When they got back to Fluttershy’s room, the others gestured at them to be quiet; Fluttershy was awake, and, as Twilight had predicted, in the process of healing herself. Rarity had removed her bandages, and she held herself above the bed by her tethers, her destroyed wings sticking out behind her like incomplete fringes of flesh.

Twilight and Pinkie waited at the bedside and watched as her bones slowly straightened, and then as her skin pulsed with the muscles swelling underneath. When her wings were complete, the wave of healing magic moved down her sides, where there were only a few small scrapes, and to the middle of her back, bruised and lightly scabbed. The wounds shrunk and then vanished under pale skin and yellow fur, and after a few more moments of concentration, in which all visible damage had faded, she sat back down gingerly.

“How do you feel?” Rarity asked at last.

“Um, tired,” Fluttershy said. She looked around. “What happened?”

“We’re not entirely certain,” Twilight said.

“It’s Discord!” Pinkie cried, and everyone flinched, looking around frantically, at the window, the door, the ceiling. There was nothing.

“Pinkie, don’t scare us like that,” Applejack said.

“She means she thinks Discord’s responsible for that weird pony,” Rainbow said.

“That would make sense,” Twilight said, yawning. “He did come from Manehattan when he found us. He probably left that pony here to spread chaos.”

“That’s what I said!” Pinkie said, giggling.

“Well, we can deal with it tomorrow,” Rarity said. “For now, we need to find a place to sleep.”

“Why not right here?” Applejack asked.

“On the hospital floor? That sounds dreadful!”

“And there’s no room,” Rainbow said.

“We can share with Fluttershy!” Pinkie cried, jumping in bed with her and rattling the support ropes.

“Pinkie, if a doctor catches us sharing the hospital beds, we’ll be kicked out,” Twilight said.

“Awwwww, but it’s so comfy!”

“It’s really not that great,” Fluttershy said quietly.

Pinkie climbed out with an exaggerated moan and curled up on the floor, beckoning Rainbow over to her.

Gradually, they all found places on the floor or in the chairs, while Fluttershy sat in the bed, apologizing over and over again at not being able to share. They fell asleep one by one, uncomfortable in the cool room.

Twilight opened her eyes and stretched, yawning. Applejack’s hooves were curled around her midsection, and she carefully pulled herself away from her. She stretched and looked around; only Rarity was awake, sitting on a chair with a bored expression.

“Good morning, Twilight.”

“Morning, Rarity. How long have you been up?”

“An hour or so,” she said breezily.

“Has anything happened?”

“Nothing at all, darling. It’s been positively dull in here.”

“So, what are we waiting for?”

“We can leave as soon as everyone’s awake. I just… don’t have the heart to wake up Fluttershy. Not after yesterday.”

“I understand,” Twilight said.

They shared a moment of silence, during which Twilight looked around the room. There was little to see: a bed, a bedside table, a window, a picture on the wall.

“So, have you thought at all about our course of action?” Rarity asked.

“A little. We’ll need multiple spells, first of all. I’m not sure how many. But I don’t think we can just cast them and walk away, like in Ponyville or Canterlot. Those towers, Rose Tower and… what was the other one called?”

“Glass Ribbon, Octavia said.”

“Yes, Glass Ribbon. Those are way too tall. They may have survived the first disaster, but I don’t think we should risk it again with our spells.”

“So what do we do?” Rarity asked.

Twilight sighed. “I have no idea. We need to find a way to secure them, but… I really have no idea.”

“We can discuss it with the others. Maybe they’ll have some ideas,” Rarity said.

“Maybe.”

“And what about our living arrangements? We can’t stay here, and we don’t have the ship anymore.”

“We have to find another one, I suppose. Thank Celestia we have access to the treasury.”

Rarity’s eyes brightened. “That’s true! Oh, dear, I had completely forgotten about that.”

“And as for where to stay, I suppose we’ll need to find a hotel or something.”

“What about Applejack’s aunt and uncle?”

“I think we should definitely pay them a visit,” Twilight said. “But we can’t ask them to lodge all seven of us. That would be unreasonable.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Rarity said.

There was another moment of silence. “So, Octavia,” Twilight said.

“Oh, don’t even get me started on her,” Rarity said bitterly.

“Quite a piece of work, huh?”

“You can say that again. You know, I was, and still am, a huge fan of her work, but I sincerely wish I had never met her. She is so difficult to get along with, and so… I don’t know what to call it.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Forcing herself to stay up, for instance. She had no reason to do it. And her injuries! If she had simply told Fluttershy… but no, she had to play the hero. I can only imagine how terrible the trip must have been for her.”

“She seems almost self-destructive,” Twilight said.

“Yes! That’s exactly it. Self-destructive, that’s her,” Rarity said.

“But why?”

“She clearly has a few, um… problems.”

“You don’t think she’s crazy, do you?” Twilight asked.

“It’s hard to tell. She’s so composed, and so calm, and so reasonable, but still…”

“I don’t trust her,” Twilight said.

“Neither do I. And what about her and Pinkie?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, leaning forward a bit.

“I mean, the first thing she does when we get onto the ship is confront Pinkie, take her down to the hold, and make her cry! What did Pinkie ever do to her? She’s the sweetest pony in Equestria.”

“What’s even weirder is that she didn’t want me to kick Octavia out. She told me that it was important that we keep her with us.”

“Do you suppose it was just Pinkie being Pinkie?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, but I kind of don’t think so.”

“It probably has to do with the fact that they’re sisters.”

“Now that I think about it,” Twilight said, “Octavia seems kind of, um, crazy, and Pinkie’s, well, Pinkie.”

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t know. I guess it makes sense, is all.”

“Maybe she’s just the opposite extreme. Pinkie’s excitable and full of laughter, and Octavia’s private and serious.”

“But they come from the same place. Don’t you think that’s a little too opposite?”

“Perhaps.” Rarity sighed. “Oh, this would be much easier if we could just talk to her about it.”

When the others woke, they washed up in the tiny hospital bathroom and ate a quick breakfast of old rations, anxiously listening for the door to open. Should a doctor or nurse enter, they had no explanations ready for Fluttershy’s miraculous recovery.

As soon as they were ready, they slipped out of the room, leaving Fluttershy’s pile of bandages on the bed. Pinkie led them to Octavia’s room, and they stopped outside.

“So, what do we do? Are we gonna heal her?” Applejack asked.

“She might be able to help us figure out how to cast our spell,” Rarity said reluctantly.

“Do we need it?” Rainbow asked.

“What do you mean?”

“She has a point,” Twilight said. “Our problem is finding a way to keep the towers from falling. Unless Octavia has some kind of experience with stabilizing skyscrapers, she won’t actually be all that much help.”

“Ah hate to say it, but it might be nice to take a break from her fer a day,” Applejack said.

“And she did want us to leave her alone while she heals,” Twilight said.

They looked at each other, and at the door. “Let’s see if she’s even awake,” Rainbow said, pushing it open.

Before they could see her, they could hear her, snoring lightly. She was curled tightly in the bed with an anguished expression, her entire body tense and her mane frazzled.

“Yep, that’s how she sleeps,” Applejack said. She looked at them all, their expressions inquisitive. “Ah’ve woken up a couple times an’ seen her.”

“Let’s just leave her,” Rainbow whispered.

They quietly closed the door and left the hospital as casually as they could, making sure to move with as much confidence as they could manage when passing any doctors or nurses. They stopped out on the sidewalk and surveyed the city. A flock of clouds covered the sky, and a cool breeze flowed down the streets, ruffling their manes. It was the first they had seen Manehattan in the light, and they spent several minutes just staring.

The night before, the streets had been filled with motion and brightness, the buildings to the side mere shadowy renditions of the city they had imagined upon their approach; now, in the gray morning, Manehattan was awake. Ponies rushed by on both sides, heads up and alert, while the cars were packed between. The buildings, once faceless, now bore the unmistakeable shine and splendor of technology, of advancement, that they had only ever seen in Canterlot, in small doses. Apartments, offices, stores, tourist attractions, it all hummed with life, and even though most of the lights were out, the city, steeped in the cloudy dawn, seemed to shine in their eyes.

“So, we have the entire day to ourselves,” Twilight said uncertainly.

“Ah say we go up into that tower an’ scope it out,” Applejack said.

“Exploring!” Pinkie cried.

“As long as we don’t stray too far from the hospital,” Twilight said, looking over at its sign.

“We’ll just take a taxi,” Rainbow said.

“Oh, yes, that’s nice,” Rarity said. “Another ride in with one of those charmless drivers is exactly what I need.”

“Was it that bad last night?” Twilight asked.

“Octavia forgot we didn’t know how to travel in a taxi!” Rainbow blurted. “And we didn’t have any money.”

“Rarity had a little,” Pinkie said, grinning.

“Yes, I paid,” Rarity said.

“The driver wasn’t very friendly,” Applejack said.

“Well, I think we just have to get used to it,” Twilight said, looking out at the busy street. “How did she summon it again?”

“Raise your hoof,” Rainbow said, going to the side and standing up, her wings spread out awkwardly to help balance.

When the traffic finally moved, a cab swung around to pick them up; they had to squeeze together, even with Pinkie in the front, to fit. “Rose Tower,” Rarity said tersely.

They slowly crept through the streets, only moving at a quicker pace once they had passed through a bridge: a long, narrow building that emptied out into a wide thoroughfare, a canyon between dark, empty, double-story buildings. All the while, the driver talked. Rose Tower, he said, had done amazingly well in the disaster, as had its counterpart, Glass Ribbon. Their foundations were designed to withstand earthquakes, but had never been tested. The few days afterwards, no one went near them; they were afraid of a collapse.

As ponies trickled back in, however, things returned slowly to normal. Most of the bridges had been assembled within a week by an army of industrious pegasi and unicorns, and as soon as the traffic started again, Manehattan had largely recovered. They were even beginning to get electricity back, most notably in the towers, who, the mayor had made sure to impress upon the city’s numerous electricians and engineers, were the most important structures in the entire city. When they got to Rose Tower, he said, they would see it for themselves: the electricity was entirely restored.

The majority of the city was behind them, but ahead, with Rose Tower dominating the view, everything seemed to point in on it. Their street, and every one they saw between the buildings, was aimed directly at it, and the streams of ponies all seemed angled in its direction. The black tower pierced the sky, its curious, sickle-shaped top an ostentatious crown to the Manehattan skyline.

The tower itself was surrounded by a huge, circular parking lot, itself a tiny city of taxis, carts, carriages, and larger automobiles that Twilight said were buses. The taxi dropped them off at its edge, and after a few minutes of digging through their bags for some bits, it roared off, leaving them to walk the rest of the way to the largest building they had ever seen.

From Bellflower Bridge, they had been silently impressed at its stature, but they were not prepared for the majesty of standing just beneath its colossal presence. With the sun at their backs, their puny shadows brushed its foot, a solid, dark pillar that shot hundreds of feet into the air. Black ridges ran along its sides, and the tower spiraled with windows small and large, shining ethereally against the overwhelming mass of darkness like eyes on a living thing. They could almost feel it groaning under its own weight, a hundred-thousand ton monster stretching the air with its mass.

Doors sat in its front, simple glass barriers spaced several feet apart, and many filled with walking, talking ponies, vested in unassuming colors. From within, the sound of many thousands more babbled out at them, and, behind and within the sound, occasional, piercing chimes.

Pinkie raced ahead, and they followed her through the glass doors; it was like entering a completely different world, one city to another. Ponies, once walking in straight lines, now filled the vast, echoing floor, walking in every direction like insects. Pegasi flew above, diving and swooping and perching on rafters, and Rainbow looked up eagerly. The ceiling was huge and vaulted, with windows above to allow the sun in through a spiderweb of scaffolding.

The room was surrounded with small shops, their signs boarded over with painted planks of wood, advertising their wares. Gift shops, coffee shops, even a bank, which sported the longest line. At the far side of the tower, they could see the more familiar sight of train platforms, also full.

“This is amazing,” Twilight said breathlessly. She craned her neck to study the ponies, the others doing the same. “I’ve never seen such a materialistic place.”

“That’s your takeaway, Twilight?” Rarity asked. “I haven’t seen anything so marvelous in all my life, and this is just the first floor! Imagine what must be above us!”

“Oh, yes, hundreds of feet above us,” Fluttershy said, looking nervously at the ceiling. “And in a tower that got weakened by the disaster.”

“This thing isn’t gonna collapse, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said dismissively. “It survived the first one, right? It’ll be fine.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Twilight said. “Remember that, girls. We have to find a way to secure this thing, before we can even begin to think of casting our spell.”

“Yeah, not to be a downer or anything, but that sounds impossible,” Rainbow said.

“Thanks for that, Rainbow.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight! Remember: where there’s a wall, there’s a way!” Pinkie said.

“Will, dear,” Rarity said.

Pinkie laughed. “I know what I said!”

“Oooookay, that’s nice,” Applejack said. She looked at them all, still watching the room, and cleared her throat. “So, we gonna get movin’, or do you wanna gawk all day?”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, taking the lead. “It’s just so fascinating. It’s easy to get lost in it all.”

“Speaking of getting lost, no one separate,” Rarity said. “We have no way to find each other if we get split up.”

“Don’t worry, Rarity. We’re not gonna go running off like foals,” Rainbow said, looking at Pinkie, who grinned back.

Crossing the bottom floor of Rose Tower was an effort in itself. The lobby was packed with ponies, all of them distracted with their own engagements: parents watching children, harried businessponies carrying briefcases, sullen groups of youths. Everyone pushed and shoved their way along, and it was difficult to keep from getting lost in the crowd. When they reached the nearest train station, Twilight did a quick head count.

“They got a farmers’ market, but no farm,” Applejack said, tapping a directory impatiently. “That don’t make no sense at all.”

“Oh, I want to go to the gardens,” Fluttershy said. She looked at Twilight. “Um, if that’s okay, I mean.”

“I wanna go up to the entertainment area!” Pinkie said. “Maybe they’ll have party supplies!” She stopped for a moment and did a quick calculation in her head, then gasped loudly, drawing annoyed glances from the crowd around them. “Girls! I just realized! We haven’t had a party since we left Ponyville? Can you be-lieve it? That’s unheard-of!” She looked around quickly, as if searching for the space to throw one where she stood. “And all my stuff’s in Ponyville! It’s gonna take an even more super-duper amount of work to get one going!”

“I’m sure it can wait,” Twilight said with a small frown.

Pinkie gasped again. “You’re right, Twilight! It can wait! We’ll visit Octavia, and then I’ll throw it!”

They all exchanged looks. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, AJ! She loves my parties!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Rainbow said. She looked back at the sign. “I want to go out to eat tonight. I’m tired of our rations.”

“Oh, Rainbow, you just reminded me of something,” Twilight said. “We should probably get some more food while we’re here.” She thought for a second. “The farmers’ market should be good for that.”

“So, there first?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah.”

“I want to see what the shopping district has to offer,” Rarity said. “All…” She counted the lines on the sign. “Twenty floors of it.” Her eyes widened, and she counted again. “Twilight, darling, would you mind terribly if we never left?”

“We really shouldn’t be using Princess Celestia’s money for shopping, Rarity,” Twilight said.

“Oh, no, darling, I wouldn’t dream of it. No, I intend to spend my own money.”

“Do we have enough room in our bags?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh, indeed. Do we, Twilight?”

“I doubt it. I packed pretty tight. And I can’t carry any more in my pocket spell,” Twilight said.

“That’s the same place you keep yer brush an’ ink, right? Fer the sigils?” Applejack asked.

“That’s right.”

“How come Ah never saw you usin’ it before?”

“There’s a lot of spells I know, but never use,” Twilight said. She adopted a small smile and straightened her posture. “‘The mark of a good magician is discipline. Know much, use little.’ That’s a quote from Princess Celestia.”

“I don’t see the big deal about it,” Pinkie said. “It’s just a pocket dimension.”

Rarity laughed, and Pinkie giggled in response.

“Are you kidding?” Twilight asked. Her ears pricked up at the sound of a shrill chime, and they all looked down the tracks; a small train was slowly sliding their way. When it stopped, Rainbow moved toward it, but was pushed back by a stream of exiting ponies.

“I think you’re supposed to wait for them to get off first,” Rarity said.

When the way was clear, they boarded and sat down in the aisle. Unlike the trains they had ridden in the past, this one was tiny and compact, with small, uncomfortable seats and plastic windows. Ponies crowded and pressed in on each other, and the doors slowly slid closed as a chime sounded from somewhere far ahead. They lurched forward.

“A pocket dimension is no joke,” Twilight said, looking at Pinkie. “They’re incredibly dangerous in the wrong hooves.”

“You just use ‘em to hold stuff,” Rainbow said. “I don’t see the danger.”

Twilight sat back and sighed. “You’re aware of Equestria’s war with the griffons, back in the second millennium. Right?”

“Which one?” Rarity asked drily.

“The first one. In the Battle of Foam Horn—that was on the coast—one of our mages used pocket dimensions to dump thousands of gallons of freezing cold ocean water on the griffons. It was a massacre.”

They were silent, and only the sound of the rolling train could be heard.

“Pocket dimensions aren’t toys.”

Rainbow yawned. “Thanks for the history lesson, Twilight.”

“It’s important to know these things.” She lowered her voice. “Especially since some of us have magic now. Magical ethics are huge.”

“Maybe fer Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Rainbow and Ah don’t need to worry ‘bout that.”

“Anypony with any amount of magic needs to know at least the basic principles.”

Rainbow yawned again, and Twilight frowned.

Not an hour after the others had left the hospital, Octavia woke up drenched in sweat. Her heart palpitated, and she rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the afterimages of her dreams. Her leg ached, and her head throbbed. She looked at the far wall, then the window, and memories of the day before came back to her. The bridge, the train, Fluttershy, the confrontation with Twilight and Pinkie. She lay back and sighed to herself. All these things played on her mind, and as her heart slowed down and her nerves cooled, her mind began to turn slowly. So many problems.

A nurse came in to check her vitals, and she only said a few words in response to her questions. “Yes. Fine. Yes, please.”

Doctor Vena Cava entered a half hour later. She commented on Octavia’s unstable appearance, and Octavia offered a smile and an assertion that she was fine. Vena Cava smiled back and left her alone.

They disembarked in another metro area, mostly the same as the one from which they had come, but with a palpable change in the atmosphere. The air felt warmer and softer, and the light, formerly sterile and hard, was a calm goldenrod, radiating in fuzzy baubles from rows of spherical lamps, lining the walls. They could smell food in the air, and the green scent of grass and growing things.

Out of the train platform, they walked down a short corridor, paneled in warm wood. A carved, wooden sign hung just above the far door, “FARMERS’ MARKET” painted in bold, green letters and stylized with creeping vines and swelling vegetables at the letters’ feet. A fat, black blotch was painted in a delicate spiderweb in the crook of the S. Applejack pushed the door open, and they went in.

Twilight, for whom the grocery stores in Canterlot were the largest commercial outlets, had been expecting a compact labyrinth of aisles, packed with goods and constantly organized and sorted by an army of workers. For the second time that day, she was forced to stop and simply marvel at the view.

They stepped through the door onto a wooden sidewalk by a dirt road, branching out through a forest of free-standing shops, some bigger than Twilight’s library and some no more than wheelbarrows with a couple shelves. The entire space was open; she could see the tower’s walls on all sides, distant and indistinct through the relaxing light and the jagged edge of disparate rooftops. Giant, square floodlights hung from the ceiling, bathing the entire floor in the same, soft light from the metro area. Carriages rolled down the streets and ponies walked along the sidewalks, ducking into shops or stopping at stands to chat and browse.

“Sweet Celestia,” Applejack said. “This is amazin’.”

“It’s like its own city,” Twilight said, astonished. “How long must it have taken them to build this?”

“Octavia said this takes up five floors,” Rarity said, looking up at the ceiling. “There must be another level above this one.”

“Aw, what? This bites,” Rainbow said, indicating a sign by the door, the silhouette of a pegasus blacked out in an X. “No flying allowed.”

“They probably don’t want pegasi dropping things from above,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, sure.” She flicked her tail in annoyance.

“So, what do we need, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“I have a list somewhere,” Twilight said, summoning one of her bags and opening it. “Ah, here we go. More food, matches, firewood, another sleeping bag—”

“Wait wait wait. Why do we need matches an’ firewood? You can magic us up a fire anytime we need.”

“Yes, but what if we ever get separated?”

“It won’t matter, since you have all our stuff anyway,” Rainbow said, gesturing nebulously behind Twilight. “Tucked away in that weird, dangerous pocket dimension.”

“It still doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” Twilight said.

“How are you going to carry everything?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight stopped and frowned.

“I mean, you said you were at your limit already.”

“I don’t really know. I suppose I could try to carry another bag or two.”

“If we’re doin’ the night watch thing, we won’t need the extra sleepin’ bag,” Applejack said.

“Oh, that’s true.”

“Our biggest concern is a new airship,” Rarity said.

“When we get out of here, we’ll ask Octavia about an airship place,” Rainbow said.

Octavia stared at the wall. She was alone, and her mind was clouded with painkillers and worry. Vena Cava said that she had a hairline fracture in her cannon bone, and she wore a cast, her leg suspended uncomfortably over the bedsheets.

Pain was slowly ebbing back into her, but when a nurse came to check on her, she insisted that she was okay. The pain was her penance, she thought to herself. It was her own stubborn resistance to the others’ offers for help that put her where she was, and more suffering was the only thing she could think of. They would come back for her, she knew, and when they did, she intended to be humbled by her misery.

They passed hours at the market, exploring and window-shopping, but buying only when Twilight said so. There were shops for everything: gardening supplies, plants, power tools, food. There were bakeries, delicatessens, and patisseries—an entire corner dedicated exclusively to chocolates, from which it took almost half an hour to drag Rarity—as well as a winery, a distillery, tea and coffee houses, and even an apiary and silk-spinning shop.

They wandered up to the second half of the market, never once considering the fact that they were lost, and eventually settled down to rest on a bench outside a smoke shop. Twilight, despite her maddeningly strict loyalty to her list, was forced to add another bag to her pocket dimension, and simply maintaining the dimension’s integrity placed a strain on her that made walking and talking a serious effort.

As soon as they were seated, she released a few of their bags with a sigh, then stood up and stretched. A curious scent wafted out the smoke shop door, prickling inside her nose, and she inhaled deeply. With a quick word to the others, she entered.

She had been inside many of the shops in the market, and at every one, she was amazed. The selection of supplies always boggled her, no matter how familiar they had been to her before. The volume of items up for sale seemed to swell inside her mind, baffling her and entrancing her at once, turning even the simplicity of a piece of fruit into a gleaming basket of ripe novelties.

Inside the smoke shop, the feeling was intensified in more aspects than she could name. The heady smell of ash and herbs lay across her face like a wet cloth; the assortment of glinting, glass pipes pleased her eyes; the cozy atmosphere impressed upon her. If Rose Tower was the nexus of all things commercial, she thought, then the smoke shop must be the antithesis inside: humble and unknown, a place for refuge.

A heavyset mare with a luxurious, ivory mane leaned on the counter. “What can I get you, heart?”

Twilight started, but the pony only looked at her dreamily. “Um… what do you sell?”

“Didn’t you read the sign on your way in, love? It’s a smoke shop.”

Twilight hesitated. She was completely out of her element, and the mare looked like she knew. “So you sell… smoke?”

The mare laughed softly, derision clear on her face, but when she spoke again, her voice was patient. “Smoke products, honey. Herbal remedies.” She leaned farther on the counter and connected eyes with Twilight. “Anything you want, I can do for you. Relax, enlighten, enhance any sense you want. Have you ever tried?”

Twilight waited before responding. In Ponyville, she had heard of what the mare described: recreational gardening, it was called there. A few of her neighbors had invited her to partake before, and she had always declined. She eyed the strange, lamp-like, glass shapes in a nearby case. “No, I can’t say as I have.”

The mare smiled once more, her lips parting slightly in an expression that Twilight didn’t entirely trust. “Oh, love, you absolutely must experience it.” She looked Twilight up and down, and Twilight shied away. “You look like a pony who could use a vacation.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, to tell the mare that she was wrong, and back out of the shop. Her forehoof was raised off the ground to turn away, but she paused, her mind working. It was a connection she hadn’t been expecting, or searching for, and she hesitated for a moment, mulling over her conclusion. “What can you tell me about these herbs for relaxation? Could they… do you think they could make somepony who’s normally private open up a little?”

“I have just the thing,” the pony said, reaching around and plucking a small bag off the back wall. She dropped it onto the counter, and Twilight looked at it nervously. It was so small. “Marijuana, love.”

Twilight thought, trying to consider her options. The smell of the shop made it hard. Marijuana, and many other naturally-growing drugs, were legal in Equestria, and had been for a long time. They were still a topic of heated debate among many ponies. “How do I… ingest it?”

The salespony laughed quietly, and Twilight blushed. “You smoke it. Look.” She gestured at the glass things behind her. “These are water pipes. You use those.”

“I’m not sure if I have enough room in our bags for one of those. Do you have anything smaller?”

“Sure do! We have little tiny ones too.” She produced a small key and unlocked the glass case she had been leaning on, and Twilight obediently looked down at the row of small, glass pipes. “See one you like?”

Twilight studied them. They were all the same shape, a tiny bowl on a delicate stem, but where some were a simple, single hue, others were more elaborate, swirled with stripes and dots of color. “I like that one,” she said, pointing at a pipe with a rainbow streak through it.

“You got it, love.” She pulled the pipe out and placed it gently on the bag of marijuana, then put a small, metal lighter next to it.

Twilight looked at it. “This is all safe, right?”

“Oh, absolutely. The effects only last for a few hours, or more if you use a stronger strain.” She smiled at Twilight’s confused expression. “This strain isn’t that strong, but it’ll be perfect for a first-timer. The worst you can expect is a dry mouth and a very big appetite.”

Twilight considered for a minute. She had not intended to make a purchase; she only wanted to see what the smell was. “And yet here I am, about to buy drugs. Me, Twilight Sparkle, buying drugs. Is this what it’s like to be in the big city?” She paid and left.

“Twilight, what took you so long?” Rainbow asked when she came out.

“Oooh, whatcha got there?” Pinkie asked, snatching the bag and looking inside.

“Just a little something. I thought I could give it to Octavia,” Twilight said guardedly.

“Twilight, do you know what this is?” Rarity hissed, grabbing the bag out of Pinkie’s mouth.

“Yes, Rarity. The salespony told me about it.”

Rarity sputtered, aghast. “I cannot believe you would buy something like that.”

“What? What’s the big deal?” Rainbow asked. “Hey, Twilight, if Octavia doesn’t want it, you wanna give it to me?”

“Rainbow!”

“Oh, what? Don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘no weed’ ponies, Rarity.”

“Of course I am,” Rarity said proudly.

“Rarity, you realize that weed doesn’t hurt anypony, right? That’s why Celestia legalized it.”

“Well I think that it is a waste of time and a bane to our society. It encourages delinquency and laziness.”

“It encourages having a good time,” Rainbow said, a growl edging into her voice.

“It turns ponies into apathetic do-nothings.”

“It does not! It just helps you chill out after a week of hard work.” She shrugged. “But I guess I can see why you wouldn’t understand that.”

“Are you implying that I don’t have a life outside my profession?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“Rainbow, come on,” Applejack said.

Rarity’s voice took on a sharper tone. “I’ll have you know I go to the spa every other weekend for a full day of pampering. Isn’t that right, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, um, right,” Fluttershy said, looking down.

“Oh, yeah, every other week, that’s taking a break all right,” Rainbow said.

“Maybe if you did your job more than half the time, you’d understand,” Rarity said.

“Girls, come on, let’s not do this,” Applejack said, raising her voice a little.

Rarity looked at her and huffed. “You’re right, Applejack. I have no business arguing about this.”

“So you admit I’m right?” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow,” Applejack started.

“I admit no such thing. You and I both know that I am right and you are wrong. I’m not going to waste my time arguing about it, though. I’m taking the high road.”

Rainbow laughed loudly. “That’s a good one, Rare. The high road.”

Rarity frowned at her, but then grinned, a small laugh catching in her throat. “Wonderful, Dash.” She turned with a swish of her tail. “Shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Pinkie cried. “Fluttershy, didn’t you say you wanted to go to the gardens?”

“Oh, um, yes, if it’s not too much,” Fluttershy said.

“No, let’s go,” Rainbow said. “I’m getting tired of all this stuff anyway. I wanna see something green.”

It was three o’ clock when Vena Cava came by to check on Octavia, who sat perfectly still and stared at the wall. She checked her vitals, and returned a few minutes later with a newspaper.

“Thought you might like something to do,” she said simply.

“Thank you,” Octavia said, unfolding it. The front page was bold with a picture of a shocked group of ponies, crowded around a street corner. She read to herself.

The gardens were smaller than the farmers’ market, but where the market had been crowded and warm, the gardens were cool, damp, and only sparsely populated. There was hardly any indication that they were inside the tower; grassy fields rolled in all directions, cut and shaped around whispering streams, mumbling grottoes, and a thunderous tower of whitewater that spilled out from a large gouge in the roof. Ponies walked between hills and sat on benches, mostly in intimate pairs, but for the most part, the space was empty.

They spent only a short time inside. There was not much to do except admire the scenery and rest, and before long, even Fluttershy was growing bored.

They exited the gardens and found another metro station, where they boarded another train, empty.

“I wonder what they’ll have up above us!” Pinkie said. Her voice carried through the train cars, and they looked around reflexively, ready to give an apologetic smile to anyone bothered by her shrill exclamations. “Oh my gosh! I just thought of the perfect thing for Octavia’s party! Fireworks! She’s such a sourpuss, I bet some fireworks are just what she needs to cheer up!”

“Pinkie, Ah really don’t think Octavia’s gonna appreciate yer effort,” Applejack said.

“But everypony loves parties!”

“Not her,” Rainbow said.

“Maybe she would like it, and is just embarrassed to admit it,” Fluttershy said.

“Ah s’pose it’s possible,” Applejack said.

“I dunno! But I do know she loved my parties before,” Pinkie said.

“How many parties have you thrown for her?” Twilight asked.

“Just two.”

“The one at the farm, where you got your cutie mark, right?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie nodded. “And when she and I got together years later, in Ponyville. She surprised me, but I threw a welcome party for her the next day, and she loved it! She told me so herself!”

The train came to a stop, and a few passengers got on. They could see a long, sunlit corridor through the sliding doors, packed with well-dressed ponies.

“If she liked your last parties, then perhaps she would appreciate something like this,” Rarity said.

Pinkie cheered, and the passengers looked at her, all with puzzled expressions. “Party in the hospital!”

They got off at the next exit, and were again struck by the difference in the terminal. It seemed each terminal was a reflection of the subdivision it led to, and they walked respectfully across the long platform, admiring the new scenery. For them, the change was an incredible shock; the majority of the tower had been rural and commercial, and stepping into sudden austerity was just as strange as first entering from the streets.

The light was a soft, dark cyan, the floor a marbled charcoal and silver tile; the ceiling was higher than in the other terminals, vaulted, with a white and purple crystal chandelier hanging above, casting a spider-like shadow onto the center of the room, occupied only by a pair of benches. Paintings adorned the walls, ponies rendered in dark, thin lines on light, dry canvasses, and covered with protective glass. The ponies that walked were better dressed than those below, and quieter.

“Why’s this place so fancy all of a sudden?” Applejack asked, her voice low.

They emerged in a large, marble atrium, its ceiling even higher than the metro area before, its walls distant and dark. A fountain stood in the center, a cantering Celestia and crouching Luna, granite both, shooting elegant streams of water out the tips of their horns into a rippling, circular pool that seemed, from a distance, a mirage impressed onto the tile. A single, royal blue staircase led up into the roof on the atrium’s far side, and ponies walked slowly up and down it, fading into the dark roof like shadows. It was like a crypt, huge and respectful, and the ponies were ghosts, sailing effortlessly through its shadows.

“Where do we find the party store?” Pinkie asked loudly.

“Well, look around,” Rarity said.

“All of these doors have signs, Pinkie,” Twilight said, walking to one. “Here, like this one. ‘Burning Silver Video Store’.”

“That actually sounds kinda interestin’,” Applejack said, trotting over.

“A video store? Boooooooring,” Rainbow said.

“You don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout. You ever see a movie before?”

“Uh, yeah, only about a thousand. I grew up in Cloudsdale, remember? Not Podunk Ponyville. Eh, no offense.”

“I didn’t know you were into films, Applejack,” Rarity said.

“Fluttershy an’ Ah get together fer a movie night every month.”

“Wait,” Pinkie said seriously. “You guys have movie nights, and I didn’t know about it?”

Fluttershy exchanged a look of worry with Applejack. “Um, we’re sorry, Pinkie. We would have told you, but I know your taste in movies is different from ours.”

“But I like everything!”

“You like romantic comedy?” Applejack asked.

Pinkie didn’t hesitate. “Any comedy is a good comedy, even the bad ones! And sometimes the bad ones are the best of all!”

“Um, I don’t think you understand,” Fluttershy said. “It’s a romantic comedy, not a regular comedy. They’re not the same.”

“Still funny!”

“You gotta take some parts serious,” Applejack said, pushing open the door. Inside, the room was a wide arch, covered in brilliantly reflective, dark silver tiles, with heavy, wooden stands cataloging what looked, at a glance, to be thousands of movies.

“I can be serious,” Pinkie said, drawing out her words playfully. “Here, watch.” Her eyes dulled for a moment while her mouth went straight. Then she laughed. “See? Totally straight-faced.”

“You gotta do it for more than a few seconds,” Rainbow said. She looked around at the store interior. “Yeah, see? Totally boring.”

“Maybe fer you,” Applejack grumbled.

“Whatever. You girls have fun looking for your romantic movies.” She trotted along the aisles. “I’m going to find something awesome.”

While Applejack and Fluttershy walked together through the store, swiveling their heads curiously, and the others dispersed throughout, Rainbow found what she wanted: the horror movies. She sat down and picked through them, reading the descriptions for every movie with interest she was glad the others weren’t around to notice.

In Ponyville, the only way to get movies was to have someone bring them from out of town, or trade for them at a tiny stall among the fruit and flower stands. She had gone a few times with Fluttershy, but had paid little attention; for her, reading the descriptions was more interesting than the movies themselves. Her attention span was too short.

She was lost in her reading, examining an excessively bloody movie from more than twenty years ago, and didn’t hear hooves behind her. There was a musical laugh right behind her, and she dropped the video in surprise.

“What the heck, Pinkie?” she snapped, turning to look at the mare behind her; she stopped. “You’re not Pinkie.”

Compared to Pinkie’s stocky build, the stranger’s aspect made Rainbow stare; she couldn’t help it. She was a head taller than Rainbow, standing on stilts of legs that were just a shade away from unhealthy, the hooves manicured and painted perfect, perilous black. Her coat was gray green and short enough to give Rainbow a view of the soft, pink skin underneath, and her mane and tail were long and razor-straight, black with powerful streaks of hot pink dyed in. Her face was pleasant and mirthful, her lips full and smiling over a set of perfect, alabaster teeth. Her vibrant, purple eyes gleamed in the video store light, crinkling with the smile at Rainbow’s surprise.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… that movie. It’s so bad.” Her voice was youthful and firm, the voice of an extrovert. She turned to walk away, and Rainbow looked at her cutie mark: a bold, red pair of lips, so strong against her coat that they looked like a crude joke.

“What kind of cutie mark is that?” Rainbow asked, her pride a little wounded by the mare’s judgment of her movie preferences.

“Hm? Oh, this old thing? Just a little metaphor. It means I’m good at making other ponies feel good about themselves.”

“That’s weird.” Rainbow felt bad about being so blunt to the mare, but her pride demanded it.

“Not really. Lots of ponies have cutie marks like mine.”

“Not that I’ve seen.”

“Are all the cutie marks literal in Ponyville?” She gave Rainbow a simpering, haughty smile, and Rainbow’s eyes widened a little.

“You know about Ponyville?”

The mare leaned in. “You are the Elements of Harmony, right? I recognize you.”

“Oh, right. That. Yeah, I guess we are pretty recognizable.”

The mare looked at her carefully. “Tantalizingly so.”

Rainbow cocked her ears at Pinkie’s voice in the distance. “Oh, Rainbow made a new friend! Let’s go say hi!”

Rainbow chuckled. “You’re in for it now.”

“We’ll see,” the mare said.

Pinkie leaped over to them, vibrating with friendly energy, the others following at a slower pace. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Wanna be friends? What’s your name?”

The mare smiled wide, showing her teeth again. “Lacey Kisses,” she said strongly, looking right into Pinkie’s eyes. “Nice to meet you.”

Pinkie laughed. “Kissy Kisses! Kissy Kisses!” She grinned widely at Lacey, who matched her smile for eagerness and sincerity. “What’s your cutie mark for? Does it mean your good at kissing?”

Lacey laughed loudly, and Pinkie laughed too. “No, no, Pinkie Pie. It’s a metaphor. My special talent is making ponies feel good about themselves!” She swept a hoof across her flank as she said it, and the red lips seemed to shine as she wiggled her backside.

“Oh my gosh! That’s almost like my special talent! See?” She flashed her cutie mark, and Lacey looked with wide eyes, still smiling. “My talent it making everypony smile!”

“Well, I can tell you have a lot of experience,” Lacey said, and Pinkie cheered.

“Wanna hang out with us?”

“Pinkie, darling, don’t be impolite. She probably has somewhere to be,” Rarity said.

“Nonsense,” Lacey said. “You’re from out-of-town. It would be my honor to show you around the city. Or at least the tower.” She laughed again, and they all smiled to each other. “I’m always up for new friends.”

“Are you sure we’re not intruding on anything?” Twilight asked.

Lacey smiled. “Please. I come to this tower to be entertained. What’s more entertaining than making six new friends? Now where are we going?”

“The party store!” Pinkie cheered.

“Oh? What’s the occasion?”

Rainbow laughed. “There doesn’t have to be an occasion with Pinkie.”

“I throw parties every week, sometimes more, if it’s a super-duper awesome week!” Pinkie said.

“Ponyville must be a fun place to live,” Lacey said. It was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic.

“It’s wonderful, dear,” Rarity said.

“So what brings you here?” They stepped back into the lobby.

“We’re on vacation,” Twilight said confidently.

“Really? Are ponies already doing that?” They passed the fountain, and Applejack looked into the shallow basin. “I thought Equestria was too damaged.”

“We have an airship,” Rainbow said.

“Had an airship,” Applejack corrected. “It crashed.”

“Oh, no. Are you all okay?” Lacey asked. Her concern sounded genuine, and she looked at them all individually.

“One of us is in the hospital, but it’s no biggie!” Pinkie said. “That’s why we’re trying to find the party store, so I can throw her a get well party!”

“Why, of course. That’s a wonderful idea, Pinkie. But I think you’ll find what you need a few floors up.”

“You think?” Rainbow said.

Lacey shrugged smoothly and stepped onto the stairs. “I don’t live in the tower.”

“Well, let’s do it!” Pinkie screeched.

“Wait, Pinkie. I want to look around here some more,” Rarity said.

“Have you seen the Prancing Prince yet?” Lacey asked.

“The what?”

“Why, only the biggest and best music hall in all of Manehattan.”

“Octavia said something about a music hall,” Twilight said.

“Follow me, good ponies. It’s a sight to behold, even by Manehattan standards.” She took them up the stairs, through the shadowy portal and into another atrium, tiled in gentle light blue and smaller than its counterpart below.

Ponies walked back and forth along two parallel aisles, separated by a huge, glass tank, alive with fish and shimmering from a soft beam of silver light, coming in through a window in the tower’s side. Lacey hardly looked at it as she led them down to the far door and to a large, well-lit vestibule.

Shops lined both walls, colorful and alive, and the smell of food surrounded them: popcorn, hay fries, sweets of all varieties. What dominated their attention, however, was the huge, sinister, toothy smile on Prince Blueblood’s ten-foot tall face, leering at them from the top of the sparkling sign: Prancing Prince Music Hall, carved in elaborate, wooden lettering. His teeth were time-dulled, white bricks, too perfect for his square jaw, and his massive eyes loomed over the area like a greedy god, as if everything they saw, all the food and souvenirs they passed, were offerings to him.

“Creepy, isn’t it?” Lacey said. “He oversaw the carving personally. Everyone told him to go for the dignified look, but he wanted to look more friendly. This… is the result.”

“Such a wonderful establishment, ruined,” Rarity said quietly, shaking her head.

“Just don’t look him in the eyes,” Lacey said, walking to the entrance. “Seriously, don’t. Ponies think it’s bad luck.”

Rainbow scoffed and laughed, but when they passed under, she averted her eyes with the rest of them.

Inside, they stood at the top of a huge orchestra pit. Seats were stacked like kernels on a corncob, thin rows slicing them into neat, square sections, all pointing to a tremendous, oblong stage at the pit’s nadir. The entire hall was empty, and the stage was covered in a wan light, pouring in from a giant, wall-covering window behind it. Twilight could see that it was still cloudy outside.

“This place is amazin’,” Applejack said. Her voice sounded huge and unwelcome in the unfilled hall.

“I can only imagine how a performance in here must sound,” Twilight said. She looked back at the entrance. “Are we allowed to be in here right now?”

“I don’t see anyone stopping us,” Lacey said.

She casually led them through the rows of seats, slowly clopping down the stairs until, five minutes later, they were standing at the elevated stage, much more impressive close up; it was situated on a thick base of varnished wood, hollow when Rainbow knocked on it, and dark as the shadows they passed on their way up.

“We must come back here to see a performance,” Rarity said.

“Boring,” Rainbow said.

“Have you no culture, Rainbow Dash? Just look at this place.” She did a sweeping gesture of the building. “The arches, the space, the seating, the stage… I can only imagine how marvelous the acoustics must be in here!” She looked toward the window. “The view! In fact…” She sobered, her face tight with thought. “In fact,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, it’s quite the place,” Lacey said.

“Twilight, I just had a thought. Do you think we could cast our spell from up here?”

“Spell casting?” Lacey repeated.

“Oh. Um, I, um—”

“It’s a Ponyville phrase that means ‘take in the scenery’,” Rainbow said.

Lacey smiled cordially. “Ah, of course. You Ponyville folk sure have some misleading phrases.” She laughed, and Pinkie laughed along, the near loss of their cover seemingly lost on her.

“Maybe, Rarity,” Twilight said, surprised. She climbed a short set of stairs in the stage’s side and walked across it, Rarity behind. “That was close,” she whispered.

“Sorry, darling. But just look at this view. We can see the whole city.”

Twilight stepped to the window and looked out. The city was laid out like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, bits of residence and city block floating in the void, connected by fallen buildings. From their vantage point, Twilight was struck with how thin the bridges were; on the street, they were massive, yawning tunnels, but so many hundreds of feet above, they were bits of trash strewn about the labyrinthine metropolis. Just opposite them, she could see the narrow, elegant tower, Glass Ribbon, a proud and fragile opposite to Rose Tower’s menacing imposition.

“I really can see everything,” Twilight said. “And this stage is perfect for the spell. We just have to do it when there’s not a show.” She looked around at the empty seats. “Should be pretty easy.”

“And what about holding the tower?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes. What indeed. I still have no idea.”

“How many unicorns do you think it would take to hold it in place?”

“We’d have to get every unicorn in the city, at least. And coordinating them would be next to impossible.”

“Well, I don’t know what else to do, darling. And we can’t just not do the spell.”

Twilight sighed. “I have to think about this. Let’s go back to the others for now.”

They crossed the stage again. Twilight looked up at the empty tiers of seats, and the spotlights that hung in a long row across the top of the pit. She thought of Octavia, for whom the setting was routine, and wondered briefly whether they should have brought her along. “Maybe she would be able to help. Or at least point us in the right direction.”

They climbed off, and Lacey smiled at them smugly. “So, what’s this spell you’re casting? Or are you still talking about the scenery?”

“What? How did you—”

“Rarity was right, darling. The acoustics in here are amazing.” Lacey laughed her musical laugh. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, since you seem so worried about that. Why, I won’t even ask for details about it.” She smiled disarmingly at Twilight, who tried to return the look.

Octavia looked out the window. A nurse had opened it a crack, to let in some fresh air, and through it, she could see and smell the rain. It was four thirty, and the rain had been going for almost an hour. The sound of it playing on the hospital roof soothed her, and as she reflected, she found her thoughts softening.

“Perhaps Twilight is right. All they wanted to do was help, and I spurned them, to my own suffering. I should probably apologize.” She frowned and twitched her leg, sending a shaft of pain up into her stifle. “So Twilight can offer to teach me friendship again. So Rainbow Dash and Applejack can pester me about why I did what I did, and so Pinkie can get her feelings hurt again.” She sighed. “Idiots.”

They took another train, climbing ever higher into the tower. The ponies that shared their car all looked wealthy and serious, and the talking, when there was any, was subdued. They could hear the train’s movement echoing inside the massive, hollow chambers of scaffolding, banging and thumping along.

Lacey said that they were almost five hundred feet off the ground, approaching the residential area: the crown of Rose Tower, where the wealthiest ponies in Manehattan could see the entire city laid out before them.

Where they got out, they were immediately surrounded by stores, boutiques, and restaurants, all clean and attractive. The ceiling was painted to match a beautiful blue and white sky, its only imperfections the folds of golden arches and small, circular lights that lined its middle like ridges in a marvelous mouth. A pony sat on a raised platform in the middle of a fork in the road, playing on a piano for the shuffling crowds.

For a time, they followed Rarity and Lacey from store to store, both of them building on each other's enthusiasm. Even Rainbow had to marvel at the selection of clothing and accessories, it was so far outside her expectations. Like Twilight in the smoke shop, the whole area seemed a completely different world, and even though it was nowhere near her interests, Rainbow was enraptured anyway. The colors, the sounds, the smells even; it was enough to overwhelm.

After an hour of walking, however, the interest had worn off, and hunger was setting in. After a brief argument, Rarity curtailed her window-shopping, and Rainbow took the lead, walking aimlessly until finally settling on a dimly lit restaurant with a pair of young palm trees overshadowing its sign.

Soft piano notes wafted through the dark air, beckoning them in, and they were welcomed by a serious-faced hostess who led them through a vast main room and up a trio of tiny stairs to a more secluded, even less well-lit area, seating them at a giant, curved booth that, despite their number, allotted them plenty of room.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I am already in love with this place,” Rarity said.

“What? It’s so dull,” Rainbow said.

“It is sophisticated,” Rarity corrected. “The lighting is a little too low for my tastes, but the rest of it is delightful. The walls and floor are colored beautifully, and the tablecloths complement it wonderfully. And look at these wineglasses; I should think that these are real crystal.”

“Ah just hope this ain’t one of those fancy places that don’t got any big portions,” Applejack said. “That’s all Ah care ‘bout.”

“Well, naturally, it’s portions will be a little reserved,” Rarity said. “But I’m sure if you order the right thing, you will be more than satisfied.”

“I got a question,” Rainbow said, unfolding her napkin to reveal the silverware. “What the hay am I supposed to do with this?”

Lacey smirked. “Do they not have forks and spoons in Ponyville?”

“As a matter of fact, they don’t.”

“Yes they do, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “They’re just not as common.”

“Yeah, a lot of our food is the stuff you can pick up with your hooves!” Pinkie said.

“I’ve never used one of these things in my life,” Rainbow complained.

“You just use the crook of your hoof,” Rarity said, picking up a spoon with practiced ease. “It’s easy.”

“Maybe for you.”

Lacey smiled kindly. “If you’re not comfortable using your own hooves, you can use these.” She indicated a tiny set of elastic straps under the silverware. “You fix them to your hooves and slip the silverware in.” She smiled smaller. “Though that’s rather a low class thing to do.”

“I don’t care about that stuff,” Rainbow said, grabbing at her straps.

They stopped as the unicorn waiter approached and greeted them, placing a wine list discreetly on the table; Rarity instantly snatched it up. “How may I serve you tonight?”

“Um, can I just get a glass of water?” Twilight asked.

“Water for me too,” Lacey said.

The waiter nodded and glanced at her. His eyes widened, and he looked about to speak, but Lacey smiled awkwardly and shook her head.

“You serve apple cider here?” Applejack said.

“Yes.”

“Ah’ll have that.”

“Oh! Me next, me next!” Pinkie cried. “Ummmmmmm, do you have any punch?”

“Punch?” The waiter raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but held his composure. “I’m afraid not.”

“What about a milkshake?”

“We do not serve that here,” he said, frowning.

“Pinkie, just get water,” Rarity urged, and Pinkie smiled weakly and nodded.

He looked at Rainbow. “For you, miss?”

“What soda do you have here?”

“…I’m sorry, but we do not serve soft drinks.”

“What? What kind of restaurant doesn’t serve soda?” She caught the dirty looks Twilight and Rarity were giving her, and smiled nervously. “Just the house wine will do fine.”

“I will have a glass of the Pampas Pinot Noir, dear,” Rarity said, sliding the list over to the waiter.

He looked at Fluttershy. “And for you?”

Fluttershy sunk into her seat with a small, sad noise.

“She’ll have water too,” Twilight said.

The waiter nodded again and vanished.

“Milkshakes, Pinkie, really? And Rainbow, soda?” Rarity hissed.

“Hey, don’t blame me for my tastes,” Rainbow said.

“A restaurant can’t possibly be good if they don’t have milkshakes!” Pinkie said.

“And would you keep your voices down? This isn’t Ponyville, you know,” Rarity said.

“Geez, Rarity, calm down,” Rainbow said.

Rarity sat back and took a deep breath. “Right. I’m calm. Let’s… let’s just try to enjoy a nice, classy meal, shall we?” She began browsing the menu, and the others followed suit, paying the waiter no mind as he wordlessly brought them their drinks.

Rainbow looked up and took a sip of her wine, and gagged. “Ugh, white wine? Where’s that waiter? Can I change this for something else?”

“No, Rainbow, you can’t,” Rarity said. “You should have looked at the wine list before ordering. Just drink it.”

“I hate white wine, though.”

“I’ll take it off your hooves,” Lacey said, and Rainbow pushed it over to her.

After a few minutes, the waiter returned to take their orders, which they gave without incident.

When he left, Rainbow followed him with her eyes. “Why they hay didn’t he ask to fill my glass?”

“He probably heard you whining about it,” Lacey said.

“Hmph. This food better be something else.”

“What did you get, Rainbow?” Twilight asked.

“The, um, hweet-la-cock, I think. It’s a quesadilla.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to say it! That’s why I just pointed at the menu.”

“Oh, um, I think that’s bad manners, to point at the menu,” Fluttershy said timidly.

“I’m sure they’re used to it,” Rainbow said dismissively. “Fancy restaurants like this cater to their customers’ every want and need. They do everything except eat the food for you.”

“That’s no reason to treat our waiter like a servant,” Rarity said.

“Well, I mean, he kind of is our servant, right?”

Lacey laughed loudly, and they looked at her. “Sorry, sorry. But really, Rainbow? You Ponyville ponies really are backward. No offense or anything.”

“We are not backward,” Rainbow said heatedly. “We just don’t put up with all the pomp and ceremony that you Manehattanites do.”

“Well, I’ll give you that one.”

“Remember what I said about raising your voice in the restaurant, Rainbow?” Rarity asked. Her voice was thick with forced patience.

Their food came fifteen minutes later, and Lacey helped them attach their silverware, Rainbow fussing about the embarrassment the whole way through.

“It would be much more embarrassing, I imagine, if you had to ask the waiter to attach them for you, am I right?” she inquired innocently, tightening the knife to Rainbow’s hoof. “There you go! Ready to eat now?” She spoke in a mock motherly voice, and Rainbow frowned.

Rainbow took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. “What the hay did I order?” she asked out loud.

“Rainbow, please, the waiter is right there,” Twilight said.

“Good, maybe he’ll come around and refill my drink.”

“You don’t have a drink to refill,” Lacey pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s part of the problem.” She looked around and saw him making his way to another table. “Oh no you don’t. Yo! Waiter!” She stood up and waved her forelegs about, and Twilight looked away.

“Rainbow, sit down,” Rarity growled, but Rainbow just raised her voice.

“Hey! Customers needing service over here!”

The waiter visibly sighed and walked over to their table, still wearing his courteous smile. “Is something the matter, miss?”

“Yeah, I need a drink.”

“What happened to your wine?”

“Um, I drank it already.” She looked at the others, who didn’t meet her eyes. “I’ll just have, um, water I guess.”

“Of course.” He walked away.

“Rainbow, I cannot believe how rude you just were,” Rarity said.

“Relax, Rarity. It’s not like he’s gonna spit in my water or anything; he’s just a server.”

“That don’t make any sense,” Applejack said.

“Your water,” the waiter said, placing it just in front of Rainbow’s nose. He waited for a second and then trotted away, seeing that Rainbow had nothing to say to him.

With her water, Rainbow was finally able to settle down, and they ate in relative peace, conversing and laughing politely, no longer causing a scene with their impertinence. Lacey watched them all with a keen eye, smiling whenever someone happened to look up at her.

“Pinkie, I think those mashed potatoes look pretty firm,” Lacey said, and Pinkie laughed.

“That doesn’t make any sense! They’re supposed to be soft and fluffy, like me!” Pinkie cried.

“Yeah, but those look firm. I bet you could make a sculpture out of them.”

“You think so?”

“Aw, no. Pinkie, don’t,” Applejack started, but Pinkie was already smearing her potatoes around, forming them into a large, semicircular mound.

“You did that on purpose,” Rainbow said, a small smile tugging the corners of her mouth.

“Who? Me? Never in a million years,” Lacey said, smiling as well.

“Pinkie, eat your potatoes,” Twilight said.

“But Twilight, they’re so much fun! Look, I made a circus tent!” She had somehow turned the pile of potatoes into a startlingly accurate rendition of a big top, and had even given it a tiny pennant.

“That is kinda amazin’,” Applejack said.

“It’s uncouth, is what it is,” Rarity said.

“Pinkie, are you gonna eat those?” Rainbow asked.

“Eat my circus tent? Are you crazy?” Pinkie shrieked, drawing a few patrons’ eyes.

“Fine, Ah’ll have ‘em,” Applejack said, grabbing a large portion of Pinkie’s potatoes before she could object.

“You know, Pinkie, those potatoes look pretty sticky too,” Lacey said. “Why, I’d bet they could stick to anything you put them on.”

“Oooooh, maybe,” Pinkie said. “Dashie, stick out your wing for me!”

“What? No way,” Rainbow said.

Before anyone could respond, a glob of potato struck the wall next to Twilight, who flinched.

Pinkie laughed. “They do stick! Oh my gosh, sticky potatoes! Sticky potatoes!”

“Pinkie,” Rarity intoned, but Pinkie had already thrown another helping of potato, which landed, and stuck, on the ceiling.

“Pinkie, you’re going to get us thrown out,” Twilight said.

“Just one more test!” Pinkie said. “Come on, Dashie, your turn!”

“What? No, I said don’t—” She sputtered with the impact, directly onto her muzzle. Rainbow shook her head, dislodging the fluffy, white potatoes from her face.

She was grinning maliciously. “Oh, it’s on now, Pinkie.”

“You better not do what I think you’re about to do,” Rarity said.

Rainbow stood up, bumping the table as she did so. “Food fiiiiiiiiiight!” She shouted it out into the restaurant, and was immediately pelted with the remnants of Pinkie’s potatoes; the other diners simply looked at her, then resumed eating, grumbling. Rainbow wiped the potatoes off her face and slowly shrunk back into her seat, enduring withering glares from Rarity and Twilight.

Pinkie and Lacey, meanwhile, were laughing, and even Applejack was grinning a little. Fluttershy remained scrunched up in the back of the booth, where she had stayed for the whole affair.

“Um, guess the fight’s off,” Rainbow said, trying to chuckle.

Rarity looked at her, mortified. “Rainbow Dash, what in Equestria possessed you to do such a thing? A food fight, in a restaurant like this? You’re just lucky we aren’t being thrown out right now, and—Twilight, what are you—are you laughing?”

“Sorry, Rarity,” Twilight said between a few giggles. “But it is pretty funny. I’ve never seen a food fight before, much less been in one.”

“Well, this is hardly the place for one,” Rarity said, and, seemingly satisfied, resumed eating.

Twilight stopped laughing, and Rainbow smiled, turning red.

“Ah gotta admit, Ah probably woulda joined ya, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “If Ah knew it was comin’.”

“I thought everypony was going to join in,” Pinkie said.

“Lacey started it,” Rainbow said, and Lacey put on an affectation of offense.

“I? Rainbow, I cannot believe you would mistake my own actions for Pinkie’s here. She is the sole offender. I was just there to watch.”

“You instigated it,” Rainbow said, flicking a bit of potato off her ear.

“I do not instigate anything. I merely made an observation. Pinkie did all the work.”

The newspaper lay by Octavia’s bed, discarded. She had read its contents, and stared at the far wall once more, occasionally shifting her leg to fire a fresh twinge of pain into her body. Penance, always penance. For her hurtful stubbornness, for her cowardice.

It was almost six o’ clock, and the others were not back. She tried not to think about it, but in the dead silence of the hospital room, there was nothing else for her. She looked at the door every few minutes, secretly hoping for their faces—happy, angry, anything.

They finished eating, paid the bill, and left a forty percent tip, at Rarity’s insistence. As they left, they received glares and hushed comments from diners and wait staff alike, all unapologetic in their disgust.

When they were out on the sidewalk, Rainbow groaned loudly. “I am never eating at a fancy restaurant again! That meal was way overpriced, and that waiter was the snootiest pony I’ve seen in my life! What the hay do you mean you don’t have soda? It’s only the most popular drink in Equestria!”

“All right, all right, calm down, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “Ah didn’t think it was half bad. Sure, it was a little frou-frou, but that’s what you get fer goin’ to a place like that. An’ fer the record, Ah thought the food was great.”

“Me too, especially the sticky potatoes!” Pinkie said.

Rainbow laughed. “That was the only tolerable part.” She looked at Rarity, who was looking the opposite way. “What’s wrong, Rarity? Oh, are you still mad at me?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, I am still mad at you. You had no reason to behave as you did in there,” Rarity said icily, her face scrunched and her eyes glistening in anger, staring into the mall.

“Rarity, you know I hate fancy places like that. What did you expect?”

“I was expecting you to show a little decency and respect.”

“Hey, I’m all for respect, but when you drag me into a place I don’t want to be, where the waiters aren’t even friendly, then I’m not gonna bend over backwards to be nice.”

“Rainbow, as I recall, you were the one who wanted to eat so badly,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, but Rarity picked this restaurant,” Rainbow said.

“No she didn’t! You did,” Applejack said.

“Look, let’s just stop talking about it, okay?” Twilight said. “It’s done, it’s over, and we never have to come back again. Let’s just go back to the hospital and call it a night.”

“Back to the hospital?” Lacey interjected.

“A friend of ours is in there,” Applejack said.

“Ah, yes. I remember. Well, if that’s where you’re going, I won’t be coming along. I have places to be.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” Twilight said. “It was nice meeting you today, Lacey.”

“The pleasure was all mine, I assure you,” she said with a smile. She thought for a moment, her smile frozen while her eyes calculated. “I’ll tell you what. If you’re looking for a place to crash on your vacation, look me up. Hold on a sec, let me give you my address. Um, do you have something to write with?”

“One moment,” Twilight said, producing a quill and bit of parchment.

Lacey gave her her address in the northeast quadrant of town, which Twilight stowed away in her bag, which promptly disappeared again.

“Well, this is goodbye,” Lacey said, shaking their hooves. “See you when I see you!” She walked into the crowd of shoppers, and was gone.

“Let’s get back to Octavia,” Twilight said, a little concerned about the time. There weren’t any windows showing the sky, but she got the feeling that it was late.