Instead of this, Twilight opened her eyes to see Pinkie standing before her, smiling her ever-present, goofy smile.

“She’s awake! She’s awake!” Pinkie shouted, jumping on Twilight and crushing her in a hug. Twilight pressed uncomfortably into the grass, too disoriented to do anything but wait for Pinkie to get off her. She did, and Twilight sat up; Fluttershy went to her side.

“Oh, Twilight, I’m so glad you’re okay. We were all really worried about you.”

Twilight took a moment to look around. The sun was up; it was about eight o’ clock, she judged. The battle was gone, leaving only the scarred, blackened, trampled ground. Weapons and pieces of armor glinted in the sunlight.

She shakily stood up, but immediately sat down; her pastern screamed in protest, smoldering with red-hot pain that ran up her leg like a split down her bone. She cried out softly, and Fluttershy held a gentle hoof to her shoulder, steadying her.

Twilight’s head spun with questions. Where were they? What happened to the battle? Where were the others? Was everypony okay? All that escaped her was a weak “what’s going on?”

“Nothing right now. We’ve just been waiting for you and Rarity to wake up,” Pinkie said cheerily.

“Rarity! Oh my gosh, is she okay?” Twilight tried to stand again, but Fluttershy held her down.

“Kind of. The fight really tired her out, but I think she’ll be fine.”

“As soon as you finished the spell, Rarity almost passed out,” Fluttershy said. “She was so exhausted, and hurt, but she kept trying to protect you.”

“She still tried to protect us, after all that.” Twilight’s heart swelled with pride and gratitude toward Rarity. “What happened?”

“Discord tried to stop the sigil, like Princess Celestia said he would. He destroyed the shield, but it was too late, so he ran. Pinkie was fine—he didn’t even touch her—and Rarity tried to keep you safe, but you got hit with one of his spells.”

“Seriously?” Twilight asked, awed.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Any closer, and I wouldn’t be sitting here,” she thought, the first feelings of dread beginning to creep back into her gut. “Where is she?”

“Behind you,” Pinkie said with a light smile.

Twilight twisted to look around at Rarity, her steady, but very slow, breathing the only indication that she still lived. Her fur and mane were messes, tangled with sweat and dirt, and her horn was dull and graying. Her body looked limp.

“But you said she’ll be okay?” Twilight asked, uncertain.

“Yes. She was hardly injured at all,” Fluttershy said. “But she was really close to causing herself permanent damage, with all the magic she used.”

“Oh, Rarity,” Twilight said sadly. “What about the others? Rainbow Dash and Applejack?”

“Both fine!” Pinkie said. “They’re just out exploring right now.”

“Exploring? Exploring what?” She looked around. “What is going on, exactly?” She could see the damaged palace turrets in the distance, their tops cracked, leaning dangerously, or entirely broken off. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised, but the sight bothered her. The fight was over, and now came the cleanup.

Fluttershy and Pinkie exchanged worried looks. “Maybe we should wait for Applejack and Rainbow Dash to come back,” Fluttershy said, and Pinkie nodded extravagantly.

“Why?”

“It’s… complicated.”

“Um… okay.” She looked at Pinkie worriedly. “What did you do after I cast the spell on you?”

“Thaaaaaaaaat’s part of what we’ll talk about when Rainbow and Applejack get back,” Pinkie said delicately.

Twilight looked around again. They were still on the mountainside, and she looked away from the palace and out at the flatland between Canterlot and Ponyville. What she saw made her pause, not in fear or surprise, but in simple confusion. Where there once was a single, contiguous stretch of meadow and grassland, cut with the river, the fields were now layered with long, jagged, dark brown stripes, like marbling in a cake. It went on for as far as she could see. “What am I looking at?” she asked calmly.

“Oh, please, Twilight, can we wait for Rainbow and Applejack?” Fluttershy asked pleadingly.

Twilight sighed. “How long until they get back?”

“Well, they’ve been gone about an hour now.” Fluttershy went behind her to examine Rarity. “They should be back any time now.”

“I see.” Twilight looked at her pastern for the first time, trying to occupy herself. It was swollen and bruised, and very tender; a pair of long, thin cuts ran down it, discolored dark red and purple. “Fluttershy, you might want to look at this,” she said.

“Is it your pastern?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, Twilight, I’m sorry. I should have explained it earlier. You got hurt in the confusion after Pinkie cast her spell. I tried to fix your wound, but, um, I couldn’t.”

Twilight raised her eyebrow, and Fluttershy cringed away.

“Sorry. You see, I think it has a magical infection, and my healing spell just won’t work on it.”

“Magical infection?” Twilight’s voice carried a hint of alarm. She had read about them, and they were nothing to dismiss. Magic, unlike a virus, was not easy to purge.

“Um, yes.”

“How long has it been there?”

“You were only unconscious for a couple hours, so, um, that long.”

“Do you know how to fix it?”

“I think I could cure it with conventional medicine. If I had any.”

“Then we need to find some. Where can we get it?”

“Right here in Canterlot, I think,” Fluttershy said.

“Then what are we waiting for? Oh, ow!” Twilight tried to stand, but immediately sat down again. “Can you at least do something for the pain?”

“Um, maybe,” Fluttershy said uncertainly, walking over to Twilight and bending down to look at her pastern. She narrowed her eyes and mumbled something, and all of Twilight’s lower leg tingled curiously.

She gingerly tried to stand up again, slowly putting more weight on her leg, waiting for the pain to shiver up into her body; it didn’t. She stood up, her leg feeling only a little sore. “It works marvelously, Fluttershy. Thank you so much.” She looked Fluttershy in the eyes as she said it, and Fluttershy looked away, embarrassed.

“Oh, um, it’s nothing, really. Now, don’t put too much strain on that leg, and let me know as soon as it hurts again.”

“What about using magic? I read that that’s dangerous with an infection like this.”

“Oh, um, yes. You shouldn’t use your horn at all until I can take care of you.”

Twilight let out a small sigh.

“At least you’re still alive!” Pinkie said.

“Yes, at least I’m still alive,” she said slowly.

“Here comes Rainbow!” Pinkie shouted happily, her hoof following the polychromatic streak as it came over the horizon, crossed the sky, and plummeted.

“Watch out!” Rainbow shouted, and they backed away. The pegasus crashed into the ground, throwing up dust and ash. She shook herself, and they walked back to her. “I see you’re finally up, Twilight. You all right?”

“I’m okay, Rainbow Dash. How are you?”

“Fine,” she said with a dismissive shrug.

“So, what did you see, Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

Rainbow sighed. “You were right, Pinkie. We’re not on the ground anymore.”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“We’re not on the ground?” Fluttershy repeated. “Wh—where are we?”

“Uh, in the air,” Rainbow said, frowning at her.

“Up in the air?” Twilight said, looking back out at the flatland. “What are they talking about?”

“AJ’s almost back; she’ll just confirm it.”

“Won’t somepony tell me what’s going on?” Twilight cried.

“When Applejack reaches us,” Pinkie said, surprising Twilight with her directness.

“What’ll happen when Ah reach you?” Applejack called, approaching the group. “Oh, Twilight!” She closed the rest of the space between them at a gallop and embraced her. “Ah’m so glad yer okay! How’re ya feelin’, sugarcube?”

“Confused, Applejack. Can somepony please tell me what’s going on?”

“Maybe we should wait for Rarity to wake up first,” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow! Come on, you have to tell me something!”

“All right, all right, geez, Twilight.” Rainbow laughed a little. “It was a joke. AJ, what did you see?”

“It looks like Pinkie was right. We’re floatin’ up here, all alone.”

Twilight looked at them both drily.

Applejack sat down, and Twilight did the same. “Okay, Twi, this is what happened. You cast yer spell, an’ it was sure lucky you finished it when you did, ‘cause we couldn’t hold ‘em back no more. Discord was stirrin’ up all sorts of trouble, an’ even the princesses couldn’t stop him. Ah saw you collapse as soon as you were finished, an’ Pinkie just sorta stood there fer a second. Then, she started glowin’, real bright, like her body was radiatin' magic. Discord destroyed Rarity’s shield an’ tried to attack Pinkie, but the spell just bounced right off her. An’ then Pinkie… did somethin’. Pinkie? Wanna fill us in here?”

“Sure, Applejack!” She began pacing around them. “Well, I knew that the spell had worked ‘cause I felt super powerful! I felt like I could do just about anything in the whole world! But then I remembered that we were fighting, and I had to save Canterlot. I saw Discord come at me, and he shot a spell at me, and I was really scared, but then I thought, ‘why should I be scared? I’m all powerful!’ and the spell bounced off me like it was nothing! And then I saw you were passed out, Twilight, and I saw that a lot of the army was hurt, and Rarity was almost finished, and Applejack and Rainbow were trying their best to keep us safe and Fluttershy was trying to reach you but she couldn’t and then I got mad! I got really really mad, like I don’t think I’ve ever been that mad, ‘cause I guess nopony’s ever threatened all my friends like that, and I tried to think of a spell, and then I did, and it was that earthquake spell Celestia taught us! At first it I didn’t know I was casting it, but then the ground started splitting open, and then everypony started running around and most of the army fell through the cracks, and the Canterlot army made short work of the rest of them! I don’t know what happened to the pegasi, but I think they all flew away. Anyway, I could see everything just kinda falling apart and then close to the end I even saw Canterlot palace start falling apart but it didn’t fall apart all the way and then everything just kind of stopped, and I stopped feeling so powerful, and then it was over.” She smiled wide at them as she concluded, and they had to wait a minute to process the barrage of information.

“So… you caused a giant earthquake?” Twilight asked.

“Kind of, but that’s not quite all of it,” Rainbow said. “See, after Pinkie was finished, we all regrouped. You and Rarity were out cold, and Pinkie was close to passing out too. Celestia and Luna were nowhere to be seen.”

“What? What happened to them?” Twilight asked, alarmed.

“We have no idea. We looked around, but they were gone. When everything calmed down, we saw the same thing you saw: the countryside down there all separated and weird. It was still dark then, so we couldn’t see much.”

“We just thought Pinkie caused a huge earthquake,” Applejack said.

“But it’s apparently a lot more than that,” Rainbow said.

“When the sun came up, and we’d made sure you and Rarity were okay, Rainbow Dash and Applejack went off to see if they could find out more about what had happened,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah. And… when we got to the edge. Um, Twilight, you’re not going to like this.”

“Just say it, Rainbow Dash. It can’t be that bad,” Twilight said, dreading her answer.

“We’re in the air.”

Twilight frowned. “What does that mean?”

“This piece of land, that we’re standing on, and all the other ones you can see, are all floating freely in the sky.”

“Above the Gaia, she means,” Fluttershy said quietly.

Twilight pursed her lips. Her thoughts were at a standstill, and her response was slow as she tried to digest the information. “So, this field, and Canterlot, and those mountains, and everything I see is floating off the planet?” “I have to be dreaming. This is simply not possible.”

“Er, it may be even worse than that,” Rainbow said.

“How?”

“Well, we don’t know how powerful Pinkie’s spell was. The earthquake could have been a lot bigger.”

Twilight only looked at her, then back out at the countryside. Seeing it again, the stripes of brown made sense. She was seeing the sides of the rifts, long and jagged and deep. “So we’re above the Gaia,” she said, not looking at her friends. “That’s…” She struggled to collect her racing thoughts and gave a single nervous, quiet laugh.

“We’re only about a mile off the ground, if that… you know, makes it any better,” Rainbow said hesitantly.

“A few questions come to mind,” Twilight said slowly, trying to calm herself with a deliberate pace. “First.” She turned her gaze to Pinkie, who looked at her with an even smile. “Pinkie, how could you do something like this?”

“Uhhhh, I dunno.”

“Pinkie!” Twilight cried. “Didn’t you listen at all to what Princess Celestia said about being careful with your spells? She wanted you to end the battle, not… not destroy the mountain!”

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I must have gotten carried away.”

“You think?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Pinkie said sadly. “It was an accident.”

Twilight looked away from her and at the broken palace. “That’s some accident, Pinkie.”

“You gave me the power.”

“Don’t try to pin this on me!” Twilight snapped.

Pinkie held her hooves up defensively. “I’m not, Twilight, I swear! I’m just saying, you know, it’s not entirely my fault.”

“Um, maybe there was something wrong with the sigil,” Fluttershy said.

“Maybe you didn’t draw it right,” Applejack said.

“Or maybe Celestia didn’t design it right,” Pinkie offered.

Twilight considered their words. At first, they sounded like excuses, but she took a few deep breaths, and allowed her confusion and fear to seep out of her thoughts. “Maybe.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her face. “I’m sorry. This is a lot to take in.”

“I understand, Twilight,” Pinkie said.

“Right.” She looked around awkwardly. “So, we’re floating.” She paused. “How?”

“Levitation enchantment?” Pinkie said, shrugging. “I don’t know. I know I did the earthquake, but other than that…” She shrugged once more, making an innocent, curious noise as she did so.

“She’s just as confused as I am—as we all are,” Twilight thought. “Why can we still breathe? The air should be thinner up here.”

“It’s only a mile, Twilight,” Rainbow said.

“But that’s a mile plus our current elevation. By my calculations, that’s…” Twilight thought for a moment. Her head was still hazy from a few hours ago, and the confusion immediately following. “Almost seven-thousand feet. We should definitely be feeling something.”

“Is it possible that Pinkie brought the atmosphere up with us?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked back at Pinkie. “Is it?”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe.” Twilight was unsatisfied. “And what about Discord? And that giant ship? What about them?”

“What even was it?” Rainbow asked.

“Maybe Discord was on it,” Twilight said.

“It sure was outrageous enough, Ah s’pose,” Applejack said.

“But what happened to them?”

“Discord ran just after Pinkie cast her spell,” Fluttershy said.

“An’ the ship disappeared ‘round the same time,” Applejack said.

“I saw it,” Rainbow said. “Kind of. I’m not entirely sure what happened.”

“It moved really fast,” Pinkie said.

“Too fast,” Rainbow said.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Like, one moment it was there, and the next moment, it was gone,” Rainbow said. “That kind of fast.”

“Which way did it go?”

“South, Ah think,” Applejack said.

“Not like it matters,” Rainbow said. “It could be halfway across Equestria by now.”

Twilight nodded. “She’s right. Right now, we need to find the princesses.” She looked back at the palace and squinted against the sun’s glare off its white walls. Her thoughts were again still. She didn’t know what to think.

“Oh! Princess! Down here!” Pinkie screeched, hopping up and waving her hooves wildly, making Twilight jump.

Twilight looked quickly to see a dark blue blur swerve their way. Princess Luna coasted down to them, relief evident on her face even at her distance.

She landed gracefully, the force of her wings pushing them all back a little. “Finally! I’ve been searching for you since sunrise.”

“Princess Luna, what’s going on?” Twilight asked.

“I was planning on asking you all the very same thing. Are you okay?”

“Rarity’s passed out and Twilight’s hurt,” Rainbow said.

“Let me look.” Luna knelt at Rarity’s side and inspected her, then examined Twilight’s wound. “She will be okay in time. Twilight, that needs medical attention.”

“I know.”

“Princess, what’s going on?” Fluttershy asked. “Is everypony okay?”

“It’s pandemonium, Fluttershy. Utter and complete devastation. Celestia has been receiving word from all corners of Equestria since last night. It looks like the whole country has been broken apart.”

“The whole country?” Rainbow cried, and Twilight clenched her jaw, heart sinking.

“Yes, the whole thing.” Her voice was heavy and dark, and she looked at Pinkie, who gave a nervous smile.

“I… guess that was one doozy of a spell.”

“Yes, I suppose it was,” Luna said darkly, frowning down on her. “We are needed at the palace.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, holding up a hoof. “Princess Luna, what happened after Pinkie cast the spell?”

Luna sighed. “Her spell took the form of an earthquake. When—”

“No, we know that part. I know we won the battle, and I know that Pinkie made a giant earthquake. Discord ran away, and that weird ship flew off to the south.”

“Yes.”

“But what happened to you and Princess Celestia? Where did Discord go? What’s going on at the palace? Will everypony be okay? What are we going to do about Equestria?”

“One question at a time, Twilight Sparkle. One question at a time.” Luna thought for a moment. “As for me and Celestia, we will be fine. I was hurt only minimally. Celestia was not so lucky. She was hit, right here,” she tapped the underside of her jaw with her hoof, “by a cannonball. That alone wasn’t so bad, but when you were casting your spell, she threw herself at Discord to distract him. She was already tired, and the attack took a heavy toll.”

“But she’ll be okay, right? Oh, sorry for interrupting,” Fluttershy said meekly.

“Yes, she’ll be fine. It’s not that easy to kill one of us.”

“So where did Discord go?” Rainbow asked. “One minute, he’s tearing up the battlefield, and the next, he’s running away. Did he chicken out?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that,” Luna said. “Celestia hasn’t seen anything from him since last night. My guess is that he saw that it was over, so he hurried off to regroup.”

Twilight thought for a second. “But that doesn’t make sense.”

“Please, enlighten me,” Luna said dryly.

“Well, that’s just bad strategy,” Twilight said. “Why would he retreat before seeing what the spell does? You’d think he’d want to know what he’s up against for the next time.”

“Next time?” Fluttershy repeated.

Luna nodded. “He may have thought Pinkie was going to attack him. Or he may have wanted to escape unseen.”

“Why?” Applejack asked.

“To regroup.”

They looked at her uncertainly, and she turned toward the palace. “We need to return.”

“What about Ponyville?” Twilight asked, and Fluttershy gasped.

“Oh my gosh, Ponyville! Oh, Princess, is Ponyville okay?”

“I really can’t say,” she said quietly. “I am sorry. But we must talk to my sister.” She beckoned them to crowd around her. “I would walk, but teleporting is faster. And we should be there as fast as possible.”

They huddled by her, Applejack dragging Rarity over. As soon as they were ready, Luna activated her spell, and their vision went black in the crushing, tightening feeling of teleportation.

An instant later, they stood in the main courtyard, still empty of guards, its surrounding walls cracked and sagging. Applejack bent down to vomit once more.

“Ah really don’t like that,” she said weakly, and Luna patted her back. Twilight looked up at the palace while Applejack regained her constitution. From a distance, the damage appeared to be located only in the towers, but up close, she could see floors exposed like ribs on a skeleton, and beams of scaffolding hanging out like fingers. Windows had been shattered and columns had been cracked and uprooted. Despite this, she still felt a sense of awe, standing before the main gates. The palace was hurt, but it still stood.

Luna grabbed Rarity in a cloud of magic and led them into the reception room, empty; glass glittered on the carpet, and the ceiling was punctured like a cut tarp, a chunk of masonry lying on the stairs in a spread of thin cracks. They followed Luna up the stairs and down a long corridor, to a spiral staircase and up into a tower that Twilight didn’t recognize. Shafts of sunlight slanted in on them through the tower’s broken top, catching the staircase in a brilliant series of angular shadows and bright surfaces, clashing against the smooth, cracked walls. Twilight looked around warily, not certain of the tower’s safety.

They turned abruptly into another hallway and entered the door at the end, a massive, wooden slab inlaid with a decorative sun. It opened into a tremendous bedroom, Celestia sleeping on the bed, her wings splayed out in an undignified way that made Twilight grin despite herself.

“You may enter,” Luna said, and they did.

The room was disheveled and disorganized, and absolutely beautiful. The royal red carpets were soft on their sore hooves, the walls painted a calming ecru that soothed their eyes. The bed itself was long and sumptuous, and its four elaborately-carved posts held up a canopy, the curtains from which colored Celestia’s coat to a sultry rose-pink. A large window, now only a few shards clinging to the edges of the frame, tattered the light with jagged, grayish shadows. There was a desk and chair, the latter of which had been upended and the former of which had had its contents strewn all over the floor around it. A large painting tilted on the wall, and the closet doors stood open awkwardly.

“Sister, wake up.”

Celestia stirred and pulled back the curtain, and, seeing Twilight and the others, smiled warmly. “My little ponies. It is truly wonderful to see you again.”

“They already know what happened to Equestria; they figured it out for themselves.”

Celestia lay back with a sigh. “Good. I was not at all looking forward to explaining it again.” She read the concern on Twilight’s face. “You’ll have to forgive me if I stay in bed for now. The battle last night… was tiring.”

“It’s fine, yer highness,” Applejack said reverently.

“I see Rarity is still asleep,” Celestia said, and they all nodded. She sighed again. “So you know what happened. I’m sure you have some questions.”

“Yeah, just a couple,” Rainbow said.

“How the hay did Pinkie do this?” Twilight blurted. “I know she’s powerful, but nopony is powerful enough to destroy an entire country.”

Celestia averted her eyes. “The very same question that has been occupying me. I… do not know for certain, but I fear I may have made a mistake in the sigil.”

“I’m sorry?”

“My intention was to expand Pinkie’s power, and then change it to that more befitting of an alicorn. The situation requires more study, but I believe I accidentally reversed the process.”

“But why should that matter?” Rainbow asked.

“I did not think it would. However, the effects of magic transference to a regular pony are different from those to an alicorn, something I did not consider.”

“But Pinkie’s not an alicorn,” Applejack said.

“From a magical perspective, she was.”

“You’re saying that the spell gave her too much,” Twilight said.

“I think so, yes.” She closed her eyes. “The simple truth is, I think we overshot the mark.”

Twilight only stared at her. “So that’s it? All this mess from a stupid, simple oversight?”

“But that shouldn’t have made Pinkie cast such a huge spell,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, why couldn’t she just control herself?” Twilight asked.

“Too much magic, too fast, can overwhelm a pony. My theory is that Pinkie simply could not handle what you gave her, Twilight, and released it in the first spell that came to mind. In this case, an earthquake.”

“What about the floating?” Rainbow asked.

“In a state of uncontrolled magic, the caster’s thoughts become unfiltered spells. Pinkie must have been thinking about levitation at the time.”

Again, they all looked at Pinkie, who stood at the doorway with a guilty expression and eyes on the floor.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Pinkie,” Celestia said, “your actions were not in your control.”

Pinkie didn’t respond, and Fluttershy rubbed her back.

Celestia went on, eyes still closed. “I have spent all morning looking around Equestria, talking to ponies, surveying damages. I… am afraid the damage is extensive.”

“All across the country,” Applejack said.

“Yes. All across it. The fault lines run precisely along our borders.”

“There’s a perfect, Equestria-shaped hole in the ground below,” Luna said.

“Why does it go along the borders?” Rainbow asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Luna looked at them uncomfortably. “Many centuries ago, after the original defeat of Discord but before my… incident, Celestia and I laid a powerful enchantment all along the borders, which, among other things, protected it from any harmful magic that might come from neighboring countries.”

“We did not feel secure in our place at the time,” Celestia said.

“Of course, this was when Equestria was much smaller. As it expanded, we decided to keep the new borders enchanted, as a defensive measure. Though, by the time Equestria got to be as big as it is now, the spells were maintained mostly out of tradition.”

“I suspect that when Pinkie cast her spell, it was contained by these enchantments.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Twilight said.

“You said you used the magical spells for protection and other things. What kind of other things?” Rainbow asked suspiciously.

“Monitoring the country. It’s those same enchantments that I used to ascertain the extent of the damage.”

“What about Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, how did he even escape?” Twilight asked.

Celestia was long in answering. “There are several possibilities. There may have been enough chaos near his statue to release him. He may have had spells in place to help him affect an escape, post imprisonment.”

“Or he may have fooled us,” Luna said. “Perhaps he was never truly imprisoned at all.”

“Either way, he’s back now,” Applejack said.

“Precisely,” Celestia said.

“Do you know what happened to him?” Twilight asked.

“Unfortunately, we do not,” Celestia said. “He has gone off somewhere else; of this, I am certain, but otherwise, I have no idea.”

“I think we should consider the possibility that he is regrouping,” Luna said. “This attack was nothing like his past actions. He was aiming to conquer, not vex. I doubt he will be put off so easily.”

“Easily?” Rainbow repeated, a little insulted.

“So what do we do?” Twilight asked.

Celestia nodded sadly. “I apologize, my student, but for this situation I can only offer speculation. Throughout all of our rule, this is something that neither of us have ever seen, or even thought about.” She paused. “The way I see it, we have two problems.”

“Equestria an’ Discord,” Applejack said.

“Yes. My only idea for solving our… fragmentation, I suppose, is to use magic to put the country back together, piece by piece. The solution for Discord would be to use the Elements of Harmony to imprison him once more.”

“I thought he stole them,” Fluttershy said.

“He did, which is precisely the problem,” Luna said. She thought. “This all seems very premeditated.”

“Surely we can find them again, though,” Twilight said.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said. “We found ‘em last time, so what’s the problem?”

“This time, he has left no clues,” Celestia said.

“None at all?” Fluttershy asked.

“None at all,” Luna said. “You will have to search for them.”

“There is a spell that can help you,” Celestia said.

“How?” Applejack asked.

“It’s a kind of homing spell. It attracts the caster to any Elements of Harmony within a certain radius. I invented it myself, actually, after Discord stole the Elements the first time. Just in case he ever did again.”

“Have you ever thought of just protecting them better in the first place?” Rainbow asked.

Celestia breathed out slowly. “The only way I could protect them more strongly would be if I used their own power.”

“Which would be basically like locking them away,” Luna said. “Rendering them useless.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Rainbow said. “We use your spell to track down the Elements of Harmony, defeat Discord, and… how do we put the country back together?” “That should actually be easy,” Twilight said. “I can just enchant Pinkie again, and she can do the reverse of whatever she did last time.”

“I wish that were the case,” Celestia said, cracking open her eyes to smile sympathetically at Twilight.

“Me too,” Luna mumbled.

“As you know, my student, it is quite a lot more difficult to repair than to destroy. I fear that even Pinkie Pie could not put Equestria back together in just one spell.”

“Then how?” Twilight asked. She thought she already knew the answer.

“In many small spells.”

“Oh, come on,” Applejack said. “Yer not sayin’ we need to travel all across Equestria… are ya?”

“I am,” Celestia said simply.

There was a long period of silence, and then Rainbow spoke. “There has to be an easier way to do this.”

“Perhaps there is, but this is the only solution I can think of.”

“You’re sure Pinkie can’t just do it in one spell?” Twilight asked. “I mean, she’s already surprised us once.”

“If she cannot control herself when she has the power that caused this, there is no way we can rely on her to bring the country back together in one shot,” Celestia said. “Even assuming she has enough power.”

“So how many spells do you think we’ll need?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, I have no way to know. Equestria’s a big place.”

“I do not think you should spend all your time on fixing the country,” Luna said hesitantly.

“My sister is right. Defeating Discord should be an equal priority.”

“How far did he move the Elements, do you think?” Twilight asked.

“I do not know, except to say that they are not nearby,” Celestia said. “I have already searched Canterlot.”

“Well, we can kill two birds with one stone, at least. We can travel ‘round Equestria, fixin’ things up, an’ search for the Elements at the same time,” Applejack said.

“That is precisely what I was going to suggest,” Celestia said.

“Well… huh,” Twilight said. She wasn’t certain what to think.

“Are we safe floating up here?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight frowned. She hadn’t thought of that, and the idea bothered her. “Yeah, what if Pinkie’s spell… runs out? Won’t we fall?”

Celestia and Luna both sighed. “Unless Pinkie can shed some light on the situation, I think it would be best if we did not think about that,” Celestia said.

They all looked at Pinkie, who backed farther into the doorway, eyes still on the ground.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that at this point,” Luna said. “Except hope.”

Twilight’s mouth was suddenly very dry, her brows knit. “Great.”

They were all silent, and Rainbow shifted her weight awkwardly, flaring her wings out to keep her balance. “Uh, not to change topic or anything, but what was the deal with that flying ship last night?”

“It was something of Discord’s, of course, but more than that I do not know,” Celestia said, clearly happy to be off the topic of their possible fall to the planet.

“It disappeared before either of us could learn anything about it,” Luna said.

“My advice for now would be to watch for it, but not go searching for it.”

“In time, we will know more, I am sure,” Luna said.

“Yeah, so, what about you two?” Twilight asked. “What are you going to do while we’re traveling?”

“We haven’t decided yet,” Celestia said. “Though we know we won’t be traveling with you; if Discord attacks again, we don’t want you to be caught in the middle.”

“I was planning on trying to find him myself,” Luna said. “This very well could be war. If it is, we need to know everything we can about where he came from and what he’s doing.”

They all were quiet, looking from princess to princess, out the window, at each other.

“Soooo, just so Ah’ve got this crystal clear,” Applejack said, breaking the silence. “We need to find the Elements of Harmony an’ use ‘em to defeat Discord, and go to every place in Equestria an’ cast the same spell a whole bunch of times so Pinkie can piece it all back together.”

“Right,” Celestia said.

“An’ you have a spell fer findin’ the Elements.”

“Yes.”

“What about puttin’ the world back? Shucks, Ah never thought Ah’d say that.”

“There is a spell for mending fault lines, but it’s very seldom used, and very complicated.”

“And I imagine I’ll need to enchant Pinkie with the same spell before she uses it,” Twilight said.

“Yes, but with a smaller sigil. Is it still fresh in your mind?”

Twilight called it up from memory, still as clear as if she had been the one to invent it. “It is.”

“Excellent.” Celestia heaved a tired sigh. “I know that this is a lot to put on you, so you must forgive me when I say that there is… one more thing I must do.” Her voice carried a tone of grave unhappiness, and Twilight shivered involuntarily.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked, afraid.

“Before the battle, there was an… incident. In order for you to be functional on the battlefield, I had to wipe it from your memories. I think it would be best to lift that enchantment now.”

“Oh, no,” Twilight said. “What kind of incident?”

“A very unpleasant one,” Luna said.

“Forgive me,” Celestia said, lighting her horn. For a moment, Twilight’s mind went fuzzy, and then there were memories. She blinked. They were as real and fresh as if she had had them the whole time.

“Oh, oh no,” she said, sitting down. The others did the same, except Rainbow, who had not been present for the experience, and only looked at them with concern. Fluttershy was crying, and Applejack stared emptily.

Twilight looked down at the floor, her mind a swirling pool of fragmented images and thoughts. Gleaming metal, cries of horror, and violence. The violence of magic, of holding a pony against his will, of throwing him bodily from the balcony. Her entire body shook, and her eyes were moist.

“Is it true, your highness?” she asked, her voice strangled with unshed tears.

“Every detail,” Celestia said seriously.

“But…” She took a shuddering breath, and looked back to the window. The sun helped a little. “So I… we…”

“It was in self-defense,” Celestia said.

“Of course. Yes, of course.” She looked at the others. Rainbow, who watched them with very real worry. Applejack, who looked at the walls blankly. Fluttershy, who wiped her eyes, and Pinkie, who only smiled emptily, lips moving wordlessly. Rarity lay on the floor, forgotten.

She stood up and went to the window, and looked out into the city. Beyond the palace walls, Greater Canterlot was a mess of rubble, and though the foundation seemed whole, there were very few buildings that had gone unscathed. Somehow, the view eased her mind a little. Celestia was right; it was just self-defense. After the fact of the nightmare battle, the sigil, and the unreal situation laid out before them, the balcony didn’t seem quite as horrifying. “Why am I not so upset about everything else, though?” She turned back to the princesses, and her friends.

“When do you want us to begin?”

“We must go to the library,” Luna said softly. “There, you will find the spells you need. After that, we will address your wound, Twilight.”

She nodded, and they moved to the door, Rarity suspended once more in Luna’s telekinetic haze.

“Goodbye, Princess Celestia,” Twilight said.

“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Feel better, your highness,” Fluttershy said; the door closed before she could hear Celestia’s word of thanks.

“Come,” Luna said, moving down the hall back toward the stairs. “I will lead you to the library.”