Twilight didn’t want to say anything, but as the taxi moved, taking them closer to The Shot Apple, her confidence and conviction were draining away. Standing outside Strawberry’s door, under the nervous gaze of that lonely, green eye, the choice had been clear, but as the city moved by, the sheer impulsiveness of their decision weighed on her tired mind. She looked out the window while the others talked quietly, paying little attention to the sights. It was all gray faces and gaudy signs to her, and she had seen enough of it in Rose Tower.

When they arrived at the bar, there were only two cars in the parking lot, sitting on opposite sides and framing a worn façade. The bar’s front was dark brown stucco and plaster, with a crude apple painted across its door in shadowy, tarnished red, and dull windows filled with pyramids of empty glass bottles. They crossed the lot cautiously.

The stale air inside smelled of beer and perfume, and only three ponies sat at the bar, chatting quietly under dead, dusty lights. The unicorn bartender was steadily working through a group of dirty shot glasses, and he nodded to them as they crowded around a table in the back.

Pinkie looked to the patrons longingly, but Applejack guided her to her seat and motioned for her to sit down quietly. They all looked around slowly, and out the corners of their eyes, observing, but trying not to create more of a disturbance than they already were. Twilight fixed her eyes on the front window, embarrassed and uncertain. She felt as though her discomfort were evident in the way she sat.

The bartender watched them, but didn’t come over, and before long, the door opened again, admitting a single, short figure. The pony looked around briefly, and approached them, stopping at a distance. He was short and stout, with a nondescript, brown mane and tail, both cropped short, and a plum-colored coat. He wore a dusty jacket and a tan vest underneath, and a small pair of glasses balanced on his heavily-freckled muzzle.

“I do believe you’re waiting for me,” he said. His voice was small and smooth, but his eyes were quick, and he traced each of them with small, paranoid pupils.

“Depends. Who are you?” Applejack asked suspiciously.

He smiled and nodded. “Strawberry’s contact.”

“Good enough for me,” Rainbow said.

“Here,” Twilight said, summoning the money and floating it over to him.

He held it in his mouth and gave a tentative nod, testing its weight. “Excellent. Delightful. Wonderful.” He looked at them again. “You need not ever see me again, but I have a small favor I would like to ask before I take my leave.”

“Sorry, pal, but we’re done. We don’t wanna get more involved than we already are,” Applejack said.

“Please. I just want you to convey a message.”

“No, no, no,” Rainbow said. “We gave you your money, and now we’re walkin’. That’s it. We’re done.”

“It’s a single sentence,” the pony said.

There was a heavy pause, and Pinkie spoke up. “We’re gonna talk to him anyway.”

Rainbow looked up to the ceiling and let out a loud groan, drawing eyes from the rest of the bar. “Fiiiiine. One stupid sentence. Then we’re really done.”

“Fantastic. I knew you’d come around.” He smiled again, humbly. “The message is this. It’s too late. The X will not go down. He’ll know what it means.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Rarity said.

“Don’t worry. It has nothing to do with you.” The pony smiled disarmingly and hefted the bag of bits, balancing it on his back. He swaggered out of the bar.

“The ex will not go down,” Twilight repeated, bemused. “The ex-what?”

“It does not matter. This business is between them now,” Octavia said. “We should leave.” Her ears pricked, and Twilight heard it at the same time: a faraway scream.

In the first instant, she thought little of it, but when it was followed by a chorus of similar, closer screams, she turned around with a lump of cold dread in her stomach. Ponies ran in a formless crowd down both sidewalks, knocking into each other and falling over their own hooves, some darting out into honking traffic and others ducking into buildings. Their heads and eyes all pointed behind, to an unseen emergency.

She stood back, shocked and frozen, as her friends ran to the window, craning their necks to see around the stack of bottles. Something pale flashed into view, flying from a height of several feet and crashing bodily into a car’s rear end. Ponies screamed and scrambled, and the figure tumbled clumsily and jumped again, up against the far building’s wall. It bounced like a fly, up and over the street, to land in the bar’s parking lot, its limbs splayed awkwardly on the concrete.

“It’s him!” Rainbow barked, backing away. “It’s that jump-pony!”

Fluttershy squealed and dove down, and the others turned swiftly from the window as the pony jumped again, his fast shape like a huge, soft bullet, flashing through the air and crashing through the other window with a nightmare noise.

Bottles spilled across the floor as he collided with a table, upending it and landing on his back. He scrabbled quickly to his hooves, red eyes swiveling frantically in his head and a long, loose mane flopping around like a filthy, milky froth. Blue light fluttered in his mouth, and he jumped straight up, slamming into the roof with a force that made the building shudder. They cringed back as he landed at the bar, scattering the ponies there; he jumped once more, flying across the room like a missile, the force of his impact shaking the wall and rattling the supports.

Twilight could only watch, dumbfounded, stuck in the middle of her friends, as he righted himself only a few feet away. She could feel the wind from Spring-hoof Jack’s frenetic movements, hear his hooves skidding and his coarse hair shuffling. Fluttershy and Pinkie cowered underneath the table, while Rainbow stood at a tentative alert, as if ready to engage him, but unable. Before her mind could clear, the pony jumped again, directly at them, directly over them. Rarity screamed and Applejack yelled out, and glass shattered out onto the street. Cars squealed and honked, ponies cried out, and a bottle rolled over the floor. He was gone.

“What. The. Hell,” Rainbow said quietly. She hadn’t moved, but panted with each word.

The bar seemed petrified, and Twilight with it. She watched with glassy eyes as the bartender slowly raised himself from his hiding place. The patrons looked around as her friends tried to assess damage and injury. There was quiet conversation, and Fluttershy was crying.

Twilight watched Octavia walk to the bartender and speak with him, lips soundless in the rush of fear. Her eyes locked on a bottle that had made its way to the stools at the front. In the sunlight from outside, a small band of white seemed cut into its side.

She breathed in. Light, and warmth, and dusty air, and her lungs expanding and contracting inside her squirming chest. Her eyes watered, and she breathed out. Her body was stuck. She stared, and the world contracted.

The brown bar interior was shed in shrinking frames of black, subtle and soft and all around her eyes, and her world was the shining bottle. Hard breathing. Hard breathing in her ears.

Broken glass. Shouts, cringes, stopped time. She sat down. Someone asked her whether she was okay.

It had been around fifteen seconds. A sudden disturbance, a terrible sound. The darkness, skewered on tattered sunbeams, pressed on her mouth and throat. A racing heart. Pulsing ears. Her body, sizzling with adrenaline. A careful voice repeated her name.

A crash. A clattering. An emergency. Fear, and reaction, and realization. Eyes that were determined in one instant, overflowing with tears the next. Her eyes.

Colorful glass peppering the floor. An empty throne room. The smell of her vomit on the stone. A dark stain of injured marble. A red stain of injured flesh.

A group of ponies standing around, frozen from the aftermath of a single moment. Emptiness all around. “Oh, Celestia, what have I done?”

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted desperately.

Twilight blinked and met Applejack’s eyes, terrified. She looked around. She was back in the bar. She was in The Shot Apple, on sixtieth and fifth, in Manehattan.

“Are you okay?”

Twilight only nodded, and Applejack looked into her face.

“Yer not okay.”

Twilight swallowed. She could hear sirens in the distance. Her eyes still watered. “Can we go?”

“We should stay to speak to the police,” Octavia said from nearby.

“Octavia, no. Just… no,” Rainbow said. A gentle wing folded over her back, and a tear crept down Twilight’s cheek.

“Oh, Celestia, what have I done?”

Rainbow stayed by her side all the way back to the Oranges’ apartment. She didn’t speak, and Twilight volunteered no explanation. She merely sat, allowing herself to get lost in the feeling of a warm wing around her. The others offered their own forms of comfort, but it was Rainbow’s kindness that truly reached her.

When they reached the apartment, Twilight felt better. She stopped them in the first floor corridor. “It was like I was back there,” she said.

“Back where?” Applejack asked quietly.

“Back… there.”

“Balcony,” Rarity breathed.

Twilight nodded.

“It was just like it,” Fluttershy said.

“It was too fast,” Twilight said. Her eyes watered again, but no tears came.

“But you’re okay now?” Rainbow asked tentatively, raising her wing again.

“I’m getting there.”

“They’ll get him, Twi,” Applejack said.

Twilight only nodded, looking down.

Rainbow hugged her tightly, and she allowed herself a final stutter of breath into the pegasus’ down.

They waited with Twilight until she had calmed down, and then walked back to Strawberry’s door.

“What was the message again? ‘The ex won’t go away that easy,’ or somethin’,” Applejack said, knocking.

“It is too late. The ex will not go down,” Octavia said.

The door opened and caught on its latch, and the same familiar, paranoid eye looked out at them. “Yes?”

“I just thought of something,” Rarity said. “Shouldn’t you be at work? It’s Thursday.”

“I took some time off,” he said cagily.

“Hm.”

“We delivered yer money,” Applejack said.

The eye closed, and the pony behind the door sighed. “Good. He took it, and everything was good?”

“Yeah, everythin’ seemed fine.”

“Thank Celestia.”

“There’s just one thing, though. He wanted us to tell ya somethin’.”

“Oh, oh no. What is it?”

“He said it’s too late. The ex won’t go down,” Rainbow said. “He—”

“What? Wait, what? No, I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“The ex isn’t goin’ down,” Rainbow repeated.

The door closed, and there was a muffled thump on the other side, then another, then another, followed by exclamations, first angry, but soon hopeless.

Applejack knocked again, and the thumps stopped.

The door opened. “What? What do you want?”

“Just what is goin’ on here?”

“Are you quite sure that we should be getting involved in this?” Octavia asked quietly.

“I don’t know if I should tell you,” Strawberry said softly.

“We can help you,” Pinkie said, angling herself to the crack and looking directly into the eye.

“…Yes, help. That would be… good. Yes, very nice. Um, right. Hold on.” The door closed for a second, then unlatched, then opened all the way. “Enter,” he said, and they did so.

As soon as they were inside, he snapped the door shut again. He was a deep violet pegasus with dark magenta hair and a bit sign cutie mark, a sharp green against his purple fur. A thin pair of black glasses perched underneath tired, grass-green eyes. He offered an overworked, cordial smile, narrowly exposing neat rows of little teeth.

“You don’t look like a strawberry,” Rainbow said.

“I was a lighter color when I was younger,” he said cagily.

“Ponies’ coats sometimes darken or lighten as they grow,” Octavia said.

They looked around. The apartment was sparsely furnished, with one sofa and a coffee table, along with a dead TV and a pair of still lifes hanging on the wall. The rest was empty space.

“Don’t get comfortable. I want to make this short.” He paced before the couch, worry knotting his brow. “I really don’t want to do this, but it concerns more than just me now. I have little choice. That pony that you met is named Flash; at least, that’s what he had me call him. He’s an arsonist.” He paused while they took in his words.

“Arsonist? As in, somepony who burns buildings down for money?” Rarity said.

“That is what an arsonist is, yes,” Octavia said.

“I hired him a while ago to burn something of mine down, so I could collect the insurance money.”

“That is disgusting,” Octavia said.

“Spare the judgment, guide.” He shook his head. “Sorry. That was uncalled-for. I’m under a lot of stress.”

“Keep talkin’,” Rainbow said roughly.

“Yes, yes. The job went down without a problem. That’s what I thought at the time.”

“Quit stallin’,” Applejack said.

“I have to tell you the whole story, or you won’t get it,” he said defensively. He took a second to order himself “Right. I’m not a pony who has a lot of friends. On the contrary, there are many ponies out there who want me… gone.” He turned away and went into the kitchen. “One of them found out about my scheme, and they didn’t take kindly to it.”

“Can’t think why,” Rainbow said.

“I don’t know how, but they managed to contact Flash. And… now there’s a mark on the apartment.”

“Whoa, whoa. This apartment?” Applejack asked.

“This apartment.”

“So what the heck was that money for?” Rainbow blustered.

“To pay him off.” Strawberry came back in with a glass of water. “It looks like it didn’t work.”

“So what do we do? You can’t call him off?” Rarity asked.

“Apparently, I can not.” He closed his eyes, and kept them closed for a long time. “We have four days. Today and three more, before he torches this place. That’s his rule; he marks the building with an X, waits five days, and burns it.” He rubbed his face. “He said he’d take it down. You’re sure you gave him the money?”

“Yes,” Rainbow said indignantly. “We gave him your stupid bits.” She sighed angrily. “Why don’t you just go to the police? Have them wait outside the building and then get him when he comes to, er, torch it?”

“If I involve the police, they’ll have to know why I ended up associating with him in the first place. I could go to jail for that.”

Applejack approached him. “Look, sugarcube, Ah sympathize with ya, but my aunt an’ uncle live just above you, an’ if you can’t find a way to solve this problem, Ah will let the police know. Ah’m sorry, but you goin’ to jail ain’t our problem.”

He was quiet for a minute, thinking. “Actually…” he started, a smile creeping up his face, “it is.” He looked at them. “If you want to secure Rose Tower, you’ll need my help.”

“No, we’ll need your company’s help. If we have the mayor behind us, then we can get it done just as easily,” Rainbow said.

“Not true. I’m the CEO of the supply branch. If I get arrested, the whole thing is going to be useless until they find the next pony in line. It’ll be weeks, maybe months, before you get what you need.”

“Why didn’t you tell us all of this before?” Rarity asked.

“I’m only telling you now because it’s become clear to me that we need to work together.” His eyes shifted. “I would have preferred to keep you in the dark the whole time.”

“That’s a nice thing to hear,” Applejack jeered.

“Look,” Strawberry said, holding up a hoof. “I don’t want us to be enemies. There’s no reason we can’t get along. All I ask is that you help me stop this guy, on my terms.” His expression turned soft as he looked into Applejack’s eyes. “No police.”

“But how? We’re not even from here,” Pinkie said.

“I don’t know. But we only have four days to figure it out.”

Rainbow sighed and walked a tight circle around the room. “See? This is what happens when we get involved. We do one tiny favor, and suddenly we’re sucked into this whole, huge mess! Now we have to stop a frickin’ arsonist? Where does it end?”

“Keep your voice down,” Octavia said.

“Don’t defend him!”

“Listen to me.” She waited for Rainbow to calm down. “Yes, the situation is bad. Yes, it would be better if we were not involved. But the fact is, we need this pony to accomplish our task, and we cannot do that if he is in prison. It is in our best interests to find a way to stop his arsonist.”

“This ain’t fair,” Applejack said.

“Life is not fair.” She looked at Strawberry. “What can you tell us about this Flash?”

“Not a whole lot,” Strawberry said. “You probably know more about him than me. I never even saw him.”

“How did you find him?”

“Irrelevant.”

Octavia eyed him suspiciously. “I see.”

“We can try to catch him in the act,” Rarity said.

“That’s very risky,” Strawberry said. “You’ll have to be careful not to reveal yourselves, to him or to the police.”

“Well, all the contact is over the phone, right?”

“Yes, but he’s careful. He asks questions. You’ll need to give him a name, where you’re staying, who you work for. He needs to know you’re for real.”

“And I’d imagine so he can give the police our names if he gets caught,” Rainbow said.

“Most likely.”

“So we’ll give him fake info,” Applejack said.

“Can you make it believable?”

“Well, fake names are easy,” Rainbow said. “And for the rest we can tell him we’re on vacation here.”

“He won’t believe that. What kind of pony comes into town on vacation and instantly seeks out the local arsonist? You need to think these things through,” Strawberry said. “And for the love of Celestia, keep me out of it.”

“Fine. We’ll make up a place to live, and a business to work for,” Rainbow said. “It can’t be that difficult.”

“All right, all right, let’s say you convince him to do your job. You need to pay him half upfront. Do you have that much money?”

“How much is it?”

“He’ll tell you when he sees the place. I paid eight hundred bits total.”

They winced. “That’s a lot of bits,” Rarity said.

“I can front the money,” Strawberry said. “But you have to be sure your plan works. If you don’t get him the first time, you don’t get a second chance.” He walked into another room for a moment, and came back with a small ledger. “Listen, I need to do a few things, so you have to leave now. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything, and you do the same for me, okay?”

“We’ll do our best,” Rarity sighed.

“Four days,” Strawberry said, and they left.

The walk up to the Oranges’ room was quiet and thoughtful. Inside, they told the Oranges about the attack at the bar, giving a spotty excuse as to why they were there in the first place. They ate lunch, then went back outside and took a cab to the capital building.

Rainbow stayed beside Twilight the entire time, in the taxi and at the capital building, where they once again went over the story—their story. The battle, the assignment, the spells. The mayor nodded and thought, and agreed with them in the difficulty of their task, offering no insight of his own. He was a government pony, not an engineer, he said; the problem of Rose Tower was best left to someone else. They left his office ten minutes later, possessing only the crucial go-ahead for their tenuous, unspecified plan, reliant entirely on Strawberry.

When they got back to the Oranges’ apartment, it was five o’ clock, and they took a few leftovers to their room with only a brief greeting to the Oranges, both in the anteroom, reading.

“Does nopony have jobs here?” Rarity asked. “Everyone seems to be available all the time.”

“Ah dunno ‘bout that Strawberry, but my aunt an’ uncle are retired,” Applejack said, adjusting the sheets on the bed.

“Strawberry said that he was taking time off,” Octavia said. “My guess is that he is trying to lay low, and let us sort out his problems for him. Coward,” she growled.

Rarity looked at her a moment before speaking. “Anyway, I’ve been trying to think of how to catch this Flash character, but the only idea I have is to somehow physically restrain him inside the house he’s trying to burn.”

“But that’ll look like a foalnapping,” Twilight said.

Everyone glanced at her for a second, and she blushed and looked down.

“I know. But I can’t think of anything else,” Rarity said, sighing.

“We could send him to the house, then call the police an’ tell them to find him there,” Applejack said.

“I don’t want to risk him running when he hears the sirens.”

“Or flying. He could have wings under his clothes,” Rainbow said.

“Oh, I think he might,” Fluttershy said. “His body looked really light.”

Octavia went to the window and looked down onto the street. “Some of us can wait for him inside the house, hiding. When he gets there, we let him set things up, then we knock him out. We can call the police, saying we heard something strange, and let them do the rest.”

They thought for a moment. “That sounds incredibly dangerous,” Rarity said at last.

“Who’d you have in mind to wait for him?” Fluttershy asked.

“Myself and whomever else volunteered to join me,” Octavia said. Sensing their doubt, she continued. “The police will not know anything about our involvement; we will have left long before their arrival.”

“You can’t just knock him out, though,” Twilight said. “You have to make it look like an accident.”

“If we can find a really old house, we can make it look like something fell on him,” Rainbow said.

“That would help explain why we want it burned, too,” Octavia said.

“I think it should be far away from any other houses,” Rarity said, “so if we fail, and he burns it, there will be minimal collateral damage.”

Again, there was silence while everyone thought. “I wish it wasn’t as risky,” Fluttershy said.

“Considering how little time we have, I do not think that we can afford to try something more careful,” Octavia said. “And Strawberry said he likes to wait after marking the building.”

“We’ll have to get him to hurry up with this one, then,” Applejack said.

“That might arouse his suspicion,” Octavia said. She thought. “I will do the communicating with him.”

“And who’s going to go with you?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll go,” Rainbow said. There was no hesitation in her voice.

“Uh… me too,” Applejack said, looking at Rainbow.

“You two can’t be serious,” Rarity said. “It’s simply too dangerous.”

“It’s more dangerous for Octavia to go alone,” Pinkie said.

“Wait, so we’re definitely going with this plan?” Fluttershy asked.

“Unless anyone has any better ideas,” Octavia said.

There was a third interval of silence, and Octavia turned back from the window to regard them.

“So… what house are you going to use?” Twilight asked quietly.

“Of that, I have no idea. I will need to discuss the matter with Strawberry, and likely obtain a map of the city.”

“What about protectin’ the apartment? Do you think we should tell everypony here ‘bout the threat? Just in case yer plan doesn’t work?” Applejack asked.

“It might be a good idea,” Octavia said slowly.

“No, no,” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “We can’t just go and freak everypony out.”

“She’s right. We don’t need to cause undue distress,” Twilight said. “Let’s wait and see how this plan works out. And go from there.”

“I understand,” Octavia said.

They looked at each other for several long seconds, saying nothing; there was not much left to discuss. “Right, who’s up for some Hearts?” Rainbow said, rising and going over to the cards.

Rarity and Fluttershy joined her, and Twilight got up a moment later.

“Wait, Twilight. I wish to speak with you,” Octavia said.

“Oh, um, okay. What about?”

“In private.”

“Oh.” Twilight looked at the others, who nodded to her. She and Octavia left the room and went into the dark hall outside.

Octavia looked from side to side, lips forming soundlessly around her first word. She spoke deliberately. “I would like you to unlock any magical power I have within me.”

Twilight looked at her, shocked. She had known it had been on Octavia’s mind, but in the events from earlier, had entirely forgotten it. “Are you sure?”

“I am sure.” She hesitated. “The attack at the bar made me realize this. If I had access to magic, things would not have been so bad. Perhaps they could have even been averted.” Her face darkened. “As it was, I could only watch.”

Twilight sat down against the wall and nodded. “I could only watch.” She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “Oh, Celestia, what have I done?”

“Twilight?”

She shook her head and opened her eyes. “Huh?”

“What is this? You do not seem yourself.”

“Just remembering something,” she whispered. “Sorry.”

“If you need your friends, our conversation can wait.”

“No, I’m fine. Just give me a moment.”

Octavia waited patiently while Twilight took more deep breaths, and when her thoughts had once again returned to normal, she stood up. “So you want your magic.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure about that. I can’t reverse the spell, you know.”

“That is fine.”

“I just don’t want you to do anything that will make you uncomfortable.”

“My comfort is irrelevant.”

Twilight stared at her. “I’m sorry?”

“The way I see it, if I remain as I am now, then I will be unable to help as much as I would like. If, however, I gain magic, then the positives of my new power will counterbalance any negative aspects, such as the pain of the spell itself, the questions of identity and purpose that will arise as a result of my change, and things of the like.”

“You can’t look at it like that, though. Not completely.”

“Having magic will be helpful. Not having magic will not. It seems a simple enough decision to me.”

Twilight’s objection died in her throat. “…You’re right. But I’m just saying you should take your feelings into account too.”

“My feelings do not matter here.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. Everypony has opinions and emotions, Octavia. Even you.”

“I am not saying that I do not have emotions. I do. I am merely saying that I should not mix emotion with this decision, else I stand to make the entire affair much more difficult for myself. If I retain neutrality, then I can see this change as nothing more than that: a change. Simple and mathematical.”

Twilight considered. “Do you know how you sound right now?”

“Do my words bother you?”

“…No.” She sighed. “Yes. A little.”

“I apologize. It is not my intent.”

“I just don’t understand why you can’t show a little feeling.”

“It is in my nature to be stoic. That is all.” She looked around again. “So, will you unlock my magic?”

“You’re absolutely sure?” Twilight asked.

“Yes.”

“All right. Give me some time; I have to research the spell.”

“Take as much time as you need.”

Twilight nodded and looked back at the door. “Is there… anything else?”

“No.” Octavia went to the door.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“Uh…” She thought back to the drugs, hidden away in a small pouch in her bag. “Is this the right time?” “Never mind. After the business with Flash.”

“Very well.”

They went back inside, where four of them were playing Hearts. Twilight rummaged through their bags, eventually emerging with a thick-bound tome, which she set to examining on the bed, and Octavia took out her cello, which she started tuning. As she did so, she explained her intentions to the others.

“Okay, I’ve got it,” Twilight said an hour later.

Octavia, who had taken Rarity’s place in the game, put her cards down and joined Twilight at the bedside. “I am ready if you are.”

Twilight turned back to the first page of the spell. “Sure. Everypony, keep your distance.” She looked at Pinkie. “And stay quiet. I need a lot of concentration for this.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout us, sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“Right. Get comfortable, Octavia, and don’t move.”

Octavia sat down and waited, her eyes closed. She had anticipated the moment since her conversation in the hallway, and despite the unflinching readiness she had shown Twilight, anxiety and excitement flooded her mind. She could feel the others leaning in curiously, and resisted the urge to crack her eyes open.

She heard Twilight’s horn light a few feet from her head, and her heart rate jumped. Her face remained impassive, but her brain was wiggling with fear. She had been assured in her decision, but with the sound of magic just a few inches from her face, her confidence crumbled. “What if something goes wrong? What if I am injured?” She frowned and forced her thoughts to quiet. “It is too late to back out.”

As the thought repeated in her head, firmer, her muscles tensed and contracted, as though struggling to leave her body. Her chest tightened as she took a deep breath, and kept taking it, swelling herself with air and energy. “Is it happening?” She clenched her jaw, and she could feel her neck straining.

“Are you okay, Octavia? How do you feel?” Rarity asked.

The energy within her continued to build, and she shook her head rapidly. She felt as though every cell in her body was a point of eager impulse, and she must stand, run, jump, scream, make a scene—or explode. Her muscles twitched and vibrated, and she shivered. She couldn’t stop.

“Octavia?” Pinkie asked carefully.

She inhaled a long, deep breath, and stood. The unfolding of her legs sent pulses of power through her veins and up her throat, threatening to explode out her mouth in a vast bellow, which she only narrowly contained. A small noise bubbled in her chest, and she squeezed her eyes even more.

For what felt like minutes, she stood, her knees slowly buckling under the weight of her own excitement, until she reached the floor. Gradually, her body relaxed, and she rested on the carpet, the shuddering tension draining down. She breathed again, exhaling long and uncomfortable. She opened her eyes; everyone was looking at her with worry. She let out a small sigh of relief.

“How was it?” Applejack asked.

“Uncomfortable. I felt… very energized. Too energized. I felt as though I must begin screaming to release some of the excess. That is why I did not answer you; I was afraid to cause a scene.”

Twilight studied her. “That’s very interesting. None of us reacted that way.”

“It really is different for everyone, I guess,” Rainbow said.

“Is the spell over?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah, should be.”

“So… I have magic now.” She sat back down, thinking. “I have magic now.” Her mind reeled, and she repeated it in her head. “I have magic now. For all my worry and indecision, magic was just a couple minutes of mild discomfort away.”

“Of course, you can’t use it immediately,” Twilight continued. “I’ll have to teach you how first.”

“That makes sense.” In a way, she was relieved. She would not be expected to jump immediately into spellcasting. She smiled.

While the others went back to their cards, Twilight and Octavia stood to the side of the bed.

“First, Octavia, you need to learn how to access it. Close your eyes, and breathe with me.”

Rarity stood in a small garden, fenced in from the empty sidewalk and shaded by a small, withered tree. It was early morning, and the city was completely still around her. She looked up, and the sky was clear. She looked around, and her friends were all there.

As soon as she noticed them, they started speaking, but she couldn’t make out any words. It didn’t bother her; it was natural. She looked across the street, where a sharp, white shape stood against a building, two vibrant blue eyes shining in the sun. She blinked, and it was gone.

She looked back at her friends, all speaking cheerfully, and a few words filtered into her subconscious: “fire,” “glass,” “ship.” All singular to themselves, and so meaningless, she nonetheless felt the suggestion of importance in the way they reached her. She looked at Twilight, who nodded dumbly, her head a few inches higher than the others’.

She looked to the ground, obeying neither impulse nor suggestion. Her head merely tilted, and her eyes followed to Twilight’s hooves. Where everyone else stood evenly and normally, hooves lined on the ground like decorations, Twilight’s hung, without benefit of any magic or trickery that she could see. No one else seemed to notice.

And then Twilight began to float higher. With her, the pall of uncomprehending complicity smeared away from Rarity’s mind, and she could think clearly. She watched in amazed horror as Twilight rose three inches, then four, then seven, then more, her body static like a balloon. Nopony else seemed to notice, and the conversation continued as it had, even as she rose over their heads. Twilight nodded and hummed assent as her forehooves nearly brushed Rainbow’s mane, herself just as unconcerned as the others.

It was this that struck Rarity hardest. She gasped and stared, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to act. How could Twilight possibly be comfortable with what was happening? Was it happening? “She’s letting herself float away!” she cried inside her mind, heart fibrillating with each word.

Curious and terrified, she let her head tilt upwards, a prisoner to her own perception. There was nothing above Twilight except endless miles of beautiful blue sky, nothing to stop her ascent. She tried to speak, to call out Twilight’s name, but her voice was stuck; fear flapped in her heart as she uselessly mouthed a warning, her mind loud with the unspoken words.

“Twilight! Twilight! Come down! Please, come down!” With each desperate iteration, her body tightened, and her thoughts grew louder. Twilight was ten feet over their heads, and the world fell away, as it had only once before.

The others still talked. “Cameras.” “Sudden.” “Trust.”

“Rainbow!” she cried, and stopped, startled at her sudden ability to speak. A hoof flew to her mouth, clutching it tightly. She felt ashamed.

Rainbow looked at her obediently, then up, at the speck that Twilight was quickly becoming. Without even a glance at Rarity, she turned back to the others and resumed the conversation. “Friend.” “Money.”

Rarity slowly forced her eyes back up. Twilight was a purple mote of dust, drifting in the empty blue nothing. “Smaller, getting smaller.” There was a draft, and she fluttered away, disappearing in the sun’s glare. Her mind deflated. “No. No.”

She watched the sky, but there was no more Twilight. The sun didn’t hurt her eyes, and she tried to stare past it, but saw only circling blue, too complete to be real. “No. No.”

Rarity jerked awake. Her eyes were still full of blue sky, and the apartment’s dark ceiling momentarily confused her. In the few moments of panic before she was fully awake, her eyes began to water, and she lay in the bed, panting. Pinkie was beside her, snoring lightly, and Rarity sat up slowly.

Memories of the dream tumbled back into her taxed brain, and she shut her eyes. Of course it had been a dream. But as she looked over the bed’s edge, slowly craning her neck out to look down at Twilight, she felt herself worrying about what she might find; would Twilight be asleep below, or would there be only the empty bag as proof that she had been there? Would there even be that?

On the shadowy floor, she had to extend her neck entirely before looking along the sleeping bag’s dark length. Twilight was still there, unmoved and undisturbed, soundly asleep with a tiny frown on her face. Relief washed over Rarity, and she exhaled through her nose, letting herself sink into the headboard. “Just a dream.”

She closed her eyes as her heart slowed down, and there was a creak of wood at the room’s end. She gasped, still on edge; a small crescent of starlight thinned between the door and the wall, and the door shut softly.

Frowning, she got up and followed quiet hoofsteps out into a narrow hallway, into the anteroom, and out the door into the apartment corridor.

“Why are you following me?” Octavia asked. It was so dark, Rarity could hardly see her.

“Oh… um, no real reason.” She stood for a moment, trying to organize her thoughts. “What are you doing?”

“I could not sleep, so I thought I would go out.” She padded down the hallway. “You are welcome to join me, if you want.”

Rarity followed her at a distance, looking around carefully at the outlines of dead doors and inert lights. They stopped at the hall’s end, and Octavia opened a door to a black stairwell. Rarity hesitated. “Where are we going?”

“Upstairs. I am going to the roof.”

“Why not take the elevator?” Her nerves were still raw from the dream, and the thought of climbing through several sets of dark stairs unnerved her.

“I do not want to make any noise. Follow me.”

Rarity reluctantly entered and let the door hiss shut behind her, following the solitary sound of hooves on stone steps. They walked carefully and slowly, and her eyesight never adjusted. When Octavia stopped, minutes later, she froze, suddenly and irrationally afraid. “Octavia?”

“There is a gate here,” she said. “It is weak.”

Before she could respond, there was a metallic rasping noise that made her fur stand on end. She cringed back swiftly, bumping the cold wall before mastering herself. “Warn me before you make a noise like that!” she said quietly.

“I thought that I did,” Octavia said disinterestedly. The noise stopped with a heavy thump of metal on stone. “Upwards.”

They climbed the final set of stairs, distinctly dirtier and narrower than those before them, and stopped at another door. Octavia pushed it open, and they walked out onto the starlit roof. After the absolute darkness of the stairwell, the meager moonlight nearly overwhelmed her. She had to take a moment for her eyes to recover.

“It’s more beautiful than I was expecting,” Rarity said, sliding her gaze across the roof. From where she stood, she could see the city spread out like a maze, almost entirely dark and dead. She followed Octavia out to the middle of the roof, cold and black, and sat down by a sleeping air conditioning unit. She looked into the sky. “How did you find this?”

“I went exploring yesterday.” She sighed. “It is a habit I have cultivated. Whenever I am somewhere new, I wander the area to find the most peaceful place.”

“In case you can’t sleep?”

Octavia only nodded.

“Um… yes, about that. Darling, I know you don’t like talking about it, but—”

“Please, Rarity. I come up here to get my mind off things like this.”

Rarity sighed. “I’m just worried.”

“There is no need.” She reclined into the cold metal behind her. “I was not expecting to have company tonight.”

“Sorry.”

“No, that is not what I mean. I do not mind.” She breathed out slowly, and Rarity looked at her.

“I had a nightmare,” Rarity said at last.

“I understand.”

“I don’t usually remember my dreams, but this one felt so real. I’m still a little shaken about it.”

“It sounds like you want to talk about it.”

Rarity forced a chuckle. “I suppose it does. I’m sorry, dear. You came up here to get some peace and quiet, and now I won’t stop talking about myself.”

“I do not wish to impose.”

“It’s my imposition,” Rarity said. She lay down on the roof and looked at the thick crescent moon. “This place is wonderful.”

Octavia hummed, and they stayed where they were for several minutes. Even in the depths of the night, Manehattan was alive with noise. Cars swished in the distance, and she could hear the thump of music far away. Rose Tower watched from nearby, black and imposing, and on the other side, she could see a thin, delicate band of dark silver. Glass Ribbon.

After a few more moments, Rarity looked up at the sound of magic activating. Octavia was again standing, eyes closed peacefully, with a small piece of dislodged mortar floating in a snowy, gray haze, just before her snout.

“Octavia?” Rarity asked quietly.

The mortar dropped, and Octavia opened her eyes. “Yes?”

“Is that your magic?”

“Yes.”

Rarity smiled. “You can already levitate?”

“It appears so. I tried earlier, in the room, but could not.” She sighed and closed her eyes again. “I think that Twilight was pressuring me too much.”

“She can get a little overbearing,” Rarity said, nodding knowingly. She remembered a few occasions of asking Twilight to help her with a spell, and knew the unicorn’s tendency to over-explain.

“Yes. She means well, but her methods of explaining do not make sense to me.”

Rarity was quiet again, and Octavia looked down at the roof. Several seconds later, a small stone rose up, and Rarity watched it as it rotated gently in front of Octavia’s face. In the gray fog of her magic, it looked like a tiny moon in a tiny sky.

Rarity closed her eyes and rested her head on the gritty rooftop. There was a small pop from behind, like a firecracker. She cracked open her eyes to look at Octavia, who still held the pebble. “Was that you?”

“Was what me?”

“That sound.” As she said it, there was another one.

“That?”

“Yes.”

“No.” There was a third pop, and Octavia opened her eyes, her magic fading away. “What is that?”

Rarity stood up and they looked around, seeing nothing at first. The Manehattan skyline was just as dark and strangely-dimensioned as ever, and only when her eyes turned to Rose Tower did she spot the anomaly. Hanging just behind the black tower, coming around its side like an interloper, was the massive, heavy, impossible silhouette of a ship. Her first thought was that it was an airship, but where the balloon would be, there was only a trio of points, sinister like dead trees and cluttered with dark shapes, like wings.

“What am I looking at?” Octavia asked unhappily.

Rarity’s heart clenched, and for a second, her mind was frozen on a single, irrational thought. “Another dream?” “That’s the ship from Canterlot,” she said. “The flying one.” She felt silly saying it out loud.

One more pop, and a tiny flash of light flew from the ship’s side. The night seemed to go quiet around them as the ship hovered slowly around Rose Tower, dangerously close.

“So you have seen it before,” Octavia said.

“Yes, once. But I don’t know what to do.”

“What did you do last time?”

Rarity watched it angle closer to the tower’s top, and the scene played through her mind: the dark Canterlot mountainside, writhing with battle and mayhem under the ship’s prow, unstoppably drifting toward the palace, and them watching from across the battlefield. “Not a whole lot.”

She flinched as another flash bit into the ship’s side, momentarily freezing a tendril of smoke against its dark form. Fear lanced her heart, but she didn’t move or avert her eyes. Out on the roof, she felt exposed and visible. Memories from the first night swirled through her. “Again, again. We can’t do anything but watch.”

“Look,” Octavia said, pointing across the city.

Rarity took her eyes from the tower to see what Octavia indicated. In the distance, among a blank cluster of unlit buildings, a hoop of brightness pierced the night. She rubbed her eyes and asked herself whether it had been there before. She thought not.

Her eyes adjusting to the brightness of the aspect beyond, she saw a collection of dots rising from the middle, like a scattering of stars. She squinted at it, and gasped in spite of herself as a sudden spotlight slashed the night.

The ship popped once more, and the lights slowly rose up over the city. Fuzzy dots were steadily fading into view: torches, lit by curious, frightened ponies, flung throughout the city with little between them but empty, slumbering buildings. Sidewalks and balconies were steeped in the unhealthy, wavering glow of starlight mixed with torchlight.

“We should not be just sitting here,” Octavia said.

“What can we do? It’s all the way over there.” Rarity looked up at Rose Tower; the ship had come around the front, blotting out a section of the lights that ran up its side. “What if it attacks the town?” Without thinking about it, she shuffled closer to Octavia, who looked at her. “Sorry.”

Octavia didn’t respond, and looked back at the rising lights. It was another ship, larger than the encroaching one, and faster. It drifted over a sweep of short buildings, its spotlight pinning the other ship against Rose Tower’s heavy, black exterior. Its turbines purred distantly, a quiet hum under the pulsing, pause-less music.

Rarity sighed, the knot of worry in her mind slowly melting. “It’s going to chase off that other ship.” She looked at Octavia hopefully, but her face was serious, eyes locked onto the sky.

“Another one,” Octavia said, pointing.

Rarity looked to see a second ship rising from the depths of the city, miles from the first. It was halfway to Rose Tower, and the enemy ship was breaking away, heading into the city. Spotlights scraped it, illuminating dark sails and sinister webs of rigging, and a small, erect figure standing on the prow. The scene, to Rarity, still addled by her nightmare, was strangely deliberate, monumentally symbolic. Two ships, two elevations, two alignments, meeting over the cradle of equine civilization with all the force and intent of gods, or storms. And she, and Octavia, powerless witnesses.

She watched for what felt like half an hour as the ships converged, a slow twist-and-turn over dark, angular buildings while the moon marched across the sky. Three more Manehattan ships joined the slow fray, and before long, they surrounded the dark enemy, a sextet suspended over a sharp-cornered abyss. Rarity’s heart beat faster, and she leaned forward slightly, anticipating the conflict with eager, frightened eyes and a tight grimace.

There was none. As the ships drew closer to one another, the enemy rotated away, its pointed front slowly turning out of the city. With neither flash nor sound, it was gone, shot away simply into the horizon. A dark comet, one moment menacing the city, the next an afterimage.

“What just happened?” Octavia asked.

Rarity frowned. “That’s how it escaped the first time. Or so I was told.”

The ships circled the suddenly empty space like confused birds, and they watched them for an hour before going back down into the apartment, themselves just as perplexed. Octavia had left the door unlocked, so they reentered silently. Rarity went back to a troubled sleep, but Octavia remained awake.

It was eight o’ clock in the morning when everyone was up. Because there was so little water, the entire city was under a temporary, forced drought. They took turns in the bathroom, washing with the water from a few pails, collected every day by the apartment maintenance crew and left outside each door.

While the others washed, Twilight unfolded a letter. She had received it at some point in the night, waking up only briefly to stow it under her sleeping bag.

My dear Twilight,

This is the last letter you will receive from me in a while. In a few days, I will be leaving for the land of the griffons on diplomatic duty. As you can no doubt assume, our country’s condition has left the rest of the world in a state of turmoil. Until my return, you will be communicating with my sister.

Good news first. Equestria itself is slowly recovering. Cities are building bridges and levees around their rivers, and ponies are beginning to adjust. The ponies at higher elevations have been forced to move, but for the most part, everyone is surviving. The first link in the cloud convoy is complete, and a delegation of weatherponies and engineers is heading for the coast to begin construction on the water siphoning station. I know many cities have been forced to endure droughts, but it should not be for more than a few months.

However, I still want you to be careful in Manehattan. I do not know whether you have seen the news, but there is a strange pony that has been terrorizing the city. My connections have informed me that it is a construct of Discord’s, one of a great many, which are being reported all across the country. While we have not heard from him ourselves, since your letter of his attack, the spread of his influence is becoming clear. For now, my Guard can contain the majority of his agents. I can only pray that he is not assembling another army.

Discord’s flying ship was seen late last night, over Manehattan. It did not attack, and only stayed long enough for other ships to try to repel it. I believe he was probing the city’s defenses. Where it is now, I have no idea; I have ponies trying to track it, but so far, it has eluded me. All I can tell you is that it does not appear to be under Discord's control, at least not directly; I believe there is another in charge of the ship.

Best of luck in your search for the Elements. Please let me or Luna know when you have found one. I cannot say when I will return. It may be a month or more.

In love and friendship,
Princess Celestia

She did not question the curious hour of its transmission as she folded it up and placed it in one of her bags. When Rarity was finished in the bathroom, she and Octavia recounted their experience from the night before, omitting Rarity’s nightmare. It was strange, they agreed, but there was ultimately nothing to be done. The ship was too fast and too unknown—a wild card, to be ignored in favor of the arsonist, the tower, and Spring-hoof Jack.

It was almost nine when they went out to greet the Oranges, who were busy in the kitchen. They chatted for a few minutes, catching up and dancing carefully around the topic of Strawberry, and their collaboration with him. The Oranges said nothing about breakfast, and Pinkie suggested that they dine with Strawberry instead. It would give them time to discuss their plans with him, and give him the chance to get to know them better. He was lonely, she said; he needed some friends.

And so they went downstairs and knocked on his door, and were greeted by the same paranoid eye, regarding them and then looking down the hall before admitting them. “I wasn’t expecting to see you this early,” he said, his voice a little gravelly.

“We wanted to have breakfast with you!” Pinkie said.

He made a show of looking around his apartment. “You think I have enough food here to feed eight ponies?”

“Oh, um, well, no.”

“Maybe we should go out to eat,” Rainbow said.

“Oh, yeah! Let’s go out,” Twilight said. “I’d love to get a taste of native Manehattan food.”

Strawberry looked at her impatiently. “Have you no regard for my schedule? What if I have work today? It’s Friday, you know.”

“You said you took some time off,” Applejack said.

“I never said how much time.”

“Who takes off time for a vacation only to return to work on a Friday?” Rarity asked incredulously.

“Maybe I have to—no, I’m not getting into this with you. It’s not important.” He looked around warily. “I shouldn’t be going out. There’s a reason I took this time off.”

“Are you being followed?” Octavia asked.

“I might be,” he said, looking at her closely. He cleared his throat. “Actually, I believe I am. The pony that called Flash on me is likely keeping a close eye on me. If she can.”

“She?” Twilight asked.

Strawberry hesitated. “Yes. It’s a female.”

“Ex-marefriend,” Rainbow whispered to Rarity, who nodded.

“Ex-business partner,” Strawberry corrected. “Very ex.” He walked a wide berth around them. “I shouldn’t say any more. You could be working for her.”

“Oh, come on,” Applejack said. “You can’t be that paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoia if they’re really after you.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Rarity asked.

“I just wanted to go to breakfast,” Pinkie said.

“We can go to the other side of town,” Twilight said. “If you’re really that nervous about being watched.”

Strawberry considered. “Fine. We can discuss how to handle Flash on the way. And,” he continued, seeing the looks in their eyes, “how I can handle your… whole… tower situation. I haven’t forgotten that.”

“Good. Don’t,” Applejack said.

“Yes, yes,” Strawberry said, disappearing into another room. “I’ll be a few minutes. I have to get ready.”

Ten minutes later, they were heading out the door and climbing into a pair of cabs. Strawberry shared his taxi with Applejack, Octavia, and Fluttershy, who sat away from him.

“Coresworth, eighth and thirty-first,” he said without looking at the driver. He wore a jaunty pair of sunglasses, a loose “I ❤ Manehattan” hat, a camera around his neck, and he had altered his face. His nostrils were dilated, his cheeks were stronger, and his eyes were a different color.

“Is it not too early for there to be tourists here?” Octavia asked.

“We’ve been trickling back in,” Strawberry said mildly. He leaned in. “Any further thoughts on our little… X problem?”

“Yes. I have an idea,” Octavia said. “I will contact this Flash and tell him to do a job on an old, isolated, abandoned house. I will tell him it is my summer home, but I have stopped using it, and would like the insurance money. Will he believe that?”

“If you can give him enough details. You’ll want to go there first and check the house out. Have you done that?”

“Not yet. I intend to do so today. Assuming he accepts the job, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and I will go to the house and wait for him to arrive. We will let him set up his equipment, and then knock him out.”

“We’ll tamper with the evidence, to make it look like there was an accident,” Applejack said. “Like somethin’ collapsed on him, or somethin’.”

“Yes. Then, we shall call the police, saying that we heard strange noises from within the house.”

Strawberry thought for a moment. “Why were you close enough to the house to hear noises, if it’s so isolated?”

“We—I, I mean—was on my evening stroll, taking in the scenery. It was a fortunate coincidence.”

“Sounds okay. You’ll need to be careful, though, and get a good handle on your details. Go to the house, get an idea of how it looks, how it’s been treated, and so forth.”

“Of course,” Octavia said. “Do you know of any places where I am likely to find an abandoned house?”

“Let me think.” They drove in silence for a time, and Octavia looked out the window; the memory of the ship stuck out in her mind. “There’s a few homes, I think, on the northwest side. Behind Glass Ribbon. That should be your best bet.”

“I will check there, then.”

“An’ what ‘bout our predicament?” Applejack asked.

“Your need of my cables? I haven’t forgotten,” Strawberry said.

“Yeah, but what’re you gonna do about it?”

“Until I am sure that the apartment block is safe, nothing. After that, though, I will organize your team for you. I’ll secure the cables and the ponies to pull them, as well as the cranes and trucks to haul and attach them. Just give me details about what you’ll be doing and where, and I can handle the rest.” There was a glimmer of pride in his voice.

They stopped outside a small breakfast café, adorned with faux giant apples and decorated with striking red and green stripes. The clinking of silverware and murmur of conversation filled the air, and many ponies sat outside under umbrellas.

“This place sure is bright,” Twilight said, stepping out of the cab just behind.

“Ugh, it’s hideous,” Rarity said.

“Well, I like it,” Strawberry said, approaching the hostess. “Table for eight.”

Breakfast was a pleasant affair, and by its end, Strawberry was slowly warming up up to the group. It had started out quiet and awkward, with Pinkie and Rainbow producing most of the conversation, but he gradually stopped looking around with paranoid eyes and began speaking—not much about himself.

Twilight paid the bill with Celestia’s treasury scroll, and they left, Strawberry for the apartment and the others for the northwestern quadrant of the city, to search for a decoy home.

It was forty minutes before they had passed through the city’s center, and they could clearly see the shining pillar of Glass Ribbon, a long irregularity in the sky. The friendly atmosphere from breakfast had evaporated in the tower’s shadow, and the knowledge of what was to come. Only Rainbow mumbled something to herself, once. “Shouldn’t have gotten involved.”