it may not be soon in coming. Bad things keep happening, bad creatures keep reappearing. I think you know why I’ve made you and your friends deal with so many of them that I could have dealt with, either by myself, or by calling up an army.”

“To... To spare the people of Equestria the chaos that would create?” Celestia smiled. “Partly. Calling up an army is a very disruptive thing. Jobs go unfilled, the economy suffers, even if nopony actually gets hurt, which... Isn’t the case when a war happens. I don’t believe anypony would go hungry these days, though we would probably have to institute rationing if I needed to call all of Equestria to war. Even so, though, that hasn’t been the main concern; if it must be done, if Equestria must be disrupted to spare it from being destroyed, I will call the kingdom to war. No, Twilight. I’ve let you and your friends handle things that rightfully should be the place of the government to handle, because you and your friends need the experience, you need to face these things. In a true crisis, the kind of crisis an army cannot solve, or cannot solve alone, it will be the heroic actions of special ponies, heroic ponies, who can cause the day to be won, who can prevail against overwhelming odds... The time of heroes has not passed our world, and as long as ponies remain magical, it never will, no matter what advancements are made. Here, let me show you something. Something nopony other than Luna and myself have seen in a long time.”

Celestia stood up, and levitated Twilight. “Can you walk again?” “I... I think so,” Twilight responded, lowering her legs, feeling her hooves sink into the carpet, and followed Celestia. “Where are we going?” “The Hall of Artifacts.” Celestia paused at an empty stretch of corridor, and looked around briefly, before she lowered her head to the wall. It seemed like any wall, but there was a gap in the brickwork that just fit her horn. A bright flash of gold emitted from the wall, and filled the spaces between the bricks, which started to scrape and shuffle, and condensed themselves away from the keyhole, vanishing into each other, and ultimately, into the frame of a door, which led down a well-lit staircase. The staircase seemed to go on forever, and Twilight mulled over all of the things Celestia had told her. “Princess,” she murmured, when a question occurred to her. “You said there were other unicorns as potentially-talented as I and Trixie. Do I know any of them?” “Of course you do, Twilight,” Celestia responded with a mirthful tone. “One of them is one of your best friends.”

“Rarity?” Twilight blinked; Rarity was many things, she thought, but talented at magic to the level of herself or Trixie, she would not have believed. “Yes, my apprentice. Your friend Rarity has great potential. She lacks the same drive to develop it that you or Trixie possess, her interests lie in other areas, but if she could develop that interest, she could learn magic the way you do.”

“I... I like that, though... But her Cutie Mark is gems, not an abstract representation of magic, the way mine or Trixie’s is.” “This is true. Rarity has an incredible affinity for gems, though gems are, themselves, an abstract way of representing things. Raw magic and spellcasting would never come as easily to Rarity as they do to you, but they would come. Your friend Rarity, on the other hoof, would find artifice to come as naturally to her as spellcasting does to you, or courage comes to Rainbow Dash, or empathy comes to Fluttershy, to name a few. Here,” she said, as she paused; past her, Twilight could see another door, a massive, heavy, double-door made of heavy wood. Celestia telekinetically pushed it open, and walked in.

The hall Celestia led her into was tall and bright, gleaming with white walls decorated with tile mosaics not unlike the stained glass art in the windows of the castle. It was quite long and had intersections in it at more than one place. The hall was full of things, on stands, in pedestals, a few inside cages or glass display cases, many of them impressive, some of them seeming surprisingly mundane. “I doubt I need to tell you, of all ponies, but touch nothing unless I say you may,” Celestia murmured, and Twilight nodded, dumbly, as she walked in. She looked to her right; on a narrow pedestal was a horse-shoe, ordinary and even mundane in appearance, covered with rust. Twilight blinked at it, turning her head and peering at the simple-seeming thing. “Is that... The olden pony’s horseshoe?” “It is indeed, Twilight, the origin of the ghost story.” Celestia gestured with her wing, to a book on a book-stand in front of the horse-shoe. “Go ahead, Twilight. Read it.”

Twilight blinked, as she approached. The book-stand was much too high for her to read comfortably, but she stretched up on her hind legs, placing her forehooves on the platform, telekinetically opening the book. Most of it was blank, but the front was full of writing, in Celestia’s writing, quite old-fashioned and flowery.

The Rusty Horseshoe
This horseshoe belonged to Gilda Stardust of the Kingdom of Tyrea in an age which no longer exists. Gilda was one of the first magicians to weaponize age-control spells; her method of attack was aging ponies who opposed her into dust in a matter of moments. This horse-shoe, from her right forehoof, was badly aged and rusted in her final battle, when she was destroyed by being shunted outside of time and existence as we know it. Her shoes were affected by Gilda’s use of her temporal magic to attempt to retain temporal relevance by aging and deaging herself, and with her destruction, absorbed some of the power she was channeling. Her shoes were flung through time; three remain unaccounted for. This one, which was first found in the city of Horseshoe Bend in the Crystal Empire in 761 A.F., approximately two centuries after their owner’s destruction, allows the wearer to transfer their own years to another pony by touching them with the shoe when worn, aging the other pony and de-aging themselves in the process. It was captured in 802 A.F. in Cloudsdale by Princess Luna, and returned here for safekeeping.

“It was pure luck that we caught it,” Celestia murmured, and Twilight looked back at her, expectant for an explanation. “The mare who had it had been using it to keep herself young by transferring her years to other ponies. She’d evidently been doing it for centuries, moving every now and then to avoid ponies noticing she wasn’t aging. Luna was in Cloudsdale to observe an event which was not unlike our modern Best Young Flyer competition, when this mare was working the crowd, touching ponies with the shoe, transferring a year here, a few years there. Not enough to be noticed immediately by her victims, but certainly enough to youthen herself by working the crowd, and she could readily explain herself to any who questioned her as her having been jostled. Luna, however, felt the effects and tracked her down, discovered what she was up to, and took the shoe from her. If not for that chance meeting, she might still be alive today, stealing years of life from other ponies.”

“Wow,” Twilight murmured. “What did you do to her?” “Nothing. Star Swirl was able to track down her victims and youthen them by a few years to make up for the damage she caused and change, and without the shoe, she was harmless. We considered imprisoning her, but decided that as she hadn’t been using the spell to age ponies significantly, she wasn’t acting with malicious intent, merely out of fear. We didn’t want to tyrannically throw her in prison, and taking her to trial would have meant revealing the existence of the shoe, which would undoubtedly have spurred more ponies to either seek it, or to seek the others that we suspect are like it.”

“So, because she wasn’t a threat, and letting her go would prevent more trouble from coming about... You let her go? I... I guess I can understand that, but it kind of...” “It doesn’t seem like justice was served, does it?” Celestia wrapped her wing around Twilight’s body, drawing her close, and Twilight instinctively felt herself leaning against Celestia’s side, as Celestia walked down the hall of artifacts with her.

“Twilight, there was a time, a very, very, very long time ago, but within my memory, when a pony could wrong another. Say, two ponies were in dispute over a parcel of land, one would try to use it, then the other would rip up his crops and put in a fence. Say they argued, and one bucked the other, and put one of his eyes out. The pony who’s eye was put out has obviously been wronged, of course, and he could demand payment - in money, or more likely in resources, since coin wasn’t very common in those days. He could also, however, demand that the eye he lost be put out on the pony who bucked him, and his family would help him do so.”

Twilight cringed. “That’s... Pretty brutal,” she said, and Celestia nodded. “It was, but it was the custom of the time. Of course, if he put the other pony’s eye out, as was his right, the other pony had, himself, been wronged, and could demand that his family helped him capture his neighbor and put out his other eye. I think you see where this is going.”

“They both wind up blind?” “Yes, but that’s only the next step. Now both families have blind members, and they’re angry. One or the other, it doesn’t matter, may decide - as was considered their right, mind you - to take resources which they felt satisfied the loss of a useful member of the family - from the other family by force. Of course, it was also the other family’s right to resist such seizure of their property with force. Say that in doing so, somepony gets killed, Twilight. Now the family has an even greater problem on their hooves - they’ve lost a member. One of their own, one of their kin, one of their closest friends. What would you do if Applejack were killed?”

Twilight blinked for a moment, so stunned by the question that she stopped walking, sitting down, staring blankly ahead. The thought of being separated, forever, from Applejack ran through her heart like a freight train’s impact on a wall of leaves, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes at the thought - and the ghost of fury in her heart, recalling the burning hatred she had felt when she had channeled King Sombra’s brand of dark magic to turn the Crystal Castle into the castle that it had been when Sombra was in residence. She trembled, and blinked when motion in front of her eyes made her realize that Celestia had sat in front of her.

“You don’t have to answer, Twilight. Your fellow Elements have become your family as much as your parents, Shining Armor, Cadance, myself, and even Luna.” Celestia leaned down, rubbing her muzzle on Twilight’s cheek. “You’d be beyond anger. Trust me, I know. I’ve been there. You’d want vengeance, your poor, dear heart would demand that find the person who killed her, and take their life in return, wouldn’t it? I’ve no doubt that your friends would rally to your side, of course. Sweet, meek Fluttershy and generous Rarity might have reservations, but I believe Pinkie Pie would want revenge as well, and I’ve no doubt that Rainbow Dash would be ready to follow you to the ends of the world and beyond to take vengeance for Applejack.”

Twilight shivered again, and Celestia sighed, smiling sadly, understanding. “It was just an example. Close your eyes, Twilight. You know how to check on her.”

Twilight closed her eyes and, pushing the Princess’ example from her mind, thought of Applejack. Though the power of suggestion had been strong, she felt nothing was wrong, and opened her eyes, looking up. She channeled magic into her horn, hunching her shoulders forward as she called a divination spell to mind, then watched the cone of light erupt from the end of her horn, hitting the ceiling and seeming to burn it away, stripping away material and only showing her the ponies in her line of sight. She scanned the ceiling until she found the Apple clan, and found Applejack in the middle, up on her hind legs; though Twilight couldn’t see what she was holding, Applejack was unquestionably making the motions of using a rolling pin to flatten dough.

Relieved, Twilight breathed a sigh, letting the spell fade, as Celestia reached up, crinkling her nose with her golden horseshoe. “Just the thought of losing her affected you so badly. Clearly, you love her, just as I know you love all of your friends.” Celestia stood up, and Twilight stood up as well, nodding, slipping up to Celestia’s side. Even though the topic of conversation was grim and grave, she was very, very glad to get a chance to spend so much time with her teacher. “So, Princess... You were saying, about how ponies a long time ago would...”

The princess nodded to her. “Yes, Twilight. As I was saying, in that situation, you had a conundrum - by our standards, a paradox. Family A would decide that Family B owed them blood money for their blinded relative, and would raid Family B’s holdings for wealth and resources that they felt satisfied the debt. Of course, Family B was justified in attempting to fight off Family A, and Family A were justified in using force to overwhelm Family B’s defenses and seize their goods anyway. And if, in the fighting, somepony died, or was injured, well... Whichever family had lost members, or more likely, both families, were then justified in escalating; they could demand more money, and if the other family both could, and would, pay it, then that was supposed to be the end of it. But often they wouldn’t even bother issuing the demand. Money was money, but blood was blood, and no amount of money or wealth could really satisfy the grief of the loss of a loved one, a kinspony. Only blood, shed blood, could repay the shedding of blood, and often the family which felt aggrieved would attack the other family’s house in the middle of the night and kill somepony in revenge. Of course, now the other family has a dead pony on their hooves and they feel the call of vengeance as well... I think you see where this is going.”

“It doesn’t end,” Twilight murmured, thinking about the horrific notion of a cycle of violence. “Nopony feels that they are in the wrong. Even if it can be conclusively proven that their family was in the wrong at the start of the argument, it doesn’t matter because things have escalated far beyond that point. Every time they kill in retribution, they feel the debt of blood has been satisfied on their end, but the other side kills in retribution for their lost pony, and now they have another revenge to carry out... How did a feud like that end?”

“Such feuds could go on for generations, Twilight. Long after everypony involved had forgotten the original bloodshed which started the conflict, there were still killings being carried out in revenge for killings which had been carried out in revenge. Sometimes, it ended up with whole families being exterminated, every stallion, mare, colt and filly put to death to prevent them from seeking vengeance in the future. Other times, if there was a strong lord in the area, somepony with an army, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, they would gallop into the area, round up the heads of the feuding clans, bring them together, work through the history and untangle the knot of revenge and blood, and decide to end the conflict by force of arms. Sometimes they would declare that both sides had suffered enough to have satisfied both sides’ debts and order them to put the matter behind them, sometimes they would decide that one side had been aggrieved more than the other and compel the other side to pay blood money - and the aggrieved side to accept it - and declare the matter settled... Luna and I had to settle more than a few such feuds.”

“That sounds... Absolutely terrible, Princess,” Twilight said, looking up, and Celestia looked down, nodding. “It was, Twilight Sparkle. It was abominable, but that was the way things were in those days. That was what was considered justice, in those days. In those days, by those standards, Luna and I should have had Trixie put to death the moment I learned that she had attacked and captured Ponyville, had hoisted her own flag. By the standards of those days, that wasn’t just treason and rebellion, that was an act of war. Allowing her to go free, even though she was under the influence of the amulet, and even though she regretted her actions once freed from its effects, would have been considered a sign of weakness, an open invitation for anypony who could muster an army to try and attack our lands, capture our holdings away from us.”

Twilight closed her eyes, shivering. “That seems... Brutal.” “Such is how things were, once upon a time, Twilight. Now you know why our pageants and the common versions of Equestrian history omit or gloss over a lot of things.” “So, the Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant we put on was...” “Largely a fictionalized version of the events that took place, though admittedly, that was before my time as well. It was a very long time ago, Twilight.” “Yeah, I... Get that impression.” Twilight nodded, and Celestia smiled. “But from me, at least, you do have a second-hoof account. Star Swirl the Bearded was alive in those times, and mine, and he gladly told us of what had come before. The ponies from your account did exist, as did the tribes they each led. They didn’t found Equestria, the modern kingdom you know of today, together, mind you. Luna and I did that much later, when we decided to conquer a castle made of wood... They knew each other in the old country, and they knew each other in the new, so they had to have traveled here roughly at the same time. The Unicorn tribe led by Princess Platinum - or at least, the pony whom we today remember as Platinum - settled in what we know now as Manehattan. The Earth tribe was largest, and settled inland of Manehattan, and north, up the frozen coast, while the Pegasus tribes settled as far north as they could without provoking an all-out war with the Griffons.”

“And their friendship?” “Calling it such would be a bit of a stretch, Twilight, at least, between the leaders of the tribes. The account of how they were all trapped in a cave by a blizzard and slowly frozen by windigos? That is a work of fiction, though there were terrible blizzards soon after they all made landfall here. Windigos do exist, mind you, and they did attempt to reignite the old hatreds; and the fires of friendship did banish them, but the cave story is just a fictionalization. Largely, the pony tribes realized that, for all of their differences, they were all so very, very alike. Where they had come from, they were the dominant three types of creatures - here, individually, they were small and vulnerable. At that time, Griffons considered anything made of flesh to be food, and there were certainly a lot more griffons than there were of any pony tribe. There were other challenges, too, but in the face of them, Pegasus ponies, Unicorn ponies and Earth ponies all looked at each other and realized they were all ponies. Except for flying cities where only Pegasi can feasibly live, that was the end of ponies segregating themselves by type.”

Twilight lifted her head, up as high towards the princess’s head as she could, and nodded. “I’m glad. So, um... You and Luna decided that killing wasn’t the answer?” “Not... Precisely. We decided that retribution wasn’t the answer; we decided that doing what was just mustn’t take the place of doing what would result in the least harm and the most good. A long time ago, if minimizing the amount of harm that would be done meant killing somepony, we decided that that was what had to be done, but...”

“But after you couldn’t kill Luna, even after she turned into Nightmare Moon and tried to usurp the throne for herself and bring about an age of eternal night...” Celestia nodded, as Twilight murmured the truth. “If I couldn’t kill my own sister for the good of the kingdom, I.. I had no right to kill anypony’s sister or brother, husband or son. Since then, in Equestria, killing has been seen as an extreme measure, only to be considered in an immediate life-or-death situation; and even then, I’d prefer that non-lethal means be used... That isn’t always possible, though, as you and your friends, and Cadance and Armor, learned, up in the Crystal Empire.”

Celestia stopped moving, suddenly, and Twilight stepped forward out from under the arc of her wing before she stopped. “Yes, Princess?” “Take a look at this, Twilight.” Celestia swung her head to the right, and Twilight looked up, her jaw dropping. The artifact on display was inside a giant crystal inscribed with glowing runes; a huge, gleaming marble statue. She couldn’t forget it if she had tried, and Twilight felt a snort of aggression come from her nose as she hunched her shoulders reflexively.

The statue inside the crystal was Discord. The whole display was inside a branch of the main corridor, and large projections from the wall were holding it in the air, along with bulbous, elegant devices that had circles of free-floating runes lazily orbiting them.

“After last time, I thought that more security than leaving him on the lawn in a statue garden was called for. The crystal provides an additional layer of insurance against him ever getting out, and the runes inscribed in it ensure that he can’t perceive anything out here, either.”

“Princess... Discord nearly destroyed Equestria in a day. I...” Twilight blinked, looking down at her fore-hooves. “You’re wondering if I shouldn’t have killed him to prevent that, or if I shouldn’t do it to prevent any chance of it happening in the future, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight guiltily nodded. “It... Kind of does cross my mind, I’ll admit.” “I can’t blame you for considering it. After Luna and I cast down Discord and froze him in stone, we tried. Discord is... He’s more than a creature of flesh and blood. He is the incarnated embodiment of chaos and disharmony... You can’t destroy him, any more than you can destroy the concept of chaos.”

Twilight swallowed, and nodded. “I... Well I almost wish that weren’t the case, but...” “But you’re glad that it removes the choice to kill him and have done with it, aren’t you?” Celestia spread her wing over Twilight again. “Honestly, Twilight, so am I. I don’t believe he’ll be getting out any time soon, but after the disaster he caused last time, the temptation to do so, if I could, would be very strong... Twilight, I am sorry I couldn’t help you battle him.”

“It’s okay, Princess; you did. You sent me all of my letters to you, they reminded me that my friends were the most important thing in my life.” Celestia nodded. “Perhaps, but even so, I shouldn’t have let you six tackle him alone. I should have been there with you, fighting with you, but...” She sighed. “After you six ran out of the castle, Discord led me to believe that he had hid Luna somewhere, and if I didn’t find her very soon, she would die.”

Twilight shivered at the thought, and turned to Celestia, reaching up on her hind legs, placing her front legs around Celestia’s neck, hugging her, warmly. “It’s okay, Princess. I know how important Luna is to you, too. You must have been worried sick.” “I was, but even so... I should have been thinking of Equestria as a whole, not only of my own heartsick worry for my sister.”

“But you saved her, right? She’s fine now.” “No, Twilight, I didn’t. Discord didn’t imperil her at all. He would have had a fantastic fight on his hands if he had, and I would have noticed. Even without the Elements of Harmony, the two of us could have put up enough of a struggle as to damage him and distract him from the shell game he was playing with you... No, he didn’t do anything to imperil her. Discord led her to believe that I blamed her for his return and I was looking for her to banish her to the moon again. So while I was galloping throughout the castle, searching every place I could think he might have put her in a death-trap of some sort, Luna had shrunk herself to the size of a newborn foal and was hiding inside her bed’s mattress.”

Twilight blinked; though the thought of tall, graceful, confident Luna shrunken to the size of Spike and hiding inside a bed’s mattress was silly and amusing, there wasn’t anything funny about the thought of Luna being led to believe her beloved sister was apocalyptically furious and hunting for her. She sighed. “Discord played on all of our worst fears, he turned our natures against us. I’m just glad you found her in time to sort things out.”

“As am I, Twilight,” Celestia murmured, hugging her wing around Twilight’s stretched out body. “We were galloping all around the castle to find your letters - which he hid, of course.” “Well... I’m glad you did, Princess. They came just in the nick of time.” She nuzzled the side of Celestia’s neck, then let go, falling back to her hooves. “So, what are those things in the walls? They look like they’re energy projectors of some kind. Are they there to fry him if he breaks out?”

Celestia chuckled softly, patting the back of Twilight’s head with her wing. “Oh no. No magical defenses could be effective against Discord released. No, they’re there to recrystallize his prison should it start to fracture. Those exist to buy time.” “Time to call for me and the girls?” “Exactly.” Celestia smiled, and pointed her hoof to the info-book in front of the statue. “You want to read it?”

Twilight reared up again, opening the book. It was in Celestia’s writing, but much more modern and straightforward in style.

Twilight flipped through the pages, which were very detailed schematics and instructions for the use and maintenance of the security measures around the statue, which had been completely revamped just a month ago, to incorporate the crystal system, thanks to the availability of a crystal-weaver from the Crystal Empire. “This looks... Thorough,” she murmured, closing the book and getting down, and Twilight nodded. “I never want him getting out. I may not be able to stop him if he does, but I can and will use every means at my disposal to ensure that loathsome draconequus never, ever gets the chance to prove it.”

Celestia sighed, as she turned to walk away, and Twilight followed her, but the Princess was hanging her head. “Honestly, I feel terrible, that I couldn’t help. I should have, Twilight. I never should have made six young mares face Discord alone.”

Twilight blinked, and frowned; she had seldom heard Celestia express such heartfelt self-doubt, and she walked up alongside her, smiling. “Hey, Princess... You did help us. When I found Spike with the notes you sent me back... I... I had given up. I couldn’t get my friends to listen to me, they were all being mean, and I... I gave up on them,” she said with a resigned sigh, hanging her own head. “I was packing to leave Ponyville, to go... Somewhere. Anywhere else. I was ready to just run, and then I found your letters. If you hadn’t sent them to me, I never would have snapped out of it.” She turned her head, and leaned in, daring to kiss Celestia’s cheek, softly; the Princess opened her eyes in surprise. “You did save Equestria, Princess. Without you, I never could have snapped Applejack out of her funk. And without her and her rope, we couldn’t have gotten Fluttershy, or Rarity, or Pinkie Pie, and without everypony, I certainly couldn’t have gotten Rainbow Dash back.

Celestia smiled, and Twilight smiled back at her. “So is this like, the hall where you keep all the dangerous and bad stuff?” “Not yet, though I am reorganizing it along those lines.” She smiled, and spread her wing, pointing at the artifact they were passing; a pair of pegasus mannequins, wearing armor which was made of shiny black, gold and silver metal.

The sets were clearly similar in design and appearance, but unequal in protection and accessory: both consisted of a chestpiece that only went to the mid-barrel and covered the shoulders, and both had armor for all four legs, but one was heavier, with heavy plate protection above the fetlock and cannon of the rear legs and similar plate for the forelegs that protected all the way to above the front knee, and protected the whole body to the mid-barrel with a heavy armored plate over the croup, and came with an enormous two-hooved sword that looked like it would have been sized properly for an alicorn of Celestia’s size. The other set was considerably lighter; though the armor looked just as thick over over the chest and shoulders, the body protection ended mid-barrel with no back protector or saddle piece. The armor over the rear legs ended well below the hock, leaving only most of the cannon protected, and the foreleg armor was only slightly more complete, coming up barely above the knee, and seemed generally less thick and all-encompassing all around. That set, though, was coupled with an enormous greatlance, and unlike the blunted, padded jousting lances that Twilight had seen in the Crystal Empire, this lance had a very sharp-looking diamond-shaped bladed tip set into a sturdy metal body.

Twilight blinked, staring up at the beautiful, polished, gleaming armor. “May I?” “Of course,” her mentor replied, and Twilight reared up to open the book. The text looked more modern than the Rusty Horseshoe’s text, but significantly older than that of Discord’s statue.

Twilight whistled in appreciation. “Knights of Wonder and Bolts of Glory knightly organization?” Twilight nodded, and smiled. “Today, you know them as the Wonderbolts, and they’re not a knightly organization anymore.” Twilight laughed. “Oh man. Rainbow Dash would be beside herself if she got a look at these.” She grinned, and Celestia smiled. “I have no doubt she would. Pegasus heroes have worn these armors and wielded these weapons in hundreds of battles, and they’ve never been let down. Luna made them out of lightning captured in diamonds, which she used in place of coal to forge the steel. It’s lighter than anything made of metal has any right to be, and as sturdy as it looks, it’s far stronger than it appears. It’s a shame about the helmets. She enchanted them to provide the wearer with fresh, clean air at an appropriate temperature and pressure, no matter what environment they went into.”

“What happened to them?” “Lost to this day, as far as I know. Two of the wearers in, I think, around 100 A.B., had a run-in with a changeling hive. They took their helmets off to distinguish their real selves from the imposters, but lost them during the melee. Perhaps the changeling hive still has them in their possession, as trophies or relics. And Wonderstar’s shield was lost in 205 M.E. when Aurora Nights led a charge on a dragon trying to pillage Canterlot. It tried to swallow her, and she blocked with the shield, but the dragon came away with it in his mouth.”

Twilight nodded, and closed the book, after flipping through the pages, which turned out to be a remarkably complete record of the owners of the armors and major engagements they had been used in, along with a description of the forging techniques used to make them.

“Wait... Princess, you said 205 M.E., but this book says that Aurora Nights and Thunder Graymane relinquished the armor in 207 A.B. I don’t understand.” Celestia smiled, as Twilight looked up at her confused. “When I was forced to banish Princess Luna, it felt like the end of an era, and so it became known so legally, and in the calendars. A.B. stands for ‘After Banishing’, just as A.F. is ‘After Founding’. But I grew... Sad, at the constant reminders of Luna’s absence, and in the 7th century of the last era, long after Luna’s banishment had passed from living memory, I changed the abbreviation to M.E., or Modern Era. And of course, you yourself precipitated the change to our current era, A.R.” “‘After Return’,” Twilight said, and Celestia nodded to her, smiling.

“Yes, Twilight, after you returned my sister to me. Thank you.” Celestia smiled, and turned around, walking back to the stairs and leading her up them. The Princess closed the door, which re-sealed into the wall, then turned to lead Twilight back out. “Princess,” Twilight asked. “Why... Why did you decide to tell me all of... All of this?”

Celestia paused for a moment, and looked down, at the comparatively tiny unicorn. “Twilight...” She sighed, and reached her forehoof up, softly stroking Twilight’s mane again. “Before Star Swirl the Bearded was ripped from us, he was privy to such information as well. I haven’t been teaching you magic simply for its own sake, but because I saw the potential in you, the potential that you would be vitally important for Equestria. I’ve spent the last several centuries doing everything in my considerable power to make Equestria a peaceful land where police are seldom needed. Do you know how many murders there were in Equestria last year?”

“Um... I... I don’t,” Twilight admitted, and Celestia sighed, talking, as Twilight felt the mane on the back of her neck start to stand up. “Seven, Twilight. That is, quite honestly, an astoundingly low number by the standards of the rest of the world, even today. Equestria is a wonderful, beautiful land of innocence and harmony. It’s been two-hundred years since we were in a war, a true, major war. But harmonic lands of innocence don’t function by themselves. Someone who knows just how harsh the world may truly be must be there, to watch vigilantly for signs, for trends, that things may be about to go wrong, and-”

“No!” Twilight interrupted the Princess, suddenly, the coat on the back of her neck standing up. She didn’t think she’d ever seen Celestia quite so surprised and shocked, the Princess taken so aback she sat right on her haunches before Twilight’s sudden, loud rejection. “I know where you’re going with this, and I am not going to replace you! Don’t even try telling me you’ve been grooming me to take your place, because... Because I won’t! I’ll go into exile before I do that!”

Celestia stared at her, blinking again, as Twilight walked up to her, rearing up and placing her hooves on the Princess’ chest. “You’re too important to me.” Her voice quivered as she said it, staring up at the Princess with eyes full of worry. “To us - to everypony in Equestria,” she pushed, though her voice wavering as emotion ripped through her. “S-So don’t... Don’t tell me you’re trying to make me ready to do your job, because I’m not. I never will be, I don’t think I ever could be, and... And... I couldn’t... I just... I... I can’t.”

Her momentary anger gone, Twilight felt water come to her eyes, as the shocked Princess slowly smiled, spreading her wings once again around Twilight’s body, embracing her. “Twilight,” she softly said, nuzzling the unicorn’s forehead, next to her horn. “I have no intention of going anywhere. I’ve certainly considered it, but I couldn’t just fly off and leave you in charge, even if you are rapidly becoming capable. I couldn’t do that to Luna, I couldn’t do it to Cadance, I’m not going to do it to you; I’m not going to abdicate, I’m not going to just vanish some day if I have anything to say about it.”

“You... You won’t?” “No, Twilight.” Celestia kissed her forehead. “I’ll never do that to you... But if such a day may come that I don’t have anything to say about it, that I’m not around to rule Equestria -” “S-Stop. Don’t talk like that, Princess,” Twilight tremulously complained, and Celestia sighed. “Twilight, I have no intentions of allowing that to happen. Believe me, I don’t. But, should such a day come, it will be up to you. That’s why I’ve been telling you this. That’s why I’ve showed you the Hall of Artifacts and other things.”

“But... No.” Twilight petulantly complained. “I-I can’t.” Celestia let go of the hug, and drew up to her full height. “Twilight!” Her sudden, sharp crack of voice petrified Twilight into standing still and listening, and Celestia gazed down at her.

“I have no intention of leaving you, or Equestria. But, if it should come to pass that I’m no longer here, or no longer able to rule, it is going to be up to you to restore and keep order in the kingdom.” “Why me, Princess? Luna -” “If I’m gone, then Luna almost certainly will be gone, too. There is virtually no way that some disaster could befall me that it didn’t befall us both.” “Cadance -” “Is not ready, is not trained the way you are, is not prepared to face things the way you are. Neither is your brother, for that matter. They may or may not wind up sitting on the throne, but I am entrusting you, and your friends through you, with the responsibility of keeping things going, of keeping Equestria safe. I know you won’t let me down, will you?”

“N-No, Princess Celestia,” Twilight yelped, staring up at her mentor in shock, and Celestia’s face immediately softened, leaning down to rub her cheek with her own. “I know you won’t, Twilight. But trust me, I don’t intend to go anywhere. I’m planning to be right here to watch you grow, and learn, and surpass even Star Swirl. You won’t stop trying, not even if I’m gone. You, Twilight, are special. Moreso even than dear Cadance and Shining Armor. As powerful as their magic is, they don’t embody the Elements of Harmony; you, and your friends, do. And you are the Element of Magic, the pivotal Element.” Celestia’s horn started to grow, and she drew a ghostly illusion in the air, in the shape of the the gem-topped crown that Twilight’s Elemental artifact appeared as, unlike the necklaces the other five of her friends got.

“Without you, Twilight, the other five Elements are powerless, the magic of friendship unable to catalyze without outside magic to channel it. But, without them, there is no magic of friendship.” “I... Are you saying that I’m... Supposed to be the leader?” “Yes, and no. All of your friends have leadership qualities, especially in areas which are their expertise. Your expertise is your element, which is why you are the focal point when the Elements are invoked. In times of crisis, I imagine your friends usually turn to you first?”

“Um... Usually, I guess, if only to gather everypony up.” Celestia nodded. “You are the focal hub of your friendship, then. You were the last to fall, to deattune to your Element, long after Discord had corrupted your friend’s elements. The others may well look to you for leadership at times. You, Twilight, must have the experience to provide that leadership when it is appropriate, and the wisdom to follow when it is appropriate.”

“I... Well, I don’t think you’ll have any problems there,” Twilight murmured, with a blink, and smile. “I usually would rather let one of the others do the ‘leading’ if there’s any to be done.” “Good. Just don’t be afraid to take the lead if it’s the right thing to do.” Celestia reached up and mussed her mane again, and turned around. “Come along, my little pony. We should go back and see how things are going.”

Twilight nodded, following Celestia, but spoke up. “Princess? I feel... Cold, still. How do I... How do you just... G-Go on, go to a party, after talking about all that we talked about?” “That’s a skill you must master, too.” Celestia smiled. “Change the subject, push it to the back of your mind, immerse yourself in some other activity or endeavor. If you dwell on the terrible, you will never get to enjoy the good. Let go of it, and think of other things, do other things.”

“Um... That... I don’t know if I can do that, Princess,” Twilight murmured, looking down, and Celestia chuckled, as she led her back towards the entrance to the library wing. “Oh, you’ll learn... I’m afraid you’ll learn, soon enough, like it or not. For now, though, why don’t you go see how Pinkie Pie is doing. You seemed to expect that she would enjoy those magnificent fruit chimichangas.”

“Ah? O-Oh, yes. I’m sure she will have,” Twilight murmured, as they passed the guard at the front of the library, the Princess once again levitating the velvet rope from across the door, the guard saluting with his hoof, and Celestia returning it with her wing. Celestia pushed forward, on Twilight’s shoulders, with the same wing, before folding it again. “Then go, go and see.”

“I... Um, okay, Princess,” Twilight murmured, and started to walk back towards the ball-room, but it wasn’t until she got there that she realized Celestia had slipped away while she was walking. Twilight almost felt annoyed, but sighed a took a breath, then smiled. Celestia and she had spent a good half-hour talking, which is longer than she usually got since she’d gone to Ponyville.

By the time Twilight located Pinkie Pie a half-hour later, the pink mare was in the castle’s courtyard, pushing her Party Cannon around. Twilight saw that this was where the other marble statuary that formerly bordered the hedge maze had been moved, and it looked rather nice. The courtyard had previously been a bare stretch of gray stones with a red carpet, but now the carpet was bordered with the statues. Beyond the marble statuary was a forest of marble pots supporting topiary sculptures of ponies, and between the rows she saw benches and small tables.

Pinkie had clearly been busy, and was still busy, aligning the Party Cannon with a statue of an earth pony brandishing a bow with an arrow nocked. She elevated the cannon to point at it, whilst humming a song, and raised her foreleg above the party cannon’s end. “I’m about to drop my hoof!” she giggled, and slapped the fuse of the cannon with her hoof. “And dispense some indiscriminate decor!”

A tremendous, deep bang issued from the party cannon’s muzzle, and it discharged a hurricane of shining tinsel onto the statue, leaving the marble mare draped with shining, metallic lilac and blue tinsel garlands. Most of the other statues were similarly decorated, with the color scheme changing by distance to the castle and splitting to the sides, going from the cool colors Pinkie had just unleashed at the entrance statue to brilliantly-gleaming silver and white and gold on the left, and darkly-gleaming midnight blue and shiny, metallic black on the right. Above the courtyard, there were Pegasi stringing up taut lines between the parapet walls and the castle’s structure. She wondered what was going to be done with them, and smiled as she started walking towards Pinkie, who broke into a bright grin when she saw Twilight walking towards her, and started to wave eagerly with a forehoof, the other braced on top of the cannon.

Twilight laughed as she broke into a trot to get to Pinkie faster. “Hey, Pinkie, this is - ack!” Her greeting was cut off as the pink mare launched herself at her, and put Twilight in a strong hug. She embraced Pinkie in return, sucking in a breath, and smiling. “P-Pinkie, it’s nice to see you too. It’s only been like, an hour or so, but it’s nice to see you again.”

Pinkie released her from the hug, and beamed a bright smile at her, as Twilight looked around. “So, uh.... Wow, you’ve really been working, haven’t you?” “Oh, I know, right?” Pinkie responded, giggling. “I can’t believe I get to decorate the Grand! Galloping! Gala!” Pinkie let out an exuberant squeal of joy. “This is so shiny, so fancy!”

Twilight couldn’t help but grin at Pinkie Pie’s delight and joy, and smiled. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, Pinkie,” she said, with a warm smile. Pinkie suddenly sat back on her haunches, and saluted Twilight as smartly as Twilight had ever seen any Royal Guardspony ever salute Princess Celestia. “But don’t worry! I am taking my job very seriously, too,” Pinkie suddenly exclaimed. “You can count on me, Twilight! I won’t rest until the job’s done!”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh. “Pinkie, I didn’t mean to imply that... I...” She sighed, sitting down and leaning forward hugging the pink mare, softly. “Pinkie, I have no doubt you’re going to do a fantastic job. You don’t need to defend your work to me. The place is looking great already.”

She let go, and looked up. “So, what goes on those ropes up there,” she asked, pointing to the ropes that were being strung by the Pegasi; by now they were weaving together as a tight net over the courtyard, and Pinkie grinned. “Lights! We’re going to hang lanterns from the rope so they shine down on all the statues and topiary, so it catches the tinsel and makes them sparkle once it turns dark, and lights up the topiary.”

Grinning, Twilight reached up, crinkling Pinkie’s nose with her forehoof. “It’s going to look fantastic, I can’t wait to see it,” she said, quickly, feeling herself gush. “Pinkie, I never should have doubted you, and I’m sorry. Can you forgi-mmmf?” Pinkie returned the crinkling, and grinned. “Abso-popso-lutely! Consider it forgiven,” Pinkie replied with a grin. “Come on, I need to get to the dance hall,” she said, standing up and walking back to push the party cannon onward. Twilight smiled, and followed her. “So, Pinkie, what did you think of those treats Spike brought you?”

“The cherrychanga was everything I hoped it would be, and more! I’m kind of sad I didn’t get to make it, but Applejack found someone who’s even better than I could ever have tried to be. I mean, making a tortilla, out of zap apple?! I’m not even sure how I’d even go about trying to do that, maybe cutting up the zap apple, then smoking it until it’s all dried and shriveled, grinding it into dust and mixing the dust with the flour when you make it? I have no idea. I don’t know how you make tortillas in the first place, I just buy mine.” Pinkie took a deep breath after her monologue about the zap apple tortillas, and smiled. “It was just incredible. The applechanga was fantastic, too. The zap applechanga, or maybe it should be called a zapplechanga? Either way, it was a little monotonous, but in a good way - the zap apple filling wasn’t fighting with the zap apple tortilla. It nicely cleared my palate after I ate the cherrychanga, preparing me for the applechanga.”

Twilight grinned; when it came to food, Pinkie was a surprisingly knowledgeable and talkative pony. “I liked them all, and I’m glad you did, too.” She smiled. “Hey, where are the Wonderbolts? I saw them earlier, on the football pitch.” “I don’t know,” Pinkie admitted. “I saw them flying around above the pitch, but I don’t know what happened. Maybe the game finished up?” She shrugged. “Sorry. I can’t help you there, Twilight,” Pinkie said, with a sad shrug, and Twilight smiled back at her. “That’s okay, Pinkie. You have your hooves full, don’t worry about it. Do you know where Spike was headed after he left you?”

“I do! He went back to watch the game,” Pinkie said, with a smile, and Twilight nodded. “All right. I guess I should start at the pitch then. Thanks,” she said, and Pinkie paused, waving her hoof as Twilight started to walk off. “You’re gonna love this place, Twilight!”

She couldn’t help but grin back at Pinkie. “I’m sure I will, Pinkie. Have fun,” she said, as she turned away, Pinkie hauling her cannon up the stairs, and Twilight headed to the side entrance, to go to the pitch.

On the pitch, contrary to Pinkie’s supposition, the game was still going, and Twilight grinned as she galloped toward her brother, who was still brandishing his whistle. She surveyed the field quickly; Thunderlane was off the pitch, behind the nearer corner of the Guard’s goal line, with the ball set on the arc, clearly about to take a corner kick, while the teams arrayed in an arc away from him. Luna and Cadance loomed tall above the other players, but nopony failed to looked ready for action, all of them pegasi, all with their wings spread, ready to leap forward the moment Thunderlane kicked the ball. Twilight grinned to herself, and levitated the rulebook next to her brother to herself, checking the index and quickly flipping to the relevant page, scanning it in the bottom of her vision while the play seemed to be stalled, everypony waiting to make a move.

Thunderlane himself backed up and hunched down, scuffing his hoof on the ground, clearly about ready to charge, when Spitfire called out. “Thunderlane, back on the pitch. Rainbow Dash, take the kick!” Both of the named Pegasi looked up, at her, blinking. Thunderlane snorted, as if confused, and walked back up the pitch, as Rainbow Dash walked toward his post. Twilight blinked, her eyes flicking down to the rulebook in her telekinetic grasp, but on the way, her gaze passed over the ball, which wobbled as Thunderlane passed it; clipped it with his rear hoof, it barely rolled an inch.

“Can they even switch kickers,” she murmured, as Rainbow Dash cantered past Thunderlane, toward the ball. She started off the pitch, to walk around the corner post, but suddenly snapped forward, the sudden motion startling and catching Twilight’s eyes.

Rainbow Dash hammered her forehooves into the ball as she lifted off the ground propelled by her wings, a short rainbow trail forming around her. The move seemed to catch the entire Guards team off-guard, largely because it was a foul, and Rainbow Dash dove down on the ball as it reached the edge of the goal area. She was right next to Echo, but the defending guardsman was so surprised he barely had started to move to intervene when Rainbow Dash hammered the ball into the goal, flying firmly and unquestionably into the net, completely taking the goalkeeper by surprise.

Twilight was left stunned, as Shining Armor started to blow his whistle, furiously, galloping down the pitch towards the still-standing teams. The Guards team and the Princesses looked absolutely flabbergasted, but the Wonderbolts had a grin on their faces, and Rainbow Dash herself did a fast backflip in the air, landing on her rear hooves and balancing on them for a second, her wings spread out, before she dropped down.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Her brother was shouting, and Twilight turned, galloping towards him, her mane and tail flowing as she brought the book with her, knowing that it was unquestionably going to be needed. Shining Armor blew his whistle again, loudly, as he drew up to the players. “What is the meaning of this,” Luna demanded, her voice raised, though Twilight felt relieved she didn’t raise it to Royal Canterlot Voice volume, nor had she reverted to archaic speech. “That - that’s a foul, right? That has to be a foul!” “Of course it’s a foul,” Shining Armor yelled back, as he barreled into the inside of the arc of ponies around the corner arc. “She didn’t even take the corner kick right, and the player taking the kick can’t play the ball again until someone else touches it!”

Rainbow Dash’s jubilation looked unabated, though Twilight’s brother looked astounded and almost angry. “Twilight, what’s the penalty for that?” “I, um...” Put on the spot, Twilight looked down, through her rulebook. “Um... It looks like an indirect free kick is given to the Guards,” she said, and Shining Armor snorted. “That’s all? That was pretty, um...” “Flagrant,” Luna offered, and Armor nodded. “Yeah. Where’s my cards,” he muttered, but Thunderlane walked up to him, shaking his head. “Uh, Ref? You might want to check the rules again. Rainbow Dash didn’t take the corner kick, I did.”

Shining Armor looked at him, as if Thunderlane ha suddenly spoken in another language, or perhaps spouted off a complex mathematical theorem apropos of nothing. “Uh... No, you didn’t. You were going to, then Spitfire called you back, remember?”

“Yeah... But I brushed the ball with my hoof when I walked past it.” “You did,” Armor questioned him. “What... I don’t even know what that has to do with anything.” Twilight started to get a sinking feeling in her gut, as Luna and Spitfire approached her and her brother. “What is going on,” Princess Luna asked, tilting her head, as Twilight looked down to the book. “Um... I’m not sure, but I think...” “It was a trick,” Spitfire admitted, smiling up at Princess Luna. “Thunderlane brushed the ball with his hoof, moving it and putting it in play as the corner kick. After that, Rainbow Dash was free to play it as hard as she wanted to.”

Shining Armor looked confused, and he looked to Twilight for guidance. “Twi? What do you think happened?” Twilight looked down at the rulebook, to the Procedures section, and read aloud. “The ball must be placed inside the corner arc nearest to the point where the ball crossed the goal line,” she murmured, and the two captains and her brother nodded at her. “The corner flagpost must not be moved.” They all nodded again, as she continued, “Everypony stayed at least ten yards away, right?” The team leaders nodded again. “The ball must be kicked by a player of the attacking team... It doesn’t specify a right way to do it. It says the ball is in play when it is kicked and moves, and the kicker must not play the ball again until it has touched another player.”

Shining Armor looked up, meeting Twilight’s eyes, and she shrugged at him. “Thunderlane did brush the ball with his hoof, and I saw it wobble forward a bit.” “As did I,” Luna admitted, blinking. “That hardly seems sporting, but I don’t believe there are any rules specifying a minimum amount of force that must be behind a kick, or a minimum distance it must travel to be considered a kick...”

The Princess furrowed her eyebrows, as if mulling it over, and sat on her haunches, shrugging. “I suppose that was the tiebreaker point,” she mused, looking to Shining Armor. “I, ah... I guess it was,” he murmured, but Spitfire shook her head. “No, it’s okay... We just wanted to see if it would work.” She sat down herself, and grinned. “We’ll concede the point, and the win,” she said, offering her forehoof to Luna, but the Princess shook her head, though she took Spitfire’s hoof, shaking it. “I cannot agree to that. Your trick worked perfectly.” She actually smiled, and Twilight felt relieved. “We should have been more attentive. You should record the win.”

Spitfire shook her head again. “I can’t agree to that. Call it a draw?” The two team captains’ eyes met, and Luna broke into a laugh. “Alright. A draw it is, then, two-to-two.”

The teams broke into laughter, as Twilight looked up at her big brother, asking him, “what just happened?” He shrugged at her. “I guess the game’s a tie, then,” he said , levitating a book from his saddlebags on the ground and making a note in it. Twilight passed him back the rulebook, and smiled. “So, is everything over?” “Yeah, that’s it,” he said, nodding as the teams started to break up, Princesses Luna and Cadance walking past her and her brother. Both of them smiled at her, and she smiled back, though the two tall Alicorns were talking about the game. Cadance paused to say “Hey, Twilight. I bet the party’s gonna be amazing,” and Twilight nodded back. “Oh, it will be. With Pinkie Pie decorating? One way or another, everypony’s going to be amazed.”

Cadance grinned, brightly. “If it’s anything like what she did for my wedding, it’s going to be perfect.” She then trotted on to catch up with Luna, smiling at her. The Wonderbolts spread their wings, but Twilight called out “Hey, Spitfire? Can I talk to you for a bit?” The fire-maned mare looked up at her, and nodded. “Yeah, sure. Everypony, go get some rest. Hit the baths, get yourselves cleaned up and grab some hay. We’ve got a show tonight!” The other Wonderbolts split up, and Shining Armor turned to follow the Princesses, as Spitfire walked up to Twilight. “What can I do for you,” she asked, and Twilight smiled. “I wanted to run over the show with you,” Twilight said, looking up. “I know it’s gonna be great, but I wanted to know what you had planned.” Spitfire nodded. “Mmhmmm. Well, I’d fly you through it, but... You kind of don’t have wings.” “Heh, yeah,” Twilight said, looking back at her wingless flanks. “Can you talk me through it?” “Sure I can,” Spitfire said, spreading her wings and starting to walk from the pitch. “How much do you know about aerobatics?” “Um... Not much, really. I usually just go to the shows to say ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’. There’s gotta be a book on it somewhere, though,” she mused. “I can run to the library if I need to.”

“No need!” Rainbow Dash walked up on the other side of Twilight. “She already explained it to me, so let me translate.” Rainbow extended her wing towards the mountain in the distance. “This is gonna be great, Twi. There’s gonna be three Wonderbolts on that mountain over there on roller skates, ready to launch by cruising down that slope and off the ramp. Meanwhile, three more are gonna come in from that direction, over the valley,” she pointed beyond the castle at thin air with her other wing “and from over the train tracks, coming in like that. Everypony is going to be going really fast and trailing sparks, they’re gonna meet up and pull up hard when they get to the castle’s side courtyard. That’s where I come in.”

“You come - wait, what?” Twilight blinked, looking at Rainbow Dash. “You’re in the show?!” She felt a swirl of joy for her friend run through, grinninfg as she asked it, and Rainbow beamed back at her. “Yep! Spitfire asked me to do a Sonic Rainboom this year, and it. is. gonna. ROCK!”

Twilight laughed, as Spitfire walked up along the other side of Twilight, grinning. “Well, how could I pass up a chance to get an authentic Sonic Rainboom at the show, after we saw one at Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s wedding? Ponies might think the Wonderbolts are slipping.” She grinned, and Twilight thought that Rainbow Dash might simply expire of joy, but instead the blue mare reared up, laughing and pointing. “Anyway, that’s where I come in. They’ve got this huge sky-rocket from somewhere. This thing is gonna be epic, it’s a rocket on top of a rocket! I’m gonna be strapped to the top of it and it’s gonna take off like, fwooooom, while the Wonderbolts spiral around it trailing sparkles and glitter. It’s gonna take a while to pass them, but it will; then the bottom rocket will run out of fuel and drop away when the top one starts up. That’s when the Wonderbolts split into an opening-flower like thing, and the first rocket explodes in a massive firework. That’s also when Pinkie’s gonna light up the fireworks on the ground!”

Rainbow Dash laughed, gesticulating wildly with her forehooves and wings. “It’s gonna be awesome. Fwoom fwoom fwoom fwoom EVERYWHERE! And the Wonderbolts will be dodging and weaving between them - everypony’s gonna be wearing fireproof flight suits, of course - while the second rocket, the one I’m on top of, just keeps going higher and higher and higher, and the ground display goes from the low altitude rockets to the higher and higher ones while the Wonderbolts keep spiraling upwards through the display. Then - then, and this is my favorite part, the rocket under me explodes!”

Twilight blinked. “Uh, Rainbow? That doesn’t sound... Safe.” “Of course it is.” Rainbow Dash laughed. “Because the nose-cone is made of metal, and I’m gonna be wearing a fireproof suit, too. But it’s not gonna look safe, that’s the idea. That rocket is going to go ka-boom, and trail gold and silver sparkles all down through the sky as the Wonderbolts turn around and dive, switching to their smoke dispensers, and people are going to wonder if everything’s okay... That’s because I’ll be hovering so far up in the sky nopony will be able to see me without binoculars. Then, as the Wonderbolts start to tightly spiral down around where the rocket went, is when I go. I go, and boy do I go - I’m gonna dive straight down through the sparkles and the formation of Wonderbolts, and, if we worked out the math right, I’ll pass the sound barrier just before I get to them, sending out a rainbow shockwave all behind them, scattering all that smoke they’ve been trailing all over the sky, while I rocket down towards the ground! I’m wearing roller skates too, so I’m taking it all the way to the deck! I’m gonna touch down on that big boulevard running through Canterlot - which is gonna be closed - and blow through the whole town at supersonic speed, trailing smoke and rainbows, skipping off the street, and ponies will see me pass first, then crack! That sonic boom I’m trailing will hit, really rattle the windows, you know?! It’s gonna be awesome! Then I’m gonna pull up and loop around while I still have the momentum, and wrap back in on my own path, make a bow out of rainbows and smoke above the castle. If we have it all figured out right, I should drop below the speed of sound above the top balcony, and I can drop into the castle courtyard and go get my dress from Rarity.”

Twilight stood, stunned for a moment, listening to Rainbow Dash’s explanation of the show she had planned. It sounded incredible; it sounded incredulous. She blinked, looking over at Spitfire. “Is that... Safe?!” “Not in the slightest,” Spitfire cheerfully said. “That’s why we’re taking every possible precaution: fireproof flight suits, goggles, muzzle covers, our manes and tails are going to be covered up. Traffic will be blocked from the road long before the first sky-rocket goes off, and Princess Celestia has had a team at work reinforcing the windows in Canterlot so they won’t blow out when Rainbow goes in trailing that sonic boom. And Rainbow Dash will be riding a giant armored plate into the sky, so even if both rockets below her malfunction and explode on the launch pad with all of their fuel onboard, the worst that will happen is she’ll be thrown violently into the air and spread her wings to catch herself.”

Twilight felt a little dubious, looking towards Rainbow Dash, who was giggling. “Oh man, that would be a fun ride, too. Kind of ruin the show, but it’d be hilarious if that happened, wouldn’t it?” Aghast, Twilight looked over to stare at Rainbow Dash, who was grinning. “I’m joking, Twi. That’s not gonna happen, relax.” She spread her wing over Twilight’s back, and smiled. “It’s me you’re talking about. I’ll be fine.” She smiled, and Twilight lowered her head, shaking it. “You agreed to this,” she asked, looking up at Spitfire, who grinned. “Well, I was a little put off at first, but honestly, it’s that massive firework I’m worried about more than anything else. We’ve been working on them for the airshow for a year now, and I’ve seen it launch a dozen times. It works, but I honestly never thought we’d actually get to the point where we strapped a pony onto the top of it.”

Twilight felt her mouth open, and she blinked. “Wait, you’ve never... You’ve never done this with somepony actually... on it? I... How do you know it’ll work?” “We’ve launched it at least eight times with heavy sacks the weight and rough shape of a pony strapped down in launch position,” Spitfire explained. “When the second rocket reaches its apex, a bunch of little rockets under the cone fire off, separating it and carrying it up while the main body’s fuse burns down. By the time the bursting charge goes off and turns the whole thing into a ginormous firework, the nose cone is plenty far away from it. But even if that bit malfunctions, the rider should be fine.”

Twilight shook her head, sitting down and pressing her right forehoof to her forehead. “This sounds fantastically dangerous.” “Twi. Chill. It’s me,” Rainbow Dash encouraged her, poking her with her wing. “Do you know anypony who’s faster to react or fly than me? If anything goes wrong, I just have smack the release on my harness with my hoof, and I’ll be out of there before you can say the name of the next Daring Do novel!”

“‘Daring Do! And the Buccaneers! In an adventure with Naturalists!’?” Twilight skeptically looked at Rainbow Dash, who sighed. “Okay, the last title, then.” Twilight blinked. “‘Daring Do in Danger: Ahuitzotl’s Grand Scheme of Revenge and Payback in Spades?”

Rainbow Dash sat down and mirrored Twilight’s face-hoof maneuver. “Without the subtitle,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Point is, I’ll be out of there before anything goes wrong enough to hurt me. Besides, somepony has to test it. Who better than one of the fastest ponies above Equestria?”

Twilight felt like arguing, she felt like trying to talk Rainbow Dash out of it. But she sighed, instead, and looked up, meeting her friend’s violet eyes. “There’s no way in Equestria I’m talking you out of this, is there?” “Not a chance,” Rainbow agreed, and Twilight sighed, laying her head down on her forehooves, defeated. “Alright. But if I can’t talk you out of it, I’m going to run to the library and find every spell in the books I can to make you safer.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, and reached forward, rubbing her behind the horn with her forehoof. “If that’ll make you feel better, Twilight,” she said with a grin. “I mean, I’m not worried at all, of course,” she murmured, looking up and away, and Twilight grinned back at her friend’s fibbing about her own courage and confidence, standing back up. “Alright. You go rest up, then. I need a bath, and then I’ll hit the books.”

The two Pegasi turned and walked off one way, while Twilight started towards the bathhouse.

Twilight stretched, yawning, as she climbed out of the palace baths, surprised that she had had time to take one, but glad. Even after checking with Applejack again, then checking again on Pinkie, it had been only about noon when she had glanced at the sundial outside the castle, and so had decided to follow the Wonderbolt’s example, especially since she wasn’t certain she’d had a chance to do so last night.

She had the bathhouse to herself this time, and for a moment’s solitude, she had been grateful, and she smiled as she thought back on her bath, while levitating towels around herself, wrapping them tightly around her body to soak up water. She sat on the marble bench at the side of the room, and levitated her saddlebags to her from the coatroom, setting them down and pulling out her ledger, flipping to the last page and looking down at the items on the list.

[√] Check on the food [√] Check on Applejack
[√] Check on the decoration [ ] Check on Fluttershy
[√] Check on the airshow [√] Check on Pinkie Pie
[ ] Check on the music [√] Check on Rainbow Dash
[√] See if Cadance/Armor are here [ ] Check on Rarity
[ ] Get cleaned up [ ] Get Dressed
[ ] Eat lunch (No later than 2) [ ] Final check on everything
[ ] Attend the Grand Galloping Gala

Satisfied, she pulled out her quill and added a neat mark to the checkbox next to ‘Get cleaned up,’ and put the ledger and quill away, and shook herself as she stood up, discarding the towels. She was still damp, but that was a matter easily resolved with some magic. Her horn glowed brightly as she conjured up a hot wind blowing around her, whisking excess water from her coat and blow-drying her mane and tail. It wasn’t a perfect method, of course, and it left her looking exceptionally poofy, but that she was clean and dry were the important parts; she had no doubt that Rarity was planning to redo her mane and tail anyway, before the gala. She threw the towels into the used bin, where one of the staff would collect them and take them to be laundered, then levitated her saddlebags as she walked out, telekinetically dragging a brush through her mane as she worked to make herself more presentable before she ran into anypony.

Twilight felt quite hungry; though she wanted to check on Rarity and Fluttershy, and the music, she decided to head down to the kitchens when her stomach rumbled, to see if she could find something that wasn’t party food to eat. The castle’s corridors seemed to be picking up in activity, and she passed three stallions pulling carts of what looked like more decorations up through the service halls as she wound her way to the kitchens, but before she got there, she saw a tall, bright pink mare heading in the same direction, and grinned. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake,” she called out in a drawn-out, singsong voice, and Cadance looked back, smiling at her. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake,” Cadance murmured, stopping in the hall as Twilight walked up to her. The alicorn’s horn was glowing blue, and she was levitating a pair of books in front of her. Twilight grinned.

“Good books,” she asked, but Cadance shook her head. “Well, not exactly.” She turned one book around, and Twilight read the cover - WAFO International Tournament Laws of the Game 1-2 A.R. Edition. The cover was a fine, sturdy brushed silk in dark blue-black, embossed with the image of a football divided by hexagons, with a silhouetted figure in each hexagon; the center hexagon had an Earth Pony, Unicorn Pony, and Pegasus Pony, but she also saw a zebra, a buffalo, a griffon, and others.

“Studying up on the rules?” “Yeah, um... See, I think we made a goof. I did foul earlier.” She levitated the other book over to Twilight’s field of view, with a similar title. WAFO Pegasi Laws of the Game 1-2 A.R. Edition. It had an embossment of a Pegasus Pony with wings spread, descending on the embossment of the ball. “Um... Wait, I’m not sure I understand,” Twilight said, and Cadance nodded. “This is the rulebook you were reading from earlier. There’s books for Pegasi, Unicorns, Griffons, Earth Ponies and Zebra, Buffalo, and so forth and so on. Because so many races play football, and there’s such demand for rules that account for the differences between them - Buffalo are much larger than any pony, so the pitch has to be larger for them, for instance - the governing body puts out individual and specialized rules for play with only one race involved, but they also put out a mixed-race tournament book that’s made to equalize the game for every player on the pitch.”

“So, what does that have to do with you,” Twilight asked, and Cadance turned over the tournament rulebook, showing Twilight the section she was reading, a sub-heading of the tournament rules regarding replacement of a defective ball, and Twilight read aloud again. “If the ball bursts, punctures, slices, or otherwise becomes defective during the course of a match as a result of accidental impact or collision with a sharp or pointed part of a player’s anatomy (including, but not limited to, the horns of Unicorn or Buffalo, or the claws of a Griffon,) follow normal procedures for replacement of the ball if the ball defect was caused by the failure of safety equipment worn by the player specifically to prevent this occurrence. If the player in question opted not to don safety equipment such as to prevent ball contact with a portion of their anatomy sharp enough that a reasonable creature would determine an impact with the ball might result in a ball defect, the player is held to have committed an offense awarding the other team a direct penalty kick at the end of the play period, and the player upon whose anatomy the ball punctured is to be cautioned or sent off at the referee’s discretion as to how unambiguously capable of puncturing a ball the offending anatomical feature is. (For instance, a Unicorn with a blunt horn may be cautioned, but one with a sharp horn should be sent off.)”

Twilight winced as she looked up at Cadance, whose ears were drooping. “I feel awfully silly,” Cadance admitted. “I didn’t even know I should wear some kind of safety equipment, or what might have been appropriate.” She frowned, sadly, lowering her head, and Twilight looked at her horn - while not the longest or pointiest Twilight knew (both of those qualities unambiguously belonged to Princess Celestia’s horn,) it was certainly long and sharp enough to burst the ball, as she’d seen earlier.

Twilight took a breath, and sighed, smiling softly. “Hey. You weren’t using this rulebook, remember?” Cadance nodded. “I know, but -” “But nothing. Your game was using the Pegasus rulebook, probably because everypony on the field had wings. Since the Pegasus rulebook doesn’t have anything in it about horns or balls puncturing on them, there’s no foul.” She smiled, pushing into Cadance’s side, and Cadance smiled back at her, leaning back against her. “I still feel awful about it,” Cadance murmured, and Twilight chuckled. “Relax, you didn’t do anything wrong. So, how did you and Princess Luna get roped into playing against the Wonderbolts, anyway?”

Cadance smiled. “Well, me and Shining Armor and some of the Crystal Ponies were invited to the Grand Galloping Gala. Most of the Crystal Ponies who came are still in Canterlot, seeing the sights and all, but I just wanted to see Celestia and Luna again, so we came right here. Luna and I were talking about it, and she mentioned that she and the Royal Guards usually split into two teams and played a match every other day or so. Armor volunteered to referee, so as not to ground everypony else, but then one of the Wonderbolts flew up and asked if that was a football pitch we were heading out to. It was, and he said that was great, because the Wonderbolts played a lot, too, and suggested a Guards versus Wonderbolts match. I think you know what happened after that.”

Twilight nodded, and smiled. “Yeah, I guess I do. That was impressive,” she admitted. “It looked like fun.” “It was,” Cadance sighed, smiling. “Even if I did kind of blunder through it. I haven’t played since I was a little foal.” Twilight grinned at her, pushing into Cadance’s side. “Hey, you still did good,” she murmured. “So, how did you get this Tournament Rules book, anyway? I didn’t see it in the shed.” “Oh, I was looking around the courtyard when I met a Pegasus mare who was saying that the ropes overhead reminded her of the hexagons on a football. I’m not sure what she meant, because they’ve been laid in squares, but I asked her if she liked football, and we talked about it for a while. Then I told her about the whole ball and horn thing, and she said what you said - that it wasn’t a foul under Pegasus rules, but would have been under Unicorn or Tournament rules. She gave me the tournament rulebook, too.”

Twilight blinked, and nodded. “Huh... Okay, I guess that was... Well, that was nice of her.” She smiled at Cadance. “So, were you heading to the kitchens to get lunch?” Cadance nodded, as they rounded the last corner towards the kitchen. There was no longer any music coming from inside, which disappointed Twilight a bit, but she walked inside anyway. As she expected, she walked into a magnificent cornucopia of scents, and smiled, saying “Hello, AJ.” Applejack herself was still standing where she had been when Twilight had checked on her through the structure of the castle, though now she appeared to be folding apple fritters, and her back was to Twilight. Still, she responded, “Hey there, Twi’. Y’all back already?”

Twilight beamed a smile at Applejack as the rich scents of cooking apples hit her. “You bet, AJ. I just realized, I didn’t have breakfast. Or lunch.” “The way you’ve been, you probably ain’t had ‘em yesterday, either,” Applejack retorted with a chuckle. She folded the last of what looked like a batch of fritters, and handed the tray they were on to a pony who walked up next to her; he took the tray and set it down on a countertop workstation, where somepony else was evidently dressing the fritters up with zap apple-striped frosting.

“That’s... Interesting,” Twilight murmured,adding “Fritters with frosting? Applejack laughed. “Yep! Apple family fritters are plenty good enough to feed to all those fancified cityfolk, but dressin’ ‘em up some to get ‘em past their lips can’t hurt. So, what brings y’all here, she said, finally turning around, and blinking when she saw Cadance. “Err, Your Highness,” Applejack stumbled over the words, bowing clumsily, but Cadance shook her head, laughing. “No, no, please, just call me Cadance. And I expect we’re here for the same reason: I’m starving!”

Applejack looked up, and grinned. “Is that so? Well, y’all come to the right place. We’ve been fixin’ up lunch to send to everypony, but we just don’t have anyone to take ‘em to ‘em. Er, you wouldn’t mind, would you?” Twilight immediately shook her head. “No, of course not.” She looked to her left, and Cadance was smiling warmly. “I’d be happy to help.” “Alright. Hey, someone hitch these two up to the lunch wagons!” Applejack turned back to grab a notebook in which she was writing notes, and tore out two pages. Twilight levitated one, Cadance the other, as she saw two Apple family mares bring two wagons loaded with paper bags. “Now, I warn y’all, t’ain’t fancy or nothing, but -” “It’s fine, Applejack,” Cadance murmured. “Everypony’s so busy, I imagine we’re all going to be lucky to get lunch at all,” she said, as she stepped back into the harness the pony behind her was holding open for her, then tied around her. Twilight nodded, and stepped back herself, as the light collar was affixed around her, and she felt its weight settle onto her shoulders, a new and not entirely comfortable sensation.

Applejack chuckled at her. “Just don’t try to animate this one, okay? You should be able to pull this one without magic.” Blushing, Twilight smiled, and nodded, taking a step forward. The cart’s weight tugged on her, but she could move it, and she nodded. “I won’t. Promise.” “Good. Now, don’t forget to go ‘round and feed everypony. You shouldn’t run out, ‘cause we made more’n there should be ponies at th’ palace right now, but if you do, run on back and we’ll make you some more.”

When she and Cadance left the kitchen - each of them with a frosted apple fritter levitating in front of them, as well as the books and papers, Cadance looked over at Twilight, and chuckled. “How did we get talked into this again,” she asked, as she took a bite of the fritter in front of her. Twilight laughed, and took a bite of her own; hot apple filling inside, warm crust and multiflavored zap apple frosting all combined on her tongue. She swallowed it, and laughed. “I have no idea... Probably because Applejack asked nicely?”

Cadance chuckled after she swallowed, and looked down at her list. “It looks like everything I’ve got is farther up - the ballroom, the grand hall, and so on.” Twilight nodded, looking down at her own list. “Looks like I’ve got the ponies down from here - the great hall, the courtyard, and...” She scanned the list, and nodded. “Split up?” “Only if you promise to catch up with me and Armor later.”

Twilight grinned at her. “That’s a deal,” she said, lifting her forehoof, and Cadance bumped it with one of hers, then turned to pull her cart up a ramp, while Twilight headed down.

Her hoof thumped into the door, though it felt as though she were wearing leaden shoes. Twilight was not used to bearing a wagon at all, and she was simply glad it was only laden with bagged lunches instead of something more substantial. This was her last scheduled stop, though; the service entrance to the castle’s cloak room, which Rarity and (as far as she knew) Fluttershy had occupied with their dresses.

“Coming!” Rarity’s distinct voice came from the other side of the door, and Twilight heard the shuffling of heavy objects within, before the door opened with a heavy creak. Rarity had pulled a rack of heavy cloaks from in front of the door telekinetically, and she simply pushed it forward, to the front door. “Twilight, darling! It’s good to see you today, at least,” she gushed, stepping back as the glow of her horn faded. “Though, why are you at the service entrance? Oh, nevermind, come in. Here to get your mane done at last, I trust?”

“Ah, not yet,” Twilight admitted, as she shrugged the harness off and stepped in, levitating some bags from her cart; she had less than ten left, after the three she brought into the cloak room with her. “Though honestly, I’m kind of exhausted. I’ve been taking lunch to everyone who’s been busy working.”

“Oh? How wonderfully thoughtful,” Rarity said, with a grin. “Come in, come in, sit down.” She led Twilight through the front of the cloak room, to the storage room. It wasn’t yet being used to store cloaks, which was probably a good thing as it had three salon dryers in it, and a gleaming silver rack with six brand-new dresses, but Rarity telekinetically snapped a curtain over them before Twilight could get a look. She blinked at Rarity. “Oh, are those our new dresses?” “They are indeed,” Rarity boasted. Fluttershy and I have been putting our time and solitude to good use catching up on some of the work I pushed to the side to get everything ready for the Gala. Fluttershy, darling?” “I’m here, Rarity,” Fluttershy called from behind another rack, and Rarity pulled it aside with a telekinetic tug of her horn. Fluttershy was finishing a tuxedo jacket; classic black primarily, but instead of the traditional white trimmings, the inside was a sharp, silky-looking electric blue, while the collar, cuffs, and the pockets’ trim showed off a light, minty green, with polished buttons made of striated, earthtone gems. Rarity lifted her glasses from around her neck, balancing them on her nose for a moment, before grinning. “Perfect, Fluttershy. Tell me again why you never went into dressmaking?” “O-Oh... I don’t really like the pressure,” the pastel yellow pegasus mare murmured, as she carefully folded the tuxedo and boxed it. “This is the last one. Should I put it on the wagon going to the train station?”

“Mmmmmmh, no,” Rarity murmured, with a grin. “That tuxedo is for Fancypants. He asked me to make him a new formal outfit for general use, but, if I surprise him with it tonight, a week before it was due, he’ll probably wear it here, at the Gala, and wouldn’t that be quite the coup?”

Twilight was only vaguely aware of the social scene that Rarity followed with a passion, but she knew that Fancypants was a big-name pony in Canterlot, one whose favor Rarity greatly cherished. Twilight chuckled. “You’re a week ahead? Wow.” “I know, but Fluttershy here is such an incredible hoof at this. She really could have been a dressmaker,” Rarity gushed, as she took the box with the tuxedo in it and levitated it out to the front of the cloak room, setting it on the desk. “So, when are the others going to get here? We really should get started on our manes, we are cutting things a little close, aren’t we?”

“Not so close,” Twilight said, with a smile. “I think we’ve all pulled ahead of schedule.” She sat on a cushion on the floor, setting one bag in front of Fluttershy, who opened it quickly, and another in front of Rarity, as the marshmallow-colored Element of Generosity sat facing the two of them. “I’ll see if I can round everypony up soon, though.” Twilight smiled, as she opened her own bag, levitating the lunch out from within. It consisted of a whole apple, a scoop of homemade hay fries, and a sandwich on ciabatta bread, which on quick glance appeared to be cucumber and dandelion. She took a bite and the sweet, cool flavors of the sandwich filling immediately contrasted with the spread, which was a smoky, slightly spicy flavor. Rarity looked at her scoop of hay fries with disdain that Twilight knew was feigned, and started on her apple, while Fluttershy ate one of the fries, and looked up. “So, Twilight, who have you seen today?”

Twilight grinned, as she gave a quick recap of her day. “Well, Pinkie and Princess Celestia woke me up. Spike caught up with me on the stairs, then I met up with Shining Armor, Cadance, Luna, Rainbow Dash, and a whole gaggle of royal guards and Wonderbolts while they were playing football. From there I met the Princess again, and we spent a while talking in the library, before I found Pinkie, setting up the decorations. After I saw her, I went back to the football pitch to meet Spike, but he wasn’t there. The players were, though. We talked some more, and I went to get a bath... Then I got lunch, bumped into Cadance again in the halls, and I’ve spent the last I-don’t-know-how-long delivering lunches to everypony on or below the level of the kitchens, and finally, I found you!”

She let out an exhausted sigh, and grinned as she and her friends ate their lunches. “So, my day’s been... Busy. But good,” Twilight hastened to add. “I just hope I have energy left for the Gala.” Fluttershy extended her wing, lightly patting Twilight’s back. “I’m sure you will, Twilight,” she murmured, and Rarity grinned. “That’s right! You’ve been working so hard to make this the best night ever, you deserve to look divine and have a magnificent night.”

Twilight sighed, and smiled, lifting a few of her fries and eating them, nodding. “I hope so.” She closed her eyes, savoring the fried hay stalks, and shivered. “I should probably head back to the kitchens with my cart, though. I think I should probably stop and check in the courtyard to see if anypony I missed wants some.”

“Well, that would be magnificently kind of you, Twilight,” Rarity murmured, while Fluttershy nodded. “And after that, you round up our friends and get them here. We have work to be done!” Rarity grinned broadly. “I think you’re all going to love your new dresses, Fluttershy and I worked so hard on them. And we even figured out what went wrong with Fluttershy’s dress at the last Gala.”

“You did?” Twilight smiled. “What happened?” “It was, I am ashamed

“I couldn’t have? Oh, but I should have, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, clasping her free forehoof over Fluttershy’s. “You see, Twilight, it was quite egregiously my fault. I made a fantastic dress for Fluttershy - by pony standards. But, and I am loathe to admit it, the critters in the gardens wouldn’t have thought so. They were most likely repelled by the shampoo and conditioner smells in Fluttershy’s coat and mane, to say nothing of the myriad other smells she would have picked up from us on the coach ride, or, worst of all, the perfumes I sprayed on our dresses. But this year?” Rarity grinned. “I’ve done no such things to any of our dresses, and I know how to do her mane without making it terrify the critters.”

Twilight listened to Rarity’s explanation, and sighed, smiling softly. “That’s good to hear. I’m sure the critters will be delighted to see Fluttershy tonight.” “I-I hope so,” Fluttershy murmured. “But if they’re not, well... I’ll be with my friends, and that will be nice.” Fluttershy smiled,and Twilight smiled back at her. “It will, won’t it?” She smiled, raising her hoof and stretching it forward. Rarity and Fluttershy touched theirs to hers, and smiled back in return. “To having a great time with our friends,” Rarity said, and both Twilight and Fluttershy smiled at her, nodding their assent. “To friends,” Fluttershy murmured, and Twilight repeated it, before withdrawing her hoof.

A knock on the door interrupted them, and Rarity shot up with a gasp. “Oh no! What time is it?! Are the guests arriving?!” Twilight stood up, saying “Don’t -” but Rarity cut her off with the word she was about to say, screaming “Panic!”

With Rarity panicking, Fluttershy yelped and leapt under the table she had been sewing at, as Rarity dashed out to the front of the cloak-room, yelping “I’ll be right with you!” She reached the window by the time Twilight had reached the door, and had her head out of it, leaning on the windowsill, questioningly asking “Hello?”

As Rarity repeated her questioning call out to the empty hallway, Twilight smiled at her. “Relax, Rarity. It’s only like, two in the afternoon... But who knocked?” “I don’t know,” the refined dressmaker responded. “I don’t see anypony.”

Another three knocks issued against the door, and Rarity turned her head at the same time Twilight did; whomever was knocking, was knocking on the service door Twilight had come through, and Twilight telekinetically gripped the door’s handle, tugging it open.

The door opened to reveal a gray pegasus mare, sitting in front of the door and lowering her forehoof from where she was knocking; wearing a pair of saddlebags and with a mane the color of wheat. Most distinctive of all, though, were her eyes; bright yellow fading to darker at the bottoms, and unmistakably crossed; her right eye focusing directly at Twilight, while the left seemed to be keenly fascinated by the top of the door frame.

Twilight blinked in disbelief, trying to recall if she had seen the gray mailmare on the train ride, for there was absolutely no mistaking Derpy Hooves for anypony else. “Um, hi, Derpy,” she said, with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Here? Oh,” Derpy said, pointing with her hoof toward the cart Twilight had left abandoned in the service hall. “I was looking for the pony this cart belongs to,” she replied with a smile.

“Oh...” Twilight smiled, and nodded, looking back to Rarity. “I’ll go round up the others,” she said, as she walked out into the service tunnel, beside Derpy. “That’s me,” she said, levitating the harness and stepping back into it. “I was asked to deliver lunch. Um... What are you doing in the service halls?”

“I got lost,” Derpy admitted with a sad tone in her voice, hanging her head as she stood up. “I was trying to find my friend, but I took a wrong turn and wound up in here, and now I can’t find my way out and I’m hungry. So when I smelled all these bags, I knocked to see whose they were.”

Twilight blinked, her mind racing. On the one hoof, she couldn’t think of much more chaotic and disastrous an arrival than Derpy Hooves at the Grand Galloping Gala, short of the unexpected and unwelcome return of Queen Chrysalis and her army, or Dischord. On the other, well, she couldn’t be rude to somepony she knew and liked. “I, um... Oh, heh. They’re mine. I was delivering lunches to everypony below the kitchens.” She levitated a bag from the cart, lifting it over to Derpy, who smiled and took it from her telekinetic grip with her mouth, putting it in her saddlebag. “I definitely have extras, so sure, you can have one.”

Derpy grinned broadly. “Oh, thank you, Twilight. Is that a cucumber and dandelion muffin with chipotle spread I smell in there?” “Uh, no. It’s a cucumber and dandelion sandwich on ciabatta bread with chipotle spread... You’ve had a cucumber and dandelion muffin with chipotle spread before?” she asked, incredulously, and Derpy laughed.

“No, of course not! That would be weird... Though it might be good. It could hardly be worse than worm, lemon and potato chip muffins.”

“Worm, lemon and potato chip?” Twilight grimaced. “What?” “Do you remember that time, shortly after you got to Ponyville, when everypony got poisoned by the muffins from Sugarcube Corner?” Twilight grimaced as she recalled, and nodded. “Enough said.” She smiled as she started to walk, and the gray pegasus followed her. “Do you know the way out of the service halls, Twilight,” Derpy asked her, and Twilight looked back, and nodded. “Yes, yes, I do. So, um... Derpy?” “Mmmmh?” Derpy was following her, carefully, as Twilight led her up a ramp in the service halls, glad that the walls were completely bare of anything Derpy might destroy by brushing into them with her unusually destructive posterior. “How did you come to be here,” she asked, as delicately as she could, and Derpy giggled. “I flew up from Ponyville, silly. It’s not very far if you have wings.”

“Ah-hah... Yes, I know,” Twilight said with a slight chuckle. “I meant... Are you delivering mail, or -” “Oh. You mean, why am I at the castle? A friend invited me,” Derpy said with a bright smile, and Twilight nodded. “Right, okay... Um, that’s great, great...” She continued on forward, even as her mind raced, wondering what in Equestria that Derpy could have done to have gotten an invite from Celestia. She didn’t recall mentioning the accident-prone pegasus to Celestia in any of her letters, though she’d check with her friends to see if any of them had mentioned her in one of theirs.

“So, um, Derpy... How did you wind up in these service corridors,” Twilight asked, and the pegasus behind her sighed. “Well, when I flew in to Canterlot, I stopped and landed to see if I could get a muffin at Pony Joe’s, but the sign on the door said he was closed ‘till tomorrow. So I walked up to the castle, but they were putting ropes above the courtyard for some reason, and I got dizzy and happy looking up at them, ‘cause they made me think of the hexagons on a football. By the time I got up and was ready to go again, a pretty pink alicorn and I got to talking about football and she mentioned getting a ball stuck on her horn, which reminded me of something from the tournament rulebook, which I... I... Oh, oh, oh Derpy.”

The pegasus behind her let out a sad sigh, and Twilight looked back to see that she was face-hoofing, with a sad look on her face. “Derpy? Is something wrong?” “I, um... I bought a book for my friend as a present like, two weeks ago, but I forgot about it. When I dug around in my saddlebags for my copy, I found the brand new one and couldn’t remember why I had it on me, so I gave it to that pretty pink mare because she was interested in the rules.”

With a heavy, sad sigh, Derpy hung her head, and Twilight winced. “I, um... I’m sorry, Derpy,” she murmured, feeling at a loss to offer advice to the sometimes scatterbrained pony who was clearly sad. Derpy sighed again, slowly walking up alongside Twilight. “Maybe I should just go,” she said, her eyes closed. “I’m not a really good friend if I can’t even remember that I got a book as a gift for a friend.” She looked like she was seriously affected by her slip, and Twilight sighed with her. “Derpy... Look, I’ve learned a lot about friendship since I went to live in Ponyville, and one of the important things I learned is that your friends are your friends because they like you, not what you do for them, or give them.”

She leaned her head over, laying it against Derpy’s, as the two of them continued to climb the ramp. “So, Derpy, relax. I’m sure your friend isn’t expecting a present, but wants to see you.” The gray pegasus beside her let out a sigh, but when Twilight righted her head and looked at her, Derpy had a smile on her face. “I... I’m sure you’re right, Twilight,” she said with a smile. “Now I just need to find my way out of these halls.”

Twilight smiled back at Derpy. “Don’t worry,” she encouraged her. “It’s this way. See?” She heard music ahead, and grinned to herself as she led Derpy through the door to the kitchens. The Apples had clearly made good on the time since she had seen them last; there was an enormous layer cake in a corner being worked on by four Apples, high terraces of cake in the colors of a zap apple’s stripes, frosted with zap apple frosting in elegant curls. It wouldn’t have looked out-of-place at a wedding, though Twilight thought it was very nicely done, with Princess Celestia’s radiant sunburst cutie mark recreated in the form of a cake topper and embossed on the sides of the square cake in frosting. Throughout the room there were other showpieces and simpler platters of treats. Twilight laughed as she looked around; Derpy was staring in awe, and Twilight grinned at her. “Impressive, huh?” The Applewood brothers had been replaced as the musician by a pale yellow mare with a vibrant blue mane, wearing a white hat, green shirt and red kerchief, sitting on a stool, holding a fiddle with her left forehoof and sawing hard on the strings with the bow in her right. Nearly everypony present was tapping their hooves on the floor as they worked.

Twilight could only grin. She knew that the kitchen’s usual staff were competent, efficient professionals, but the few times she had looked in while they were preparing for a big event, they had all been seriously focused on the work at hoof and dourly serious, while the Apple family working together seemed more to be a force of nature, or a gestalt manifestation of an Elements of Harmony - they looked very near to breaking into song, and the entire clan projected an energetic momentum of cheerfulness as they worked.

“Hey, AJ,” the fiddler called out. “Remember the time you torpedoed the barn with a runaway wagon and we all built it back up in an afternoon?” Applejack turned her head, looking at the fiddler, whilst kneading the dough between her hooves without looking. “Ah, hehehe, I kind of do remember that, Fiddlesticks. Why?” “Because it was funny, and I played this song then, too.”

Applejack blushed, and chuckled. “Ah, yeah, you sure did.” She started to hum along with the tune, her own rear hoof starting to tap the stone platform she was standing on, but her eyes fell across Twilight standing with Derpy by the service door. “Well, y’all back now? And you found...” Applejack blinked, her eyes and head shooting up so quickly that her hat fell down her crest. “My word, Derpy? Is that you?”

“Yeah! Hi, Applejack,” Derpy said, taking a step forward. Twilight felt her breath catch in her throat, her heart skipping a beat as she anticipated impending disaster, Derpy tripping or slipping on something and setting off a domino effect of disaster that would inevitably culminate in the cake smashed all over Applejack and herself. Miraculously, however, it failed to happen, and Derpy walked up to the platform without incident, sitting on the stone floor with a smile. “What are you all doing here?” “Uh, cookin’, Derpy,” Applejack said, gesturing with a hoof. “Turns out th’ Princess done promised her usual cooks to Manehattan, so she told Twilight to hire someone to cater th’ party, an’ Twilight hired us!”

Derpy giggled happily. “That’s good! You made any muffins? It’s not a party without muffins, is it?” Twilight blinked at Derpy. “I, uh, I’m not sure muffins are fancy enough for this party,” she murmured quietly, pulling the cart with her as she came up alongside Derpy, inwardly wincing at the hurt look in the muffin-loving mailmare’s eyes as she looked at Twilight, then up at Applejack. “That’s a shame,” she murmured, but Applejack smiled.

“Shoot, filly, muffins’re easy.” Applejack’s head swiveled around. “Anypony laid hooves on a muffin pan today,” she called out, and looked down to Derpy. “We can probably make ‘em for ya in under an’ hour. How many you want?” “Um, well,” Derpy said, thinking on the topic, but a pony at the back whistled loudly. “Yo!” With a strong Manehattan accent, Pony Joe trotted up to Applejack’s post in the center of the room, bearing a tray on which sat four zap apple muffins, each topped with a slice of zap apple, and sitting in a paper muffin cup. He set the tray on Applejack’s table, and grinned. “I had some room in the oven an’ I found the pan, so I threw it in, just in case. Followed the recipe in yer’ cookbook, too.”

Derpy and Applejack shared a delighted look, and Applejack took a sniff at them, and grinned. “Smells like Granny’s,” she said with a grin, and quickly packed the four muffins in a box, which she tied up with string and handed to Derpy. “Here y’all go.” Derpy looked joyed, and placed the box in her saddlebags, beaming a huge grin at Applejack. “Thanks, AJ!” She laughed, and looked out the door. “Now I just need to find my friend,” she said, and Twilight chuckled. “How about I help? I know the castle pretty well.” She pulled the harness free of her body with a telekinetic tug, and started after Derpy as the gray pegasus miraculously exited the kitchen without precipitating a catastrophe, and Twilight followed her.

“So, Derpy... The party isn’t until tonight. Why did you come early?” “Oh,” Derpy said with a shrug of her shoulders, “I came early because, well... You know, I don’t really like crowds of strangers. I feel like everypony is staring at me; and besides, I didn’t want to step on anypony’s hoof, you know?”

“Um, sure, I guess I can see that,” Twilight murmured, as she took the lead, guiding Derpy up from the kitchens to the great entry hall, feeling a squirming sensation of guilt; Derpy had every right to be here, after all, having been invited, and she’d been constantly expecting some sort of disaster and almost wishing Derpy would decide to leave. But hearing Derpy almost express a similar sentiment about herself made her sigh, and resolve to be nicer. She looked back, and smiled at Derpy. “We’ll find your friend, I’m sure. The Princess invited you, right?” Derpy nodded, and Twilight smiled. “Okay. So...”

Twilight paused in the great entry hall, looking up the stairs and back, towards the door that led to the rear corridor heading towards the tower in which Celestia kept her rooms. Twilight started up the stairs, but when she turned to the right, Derpy shook her head. “I don’t think it’s that way, Twilight.”

Twilight turned around to face Derpy, who was pointing down the left corridor, and Twilight blinked. “Okay, I... well, you can get there that way,” she agreed, though she thought it would be going out of the way. “But, um... I think this way is faster,” she murmured, turning her head to the side and indicating the doorway she had wanted to lead Derpy through. The gray pegasus mare turned to look through the door Twilight indicated, and looked unsure of herself. “If you’re sure,” she said, turning to follow Twilight, but the look of uncertainty on her face gave Twilight pause. She hesitated a moment, long enough for a face to appear in the doorway Derpy was intending to go through.

Midnight blue fur under a matching horn, higher off the ground than Cadance’s, but lower than Celestia’s; it could only be Luna, of course. Twilight worried for a moment, but the bright smile on Luna’s face dispelled it. Derpy turned around, as Luna stepped through the door, and jumped down the short stairs to the balcony they were on, while Derpy spun around and kicked off, jumping towards her.

Twilight watched, stunned, as Derpy reared up, bracing her forehooves on Luna’s heavy collar, sliding her head next to the taller alicorn’s. Luna, in turn, leaned her head against Derpy’s, as both of them snapped their wings open, Derpy’s wrapping around Luna’s shoulders and Luna’s larger wings wrapping all the way around Derpy. Twilight could only stare in amazement as two of the last ponies she ever expected to see embracing one another hugged, then let go. Derpy fell to the carpet with a bright smile on her face, and she turned back, waving her wing at Twilight. “Thanks, Twilight! I would have been completely lost and wouldn’t have found Luna without you.”

“Is this so, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna suddenly spoke, with sufficient volume to echo off the walls and send a gale of displaced air at Twilight, making her mane flop around her. Gasping, Twilight fell immediately to her knees, bowing her head properly. “Y-Yes, Your Highness,” she gasped out in response to Luna’s use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, but instead of another wind-causing response, she heard Luna, and Derpy, giggle at her. Looking up, she blinked as she saw Luna standing in front of her, Derpy at her side, her left eye focused on Luna, the right seemingly focused on Twilight. “Gotcha, Twilight,” Luna said, and Twilight felt relief run through her, starting to chuckle as she stood up. “You... Heheh, you did, too. That was a good one,” she admitted, smiling, as Luna sat in front of her, Derpy sitting next to her.

“So, you asked Princess Celestia to invite Derpy,” Twilight asked, and Luna shook her head. “I did not,” she said, and smiled at Derpy, who opened her saddlebags, rummaging within for a moment before she lifted out a shining, dark blueish-silver ticket, holding it out proudly. It was obviously analogous to the golden tickets that Twilight had received for herself and her friends, but instead of Celestia’s royal seal, it had an embossed seal of Luna’s crescent moon cutie mark, and the side facing her read “Her Royal Highness Princess Luna of Equestria cordially invites the bearer to the Grand Galloping Gala.” Twilight expected that the reverse side had the day and time on it, as their tickets had.

Twilight blinked as she peered at it, but smiled; it made sense that Luna would be able to send out invitations in her own name, though she hadn’t heard of any others being sent. Luna smiled as well, standing and starting to walk through the corridor she had come from, Derpy following her, and Twilight followed the both of them. “So, how did you two meet,” she asked, “If you don’t mind my asking.”

Luna chuckled, as Derpy said, “Well, it was awhile ago. My mailbag had a letter in it addressed to Princess Luna. It was a mistake, it shouldn’t have been dropped off the train at Ponyville, but I guess it fell into the wrong bag or something. Normally we just put mistakes like that on the next train out, but it was marked urgent, so I flew it up to the castle myself.”

Luna chuckled happily. “She landed on my balcony, and the guards tackled her to the floor before I could tell them to stay themselves.” “It was more of an, um, crash landing,” Derpy grudgingly admitted, hanging her head, but Luna smiled. “There was no harm done, Derpy... Anyway, before I could get in a word, the guards were trying to interrogate her, and I had to raise my voice to get them off her so I could ask her who she was and what she was doing.”

Derpy smiled. “Luna was very kind to me, and I told her who I was, and gave her the letter.” Luna chuckled. “Well, first she gave me a blueberry muffin, but then she gave me the letter.” “Yeah, I kind of took the wrong thing out of my saddlebags the first time,” Derpy murmured in affirmation. “But then I gave her the letter, and the guards let me leave. A few days later, I got a letter in the mail from her, and I wrote back.”

“So, you became pen pals,” Twilight said, smiling as she got the idea, with Derpy and Luna both nodding at her. Luna looked back, with a broad, warm smile. “Yes, exactly, Twilight. She and I exchanged letters for quite some time, and I invited her to come to the castle and spend time with me.” Luna closed her eyes, lowering her head, letting her translucent, starry mane fall over Derpy’s back. “She has been... A wonderful friend to have.”

Derpy giggled softly, and nodded. “She asked me in one of her letters what I liked to do for fun.” “That’s how I got the idea to have the empty green field turned into a sporting field,” Luna continued, looking up, with her mane still spilling over Derpy’s back. “She wrote to me about how she liked to watch ponies play football, among other things, and it sounded like fun. The next time she came up, she gave me a copy of her rulebook, and I had the pitch marked out and put together.”

Derpy giggled softly, leaning into Luna. “You should see her play, Twilight, she’s incredible, like a force of nature over the field.” Luna actually blushed lightly, chuckling softly at the adoring praise, and Twilight grinned. “I have, actually. She’s incredible.”

Derpy laughed softly, while Luna shook her head. “I’m not that great,” she demurred, but Twilight shook her head. “No, you really are incredible to watch.”

The younger of Equestria’s sister-monarchs smiled warmly, looking back at Twilight. “Well, if you say so, who am I to argue with praise?” She grinned. “So, how goes the preparations for the party, Twilight?” “Um...” Twilight smiled. “Let me check.” She levitated her ledger from her saddlebags, and glanced over it, putting checks in the boxes of things she had done but not yet marked.

[√] Check on the food [√] Check on Applejack
[√] Check on the decoration [√] Check on Fluttershy
[√] Check on the airshow [√] Check on Pinkie Pie
[ ] Check on the music [√] Check on Rainbow Dash
[√] See if Cadance/Armor are here [√] Check on Rarity
[√] Get cleaned up [ ] Get Dressed
[√] Eat lunch (No later than 2) [ ] Final check on everything
[ ] Attend the Grand Galloping Gala

“Almost done,” she said, with a smile. “At the rate Pinkie Pie decorates, the decor should be all up within an hour, and the food is going great. I haven’t checked on the music, though since Vinyl Scratch is a professional who’s worked here before, I’m confident it’s ready. I just need to round up everypony to get into our dresses, and we’ll be ready.”

“That’s wonderful,” Derpy said, with a smile. “I... wait, dresses?” Her eyes uncrossed, and she looked down. “I.. Oh, oh... Oh, Derpy, you’ve done it this time,” she murmured, stopping. Luna’s mane spilled over her head as Derpy facehoofed again. “I didn’t think I’d need a dress.”

“I.. Oh.” Luna looked back, with a wince, sadly looking at Derpy for a moment, and raising her eyes to Twilight. Twilight wondered, for a moment; if Luna could somehow alter the flow of events so that Rarity might have the time to make a dress for Derpy, but immediately dismissed the idea. Luna, however, asked, “Twilight, is your dressmaker friend here?” “Ah... She is, but I don’t... I mean, Rarity’s good, real good, but I think getting a dress made between now and the Gala would take a true miracle.”

“I’m sorry,” Derp murmured, hanging her head. “I-I didn’t mean to make you ashamed, Luna. I’ll just go home,” she said, but Luna lowered her head over Derpy’s back, nuzzling her crest. “You do not shame me to be my friend, Derpy Hooves,” she murmured. “Dress or not, you are my guest, and anypony who makes you feel bad for not having formal attire shall answer to us.” Though she didn’t quite create a gust of wind, Luna unmistakably slipped, and intentionally so, into the Royal Canterlot Voice at the end, using the royal plural instead of the personal singular which had seemed to become more comfortable to her since the last Nightmare Night. Derpy looked up and smiled, beaming and wrapping her foreleg around Luna’s.

They were quite a sight, Twilight thought; the mailmare that ponies in Ponyville disparagingly called Ditzy Doo for her accident-prone and somewhat scatterbrained nature, in a warm hug with the tall, black, regal Alicorn, who was standing protectively over her. Twilight sighed. “I don’t know if Rarity can make something for you quickly enough, Derpy, but she might have something she can fit for you in an hour or less.”

“An hour?” Luna chuckled. “She should take her time, then, we have quite a while before the Gala.” Luna smiled, and encouragingly nudged Derpy’s shoulders with her nose, then lifted her head back up to her full height. “I glanced at the sundial when I awoke from my nap after the game. It’s only noon, perhaps half an hour later at the most.”

Twilight blinked, dully, what Luna said taking a moment to sink in. “Wait... You think it’s... Twelve thirty? It can’t be. It has to be much later, like, three or four.” “Surely it isn’t, Twilight,” Luna said with a chuckle. “I looked at a sundial not more than half an hour ago.” “But Princess, I looked at a sundial when I got a bath, and it was about twelve then. It has to have been three hours at least since then... I... I, um... Oh, oh no.”

Twilight looked up, into Luna’s eyes. “Oh no. Somepony is using temporal magic, advanced temporal magic!” She felt her throat tighten as she said it, a chill running through her, and Luna blinked at her. “Time magic? Surely not; I’d have felt that, Twilight Sparkle. My sister would have felt it!”

“Luna?” Derpy looked up at her, and Luna leaned down, to nuzzle her forehead, but there was an unmistakable tone of concern in her voice. “I’m sure it’s nothing, Derpy. Come, let us find a sundial, we’ll see.”

Twilight nodded, and followed as Luna darted down a side hall, breaking into an urgent trot, with Derpy beside her. They climbed quickly up a stair-well, emerging onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard. “Remain still,” she said, wrapping her wings around Twilight and Derpy, and a loud, booming pwoooof echoed through their ears, a cloud of dark midnight smoke enveloping them. The clop of her hooves and the gentle press of her wing into Twilight’s shoulder made Twilight follow her, and they emerged from the smoke, in front of a sundial decorated with shining purple tinsel. Twilight levitated the tinsel off, and away, peering at the sundial, as Luna and Derpy did likewise.

“I think... we need to speak with my sister,” Luna murmured, and Twilight nodded, grimly, as she glanced as the edge of shadow cast by the sundial, unmistakably revealing the time to be about 12:10 PM. “We need to speak to Celestia,” she agreed, then she felt a telekinetic grasp surround her, along with a dark blue glow, levitated into the air as Princess Luna took wing, with Derpy following her into the air. “What’s wrong, Luna? You sound scared,” Derpy asked, and Luna came to a hover in mid-air, Twilight looking down with only slight nervousness as she was levitated by the princess. Luna looked sad, as she met the hovering mailmare’s eyes. “Derpy... Magic that can change the flow of time is very bad if mishandled, and it looks like somepony has stopped time.”

“But... We’re still moving,” Derpy said, looking at her wings beating as she hovered in front of Luna. Twilight blinked. “She’s got a point - we’re still moving, you said you didn’t feel any time magic in play.” “That’s true, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna agreed, nodding. “But it is possible to stop time, but leave a pocket of it in motion... How did you come to learn of temporal magic, anyway?” “Um, Princess Celestia and I talked about it a bit earlier,” Twilight replied, and Luna looked concerned. “That is... Unnerving.” “Hold on,” Derpy said, and turned around, pushing back towards Luna. “There’s a watch on a chain clipped to my saddlebags, in the outside front-left pocket. Can you reach it?” Luna tried to reach for it with her hoof, but pulled back as Derpy’s wings beat down.

“Allow me,” Twilight said with a grin, telekinetically reaching into Derpy’s bag, pulling the timepiece out. Derpy turned around as Twilight flicked the pocketwatch open, staring at the dial. It clearly read 5:47, and Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Great Swirl! It’s that late?!” “I...” Luna looked over at Twilight. “I fear you may be right, Twilight Sparkle. Could we be trapped in a bubble of time?”

“We... Could be. Or...” Twilight shaded her eyes with her forehoof, and looked up. “Luna, you intended to stop the moon in the sky, a long time ago, right?” “I...” Luna looked down, and looked hurt. “I don’t care to remember my treason, Twilight Sparkle. I trust you have a good reason to bring it up?” “I do... could somepony have stopped the sun in the sky?”

Twilight’s question gave Luna pause, and she looked over at Twilight, worriedly. “I...” The dark-coated alicorn blinked a few times. “I... Yes, somepony could. But only my sister could possibly do that!” She looked up, to the upper towers of the castle, and Twilight winced. “N-Not necessarily... But we should talk to her, right?”

“Yes, Twilight. We should.” Luna turned, and flapped hard, setting off into the sky, with Derpy trailing behind her. “M-My watch usually runs a half hour fast if I don’t fix the time on it every day,” Derpy yelped out, plaintively, as they soared up between the front towers, heading for the taller, thicker towers in the back, towards the one where Twilight knew Celestia’s room was. Luna looked back, circling in the air. “Derpy... You... You should probably wait somewhere else. This could be... Bad,” Luna murmured, quietly, and Twilight could clearly hear the concern in her voice.

“No,” Derpy said, banking up behind and above Luna, hugging her hips, head between Luna’s wings. “You sound scared, and I’m scared... I don’t want to leave you alone, Luna,” she plaintively murmured, and Luna looked back, coming to a hover and sighing.

“Derpy... Oh, Derpy, you are a good friend,” Luna replied, and took a deep breath. “Very well. Just... Stay close to me.” “I will,” Derpy promised, as Luna took off again, tugging Twilight up, rapidly, towards the balcony.

They alit on the balcony, Luna setting Twilight down first, but her own landing was so sudden she startled the two pegasi guards next to the doors, both of whom squared their shoulders. “Princess? What is going on,” the first demanded, and Luna glanced at him as Derpy landed behind her, banging her rear hooves into the railing and coming to a landing sitting down beside Luna’s rear legs, her eyes crossed again.

“We must speak with my sister immediately,” Luna said, urgently, as Twilight nodded. “Something is very, very wrong,” she urgently said. The two guards looked to one another, and one of them nodded. “Of course, Your Highness,” he said, tugging the door open.

Luna led the way, Twilight following her, with Derpy’s pocketwatch still in her telekinetic grasp. Princess Celestia was laying on a cushion, a quill and parchment levitated in front of her, the quill making the unmistakable motions of ticking off check-marks on a ledger sheet. She looked up at the sudden intrusion, blinking.

“Luna? Twilight, Derpy?” The massive, white alicorn blinked in surprise. “What is going on?” “I would very much like to know the same thing, sister,” Luna said, a tone of worry and possibly accusation in her voice. “I... I feel deeply concerned, sister, and deeply worried, for I know of nopony else who could have created the problem Twilight and Derpy have illustrated to me, but you, yet I... I...”

Luna’s voice faltered, and Celestia stood up, walking over to her, lowering her head beside Luna’s, even as the younger Princess evidently shrunk back as she realized that it sounded as if she was accusing her sister. “Luna, Luna, it’s okay. Tell me what’s wrong?”

Luna sucked in a breath, and hesitated again; Twilight took a breath of her own, to step in, but Derpy beat her to it. “Twilight saw the sundials say it was noon hours ago, and Luna saw the sundials say it was noon a half hour ago, and we all saw the sundial say it was noon just now, but my pocketwatch says it’s either ten-of six or twenty-past five, ‘cause I can’t remember if I fixed it today or not, and it’s got Luna and Twilight all scared, and that makes me scared, Your Majesty.” Twilight looked under Luna, to see that the gray mare was laying beside Luna, her forelegs around Luna’s hoof, looking up with a worried expression at Celestia, who was staring down at her with utter shock and surprise on her face.

“That... That is troubling,” Celestia agreed. “There can be no mistake?” Twilight shook her head, and Celestia looked up. “I don’t feel any temporal magic at play, but there are spells we can use to make sure. But first...” She stepped around the trio, out to her balcony, and looked at one of the Pegasi standing guard. “Bring Shining Armor and Princess Cadance to my balcony at once,” she instructed them, and the two ponies saluted her. “At once, your majesty,” the one who had challenged Luna exclaimed, and the two of them dove off the balcony, taking wing.

“Twilight, come here,” Celestia said, and Twilight stepped up next to her. “Your Majesty?” “You will need to learn this spell sooner or later, try to observe carefully.” The Princess’s horn started to glow. “I’m going to see if something is wrong with the sun.”

Twilight watched in awe as Celestia’s horn glowed brighter. To somepony who didn’t know what was happening, it would have looked like a simple glow, but Twilight was prepared to observe the spell, and her own horn started to glow, bringing the color of her magic to her eyes.

It was the first spell Celestia had taught her, stripping away the physical world so she could observe magic itself. Sky and marble balcony both became empty blackness, throwing the ponies she was with into stark relief; flesh and bone made invisible, revealing the currents of magic through them; Celestia’s horn was an almost-blinding spire of golden light, but the current flowing through it didn’t end at her forehead, flowing in a brilliant, coruscating golden stream through her head and down her spine, much as any Unicorn who was actively using magic would have. Unlike a unicorn, though, glittering magic highlighted her wings as she spread them, and channeled down her towering legs to her hooves. Luna’s magical illustration was much the same, but dimmer as she wasn’t casting magic, and a deep, starry night blue, while Derpy had no coruscating magical circuit like a unicorn, only a dusting of magical energy on her wings, as any Pegasus would have. All of their Cutie Marks glowed brightly and in stark relief, as any pony’s Cutie Mark would have, but Derpy surprised her; the pegasus mare’s crossed eyes appeared in full relief in magical sight; she looked startled, turning her head and her eyes uncrossing, focusing on Celestia’s horn.

Twilight was surprised by Derpy’s eyes evidently seeming to be magical, but their movement drew her own eyes, and she remembered the reason she had cast the mage-sight spell in the first place: Celestia’s spell. Unlike most spells that Unicorns understood instinctively; for most, limited to telekinesis and whatever spell complimented their special talent, Celestia was invoking true, complicated sorcery; under mage sight, the intense golden glow around her horn coalesced into sigils and connecting flows of golden energy, suns, stars, the skyfield at night, constellations of stars, an astrolabe, and more. It was quick, but Twilight followed it, and felt she could replicate it, watching as the bolt of energy streaked into the sky, separating into pinpoint-thin lines, scanning over the sun high above.

Twilight heard Celestia gasp as the lines from her horn played over the sun in a scintillating scanning pattern, and Twilight let her magic sight fade, looking to her teacher. “Celestia,” she asked, worried, as Luna frowned, and Celestia looked back. “We can rest easier,” Celestia said. “This is not temporal magic, but the sun appears to be stuck in the sky.”

“Stuck?” Luna looked worried. “That should not have happened,” she said, and Celestia shook her head. “Indeed not, sister. I can fix this, though. Twilight...” Celestia looked at her, and Twilight blinked at her. “I-I... I don’t think I-” “Shush, my little pony,” Celestia murmured, pressing her hoof into her nose. “Shush, my wonderful student, and observe.”

Twilight blinked and nodded, again snapping her vision to magic sight. Unlike the invoked sorcery before, this magic was instinctive; no sigils, no learning, just Celestia’s raw talent. Magic was coruscating off her Cutie Marks, swirling around her barrel and around her wings, then swirling in the opposite direction up her neck, to her horn. No beams connected the sun and her, but she could see the sun glowing sympathetically with the magic; it was a thing intense, primal, and she doubted she could have replicated it under most circumstances; perhaps the Elements of Harmony could have produced sufficient power.

What worried her, though, was the fact that, though the sun was trying to move, something was holding it back. Twilight could see it trying to budge west, but being pulled back to its position nearly dead above. “Nnnnnnnh!” Celestia actually let out an exclamation of difficulty and surprise. “Something... Something’s fighting me!”

“Sister?!” Luna’s voice was full of alarm, as Celestia stamped her hoof on the balcony, snorting with exertion. “I... I can’t move it...” Celestia reared up, stamping her hooves on the balcony. “L-Luna! I need help here! Twilight, gather the elements, hurry!”

Twilight felt her heart skip a beat. “But they’re locked up, and only you -” “Not anymore.” Celestia pushed another spell through, a surprisingly simple one from the looks of it; her cutie mark linked in a circle to a sigil of a unicorn’s horn and one of a rock. It seemed perfectly trivial. “Go, Twilight Sparkle! Go, and get the Elements!”

Twilight hadn’t often heard such urgency and worry in Celestia’s voice, and she nodded, looking to the side; Luna was starting to channel similar magic to Celestia, but Derpy was looking nervous. “Derpy!”

Twilight’s sharp order got her attention. “Get down to the kitchens and get Applejack up here, now! Get the Apples to find Pinkie Pie and send her here, too.” “U-uh... Got it,” the mailmare said, as Twilight looked down over the castle, letting the mage sight fade, but keeping the spell Celestia had shown her in her mind. She didn’t know why Celestia had told her to get the Elements, but she had a bad feeling about it.

Derpy dove over the balcony, banking around the castle, as Twilight’s eyes widened. She stamped her foot, picturing the cloak-room in her mind, and let the magic snap through her, erupting in a cloud of purple smoke.

She heard coughing before she saw anypony, and stepped out to see that Rarity was looking flustered, while a few ponies were at the cloak room’s window. “Twilight! It’s still daylight, but the guests are starting to arrive,” Rarity called to her in distress, but Twilight shook her head. “No time, Rarity.” “What do you -” “No time!” Twilight cut her off. “You and Fluttershy have to get up to the Princess’ room, now. Right wing, back tower, top floor.” Rarity stared at her, as Fluttershy peeked out from the back room. “Twilight?”

“No time, Fluttershy. You have to fly to the fireworks launchpad and get Rainbow Dash, get her to the Princess’ room, now.” She looked back to Rarity. “The Princess needs the Elements of Harmony. I’m getting them, but you two need to move!”

Rarity and Twilight both looked stunned for a moment, as did the guests at the window. A beat passed in which nopony said anything, then Rarity nodded. “R-Right. I’ll, um, I’ll go.” She opened the door, calling “Sorry, gentlemen, Princess Celestia calls!” as she started to gallop inward of the castle, and Fluttershy squeaked. “Fluttershy, you have to get Rainbow Dash. You have to get her, now!” “O-Okay,” the timid critter-keeper said with a yelp, bolting out through the door Rarity had just exited.

“So, does this mean the Gala’s canceled,” one of the guests at the window, a brown earth pony stallion in a top hat and suit jacket asked, and Twilight fixed him with a gaze. “We’ll get back to you on that. Take a seat.” She pictured another tower in her mind’s eye, the outside of a secure tower. Teleporting rapidly tended to wear her out, but she had to, and she felt the spell snap through her body as she clenched her eyes, bracing herself. She felt the puff of smoke surrounding her. She stepped forward, opening her eyes and telekinetically throwing the doors to the secure tower open, galloping towards the vault-like doors in the back. “Oh, I hope this works,” she moaned, as she skidded to a stop and focused on the spell Celestia had showed her.

It was simple, really, a mystical conjuration. Twilight focused on the elements of the spell; the magical essence of Princess Celestia, a unicorn’s horn, and conjuration. Power snapped through her, and her horn glowed gold for a moment instead of purple; what surprised her was the kicking force that hit her head, like being bucked by Fluttershy; not hard enough to really hurt, hard enough to insult and alarm.

She saw a long, ivory-white spiraled horn, pointed and sharp, materialize in the air ahead of her, shooting forward and smacking into the heavily-warded, sealed door. While it might have embedded in any other sort of surface, given that it was clearly as sharp as Celestia’s horn, it ricocheted from the door, and Twilight dropped to the floor as it bounced back over her, but she heard no clattering of it landing on the floor behind her.

“Great. I hate learning spells from observation only,” she muttered to herself, standing up and trying again. She had been in a hurry when she cast it the first time, and evidently that shot the conjured horn out with great force; forcing herself to slow down, she focused on the spell again; and again her horn glowed gold, instead of her natural purple, but this time instead of launching the horn with enough force to kick her head back, it materialized in thin air, ahead of her.

“Woah! Oh, wow.” When she lifted her head, it lifted, when she turned her head to the side, the conjured horn swished in an arc ahead of her, to remain facing directly ahead of her horn. “Okay, that’s cool,” she murmured, before turning back to the shielded door, focusing on the spell and carefully stepping forward, towards the hole in the middle of the door.

As she had seen demonstrated when Celestia had attempted to give her and her friends the Elements upon Discord’s return, the horn slid into the keyhole, and a bright blue glow suffused out from it, throughout the door’s many channels and lines; the door let out a heavy sound, and Twilight let the spell go.

The horn vanished, but the door opened, slowly, with a stony grinding sound, revealing the box within; bright, starry blue, gilded with gold and encrusted with several huge gems in different colors, all on a blue pedestal, and ostensibly containing the Elements of Harmony. She opened it, and to her relief, they were there: the giant, golden tiara with the purple star-like gem at its crown that was hers, and the five golden necklaces, with gemstones in the shapes of her friend’s Cutie Marks.

Twilight snatched the box up telekinetically, and turned, galloping from the tower. She felt woozy from the rapid teleporting to and from the cloak room; she could do another, but she wouldn’t really be in any shape to participate in whatever Celestia needed her to do for another few minutes if she teleported again so soon.

She galloped, then, trusting her timely arrival to her hooves, galloping hard toward and into the castle, past staff who were blissfully oblivious to whatever was causing the sun to remain locked overheard, galloping hard past the paintings and statues and up the stairs of Celestia’s tower, bursting through the door, the guards having opened it for her.

Twilight panted for breath as she skidded to a halt, next to a frazzled-looking Rarity and concerned Applejack. “Twilight, thank goodness yer’ here,” she said. “Derpy burst into the kitchen, darn near toppled th’ cake, an’ said I had to come here as fast as m’hooves could take me. What’s goin’ on?”

“It’s the sun, Applejack,” Twilight said as she gulped for air. “It’s not going down like it should.” “T-Th’ sun ain’t goin’ down? I don’t like the sound of that,” Applejack said, straightening her hat with flour-stained hooves. “It sounds dreadfully worrying,” Rarity agreed, as Twilight set the box down, levitating three of the jeweled ornaments within out; she affixed the Element of Honesty, a bright red apple-shaped gemstone, to Applejack’s neck, the Element of Generosity; a crystalline purple diamond, to Rarity’s neck, drawing a pleased look from the marshmallow-colored unicorn, and seated her own tiara on her head. “Now we just need the others,” she said, nervously looking around Celestia’s room; the Princess preferred the huge room to be an open plan, from the bath on the far side to her bed in the middle, with a fireplace and bookshelves on the near corners. “I think I see - yep, that’s Rainbow Dash out there,” Applejack said, and Twilight peered out the window.

“Yes it is! Come on!” She lifted the open box in her telekinetic grasp and hurried out to the balcony; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were coming in for a landing, though it was hard to tell that the pony with her was Rainbow Dash. She was wearing a heavy flight suit in Wonderbolts colors, bright blue with a pastel yellow lightning bolt down the belly, with her mane and tail tightly bound up, and her eyes covered with goggles. Only her own blue snout was exposed, and she landed on the balcony with Fluttershy, and tugged her goggles up, revealing her vibrant purple eyes. “Twilight, what’s going on? I was just about ready to get my roller skates on,” she complained, as Fluttershy landed next to her. The princess was staring at the sky, dourly, and Twilight levitated their necklaces to them; the red lightning bolt Element of Loyalty to Rainbow Dash’s neck, and the purple butterfly-shaped Element of Kindness onto scared-looking Fluttershy’s neck. “One left,” Twilight said, looking around and demanding, “where’s Pinkie?”

“I’m right here!” A heavy thump heralded her entry, and the pink pony topped the stairs to the tower, pushing her party cannon ahead of her, with Derpy entering after her. “What’s going on? Party emergency?” She looked excited, and Twilight shook her head. “Emergency, yes. Party, no. Here, get this on.” She flicked the last of the necklaces over to Pinkie, affixing the golden, wing-shaped necklace with the blue balloon around Pinkie Pie’s neck. Pinkie looked mystified for a moment, then her cheerful face fell. “What’s going on,” she asked, as she and the other ponies inside walked to the balcony, Pinkie absentmindedly pushing the party cannon with her.

“I don’t... I don’t fully know,” Twilight admitted, nodding over to Celestia, whose eyes and horn were glowing with bright golden energy; Luna stood next to her, her own eyes and horn glowing blue. “But something... Something is very, very wrong. The sun isn’t moving.”

“Oh... I don’t like the sound of this,” Pinkie murmured, as Derpy slunk quietly to Luna’s side, sitting down and hugging her hips. Luna didn’t alter her gaze, but did sweep her wing back, around Derpy’s head. “Not just the sun, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “The moon will not obey me, either! This is quite vexxing!” “Twilight, is everypony here?” “Yes, Princess,” she responded.

“Good. Have Cadance and Shining Armor arrived?” Twilight looked around for a quick headcount, but she counted only her friends, the alicorn siblings and Derpy. “No.” “That is worrying... All right. Twilight, use the Elements. Reference a mechanical clock to learn what time it should be, then use the Elements to help us correct the position of the heavenly bodies.”

Derpy tugged her pocketwatch out of her saddlebag and slid it over to Twilight, who stopped it with her hoof. It was reading 6:20. “Okay... It’s twenty-past six,” Twilight declared. “the guests weren’t supposed to start arriving until six, and I saw some of them at the door earlier, so Derpy’s watch must be fast today.” She closed her eyes. “Formation, girls!”

With a snap of wings, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took wing, hovering above her and to her sides. Applejack and Pinkie Pie jumped to her side, and Rarity walked up behind her, prodding her in the flank with her hoof. “Ready,” Applejack said, and Twilight nodded, closing her eyes. “Here we go.”

Twilight let magic snap through her again, once again invoking mage sight, but her horn wasn’t the only thing that glowed. Her eyes started to feel hot from the intensity of the glow within them, and when she opened her eyes, she beheld the world as the sparkling coruscation of magic that was around her. She sucked in a breath of awe; all of her friends’ cutie marks were throbbing with power, the throbbing glow echoed from the gemstones of their Element gem, swirling streams of power undulating from each gemstone, around them, and meeting up at the massive star-shaped gemstone above her own head. She realized with a start that the mage sight spell, empowered by the Elements working together, had actually projected her vision out of her own body, when she identified the mare she was staring at in the middle of the formation as herself.

“Woah! Freaky,” she yelped, watching out-of-body as her own cutie mark pulsated with power. “Focus, Twilight. I need your assistance,” Celestia murmured, and Twilight watched herself nod, though she felt the weight of her head and the crown topping it on her neck. “R-Right, Princess. Girls, hold on! This is going to be a wild ride!”

Applejack let out an enthuestiac “Yeeee-haw!” as the intense energy Twilight was collecting around herself levitated all six of her friends, picking them up in the air; Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy ceasing their wing-beats as Twilight took hold. She grinned, as she reached out with her forehoof. “You know, girls? We’re really awesome, when we have to be, aren’t we?”

Her joke precipitated a round of laughter from her five friends, Twilight grinned ferociously to herself as the power they were channeling came under her control, and she turned her head towards Celestia. “Princess, you ready?”

The white Alicorn turned her head, in alarm. “Oh, no, Twilight! I can’t channel that power! You must do it! Focus on the sun, help me move it to the proper point in space.” Nodding, Twilight looked up. “Gotcha, Princess. Here. We. GO!”

The eruption of scintillating, rainbow-streaked energy from the gemstone atop her head nearly blinded Twilight’s projected mage sight, bright enough that it easily drowned out even the vibrant gold and throbbing midnight blue of Celestia and Luna’s magic. Roaring like a train barreling through a tunnel, or a sky-rocket’s motor igniting, the blast of energy leapt from the crown atop her head, streaking towards the sun.

“You have to hold it, Twilight,” Celestia cautioned her. “The sun is incredibly far away, it will take time for even magic to reach it to affect it. You’ll know when it’s there... You do have it in you,” Celestia encouraged her, and Twilight sucked in her breath.

Twilight couldn’t tell if a minute or an hour passed, though easily twice as long as it took for holding the magic to grow wearisome, but Twilight felt the rainbow ribbon of energy connect with the sun. Suddenly, her vision was there; instead of viewing her friends on the balcony, she saw the sun, a brilliant ball of golden energy in her magic sight, gripped by the golden halo of Celestia’s magic and now speared with the streak of rainbow energy, emitting from somewhere so far away she couldn’t make it out. It terrified her for a moment, but Celestia’s voice calmed her down. “You can’t move the sun meaningfully, Twilight, don’t even try.” Her mentor’s voice was calmer than Twilight was expecting it to be. “But now that you’ve created a mystic anchor to the sun, you can rotate the world.”

The implication staggered Twilight. “T-The world,” she heard Rarity ask. “W-We’re moving the world?!” “Well, rotating it,” Celestia said, and Twilight gulped. “H-How will I know when I’ve got it right? I can’t even see it.” “Well, you can do this for a few hundred years until you get the hang of it,” Celestia said, “Or you can figure something out.” “Figure something out.... Derpy! There’s a sundial on the balcony, right?” Derpy let out an unsure sound. “Um... I’m not sure... I don’t see one.” “Not a pedestal sundial like we have in the gardens and in the center of ponyville. Look up, on the wall. There’s a flat sundial on the outside wall above the door,” Twilight directed her, and there was a pause, then Derpy said “See it!” “Tell us when it hits about six twenty,” Twilight directed her. “Can do!”

“Alright... Luna, have you got the moon under control,” Celestia asked, but Twilight heard an unhappy sound from Luna. “No, it’s not budging. It’s just not budging. Something incredible is fighting me.” “Alright, we’ll deal with that later. Twilight, help me set the sun.”

“Right!” Twilight felt her eyes squeeze harder; with her mage sight focused on the sun, she could see what Celestia was doing to try and set it, and attempted to do the same. Though she didn’t feel anything particular was happening with her body, she could definitely feel the twisting she was exerting through her horn. “Woah! Twi? I feel somthin’ funny,” Applejack complained, and Twilight gulped. “It’s going to be fine, AJ. It’s going to be fine... Derpy?” “Time is moving! Errr, the sun-time is moving. One o’clock!”

“The moon!” Luna yelped. “It’s moving, too!” “Did that free it up,” Celestia asked her, but there was near-panic in Luna’s voice. “No! Something is moving it opposite the sun, keeping it... Keeping it steady over the planet. I can’t... Aaah!”

“L-Luna!” Derpy and Celestia yelped it at the same time, and Twilight wanted to look, but didn’t dare. “I-I’m okay,” Luna said. “I just.... I lost my grip on the moon.” “Nnnnh... A little help, Luna? Can you even... I-I don’t know how much longer I can hold this,” Twilight yelped out. “Yes, I...” Luna panted, and Twilight heard the clop of her hooves on marble as she shifted. “Let me help.”

Twilight heard the sound of Luna’s dropped magic restore itself, and saw her shimmering, starring-magic grip join Celestia’s on the sun, much faster than the rainbow beam of the Elements of Harmony had taken. “Derpy,” Luna murmured. “The sundial, please?”

“Um...” The mailmare gulped, and it was a moment before she spoke again. “Two-thirty... Two-thirty-five... Two forty, you’re going faster now.” “Keep it up,” Celestia encouraged, and Twilight winced.

“I-I’ll try,” she groaned. “Girls? Hanging in there?” “O-Oh sure,” Rarity murmured, her voice pained. “But if this keeps up much longer, I am absolutely going to need my fainting couch when we’re through! And if it’s as bright as I think it is out here, I’m afraid my mane may be bleached the same color as my coat by the time we’re done!”

“I guess I should be glad I’m wearing this suit, huh,” Rainbow Dash retorted to Rarity, and Twilight let out a chuckle, before Derpy called out again, “Three o’clock! Three-twenty!” “Slow it down, Twilight. A world doesn’t speed up or slow down very quickly! Let it go slack and move on momentum,” Celestia directed her, and Twilight nodded, ceasing her attempts to spin the world under the sun.

“Three-Fifty! Quarter past four,” Derpy called out, proceeding through the sundial-registered hours of four and five, slowing down until she was calling it out by multiples of five again. “Six-fifteen... Um... Six-twenty,” Derpy said, as Celestia carefully braked the rotation of the planet. “Six twenty-five... and... I think that’s it.”

“Okay... Ready? Luna, let go. I’m letting go. Twilight?” “Y-Yes, Princess,” Twilight said, as she saw the golden and midnight-blue coronas fade from around the golden ball. “You can let go now.”

Twilight opened her eyes, letting the magical connection terminate along with her mage sight spell. Suddenly she saw out, over the balcony, as the magic holding her friends and herself above the balcony faded, lowering them slowly to the marble floor. Celestia and Luna were panting, as was she; she felt drained, never having channeled that much power for so long before. “I feel so... So weak,” she whined, as she heard hooves behind her. Slowly lifting her head, she saw Shining Armor and Cadance top the stairs, and come galloping towards the balcony.

The two of them barely paused for a second before galloping out to the balcony, coming to a stop. “Twilight, Princesses! What’s going on,” Armor demanded, his voice serious, as befit the Captain of the Royal Guard. Celestia raised her head, blearing for a moment before focusing on him. “We’ve just had to manually adjust the sun. It’s not easy,” she murmured, and Twilight rolled over on her back, letting her legs splay out. “I feel awful,” she moaned, closing her eyes and letting the mage sight spell come back to her in lieu of using her actual eyes and shading the sun’s light with her hoof. “But it worked, right?”

“Yep,” Derpy confirmed, and Twilight looked towards the shimmering silver wings and glowing bubbles Cutie Mark in her mage sight. “It’s six twenty!”

“Six twenty?” Fluttershy quietly asked. “I-I-I thought it went to six twenty-five.” Twilight turned her head, finding the magical signature of fluttershy - her glittering yellow wings, her butterflies cutie mark and necklace. “Um... It did, Fluttershy,” she said, and Pinkie groaned. “Does that mean we have to do it again?”

“No, it’s worse,” Celestia said. “Something is... Is pushing us back!” “Beg pardon, yer Majesty, but are ya kiddin’?” “I wish I were, Applejack!” Celestia exclaimed. “But I can feel it now... It’s... Some other force is pushing back the apparent time. It’s... Oh, Stars. Some other... Some other power is affecting the alignment of the celestial bodies,” Celestia said, slowly standing up. She looked wobbly, and Cadance quickly got under her wing, helping to push the much-taller alicorn to her hooves. “What do we do,” she asked, and Celestia sighed. “I do not know, Cadance. I just don’t know.”

Twilight sighed, and rolled her head back, looking up. There was a bright point of light in the sky, and it seemed to be growing. She focused on it for a moment, bewildered. “What’s that,” she asked, raising a hoof to point. She saw Celestia look up. “I don’t see anything, Twilight. What do you see.” “Something, some light, getting closer... Getting closer! And fast!” Alarm filled her, as she watched the light streak down towards them, and she yelled for her brother, “Armor! Shield up, now!”

Twilight was very, very glad that Shining Armor was her brother. Had anypony else yelled at him like that, except maybe one of the Princesses, he might have hesitated, asked for clarification, but at the note of panic in his younger sister’s voice, he threw his head up and sent up his shield spell.

Pink light erupted from Armor’s horn, a spire shooting into the sky that terminated, feeding a dome of protective energy that formed around Canterlot. Cadance, thankfully, reacted quickly, lowering her head towards Armor, her own pink magic, perfectly suited for bolstering somepony else - especially her special somepony husband - connected her horn with his, and Twilight tried to bolster him as well, feeling magic snap through her body, up her spine and through the headache that was her mind, snapping through her horn. The line of energy she was able to direct to bolster Armor’s shield spell was pitiful compared to Cadance’s, but the tiara still on her head pulsed in response, still connected to her magical essence.

It probably saved their lives, she realized a few moments later; though her magical vision was cut by the shield Armor projected, the impact of the incoming magic felt like being struck by a freight train, or perhaps being tackled by Rainbow Dash moving at supersonic speed. Pain rocketed through her as the incoming attack impacted on the shield like the fall of a meteor made of pure malice, the impact shattering Armor’s shield spell, but the bolstered shield spell sufficiently absorbing it, rendering it harmless. Armor and Cadance both slammed to the floor of the balcony as if hammered down by the fist of a titan, and Twilight felt a similar force smash into her. It’s impact wasn’t as bad, as she was already on the floor it didn’t hit her as hard, and she deduced from the frightened, pained and simultaneous yelp that all five of her friends made, that it was because the Elements of Harmony had spread the impact out amongst them.

Twilight groaned in agony as her mind tried to focus itself again, after the stressful channeling and the impact of the spell. “What was that,” she asked after an interminable period of insensation, and Celestia looked around, and up. “I... I don’t know, Twilight. I don’t know, but it’s a good thing you saw it.”

“How are Armor and Cadance,” Twilight groaned, as she looked to the side, seeing Applejack climb to her hooves, and start to nuzzle Pinkie Pie, who had fallen next to her. “They’re stunned,” Luna said, as Twilight’s eyes fell upon them. Her brother and his wife were both on the marble floor, and looked completely out of it, their eyes closed, with Derpy and Luna standing over them, looking worried. “Let’s get them inside, quickly,” Celestia said, levitating the two, and Twilight rolled over, slowly crawling after them, until Pinkie Pie, standing, though not terribly steadily, caught up to her, got her head under Twilight’s chest, and lifted her up to her hooves.

Once everypony was inside, and Armor and Cadance had been made comfortable and left to recover, Pinkie spoke up first, asking “So, does anypony know what happened?” “Yeah, and did anypony catch the number of the train that hit us,” Rainbow Dash added.

They all looked around for a moment, before Celestia sighed. “We were attacked,” she murmured, as if only finally concluding that was the only explanation. “Somepony - some thing or some one, some where, took exception to our attempt to right the time of day, and launched an incredible, vicious magical attack on us. I... I can’t imagine why, or who, though.”

“I think I know the where, though,” Luna murmured. She was sitting with Derpy nestled up against her side, looking lost and scared, and Luna had her dark-feathered wing around the gray pegasus’s body. “When we tried to set the sun, the moon remained over a specific spot. I don’t imagine that can be a coincidence.”

“I doubt so as well, sister,” Celestia agreed, dourly frowning. “Some... Some power, or force, possessed of significant magical faculty, has halted the rotation of our planet, thus halting the rising and setting of the sun, and has halted the moon in place over a territory on the other side of the world.”

“It stands to reason, then,” Twilight said, wincing at her headache, “that whoever is behind all of this... Is there, where the moon has been frozen?”

Celestia nodded, gravely. “It does indeed, Twilight.” Luna sighed. “Does this mean we... We must call a war council, sister?” Celestia laughed, softly. “Who would we call, Luna, that isn’t already present?” Luna looked around, her ears drooping. “Ah... A few ponies, maybe, but... Yes, I suppose everypony important is present.”

“Er... Beg pardon, yer’ majesties, but do six country fillies from Ponyville really constitute a part o’ whatever council you’d want to keep at a time like this,” Applejack asked nervously, but Celestia smiled wearily. “You are the Elements of Harmony. You are among the first ponies I would summon. And Derpy...” She turned her gaze on the gray pegasus, who sniffed and sat up, leaning into Luna’s side. “Well, Luna keeps her council, and that is enough for me.”

“So... What are we going to do,” Twilight asked, and Celestia sighed. “That’s the problem... I’m not sure I know, Twilight. We can resist magical attacks like that, but... I don’t know how many of them we can take. It would be better to let whomever launched it believe the first was a success.”

“Does that mean not attempting to correct the sun and moon, sister,” Luna asked, and Celestia nodded. “That is what I believe is best at the moment, Luna. Do you disagree?” “I... No, I don’t,” the dark-coated mare conceded. “But... That means that it is going to be high noon forever.” “Not forever; until this problem is resolved,” Celestia noted, and Luna nodded.

“So, we need to resolve this... But if they’re on the other side of the planet... How do we get there?” “There are two ways, classically speaking. The first is to descend into Tartarus, battle your way through monsters unending to reach and traverse the nine layers of Hell and all the damned souls, traitors and murderers and the like who reside there, dig through the unholy ice sheet or descend through one of the preexisting, monster-filled cracks therein to the shadowlands of ghostly ponies who could not give up life when their time was up, ascend the ghostly mountain to the top of the shadow-sky and emerge in a deep fissure somewhere on the other side of the world, then spelunk your way through the deepest, most confusing and difficult caves known to ponykind before finally reaching the surface on the other side of the world.”

Twilight blinked, and looked around; everypony present and sensate looked aghast at the thought of what Celestia had just proposed, and she wasn’t keen on it herself. “An’ Plan B is,” Applejack prodded, leaving Celestia to nod. “Plan B is to circumnavigate the planet until you arrive on the other side by more traditional means, such as on a ship, or by hoof.”

“Well... that don’t sound very quick, but th’ other way sounds like nopony at all could make it,” Applejack said, and Twilight nodded her head. “I... I don’t think we’re capable of that, Princess.” “Not yet, perhaps, though someday, maybe. Star Swirl did it. So, circumnavigating the globe... Crossing the far ocean is out of the question, nopony plies those seas and returns to tell the tale. That leaves the other way.”

“Hrm... I’m not very geographically inclined,” Rarity spoke, “But what is in that way?” “That’s a good question, and it’s not one whose present answer I’m very familiar with.” Celestia sighed. “Not many Equestrians travel abroad, a rather predictable downside to having successfully made a wonderful kingdom that has anything anypony could want. Even so, though, you’re going to need to go fast.”

She looked down, and sighed. “There is an airship docked in Canterlot. The pony who owns it is... Well, rather useless, I’m afraid, but but it’s going to be the best bet to get you across the northern sea... To the old continents, the lands that the ponies who came to these shores left, when the great chill came.”

“The old country, sister?” Luna blinked, and Twilight did as well, looking up at her mentor. “Princess? What could we find there?” “You can find ponies, Twilight; you didn’t think the great migration was total, did you? There are still ponies who live there, ponies who are... More ambitious than the ponies of Equestria. I know that there’s a pony there who is working on the most advanced airship believed to be in existence...” She nodded, though she looked uncertain. “You’re going to need to go there, buy that ship, use it to travel to the other side of the world... And figure out how to resolve this situation.”

“Princess? I...” Twilight blinked. “Are you sure?” “No, Twilight. No, I’m not sure,” Celestia said, with a sad sound in her voice. “But the fact is, we’re in trouble. Whatever power is in effect, it’s strong enough to overpower my control of day and night, overpower Luna’s control of the moon. We can’t fix it from here, so somepony has to fix it from there. It would be theoretically faster to go to the west coast and sail west, but traversing that ocean is suicide, there aren’t even any ships on that coast made to attempt the ocean crossing.”

Celestia paced for a few moments, before sitting down, wearily. “And past the eastern ocean are great islands, followed by the old continents. The last expedition that I know of which reached the eastern coast of those continents and returned was from the the island you’re heading to, and that was a century ago. Crossing the Great Continents by hoof would take about two years at the least... We don’t have that long.”

“Um... Maybe I’m being silly, but why don’t we have the time,” Pinkie asked, though subdued more than usual. Celestia bowed her head. “Applejack, what will happen to the plants if they’re subjected to the constant daylight of high noon?” “Well... I reckon it would be like a midsummer heat wave after a while,” Applejack supplied. “They’d all wilt up, get dry, turn into kindlin’.”

“That’s not good,” Pinkie admitted, her ears drooping, and Celestia nodded. “It gets worse, much worse. If the world stays like this, our side of the planet will continue to heat up, while the other side... Will get colder. With the sun and moon locked, the tide will go haywire, the weather will start to act up on its own...” Celestia trailed off, visibly swallowing, and Luna nodded.

“We could be looking at a truly disastrous catastrophe,” Luna murmured, sadly. “It... I don’t think anything I can even recall actually happening comes close to how bad this could get.” Celestia nodded in affirmation of what Luna said, and sighed.

“So, um... If it’s going to get so bad, wouldn’t whomever froze the day and the moon realize how bad it will get and fix it,” Derpy asked, and Celestia looked down at her, smiling. “We can hope so, Derpy, we can hope so. But if not.... We will have to impress upon them the urgent nature of the need to undo what has been done.”

Twilight listened, mutely; it seemed incredulous to think that barely an hour ago she had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of guests, the celebration of the Grand Galloping Gala. The speed with which everything had happened left her feeling numb, and she turned her head, looking around: Shining Armor and Cadance were barely starting to open their eyes, unfocused and bloodshot. Celestia and Luna were sitting side-by-side with grim, grave looks on their faces, while Derpy sat against Luna’s side, tucked up under her wing, her eyes closed, a mournful expression on her face. Looking at her friends didn’t offer much more comfort; Applejack looked grim and grave, a stony, serious look on her face. Pinkie Pie sat next to her, her mane drooping to almost straight, looking down at the table. Fluttershy had a completely blank look on her face; Twilight had expected trembling, but she looked as if she were stunned almost to catatonia. Rarity was next to Fluttershy, staring at her hooves with a helpless expression on her face; only Rainbow Dash, between Rarity and Twilight, was showing any strong emotions. Rainbow looked furious, ready to buck somepony as hard as she could.

“Twilight,” Celestia asked, “what’s on your mind?” “I...” Twilight took a breath, licking her parched lips. “It just seems so... So sudden, princess. We were just... We were just preparing a party, and now... Now it’s almost like we’re at war.”

Celestia nodded her head, sadly. “War, Twilight, often comes suddenly. When Luna and I decided that we could no longer tolerate the callous, careless and awful rule of the iron-hoofed lords who reigned in these lands, we were but wandering adventurers leading a pair of freelance warbands through the many small and feuding kingdoms that dotted the coast and inland. We decided to strike a decisive blow early, and so we attacked that first capital with our armies during the midwinter feast, when all the lords of the kingdom we decided to start with would be in the capital with reduced war-parties. It was a gamble, but the element of surprise worked in our favor. We blasted the gates inward and our pegasi swept the guards from walls while we led the charge. We caught them off-guard and less than half of the lords, and almost none of their soldiers, escaped.”

Twilight blinked, and sighed, lowering her head; the story Celestia spoke, quietly, left a cool chill in her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she would have been following Celestia if she had lived then; or if she was going to follow her to war now. “Princess... Beg pardon, but do you mean to say we’re at... at war,” Applejack asked, her voice surprisingly level, and Celestia let out a sad sigh.

“I don’t know, Applejack. We have been attacked, that is unquestionable, but by whom, or what, I don’t know. For all we know, this is some ancient, abandoned artifact on the other side of the world that launched an automated response at us when we attempted to override its control of the planet... Or it could be the work of some mad sorcerer, or even an entire nation. I wish I had the answers, Applejack, but I just don’t know. What I do know is that we have come under attack, and if the present state of affairs goes on for too long, ponies are going to start dying.” She looked up, with a heavy sigh. “I’m going to need to consult with the weather managers, see what we can do to mitigate the worst of this. Meanwhile... We’re going to need to prepare, quickly. You’re going to need to circumnavigate the world, and that won’t be easy, and then... Well, deal with what you find there.”

Twilight slowly stood up, and gulped, nodding to Celestia. Her mentor had a positively haunted look in her eyes as she gazed at Twilight, and Twilight saw something in Celestia’s eyes that she couldn’t recall seeing there before: uncertainty. More than doubt, more than worry, more than anger and fury, that, the look of her ageless, seemingly infallible master looking at a complete loss, frightened her.

“C-Celestia,” she asked, looking up at the tall, white alicorn, “did... Did you suspect that this was going to happen?” Celestia’s eyes closed, and she shook her head. “I did not, my wonderful student. I had hoped that what we spoke of would have no bearing any time soon...” She sighed. “Go. All of you, go. Get as ready as you can be, gather whatever things you can think of that you may need, whatever supplies you can gather to hoof... Luna,” she said, looking up at her sister. “One of us is going to have to go.”

Luna met Celestia’s eyes, and shifted, maintaining her wing-grip on the silent, sullen Derpy Hooves as she leaned up, laying her head alongside Celestia’s. “I shall go, sister, if... If you trust me to make the decision that may need to be made.”

Twilight swallowed, as Celestia turned her head, and kissed Luna’s cheek. “I always have trusted you, Luna. Do you think you would be the better choice to remain behind?” “No,” Luna answered, unhesitatingly, and Celestia smiled, sadly. “Then go, sister. Trust Twilight - you both act in Equestria’s name. If a decision has to be made and I can’t be reached, the two of you will have to do so.”

Luna nodded, backing up, carefully, and bowed her head. “I won’t let you down, sister,” she murmured, and Celestia reached up, carefully crinkling the dark-coated alicorn’s nose with her golden shoe. “I know you won’t, sister. I know you won’t.”

Looking back at her friends, Twilight tried to think of something to say, some speech or lecture she could give to inspire or encourage them, but couldn’t. All she could think of was to sigh. “Girls, I... I think we’re not going to be going home for a while.” Their faces turned from Celestia to her, and she licked her lips. “There’s work to be done. Equestria is counting on us... Applejack?”

The sherbert-orange pony looked up, blinking, and Twilight continued, “We’re going to need supplies; food, and whatever else we’ll need to travel. I don’t know much about traveling by ship, let alone airship, but if anypony can figure it out, it’s you. Your family’s all still here, and you brought enough food to cook through the night.”

Applejack nodded. “I’ll get on it, Twi’,” she said, and turned to walk down the stairs, as Twilight looked over her remaining friends. “Rainbow Dash, go find Spitfire. The Wonderbolts are the closest thing besides the palace guards that Equestria has to a professional military. Celestia’s going to need them mobilized, so have her send pegasi out to gather them all - and to get the weather management bureau to Canterlot, pronto. And if you can pick up any tips, tricks, advice, useful manuals, volunteers, or equipment, that’s even better.”

Rainbow nodded to her, spreading her wings and walking to the balcony. She took wing, and Twilight nodded. “Rarity, Pinkie?” They both took a long moment to look up at her. “Okay. Fluttershy?” She got no answer, even when she spoke her timid friend’s name, and sighed. “Okay, it looks like Fluttershy’s catatonic... Hellllooo...” She waved her hoof in front of Fluttershy’s eyes, but got barely any response.

“Rarity, Pinkie... You two are going to need to handle Fluttershy, get her moving, get her to the airship dock.” “I know where it is,” Rarity murmured, quietly. “Should I... I...” She sighed. “I doubt we’ll need our dresses, will we?”

Twilight hung her head, and sighed. “I was looking forward to seeing them, too,” she admitted. Rarity bowed her head, and nodded. “Well, they’ll be here when we get back.” She stood up, walking around to Fluttershy’s side, and Pinkie stood up, taking up position on the other side of her. Together, they lifted the barely-sensate Fluttershy, and guided her towards the steps.

Twilight looked back to Luna. “So, we should... What, hit the library, start grabbing scrolls and books?” “That would be a wise idea, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna replied to her, “As well as the artifact vault. There are useful things within that we may need, I suspect. Has Celestia showed it to you?” Twilight nodded. “I think I can open it if I need to.” “Very well. Let’s go.”

Luna turned to leave, but Twilight looked back at Cadance and Armor, just barely starting to lift their heads, and looked back to Luna. “I’ll catch you up. I need to bring Armor and Cadance up to speed.”

The dark Princess nodded, departing, with the sullen-looking Derpy Hooves at her side, and Twilight walked back over to her brother and sister-in-law, lowering herself to the floor at their sides, reaching forward to touch their forehooves with her own. “What hit us,” Armor asked, wearily, and Twilight sighed.

“It was some kind of incoming attack. Didn’t you see it?” “N-No,” Shining Armor replied, and Cadance sadly shook her own head. “I didn’t see anything, Twilight. The skies looked clear.” “They did?” Twilight frowned. “That’s odd. That much magic should have been glowing like... Well, like a blast from the Elements of Harmony, sounded like a meteor falling.”

“Whoever launched it... They probably went to a lot of trouble to make it invisible,” Armor murmured, reaching his other hoof forward, touching Cadance’s free hoof, and she lowered her head, laying it on Armor’s hoof. “That makes sense,” Cadance quietly murmured. “Hit first, without any warning... How did you see it?” “I was using magic sight because I didn’t want to see the light of day, because my head hurt so much,” Twilight admitted, and Armor smiled. “It’s a good thing you did. So... What’s going on?”

“The short version? Celestia is sending me, Luna, all of my friends, and whomever we can round up on short notice to the other side of the world to put a stop to whatever’s causing the sun to be stuck in the sky, hopefully before it fries Equestria and this entire half of the world to a crisp and turns the other half of the world into an endless glacier.”

Shining Armor and Cadance both turned their heads to look at her, staring with a dull expression as they took a few moments to mull over what she had said. Finally, Cadance blinked, and said “Wow. It almost doesn’t sound so bad when you say it like that.” She reached up, stroking Twilight’s mane, softly. “Should we come with you, sunshine?”

Twilight bit her lip, looking up into Cadance’s eyes; brilliant purple. When she had been a foal, nopony but Shining Armor could make her feel as safe as Cadance’s presence did, and she really, really wanted to say yes. “Twi? We can be ready go in a few minutes,” her brother said, and Twilight sighed. “I... I, I really..” She dropped her head, tugging Cadance and armor’s other hooves together, and laid her head on them. “I really want to say yes,” she admitted. “But... No. We’re going to need you here.” She opened her eyes, looking up. “The Princess isn’t going to try to move the sun and moon again, so I doubt Canterlot will face a blast like that again... No, I need you two to go to the Crystal Empire,” she said, lifting her head. “I need the two of you to scour it for things we may be able to use - information in books, old books, that we don’t have here even in Canterlot’s library. Spells, too, stories, legends, accounts, anything. Maybe even some objects that might be useful, I don’t know... I... I have this terrible feeling that this is going to wind up in a fight, or that we might face some thing else channeling the magic of aggression, and we all know King Sombra was the master of that, so if you can find any information he wrote down, or things he made, they... They might be handy.”

She felt greasy even suggesting it, and from the look in Cadance’s eyes, she agreed with that feeling, but Shining Armor nodded. “I... I hate to say it, you might be right, Twi. But, uh... How do we get it to you?” “Well...” Twilight sighed. “We’re probably going to have to stop in Manehattan to prepare the airship to cross the sea. You might be able to send anything physical to us by rail, or even teleport, if you’re feeling up to a teleport of that kind of distance. Books, scrolls, even scraps of paper, Celestia can send to us by sending it to Spike.”

Her brother and sister-in-law nodded, weakly, and Cadance sighed. “Let me rest for another half an hour, then I can teleport us back to the Empire,” she murmured, more to Armor than Twilight. Shining Armor shook his head, “Cadance, you’ll be-” “Out of it for a day if I do that? Probably,” she admitted, with a weak smile. “But you won’t be, and you’ll be able to get a head-start on searching everything.”

Shining Armor looked unhappy, but Cadance leaned forward, pressing her lips to his. Twilight blinked, as she kissed him, lovingly, lowering her head to touch their horns together, both of which ignited with the colors of their magic, blending together where they touched. She pulled away, with a smile. “I’ll be fine, Shiny,” she murmured softly to him, making Twilight’s brother blush lightly. “Get ready.” “O-okay,” Shining Armor said with a heavy sigh, and Twilight nodded. “Armor - Celestia showed me something. You’re going to need it to get into Sombra’s castle.”

“What do you mean,” he asked, curiously. “We have run of the place, he’s gone.” “You have run of the Crystal Castle,” Twilight clarified. “But that’s not King Sombra’s castle. You have to go to the throne room and make it look like it was when he ruled the place to get into Sombra’s castle. It’s kind of a shadow version of the real castle. I... Um...”

She looked around, and her eyes narrowed as she looked over Celestia’s large desk. There was a large, floating crystal hovering over it, a crystal she recognized. “Armor? Mage sight, please.”
Her brother nodded, and stood up, following her as she stood up and walked towards the crystal, gulping. She looked over at her brother; his horn was glowing a bright blue, as were his eyes, and she knew he was invoking magic sight. “This is not the most pleasant thing to do,” she murmured, as she squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath. “You need to use the same kind of dark magic Sombra used - the magic of anger, aggression...”

Twilight closed her eyes, and winced. She thought of the magical attack, of the unknown forces who were threatening to ignorantly - or intentionally - fry her homeland to a crisp, and how she’d like to get them between her hooves so she could stomp them properly. Gritting her teeth, she snarled, stamping her right forehoof as she felt the magic snap onto her horn; not her usual Unicorn magic, but a dark, amorphous blob of foul blue energy. Her eyes itched, and she knew it was leaking from them. “The big crystal, on top of the crystal throne, is the key. You hit it, with a beam of this,” she snarled, and directed the rage she was letting into her heart at the crystal on Celestia’s desk.

Trembling with fear and anger, Twilight opened her eyes, knowing that they were spilling foul blue energy everywhere, and struck out towards the crystal; far from the measured, controlled magic she learned and studied, this was nothing less than a raw, directed beam of hatred, which shot from her foully glowing horn, drawing a jagged, uneven line through the air and stabbing deep into the heart of the crystal above Celestia’s desk.

The dark blue light hit the crystal, which resonated with it immediately, shedding purple light through the room, and causing the same dark crystals that Twilight had hoped she had seen the last of when King Sombra had died to sprout from the floor, three large spires like a clutching claw, around the desk.

Twilight let the beam go, and the crystal above Celestia’s desk faded immediately, though the dark protrusions of crystal remained. “That’s what you need to hit the crystal throne’s biggest crystal with, Armor, and-”

An echoing pwoomf interrupted her, and Twilight looked back to see Princess Celestia had teleported into the room, wings raised, horn glowing brightly gold. “What is the meaning of this,” she demanded, and Twilight gulped. “Uh... Heh. Sorry, Princess,” she murmured, drooping her head. “I was just showing Shining Armor and Cadance how to get into King Sombra’s dark mirror-castle.”

Celestia blinked, and when she opened her eyes, they were no longer golden orbs, but her own normal eyes, though thankfully more worried than angry, as she lowered her wings and let her horn’s glow fade. “I.. I don’t... Why, Twilight? Why would you spread such terrible knowledge?” Her voice sounded greatly concerned, and Twilight sighed. “I-” “My sister asked us to scour the Crystal Empire for anything we could find that might help her and everypony else who’s going around the world, Your Majesty,” Armor stepped in, stepping between Twilight and the Princess, and bowing. “I don’t like the idea, but it’s a good one nonetheless,” he said, and Celestia lowered her head. “I... I see.” Celestia slowly walked around him, craning her head down, meeting Twilight’s eyes.

“Do you really think this situation is so dire that you might need to resort to some information, magic, or artifact of Sombra’s, my dear student?” Her voice was quiet, grave, and Twilight looked down, suddenly finding the Princess’ hooves fascinating. “I... I don’t want to, but... T-This is bad, like, really bad. Worse than Discord’s return bad, right?”

“That’s debatable, but certainly it could be as bad...” Twilight nodded. “And if it goes on unchecked, it could... Well, we already know the stakes. You told me that there are many sources of power, that... That a pony might sometimes have to make hard choices, like maybe using the Alicorn Amulet if necessary to stop a far greater danger... If this is going to be as bad as I think it is... I... I want to have as many tricks in my saddlebags as I can. Is that wrong?”

Celestia leaned her head under Twilight’s, lifting it; Twilight’s eyes focused on Celestia’s, and the Princess pulled back, nodding grimly. “Okay, Twilight.”

Twilight blinked at her. “O-Okay?” “Okay. I saddled you with this burden, this responsibility, this task. Unfairly so,” she murmured, leaning up and kissing Twilight’s forehead. “Ever since you hatched Spike’s egg and I knew you were the one, that you were the Element of Magic incarnated, I’ve been training you to be a hero, to be somepony who could do things I didn’t want anypony to have to do.” She smiled, and Twilight saw a shimmer of tears in her eyes. “You’re all grown up, Twilight Sparkle, my dear little pony. I gave you the responsibility of sorting out a problem that is rightfully mine to deal with, but which I cannot because I cannot leave Equestria. If it’s your judgement that it’s worth taking a look through King Sombra’s secrets for advantages in this dire situation, then so be it.”

Twilight gulped, and nodded. “D-Did I overreact?” “I don’t know, Twilight. The honest truth is that I just don’t know. Time will tell.” She turned to Armor and Cadance, who were standing side-by-side. “I’ll send you both to the Empire City. Good hunting, and hurry.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Armor said, bowing, and Cadance nodded her head. “We won’t let you down, auntie.” Celestia smiled at them. “Don’t let your sister down, either. Now...” Her horn took on a bright, golden glow, and she closed her eyes. “Go!”

Celestia opened her eyes, and Cadance and Armor vanished in a bright golden flash of light, without any smoke. Celestia blinked, and nodded, turning her head to Twilight, as Twilight met her gaze. “Twilight... And yourself?” “I’m going...” Twilight thought about it for a moment. “To the library and the artifact vaults, to help Luna look for things, information and spells we might need.”

Celestia nodded. “Good, good... But Twilight? I know this is bad.” “Bad? This could be cataclysmic, couldn’t it?” “Yes, it could. I don’t want to say it to anypony, but it could, Twilight, I won’t lie... But trading one cataclysm for another is no bargain at all. Don’t resort to temporal magic unless there is literally no other way. Trust me, Twilight, you do not want to see a time of fractured years... I don’t want to see another one.”

Twilight blinked; even moreso than her heavy-hearted, weary voice, that quiet admonition made Twilight pause, and she nodded, looking up at her mentor. “Only if it’s the only option left,” she promised, quietly. “Tell Armor to look after our parents for me, will you?” “I will. Now... Go!”

Twilight barely had time to gasp as Celestia’s eyes flashed a brilliant gold, blinding her for a moment, and when she looked around, she was in the main library wing.

Derpy followed Luna as she departed Princess Celestia’s bedchamber, hurrying down the tower, picking up speed as she descended the spiraling staircase. Derpy didn’t like stairs, because she had to take them slow, but she hurried to catch up with Luna.

The stairs came at her from two views; she had control of her right eye at the moment, and it was focusing where she wanted to go, but her left steadfastly insisted on looking at the ceiling, which proved to be very confusing because the ceiling was the bottom of the stairs she’d come down one revolution of the tower ago.

Nevertheless, she took the stairs two-at-a-time, as well as she could, trying to follow Luna’s hurried, graceful trot down them. She almost had it, when suddenly her eyes decided they wanted to switch which one focused the way she wanted to look.

Her left eye snapped down to focus on the stairs in front of her, while her right eye decided to look at the wall on her side. If she had been standing still, she would have been fine; flying in open sky, she could have recovered easily. Had she been walking on level ground, she might have swayed or stumbled, but kept her hooves under her. Had she even been going down the stairs more slowly, she might have managed to catch herself.

Derpy let out a startled cry as her hooves instinctively tried to stay where her right eye was pointing, but she wasn’t actually capable of walking on the wall. Derpy tumbled forward and twisted to the left as her legs went the wrong way, yelping as she tumbled into and off of the wall, rolling towards her friend’s hind legs.

Derpy squeezed her eyes tightly, not wanting to see the results of her critical misstep. She heard Luna let out a yelp of surprise, felt the alicorn’s hind legs go out when Derpy hit them. Luna’s weight fell atop her, and Luna’s legs clenched her tightly as they tumbled. A magical humm surrounded them as they fell, and suddenly the impacts of stairs and wall were lessened, until they stopped completely with one final fall.

Opening her eyes, Derpy gulped; they had arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Luna atop her with her hind legs under Derpy’s body, holding the pegasus tightly against her. Derpy blinked, looking up and blushing as shame overwhelmed her, feeling guilty. “I... I’m sorry, Luna, I...” She’d blown it, done something fantastically stupid, and dangerous. She wanted to blame it on her eyes, on her sense of balance, on her hooves going out from under her, but she didn’t want to make an excuse. She had fallen at Luna, after all. “I... I just don’t know what went wrong,” she said, trying not to let the desperate helplessness she felt creep into her voice as a whine.

Luna gazed into her eyes, and Derpy dreaded the thought of seeing contempt, annoyance, or anger in them, and to a lesser degree pity, but Luna looked mainly worried. “Are you okay, Derpy?” “I, um...” Derpy shifted under Luna, and nothing felt strained, sprained, dislocated or cracked. She hardly felt bruised, even, and closing one eye let her tell that her vision wasn’t swimming any more than usual. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Luna carefully stood up, sliding off Derpy, and letting her get back to her hooves. “I’m sorry, Derpy. I was in such a rush I forgot how you hate to go down stairs.” Derpy stood up, shaking her head and starting to protest, but Luna pressed her hoof to Derpy’s nose. “It’s okay. Neither of us are hurt, let’s go.”

Nodding, swallowing the rising feeling in her throat, Derpy followed, as Luna turned and kicked off, galloping down the halls. Derpy gave chase, glad that the hallways in the castle were quite wide, and the only stairs they saw were a short one or two step drop, which Luna called in advance by jumping clear over them, letting Derpy jump after her.

The tall, dark alicorn led her into a part of the castle she’d never been before; slowing down they passed a guard, who looked worried under all of his armor, who saluted and tugged a velvet rope open for them. Luna nodded to him as she trotted past doors and doors, leading into large libraries.

“Wow,” Derpy murmured, feeling in awe, as they passed the doors. “You have a lot of books!” Luna’s head swung to the side, and she smiled, nodding at Derpy. “We really do. I... I never thought to ask if you wanted to come here,” she said, her voice growing quiet and sad, and Derpy caught up with her. “It’s okay,” Derpy said, with a soft smile. “I like to read as much as the next pony, but I’m not exactly Twilight.”

Luna smiled warmly at her, and paused, causing Derpy to pull up beside her. “Luna?” “Here, Derpy,” Luna said, turning to face the wall. She approached it, rearing up and lowering her head, and Derpy blinked in amazement as Luna pushed her horn into a chink in the brickwork.

Derpy stared in amazement as the bricks started to collapse into one another, and in a moment, she was staring at a doorway in what had been a solid wall. “That was cool,” she said, with a laugh, thumping her front hooves into the ground, and Luna looked back, smiling at her. “It was, wasn’t it? Hold still,” she said, and Derpy gasped as Luna’s horn started to glow, and she felt herself rise into the air.

Luna walked through the door, pulling Derpy in the air behind her, and Derpy stared in amazement, putting one hoof over her right eye so she could see with her left as they descended a long staircase, straight and narrow. It seemed to go down forever, and Derpy sucked in a gasp of breath as she hovered down it behind Luna.

“Relax, my friend. I will not let you fall,” Luna promised her, and Derpy closed her eyes at the reassurance, reaching forward. She put her forehooves around Luna’s hips, hugging her, and Luna said nothing, but smiled back at her as she walked down the steep stairs.

When they reached the bottom, Luna set Derpy down, advancing into the brightly-lit hall. “Touch nothing unless you know it’s safe, Derpy,” she was cautioned, and Derpy nodded, walking in after Luna, as the alicorn started to look left and right. “Let’s see, let’s see...” She frowned, as she scanned over the things, that looked to Derpy as if they were a gallery.

“Is this a museum, Luna,” she asked, and Luna looked back at her. “It is, somewhat. This is where my sister and I keep a lot of the magical artifacts that we’ve gathered; some of these things are exceptionally dangerous and need to be locked away, others are important and need to be kept where we can get them on short notice.”

“Like this,” Derpy asked, as she reared up to place her front hooves on a pedestal, pointing her nose at the book on it. “You have a lot of books locked away here, are books that dangerous?” Luna looked back, and smiled, walking to her. “Not quite. These books contain information about what the object behind it is.” She gestured with her wing behind the pedestal, where a small gray rock and a large jar of gray powder were sitting, and she opened the book telekinetically.

Derpy stared at the book for a moment, reading the description within it, and looked back to Luna. “Wow. This rock really cancels gravity?” Luna nodded, and levitated the rock from the pedestal. “Hold out your hoof.” Derpy blinked, raising her hoof, and Luna dropped the rock onto it. As soon as the rock touched her hoof and Derpy held it, she felt immediately weightless, giving out a soft squeal. “Ah-hahah! I’m... Aaah, this is weird!” She realized she was no longer in contact with the ground, and looked down with a start, seeing that she was easily a foot or more from the floor. “Woah... U-Uh, Luna? Can I... Fly?”

“It’s not easy,” Luna said. “Because your wings want to resist gravity and gravity isn’t affecting you, you’ll hit the ceiling. To fly straight, you need to try to dive.” Luna tugged Derpy back to the ground, and levitated the rock from her hoof, setting it back down. “We need something to transport it with...” “Are we taking it?”

Luna nodded, and set it back on the pedestal. “Yes, I think we’d better. It might be useful, and... Ah! I know the perfect thing!” She spun on her hind legs and jumped forward, galloping down the gallery, with Derpy in hot pursuit.

Luna pulled to a stop beside an archway in one of the walls, revealing a side gallery. She grew quiet as she led Derpy down it. The pedestals from out front were replaced with podium-like lecterns, their wine rack-like shelves full of scrolls. “What’s in here?” Derpy paused, looking at a large, heavy-looking black jug, and Luna glanced at it. “Nothing good is in that jar. Don’t look at it, it can hurt you if you stare at it.”

Derpy looked back to Luna, and pursed her lips. “Okay... I-I mean this whole area, though. There’s scrolls everywhere.” “The scrolls are original materials penned by the pony who made everything in this wing of the hall, Star Swirl the Bearded... You probably haven’t heard of him.”

Derpy shook her head, sadly. “No, I haven’t. Was he important?” “Was he important?” Luna looked back, and laughed, but not a mean laugh, more a resigned laugh. “I should say so. He’s pretty much the architect of the groundwork of modern unicorn magic. He taught Celestia and I magic, and he helped us found Equestria.”

“Oh... So he is important,” Derpy said, sitting down, suddenly feeling very small, and Luna sighed, walking back to her. “Yes, Derpy. He was, but... Well, it seems ponies these days don’t remember his name. That may be for the best.” Luna nuzzled her cheek, and Derpy smiled, leaning into her friend’s affectionate touch. “What are we looking for in here,” Derpy asked, and Luna smiled. “What aren’t we? Star Swirl was a master. He made a great many things. Ah, right now we want a container, and it’s over here.”

Luna leaned over, looking around, and levitated what looked like an old set of saddlebags, pulling it out into the light, and grimacing. “I, uh... Hrm.” She suddenly looked doubtful, and Derpy frowned at her. “They look like saddlebags. What do they do?”

“Well, they’re huge, on the inside. They’re not actually limitless, but they can hold a vast amount of things. Anything within them doesn’t really touch them - doesn’t really touch anything at all - and you can always grab the first thing you’re looking for.”

“Is it dangerous, Luna?” “Dangerous? No, no, it’s not dangerous,” she murmured, looking down. Derpy nodded, slid her own saddlebags, with their muffin-shaped clasps, off her back and walked forward, while Luna looked down. She slipped herself between the heavy, unusual bags, made of an impermeable-looking brown material, and smelled oddly musty, but settled heavily, securely, atop her back and wings.

As Derpy was settling them on, Luna looked up, surprised. “Derpy!” “What?” The gray pegasus looked back at her. “Y-You said it wasn’t dangerous, right?” “I... No, it’s not dangerous, but...” “But what? Somepony needs to wear it, and I don’t think it’s sized for you.”

Luna shook her head. “I’m not... I... Well...” She sighed, sadly. “I don’t think you want to be wearing it.”

Derpy laughed softly, and turned around, walking back to Luna, tugging her left wing out to reach up, patting her friend’s shoulder with it. “Why not? It fits, and it can hold like, everything in here, right?” “Well, yes, but...” Luna evasively looked away, and sighed, shaking her head. “If you don’t feel bad about it, I guess that’s enough.”

Derpy tucked her wing back in, and turned around, looking. “So, what else?” “Hrm... Let’s see...” Luna started by levitating the book from the front of the saddlebags into the bags, followed by Derpy’s own saddlebags. Derpy stared in amazement as the left bag seemed to stretch to fit them, then shrank. “That’s... Wow. What are these things made of?”

Luna got a guilty look on her face, and she looked down, at the floor again. “You don’t want to know, Derpy. Trust me on that.” Frowning, Derpy nodded to Luna, though Luna’s grave voice made her feel a little nervous. She didn’t voice it, though, as Luna started to telekinetically tug books and objects from the pedestals; Derpy saw a robe and cloak with a star pattern and bright, jingly bells, with a matching hat, that got stuck over her eyes, causing her to laugh. “Sorry, Derpy,” Luna murmured to her, stuffing the hat into the saddlebag as well. “Wait... I have an idea.” “What, Luna?” “This!” Luna triumphantly laughed, tugging another robe over; it was black with red trim, and had a hood.

“A robe?” “Yes! A robe! Try it on,” Luna encouraged, and Derpy shrugged, sliding the brown saddlebags off her body. She walked forward, under the robe, which she noted had stitched patterns in it like eyes, and Luna settled it over her shoulders.

Derpy immediately screamed, as her world became chaotic; panicked and terrified as she could suddenly see everywhere, but her vision was fractured and blurry, compounded in ways she couldn’t focus on. There was nowhere she couldn’t see, but as she saw it, she saw something else in the same space. She saw Luna behind her, but also the ceiling, and it didn’t make any sense. She tried to close her eyes, but that had no noticeable effect on her field of vision, and she shrieked and panic overcame her, trying to thrash the robe off her back.

“I’ve got you! I’ve got you!” Derpy felt the ground under her back as her thrashing brought her to the floor, but she still saw everything, at least until she felt herself being lifted from the ground telekinetically, the cloak ripped from her body and tossed aside.

Suddenly back to only her own normal, two crossed eyes, Derpy panted hard as Luna tugged her close, sitting back and holding Derpy tightly to herself with her forelegs and telekinetic power. “I’ve got you, Derpy,” she said to the still-squirming, terrified pegasus. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you, it’s okay. It’s okay, Derpy, you’re okay now.”

Shivering, Derpy focused the eye she had control of at the moment on Luna’s face; the black-coated mare looked frightened, and Derpy slowly forced herself to smile, wrapping her forelegs around Luna’s neck, hugging her. Luna lowered her head into the embrace, rubbing her neck on the side of Derpy’s head. “It’s okay, Derpy, I’ve got you. What happened?”

“It... It was terrible, it... I couldn’t tell what I was looking at,” Derpy whispered, even as she heard hooves at a gallop approach. “It was like I saw everything, at once, everything around me, but more times than I could count, each time like... Like it was off, at a different angle, a different rotation. It... I couldn’t figure out what anything was. I was so scared.”

Luna’s eyes closed, and she squeezed Derpy tightly, even as the approaching gallop of hoofbeats turned into a skid of hooves on the ground, then started to gallop down the gallery, as Twilight Sparkle’s voice called out, “Derpy! Luna! Are you okay?”

Derpy opened her eye, focusing it on Twilight coming toward them, and nodded. “Y-Yes. I’m fine now, Twilight,” she said, as Luna carefully set her on the floor. “What happened,” Twilight asked as she drew close. “I heard you screaming up in the library.”

“I.. I don’t know,” Derpy admitted, looking around. “Luna gave me a robe, and... Everything went crazy.” “A robe,” Twilight asked, blinking at her, and Derpy nodded. “A robe.”

“This robe,” Luna clarified, levitating the robe in question up, and over to herself. “I wonder if its nature has changed since it’s been here?” She put it around herself, and Derpy gasped, but Luna shrugged. “It seems to be working fine,” she said with a touch of worry in her voice.

“What is it?” “Something Star Swirl put together when he had reason to fear that somepony was coming to put a knife in his back. It’s called the Robe of Eyes, and it lets the pony who wears it see in every direction at once.” “Really?” Twilight sounded fascinated, and Derpy hung her head, feeling shamed.

“Yes, really. It’s really quite clever. I... Oh, Derpy,” Luna murmured, sadly. “I... I just thought...” “You thought if you gave me the robe, it would let me see everything right, so I wouldn’t trip as much,” she said, with a sad sniff, and Luna reached up, caressing her cheek with her forehoof. “I know how much trouble your eyes give you, how you feel when some mishap that isn’t your fault happens. I merely hoped I could spare you that feeling.”

Derpy blinked, looking up, her eyes both focusing, a minor miracle when there was something she really, really wanted to see properly, and looked into Luna’s eyes. The alicorn’s blue eyes met her own, and Luna nodded. “I have offended you,” she said, a guilty look in her eyes, as Twilight Sparkle seemed to hover behind her. “I apologize. I did not mean to imply that there was anything you should feel ashamed about.”

Seeing the guilt waver in Luna’s eyes, Derpy stood up, walking up to her, and leaned her head up, pressing it alongside Luna’s neck. “It’s okay, Luna. I know you didn’t,” she murmured, and Luna wrapped her forehooves around her, hugging her briefly, but tightly.

Derpy closed her eyes, pressing into the hug and returning it, then letting go. She looked behind Luna, at Twilight, and Luna did so as well. “We should get to work. There is quite a lot to be gathered, I think.” Twilight nodded at her and Derpy. “Yes, I think there is. Let’s go.”

Empire of the Moon on FIMfiction.net
Table of Contents (On Google Docs)
Next Chapter: All Hooves on Deck

Author's Notes:

This is Chapter 3, and WHAT a doozy! Unfortunately, FIMfiction really poorly renders this chapter, owing to the extensive use of alternate fonts, and its odd reluctance to left align (finally got that sorted this time. I really have no idea what's up with that.) I really, truly must recommend most heartily you read this (and all other chapters) in their original Google Documents format, which will let you add comments directly into the text!